Ready to buy, but would like a second opinion

[Rekusha89]

Hello all, new to the forum and haven't built a PC since the gtx 770 cards dropped, and I am ready to upgrade. I plan on selling my old PC at a bargain price to a friend sans my SSD with my windows and my HDD.

 

First things first, here is a link to a PC part picker build I've tried my best to optimize.

 

 

1. Budget and Location

My budget hovers around $1500 USD, I'm not married to the price though and am willing to go up to ~$1700.

 

2. Aim

This system will be used entirely for gaming. More specifically, currrent FPS games (CoD:MW, Cyberpunk) and current action/adventure games (Witcher 3, new Resident Evil remakes, Remnant from the Ashes)

 

3. Monitors

I will be using 1 main monitor 1080p 144hz (ASUS VG248Q) and a secondary monitor at 900p. I plan on upgrading monitors next but thats aside from this current PC budget.

 

4. Peripherals

I have all the peripherals I need, but might nab a Windows key off of ebay for cheap or something.

 

5. Why Upgrade?

I finally have the money available to do so and I am sick of my current build as it stands, and I think I could really use a new computer to enjoy my games on my nice-ish monitor.

 

Summary: I am ready to pull the trigger on a build but I haven't built in 6 or so years and I haven't kept up with the status quo in terms of parts and such, so I am a little behind on the knowledge. I am all ears for any fixes or recommendations. Also, let me know if I should post this during the day next time to get more attention or if there is a sufficient amount of lurkers at night.

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

3 minutes ago, Rekusha89 said:

I plan on selling my old PC at a bargain price to a friend sans my SSD with my windows and my HDD.

 

First things first, here is a link to a PC part picker build I've tried my best to optimize.

you will need a ssd

[DailyProcrastinator]

Better budget allocation goes a long way:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor	$199.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler	$36.99 @ Amazon
Thermal Compound	Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste	$4.95 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard	$113.98 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$79.99 @ Newegg
Storage	ADATA SU760 512 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$51.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$84.49 @ Amazon
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card	$499.99 @ SuperBiiz
Case	Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case	$99.98 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$99.99 @ Amazon
Case Fan	Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fan	$21.95 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1294.29
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-15 23:40 EST-0500

 

X570 is unnecessary, $10 more for the 3600x is worth it, get a 2070 Super, Noctua air cooler is overkill, and a better PSU is worth the money spent. 

[Energycore]

I'd buy this for a PSU instead.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/bqVD4D/corsair-rmx-2018-550w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-cp-9020177-na

 

Other than that, ditch the Hard Drive, or keep it for mass storage and definitely add a 1TB SSD. You will never want to use a hard drive again.

 

You don't need special thermal compound. Only reviewers and professional overclockers benefit from it, if you want higher cooling performance instead invest that money into a stronger cooler like say, a Dark Rock 4 or a D15S

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/FRYLrH/be-quiet-dark-rock-4-cpu-cooler-bk021

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/xCL7YJ/noctua-cpu-cooler-nhd15s

 

All in all, this is where I'd end up.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($189.99 @ Best Buy)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler  ($74.69 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI X570-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($159.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card  ($523.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case  ($99.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fan  ($21.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $1350.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-15 23:43 EST-0500

 

I'd also personally switch the X570 board to a B450 one, the features of X570 over the cheaper option are not gaming oriented.

[Bombastinator]

The 3xxx series is famous for barely overclocking at all.  Maybe turn that 3600 into a 3600x for $10 more and ditching the noctua cooler which saves you $50.  Then put that into an SSD.

[Rekusha89]

Thanks for all the replies so far, I'll try to reply to you guys here soon enough, but for now I'll just add that Im sorry, I suppose I wasn't clear in my post but I do have an SSD already, its just the EVO 840 or whatever 256g one, and then some standard 1TB hard drive. I got the 3tb hard drive as a bigger main drive (Windows still on SSD ofc) because I bought that first hard drive ages ago. Although after seeing those 1tb SSD drives I am definitely compelled to check them out. Anyway, I will reply soon enough to you guys in particular.

Edited December 16, 2019 by Rekusha89

[Rekusha89]

21 minutes ago, JM21 said:

Better budget allocation goes a long way:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor	$199.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler	$36.99 @ Amazon
Thermal Compound	Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste	$4.95 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard	$113.98 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$79.99 @ Newegg
Storage	ADATA SU760 512 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$51.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$84.49 @ Amazon
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card	$499.99 @ SuperBiiz
Case	Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case	$99.98 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$99.99 @ Amazon
Case Fan	Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fan	$21.95 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1294.29
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-15 23:40 EST-0500

 

X570 is unnecessary, $10 more for the 3600x is worth it, get a 2070 Super, Noctua air cooler is overkill, and a better PSU is worth the money spent. 

