Please, please, please help - new to PC gaming - PC build

[traha9]

I am new to PC gaming and need help figuring out what parts I should get. I have done hours of research, but I'm stuck. Please help me.

Abridged version:

Budget: $1500 - 2000.

Uses: FPS/shooter games - looking to take advantage of a 144 hz monitor (frames>resolution), minor video editing, possible streaming in the future, heavy excel/word processing, browsing, streaming Netflix/Twitch, doing some of the aforementioned tasks simultaneously. Trying to "future proof" (quotes bc its impossible), but some padding for future would be great. Any specific CPU/GPU recommendations?

Long narrative:

I bought a 4k, HDR 10 monitor with all the bells and whistles to pair with my Xbox X. I was pretty disappointed and came to the realization that console gaming isn't for me anymore. I think its somewhat capping my skill level for the type of games I like to play (FPS/shooters Apex, Fortnite, Overwatch, etc). I don't have the control, range of motion, &/or precision over my aim and movement that a mouse/key could provide. These machines are capped at 60 frames, the prices are outrageous for what the machine can actually do, and I don't really prioritize high resolution gaming. So, I set out on the quest to build a gaming PC. However, I quickly learned about NZXT's BLD service bc they paid all the bigboy tech YouTubers for sponsored reviews and congrats to NZXT it worked. This was the perfect solution because I have time constraints, I don't trust myself building a PC yet, its a flat fee, reputable Company, utilizing reputable clearly listed parts, and all of these parts were under warranty, etc.

 

I then decided I at least needed to learn the bare minimum, so I could choose a PC that fit my intended uses: heavy gaming (primarily FPS/Shooters that aren't resource heavy) with a 144 hz monitor at 1080 or 1440p (should I just shoot for 240 hz like frames), attempting the impossible "future proof" as future titles demand heavier graphical requirements, medium to heavy excel and word processing, multi-tabbed browsing/email/Youtube/voice recorder/Spotify/Twitch/Netflix (running some of these items at the same time), simple video editing (trim, splice, change speed, etc.) -- generally for videos less than an hour, and I may want to stream going forward after making this PC investment.

 

I've made quite a bit of headway after hours of research and got up to speed on the current GPU scene. Below was my GPU analysis:

• I think I want the 2070 Super with the Radeon 5700 XT coming in a close second. I think the 70 Super will set me up better in the long term, as it edges the 5700 XT in most benchmarking, will be able to handle heavier graphic loads as games are coded as such, will be able to smash 1080 at 144 frames (and maybe even 1440p at a lower graphic setting and/or overclocked), can get 60 frames at 4k for some titles, support ray tracing if I ever decide to care about that, is priced at a pretty good value (even thought the 5700 XT has an even better value, $/frame, etc.)

 

My issue then became which CPU to pair this with. I was leaning towards the i7-87000K or i9-9700k (with the i9-9 seeming to be right out of the reach of my budget), but then the 3rd gen Ryzen hit and everything went from somewhat transparent to muddy, murky water. I wasn't sure how powerful I needed my CPU to be especially when it came to non-gaming tasks. After more research, I determined that the 2070 Super and the Ryzen 7 3700 X was probably a really good combination for what I wanted this PC to do. Everything I had read/watched about the Ryzen 7 3700 X seemed to give it very favorable reviews. But then several random Google searches later, I had found a review from the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus -- who indicated that the 3700 X was kind of in "no man's land" in terms of scaling and an article suggesting that my use case didn't even need an AMD chip. My mind at the time, "Perhaps, I should scale up or down or go for an Intel chip? Or maybe my use case is not computing processing intensive and thus I don't need an AMD chip? I just didn't know." This brings us to today where I am reaching out to the public for any and all help bc clearly I am lost.

 

To boot, last night I found what I perceived (albeit, a complete noob) to be amazing deals at CyberPower PC (i.e. https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/VR-Ready-Deal-RTX-2070-Super , https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Crystal-Series-Xtreme , https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Rapid-Ship-Special-2080-Super). I read some reviews on CyberPower and they seem to make pretty good builds especially of recent with the QC issues trending towards the past. This has further complicated everything.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to New Builds and Planning

[brob]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($327.89 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($89.95 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Asus PRIME X570-PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($236.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($79.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($94.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB VENTUS OC Video Card  ($509.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case  ($99.98 @ Newegg Business) 
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1539.77
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-08-24 11:46 EDT-0400

[traha9]

Thank you Brob.

 

So, in your opinion, my "use case" would benefit from an AMD chip? And, I should ignore some experts saying to avoid the 3700 X and to go with the 2nd Gen 2700 X? Also, do you have any opinion on NZXT BLD or some of those CyberPower PC builds that I linked in the OP? (Yes, I know how much enthusiasts turn the nose up at the idea of a pre-built custom, but I think its the right option for me).

 

Again, thank you this was very helpful.

[A. Cole]

1 hour ago, traha9 said:

Thank you Brob.

 

So, in your opinion, my "use case" would benefit from an AMD chip? And, I should ignore some experts saying to avoid the 3700 X and to go with the 2nd Gen 2700 X? Also, do you have any opinion on NZXT BLD or some of those CyberPower PC builds that I linked in the OP? (Yes, I know how much enthusiasts turn the nose up at the idea of a pre-built custom, but I think its the right option for me).

 

Again, thank you this was very helpful.

I've played around with the NZXT BLD though never got a system from them. I'm guessing it will come well packed with expand foam etc
I get some people mock a pre-built system but some people just don't feel comfortable with there hands inside a PC and that's fine, The one thing I will say that would be a big advantage for me to go NZXT and not cyberpower PC as the latter will try to draw you in with flashy cases and "hot words" like GAMING, RTX/ON 

2 main reasons I quite like NZXT Bld, I recognise and acknowledge most of the parts that are suggested by NZXT BLD, sticking with good brands can be a bit more expensive but also more reliable, where as I've seen cyberpower systems, 3XS (scan) and Box PC's often cut corners for seemly larger profit margins on some parts (a good example is RAM selections on these sights, often only offering a select brand like corsair only for sponser/cost reasons or going for lessor known brands for cost)
second and this is true on NZXT as a whole, there cases are some of the best in the market in terms of build quality to price and easy of use and instillation, all the H series used in BLD are very clean and easily upgradable, I have a NZXT phantom 530 and to this day its been enjoyable and easy to work in, and still looks clean.
3rd is a bonus, though I don't trust the scores 100% I do like that it will give you est FPS on games at different resolutions and depending on the build. Especially as this helps first timers like yourself into the gaming PC market.

In terms of futureproof, intel's looking a bit shaky in the desktop market and its likely that AMD will remain the stronger choice for future proofing, there's already rumours that the next intel CPU's would be on yet another new chipset which means you can't to a drop in upgrade, drop in upgrades for the most part are guaranteed by AMD at this moment in time. although if your future proof is you don't want to touch it for 4+ years then just replace it, you'll get overall more support on an Intel system and some of there older chips still hold up today, intel's just not been good and drop in upgrades these past generations.

