Want Advice for Whether This Build Will Function

[LopperTopper]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/nVQ7Xv

 

The use will be wide and varied.

Budget is a moot point. I put together the list with budget already in mind.

 

(FYI, I'm not buying all those SSDs, I just hadn't decided yet which couple I'd be getting)

 

I mainly want to know:

Will this build function and function well/as expected, considering the brands and types of things I'm putting together here? Or will I have any unexpected surprises that ya'll know of, based on certain brands interacting with the others, speeds and other specs of the various things, etc., or simply products on my list that ya'll have found to be not very good?

In particular, the spec sheet and all for this specific motherboard seems to be absolute best for price - but I can't find hardly any real review of it, especially in an actual build.

Similarly, the case is old, but cheapish and it caught my eye for being a bit silly and I liked it - but of course can't find much detailed specs on inner dimensions, or see builds that may have my combo of mobo and cooler to make sure for fit (with the large case fan mounted on the left side).

 

After generally wanting to know if it will function and what, if any, issues I'll be looking at with the system in general, I wanted to know how well it will work if I choose to use it for gaming, CAD, rendering, video editing, whatever. What downsides I may have, etc.

 

I was into tech maybe 20 years ago, but have been out of the game for a looooong time, and am just looking at building a solid setup that can handle anything I might throw at it for the next years. I'd rather check with experienced folks than buy too speedily.

 

Thanks!

[Fasauceome]

The SX8200 would be the best all rounder SSD for you.

 

Consider a Bitfenix Whisper M 650 or 550 for the PSU instead.

[LopperTopper]

27 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

The SX8200 would be the best all rounder SSD for you.

 

Consider a Bitfenix Whisper M 650 or 550 for the PSU instead.

Can you give reasons to support?

From what I've seen, the 970 Evo Plus has the best speed/endurance, along with of course the Samsung name which may or may not mean anything, but of course the higher price to match.

While the GAMMIX S11 appeared to have the same speed/endurance as the SX8200 Pro, but a much lower price point and I couldn't figure out why.

 

I am not familiar with modern power supplies at all, so I basically sneaked some peaks at other Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 builds that appeared similar, saw the MWE Gold posted a few times, and went with that. Other that Wattage, plus closing my eyes and picking one, I've had trouble choosing a psu.

[Fasauceome]

3 minutes ago, LopperTopper said:

From what I've seen, the 970 Evo Plus has the best speed/endurance, along with of course the Samsung name which may or may not mean anything, but of course the higher price to match.

While the GAMMIX S11 appeared to have the same speed/endurance as the SX8200 Pro, but a much lower price point and I couldn't figure out why.

benchmarks have shown the 8200 doing pretty dang well.

Of course there's also the 660p from Intel which stacks up pretty nicely too.

3 minutes ago, LopperTopper said:

I am not familiar with modern power supplies at all, so I basically sneaked some peaks at other Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 builds that appeared similar, saw the MWE Gold posted a few times, and went with that. Other that Wattage, plus closing my eyes and picking one, I've had trouble choosing a psu.

we have a PSU tier list which may clear things up a bit, click the PSU in my signature down below to see it.

[LopperTopper]

The Intel 660p is a QLC SSD, no? I was hoping to avoid those.

[LopperTopper]

Your PSU Tier List recommends the MWE Gold for single GPU setups like mine.

 

The BitFenix Whisper is recommended for Multi-GPU setups.

 

I can read the Tier List - but I'm not seeing an actual difference in the PSUs, other than their names being written in different categories in the List. Comparably priced, both 80+ Gold, for same wattages.

 

Know what I mean? If I'm just going to use the "someone told me to use this" method for choosing anyway, without knowing why, there's not much reason to choose any particular one over another.

[Mark Kaine]

Looks like a very solid build,  I always die a little inside if someone chooses an AMD GPU tho ... are you sure you really want to deal with their driver shenanigans, then yeah,  sure, go for it... 

 

As an aside :  Does anyone know why AMD cards always have this huge,  square opening in their backplates?  Looks like there would accumulate a lot of dust easily,  looks shit, and generally doesn't make any sense to me.  Is it for cooling?  Showing off the chip or what?  

[LopperTopper]

12 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Looks like a very solid build,  I always die a little inside if someone chooses an AMD GPU tho ... are you sure you really want to deal with their driver shenanigans, then yeah,  sure, go for it... 

 

As an aside :  Does anyone know why AMD cards always have this huge,  square opening in their backplates?  Looks like there would accumulate a lot of dust easily,  looks shit, and generally doesn't make any sense to me.  Is it for cooling?  Showing off the chip or what?  

