Gaming PC, Please Help.

[Meebles]

Hey friends. I’m wanting to build a new PC around $1200 - $1400 (USA). $1400 is the absolute max. I’d prefer it to be lower if possible but if a build comes close to that limit and it performs better I’d probably go for it. I just got a ViewSonic 144Hz 1080p monitor. I want to aim for 144 FPS if that fits in my budget. I was thinking about a 2600 and a 2080 since I’ve hear good things, but I’m open for other parts too. Everything else I have no clue.

[jerubedo]

If you can wait for July to see new Ryzen chips, do so. They might be as good as Intel chips in gaming, we'll see. If not, this build should fit your needs well:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i5-9600KF 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	$249.99 @ Walmart
CPU Cooler	ARCTIC - Freezer 33 eSports ONE (Black/Green) CPU Cooler	$34.79 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	Gigabyte - Z390 UD ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$109.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$66.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Western Digital - Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$59.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$689.99 @ Newegg
Case	Thermaltake - Versa N24 ATX Mid Tower Case	$34.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair - TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$62.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1424.41
	Mail-in rebates	-$115.00
	Total	$1309.41
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-07 00:58 EDT-0400

The 9600K will beat out the 2600 by a decent margin in almost every game for 144Hz gaming as seen here:

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i5-9600k-coffee-lake-cpu,5922.html

and

https://www.bit-tech.net/reviews/intel-core-i5-9600k-review/5/

Just as two examples.

 

The 2080 is indeed a good choice. In order to keep the build a little cheaper I just have a 500GB SSD there. You can bump it up to 1TB and still be in budget, or add a 1TB or 2TB HDD, again still within budget.

[Meebles]

4 minutes ago, jerubedo said:

This build should fit your needs well:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i5-9600KF 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	$249.99 @ Walmart
CPU Cooler	ARCTIC - Freezer 33 eSports ONE (Black/Green) CPU Cooler	$34.79 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	Gigabyte - Z390 UD ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$109.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$66.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Western Digital - Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$59.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$689.99 @ Newegg
Case	Thermaltake - Versa N24 ATX Mid Tower Case	$34.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair - TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$62.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1424.41
	Mail-in rebates	-$115.00
	Total	$1309.41
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-07 00:58 EDT-0400

The 9600K will beat out the 2600 by a decent margin in almost every game for 144Hz gaming as seen here:

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i5-9600k-coffee-lake-cpu,5922.html

and

https://www.bit-tech.net/reviews/intel-core-i5-9600k-review/5/

Just as two examples.

 

The 2080 is indeed a good choice. In order to keep the build a little cheaper I just have a 500GB SSD there. You can bump it up to 1GB and still be in budget, or add a 1TB or 2TB HDD, again still within budget.

Wow that was a way faster response than I thought I'd get. I love this forum! Anywho are you sure those 2 sites are right? I've been hearing that Ryzen chips are better for gaming. That first link has the 9600K beating even the 2700x. That doesn't sound right to me. I like everything else. If it is right then I'd highly consider this.

[jerubedo]

1 minute ago, Meebles said:

Wow that was a way faster response than I thought I'd get. I love this forum! Anywho are you sure those 2 sites are right? I've been hearing that Ryzen chips are better for gaming. That first link has the 9600K beating even the 2700x. That doesn't sound right to me. I like everything else. If it is right then I'd highly consider this.

Yep, I'm sure. Those are two big review sites that are reputable. There are also results that are the same from AnandTech, and Tech Powerup. The reason Intel wins in gaming loads, right now, is because of better IPC, better clocks, and better lower latency. Ryzen 3000 in July might change that, but we don't know yet.

[Meebles]

2 minutes ago, jerubedo said:

Yep, I'm sure. Those are two big review sites that are reputable. There are also results that are the same from AnandTech, and Tech Powerup. The reason Intel wins in gaming loads, right now, is because of better IPC, better clocks, and better lower latency. Ryzen 3000 in July might change that, but we don't know yet.

