I'm about to buy the parts for my first gaming PC. Any tips or suggestions?

[ExoStealth]

I've been editing this build for about 6 months now, and I think I'm finally ready to buy. Keep in mind I live in Australia so everything costs twice as much.

I'm studying computer science at uni, so its mainly built for productivity, which I've found that the new AMD generation is good for. As well as this, I'll be doing a bit of game development using unreal, so I need to work with rendering, applying shaders and 3D modelling. And of course I'll be doing some gaming on the side. I'm hoping to get at least 60fps, preferably something like 80 or higher at 1080p. I already have a 144Hz monitor so I won't be bottlenecking. I'm not intending on adding any additional or higher res monitors for the time being.

 

This build in AUS is currently around $2000 (including some cheap peripherals - mouse and keyboard - that I haven't listed here because I don't care too much about them)

 

What do you guys think? Any tips or changes you think I should make? Is there any obvious bottlenecking issues here?

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7

Motherboard: ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4***

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB DDR4-3000

Main Storage: WD Blue 500GB M.2-2280 SSD

Additional Storage: WD Caviar Blue 1TB 7200RPM HDD

GPU: Zotac RTX 2060

Power Supply: Corsair CXM 550W 80+ Bronze

Case: Fractal Meshify C ATX

Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND

Fans: Deepcool RF 120 3 in 1 (120mm)

 

***I don't have an old CPU so I'm not able to update the BIOS of a motherboard. This means I need an X570 chipset so no updating is needed. I know there are some motherboards that can update the BIOS through a flash drive, but all of those are more expensive than this one.

 

Also I know the case is too expensive but I'm trying to get a black and white theme and aesthetics are everything lmao

 

[Nocte]

I would buy faster RAM, at least 3200 (especially considering you are going to run Zen 2). It's not night and day difference, but if the price difference is less than 20 AUD, I would get 2x8GB 3200.

 

I would probably get something like this, which way cheaper than 2000 AUD. You could get a 2080 or get a better motherboard to reach 2000 AUD if you want to use your whole budget.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$299.00 @ Shopping Express
Motherboard	ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$248.00 @ Shopping Express
Memory	G.Skill Flare X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$108.90 @ Newegg Australia
Storage	Intel 600p Series 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$79.00 @ Amazon Australia
Storage	Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$55.00 @ Umart
Video Card	Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB PULSE Video Card	$682.00 @ Newegg Australia
Case	Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case	$146.33 @ Amazon Australia
Power Supply	Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$118.00 @ Austin Computers
Wireless Network Adapter	TP-Link TL-WN881ND PCIe x1 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter	$16.50 @ Shopping Express
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1752.73
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-25 09:07 AEDT+1100

 

 

[RobFRaschke]

Several B450 boards are coming with updated BIOS pre-installed, like the MSI boards with MAX as a suffix, and several others can be updated without a CPU even being installed, so you can save some real money there to get faster RAM. 3600 is absolutely the sweet spot and not that expensive, 3800mhz is doable with a little infinity fabric overclocking and they love it, but not as much as they love low latency, so get a CAS16 kit.

 

Hell, I've got a little time, I'll be back in a little while with a PcPP list.

[RobFRaschke]

Squeaked it in under $2000. Pretty balanced and fast build, and got a keyboard and mouse in on it.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$499.00 @ Shopping Express
Motherboard	MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$177.90 @ Device Deal
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$141.90 @ Newegg Australia
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$154.00 @ Amazon Australia
Video Card	Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB PULSE Video Card	$682.00 @ Newegg Australia
Case	Silverstone RL06 ATX Mid Tower Case	$109.00 @ JW Computers
Power Supply	Silverstone Essential 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$109.00 @ JW Computers
Keyboard	Velocifire TKL02 Wired Standard Keyboard	$55.27 @ Amazon Australia
Mouse	Corsair HARPOON RGB PRO Wired Optical Mouse	$53.90 @ Newegg Australia
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1981.97
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-25 09:57 AEDT+1100

 

[ExoStealth]

49 minutes ago, Nocte said:

I would buy faster RAM, at least 3200 (especially considering you are going to run Zen 2). It's not night and day difference, but if the price difference is less than 20 AUD, I would get 2x8GB 3200.

 

I would probably get something like this, which way cheaper than 2000 AUD. You could get a 2080 or get a better motherboard to reach 2000 AUD if you want to use your whole budget.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$299.00 @ Shopping Express
Motherboard	ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$248.00 @ Shopping Express
Memory	G.Skill Flare X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$108.90 @ Newegg Australia
Storage	Intel 600p Series 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$79.00 @ Amazon Australia
Storage	Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$55.00 @ Umart
Video Card	Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB PULSE Video Card	$682.00 @ Newegg Australia
Case	Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case	$146.33 @ Amazon Australia
Power Supply	Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$118.00 @ Austin Computers
Wireless Network Adapter	TP-Link TL-WN881ND PCIe x1 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter	$16.50 @ Shopping Express
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1752.73
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-25 09:07 AEDT+1100

 

 

The only thing is I forgot to include windows 10, which is an extra $150, which brings it up a lot. But I will consider that cheaper SSD. I also forgot to mention that I am considering overclocking so I had the CPU cooler fan included for that. Do you think the AMD stock cooler is good enough?

[ExoStealth]

37 minutes ago, RobFRaschke said:

Several B450 boards are coming with updated BIOS pre-installed, like the MSI boards with MAX as a suffix, and several others can be updated without a CPU even being installed, so you can save some real money there to get faster RAM. 3600 is absolutely the sweet spot and not that expensive, 3800mhz is doable with a little infinity fabric overclocking and they love it, but not as much as they love low latency, so get a CAS16 kit.

