First Solo Build Suggestions

[Redrooster]

Okay, so I am building my first pc. I bought a 2012 workstation and I have been building out of it ever since. By the end of this year, that is going to change. Currently, I am rocking an I5 3550 3.3ghz, a GT 730 (formally an RX 460 before I had to sell it to afford a 2060), 16gb of blazing 1600mhz speed, and a solid 7200rpm HDD.

 

I have already bought a fresh Corsair CX 650M Bronze from Amazon for $70ish, and on April 8th I am going to buy a Zotac RTX 2060 for $350

The current price tag for upgrading: $420 (nice)

 

This summer, I am going to upgrade to a Ryzen 5 2600 for $165 (or a Zen 2 chip if the price is right), an MSI b450 Tomahawk $115, and a pair of Corsair Vengeance 8gb 3000mhz of ram (2x8) $100

Summers "essentials" upgrades: $380

 

Then later in the summer (or possibly August if I am too poor) I plan on getting a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB $148, A P350X case $70, and a fresh windows 10 key for $125, a cheap Korean 1440p 144hz monitor (AOC Agon AG241QX 24") $330

The "non-essential" (for gaming) upgrades: $673 ($434 if you don't include the monitor)

 

The absolute total (just for the computer) is: $1,143

I am probably gonna buy the monitor last because it is the lowest on my priority scale. I also don't care about ultra real color, I only plan on gaming and general computer use. No editing or real workloads.

 

Is there anything I should consider while upgrading? Does everything check out, or are there any blatant red flags I should be aware of?

[fluxdeity]

No need to buy Windows. With Zen 2 releasing soon you'll be seeing plenty of perfectly fine used 2600's on ebay for $100-130. Possibly less, only time will tell when the new chips get released.

[Agonizel]

You can get legitimate windows 10 OEM activation keys for less than 10 bucks. This is my big red flag
 

The monitor you considered might be Korean but it's not low-grade - AGON tends to be on the more premium side. But 1440p on 24" may be a bit high of a resolution for the size of the screen - 27" might be a better fit. I think a 24/27" MSI MAG 144hz 1080p VA monitor might be a better buy for your budget.
Or you could even spend more on the monitor now with the budget we just saved from the $100+ you wanted to spend on a windows license. It's your call

The rest of the stuff you picked is pretty good. Just the PSU while not amazing is not too shabby either. 

[Dedayog]

Instead of actually buying the items when you have money, put the amount of the price in a savings account.

 

Over time you'll save up and then when you buy the items, you'll buy at lower prices.  Wouldn't be good to pay $148 for an 860 EVO then when you can finally use it 2 months later it's $100.

 

You're pre-planning a bit too early, to be honest.

 

Looks in sig... man, AOC has fallen

 

[fluxdeity]

Also a 2060 won't benefit your 144hz 1440p unless playing CS:GO or other e-sport titles.

[Redrooster]

Just now, jstudrawa said:

You're pre-planning a bit too early, to be honest.

 

I see it as a road map more than anything

[Redrooster]

Just now, fluxdeity said:

Also a 2060 won't benefit your 144hz 1440p unless playing CS:GO or other e-sport titles.

I don't plan on playing games at 1440p 144fps, i just wanted the option to play at 1440p 60fs for cinematic games, and 1080p (high fps) for competitive games (csgo, tf2, overwatch, etc)

[Redrooster]

8 minutes ago, Beer_Nontitju said:

You can get legitimate windows 10 OEM activation keys for less than 10 bucks. This is my big red flag. 

Any links? Also, can you give me a brief summary of how this is possible?

[Agonizel]

sure, here's an example: https://www.cjs-cdkeys.com/products/Windows-10-Professional-CD-Key-(Digital-Download).html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwkIzlBRDzARIsABgXqV-Tjf_4-2graL_MCzSgmD9CE3lTkVLQgCovvCxEyFc9yMgbvUi_5hoaAq3gEALw_wcB

You'll get the key per mail: all you need to do is put the windows tool on a thumb driver, boot on the latter, then install windows.

I already asked the question, it's got something to do with refurbished keys - I honestly do not know much. But they work like any $120 license - they're just $110 cheaper.

[CharminUltraStrong]

You're going to have difficulty running 1440p at 60 FPS in cinematic games w/a 2060. 2060's are comparable to 1070/1070ti's and the 1070 barely stays above 30 fps with maxed settings in assassins creed. Especially at 24 inches you'd be much better off with a 144hz display. Only games I play in 4k are racing sims because they're not terribly GPU intensive and I don't need 144 FPS. I, personally, use a 27 inch 1080p display @144hz and I wouldn't turn back.