Haha, I dig it. I've been partial to AMD for years and years, call it support for the underdog, or whatever. But the newer generation of CPUs does at least make me second guess myself less when continuing to buy AMD.

 

The things I'm mainly concerned with are:

The motherboard - I know ASRock were considered cheap or even bad by many some years ago, but seem to have improved - but the available reviews or info for them is so few and far between. This mobo has the specs I want for much less than the competition, but I don't want to be shooting myself in the foot of course.

 

The RAM. From testing I've looked into, QVLs, etc., I'm settling in on G.Skill Neo 2x8 or 4x8 3200 or 3600 freq. Wanted to make sure I'm not missing something and these are likely to be good to go. I'll be honest, I haven't built a computer since DDR2 RAM was standard

 

The case. Nostalgia and price made me lean toward this case. I did look into cooling factor and function and it seems like it was actually a good case for its time, but components like GPUs, CPU coolers and such weren't the same back then and I had difficult finding enough info to verify fit on this case.

[Mark Kaine]

28 minutes ago, LopperTopper said:

Haha, I dig it. I've been partial to AMD for years and years, call it support for the underdog, or whatever. But the newer generation of CPUs does at least make me second guess myself less when continuing to buy AMD.

 

The things I'm mainly concerned with are:

The motherboard - I know ASRock were considered cheap or even bad by many some years ago, but seem to have improved - but the available reviews or info for them is so few and far between. This mobo has the specs I want for much less than the competition, but I don't want to be shooting myself in the foot of course.

 

The RAM. From testing I've looked into, QVLs, etc., I'm settling in on G.Skill Neo 2x8 or 4x8 3200 or 3600 freq. Wanted to make sure I'm not missing something and these are likely to be good to go. I'll be honest, I haven't built a computer since DDR2 RAM was standard

 

The case. Nostalgia and price made me lean toward this case. I did look into cooling factor and function and it seems like it was actually a good case for its time, but components like GPUs, CPU coolers and such weren't the same back then and I had difficult finding enough info to verify fit on this case.

Haha,  you know after I made this comment I thought "what if someone was using amd gpus for years...  they'd be used to their drivers and quirks and whatnot and it's probably OK"  

But for me.  It doesn't work. ... Several hours later it still doesn't work lol and I just don't want to deal with it anymore - and I actually used to love their drivers and UI back when they were called ATi... When everyone else was hating on them I guess lol.

 

Well anyways... I can't really give you a particular advice,  just with these motherboards there are often issues,  with compatibility,  functionality,  etc, but usually if you buy a solid brand / board it should be definitely ok and yeah, I think Asrock are actually pretty good - not different to the other brands nowadays.

 

As for case that's also highly subjective,  I have an Inwin m-atx case and I love it,  it's so sturdy!  Definitely difficult to build with though,  there's barely space, but I also love the design,  intakes in the bottom and front... But really I just think it's a really classy case with great build quality . 

(see profile pic haha ) 

 

 

[LopperTopper]

Haha yes. All my desktops and laptops had ATI proudly displayed somewhere in tiny letters hidden where nobody could see them, for years

I'm not familiar with more recent driver issues and such, but hey - it's not really a project if there's not some challenge, right?

[trevb0t]

21 hours ago, LopperTopper said:

Your PSU Tier List recommends the MWE Gold for single GPU setups like mine.

 

The BitFenix Whisper is recommended for Multi-GPU setups.

 

I can read the Tier List - but I'm not seeing an actual difference in the PSUs, other than their names being written in different categories in the List. Comparably priced, both 80+ Gold, for same wattages.

 

Know what I mean? If I'm just going to use the "someone told me to use this" method for choosing anyway, without knowing why, there's not much reason to choose any particular one over another.

The Whisper just isnt that much more expensive (if at all) from MWE Gold. MWE Gold doesn't make sense when a CX is cheaper, and BF Whisper or gold is only a little more money. Get better gear or get better price. 

 

Generally speaking the higher tier units just have better construction, and more protections in place. 

[LopperTopper]

@trevb0t

That was my question, buddy, I wasn't trying to be a jerk. I just have no idea what makes the Whisper or any other of them better, other than their names being written in a different place on that list - as opposed to a number of other lists elsewhere, some of which may place the Whisper lower, or not even on the list.

 

I'm definitely interested in a better quality, more functional component - I just want to know what makes it better.

Does the Whisper have better construction? OR more protections in place? I tried to compare it to the MWE Gold and didn't see any particular differences - or I might absolutely just be too ignorant to understand the differences I'm seeing.

[Bombastinator]

I totally feel you.  I’m more or less in the exact same position.

 

what I have discovered recently you may or may not care about:

 

most x570 mobos have fans on them.  Little proprietary ones.

