Help with my first PC build.

[Monica Lewinskitty]

Good morning LTT forums. 

 

I have been watching Linus videos for quite some time now, and I am interested in building my first ever PC. I have some things in mind, but a lot of questions as well.

 

I like car racing. I purchased an Xbox One-S solely for playing Forza 7. As it turns out the physics are not super good in FM7. I switched to Project Cars 2, which feels much better on my wheel and pedal setup, but the graphics are a bit too much for the one-S, I get horrific frame stuttering and its pretty distracting. So I need a computer in general and thought I would build one that could also perform well at high frame rates for racing games, and some FPS games as well (CS:GO and the new shooters). 

 

So I watched a TON of LTT videos, and I love them. From this schooling, I know a few things that I would like, and I still have some holes in my knowledge base I was hoping you guys could help out with. 

 

Things I am pretty confident I would like in the build:

 

1. Badass video card. (1080ti, perhaps the 2070, Vega 64??)

2. m.2 nvme

3. High fps monitor (144hz)

4. 16gb of ram

 

I am a bit unsure about processors, and motherboards. Everyone seems to lean towards the 8700K. I am not really sure where the bottlenecking point is on the GPU-CPU interaction. I don't know what I need here to make sure I am not wasting the GPU. I had a lead on a used 1080ti, but the guy flaked on me.

 

One of the things that really mystifies me is monitors, and they can be SUPER expensive. So 144hz is a pretty clear winner, but the whole G-Sync vs. Freesync thing is super confusing. I hear a lot of people talking about MSI afterburner, locking the frame rates, and not using these sync features anyway? Super confused here. I am on a budget, the G-sync monitors are super expensive as are the Nvidia cards. Freesync seems to be much more budget friendly, as are the Vega-64 cards, and the AMD processors. 

 

Is it a better idea to just give up on the legendary 1080ti and go with the Vega 64? They seem to be around $300 on the used market, which is much cheaper than the Nvidia cards, and I could use the cheaper free sync monitors. AMD seems to be a much cheaper overall package, but can it perform? I don't really hear people singing the praises of Vega.  

 

Are there reasonably priced 4k monitors that do 144hz? Can I game at 1440 or 1080 on a 4k native display? It would seem that some slower paced games could be visually beautiful at 4k, but for fast-paced shooters, I could switch down to a lower resolution? Does this even work? 

 

Can somebody please help me out here? I have been scouring FB marketplace and CL for used deals, but I am not really finding too much. Are there any good places to look for a nice used PC setup? 

 

Thank you. 

 

[Boarder]

I can't help much for gaming experience but when I Google search for things on a deal I usually ask for the "best of ...?"

 

I get good hits on that and then research the item(s) that you'd be interested in.

[Fasauceome]

12 minutes ago, Monica Lewinskitty said:

the whole G-Sync vs. Freesync thing is super confusing.

There's a lot to look into, but the TL;DR is that Freesync is cheaper than G-Sync and they both help when your framerate is not perfectly constant. Gettign a freesync monitor, now that they work with Nvidia, is a good choice.

 

12 minutes ago, Monica Lewinskitty said:

AMD seems to be a much cheaper overall package, but can it perform? I don't really hear people singing the praises of Vega.  

The Vega 64 is not the competitor of the 1080 ti, but the 1080. It's a hot card so undervolting is advised, where you reduce the voltage in Wattman, and it overall improves performance. Pretty easy to learn how to do. Still, the 1080 ti and 2080 are significantly more powerful.

12 minutes ago, Monica Lewinskitty said:

Are there reasonably priced 4k monitors that do 144hz?

Nope lol, I believe the cheapest one is above $1000 and they're really gamer branded so the price premium is excessive. 1440p 144Hz is nice enough for your target.