GPU is a funny one, drivers and support are still being developed for the new AMD gpu's, Nvidia wont face these problems. But FPS wise your likely never to use raytracing (unles they crack keeping it on and having 120+fps which isn't likely soon) don't forget the mid tear cards though, a GTX1660ti might be better suited for you than an RTX card, you can get benchmarks for a 1660ti online (or on the NZXT bld)
 

[brob]

I'm a believer in buying the most current generation of technology. The 3700X is an excellent cpu for gaming. The 2700X not so much. The i7-9700K would be the competing and equally good Intel cpu.

 

I don't have any experience with CyberPower or Nzxt BLD. I did look at the two CyberPower links and I'm not taken by either of them.

 

The i7-9700K build has a marginal cpu cooler, especially if one plans to overclock. The motherboard is entry-level. The actual gpu model is not specified so there is no knowing what cooling solution it uses. The psu has significantly more capacity than needed and no brand is specified. The storage solution is not to my taste. 

 

The i9-9900K build uses the same cpu cooler as the i7-9700K making it inadequate IMO. It will likely lead to thermal throttling during longer and more intense sessions. I actually like the storage solution n this build, But 1000W psu is way over required capacity and we have no idea how good or poor a unit it might be. (80+ Gold specifies electrical efficiency, not quality.) Same comments as previous about the gpu.

 

The only issue I have with Nzxt is the preference given to its own products. They are quality products, but it does limit some choices.

 

An internet search will turn up a number of custom pc builders. You might also check local resources. One can often find a store or individual willing to assemble a system for a modest fee.

[traha9]

3 hours ago, traha9 said:

Thank you Brob.

 

So, in your opinion, my "use case" would benefit from an AMD chip? And, I should ignore some experts saying to avoid the 3700 X and to go with the 2nd Gen 2700 X? Also, do you have any opinion on NZXT BLD or some of those CyberPower PC builds that I linked in the OP? (Yes, I know how much enthusiasts turn the nose up at the idea of a pre-built custom, but I think its the right option for me).

 

Again, thank you this was very helpful.

 

1 hour ago, A. Cole said:

I've played around with the NZXT BLD though never got a system from them. I'm guessing it will come well packed with expand foam etc
I get some people mock a pre-built system but some people just don't feel comfortable with there hands inside a PC and that's fine, The one thing I will say that would be a big advantage for me to go NZXT and not cyberpower PC as the latter will try to draw you in with flashy cases and "hot words" like GAMING, RTX/ON 

2 main reasons I quite like NZXT Bld, I recognise and acknowledge most of the parts that are suggested by NZXT BLD, sticking with good brands can be a bit more expensive but also more reliable, where as I've seen cyberpower systems, 3XS (scan) and Box PC's often cut corners for seemly larger profit margins on some parts (a good example is RAM selections on these sights, often only offering a select brand like corsair only for sponser/cost reasons or going for lessor known brands for cost)
second and this is true on NZXT as a whole, there cases are some of the best in the market in terms of build quality to price and easy of use and instillation, all the H series used in BLD are very clean and easily upgradable, I have a NZXT phantom 530 and to this day its been enjoyable and easy to work in, and still looks clean.
3rd is a bonus, though I don't trust the scores 100% I do like that it will give you est FPS on games at different resolutions and depending on the build. Especially as this helps first timers like yourself into the gaming PC market.

In terms of futureproof, intel's looking a bit shaky in the desktop market and its likely that AMD will remain the stronger choice for future proofing, there's already rumours that the next intel CPU's would be on yet another new chipset which means you can't to a drop in upgrade, drop in upgrades for the most part are guaranteed by AMD at this moment in time. although if your future proof is you don't want to touch it for 4+ years then just replace it, you'll get overall more support on an Intel system and some of there older chips still hold up today, intel's just not been good and drop in upgrades these past generations.

GPU is a funny one, drivers and support are still being developed for the new AMD gpu's, Nvidia wont face these problems. But FPS wise your likely never to use raytracing (unles they crack keeping it on and having 120+fps which isn't likely soon) don't forget the mid tear cards though, a GTX1660ti might be better suited for you than an RTX card, you can get benchmarks for a 1660ti online (or on the NZXT bld)
 

You guys are actual American heros. I truly appreciate it. I can't explain how much I've need someone to bounce ideas off of. Re: CPU - I think I am leaning AMD bc I do not appreciate a Company that plans obsolescence or makes it difficult for a consumer to upgrade without spending an arm and a leg. Based off the advice given, I am going to avoid CyberPower all together and used NZXT's build. Below are a couple screenshots of the builds I was toying with - any commentary or recommendations? (TBH, I guess I am decently versed in CPU & GPU, but for the other parts I haven't had the time to dig in deep and this is where I would drop the ball on these builds. I know that cooling is very important (not sure about optional case fans NZXT offers), motherboard not as important (I think) - but have enough slots, RAM very important, but 16 GBs 3200 MHz should suffice in 2019? or is 3600 MHz recommended, SSD is a must, and maybe scale up 1 on PSU if you want to upgrade in the near future.

 

[brob]

The first one is good. But I'd suggest an X570 motherboard, either the stock cpu cooler or something better than the M22, and possibly step down to a 650W psu.

[A. Cole]

On 8/25/2019 at 1:47 AM, brob said:

The first one is good. But I'd suggest an X570 motherboard, either the stock cpu cooler or something better than the M22, and possibly step down to a 650W psu.

I would say the opposite tbh, just because X570 board come with those PCI-e fans now (like older boards use to) and these can be noisy, and if your not using the Gen4 PCI-e on an m.2 (or later gen4 compatible GPUs) then its kind of just extra noise and extra price. the only other reason I could thing going for an X570 boardi s the native Wifi6  support, but if you don't have a wifi-6 router you wont benefit, and thats a new technology so expensive

On the PSU side I would always recommend a higher rating over a higher wattage, really bugs me when people run RTX 2080's or titans on a silver/bronze rated PSU.
If you can, mock the build you like on PCpartpicker because it will give an estimate power draw, my rule of thumb (not law) is if your not overclocking 60-70% powerdraw from PSU is fine (you never really want to go above 80% power draw as it can damage the PSU over time) if your overclocking going at 50% powerdraw gives you plenty of headroom

If you never plan on upgrading your system down the line, then a smaller PSU is fine. 

