First Build, Full Review

[BSula99]

Hello all,

 

I have secured the following component list for my new PC. Two other unlisted items I possess include the I Fix It pro tool kit (so anti-static bracelet and tool set), plus a Conductonaut LM Paste and Applicator set. Is there anything else I need to purchase for my build (including miscellaneous items such as tape or extra fans or some screws/bolts, etc)? I'm currently stationed overseas and am having everything shipped to me, so trying to order sooner than later so that I do not have a delay after the parts arrive to wait an additional week or two for some small item that was forgotten or missed due to inexperience. Thanks!

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/969R9J
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/969R9J/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($164.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H150i PRO 47.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($169.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG Crosshair VII Hero (Wi-Fi) ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($279.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($229.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($247.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING Video Card  ($849.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Phanteks - ENTHOO EVOLV X GLASS (Silver) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($209.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus - ROG SWIFT PG348Q 34.0" 3440x1440 100 Hz Monitor  ($918.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Corsair - K95 RGB PLATINUM Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Logitech - G502 Proteus Spectrum Wired Optical Mouse  ($49.97 @ Amazon)
Total: $3341.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-09 08:15 EST-0500

 

P.S. Before any mentions my CPU being out of balance, I intend to upgrade to the 3700X when it is released with Zen 2.

[NunoLava1998]

It's actually pretty good. Good job, you have a pretty killer gaming rig and did your research.

[paddy-stone]

You might want to change you ram to this  https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ybrcCJ/gskill-tridentz-rgb-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-f4-3200c16d-16gtzr

Same ram but much cheaper

[BSula99]

1 minute ago, paddy-stone said:

You might want to change you ram to this  https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ybrcCJ/gskill-tridentz-rgb-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-f4-3200c16d-16gtzr

Same ram but much cheaper

I was told to get a set with a CAS Latency of beetween 12 to 14 if I was running a Ryzen CPU?

[BigDamn]

I would wait and see what AMD is launching at CES later today. What we already know is that the new chips will be on high performance silicon and a 7nm die. Rumor says we will see and 8c/16t CPU that boosts upwards of 5ghz. If that is the case I would hold out for that, mainly for the significantly higher IPC. You will notice an improvement in games with that.

 

And DAMN! $900 on a monitor, $280 on the board, and only $165 on the CPU? I would personally spend less on the board and monitor and shoot for either a 2080 Ti (since you're gaming at 4k) or even the 8 core Ryzen.

[paddy-stone]

Just now, BSula99 said:

I was told to get a set with a CAS Latency of beetween 12 to 14 if I was running a Ryzen CPU?

Well it might improve it, but mine runs fine with CAS 16... I definitely wouldn't pay an extra $80 just to tighten the timings or CAS

[paddy-stone]

Also that motherboard, unless you have a specific need for a $280 motherboard it ia a waste of money. If you're gonna OC you can still pay like $100 or so and get one with good VRMs and such.. TBH your entire build looks expensive, especially for a first build as you might not NEED to spend that much. What are your goals for this build, like what are you going to do with it?

[BSula99]

3 minutes ago, BigDamn said:

I would wait and see what AMD is launching at CES later today. What we already know is that the new chips will be on high performance silicon and a 7nm die. Rumor says we will see and 8c/16t CPU that boosts upwards of 5ghz. If that is the case I would hold out for that, mainly for the significantly higher IPC. You will notice an improvement in games with that.

 

And DAMN! $900 on a monitor, $280 on the board, and only $165 on the CPU? I would personally spend less on the board and monitor and shoot for either a 2080 Ti (since you're gaming at 4k) or even the 8 core Ryzen.

