Quiet & Efficient Multipurpose Gaming-Capable PC Build

[BeaverNr1]

Dear Forum,

 

I would like to ask you for suggestions for a new PC build.

 

Currently I am running a 2013 iMac with upgraded Memory, a new SSD and Windows 10, which I am using 50% for Office (MS Office, simple CAD) / Pictures / Video (only simple editing). It is perfectly fit for this work and I like the display as well as the fact that it is virtually inaudible, arguably elegant and always stays cool.

 

However, the other 50% I am playing games: mostly RTS titles like Total War, Age of Empires DE and various other games, all of which should be not very graphics-intensive, but still the Performance even at low settings is insufficient, especially at 1440p.

 

So I am considering to build a new PC:

• I will probably be using my existing Lenovo p27u Monitor (which is 4k), even though I don’t expect all games to run at 4k.
• I expect the PC to be quiet (not necessarily complete silent) and stay cool – basically the opposite of a hair drier. I like energy efficiency.
• I want it to be sufficient for another 5-7 years just like my old iMac, so there should be some reserves included for future needs and new technologies.
• Optically I prefer a simple, well manufactured but good-looking PC case without any RGB or flashy lights - “understatement style”.

My budget is around 1000-1200 € (I live in Germany) which is around 1200 USD. I don’t mind if the final price deviates a bit from this range (lower is also fine), as long as the system is perfect for my needs.

 

Thank you in advance for your help!

Marvin

[tank234]

5 minutes ago, BeaverNr1 said:

Dear Forum,

 

I would like to ask you for suggestions for a new PC build.

 

Currently I am running a 2013 iMac with upgraded Memory, a new SSD and Windows 10, which I am using 50% for Office (MS Office, simple CAD) / Pictures / Video (only simple editing). It is perfectly fit for this work and I like the display as well as the fact that it is virtually inaudible, arguably elegant and always stays cool.

 

However, the other 50% I am playing games: mostly RTS titles like Total War, Age of Empires DE and various other games, all of which should be not very graphics-intensive, but still the Performance even at low settings is insufficient, especially at 1440p.

 

So I am considering to build a new PC:

• I will probably be using my existing Lenovo p27u Monitor (which is 4k), even though I don’t expect all games to run at 4k.
• I expect the PC to be quiet (not necessarily complete silent) and stay cool – basically the opposite of a hair drier. I like energy efficiency.
• I want it to be sufficient for another 5-7 years just like my old iMac, so there should be some reserves included for future needs and new technologies.
• Optically I prefer a simple, well manufactured but good-looking PC case without any RGB or flashy lights - “understatement style”.

My budget is around 1000-1200 € (I live in Germany) which is around 1200 USD. I don’t mind if the final price deviates a bit from this range (lower is also fine), as long as the system is perfect for my needs.

 

Thank you in advance for your help!

Marvin

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.15 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Scythe FUMA 2 51.17 CFM CPU Cooler	$100.00
Motherboard	MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$114.99 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$85.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$109.99 @ B&H
Video Card	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB Video Card	$399.99 @ Best Buy
Case	Cougar MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case	$52.97 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair CX (2017) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$83.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1122.06
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-19 09:19 EDT-0400

this is a good build 

[boggy77]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	€177.89 @ Amazon Deutschland
CPU Cooler	Scythe Mugen 5 PCGH Edition 43.03 CFM CPU Cooler	€57.89 @ Alternate
Motherboard	MSI B450M MORTAR TITANIUM Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	€116.89 @ Alternate
Memory	Patriot Viper Steel 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	€99.89 @ Alternate
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	€109.00 @ Amazon Deutschland
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB THICC III Ultra Video Card	€437.99 @ Mindfactory
Case	Thermaltake Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case	€49.98 @ Alternate
Power Supply	be quiet! Pure Power 11 CM 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	€84.89 @ Alternate
Case Fan	ARCTIC F12 PWM PST - Value Pack 53 CFM 120 mm Fans	€23.99 @ Amazon Deutschland
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	€1158.41
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-19 15:23 CEST+0200

 

[BeaverNr1]

Wow, that was fast! Thank you so far.