Then H500 is one of the only NZXT cases i don't like, but its a minor thing that probably only bugs me (the single top 120mm fan, the case looks like it could easily fit a 240mm opening and that bugs me, i think single top exhausts look hideous) 
I like the first build (other than it choosing a MOBO with no onboard wifi, if you'r using ethernet that will be fine) 
Adv:
They will update the bios for you for the 3rg gen ryzen (anything other than x570 needs a bios update) 
3600hz ram kit will work so much better with 3rd gen ryzen than a 3200 kit, ryzen is ram hungry. you will see more of a performance gain with a 3600hz kit than changing to an X570 board with a 3200hz kit. 3600hz is the 3rd gen ryzen sweet spot for performance to cost.
750w PSU gives you plenty of room to upgrade in the future, just be carefully you don't get a non semi/full modular PSU because you might end up a victim to ketchup and mustard
Changes:
if you need wifi you can always get a wifi card, there quite cheap and easy to install, or choose a mobo with built in wifi
this might sound strange, but see if you can change the SSD into a 125-250gb m.2 with a HDD if your willing to use Store MI, this a tiered storage that can autoconfigure your data by usage, i.e. a game you play frequently will be moved to the m.2 but if you stop playing it then it will move to the HDD, if you want to play that game months later, the first boot will be HDD speed but then can jump to near SSD speeds. This is great for things like big steam libraries, the free store MI with Ryzen chips only supports up to 128gb m.2 for caching (you need a paid licence to use larger caches) 
Possibly change the AIO cooler, the M22 will be used as the H500 only has 120mm exhausts, but still has a 240mm intake, even if your not into overclocking having a 240mm AIO over a 120mm AIO will give you a higher automatic boost clock
Although if WIFI, boost clocks, storage capacity and speed don't really matter for you, then 100% go for the first build as is

[traha9]

On 8/24/2019 at 8:47 PM, brob said:

The first one is good. But I'd suggest an X570 motherboard, either the stock cpu cooler or something better than the M22, and possibly step down to a 650W psu.

Thanks Brob. Appreciate all the commentary.

[traha9]

8 hours ago, A. Cole said:

I would say the opposite tbh, just because X570 board come with those PCI-e fans now (like older boards use to) and these can be noisy, and if your not using the Gen4 PCI-e on an m.2 (or later gen4 compatible GPUs) then its kind of just extra noise and extra price. the only other reason I could thing going for an X570 boardi s the native Wifi6  support, but if you don't have a wifi-6 router you wont benefit, and thats a new technology so expensive

On the PSU side I would always recommend a higher rating over a higher wattage, really bugs me when people run RTX 2080's or titans on a silver/bronze rated PSU.
If you can, mock the build you like on PCpartpicker because it will give an estimate power draw, my rule of thumb (not law) is if your not overclocking 60-70% powerdraw from PSU is fine (you never really want to go above 80% power draw as it can damage the PSU over time) if your overclocking going at 50% powerdraw gives you plenty of headroom

If you never plan on upgrading your system down the line, then a smaller PSU is fine. 

Then H500 is one of the only NZXT cases i don't like, but its a minor thing that probably only bugs me (the single top 120mm fan, the case looks like it could easily fit a 240mm opening and that bugs me, i think single top exhausts look hideous) 
I like the first build (other than it choosing a MOBO with no onboard wifi, if you'r using ethernet that will be fine) 
Adv:
They will update the bios for you for the 3rg gen ryzen (anything other than x570 needs a bios update) 
3600hz ram kit will work so much better with 3rd gen ryzen than a 3200 kit, ryzen is ram hungry. you will see more of a performance gain with a 3600hz kit than changing to an X570 board with a 3200hz kit. 3600hz is the 3rd gen ryzen sweet spot for performance to cost.
750w PSU gives you plenty of room to upgrade in the future, just be carefully you don't get a non semi/full modular PSU because you might end up a victim to ketchup and mustard
Changes:
if you need wifi you can always get a wifi card, there quite cheap and easy to install, or choose a mobo with built in wifi
this might sound strange, but see if you can change the SSD into a 125-250gb m.2 with a HDD if your willing to use Store MI, this a tiered storage that can autoconfigure your data by usage, i.e. a game you play frequently will be moved to the m.2 but if you stop playing it then it will move to the HDD, if you want to play that game months later, the first boot will be HDD speed but then can jump to near SSD speeds. This is great for things like big steam libraries, the free store MI with Ryzen chips only supports up to 128gb m.2 for caching (you need a paid licence to use larger caches) 
Possibly change the AIO cooler, the M22 will be used as the H500 only has 120mm exhausts, but still has a 240mm intake, even if your not into overclocking having a 240mm AIO over a 120mm AIO will give you a higher automatic boost clock
Although if WIFI, boost clocks, storage capacity and speed don't really matter for you, then 100% go for the first build as is

 

The motherboard and SSD are probably the two components I had the most reservation about. 

SSD:

For the SSD, I had my heart set on the Sabrent Rocket 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME because it appeared to perform similarly to the higher tier NVME SSDs but at a much lower cost. I am inquiring with NZXT to see if there is a way to swap in parts not listed. I really want a "snappy"/fast machine even though it's a luxury that doesn't improve performance and comes at a cost. However, I am struggling to pinpoint the threshold for which there would be diminishing returns given my use case. Maybe you could help me out there?

 

Also, I wasn't sure if HDD is needed. It seems to me that I would want some HDD storage. All the NZXT automatically default to no HDD at all, so I thought maybe it's really not needed in 2019.  I would love your input on whether HDD is needed at all if I was able to get the Sabrent Rocket would that trump the available options. Also, what speed would you recommend for HDD? Is there a discernible difference between 150 MB/s & 220 MB/s?

 

Overall, your recommendation was to reduce and change the storage to a m.2 form factor and couple it with AMD's MI service offering, correct? Listed are all the available options? Do you still agree with your recommendation after seeing them?

 

Samsung 860 EVO 250 GB - 2 TBs

Intel 660p M.2 - 512 GB - 2 TBs (pretty sure this is where you suggested to go)

Samsung 970 EVO Plus - 250 GB - 2 TBs

Seagate Barracuda 1 - 4 TB with varying read/write speeds

 

Mobo:

I am completely lost on the motherboard even after hours of trying to dig through articles and literature. I cannot understand how some are $700 and some are $150. It seems like the $700 boards don't really improve performance and only offer marginal features. I think maybe its because I am entering the world of overclocking, which I am not interested in at all. And its my understanding, that 1) for an Average User overclocking a AMD chip is just the matter of clicking a button and 2) that overclocking a Gen 3 AMD chip would really boost performance that much bc they are pretty much maxed out at stock in order to compete with Intel's numbers. Is this line of thinking sound?

 

450/470 vs. 570:

To your point, I learned that the CPU performance didn't really hinge heavily on the mobo model and was more heavily tied to RAM speed. But I am having second thoughts. Do you think it prudent to go ahead and prep for PCIe 4.0 and get an 570x? I really want a PC that is "future proof" for at least 5 years. The problem is that the MSI 570x board available is lacking thorough coverage. The reviews I was actually able to find trended towards negative, but again I think this may be where my limited PC knowledge comes into play. Perhaps, for what I want this PC to do - a semi-average 570x board is more than enough? I really need some guidance with regards to the mobo. Below I listed the available options through NZXT BLD at the moment. To your point, I def want Wifi and even Bluetooth capabilities, so probably only the last two options are in play unless I get the wifi card, etc - as you suggested.