As already stated, I will be upgrading to a Zen 2 CPU, presumably something along the lines of the 3700X, once it becomes readily available. However that is not anticipated to occur until at least late March, thus this CPU is simply a hold-me-over type of deal. I won't be ordering the CPU/MOBO just yet in case it is announced for release at a sooner date than that, but I am operating off the assumption it will not be. The monitor I intend to keep for many years to come, so I am willing to shell out for it. Rest of the PC will likely be replaced/upgraded 4 years or so down the road. The game immersion reported with this type of monitor makes it worthwhile IMO, and saves me from needing multiple screens for productivity work. It's not quite 4k, only UWQHD, so just between 4k and 1440p.

[BSula99]

1 minute ago, paddy-stone said:

Also that motherboard, unless you have a specific need for a $280 motherboard it ia a waste of money. If you're gonna OC you can still pay like $100 or so and get one with good VRMs and such.. TBH your entire build looks expensive, especially for a first build as you might not NEED to spend that much. What are your goals for this build, like what are you going to do with it?

I will be using it primarily for gaming at this time, along with school (STEM major). I did balk initially at the price of the board, thinking about changing to a Gigabyte 7 board, but open to other suggestions. Will be OCing for sure.

[paddy-stone]

1 minute ago, BSula99 said:

I will be using it primarily for gaming at this time, along with school (STEM major). I did balk initially at the price of the board, thinking about changing to a Gigabyte 7 board, but open to other suggestions. Will be OCing for sure.

OK, TBH I would wait until the next gen of Ryzen releases, but if you can't wait and will just upgrade the CPU in a couple months when it releases, then sell the 2600 then it's good. I would like to make some suggestions of you don't mind. The ram is overkill for sure. as I mentioned before... the person that told you that is right for sure, but it's a diminishing return, so $80 isn't a small amount for just lowering the CAS latency IMO. Let me have a qucik play with PCPP list and suggest something. I will leave the monitor,kb/mouse alone as they are personal preferences and fair enough. I wouldn't spend that much on a non-4k monitor personally, but that's your choice.

[BSula99]

2 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

OK, TBH I would wait until the next gen of Ryzen releases, but if you can't wait and will just upgrade the CPU in a couple months when it releases, then sell the 2600 then it's good. I would like to make some suggestions of you don't mind. The ram is overkill for sure. as I mentioned before... the person that told you that is right for sure, but it's a diminishing return, so $80 isn't a small amount for just lowering the CAS latency IMO. Let me have a qucik play with PCPP list and suggest something. I will leave the monitor,kb/mouse alone as they are personal preferences and fair enough. I wouldn't spend that much on a non-4k monitor personally, but that's your choice.

Sure, go ahead. Went with that monitor bc LCC typically says that 4k vs 1440p isnt a significant difference up close, not nearly as much as 1440p vs 1080p anyways. Plus a 100hz+ 4k monitor is $2,000.

[paddy-stone]

23 minutes ago, BSula99 said:

Sure, go ahead. Went with that monitor bc LCC typically says that 4k vs 1440p isnt a significant difference up close, not nearly as much as 1440p vs 1080p anyways. Plus a 100hz+ 4k monitor is $2,000.

OK, well I had a go... there wasn't much I could do for the monitor what with it being g-sync and 100Hz+, there just isn't that much choice. Personally I would probably wait for Navi and go freesync, and wait for new monitors too as I think there'll start to be more high refresh rate 4k monitors too.... but it's the waiting game trap then I guess as there'll always be something new coming out that's better.

In the end I just changed the ram, so it's still 3200Mhz but CAS 16 and RGB. The case as I LOVE that case, but it is pretty heavy and not to everyone's taste. And the CPU cooler to the kraken x52 v2... although TBH you could go with a fractal design s24 or s32 for a bit less but perform pretty well on-par, but I thought you might like some bling. Brought the price down by $300 or so.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$164.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	NZXT - Kraken X52 Rev 2 73.11 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$129.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard	$114.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$134.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung - 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$247.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB FTW3 ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$849.99 @ B&H
Case	Thermaltake - View 71 TG RGB ATX Full Tower Case	$171.46 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$79.89 @ OutletPC
Monitor	Asus - ROG SWIFT PG348Q 34.0" 3440x1440 100 Hz Monitor	$918.99 @ Amazon
Keyboard	Corsair - K95 RGB PLATINUM Wired Gaming Keyboard	$139.99 @ Amazon
Mouse	Logitech - G502 Proteus Spectrum Wired Optical Mouse	$49.97 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$3043.04
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$3003.04
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-09 09:19 EST-0500