 

how's this?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	$268.00 @ SuperBiiz
CPU Cooler	be quiet! - Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler	$84.99 @ SuperBiiz
Motherboard	Gigabyte - Z390 GAMING SLI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$156.39 @ Newegg
Memory	Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$97.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$607.37
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-05 11:35 EST-0500

 

[OmicronEta]

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/t8Yb9J
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/t8Yb9J/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8600K 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($259.89 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - Z370-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($149.99 @ Samsung)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING Video Card  ($349.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox MB600L ATX Mid Tower Case  ($55.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($43.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1079.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-05 11:47 EST-0500

 

Here is a new PC build. It isn't godly but it will certainly get the job done with everything here being mid-tier.  You could go for the i7-8700k as they are very similar as well as the ix-9x000 series chips (i.e. i5-9600k and the i7-9700k or even the i9-9900k). The used vega 64 would be an ok idea if you can find a good deal on it. If you do want a cheaper build then go on ebay. I once found a great build for under 800 bucks that had an i7-7700 and a GTX1070 with 16gb ram, storage, case, PSU, and mother board, a full pc build. There are great deals out there if you are looking for them

[Jurrunio]

45 minutes ago, Monica Lewinskitty said:

I am a bit unsure about processors, and motherboards. Everyone seems to lean towards the 8700K. I am not really sure where the bottlenecking point is on the GPU-CPU interaction.

Yes, 8700k 8086k 9700k or even 9900k for high refresh rate gaming. Each frame means a draw call from GPU to CPU, that's why you'd want a CPU with high single core speed and decent amount of cores. AMD Ryzen isnt that suitable because of higher core to memory and cache latency, in other words their performance drop (in %) as fps goes higher and higher is more significant than Intel Core even though at lower frame rates they arent that different.

 

45 minutes ago, Monica Lewinskitty said:

but the whole G-Sync vs. Freesync thing is super confusing. I hear a lot of people talking about MSI afterburner, locking the frame rates, and not using these sync features anyway? Super confused here. 

Gsync and Freesync's most important feature is adaptive sync, lowering monitor's refresh rate to match frame rate. It doesnt work when frame rate is above refresh rate, that's why people sensitive to screen tearing will tell you to cap frame rates to keep adaptive sync working. This may or may not help you, so you can test it out yourself.

 

45 minutes ago, Monica Lewinskitty said:

Is it a better idea to just give up on the legendary 1080ti and go with the Vega 64? They seem to be around $300 on the used market, which is much cheaper than the Nvidia cards, and I could use the cheaper free sync monitors. AMD seems to be a much cheaper overall package, but can it perform? I don't really hear people singing the praises of Vega.   

Vega 64 is much slower than 1080ti (about 1080 2070 level), and kicks out noticeably more heat so blower coolers are a solid no-no. A more budget saving method is to buy the Vega 56 and flash the 64's BIOS in it for better HBM2 overclocking. Memory overclocking to Vega is free performance without even raising power draw, must do it.

 

And Nvidia now supports adaptive sync function on Freesync monitors. Results vary aside from the 12 certified monitors, but you can look into other's experience and models similar to the offically certified ones. For example the Asus MG278Q is certified, so the MG279Q (big discount in the US atm) should also work well.

 

45 minutes ago, Monica Lewinskitty said:

Are there reasonably priced 4k monitors that do 144hz? Can I game at 1440 or 1080 on a 4k native display? It would seem that some slower paced games could be visually beautiful at 4k, but for fast-paced shooters, I could switch down to a lower resolution? Does this even work?  

4K 144Hz is the BEST of monitors you can buy without working in the monitor making companies, calling them reasonably priced means a 2080ti costs you pocket change lol. 1440p monitors will do.

 

When lowering resolutions for frame rates, make sure you use the resolution scaling slider instead of selecting a lower resolution directly, looks better that way and gives more precise control.

[Monica Lewinskitty]

Update: 

 

Yesterday I picked up a 1080Ti FTW3 a fan cooled card. 

 

I have waffled back and forth, and I think I want to go with the HIDEOUS Noctua D15. It works, it's reliable, it's silent.  

 

I picked a case with no side window, because my build is pretty hideous. Is this the right case? 

 

Here is my PC Part Picker build. 

 

Can people please comment on this? Is there too much fan cooled heat in this case? Do I have enough cooling?

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	$378.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Noctua - NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler	$89.95 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Gigabyte - Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$194.98 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$115.98 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung - 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$127.99 @ Amazon
Case	Fractal Design - Define R6 USB-C Black ATX Mid Tower Case	$138.31 @ Newegg Business
Power Supply	SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$59.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1131.19
	Mail-in rebates	-$25.00
	Total	$1106.19
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-12 12:40 EDT-0400