 

MSI B450 TOMAHAWK

MSI X470 GAMING PLUS

ASUS ROG Strix X470-F

ASRock X470 Taichi

MSI MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI

 

RAM:

I am absolutely getting nothing less than 3600 MHz bc I want that quick, fast PC. Do I need 32 GBs now or will 16 be fine for a couple of years (understanding this is very subjective just want to hear your commentary)?

 

Case, Cooling, PSU, miscellaneous:

TBH, I know little about these subjects other than the very elementary fundamentals (i.e. an overheated PC will have crap performance and eventually die). I do not know any of the technicalities. Learning all of this is quite time consuming, so I really appreciate when you and others expedite the knowledge process with guidance.

Case:

Which of the NZXT cases do you personally find to be aesthetically pleasing? H700? What's the difference between the stock 500/700 and the 500i/700i? Is it recommended to pay for the more expensive iterations? Seems like the 700 would at least be a bit more “future proof” bc it offers more space and slots. I know nothing.

Cooling:

Would the Kraken X52 suffice or should I go all the way up to the 62 or 72? NZXT also offers "case fans", which I thought were already included in the case. Maybe these are just fans with extra RBG or something? I added the screenshot so you can see what I am referring to. Any fundamental insights or sources would be greatly appreciated. Again, I know very little on this subject.

PSU:

What are the major things I need to know about PSU? Other than the wonderful advice you already provided (Gold rated for higher end components/PCs, 80% rule of thumb, leave headroom to upgrade, which I intend on doing). How much headroom for upgrading is typically advised? Same as above, I know very little. It sounds like for my scenario 750 W Gold rated would suffice.

Windows 10 Home v Pro:

 

Is pro necessary for $30 dollars? I know I get Home for free with the watermark, etc, etc, but honestly I don’t think I want to deal with what normally comes with “bootlegged” versions of programs unless I really is just the watermark and nothing else.

Misc:

Is there anything else that I am missing?

Edit: Oh last thing, I watched a Hardware Unboxed video that indicated that the stock CPU cooler may be sufficient. Would you still recommend getting another cooler?

[A. Cole]

@traha9 ill tag you instead of quote all that.

SSD
if your talking about a sabret rocket gen4 m.2 then yes, 100% go x570 and ditch a HDD all together, the main point of a HDD is they can still offer loads of room and what I call overspill (say you don't realise your gaming ssd is getting full but you install another game, It was more for convenience to use Store MI in that case) I haven't yet had chance to test then gen4 speeds myself, but holy crap those reviews are insane, my theory is that you might even see a use case for StoreMI in this case, using a gen4 m.2 paired with an SSD, as the difference between SSD and Gen4 m.2 looks like it might just be in the range for performance improvement using store MI
the size of the m.2 wouldn't really matter for store MI, its just the licence you get free can only utilise 128gb, which it should automatically partition, if not just us dksmgmt.msc in the start command and make a partition manually.
to answer HDD relevancy in 2019 there's two key points I would use, 1 - games 5 years ago where 5-10gb not 40+gb, this is important because 2 - most SSD's cap at 4tb, M.2 usually 2tb, for £100 less than a 4tb SSD you can get a 10tb HDD, there capacity keeps them alive (granted a 1tb or 2tb m.2 will take a while to fill at current in 2019, but I haven't seen the trend in game file size decreasing, if anything its growing faster, remember Red Dead II is just shy of 100gb for one game)
If your not going for Gen4 m.2  or planning to later, then I would probably still recommend the x470 boards cause there a good deal cheaper than X570 boards
N.B talking about expensive motherboards, have a look at the full water block boards like the gigabyte z390 or the asrock x570, there prices will make your eyes water 

MOBO
again going back to gen4 m.2, this makes the difference as no real gen4 PCI-e GPU's have been made to take full use of this Gen4 band with, so at this time the insane read/write speeds of Gen4 M.2 is the only real reason to go for an x570 board, cause otherwise your just paying more for the newest thing without getting any more functionality and getting those small crappy fans and there high pitch (not high noise) wir.

to answer your overclocking question in short, NO the AMD processors are not at there full cap out the gate,
It may seem that way because its still early days for the 3000 series, as BIOS and general software compatibility improves, so will the overclocking potential for these CPU's, but your also right, unless your manually overclocking or extreme cooling, at the moment the in built core boost system will get as much as feasibly from the chip at this point, but as time goes on and people have the chance to play, I have a strange feeling these 7nm CPU's might see days similar to the Bulldozer days, that's why I'm so hyped for 7nm threadripper (back in the day AMD held the higher core clock crown, something daft like 8.4ghz) and to touch on how long this can get, I'm not even mentioning silicon binning (where for example only certain 9900k's will be made perfectly enough to reach 5-5.1ghz)

But even now people are finding increased core clocks on 3rd gen ryzen with undervolting (that's a huge topic in itself) and 7nm+ is yet to come 

 

To the next point, im not going to repeat the gen4 m.2 cause ill need to do it another 10 times. But be careful with what future proof it, with WIFI 6 coming to motherboards as a new feature, many X570 boards still come with 1gb/s NIC (ethernet) even though they could easily be 10gb/s NIC there not because most companies only moves to 1gb/s a couple years ago, only newer houses are getting installed with cat5e/cat6 even though CAT7&8 are available, some technologies come out and its quite some time before they become mainstream use. but at the same time games are only just moving to minimum requirements being 4 cores, but at the same time to run AAA titles at max settings takes a heck of allot of power, so its tricky. but to answer in short its going to be at least 4 years before gen4 m.2's become mainstream or even fully utalised (lets be honest, how much stuff do you have that NEEDS 5gb/s write speeds, if your a streaming dealing with 8k red footage fair enough) It's like going back to the HDD's, there still very relevant in allot of use cases, for cost or storage size. future proof can be a scare word, not everything in your PC is going to suffer from the same thing that happened to DVD drives an 5.25" drives on cases (that was a rare case where streaming suddenly boomed and you could buy and download games online)

For your MOBO list, I'm partial to the ASrock board, but that's because ASrock have always been close to AMD (like EVGA are with Nvidia) so they have really good AMD hardware, and I can't really thing of anything against the other brands listed there (I know tomahawks can be tricky, but there obviously going to focus on user experience on there high end boards) in short have a look at the boards and if you decide against gen.4 m.2 then just choose the one you like, can be cost or looks, you'r not planning on overclocking and NZXT will test and set up everything for you so should be plain sailing

RAM
Like I said before, 3600mhz seems to be the sweet spot of cost to performance for 3rd gen ryzen, 2x8gb sticks will be enough for a while still, more wont hurt if you want it, If your worried about future proofing this then just look at populating 2 ram slots, so 2x8gb for 16gb or 2x16 for 32gb, easiest and most effective way to future proof ram is just leave to slots open because if you come to the point of needing more ram, your going to enjoy the gains of just doubling your ram.

