Please give me advice on my first build!

[Taemero]

Hi y'all! This will be my very first PC build and I've been saving up to invest in a workstation that will last me for a few good years! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Budget & Location

I'm located deep in the heart of Texas and my budget is around $3000. I'm planning on building this PC during this year's black Friday so hopefully I can score some good deals and wait for the new 4th gen Rzyen processors and ATX 3000 series. The PC is going to be in my room and I'm planning moving in the next two years.

 

Aim

I mainly want to use this set up for 4k content consuming and the occasional 4K gaming and editing. My main focus is content consuming since I do that the most rn. I don't know if having a 4K setup makes sense for youtube and other streaming services such as netflix and hulu if not all content is uploaded in 4k. But having a higher resolution screen means better content quality right? I have a lot of confusion on that but that's what I'm going with. When it comes to gaming, I don't play any triple A games but I want to start with The last of Us 2 and cyberpunk, (if they come out on PC). For now I play fornite and rocket league. I also edit videos as a side passion and occasional job. I haven't used any 4K footage yet, but in the near footage I'll be using 4K footage.

 

Monitors

I know if content consuming is my main focus I should get a LG CX TV but there is no desk/room real estate for a 48 in TV and if I'm planning on moving in 2 years I don't think I want to deal with a big 48 screen to haul around. I was thinking about choosing between 2 monitors the Acer Predator x27 or the new LG 27GN950-B 27. They are both 4K at 144 hz. The LG has a faster response time, but the x27 has a higher brightness. I'm leaning towards LG bec it's cheaper and faster while still having the same resolution. The difference in nit brightness shouldn't be too much right? Also I heard the X27 might have a fan problem. 

 

Peripherals

I already have peripherals: a Roccat Vulcan 120 and Logitech MX master 3 (I know I should probably get a gaming mouse like the Razer Viper), but I really like the Logitech mouse...I should probably get a gaming mouse.

 

Why Am I upgrading?

I'm currently using a Dell XPS 15 as a my daily driver. I got it for it's portability but I want something that can play triple A games and push out 4K content. I also want something that will last me over the years and I can just swap out the parts. The Dell XPS 15 7950 is connected to a Dell Usb-C 1440 60hz monitor, S2719DC.

 

Any advise to my planned PC would be greatly appreciated! You can suggest anything! I''m pretty much open to any ideas. 

Thank you guys in advance!

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($418.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 CHROMAX.BLACK 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler  ($99.00) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M AORUS PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($129.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL19 Memory  ($114.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB Video Card  ($699.99 @ Best Buy) 
Case: NZXT H510 Elite ATX Mid Tower Case  ($149.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Mistel 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular Fanless ATX Power Supply  ($109.99 @ Amazon) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit 
Total: $1877.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-10 03:06 EDT-0400

 

[Meganter]

Hello,

 

The build looks good although overspending on the 970 Evo. I would just change (and you should ) the PSU for this one https://pcpartpicker.com/product/3Vc48d/be-quiet-straight-power-11-550w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-bn281 it's the same price but way better.

 

Also for the same price this memory should be better https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kXbkcf/gskill-memory-f43200c16d32gvk and this one for more would be recommended https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zcH8TW/gskill-ripjaws-v-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr4-3600-memory-f4-3600c16d-32gvkc

[Stahlmann]

First off, for streaming services such as netflix you'll be limited to 720p when using chrome. For content consumption a nice 4K HDR TV with integrated Netflix, Prime Video, etc. will be a better choice, as they can display full 4K HDR streams through the apps. Even with HDR enabled in Windows i wasn't able to get a HDR signal to my connected TV and the movies just look terrible when viewed from a PC. A LG CX will deliver better image quality and motion performance than both your mentioned monitors. I have the LG C9 myself and there is just simply NO better display for playing 4K HDR games and watching 4K HDR content. Burn-In is also a non issue these days with OLED as long as you don't watch 10 hours of News channels each day.

I'll have a look at your partslist when i have time later  

[Oswin]

if you're not building it now, would suggest waiting for zen 3 and nvidia ampere

[Taemero]

11 hours ago, Meganter said:

Hello,

 

The build looks good although overspending on the 970 Evo. I would just change (and you should ) the PSU for this one https://pcpartpicker.com/product/3Vc48d/be-quiet-straight-power-11-550w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-bn281 it's the same price but way better.

 

Also for the same price this memory should be better https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kXbkcf/gskill-memory-f43200c16d32gvk and this one for more would be recommended https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zcH8TW/gskill-ripjaws-v-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr4-3600-memory-f4-3600c16d-32gvkc

Got it thanks! I’ll make those upgrades!!