[xKyric]

1 hour ago, Redrooster said:

Any links? Also, can you give me a brief summary of how this is possible?

If you have any Windows 7 keys laying around, they seem to work just fine activating Windows 10. 

[Redrooster]

3 hours ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

You're going to have difficulty running 1440p at 60 FPS in cinematic games w/a 2060. 2060's are comparable to 1070/1070ti's and the 1070 barely stays above 30 fps with maxed settings in assassins creed. Especially at 24 inches you'd be much better off with a 144hz display. Only games I play in 4k are racing sims because they're not terribly GPU intensive and I don't need 144 FPS. I, personally, use a 27 inch 1080p display @144hz and I wouldn't turn back.

With the 2060 you could blend the high and ultra settings the to stay around the 60fps mark. Besides, I don't plan on getting AC Odyssey or that Tomb Raider game. The 2060 will run every game I own at 1440p 60fps (Ultra), and I'm content with that. When I upgrade in around 4 years, i might splurge on a gpu and I will be appreciative that I got a 1440p panel at 144hz.

[Redrooster]

3 hours ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

You're going to have difficulty running 1440p at 60 FPS in cinematic games w/a 2060. 2060's are comparable to 1070/1070ti's and the 1070 barely stays above 30 fps with maxed settings in assassins creed. Especially at 24 inches you'd be much better off with a 144hz display. Only games I play in 4k are racing sims because they're not terribly GPU intensive and I don't need 144 FPS. I, personally, use a 27 inch 1080p display @144hz and I wouldn't turn back.

Additionally, the 2060 is in between a 1070 ti and a 1080 performance-wise. And the Turing architecture will age better than the pascal architecture due to drivers and future game optimization (like the pascal aged better than the maxwell. Its the circle of gpu life)

[Dedayog]

7 hours ago, Redrooster said:

Additionally, the 2060 is in between a 1070 ti and a 1080 performance-wise. And the Turing architecture will age better than the pascal architecture due to drivers and future game optimization (like the pascal aged better than the maxwell. Its the circle of gpu life)

No, the 2060 is between the 1070 and 1070Ti.   Games will get more demanding as well, so don't put your eggs in the 2060 basket fully.  

 

All this will change as you get closer to buying.  If you want to theorize and speculate, sure.  Then this becomes a guessing thread not a build thread.

[Redrooster]

3 hours ago, jstudrawa said:

No, the 2060 is between the 1070 and 1070Ti.   Games will get more demanding as well, so don't put your eggs in the 2060 basket fully. 

Out of all the benchmarks I've seen, the 2060 (at the very least) matches the 1070 ti's performance, in most scenarios the 2060 eeks out ahead by a few fps. 

 

Here are a few links to some benchmarks, this is 2 of the top 3 results, so I'm not cherry picking.

 

 

 

Also I don't know what you mean by "theorize and speculate", I'm just pointing out the fact that each architecture ages better than the previous (that's a fact).

[Dedayog]

1 minute ago, Redrooster said:

Out of all the benchmarks I've seen, the 2060 (at the very least) matches the 1070 ti's performance, in most scenarios the 2060 eeks out ahead by a few fps. 

 

Here are a few links to some benchmarks, this is 2 of the top 3 results, so I'm not cherry picking.

 

 

 

Also I don't know what you mean by "theorize and speculate", I'm just pointing out the fact that each architecture ages better than the previous (that's a fact).

Interesting, even Hardware Unboxed's video shows similar.  Good info.

 

What I mean is that since you're not buying anytime soon, we're just talking about the future, which is never set in stone.  We can use past performance as a guide, of course, but this thread is now just talking about what may be, rather than what should I buy in part due to new offerings being available prior to your build time frame and in part due to who knows exactly how current cards will compare against each other as they age.  Maybe the 2060 will beat the 1080 with better drivers in 6 months?

[Redrooster]

3 hours ago, jstudrawa said:

What I mean is that since you're not buying anytime soon, we're just talking about the future, which is never set in stone.  We can use past performance as a guide, of course, but this thread is now just talking about what may be, rather than what should I buy in part due to new offerings being available prior to your build time frame and in part due to who knows exactly how current cards will compare against each other as they age.  Maybe the 2060 will beat the 1080 with better drivers in 6 months?

I'm buying a 2060 on the 8th (5 days from now), but you do have a good point we are still technically theorizing about the future.