 

Hell, I've got a little time, I'll be back in a little while with a PcPP list.

As I said in another comment, I forgot to mention that I am considering overclocking, so I'd rather get an X chipset motheboard. And I have looked at those other boards that don't need a CPU to update the BIOS, but most of them are more expensive than this X570 motherboard, such as the ASUS ROG Crosshair series or the MSI Gaming M7. But if you know one that it is cheaper then I'm definitely interested. And thanks, appreciate it!

[ExoStealth]

6 minutes ago, RobFRaschke said:

Squeaked it in under $2000. Pretty balanced and fast build, and got a keyboard and mouse in on it.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$499.00 @ Shopping Express
Motherboard	MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$177.90 @ Device Deal
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$141.90 @ Newegg Australia
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$154.00 @ Amazon Australia
Video Card	Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB PULSE Video Card	$682.00 @ Newegg Australia
Case	Silverstone RL06 ATX Mid Tower Case	$109.00 @ JW Computers
Power Supply	Silverstone Essential 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$109.00 @ JW Computers
Keyboard	Velocifire TKL02 Wired Standard Keyboard	$55.27 @ Amazon Australia
Mouse	Corsair HARPOON RGB PRO Wired Optical Mouse	$53.90 @ Newegg Australia
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1981.97
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-25 09:57 AEDT+1100

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this, appreciate it. I just commented on your previous reply before, my only issue is I want to overclock so the motherboard needs to be an X chipset (I explain more in the other reply). Is the AMD stock cooler good enough for overclocking?

Thanks for the reply, appreciate it, this is my first build so I'm not super experienced

[RobFRaschke]

1 minute ago, ExoStealth said:

Thanks for taking the time to do this, appreciate it. I just commented on your previous reply before, my only issue is I want to overclock so the motherboard needs to be an X chipset (I explain more in the other reply). Is the AMD stock cooler good enough for overclocking?

Thanks for the reply, appreciate it, this is my first build so I'm not super experienced

You can overclock on B450. It was only the A series you can't overclock on. The AMD stock cooler that comes with the 3700X is good enough to start, then throw a Dark Rock Pro 4 or Noctua NHD12 in a couple months when you want to push, but keep in mind Ryzen 3000 series doesn't overclock well. In single or low thread applications, you're actually better off just enabling PBO and cranking the PPT, TDC and EDC in the bios so temperature is the primary constraint.

[RobFRaschke]

7 minutes ago, ExoStealth said:

As I said in another comment, I forgot to mention that I am considering overclocking, so I'd rather get an X chipset motheboard. And I have looked at those other boards that don't need a CPU to update the BIOS, but most of them are more expensive than this X570 motherboard, such as the ASUS ROG Crosshair series or the MSI Gaming M7. But if you know one that it is cheaper then I'm definitely interested. And thanks, appreciate it!

There are a lot of X series boards that have worse VRM design than the best B450 boards, like the one I included, which was also $70 cheaper or there about. X570 boards do across the board(pun intended) have good or better VRMs, but that doesn't make it worth almost 50% more $$$.

[ExoStealth]

3 minutes ago, RobFRaschke said:

You can overclock on B450. It was only the A series you can't overclock on. The AMD stock cooler that comes with the 3700X is good enough to start, then throw a Dark Rock Pro 4 or Noctua NHD12 in a couple months when you want to push, but keep in mind Ryzen 3000 series doesn't overclock well. In single or low thread applications, you're actually better off just enabling PBO and cranking the PPT, TDC and EDC in the bios so temperature is the primary constraint.

Thanks so much for that, I didn't realise B450s could overclock, that will save me heaps of money. And yeah, I'll start off using that stock cooler, good idea. I don't understand any of those acronyms, but once I build the PC I'll start exploring how overclocking works lmao

[ExoStealth]

1 minute ago, RobFRaschke said:

There are a lot of X series boards that have worse VRM design than the best B450 boards, like the one I included, which was also $70 cheaper or there about. X570 boards do across the board(pun intended) have good or better VRMs, but that doesn't make it worth almost 50% more $$$.

sweet as, I'll have a look into that one you suggested

[RobFRaschke]

1 minute ago, ExoStealth said:

Thanks so much for that, I didn't realise B450s could overclock, that will save me heaps of money. And yeah, I'll start off using that stock cooler, good idea. I don't understand any of those acronyms, but once I build the PC I'll start exploring how overclocking works lmao

Watch the Gamers Nexus videos on Precision Boost 2, Ryzen 3000 series overclocking, and Precision Boost Overdrive. Then watch them a couple more times. I watched them each at least twice to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I've been overclocking since Socket A, and really on my Athlon XP system, including chilled water, and Ryzen 3000 is an entirely different animal than any other CPUs to date. The comparisons between Ryzen 3000 overclocking and GPU overclocking are entirely accurate.

[ExoStealth]

Just now, RobFRaschke said:

Watch the Gamers Nexus videos on Precision Boost 2, Ryzen 3000 series overclocking, and Precision Boost Overdrive. Then watch them a couple more times. I watched them each at least twice to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I've been overclocking since Socket A, and really on my Athlon XP system, including chilled water, and Ryzen 3000 is an entirely different animal than any other CPUs to date. The comparisons between Ryzen 3000 overclocking and GPU overclocking are entirely accurate.

will do, cheers. Thanks for taking the time for all of this