[Taemero]

10 hours ago, Stahlmann98 said:

First off, for streaming services such as netflix you'll be limited to 720p when using chrome. For content consumption a nice 4K HDR TV with integrated Netflix, Prime Video, etc. will be a better choice, as they can display full 4K HDR streams through the apps. Even with HDR enabled in Windows i wasn't able to get a HDR signal to my connected TV and the movies just look terrible when viewed from a PC. A LG CX will deliver better image quality and motion performance than both your mentioned monitors. I have the LG C9 myself and there is just simply NO better display for playing 4K HDR games and watching 4K HDR content. Burn-In is also a non issue these days with OLED as long as you don't watch 10 hours of News channels each day.

I'll have a look at your partslist when i have time later  

Oh okay I get it. So for content consuming TV would be best. Does that mean under resolution content such as at 1080p will look bad on a 4K monitor? Also would I be able to watch 4k streaming content if I were to hook up a apple TV 4k or roku?

[Stahlmann]

33 minutes ago, Taemero said:

Oh okay I get it. So for content consuming TV would be best. Does that mean under resolution content such as at 1080p will look bad on a 4K monitor? Also would I be able to watch 4k streaming content if I were to hook up a apple TV 4k or roku?

That should work. Also maybe a fireTV stick will work if plugged into the monitors HDMI. How good 1080p looks on a 4K monitor depends on how good the scaling module in the monitor is. In cheap 4K monitors it will look blurry. On my C9 OLED for example the upscaling is so good, i can barely see a difference between the upscaled 1080p and native 4K. Especially in games i like to switch 1440p and enjoy more fps, rather than 4K.

[Stahlmann]

@Taemero

Do you care about looks and RGB for your build or mostly performance?

[Taemero]

7 hours ago, Stahlmann98 said:

@Taemero

Do you care about looks and RGB for your build or mostly performance?

I do like a good balance! But rgb ram is like $300....do you have any good suggestions? I really like the case however, it’s just expensive also but I think it’s worth it

[Taemero]

7 hours ago, Stahlmann98 said:

That should work. Also maybe a fireTV stick will work if plugged into the monitors HDMI. How good 1080p looks on a 4K monitor depends on how good the scaling module in the monitor is. In cheap 4K monitors it will look blurry. On my C9 OLED for example the upscaling is so good, i can barely see a difference between the upscaled 1080p and native 4K. Especially in games i like to switch 1440p and enjoy more fps, rather than 4K.

Okay I may end up using one of those devices then! And how can I find out if upscaling will be good on my monitor. I was thinking about playing in 1440p but I heard it wasn’t good to do that in games on a native 4K screen

[Stahlmann]

On 7/11/2020 at 4:40 AM, Taemero said:

Okay I may end up using one of those devices then! And how can I find out if upscaling will be good on my monitor.

To find out about the upscaling capabilites you'll have to rely on reviews. Cheaper 4K monitors tend to handel all non 4k content pretty badly. TVs typically do a much better job, but most TVs are terrible in terms of input lag compared to monitors. But if you co high-end OLED-TV you get a no-compomise experience on all fronts.

 

On 7/11/2020 at 4:40 AM, Taemero said:

I was thinking about playing in 1440p but I heard it wasn’t good to do that in games on a native 4K screen

Like i said, with a good upscaler that's not an issue. My C9 OLED makes 1080p and 1440p both look almost as good as native 4K. Unless you're sitting in front of the screen counting pixels, you won't really see any difference in games. It's basically an easy way to add more fps. If i'm not satisfied with my fps, is just turn down the resolution to 1440p or even 1080p to get more fps without much loss of image quality.

[Stahlmann]

On 7/11/2020 at 4:37 AM, Taemero said:

I do like a good balance! But rgb ram is like $300....do you have any good suggestions? I really like the case however, it’s just expensive also but I think it’s worth it

That would be my suggestion: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/w37QJb

 

Why i chose the parts:

 

CPU: A 3900X is overkill for your use. A 3700X will also destroy productivity while being a tad slower than the 3900X in tasks such as video editing and will deliver the SAME gaming performance. The 3900X will only outperform the 3700X in tasks where all 12 cores are utilized. Also the higher the resolution goes, the less you benefit from a faster CPU as the fps tend to be 100% GPU limited. TLDR: 3700X will do as good as the 3900X for your build and with the budget gained you can choose better parts in the rest of the pc.

 

Cooler: Performs almost as good as the NH-D15 while looking gorgeous and fitting perfectly to the case and black theme i've gone for.

 

MOBO: Basically just a solid B550 board that will support everything nicely and fits perfectly into the theme.

 

RAM: 32GB of RGB RAM goodness. I'd just set the RGB fitting to the case and it'll look awesome.

 

Storage: For your budget you can fit in SSD only storage and leave out any hard drives.

 

GPU: Kept the same because the founders editions are some of the highest quality models while still having good cooling. Alternatively you could go for the EVGA KO model for a better color fit. The cooling and performance should be as good as the founders edition.