 

[paddy-stone]

sorry ram should have been this  https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ybrcCJ/gskill-tridentz-rgb-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-f4-3200c16d-16gtzr

 

 or this  https://pcpartpicker.com/product/QDhKHx/corsair-vengeance-rgb-pro-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-cmw16gx4m2c3200c16

[BSula99]

42 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

sorry ram should have been this  https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ybrcCJ/gskill-tridentz-rgb-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-f4-3200c16d-16gtzr

 

 or this  https://pcpartpicker.com/product/QDhKHx/corsair-vengeance-rgb-pro-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3200-memory-cmw16gx4m2c3200c16

I may switch to freesync one day, but AMD has a reputation for building low-medium tier graphics cards, nothing top of the line. A Vega 64, currently their top of the line, would be crushed by a 2070 or 1070TI at a lower price point. Nothing they have right now could come even close to powering the display I want at high res/settings. My expectations are Navi will be more of the same. Great GPU, like the 580/590 knocking out the 1060/1070 on a budget, ready to take on the 1080 or 2060, but no where near the performance of the 2080 or 2080 TI. There's always something new right around the corner, which has stopped me from building in the past, but I'm pretty done with waiting now tbh (though upgrading CPU is in the plan). Want a 360m rad setup as I intend to OC pretty heavily when the new CPU gets here, and eventually may create a 360m custom loop. I love the aesthetics of the Evolv X, tho I will change to the other RAM and a lower price MOBO.

[paddy-stone]

43 minutes ago, BSula99 said:

I may switch to freesync one day, but AMD has a reputation for building low-medium tier graphics cards, nothing top of the line. A Vega 64, currently their top of the line, would be crushed by a 2070 or 1070TI at a lower price point. Nothing they have right now could come even close to powering the display I want at high res/settings. My expectations are Navi will be more of the same. Great GPU, like the 580/590 knocking out the 1060/1070 on a budget, ready to take on the 1080 or 2060, but no where near the performance of the 2080 or 2080 TI. There's always something new right around the corner, which has stopped me from building in the past, but I'm pretty done with waiting now tbh (though upgrading CPU is in the plan). Want a 360m rad setup as I intend to OC pretty heavily when the new CPU gets here, and eventually may create a 360m custom loop. I love the aesthetics of the Evolv X, tho I will change to the other RAM and a lower price MOBO.

No worries, just wanted to give you some options, saves you around $300 just for the ram and mobo changes... still should be able to get a fairly good OC on that board. I get 3.9Ghz very stable and quiet/cool with my 1700 on my b350 mobo... and could get more but I want to keep the voltage down as much as possible to hopefully have longevity on the CPU life... as I plan to put this in my server build when I upgrade to Ryzen 2 3800x/3850x when they come out.

I think and hope Navi will change things up this time, reportedly the 3080 should be around 2080 or better and only around $300 or so  IIRC. But could be wrong.

 

]edit] Actually it was 2070/1080 levels, and $249

[BSula99]

6 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

No worries, just wanted to give you some options, saves you around $300 just for the ram and mobo changes... still should be able to get a fairly good OC on that board. I get 3.9Ghz very stable and quiet/cool with my 1700 on my b350 mobo... and could get more but I want to keep the voltage down as much as possible to hopefully have longevity on the CPU life... as I plan to put this in my server build when I upgrade to Ryzen 2 3800x/3850x when they come out.

I think and hope Navi will change things up this time, reportedly the 3080 should be around 2080 or better and only around $300 or so IIRC. But could be wrong.

