New build (UK)

therealbards · November 28, 2019

Hi,

It's been about 10 years since I built my current desktop and it's getting a bit tired.

My aim for the desktop is to use it for

Productivity (coding, word, powerpoint, visio, etc)
Virtualisation (3 - 4 concurrent VMs, up to 2 cores / 4GB RAM / 50GB disk each)
Casual gaming (older games likw Portal. CS, CoD)

My location is UK and I have a budget of 1500

I've put together a list of parts on PC Part Picker:

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	£286.38 @ Aria PC
CPU Cooler	Corsair H100x 57.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	£77.48 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard	Asus ROG Strix X570-F Gaming ATX AM4 Motherboard	£223.77 @ Alza
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	£127.21 @ More Computers
Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£159.99 @ Ebuyer
Storage	Seagate FireCuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive	£74.99 @ CCL Computers
Video Card	Zotac GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB GAMING OC MINI Video Card	£375.00 @ Amazon UK
Case	Corsair Carbide Series 275R ATX Mid Tower Case	£61.97 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply	Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	£80.47 @ Scan.co.uk
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£1467.26
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-28 23:03 GMT+0000

I have two monitors, which I'm not currently looking to upgrade and I have a keyboard/mouse that I'm happy with.

The graphics card is major overkill for the amount of gaming that I do, but figured it will last me another 10 years before needing an upgrade (or dies).

If you have any suggestions of anything to change/include, it'd be much appreciated.

I'd really like to have a case with USB type-c on the front, but they've all been super expensive. I'd like a mid sized case and not something too flashy.

I'd also really like Thunderbolt 3, I'm not entirely sure how it works (i.e pci-e card, built in to the motherboard or something), I can't find info (that I understand at least) about what I'd need, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Thanks in advance.

TheBean · November 28, 2019

tb3 in a desktop is not worth it.

also, if you are going to have concurent VMs, you are going to want a much faster ssd.

therealbards · November 28, 2019

Just now, Saksham said:

tb3 in a desktop is not worth it.

also, if you are going to have concurent VMs, you are going to want a much faster ssd.

Thanks for your reply Saksham.

Please could you give more detail to why you think TB3 isn't worth it in desktops?

Also, which SSD would you recommend in place?

Thanks,

Bombastinator · November 28, 2019

Ways to save some cash:

-Ditch the AIO entirely and go with the stock fan in the box. Ryzen2 doesn’t overclock for beans. No point. You might get a 10% boost. Not really worth having.

-x570 has its points, but for most things b450 is comparably useful. B450 tomahawk MAX is quite popular. Part of it comes down to how you feel about proprietary on-motherboard fans.

-that’s about 20% more PSU than you need. More wont really hurt though. You might get a big one cheaper than a small one.

All that together might move you into a 2070S for the same money.

TheBean · November 28, 2019

because tb3 is a usb implemetation of pcie - sort of. but desktops already have pcie. unless you have a very specific use case where pcie cannot work, just use pcie.

of you are going to have 3 VMs running at all time, basically, faster is good, but latency is key. Anandtech has really good reviews where they measure latency.

from what I remember, samsung pro drives are better - i think.

Bombastinator · November 28, 2019

7 minutes ago, therealbards said:

Thanks for your reply Saksham.

Please could you give more detail to why you think TB3 isn't worth it in desktops?

Also, which SSD would you recommend in place?

Thanks,

Faster than nvme? Like raid 0 nvme? Would need x470 or 570!then.

maybe the card you picked is sata6 instead of actual nvme. They do make pcie4.0 nvme, and if you get the x570 board you can use it. They’re not a whole lot faster than 3.0 nvme though. Nvme is capable of saturating 4 lane pcie 3.0. Doesn’t come close to saturating pcie 4.0 though.