Black Friday Upgrade

[LeoBornLion]

Hi,

 

I have been eyeing an upgrade for a work/home PC I built in 2014. Here is what I was thinking:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$309.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard	$119.99 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Royal 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$179.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Intel 660p Series 2.048 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$204.99 @ B&H
Video Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card	$839.90 @ Amazon
Case	DIYPC Vanguard RGB ATX Mid Tower Case	$78.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair Enthusiast 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Monitor	Acer ED323QUR Abidpx 31.5" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor	$359.59 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$2093.44
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-13 01:51 EST-0500

 

In the above build, I am carrying over the GPU, Case, PSU and the monitor from my existing build. A few details about my current build are: I7-4770k and Z87 Pro Mobo with DDR3 RAM. Upgraded the case and GPU on it, around an year ago.

 

I had a few questions around the above build and wanted to get the communities expertise:

1) What are your thoughts around the above build?

2) I am in no need for PCIE gen 4 as of today and thus am not looking at x570 MoBos. But their prices are dropping and seem like a good bargain as they are getting in the price range as B450. What do you think/suggestions?

3) Is it worth upgrading my 1080 to RTX 2070 (refurb/used) as they seem to be within 100$ of price difference?

4) I like the aesthetics of the Trident Royal RAM but am hesitant about the timings and the 32GB kit being CAS19. What does the community think?

5) I would also like to dip into custom water cooling loop. I like the resilience water reservoir but think its over priced. What parts do you recommend for water cooling loop? Should I consider Aliexpress for the same?

6) Would a full tower be better for custom water cooling  loop?

 

The purpose of the build is going to be:

1) I am a software developer by profession and use it for my personal projects

2) Gaming: RDR2 / Total War Series / Ready for CyberPunk

 

Approximate budget is 1000$ inclusive of custom water cooling.

 

Thanks a lot in anticipation

Cheers

Edited November 13, 2019 by LeoBornLion
Adding one more question

[Jurrunio]

MSI's B450 boards are the best B450 boards, say the Tomahawk. Has BIOS flashing capability which the B450-F doesnt and needs older CPU to handle the BIOS update. Inferior hardware on the Asus board as well

 

10 minutes ago, LeoBornLion said:

3) Is it worth upgrading my 1080 to RTX 2070 (refurb/used) as they seem to be within 100$ of price difference?

Does 10% gain sound like a lot? I wont swap cards, more of a sidegrade.

 

11 minutes ago, LeoBornLion said:

4) I like the aesthetics of the Trident Royal RAM but am hesitant about the timings and the 32GB kit being CAS19. What does the community think?

Royal is not for the low budget peasants If you wont manually retune the timings, get lower frequency kits instead.

[Meganter]

12 minutes ago, LeoBornLion said:

1) What are your thoughts around the above build?

2) I am in no need for PCIE gen 4 as of today and thus am not looking at x570 MoBos. But their prices are dropping and seem like a good bargain as they are getting in the price range as B450. What do you think/suggestions?

3) Is it worth upgrading my 1080 to RTX 2070 (refurb/used) as they seem to be within 100$ of price difference?

4) I like the aesthetics of the Trident Royal RAM but am hesitant about the timings and the 32GB kit being CAS19. What does the community think?

5) I would also like to dip into custom water cooling loop. I like the resilience water reservoir but think its over priced. What parts do you recommend for water cooling loop? Should I consider Aliexpress for the same?

6) Would a full tower be better for custom water cooling  loop?

1) and 2) Get a MSI B450 MAX instead (Tomahawk mentionned above).

3) Not really.

4) You can get 3600 cl18 for 50$ less.

5) I don't know about the prices on Aliexpress, but I'm pretty sure you can't do a custom loop for less than 200$.

6) Not necessarily, a good air flow is more important.

[LeoBornLion]

Thanks for the info people. Incorporating feedback.

1. Updated the motherboard to use the B450 Tomahawk Max

2. Deciding on not changing my graphics card for now

3. If I were to spend some time and effort into tuning timings for the RAM here, do you think it will work out? Or should I go for a faster RAM altogether? Secondly, are the parts in the build conducive to overclocking RAM.

4. Realized that my storage was not as fast so upgrading that as well (do let me know if you think that's a mistake)

Here is the updated list:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	$309.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$114.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Royal 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$179.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$198.48 @ Amazon
Video Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8 GB FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card	$839.90 @ Amazon
Case	DIYPC Vanguard RGB ATX Mid Tower Case	$78.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair Enthusiast 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Monitor	Acer ED323QUR Abidpx 31.5" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor	$359.59 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$2081.93
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-13 12:33 EST-0500

Thanks again

[WheezerX]

I wouldn't spend the $840 on a 1080, if you do decide to upgrade the graphics card, just use that money towards one of the RTX cards. 

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-2080-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1080/4026vs3603

You'd be paying almost $840 when you could get the RTX 2080 for much cheaper

https://www.newegg.com/msi-geforce-rtx-2080-rtx-2080-ventus-8g-oc/p/N82E16814137350

[LeoBornLion]

48 minutes ago, WheezerX said:

I wouldn't spend the $840 on a 1080, if you do decide to upgrade the graphics card, just use that money towards one of the RTX cards. 

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-2080-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1080/4026vs3603

You'd be paying almost $840 when you could get the RTX 2080 for much cheaper

https://www.newegg.com/msi-geforce-rtx-2080-rtx-2080-ventus-8g-oc/p/N82E16814137350

Hi,

 

Thanks for your input. I wanted to clarify that I have listed the GPU for completeness. I already have it. I already have the PSU and the monitor as well in my existing system.

Looking for advice on upgrading the CPU, Mobo, storage and RAM.

 

Cheers