 

I'm sure by the time I'm ready to buy those new parts, a lot is bound to change. Zen 2 should be out when I'm looking to buy a cpu, SSD prices are also bound to keep lowering.

 

I'll definitely keep my eyes open when I'm picking my parts in a few months. This list is not set in stone, I plan on updating it the closer I get to being able to buy these parts.

[CharminUltraStrong]

On 4/3/2019 at 12:03 AM, Redrooster said:

Additionally, the 2060 is in between a 1070 ti and a 1080 performance-wise. And the Turing architecture will age better than the pascal architecture due to drivers and future game optimization (like the pascal aged better than the maxwell. Its the circle of gpu life)

Not so actually, the 1070ti does out perform it. I understand GPU aging, you came asking for advice and we're trying to give it to you. A crappy 1440p panel will not look as good as a good quality 1080p panel. Unless you're going to play DOOM you'll have to lower settings, 1080 on ultra vs 1440p at medium, 1080p wins every day. Also, Pascal is going to age incredibly well compared to Turing. There was a MASSIVE overstock and over abundance of Pascal cards, Turing is much more limited so as a result Nvidia will support Pascal cards much longger. I was never suggesting that you grab a Pascal over Turing, I was merely pointing out that a 2060 won't be playing 1440p titles the way you're envisioning it, if you want DECENT frames then a 2070 is the way to go. But it's silly to get a cheap, low quality 1440p display when for that price there are high quality 1080p 144hz ones. At this price you can get high quality 1080 144hz IPS displays, or even 1080p 240hz displays. You're going to be pretty disappointed when you go to play cinematic games on an FPS oriented TN panel with poor viewing angles to see it has washed out colors and VERY light blacks with back light bleed.

[Redrooster]

39 minutes ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

Also, Pascal is going to age incredibly well compared to Turing. There was a MASSIVE overstock and over abundance of Pascal cards, Turing is much more limited so as a result Nvidia will support Pascal cards much longger. 

This is purely speculation

 

41 minutes ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

Not so actually, the 1070ti does out perform it.

In which aspects?? In each gaming benchmark I've seen comparing the 1070ti to the 2060, they tend to have the exact same results with the 2060 edging ahead in a select few games

 

43 minutes ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

I was never suggesting that you grab a Pascal over Turing, I was merely pointing out that a 2060 won't be playing 1440p titles the way you're envisioning it,

I don't expect to play any games from 2017 onward at 1440p on a 2060, I just wanted the ability to play at 1440p when I upgrade my card in 4 years. 

 

45 minutes ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

 You're going to be pretty disappointed when you go to play cinematic games on an FPS oriented TN panel with poor viewing angles to see it has washed out colors and VERY light blacks with back light bleed.

I've been gaming on a 1080p 60fps IPS panel since 2013. I'm actually getting a 1080p 60fps TN panel later today (It was cheap, my work was going to throw it out). So I'll compare the two and I'll draw my own conclusion.

[Redrooster]

49 minutes ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

TN panel with poor viewing angles 

Also, why should I care about viewing angles? I only game with my monitor eye level with me and the monitor facing forward. 

[Redrooster]

10 hours ago, CharminUltraStrong said:

. You're going to be pretty disappointed when you go to play cinematic games on an FPS oriented TN panel with poor viewing angles to see it has washed out colors and VERY light blacks with back light bleed.

You know what, you were 100% correct about this.

 

I have two Acer monitors that came out within a year of each other. They are both 1080p 60hz, the one on the left is an IPS panel and the one on the right is a TN panel

 

I didn't think the light bleed would be so bad, and I also didn't think viewing angles would affect me that much but I do like to shift around a bit.

 

I've been using a TN panel for a few hours, I can really tell the difference, thanks for looking out.

 

[trevb0t]

On 4/2/2019 at 5:40 PM, Redrooster said:

Any links? Also, can you give me a brief summary of how this is possible?

I've bought 2 separate copies via ebay for less than $5 each.. Thus far no problems. 

Just make sure in the description they don't require you to use their own OEM link. Make sure it's just a key being sent.

[CharminUltraStrong]

Not a problem. Like I said, definitely consider an IPS 144 hz panel. To give you a point of reference, in Apex legends with all my settings maxed at 1080p on my heavily overclocked, slave bios and all, 1070 I don't hit 100 frames. More like 70 or so, so expect about 20 more frames on the 2060. VA panels are also an option but in my experience their response time isn't as quick as TN or IPS