CASE
first to blast it out the way, the only difference between the H500 and H500i (or any I model) is the I models get a load of RGB products thrown it for usually cheaper than buying them separate. of top of my head I think the H700 to H700I includes 3rgb fans, the rgb control hub and an LED strip built in
Case Cooling - if your new to this for now try and stick to TDP (this is very oversimplified, but it takes into account how much power drawn and heat is being put out by a component) so if your cooler has a higher TDP than your CPU then it will cool the cpu (yeah there's 101 variables like airflow, but as a general) if your cooler is just above the TDP it will run toasts but wont or shouldn't throttle, having a much higher TDP on your cooler means your CPU can boost more.
From your use case (not overclocking) and how good ryzen is becoming, even a 240mm AIO or decent air cooler is plenty enough to cool the CPU and allot it to boost, going 360mm AIO is a bit overkill 
For the actual case, the H500 is a good case, I just have a personal thing against single 120mm roof exhausts, but that's not to say there bad, sometimes its the opposite as there is sometimes less dead airflow and turbulence, but if you look at the brand new H510 it has a 120mm exhaust, there still plenty good. please don't take my personal dislike of top mount 120mm to heart, its your build.

PSU
you might need a larger psu for x570 over x470 though im not sure how much extra power the x570 boards can pull, but either way 650 and 750w are plenty enough, PSU's are wonderfully simple in some ways, even the high end systems don't often need more than 850w, very few have started really needing the 1kw PSU's
So any PSU between 600-800 will last a long time (I'm moving my HX750i PSU to my next build because its more than enough) because as technologies improve they should become more efficient, meaning needing less power for similar or better performance, the 3000 series are a great example of this, im going for the 3700x in my next build (mini itx) because its only 65w TDP where as my current i7-5930 from 6 years ago is 140w and gets stomped by the 3700x in every single way. going back to future proofing though, my current PC will still be relevant for another 2 years before I even start seeing a difference in performance (like having to move to min settings to run games) 

WINDOWS 10 PRO, WINDOWS 10 PRO!! let me tell you a funny story, I work refurbishing laptops and we laugh at how many people get windows 10 pro, because they will never need pro over home, pro is for more business use where you need a high level of admin access to connect to large networks, or configure settings that only an IT technician would bother going into. Windows 10 pro is not needed in short
your fine having a non activated windows and the main loss you will have is not being able to customize your desktop background, but I would recommend getting a windows 10 home package of ebay, you can find some that bundle Microsoft documents (or now days a year office 365 because Microsoft a greedy ********************) 

for your last note, AMD is not stupid enough to do what intel did (sticking with the same low profile stock cooler for every CPU, the only real change in some being a copper middle for the high end chips) and every one of the ryzen CPU's comes with a cooler that will meet the minimum requirements because AMD don't want to shoot themselves in the foot, there not only an underdog but there unfavoured from there past reputation and against the sheer size of intel's support and fans, but as true for any CPU you can buy (going back to the dark ages of single core) you will see improvements getting a better cooler than stock. 
But yeah AMD have some really good included coolers (shame this stuck with that awkward lever mount)
 

[traha9]

@A. Cole I haven't been able to read and digest all of this yet. But off the bat, these SSD's don't require x570 boards (and thus PCIe 4.0), right?

• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LGF54XR/?coliid=I3CS1WZUFDDDT3&colid=CHK1F7CAJ2VL&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RCM6DXK/?coliid=I3OFEMLC108FEI&colid=CHK1F7CAJ2VL&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Even so, I came across this Gamers Nexus video that I think has sold me on buying a $200 range X570 board. Do you agree? Lastly, I just saw you are from the UK. You are an American UK Hero.

Edit:

SSD:

Not going to lie - I am completely lost on the Storage situation. I believe you are saying go for the m.2 NVME PCIe storage and couple it another SSD utilizing the M1 license.

 

My plan was to get 1 TB of those value m.2 NVMEs linked above and support with 2 TB of HDD, but I think you're solution is better. I am just not sure what that is exactly, haha. How much total storage is suggested in today's world with games like Red Dead and the new CoD that are ~140 GBs+?

 

If you're interested, this is the video that benchmarked the Sabrent Rocket - showing it was neck & neck with the Samsung 970 at half the cost (on tests that would matter for an average user like myself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlGjd1GZWdo&t=27s ).

 

Mobo:

Again, I think you were saying that the only way to really take advantage of say the Sabrent Rocket is a 570X mobo? I thought it would still perform roughly the same on a 470X, but I am probably wrong? And I agree with your point about most of them being cheaper, which of the cheaper 470x's would you recommend? Another ASrock, i presume. However, based on the video above and because the 470x's available through NZXT are pretty pricey - it probably would make most sense to go ahead and bite the bullet on one of the value 570 X boards (NZXT just added more 570 skus). Do you agree?

 

Thanks for the tidbit on overclocking. I was failing to think about the future state of the chip with updates. I know nothing about the "Bulldozer days", but I am pulling for it, right there with ya - 8.4ghz - holy crap!

 

RAM:

Again, great information. Thank you! Most of the value 570x boards I looked at have 4 slots, so I could do 2 (2x8GBs) and still have 2 slot open for 32 & 48 GBs down the road?

 

Case & Case Fans and CPU Coolers:

• Cases: Should I reach for the NZXT 700 bc it will have more room and offer more heat dissipation? Or a 500 is more than fine for my situation including mild OC (see next sentence)? Also, after your reminder about CPU BIOS updates and the like. I will probably do some light OCing in the future, as I learn more.
• Case Fans: my confusion with the case fans, is that I thought the case itself would come with fans? Is that not generally the case (pun intended)? If it is, I presume the stock case fans should be sufficient and the options offered by NZXT are more for aesthetics and extreme overclocking?
• CPU Cooler: Seems like I should go ahead and invest in a 240 mm AIO, especially if I plan on mild overclocking? Is there any discernible difference between the X52 & X62? Or better yet - what is a good value option on the market? (I having been calling around to location tech shops around to see if I can find someone to build this for me. I am contemplating that route more than ever, so I can avoid some of the NZXT limitations. But, most of them want even more than NZXT's flat $100 fee).
• What brands of coolers, fans, AIOs, and cases do you recommend?

PSU:

Nail in the coffin on this one, thanks!

 

Windows:

Wow, I would have totally fallen for Windows Pro based off NZXT's description - "the windows version more suited for content creators". Thank goodness for your help... Not sure why any user would need to set admin access rights for a single person use PC, etc....

Edited August 28, 2019 by traha9
updated to repsond the rest of A. Cole's msg.

[HumdrumPenguin]

On 8/23/2019 at 11:00 PM, traha9 said:

I am new to PC gaming and need help figuring out what parts I should get. I have done hours of research, but I'm stuck. Please help me.

Abridged version:

Budget: $1500 - 2000.

Uses: FPS/shooter games - looking to take advantage of a 144 hz monitor (frames>resolution), minor video editing, possible streaming in the future, heavy excel/word processing, browsing, streaming Netflix/Twitch, doing some of the aforementioned tasks simultaneously. Trying to "future proof" (quotes bc its impossible), but some padding for future would be great. Any specific CPU/GPU recommendations?