I'll be honest, that sounds like a pipe dream. Achieving 2080/2080TI performance at $300 price point... roughly 25%... at a tier level AMD never even touched... very hard to swallow. If it is, I do hope they release/announce it today at CES before I order my current setup. All I know is historically, when they get to the higher end, they charge more and perform less for GPUs... cough cough Vega.

[ThatBlockishWay]

Looks pretty good, might wanna take the HDD cages out though since you dont need them anyway. Itll help the airflow

Edit: In case you wanted a good review of that mobo 

 

[BSula99]

1 minute ago, ThatBlockishWay said:

Looks pretty good, might wanna take the HDD cages out though since you dont need them anyway. Itll help the airflow

Will do.

[BSula99]

What is the best way to get windows 10 OS? Other than purchasing it at full price, I mean.

[paddy-stone]

17 minutes ago, BSula99 said:

I'll be honest, that sounds like a pipe dream. Achieving 2080/2080TI performance at $300 price point... roughly 25%... at a tier level AMD never even touched... very hard to swallow. If it is, I do hope they release/announce it today at CES before I order my current setup. All I know is historically, when they get to the higher end, they charge more and perform less for GPUs... cough cough Vega.

Yeah, it is JUST a rumour right now...

RX 3080

Navi 10

8GB GDDR6

150W

(RTX 2070/ GTX 1080 Levels)

$249

[paddy-stone]

7 minutes ago, BSula99 said:

What is the best way to get windows 10 OS? Other than purchasing it at full price, I mean.

ebay/kinguin you can pretty much just google it.

[paddy-stone]

I mis-quoted earlier saying 2080 levels... my memory isn't so great most of the time.

[BSula99]

17 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Yeah, it is JUST a rumour right now...

RX 3080

Navi 10

8GB GDDR6

150W

(RTX 2070/ GTX 1080 Levels)

$249

I will have to consider that... I guess it will depend on CES release today. Unless we get some word on Navi today, I will stick with Nvidia for the time being at least.

[BSula99]

2 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

I mis-quoted earlier saying 2080 levels... my memory isn't so great most of the time.

Well. She sold me on it. I'll pick up a Freesync display and two 590s till the Vega 7 drops I think. Wanna tinker with Crossfire and they done cost much.

[_Aontaigh_]

I'm personally of the opinion that unless you are doing something professionally, such as being paid to do graphic design, the focal point of the parts chosen for one's system should be that of how they perform when gaming.

 

I see swathes of posts consisting of people compromising the performance of their system when it comes to gaming, which is their main focus, to do small amount of recreational things on the side such as video editing for themselves rather than professionally.

 

Instructions Per Cycle (IPC) is king when it comes to gaming and unfortunately in this area AMD cannot compete very well with Intel, though they are closing the gap with every new generation.

 

At stock, a Ryzen 7 2700X will get around 170 points when running a single thread test in Cinebench R15. This can almost be matched, if not actually matched by a by a heavily overclocked i7-2700K, a processor that was released almost eight years ago.

 

I would recommend spending a little extra relative to what you are currently spending and go with something more along the lines of: 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($399.89 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($89.95 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($195.60 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Team - Dark Pro 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($190.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($127.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB GAMING AMP Video Card  ($1299.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Phanteks - ENTHOO EVOLV X GLASS (Silver) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($209.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.89 @ OutletPC) 
Monitor: Asus - ROG SWIFT PG348Q 34.0" 3440x1440 100 Hz Monitor  ($918.99 @ Amazon) 
Keyboard: Corsair - K95 RGB PLATINUM Wired Gaming Keyboard  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 
Mouse: Logitech - G502 Proteus Spectrum Wired Optical Mouse  ($49.96 @ Amazon) 
Total: $3763.00
 

I don't think me, or anyone else for that matter, needs to tell you that you will notice a difference going from a Ryzen based system and a RTX 2080, to a i7-9700K at 5GHz and a RTX 2080ti....