I was thinking the x570 would be unnecessary as well, but I was worried that my BIOS would be all messed up had I gone for a b450 board due to the chipset difference or some such that I read was going on. Maybe that issue resolved itself and I hadn't heard yet.

Thanks for the all the info! I also have a Samsung EVO 256g SSD already so I might omit the 512g one. Although the 1TB SSD was looking enticing so I think I would do better to drop the 3TB HDD and keep both SSD's and add another soon after. Overall I am glad to see that I got the hang of it my first go around, and I really appreciate your help, thanks a bunch!

Edited December 16, 2019 by Rekusha89

[DailyProcrastinator]

10 minutes ago, Rekusha89 said:

I was thinking the x570 would be unnecessary as well, but I was worried that my BIOS would be all messed up had I gone for a b450 board due to the chipset difference or some such that I read was going on. Maybe that issue resolved itself and I hadn't heard yet.

Thanks for the all the info! I also have a Samsung EVO 256g SSD already so I might omit the 512g one. Although the 1TB SSD was looking enticing so I think I would do better to drop the 3TB HDD and keep both SSD's and add another soon after. Overall I am glad to see that I got the hang of it my first go around, and I really appreciate your help, thanks a bunch!

Buy your B450 board from a local retailer and ask them to flash the Bios, most places do it for free. You won't have issues otherwise, the sockets are the same. I used an R7 1700 on my X470 motherboard, and I am now using my R7 3800x on the same motherboard with no issues. 

 

Yeah SSD pricing has come down a lot, my first 128GB SSD was like $250+, now you can get 1Tb for under $100 USD.

[Rekusha89]

21 minutes ago, Energycore said:

I'd buy this for a PSU instead.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/bqVD4D/corsair-rmx-2018-550w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-cp-9020177-na

 

Other than that, ditch the Hard Drive, or keep it for mass storage and definitely add a 1TB SSD. You will never want to use a hard drive again.

 

You don't need special thermal compound. Only reviewers and professional overclockers benefit from it, if you want higher cooling performance instead invest that money into a stronger cooler like say, a Dark Rock 4 or a D15S

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/FRYLrH/be-quiet-dark-rock-4-cpu-cooler-bk021

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/xCL7YJ/noctua-cpu-cooler-nhd15s

 

All in all, this is where I'd end up.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($189.99 @ Best Buy)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler  ($74.69 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI X570-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($159.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB XC GAMING Video Card  ($523.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case  ($99.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fan  ($21.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $1350.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-15 23:43 EST-0500

 

I'd also personally switch the X570 board to a B450 one, the features of X570 over the cheaper option are not gaming oriented.

Yeah the gold PSU looks like a much nicer buy than the one I selected. I really like your idea of keeping the 3TB hard drive and supplementing with a 1TB SSD. I do have a 256g one atm but Im quite frankly sold on the 1TB SSD.

Thanks for the info on the thermal paste, I always thought it was just something that you did to help keep your temps down.

I was going to get a B450 but I kept reading they were having BIOS troubles that you could solve if you had a ZEN 2 chip but I don't so I wasn't quite sure if I could flash it and update it to get it all working. In the event that I can, or can otherwise get it to work just as fine, I will certainly switch to the B450 boards.

I'm glad that I'm not super out of touch with whats in at the moment so I've got that going for me at least. Thanks for all your help, super appreciated.

[Rekusha89]

13 minutes ago, JM21 said:

Buy your B450 board from a local retailer and ask them to flash the Bios, most places do it for free. You won't have issues otherwise, the sockets are the same. I used an R7 1700 on my X470 motherboard, and I am now using my R7 3800x on the same motherboard with no issues. 

 

Yeah SSD pricing has come down a lot, my first 128GB SSD was like $250+, now you can get 1Tb for under $100 USD.

Good idea on the retailer part. Unfortunately the closest place that would sell something like that is about 45 minutes out and its a best buy which is a bummer but if they sell a b450 board then I will definitely make the drive. Otherwise my last question for now is: Would you consider this a decent build? As in the parts all make sense and and nothing is an outlier in price/performance?

[Energycore]

Just now, Rekusha89 said:

I was going to get a B450 but I kept reading they were having BIOS troubles that you could solve if you had a ZEN 2 chip but I don't so I wasn't quite sure if I could flash it and update it to get it all working. In the event that I can, or can otherwise get it to work just as fine, I will certainly switch to the B450 boards.