Thanks! and that cooler is ok? Never heard of the brand. Same with the RAM. Are these reliable?

[jerubedo]

Just now, Meebles said:

Thanks! and that cooler is ok? Never heard of the brand. Same with the RAM. Are these reliable?

Yep! Both are good. The esports cooler performs very similarly to the Noctua D15 (which is one of the best air coolers on the market) for a fraction of the price. For the RAM, all RAM is made at pretty much the same few factories across the globe. The name you see as the "brand" is really just who assembles it and who answers the phone. That's the only thing I couldn't guarantee: how good their phone support is. I have no experience in that department.

[Devryd]

If you don't have to buy right now, i would wait for 7th of July. Then the new Ryzen processors will launch and if you believe the rumors, they will be very good.
The new chips are about as fast as intel chips when it comes to single core performance but bring more cores for less money

[Daniel Z.]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor	$299.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	ASRock - B365 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$94.02 @ OutletPC
Memory	Team - T-Force Delta RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$77.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Intel - 660p Series 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$99.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	ASRock - Radeon VII 16 GB Phantom Gaming X Video Card	$669.99 @ Newegg Business
Case	Corsair - 270R ATX Mid Tower Case	$29.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Thermaltake - Toughpower Grand RGB 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$83.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1375.86
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$1355.86
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-07 02:38 EDT-0400

 

[brob]

The i5-9600K is only US$10 more than the i5-9600KF. I think it is worth that little bit more to have an iGPU. It's useful as a backup gpu. It also has Quick Sync which can be beneficial for video editing, transcoding, streaming, etc.

 

 

[Meebles]

12 minutes ago, Daniel Z. said:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor	$299.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	ASRock - B365 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$94.02 @ OutletPC
Memory	Team - T-Force Delta RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$77.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Intel - 660p Series 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$99.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	ASRock - Radeon VII 16 GB Phantom Gaming X Video Card	$669.99 @ Newegg Business
Case	Corsair - 270R ATX Mid Tower Case	$29.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Thermaltake - Toughpower Grand RGB 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$83.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1375.86
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$1355.86
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-07 02:38 EDT-0400

 

How does the 8700 perform compared to the 9600? VII compared to 2080?

[Devryd]

11 minutes ago, Daniel Z. said:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor	$299.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	ASRock - B365 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$94.02 @ OutletPC
Memory	Team - T-Force Delta RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$77.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Intel - 660p Series 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$99.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	ASRock - Radeon VII 16 GB Phantom Gaming X Video Card	$669.99 @ Newegg Business
Case	Corsair - 270R ATX Mid Tower Case	$29.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Thermaltake - Toughpower Grand RGB 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$83.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1375.86
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$1355.86
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-07 02:38 EDT-0400

 

why would you buy a non overclockable chip from intel?
Intel is great at cpu clock, by taking a locked cpu you take away that advantage

 

[jerubedo]

3 minutes ago, Meebles said:

How does the 8700 perform compared to the 9600? VII compared to 2080?

The 9600K beats the 8700 in most gaming loads because of the higher clocks, especially if you get it up to 5.0GHz. The 8700 does have more threads, but on 6 cores that largely doesn't affect overall gaming performance right now. It COULD in the future, but when that point will come, no one knows. For Vega VII vs the 2080, they trade blows, but the 2080 gives access to Ray Tracing hardware and it draws less power.

[Devryd]

2 minutes ago, Meebles said:

How does the 8700 perform compared to the 9600? VII compared to 2080?

the 9600k is a little faster in single core work loads than the 8700 non k.
The Radeon VII is about 4% slower over all than the RTX 2080

[jerubedo]

3 minutes ago, Devryd said:

why would you buy a non overclockable chip from intel?
Intel is great at cpu clock, by taking a locked cpu you take away that advantage

 

Also locking the RAM speed to 2666MHz by using a B365 board.