 

Case: Great airflow, great cooling capabilities, great looks, RGB accents (front strips and interior light strip) great price/performance. Included fans are good aswell. Best fan layout for the 3 included would be 2 in the front and 1 in the back.

 

PSU: Just a straight up better PSU.

 

 

All in all this PC should at least perform very similar to your build, while being held in a theme and getting the most performance/aesthetics out of the same budget. Also all-SSD-storage is a huge plus. You'd have to imagine a bit to see what the finished build looks like but the BeQuiet case RGB combined with the RAM will looks awesome without just including RGB on every part possible. 

 

Let me know what you think!

[Taemero]

18 hours ago, Stahlmann98 said:

To find out about the upscaling capabilites you'll have to rely on reviews. Cheaper 4K monitors tend to handel all non 4k content pretty badly. TVs typically do a much better job, but most TVs are terrible in terms of input lag compared to monitors. But if you co high-end OLED-TV you get a no-compomise experience on all fronts.

 

Like i said, with a good upscaler that's not an issue. My C9 OLED makes 1080p and 1440p both look almost as good as native 4K. Unless you're sitting in front of the screen counting pixels, you won't really see any difference in games. It's basically an easy way to add more fps. If i'm not satisfied with my fps, is just turn down the resolution to 1440p or even 1080p to get more fps without much loss of image quality.

Got it! Thanks for the monitor info! I'll have to do some research then to see if upscaling is good on the Acer Predator x27 or the LG 27GN950-B and decide from there. Or if I'll cave and buy C9 or CX lol

[Taemero]

18 hours ago, Stahlmann98 said:

That would be my suggestion: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/w37QJb

 

Why i chose the parts:

 

CPU: A 3900X is overkill for your use. A 3700X will also destroy productivity while being a tad slower than the 3900X in tasks such as video editing and will deliver the SAME gaming performance. The 3900X will only outperform the 3700X in tasks where all 12 cores are utilized. Also the higher the resolution goes, the less you benefit from a faster CPU as the fps tend to be 100% GPU limited. TLDR: 3700X will do as good as the 3900X for your build and with the budget gained you can choose better parts in the rest of the pc.

 

Cooler: Performs almost as good as the NH-D15 while looking gorgeous and fitting perfectly to the case and black theme i've gone for.

 

MOBO: Basically just a solid B550 board that will support everything nicely and fits perfectly into the theme.

 

RAM: 32GB of RGB RAM goodness. I'd just set the RGB fitting to the case and it'll look awesome.

 

Storage: For your budget you can fit in SSD only storage and leave out any hard drives.

 

GPU: Kept the same because the founders editions are some of the highest quality models while still having good cooling. Alternatively you could go for the EVGA KO model for a better color fit. The cooling and performance should be as good as the founders edition.

 

Case: Great airflow, great cooling capabilities, great looks, RGB accents (front strips and interior light strip) great price/performance. Included fans are good aswell. Best fan layout for the 3 included would be 2 in the front and 1 in the back.

 

PSU: Just a straight up better PSU.

 

 

All in all this PC should at least perform very similar to your build, while being held in a theme and getting the most performance/aesthetics out of the same budget. Also all-SSD-storage is a huge plus. You'd have to imagine a bit to see what the finished build looks like but the BeQuiet case RGB combined with the RAM will looks awesome without just including RGB on every part possible. 

 

Let me know what you think!

Wow thank you so much for this!! I was worried that the CPU was overkill, but I didn't know how the performance would be affected by switching to the Ryzen 7. So I made that switch along with everything else you mentioned except the Case and the memory. I really like the Case I chose bec I really like the sleek white design with the glass panels. Plus it comes with RGB fans and a stripe. Also I thought it was recommended to have both SSD and hard drives. What would be the advantages of an all SSD vs the set up I had?

 

This is the new set up below!

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($281.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler  ($74.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($139.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  ($178.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB Video Card  ($699.99 @ Best Buy) 
Case: NZXT H510 Elite ATX Mid Tower Case  ($149.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Best Buy) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit 
Total: $1780.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-13 02:15 EDT-0400

[Stahlmann]

4 hours ago, Taemero said:

Got it! Thanks for the monitor info! I'll have to do some research then to see if upscaling is good on the Acer Predator x27 or the LG 27GN950-B and decide from there. Or if I'll cave and buy C9 or CX lol

I'd really suggest OLED. I can't stress enough that both the C9 and CX will deliver better image quality than any monitor you can buy. If you can find a 55" C9 it's even gonna be cheaper than the X27. I paid 1300€ for my C9. No monitor even over 2000$ will compare with image quality. And most people don't really notice a difference between 120Hz and 144 or 165Hz.