 

the 3950x (brand new) apparently has decent single core clocks as well as good thread count.

 

the new consoles will be hitting as early as summer 2020. They are not unimpressively specced and some of their hardware is black box.

[LopperTopper]

@Bombastinator

Appreciate the input, bud. Yeah I saw most mobos have fans onboard, and only a few are setup for not having them.

 

The 3950x looks amazing, but I think that might just push my budget over the edge, haha.

[trevb0t]

9 hours ago, LopperTopper said:

@trevb0t

That was my question, buddy, I wasn't trying to be a jerk. I just have no idea what makes the Whisper or any other of them better, other than their names being written in a different place on that list - as opposed to a number of other lists elsewhere, some of which may place the Whisper lower, or not even on the list.

 

I'm definitely interested in a better quality, more functional component - I just want to know what makes it better.

Does the Whisper have better construction? OR more protections in place? I tried to compare it to the MWE Gold and didn't see any particular differences - or I might absolutely just be too ignorant to understand the differences I'm seeing.

I'm unsure if my answer came off as aggressive or something... It wasn't intended to be.

 

The MWE is single-railed vs the multi-railed Bitfenix unit. In really extreme terms, it basically means it's less likely to light on fire if the rail overloaded through the over-current-protection. (Unlikely, but that's what the protections all are: fail-safes for unlikely but awful events.)

 

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16817376007?Description=bitfenix whisper&cm_re=bitfenix_whisper-_-17-376-007-_-Product

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zhHRsY/cooler-master-mwe-gold-550-w-80-gold-certified-atx-power-supply-mpy-5501-acaag-us

 

So again considering that the whisper is CHEAPER than the MWE Gold, I personally consider it a no-brainer.

[LopperTopper]

2 minutes ago, trevb0t said:

I'm unsure if my answer came off as aggressive or something... It wasn't intended to be.

 

The MWE is single-railed vs the multi-railed Bitfenix unit. In really extreme terms, it basically means it's less likely to light on fire if the rail overloaded through the over-current-protection. (Unlikely, but that's what the protections all are: fail-safes for unlikely but awful events.)

 

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16817376007?Description=bitfenix whisper&cm_re=bitfenix_whisper-_-17-376-007-_-Product

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zhHRsY/cooler-master-mwe-gold-550-w-80-gold-certified-atx-power-supply-mpy-5501-acaag-us

 

So again considering that the whisper is CHEAPER than the MWE Gold, I personally consider it a no-brainer.

Ah. That I understand.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor	$499.99 @ Best Buy
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler	$79.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming X ATX AM4 Motherboard	$329.99 @ Amazon
Storage	ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$147.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$198.48 @ Amazon
Storage	ADATA XPG GAMMIX S11 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$139.99 @ Amazon
Storage	ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$289.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB NITRO+ Video Card	$449.99 @ Newegg
Case	Rosewill THOR V2 ATX Full Tower Case	$79.98 @ Amazon
Power Supply	BitFenix Whisper M 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$105.99 @ SuperBiiz
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit	$139.99 @ Other World Computing
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$2462.28
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-18 09:41 EST-0500

 

Build is updated accordingly. Thanks, bud. I wasn't trying to be aggressive in response either, it just gets frustrating when asking for info to learn something and responses consist of things like "get this instead...just because it says it's better somewhere..."

I just want to understand why I'm choosing what I'm choosing, that's all, and I appreciate you explaining. I was having difficulty understanding the difference in multi-rail and single rail designs as they were written about in my research, but I understand better now.

[trevb0t]

17 minutes ago, LopperTopper said:

Case Rosewill THOR V2 ATX Full Tower Case $79.98 @ Amazon

Interesting choice on the THOR. Do you have a particular love for the case? Is there a need for full sized ATX? (It's friggen huge and full of 5.25" slots.)

 

Do you plan to add optical and a bunch of HDDs?

[LopperTopper]

Just now, trevb0t said:

Interesting choice on the THOR. Do you have a particular love for the case? Is there a need for full sized ATX? (It's friggen huge and full of 5.25" slots.)

Nostalgia and a tendency toward the absurd, if all else is equal. I don't mind if the case has things I don't need, like the overall size or slots. All I care about is that function is satisfied where it matters, that things will fit that I *do* need to fit. After that, bring on the crazy slider activated top scale armor

[Meganter]

20 minutes ago, LopperTopper said:

 

Instead of the 970 Evo you could go with https://pcpartpicker.com/product/KzK2FT/gigabyte-aorus-nvme-gen4-1-tb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-gp-asm2ne6100tttd or https://pcpartpicker.com/product/fVYQzy/sabrent-rocket-40-1-tb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-sb-rocket-nvme4-1tb so you can justify the x570 choice with PCIe 4.