Long narrative:

I bought a 4k, HDR 10 monitor with all the bells and whistles to pair with my Xbox X. I was pretty disappointed and came to the realization that console gaming isn't for me anymore. I think its somewhat capping my skill level for the type of games I like to play (FPS/shooters Apex, Fortnite, Overwatch, etc). I don't have the control, range of motion, &/or precision over my aim and movement that a mouse/key could provide. These machines are capped at 60 frames, the prices are outrageous for what the machine can actually do, and I don't really prioritize high resolution gaming. So, I set out on the quest to build a gaming PC. However, I quickly learned about NZXT's BLD service bc they paid all the bigboy tech YouTubers for sponsored reviews and congrats to NZXT it worked. This was the perfect solution because I have time constraints, I don't trust myself building a PC yet, its a flat fee, reputable Company, utilizing reputable clearly listed parts, and all of these parts were under warranty, etc.

 

I then decided I at least needed to learn the bare minimum, so I could choose a PC that fit my intended uses: heavy gaming (primarily FPS/Shooters that aren't resource heavy) with a 144 hz monitor at 1080 or 1440p (should I just shoot for 240 hz like frames), attempting the impossible "future proof" as future titles demand heavier graphical requirements, medium to heavy excel and word processing, multi-tabbed browsing/email/Youtube/voice recorder/Spotify/Twitch/Netflix (running some of these items at the same time), simple video editing (trim, splice, change speed, etc.) -- generally for videos less than an hour, and I may want to stream going forward after making this PC investment.

 

I've made quite a bit of headway after hours of research and got up to speed on the current GPU scene. Below was my GPU analysis:

• I think I want the 2070 Super with the Radeon 5700 XT coming in a close second. I think the 70 Super will set me up better in the long term, as it edges the 5700 XT in most benchmarking, will be able to handle heavier graphic loads as games are coded as such, will be able to smash 1080 at 144 frames (and maybe even 1440p at a lower graphic setting and/or overclocked), can get 60 frames at 4k for some titles, support ray tracing if I ever decide to care about that, is priced at a pretty good value (even thought the 5700 XT has an even better value, $/frame, etc.)

 

My issue then became which CPU to pair this with. I was leaning towards the i7-87000K or i9-9700k (with the i9-9 seeming to be right out of the reach of my budget), but then the 3rd gen Ryzen hit and everything went from somewhat transparent to muddy, murky water. I wasn't sure how powerful I needed my CPU to be especially when it came to non-gaming tasks. After more research, I determined that the 2070 Super and the Ryzen 7 3700 X was probably a really good combination for what I wanted this PC to do. Everything I had read/watched about the Ryzen 7 3700 X seemed to give it very favorable reviews. But then several random Google searches later, I had found a review from the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus -- who indicated that the 3700 X was kind of in "no man's land" in terms of scaling and an article suggesting that my use case didn't even need an AMD chip. My mind at the time, "Perhaps, I should scale up or down or go for an Intel chip? Or maybe my use case is not computing processing intensive and thus I don't need an AMD chip? I just didn't know." This brings us to today where I am reaching out to the public for any and all help bc clearly I am lost.

 

To boot, last night I found what I perceived (albeit, a complete noob) to be amazing deals at CyberPower PC (i.e. https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/VR-Ready-Deal-RTX-2070-Super , https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Crystal-Series-Xtreme , https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Rapid-Ship-Special-2080-Super). I read some reviews on CyberPower and they seem to make pretty good builds especially of recent with the QC issues trending towards the past. This has further complicated everything.

Let's start with how much of video editing really is important. Not so much? Ryzen 3700X + 16gb ddr 3200-3600mhz. More or less, but with potential to grow? Ryzen 3900x or the new to be released 3950x + 32gb ddr 3200-3600mhz. Gamewise, all these 3 CPUs with 16gb of ram should perform very similar, so the video editing should be what dictates which CPU to run. Streaming also benefits from more cores, but I don't know how many more really.

 

 IPC (instructions per core) on AMD Ryzen 2000 series is not as good as it is on 3000 series, so don't bother with the previous gen. If this was a pure gaming build, and nothing more matters, the 9900k would be my choice (as it is in my current build). You could also take some cash and put into an AIO water cooler. A high end air cooler will run your CPU without a problem, but part of have a PC is to also have fun building it, and enjoying the afterwards.

 

As for graphics card, I agree with you that the 2070 SUPER is the best choice. The 2080 SUPER has only 8Gbs of VRAM, and it will bottleneck the raw power of the gpu in a few case scenarios, taking you to stutter land, as well as very likely to go beyond your budget.  AMD new cards have been suffering from extremely high temperatures, and a few glitches here and there, so I personally wouldn't go that way. It's unacceptable to pay $350+ and get a desktop card that will burn your soul at stock speeds, using stock cooling.

 

PSU: Get a 80 Plus Gold fully modular somewhere between 750-850W. The difference in price will be minimal, so I'd go with more wattage. Good PSUs are solid for years, so you might wanna future proof a bit. Yes, that's sentence is valid for PSUs.

 

Storage: Get a nice PCIe 4 SSD drive for your system, since it is compatible with Ryzen 3000 Series. If not, a Samsung NVMe 970 Plus Evo works wonders.

 

Motherboard: X570 have more phases and overclock better. Better audio shielding and onboard sound. More ports maybe? Really depends on the board. I'd take a look at both B550 and X570 boards and decide based on what both have to offer, since the prices for these boards have risen quite a lot in this last gen. I also like Asus boards just because of how easy it is to use the BIOS.

 

Hope to have helped.

[brob]

IPC = Instructions Per Clock (Cycle).

 

[traha9]

21 minutes ago, HumdrumPenguin said:

Let's start with how much of video editing really is important. Not so much? Ryzen 3700X + 16gb ddr 3200-3600mhz. More or less, but with potential to grow? Ryzen 3900x or the new to be released 3950x + 32gb ddr 3200-3600mhz. Gamewise, all these 3 CPUs with 16gb of ram should perform very similar, so the video editing should be what dictates which CPU to run. Streaming also benefits from more cores, but I don't know how many more really.

 

 IPC (instructions per core) on AMD Ryzen 2000 series is not as good as it is on 3000 series, so don't bother with the previous gen. If this was a pure gaming build, and nothing more matters, the 9900k would be my choice (as it is in my current build). You could also take some cash and put into an AIO water cooler. A high end air cooler will run your CPU without a problem, but part of have a PC is to also have fun building it, and enjoying the afterwards.

 

As for graphics card, I agree with you that the 2070 SUPER is the best choice. The 2080 SUPER has only 8Gbs of VRAM, and it will bottleneck the raw power of the gpu in a few case scenarios, taking you to stutter land, as well as very likely to go beyond your budget.  AMD new cards have been suffering from extremely high temperatures, and a few glitches here and there, so I personally wouldn't go that way. It's unacceptable to pay $350+ and get a desktop card that will burn your soul at stock speeds, using stock cooling.

 

Hope to have helped.

Most def helped. Thank you. Sounds like I’m in the 3700x bucket as video editing isn’t that vital for me. 