The B450 chipset came out with the second generation (Zen+) and so third generation CPUs needed a BIOS Update to run. It's been many months though, and almost all B450 boards should come with support out of the box. If you get unlucky and find one that doesn't, it's a relatively easy process to update the BIOS if you have a USB drive.

 

Depending on the manufacturer, you will find a flash BIOS button on the motherboard, or on the back IO (where the USB ports are). The instruction manual should have details on the specific mobo, but generally what you do is download the new BIOS into a USB drive, connect it, then press the button.

 

If you want to play it super super safe, go ahead and grab an X570, but I have yet to hear of someone on the forums who wasn't able to update their BIOS, if they even have to.

[DailyProcrastinator]

Just now, Rekusha89 said:

Good idea on the retailer part. Unfortunately the closest place that would sell something like that is about 45 minutes out and its a best buy which is a bummer but if they sell a b450 board then I will definitely make the drive. Otherwise my last question for now is: Would you consider this a decent build? As in the parts all make sense and and nothing is an outlier in price/performance?

In that case maybe just buy from a e-retailer like newegg, contact customer service prior and ask if the board in question are flashed to allow use with the newest 3rd gen Ryzen CPU's.

You can always flash the bios yourself, it is not the hard. 

 

And yes, very solid build. I know it is technically considered mid-tier to lower upper-tier, but compared to the stuff I was using up until last year I would consider it high end performance. You have a 6-core 12 thread CPU and a high end GPU. I used an i7-6700k and a 980 Ti for nearly 4 years, your system is going to be a lot more powerful.

[boggy77]

made some tweaks to your build.

what ssd do you currently have?

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor	$199.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI B450 Gaming Plus MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.99 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Neo 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$99.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$84.49 @ Amazon
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$499.99 @ Newegg
Case	Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case	$99.98 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$99.72 @ Amazon
Case Fan	ARCTIC F12 PWM PST - Value Pack 53 CFM 120 mm Fans	$26.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1231.14
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$1211.14
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-16 05:12 EST-0500

 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Rekusha89 said:

I was thinking the x570 would be unnecessary as well, but I was worried that my BIOS would be all messed up had I gone for a b450 board due to the chipset difference or some such that I read was going on. Maybe that issue resolved itself and I hadn't heard yet.

Thanks for the all the info! I also have a Samsung EVO 256g SSD already so I might omit the 512g one. Although the 1TB SSD was looking enticing so I think I would do better to drop the 3TB HDD and keep both SSD's and add another soon after. Overall I am glad to see that I got the hang of it my first go around, and I really appreciate your help, thanks a bunch!

Avoid that Gigabyte B450 board as the VRM is not that great. You would be better going with an MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX as that works out of the box with the 3000 series.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/jcYQzy/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-tomahawk-max

[Herman Mcpootis]

7 hours ago, Energycore said:

Motherboard: MSI X570-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($159.99 @ SuperBiiz)

the MSI X570 boards below the unify/ace all have rubbish VRM temps, an X570-P would be much better here. Or just get a B450M/AC or MSI B450 MAX board, both of these have zen 2 support out of the box.

[Herman Mcpootis]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($189.99 @ Best Buy) 
CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 5 Rev. B 51.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($48.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: GeIL SUPER LUCE RGB SYNC 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($55.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Seagate Constellation CS 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($81.37 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card  ($499.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Corsair SPEC-DELTA RGB ATX Mid Tower Case  ($79.99 @ Best Buy) 
Power Supply: Phanteks AMP 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1136.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-16 07:58 EST-0500

[Rekusha89]

15 hours ago, boggy77 said:

made some tweaks to your build.

what ssd do you currently have?

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor	$199.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI B450 Gaming Plus MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.99 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Neo 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$99.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Seagate Barracuda 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$84.49 @ Amazon
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB XC ULTRA GAMING Video Card	$499.99 @ Newegg
Case	Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case	$99.98 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$99.72 @ Amazon
Case Fan	ARCTIC F12 PWM PST - Value Pack 53 CFM 120 mm Fans	$26.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1231.14
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$1211.14
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-16 05:12 EST-0500

 

I have the Samsung 840 EVO 250g atm with my windows and a couple games on it. I will check this out and compare, thank you!

[Rekusha89]

13 hours ago, lee32uk said:

Avoid that Gigabyte B450 board as the VRM is not that great. You would be better going with an MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX as that works out of the box with the 3000 series.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/jcYQzy/msi-b450-tomahawk-max-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-tomahawk-max

Okay, awesome thanks for the info, I will see about swapping that out before I pull the trigger.