[trevb0t]

18 minutes ago, LopperTopper said:

Nostalgia and a tendency toward the absurd, if all else is equal. I don't mind if the case has things I don't need, like the overall size or slots. All I care about is that function is satisfied where it matters, that things will fit that I *do* need to fit. After that, bring on the crazy slider activated top scale armor

Absurd is the right word  the top side does look pretty cool! 

If there isn't a need for the 10 full sized expansion slots, I would recommend something with better allowance for front mounted fans. 

The reviews I've seen indicate this bad boy runs pretty loud with those massive stock fans. (So your choice of the incredibly quiet NH-D15 is unnecessary, since the case is just gonna make noise anyway.)

 

I'd personally look at either:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Y6Crxr/fractal-design-meshify-c-atx-mid-tower-case-fd-ca-mesh-c-bko-tg

or

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/QYzkcf/cooler-master-masterbox-mb511-rgb-atx-mid-tower-case-mcb-b511d-kgnn-rgb

or even

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/G766Mp/cooler-master-mastercase-h500-atx-mid-tower-case-mcm-h500-ignn-s00

if you can spend a bit more. And there's your flare for the ridiculous

 

All cases above provide expansion if you need it, either come stocked with or have room for nice quiet front intake airflow, and in the two Cooler Master cases include RGB. (The Meshify C is all black, and comes with only one intake and one exhaust, but they are nice X2-GP12 fans if you wanted to grab another intake at some point.)

 

Or if you love the Thor and don't care that it's loud, spend less on your cooler for one that's comparable in cooling, and a touch less quiet:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/YsHRsY/scythe-fuma-2-5117-cfm-cpu-cooler-scfm-2000

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/8GBrxr/scythe-mugen-5-rev-b-512-cfm-cpu-cooler-scmg-5100

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/xhvbt6/cooler-master-masterair-ma620p-tuf-gaming-edition-534-cfm-cpu-cooler-map-d6pn-afnpc-r1

 

As for the NVMe drives, it just depends what you're using them for.

The Gammix gets great reviews and I think is often overlooked, though the Sabrent Rocket is often competitively priced.

[LopperTopper]

12 minutes ago, Plouffe said:

Instead of the 970 Evo you could go with https://pcpartpicker.com/product/KzK2FT/gigabyte-aorus-nvme-gen4-1-tb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-gp-asm2ne6100tttd or https://pcpartpicker.com/product/fVYQzy/sabrent-rocket-40-1-tb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-sb-rocket-nvme4-1tb so you can justify the x570 choice with PCIe 4.

Thank you! I completely messed that up, I had totally missed PCIe version when searching NVME SSD specs.

The Corsair MP600 Force Gen4 seems to be similarly spec'd and best priced. Any issues with those known?

 

I looked up the Gammix S50, it's not listed in pcpartpicker for some reason, but they do have a gen4 offering. It's not as competetively priced, unfortunately. I'll probably stick with Corsair if no issues, or Sabrent as I have heard good things about them. The Auros ones are a bit steep.

 

@trevb0t

Oh, really? I couldn't find much information on the Thor case, but the few things I did find mentioned it being relatively quiet and maintaining surprisingly good cooling factor. I'll have to look into that again.

Those other cases are boring, bro I've been out of the computer game long enough that I don't care about full RGB and transparent sides on otherwise boring rectangle cases. Gimme that Thor for a few months, and I'll be cutting it up, adding some layered subtle backglow, and having fun with it

[Meganter]

10 minutes ago, LopperTopper said:

Thank you! I completely messed that up, I had totally missed PCIe version when searching NVME SSD specs.

The Corsair MP600 Force Gen4 seems to be similarly spec'd and best priced. Any issues with those known?

No they are good too, just forgot about it  

[LopperTopper]

I just noticed I mistyped and wrote wether in my title instead of whether. Why didn't anyone correct me?!

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, LopperTopper said:

I just noticed I mistyped and wrote wether in my title instead of whether. Why didn't anyone correct me?!

Autocorrect would have done it but it just as easily might have given you “weather”. I suspect we’ve all simply grown inured to the vagaries of phone keypads.  There’s a lot more misspelling than there used to be.

[LopperTopper]

RAM:

G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory

16-16-16-36 @ $284.99

 

or

 

G.Skill Trident Z Neo 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory

14-15-15-35 @ $239.99

?

 

More RAM is better for some things. the 2x16 set is way less expensive.

Lower timing is better. the 2x8 set is the same price as the worse timing higher latency 2x16 set.

Not sure which way to go for RAM.