 

I hadn’t heard that tidbit about the 2080 Super bc I was actually considering it as this build has grown in size and price over the past couple weeks. Could you provide more detail or link? In summary, it’s not optimized to deal with its own power and probably not recommended i.e. get the 2070 Super or go all the way to the TI?

[HumdrumPenguin]

34 minutes ago, traha9 said:

Most def helped. Thank you. Sounds like I’m in the 3700x bucket as video editing isn’t that vital for me. 

 

I hadn’t heard that tidbit about the 2080 Super bc I was actually considering it as this build has grown in size and price over the past couple weeks. Could you provide more detail or link? In summary, it’s not optimized to deal with its own power and probably not recommended i.e. get the 2070 Super or go all the way to the TI?

Games like Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy XI can already take a card beyond 8gb of VRAM at 4k. I also have reported on my pc 9.5 VRAM usage when I'm playing The Division 2 (3440x1440, on a 2080 Ti). If you are going to mod the *** out of your games, you may go beyond that 8gb threshold as well. These are just a few isolated cases really, but they are already there in 2019. Paying so much on a card that already suffers a tiny bit from hiccups here and there might make you think twice. That's one of the reasons I went all the way to the overpriced 2080 Ti. You also said about having bought a 4k HDR monitor, so I'm assuming you'd like to see those textures crisp and clean. Textures like eating VRAM.

 

PS.: I had added a few words to my initial reply before, if you'd like to take a quick look.

[traha9]

2 hours ago, HumdrumPenguin said:

Games like Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy XI can already take a card beyond 8gb of VRAM at 4k. I also have reported on my pc 9.5 VRAM usage when I'm playing The Division 2 (3440x1440, on a 2080 Ti). If you are going to mod the *** out of your games, you may go beyond that 8gb threshold as well. These are just a few isolated cases really, but they are already there in 2019. Paying so much on a card that already suffers a tiny bit from hiccups here and there might make you think twice. That's one of the reasons I went all the way to the overpriced 2080 Ti. You also said about having bought a 4k HDR monitor, so I'm assuming you'd like to see those textures crisp and clean. Textures like eating VRAM.

 

PS.: I had added a few words to my initial reply before, if you'd like to take a quick look.

I actually returned the 4k HDR monitor bc I was so disappointed on how it translated with the Xbox. Admitedly my expectations were not realistic. I think I was looking for something that looked great, but was also smoother and the smooth issue is more frames related than resolution and graphics. That is what actually spurred the decision to finally make the move to PC - 30 frames isn't cutting it in 2019.

 

To the 2080 Super convo, would additional RAM help support the card? My infantile PC knowledge is shining through right now.  Also, I was wondering how much game tittles can change over say 1-2 yr or even 5 years with regards to GPU/CPU requirements. For example, is there value in grabbing a 2080 Super now for as simple of a reason that future games will require "more"? Or is 5 years too short of a time period for new tech to really flourish?

[HumdrumPenguin]

21 minutes ago, traha9 said:

To the 2080 Super convo, would additional RAM help support the card? My infantile PC knowledge is shining through right now.  Also, I was wondering how much game tittles can change over say 1-2 yr or even 5 years with regards to GPU/CPU requirements. For example, is there value in grabbing a 2080 Super now for as simple of a reason that future games will require "more"? Or is 5 years too short of a time period for new tech to really flourish?

Depends on the generation. Some new gen cards are leaps and bounds above the previous, while some are not. For instance, the jump from a GTX 970 to a GTX 1070 was much bigger than from a GTX 1070 to a RTX 2070. Truth be told, you should probably be fine with the 2080 SUPER for about 3 years, assuming you want to get more or as close to 60 fps on AAA games at 4k as you can. For shooters, if it's something like Overwatch, Fortnite, Apex Legends, the 2080 SUPER will serve you well for longer.

 

If you haven't decided on a panel yet, I think that 21:9 1440p (ultrawide) monitors bring you a lot more imersion than 16:9 4k monitors (the regular one). If you could go to a store and take a look, that would be great. About your initial thought of going 240hz 1080p...don't. Unless you are professional, chances of you seeing the difference from 120 to 240, and making it really count, are very little. But the difference you'll see from 1080p to 1440p are night and day.

[A. Cole]

@HumdrumPenguin thanks for coming in and helping with this, I wasn't aware of a difference in IPC but thanks for bringing that up, something new for me to look into.
But I'm sorry, but where did you get the AMD cards are hot runners? that's just not true anymore (AMD show junction and edge temperatures unlike Nvidia, but if you translate that into the same avg temp Nvidia use, the Rx line up is much more efficient and cooler) Glitches yes, but there a brand new architecture and they havent had as many bugs as Nvidias Pascal architecture did out the gate. Yeah the blower coolers suck but that's the same on any card, AMD are just not afraid to show there temperatures and they have a sensor almost directly on there die, so yeah that reads hotter than Nvidia would ever dare show (look at heat camera images) there also 7nm like the ryzen 300 series, I say this because the 3000 series dropped in temperatures and increased in efficiency, this is the same on the new RX cards which have been marketed against the rtx 2060 but been seen competing with the 2070 super (even on allot of the nvidia favouring games) I would still recomend a 2070 super mind, even if its just for the amount of support nvidia cards have compared to AMD

@traha9 I wouldn't go for a 2080 super, it has very little gains over the 2080 and the 2070 super performs very well. Supposed i should of asked if you would be focusing on FPS games or more free roam? because at the moment RTX on kills frames and is unusable I'n most high pace fps games. going back to something penguin mentioned, the jump rom generations with Nvidia have been getting smaller, with that point the 1080ti still performs on par with the 2070 super (the 2070 being slightly better at newer games and the 1080 slightly better at non directX12 games) I think going from a 2070 super to 2080 super is to little gain for the extra cost. The only 2080 card I would recommend is a 2080 ti, the 2080 super was a flop compared to the other super cards, and the 2070 super pretty much a 2080 (non ti or super) but usually cheaper

To your SSD question, no neither of them are gen4 m.2 SSD's, as far as I'm aware there is only sabrent, gigabyte and corsair who currently offer gen4 SSD's and an easy way to tell (other than the hammering of Gen4 advertisement) is gen4 SSD's often come with beefy coolers, to compare the 1tb gen4 sabrent rocket is $229 compaired to the non gen4 at $109. The difference between normal NVMe and SSD isn't realy enough for StoreMI to see a performance gain on either, I'm not even fully sure pairing a Gen4 m.2 with SSD will have use of StoreMI, something I'm going to be testing in my next build.
but comparing avg read write speeds (very simplified)
HDD at 150mb/s (on a good day)
SSD at 500mb/s 
NVMe at 2gb/s (200mb/s)
gen4 m.2 at 5gb/s (5000mb/s) 
There's a 4x speed difference between SSD and NVME but a 10x speed difference between gen4 and SSD.
StoreMI became popular to pair HDD with a NVMe because you would see gains, but pairing SSD with NVMe doesn't seem to be popular.