[Stahlmann]

4 hours ago, Taemero said:

Wow thank you so much for this!! I was worried that the CPU was overkill, but I didn't know how the performance would be affected by switching to the Ryzen 7. So I made that switch along with everything else you mentioned except the Case and the memory. I really like the Case I chose bec I really like the sleek white design with the glass panels. Plus it comes with RGB fans and a stripe. Also I thought it was recommended to have both SSD and hard drives. What would be the advantages of an all SSD vs the set up I had?

 

This is the new set up below!

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($281.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler  ($74.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($139.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  ($178.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8 GB Video Card  ($699.99 @ Best Buy) 
Case: NZXT H510 Elite ATX Mid Tower Case  ($149.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Best Buy) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit 
Total: $1780.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-13 02:15 EDT-0400

There is no advanteage of having a hard drive in your system, only disadvantages. if it fits in your budget its always better to go for SSD only. With both you have to install the bulk of your games onto the hard drive, which will skyrocket the loading times. You can get very nice 2TB SSDs for not so much more than a 500GB SSD + 2TB HDD combo. The Sabrent Rocket 2TB will perform equal to any Samsung SSD without being overpriced like pretty much all Samsung SSDs are. You're basically paying for the name here, because they are all running at the max speed of the PCIe 4x Gen3 connection.

 

Also if you don't go for the BeQuiet theme id suggest the NH-U12S CPU cooler as it performs the same as the Dark Rock 4 while being a lot smaller. I only chose the Dark Rock 4 because it fit better to the BeQuiet case. If you have a few more $ i'l also buy 2 more fans for the back and top of the case. THIS would be the build.

[Guest]

50 minutes ago, Stahlmann98 said:

There is no advanteage of having a hard drive in your system, only disadvantages. if it fits in your budget its always better to go for SSD only. With both you have to install the bulk of your games onto the hard drive, which will skyrocket the loading times. You can get very nice 2TB SSDs for not so much more than a 500GB SSD + 2TB HDD combo. The Sabrent Rocket 2TB will perform equal to any Samsung SSD without being overpriced like pretty much all Samsung SSDs are. You're basically paying for the name here, because they are all running at the max speed of the PCIe 4x Gen3 connection.

A hard drive is still useful for mass storage, and no way a 2TB SSD is a similar price to a 500GB SSD and 2TB HDD combo. You are looking at least $100 more depending on the 2TB SSD. 

 

The Sabrent Rocket 2TB you listed above is $279.99. A WD Blue SN550 500GB and 2TB HDD can be had for around $113. That is a big difference.

 

[Taemero]

8 hours ago, Stahlmann98 said:

I'd really suggest OLED. I can't stress enough that both the C9 and CX will deliver better image quality than any monitor you can buy. If you can find a 55" C9 it's even gonna be cheaper than the X27. I paid 1300€ for my C9. No monitor even over 2000$ will compare with image quality. And most people don't really notice a difference between 120Hz and 144 or 165Hz.

Haha you sure got me really thinking about getting the OLED for my set up. 

[Taemero]

8 hours ago, Stahlmann98 said:

There is no advanteage of having a hard drive in your system, only disadvantages. if it fits in your budget its always better to go for SSD only. With both you have to install the bulk of your games onto the hard drive, which will skyrocket the loading times. You can get very nice 2TB SSDs for not so much more than a 500GB SSD + 2TB HDD combo. The Sabrent Rocket 2TB will perform equal to any Samsung SSD without being overpriced like pretty much all Samsung SSDs are. You're basically paying for the name here, because they are all running at the max speed of the PCIe 4x Gen3 connection.

 

Also if you don't go for the BeQuiet theme id suggest the NH-U12S CPU cooler as it performs the same as the Dark Rock 4 while being a lot smaller. I only chose the Dark Rock 4 because it fit better to the BeQuiet case. If you have a few more $ i'l also buy 2 more fans for the back and top of the case. THIS would be the build.

Then I guess it makes sense to go in on a large SSD or maybe I’ll compromise and go with a 1TB SSD and just keep the 500 GB just in case as back up storage. 
 

Anyways, thanks for telling me all this information! I’ll definitely keep you posted with any updates and the final build!

[Taemero]

7 hours ago, lee32uk said:

A hard drive is still useful for mass storage, and no way a 2TB SSD is a similar price to a 500GB SSD and 2TB HDD combo. You are looking at least $100 more depending on the 2TB SSD. 

 

The Sabrent Rocket 2TB you listed above is $279.99. A WD Blue SN550 500GB and 2TB HDD can be had for around $113. That is a big difference.

 

I guess I can compromise and go with a 1TB SSD and 500 for back up files

[Stahlmann]

24 minutes ago, Taemero said:

I guess I can compromise and go with a 1TB SSD and 500 for back up files

If you really need the storage space a 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD will serve you well. In that case i'd go for the ADATA XPG SX6000 Pro and the WD Blue combo.

 

Keep me posted about your final decisions