 

This confirms some of my ideas. I was also looking at the Ryzen 5 3600 which I think is a solid choice for a good price. The higher models don't seem to be worth it and have higher TDP.

 

You both picked the B45 Motherboard and 3600 MHz Ram. Is this the way to go or are there alternatives?

[BeaverNr1]

As for the graphics card, both options seem to be quite power hungry at roughly 200 W. All that power has to go somewhere in the end and I really dislike PC noise. Is there anything like a special version which is tuned for passive cooling during office tasks and low fan speeds during games?

 

Edit: I have a feeling that my CPU will be super quiet while my graphics card is more "normal PC volume".

[tank234]

4 minutes ago, BeaverNr1 said:

Wow, that was fast! Thank you so far.

 

This confirms some of my ideas. I was also looking at the Ryzen 5 3600 which I think is a solid choice for a good price. The higher models don't seem to be worth it and have higher TDP.

 

You both picked the B45 Motherboard and 3600 MHz Ram. Is this the way to go or are there alternatives?

yes these are the best motherboard choices and the ryzen 5 3600 works best with those choices. You can go with a new chipset like the x570 or x470 but they are much more expensive. As for the ram ryzen likes higher frequency ram and will work better with 3600 speed memory  

[BeaverNr1]

One more thing... I was giving this budget because I think it is possible to build a decent and "future-proof" PC with a roughly 1200 USD budget. Do you think that a more expensive or cheaper setup would be better suited for my needs?

[Dravinian]

There is a LTT video on the RAM, if I remember rightly, the 'Infinity Fabric' runs at 1800mhz, and 3600 dual channel RAM runs at 1800 mhz in each direction so you get a 1 to 1 ratio.

 

Now what all that really means, I don't know, but apparently it is good.

[Dravinian]

3 minutes ago, BeaverNr1 said:

One more thing... I was giving this budget because I think it is possible to build a decent and "future-proof" PC with a roughly 1200 USD budget. Do you think that a more expensive or cheaper setup would be better suited for my needs?

Well the thing is you requested a build that would be future proof for a considerable period of time, but with that budget you are not buying the best available today.

 

So you are already one step behind, and as time passes you will fall behind further.  The idea of future proofing is buying beyond what you need, so that over time to match what you need, then fall a little behind what you need, until eventually you fall too far behind and need to upgrade....hopefully after a good long time.

 

However, saying that, the type of games you are playing, if that is all you play, then you will be unlikely to fall behind for a good long time in any event, because those games don't necessarily develop as fast as FPS games that push GPUs ever further in the search for FPS and ultra high definition 4k playing on 32" widescreen displays running 240hz refresh rate.

 

So really a toss up on whether you want to just poodle along with the games you love and eventually realise that your machine is struggling or pony up the money today to get ahead of the curve and delay the inevitable for awhile longer.

[BeaverNr1]

1 minute ago, Dravinian said:

Well the thing is you requested a build that would be future proof for a considerable period of time, but with that budget you are not buying the best available today.

 

So you are already one step behind, and as time passes you will fall behind further.  The idea of future proofing is buying beyond what you need, so that over time to match what you need, then fall a little behind what you need, until eventually you fall too far behind and need to upgrade....hopefully after a good long time.

 

However, saying that, the type of games you are playing, if that is all you play, then you will be unlikely to fall behind for a good long time in any event, because those games don't necessarily develop as fast as FPS games that push GPUs ever further in the search for FPS and ultra high definition 4k playing on 32" widescreen displays running 240hz refresh rate.

 

So really a toss up on whether you want to just poodle along with the games you love and eventually realise that your machine is struggling or pony up the money today to get ahead of the curve and delay the inevitable for awhile longer.