On the monitor, I agree with penguin there's not really a reason to get a 240hz display (if you find a great deal ne then go ahead but dont budget your build for a 240hz monitor) the refresh rates you want to go for are 120hz, 144hx and possible a 165hz (i only included the 165hz cause there is some nice monitors in that range, but again don't focus on getting that refresh rate) something thats probably going to be more noticeable is pixel response time, you want to get a monitor with 1-4ms response time (this is allot to do with ghosting)
If you have the desk space, those ultra wide's are incredibly immersive (and often come with in built systems to switch the display multiple virtual monitors) 

Back on the CPU, there's a clear reason AMD has taken over the consumer market, these Ryzen products are the best things to come to computers since AMD announced the first dual core, Intel is not in trouble per say because there business scope is more than just desktop/server processors, but last year ryzen 2000 series outsold intel, and this year will be the same and AMD deserves this because they innovated where intel said "nobody needs that" time and time again

Case fans, most cases ship with 1-3 fans depending on the manufacturer and case tier, normally a fan on exhaust and an intake fan, but dont forget AIO's (and air coolers) come with there own fans as well, you shouldn't need to worry about fans out the gate, and you can always buy a cheep pack of fans (they dont have to branded like corsair or noctua, but the cheep fans understandably don't normally last as long)
Cooler 
even a decent air cooler (not even a high end air cooler) could give you some overclocking head room on ryzen chips, but I would still recommend a 240 or 280mm AIO because even your idle temps will be a good 10 degrees cooler, and radiators are just better to reduce heat stack on long loads 
This is again something most don't look into, and these figures are not accurate and just used for descriptive purposes, say you load Tomb raider and as you start playing, your air cooler says 65*, after 1 hour that air cooler can "creep" in temperature to 75*+ (normally not that bad) AIO's however have less creep because of how they work, you will see that temperature difference between the input and output of the radiator, but 10 mins playing compared to 1 hour an AIO will not increase in avg temp by as much as and air cooler. The bigger cooling solution you have the less creep it should see. It's why water cooling will always be applicable because your spreading that heat dissipation more and more, so there is less chance for your heat to stack up (that the actual heat loss coolers are designed for) because even before you actively cool something, the amount of area that heat can fill means it takes much longer for the avg to increase, its like getting a bucket of tap water, and adding boiling water till the buckets hot compared to doing the same in a bath tub, takes allot more heat or allot longer for that water to increase in temp.

[traha9]

@brob @HumdrumPenguin @A. Cole I am still confused on MI or what storage types to pair together or if I need anything in addition to the lower Gen Sabrent Rocket or what would be the “best choice” from NZXT Bld’s options. But, I think I’ve probably exhausted your tolerance at this point (if not feel free to respond lol). I am still curious on your thoughts ab 470x vs. the “$200 undervalued 570x” boards...  Again, thank you all who contributed to this thread. I couldn’t have made the jump to PC without the help, of what I’m finding out to be, a very cool community. 

 

Cheers. 

Edited August 28, 2019 by traha9

[A. Cole]

@traha9 you show enthusiasm in a topic I enjoy discussing, so plenty glad to help.
I think at this point, you might not know enough to get a perfect build with no bottle necks or faults (which I don't think anyone really does know the perfect build) but I think you should know enough now that you don't accidently make a bad choice. No matter what you choose at this point I think you will love it and enjoy it, and we can never 100% future proof something because if you can then those IT companies development teams aren't doing there job right.
Since your new to all this, things like StoreMI and overclocking can always be played with at a later date, and I'm glad you feel like you've learnt from us all. 
I'm quite new to the forum (been watching linus since NCIX days) but everyone on here seems very nice and jumps at the opportunity to help, I didn't need to join this forum but im glad I did

oh as the last foot note, I haven't really looked into CyberpowerPC in a long while, if there still going it means there not trash, just one itty bitty thing. The link I clicked on was fine specwise but watch out for "flashy" cases because some of the nicest looking cases have the worst airflow (corsairs crystal line up for example) which is why I've always like NZXT, very few of there cases suffer from suffocation.

but keep us update if you do go for a system (there's a forum for that somewhere) and enjoy joining the PC master race

[HumdrumPenguin]

@A. Cole What I said about high temps on the new AMD cards was based on several YouTube videos and comments from people that owned the card and were experiencing speed throttle out of the box. The 2070 SUPER is still the superior card between it and the 5700 XT, based on benchmarks and temps. It is pricier though, but I wouldn't care for $100 bucks on a $2000 build, and neither should others (most likely).

 

@traha9 As I previously commented, I believe in buying the latest generation across all your setup. 470x probably won't give you the performance a 570x could give on Ryzen 3000. It will also not be compatible to PCIe Gen 4. I personally like pairing motherboard and graphics card from the same brand because I like having a similar look among what's inside my rig. On a side note, don't worry about a few "mistakes" here and there. If you really enjoying the process, you'll start getting new stuff every now and then. Whatever you get at your budget will bring you really good performance. The only thing I'd say to be careful with is what monitor you choose. In the end, everything you see will come from there, so it wouldn't matter having a balls to the walls pc if everything you see is on a 1080p screen at 60hz.

[traha9]

59 minutes ago, HumdrumPenguin said:

@A. Cole What I said about high temps on the new AMD cards was based on several YouTube videos and comments from people that owned the card and were experiencing speed throttle out of the box. The 2070 SUPER is still the superior card between it and the 5700 XT, based on benchmarks and temps. It is pricier though, but I wouldn't care for $100 bucks on a $2000 build, and neither should others (most likely).

 

@traha9 As I previously commented, I believe in buying the latest generation across all your setup. 470x probably won't give you the performance a 570x could give on Ryzen 3000. It will also not be compatible to PCIe Gen 4. I personally like pairing motherboard and graphics card from the same brand because I like having a similar look among what's inside my rig. On a side note, don't worry about a few "mistakes" here and there. If you really enjoying the process, you'll start getting new stuff every now and then. Whatever you get at your budget will bring you really good performance. The only thing I'd say to be careful with is what monitor you choose. In the end, everything you see will come from there, so it wouldn't matter having a balls to the walls pc if everything you see is on a 1080p screen at 60hz.

@HumdrumPenguin 100% getting a highly reviewed budget 144hz 1440p IPS Monitor. I am so excited to experience frames that aren't 30 or 60!!

 

What's your take on an optimal "storage" set up in the Summer of 2019? (A little background I found a m.2 NVME 1 TB Sabrent storage with sequential read/writes of ~ 3k for like $100. I thought it was a steal and then I found a video to support that notion from "Tech Deals" that benchmarked it against the Samsung 970 Pro and it was competing. I wasn't sure if that drive alone would be enough. Secondly, if I did want to supplement what would you recommend (storage type, etc)? And lastly, NZT Bld only has 3 options -- from those 3, what mixture of storage types/amts would you recommend?) Or maybe I just install the Sabrent myself and supplement it with something from the available options through BLD — that’s a viable option, right?