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Need some advice finishing gaming PC build

dism

Budget (including currency): Loosely $2k, let's say $2200

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: current gen gaming (eg flight sim), comfortably future proofed but not over the top.

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

I'm a bit of a noob so please be gentle.

 

I have already bought the RTX 3080 and 850W power supply.  I intend to be getting an i9 9900K with an AIO liquid cooler, 32 GB DDR4 3600 (2x16) (for now), and an nvme ssd (1TB I think, listed above).  I have all peripherals taken care of already.

 

My last rig died when my already sketchy mobo finally gave up the ghost.  It's been a few years and time for me to upgrade from my GTX 970 anyway.  It has data spread over a 2.5" SSD and a 3.5" HDD which I might physically move over if it's easily doable--but I'll still be moving into an nvme regardless for the performance considerations.

 

I need help deciding on a motherboard and case still.  I have, oh, in the range of $300-400 or so to spend on these two components combined, but this is a soft cap if it has to be, so I've been looking at cases and mobos both in the $1xx sorts of ranges I guess.

 

For the case I'd first considered nzxt 510 elite by looks as a first starting point reccomend by a friend until I saw the gamers nexus review of its abysmal thermals, which is a deal breaker for me.  I'd then considered the P500A Digital RGB  to remedy that problem but not only is it permanently out of stock everywhere, in truth the look of the fans from behind the mounting mechanism seems a bit scuffed to me, but I like the look of tripple RGB fans on the front I've decided.  That's kind of a big move for me as I'm a very function over form sort of person and historically been somewhat anti-rgb but I've put a toe in and I feel myself now slinking all the way into the pool.  I'm looking for any recommendations with 1stly great airflow/thermals, and 2ndly some nice looking rgb, absolutely in that order though.  If I have to buy some extra fans I have no issue doing this but please provide some guidance here as I am a noob to a lot of this.

 

For a motherboard I want something with a good feature set, a bios that people don't hate, and with the headers to support whatever case I'll be getting.  I mostly don't care what it looks like, but I have already vetoed the Asus Prime z390-A because I am not looking to build a white system and as such I thought that the trim on that otherwise great board was ugly as sin.  Wifi/bluetooth is a nice-to-have but absolutely not mandatory in the slightest, as is support for 128GB of RAM--the likelyhood is I won't upgrade to more than 64 before an upgrade.  I'm mostly concerned that the BIOS is very good and that there's plenty of useful and modern ports, and has the required headers for the case.  I'm currently floating the gigabyte z390 aorus pro wifi as an option.  Motherboards are the component I would say I know the least about.

 

This is my first real build without serious hand holding, so if I've made an egregious error somewhere please don't be shy to point it out.

 

Thanks for the help, LTT forum people :)

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19 minutes ago, dism said:

please be gentle

No. 😈

20 minutes ago, dism said:

Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor

Why 9900K? The 10th generation is out (i5 10600k, i7 10700k, i9 10900k). Additionally, AMD will be launching their 4th gen Ryzen chips soon (October), so unless you can't wait, you probably should.

 

If you can't wait, then going with a 10600K or a 10700K would be a better choice over the older 9900K.

BabyBlu (Primary): 

  • CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K @ up to 5.3GHz, 5.0GHz all-core, delidded
  • Motherboard: Asus Maximus XI Hero
  • RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 4x8GB DDR4-3200 @ 4000MHz 16-18-18-34
  • GPU: MSI RTX 2080 Sea Hawk EK X, 2070MHz core, 8000MHz mem
  • Case: Phanteks Evolv X
  • Storage: XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB, 3x ADATASU800 1TB (RAID 0), Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB
  • PSU: Corsair HX1000i
  • Display: MSI MPG341CQR 34" 3440x1440 144Hz Freesync, Dell S2417DG 24" 2560x1440 165Hz Gsync
  • Cooling: Custom water loop (CPU & GPU), Radiators: 1x140mm(Back), 1x280mm(Top), 1x420mm(Front)
  • Keyboard: Corsair Strafe RGB (Cherry MX Brown)
  • Mouse: MasterMouse MM710
  • Headset: Corsair Void Pro RGB
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

Roxanne (Wife Build):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K @ up to 5.0GHz, 4.8Ghz all-core, relidded w/ LM
  • Motherboard: Asus Z97A
  • RAM: G.Skill Sniper 4x8GB DDR3-2400 @ 10-12-12-24
  • GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW2 w/ LM
  • Case: Corsair Vengeance C70, w/ Custom Side-Panel Window
  • Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, Samsung 860 EVO 1TB, Silicon Power A80 2TB NVME
  • PSU: Corsair AX760
  • Display: Samsung C27JG56 27" 2560x1440 144Hz Freesync
  • Cooling: Corsair H115i RGB
  • Keyboard: GMMK TKL(Kailh Box White)
  • Mouse: Glorious Model O-
  • Headset: SteelSeries Arctis 7
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