Thank you! So basically what you are saying is that the GPU is the biggest bottleneck in the system?

 

This is fine for me. I would rather buy an up to date MB and a slightly better CPU now. I can then still replace the GPU in 4-5 years if need be and still have a solid system.

[jaslion]

18 minutes ago, BeaverNr1 said:

Thank you! So basically what you are saying is that the GPU is the biggest bottleneck in the system?

 

This is fine for me. I would rather buy an up to date MB and a slightly better CPU now. I can then still replace the GPU in 4-5 years if need be and still have a solid system.

For your games you'll be fine with this system. Of course if you get like the new battlefield or whatever in like 4 years you'll see that no it won't be really playable in 4k but as we have seen before with older cards like the 7970 it can still play games of today at 1080p low even tho it's been 8 years. It all depends on what you'll do in the future and really a gpu upgrade is about the easiest thing you can do.

[Dravinian]

I can still play Shadow of the Tomb Raider on a pair of GTX 970s that I bought 6 years ago.  It is doable.

 

I would also look into your particular style of game, GPU is the most likely bottleneck for fast paced FPS games where CPU use can be quite low even under heavy graphical loads, but for RTS? I honestly don't know, might be worth looking at that.

Either way, I would imagine the Ryzen would be fine for a few years as it is a strong chip, so even if those games did put a bigger straing on the CPU, I can't imagine it is developing at the same pace as GPUs.

 

[BeaverNr1]

7 minutes ago, Dravinian said:

I can still play Shadow of the Tomb Raider on a pair of GTX 970s that I bought 6 years ago.  It is doable.

 

I would also look into your particular style of game, GPU is the most likely bottleneck for fast paced FPS games where CPU use can be quite low even under heavy graphical loads, but for RTS? I honestly don't know, might be worth looking at that.

Either way, I would imagine the Ryzen would be fine for a few years as it is a strong chip, so even if those games did put a bigger straing on the CPU, I can't imagine it is developing at the same pace as GPUs.

 

 

So what would be the next higher CPU choice if I decide to overbuild on this front and decide to stay with a simpler GPU for now?

[Dravinianv2]

Sorry but work machine doesn't log in on username, don't know why...

 

The Ryzen 7 3700x has the same TDP of 65w as the Ryzen 5 3600 same base MHZ and a .2 mhz increased boost (4.4 instead of 4.2) and is about $130 (USD) increased cost and with that comes 2 extra cores and 4 extra threads.  Everything else appears the same (cache etc.)

 

Obviously increased core count bought now may mean that it has increased longevity, though who knows what will happen tomorrow, Intel could announce a 74 core 148 thread consumer CPU next year which would make all previous chipsets obsolete in a stroke as computing takes a huge leap forward...unlikely, just saying who knows - don't come back and complain to me if the chip is obsolete in a year

Good link here:

https://www.scan.co.uk/tekspek/cpus/amd-ryzen-3000

 

That explains the Ryzen chipset group (it is badly laid out, I had to scroll all the way down to see the actual list).

 

That gives you the details of each chipset so you can pick the one that matches your budget, your requirements, your TDP etc.

 

Those prices may or may not be accurate, I have no idea.

[BeaverNr1]

6 minutes ago, Dravinianv2 said:

Good link here:

https://www.scan.co.uk/tekspek/cpus/amd-ryzen-3000

 

That explains the Ryzen chipset group (it is badly laid out, I had to scroll all the way down to see the actual list).

 

That gives you the details of each chipset so you can pick the one that matches your budget, your requirements, your TDP etc.

 

Thank you!

[BeaverNr1]

1 hour ago, Dravinian said:

There is a LTT video on the RAM, if I remember rightly, the 'Infinity Fabric' runs at 1800mhz, and 3600 dual channel RAM runs at 1800 mhz in each direction so you get a 1 to 1 ratio.

 

Now what all that really means, I don't know, but apparently it is good.