[Devryd]

5 minutes ago, Meebles said:

How does the 8700 perform compared to the 9600? VII compared to 2080?

also the i7 8700 doesn't have a soldered hs, but uses thermal paste as far as i know.
The i5 9600k is soldered, which results in better temps and a quieter system

[Daniel Z.]

22 minutes ago, Devryd said:

why would you buy a non overclockable chip from intel?
Intel is great at cpu clock, by taking a locked cpu you take away that advantage

 

No, the 8700 trades blows with the 9600K. 

 

20 minutes ago, jerubedo said:

The 9600K beats the 8700 in most gaming loads because of the higher clocks, especially if you get it up to 5.0GHz. The 8700 does have more threads, but on 6 cores that largely doesn't affect overall gaming performance right now. It COULD in the future, but when that point will come, no one knows. For Vega VII vs the 2080, they trade blows, but the 2080 gives access to Ray Tracing hardware and it draws less power.

Usually only by 2-5 FPS, but having more threads helps in the future as we have seen with older i5 and i7s. Radeon VII has much better compute performance and Radeon cards generally age better than Nvidia cards. 

 

18 minutes ago, Devryd said:

also the i7 8700 doesn't have a soldered hs, but uses thermal paste as far as i know.
The i5 9600k is soldered, which results in better temps and a quieter system

Not true. The 8700 would have better temps because it rated for a lower TDP, 65w vs 95w. The solder vs paste isn’t big enough a differences to offset this. 

[jerubedo]

2 hours ago, Daniel Z. said:

Usually only by 2-5 FPS, but having more threads helps in the future as we have seen with older i5 and i7s. Radeon VII has much better compute performance and Radeon cards generally age better than Nvidia cards. 

Your argument on both fronts is that the parts might  perform better later. I don't know about the OP, but I want my performance now, not later. And in some titles it's more than 2-5 FPS. I'd say that on average it's probably around there, but in titles where clocks matter more, you can expect a little more, but even so 5 FPS more is still 5 FPS more. Plus the 8700 costs 25% more than the 9600K. Better performance right now for a better price right now = better in my book.

[brob]

6 hours ago, Devryd said:

why would you buy a non overclockable chip from intel?
Intel is great at cpu clock, by taking a locked cpu you take away that advantage

 

When one buys a locked cpu one gets a known performance envelope. The fact that the performance is predictable with certainty is not a negative. These cpu have significantly lower TDP leading to quieter and typically less expensive cooling solutions. They can also be used with less expensive motherboards.

 

The average performance improvement realized by overclocking is offset by the increased total system cost. Fine if one wants the highest possible performance. For those with a more limited budget a locked cpu can make more sense.

 

6 hours ago, jerubedo said:

Also locking the RAM speed to 2666MHz by using a B365 board.

 

While some games have shown an improvement with higher speed memory the difference is generally less than 10%. For the budget conscious, not worth the added cost.

[BigRom]

2 minutes ago, brob said:

While some games have shown an improvement with higher speed memory the difference is generally less than 10%. For the budget conscious, not worth the added cost.

If OP were trying a sub-$1000 Intel build I would agree.

But I mean OP's budget of $1400 isn't exactly small, there is definitely room in there for a better Z-series motherboard and support for higher speed memory.

 

[Daniel Z.]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$407.99 @ B&H
CPU Cooler	ARCTIC - Freezer 34 eSports DUO CPU Cooler	$39.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock - Z390 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$99.99 @ Newegg
Memory	Team - Vulcan 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$66.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Patriot - Burst 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$45.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	XFX - Radeon VII 16 GB Video Card	$679.99 @ Newegg
Case	Corsair - 270R ATX Mid Tower Case	$29.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair - CXM 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$57.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1463.81
	Mail-in rebates	-$35.00
	Total	$1428.81
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-07 10:20 EDT-0400

 

[Meebles]

4 hours ago, Daniel Z. said:

Total $1428.81

 

13 hours ago, Meebles said:

$1400 is the absolute max.

