Finally building a PC

AFKWarrior · December 23, 2019

Hello LTT forums, long time lurker here...

I finally saved up enough money and settled down so that i can afford tower PC instead of gaming laptop.

Here´s something I came up with, i´m planning to build the computer myself using following parts and linus videos (preferably those where he´s not dropping stuff so i don´t accidentally follow)

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	€326.02 @ Amazon Deutschland
CPU Cooler	Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM 97 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	€147.90 @ Amazon Deutschland
Motherboard	Gigabyte X570 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard	€204.99 @ Amazon Deutschland
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	€75.89 @ Alternate
Storage	Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	€114.89 @ Mindfactory
Video Card	Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB AORUS Video Card	€822.94 @ Mindfactory
Case	Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case	€93.02 @ Amazon Deutschland
Power Supply	Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	€106.89 @ Alternate
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	€111.11 @ Mindfactory
Monitor	Alienware AW2518HF 24.5" 1920x1080 240 Hz Monitor	€365.99 @ Alternate
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	€2369.64
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-23 09:42 CET+0100

What I plan to do with this computer:

1. Gaming AAA titles at 1080p 144Hz (see my monitor, AW2518HF). Would love to crack up details and not care about thermals for once (as opposed to gaming on laptops...)
1.2. I might upgrade to 1440p some day in future. Maybe in a year or so?
1.3. I have triple monitor setup for my work, however I don´t use the standard 1080p 60Hz when gaming, i just use the "main" monitor. I suppose the GPU will have no biggie handling triple monitor.

2. As my job requires me to crunch databases, i figured 3700x would be better then i7 9700 to speed up modelling and data wrangling, cause I can utilise multiple threads when coding.

Here´s the catch:

I´d like to say money is not an option, but you know everybody wants to save some. While i´m trying to build me a decent future-proof machine (keeping upgrading of HW in mind), i´m not really trying to go all out.

So the question stands: Should i get 2080s over 2070s? Is the performance worth the money? The difference can be up to 300€ depending on the manufacturer. I´ve read some articles but can´t make my mind on my own.

Thank you very much for any of your insights!

My current machine is ASUS GL503VS; i7 7700HQ, GTX 1070 mobile, 16GB of RAM. So... i guess this would be an upgrade.

Edited December 23, 2019 by AFKWarrior
Adding my former system for comparison.

boggy77 · December 23, 2019

Firstly, you can save some money by getting a decent aircooler instead of the aik. There is a tier list on the forum for aircoolers and there are a few in tier 3 and 4 that are around $60-70.

Secondly, there are much fasted ssds. The 660p slows down noticeably when close to full capacity, so I'd advise getting something else. A corsair 510, hp 920/950, team group 34, sabrent rocket, inland premium, silicon power a80.

Unless you're playing competitively and making money out of it, 240hz won't really improve your gaming experience vs 144hz.

The 2070super is good in 1440p 60fps for Aaa titles and 1440p 144fps in esports. Pairing a 2080s with a 1080p monitor doesn't make sense.

You can get windows licences for very cheap on keys websites.

AFKWarrior · December 23, 2019

30 minutes ago, boggy77 said:

Firstly, you can save some money by getting a decent aircooler instead of the aik. There is a tier list on the forum for aircoolers and there are a few in tier 3 and 4 that are around $60-70.

Secondly, there are much fasted ssds. The 660p slows down noticeably when close to full capacity, so I'd advise getting something else. A corsair 510, hp 920/950, team group 34, sabrent rocket, inland premium, silicon power a80.

Unless you're playing competitively and making money out of it, 240hz won't really improve your gaming experience vs 144hz.

The 2070super is good in 1440p 60fps for Aaa titles and 1440p 144fps in esports. Pairing a 2080s with a 1080p monitor doesn't make sense.

You can get windows licences for very cheap on keys websites.

Thank you for your advice boggy!

I owe a deeper explanation of my setup stage and some parts that I´ve picked.

So - the AIO cooler is cause of iCUE case, i own basically full corsair peripherals (pic below, not recent, missing one monitor atm and i´m home for holidays...) Anyway, I want the computer to play nicely with them.
As for the monitor, I bought the Alienware long time ago (idk, year, year and half back?) for a good price so i figured out why the heck not 240hz, got it on nice discount... But I mostly just run 144Hz cause my laptop can´t pump the frames (thermal constrains).

I´ll switch out the SDD, thanks for the heads up! And probably consider going 2070s over 2080s, might save me some money I can use for something else - cause I don´t play on competitive level. It´s just my weekend hobby.
Also, I might just replace the 2070s later for its next replacement card in future? Idk if this is wise as opposed to getting the 2080s and keeping it there hmm...

boggy77 · December 23, 2019

You can still get the corsair case and a nice black air cooler that won't change the look. But it's up to you.

In terms of gpu, for me makes more financial sense to upgrade more frequently, as you pay less but more often to always have the latest generation.

The upcoming 3070 is likely to be on par with the 2080ti, for the price of the 2070. So for me it makes sense to get the 2070s now and if you feel the need, upgrade to the 3000 series in a year or so.