 

The AMD website says that the Ryzen 5 3600 only supports a maximum of 3200 MHz. Does that mean that anything above it is useless?

 

Edit: Found the solution here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHJ16hD4ysk

[Dravinianv2]

6 minutes ago, BeaverNr1 said:

 

The AMD website says that the Ryzen 5 3600 only supports a maximum of 3200 MHz. Does that mean that anything above it is useless?

 

Edit: Found the solution here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHJ16hD4ysk

That was the video I was referring to.

[BeaverNr1]

Thank you all for your recommendations so far! 

 

So I have decided on the:

 Ryzen 5 3600 on a 450 chipset MB, with a good CPU cooler

 3600 MHz CL16 memory 2x8GB

 1TB NVME SSD 

 

As for the Graphics Card, I am still undecided. The options are:

 RX 5600 normal / xt

 RX 5700 normal / xt

 GTX 1660 normal / super / ti

 RTX 2060 normal / super or even RX 2070?

... and then there are 1000 brands of each type which confuses me even more.

 

Are there any experiences which ones are better/worse and especially which ones operate more quietly than others?

[Dravinian]

You could check Rog Strixx, I just got the 2080 Ti model and it has 2 modes, performance and quiet mode.

 

I don't know if that extends to other models though.

[BeaverNr1]

Here is my "final" list...

 

Any thoughts / suggestions?

 

PCPartPicker Part List

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  (€177.89 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Slim CPU Cooler  (€56.19 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard  (€103.89 @ Alternate)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory  (€107.97 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (€139.97 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB GAMING X Video Card  (€287.89 @ Mindfactory)
Case: be quiet! Pure Base 500 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€85.89 @ Alternate)
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 CM 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  (€84.89 @ Alternate)
 

Total: €1044.58
 

[BeaverNr1]

I take this as a no.

[Dravinian]

I never got any notifications you posted, may have unfollowed the thread at some point, unknown to me.

 

The build looks fine, though I don't know the motherboard at all.

 

There is a video on Youtube search for "Motherboards for Ryzen 3000 gamers nexus" and see what they recommend at your budget, you may find a stronger board, I don't know, I know nothing about that board you chose.

 

Also look at reviews and comparisons for the 1660 Super, again not a GPU I am that familiar with, and for that budget here may be better options.

[Dravinianv2]

I took away some of your storage - you can add more later, and I came up with this build:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	€177.89 @ Mindfactory
CPU Cooler	be quiet! Dark Rock Slim CPU Cooler	€57.72 @ Amazon Deutschland
Motherboard	MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	€103.89 @ Alternate
Memory	Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	€107.97 @ Amazon Deutschland
Storage	Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	€74.95 @ Amazon Deutschland
Video Card	Palit GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB StormX Video Card	€360.55 @ Amazon Deutschland
Case	be quiet! Pure Base 500 ATX Mid Tower Case	€85.89 @ Alternate
Power Supply	be quiet! Pure Power 11 CM 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	€84.89 @ Alternate
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	€1053.75
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-21 11:40 CEST+0200

 

Which is 9 Euro more but you get a 2060, I did a very quick google search for reviews on the Palit StormX, as it is a lot cheaper than most other 2060s, and it 'appeared' fine, but you should research a litte harder than I have, it is your money.

 

The difference in performance, from the quick look I did, was about 20-30fps for decent graphic intense games.

[Hilltrot]

On 4/19/2020 at 8:43 AM, BeaverNr1 said:

As for the graphics card, both options seem to be quite power hungry at roughly 200 W. All that power has to go somewhere in the end and I really dislike PC noise. Is there anything like a special version which is tuned for passive cooling during office tasks and low fan speeds during games?

 

Edit: I have a feeling that my CPU will be super quiet while my graphics card is more "normal PC volume".

You generally have to pay about $100 more for the graphics card, but the ASUS Rog Strix series tends to be more quiet.  No one will likely recommend it on this forum because it costs $89 more.