I appreciate the efforts, though.

[Meebles]

9 hours ago, jerubedo said:

Your argument on both fronts is that the parts might  perform better later. I don't know about the OP, but I want my performance now, not later. And in some titles it's more than 2-5 FPS. I'd say that on average it's probably around there, but in titles where clocks matter more, you can expect a little more, but even so 5 FPS more is still 5 FPS more. Plus the 8700 costs 25% more than the 9600K. Better performance right now for a better price right now = better in my book.

I agree with this line of thinking so I'd say this is on the right track for what I'm wanting.

[Meebles]

13 hours ago, jerubedo said:

Yep! Both are good. The esports cooler performs very similarly to the Noctua D15 (which is one of the best air coolers on the market) for a fraction of the price. For the RAM, all RAM is made at pretty much the same few factories across the globe. The name you see as the "brand" is really just who assembles it and who answers the phone. That's the only thing I couldn't guarantee: how good their phone support is. I have no experience in that department.

What about this build?

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i5-9600KF 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	$249.99 @ Walmart
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master - Hyper 212 LED 66.3 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler	$24.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Gigabyte - Z390 UD ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$109.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	G.Skill - Sniper X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$72.98 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$59.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$689.99 @ Newegg
Case	Corsair - 270R ATX Mid Tower Case	$29.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair - TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$62.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1420.70
	Mail-in rebates	-$120.00
	Total	$1300.70
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-07 14:40 EDT-0400

I changed the ram to G. Skill for peace of mind since I've dealt with their customer support before. I also changed the cooler to the Hyper 212 from Cooler Master. It's a brand I trust. The site flagged the tower as incompatible with the 212, though, so I had to change the tower to the 270R. Is all of this okay? It even came out a bit cheaper at $1300 even.

[jerubedo]

7 minutes ago, Meebles said:

What about this build?

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i5-9600KF 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	$249.99 @ Walmart
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master - Hyper 212 LED 66.3 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler	$24.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Gigabyte - Z390 UD ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$109.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	G.Skill - Sniper X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$72.98 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$59.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$689.99 @ Newegg
Case	Corsair - 270R ATX Mid Tower Case	$29.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair - TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$62.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1420.70
	Mail-in rebates	-$120.00
	Total	$1300.70
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-07 14:40 EDT-0400

I changed the ram to G. Skill for peace of mind since I've dealt with their customer support before. I also changed the cooler to the Hyper 212 from Cooler Master. It's a brand I trust. The site flagged the tower as incompatible with the 212, though, so I had to change the tower to the 270R. Is all of this okay? It even came out a bit cheaper at $1300 even.

Yep, this would work without any issues. The RAM is good, the cooler is sufficient, and the 270R still has decent airflow.

[Daniel Z.]

14 minutes ago, Meebles said:

What about this build?

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i5-9600KF 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor	$249.99 @ Walmart
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master - Hyper 212 LED 66.3 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler	$24.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Gigabyte - Z390 UD ATX LGA1151 Motherboard	$109.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	G.Skill - Sniper X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$72.98 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$59.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$689.99 @ Newegg
Case	Corsair - 270R ATX Mid Tower Case	$29.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair - TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$62.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1420.70
	Mail-in rebates	-$120.00
	Total	$1300.70
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-06-07 14:40 EDT-0400

I changed the ram to G. Skill for peace of mind since I've dealt with their customer support before. I also changed the cooler to the Hyper 212 from Cooler Master. It's a brand I trust. The site flagged the tower as incompatible with the 212, though, so I had to change the tower to the 270R. Is all of this okay? It even came out a bit cheaper at $1300 even.

Get the 9600k, it’s the same price so just get it with iGPU. It’s great for troubleshooting and Quick Sync. RAM is fine. If you want Cooler Master, go with the ML240L, 212 is not good for a 9600k