BigBox (HTPC):

  • CPU: Ryzen 5800X3D
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro AX
  • RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB DDR4-3600 @ 3600MHz 14-14-14-28
  • GPU: MSI RTX 3080 Ventus 3X Plus OC, de-shrouded, LM TIM, replaced mem therm pads
  • Case: Fractal Design Node 202
  • Storage: SP A80 1TB, WD Black SN770 2TB
  • PSU: Corsair SF600 Gold w/ NF-A9x14
  • Display: Samsung QN90A 65" (QLED, 4K, 120Hz, HDR, VRR)
  • Cooling: Thermalright AXP-100 Copper w/ NF-A12x15
  • Keyboard/Mouse: Rii i4
  • Controllers: 4X Xbox One & 2X N64 (with USB)
  • Sound: Denon AVR S760H with 5.1.2 Atmos setup.
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

Harmonic (NAS/Game/Plex/Other Server):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7 6700
  • Motherboard: ASRock FATAL1TY H270M
  • RAM: 64GB DDR4-2133
  • GPU: Intel HD Graphics 530
  • Case: Fractal Design Define 7
  • HDD: 3X Seagate Exos X16 14TB in RAID 5
  • SSD: Inland Premium 512GB NVME, Sabrent 1TB NVME
  • Optical: BDXL WH14NS40 flashed to WH16NS60
  • PSU: Corsair CX450
  • Display: None
  • Cooling: Noctua NH-U14S
  • Keyboard/Mouse: None
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

NAS:

  • Synology DS216J
  • 2x8TB WD Red NAS HDDs in RAID 1. 8TB usable space
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I would stay away from Intel 9th gen. It is on a dead platform, and by getting a 9900k you have no way of upgrading whatsoever. Also, it would be worth waiting until Zen 3 releases in just a couple weeks if you can.

 

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BabyBlu (Primary): 

  • CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K @ up to 5.3GHz, 5.0GHz all-core, delidded
  • Motherboard: Asus Maximus XI Hero
  • RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 4x8GB DDR4-3200 @ 4000MHz 16-18-18-34
  • GPU: MSI RTX 2080 Sea Hawk EK X, 2070MHz core, 8000MHz mem
  • Case: Phanteks Evolv X
  • Storage: XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB, 3x ADATASU800 1TB (RAID 0), Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB
  • PSU: Corsair HX1000i
  • Display: MSI MPG341CQR 34" 3440x1440 144Hz Freesync, Dell S2417DG 24" 2560x1440 165Hz Gsync
  • Cooling: Custom water loop (CPU & GPU), Radiators: 1x140mm(Back), 1x280mm(Top), 1x420mm(Front)
  • Keyboard: Corsair Strafe RGB (Cherry MX Brown)
  • Mouse: MasterMouse MM710
  • Headset: Corsair Void Pro RGB
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

Roxanne (Wife Build):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K @ up to 5.0GHz, 4.8Ghz all-core, relidded w/ LM
  • Motherboard: Asus Z97A
  • RAM: G.Skill Sniper 4x8GB DDR3-2400 @ 10-12-12-24
  • GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW2 w/ LM
  • Case: Corsair Vengeance C70, w/ Custom Side-Panel Window
  • Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, Samsung 860 EVO 1TB, Silicon Power A80 2TB NVME
  • PSU: Corsair AX760
  • Display: Samsung C27JG56 27" 2560x1440 144Hz Freesync
  • Cooling: Corsair H115i RGB
  • Keyboard: GMMK TKL(Kailh Box White)
  • Mouse: Glorious Model O-
  • Headset: SteelSeries Arctis 7
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

BigBox (HTPC):

  • CPU: Ryzen 5800X3D
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro AX
  • RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB DDR4-3600 @ 3600MHz 14-14-14-28
  • GPU: MSI RTX 3080 Ventus 3X Plus OC, de-shrouded, LM TIM, replaced mem therm pads
  • Case: Fractal Design Node 202
  • Storage: SP A80 1TB, WD Black SN770 2TB
  • PSU: Corsair SF600 Gold w/ NF-A9x14
  • Display: Samsung QN90A 65" (QLED, 4K, 120Hz, HDR, VRR)
  • Cooling: Thermalright AXP-100 Copper w/ NF-A12x15
  • Keyboard/Mouse: Rii i4
  • Controllers: 4X Xbox One & 2X N64 (with USB)
  • Sound: Denon AVR S760H with 5.1.2 Atmos setup.
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

Harmonic (NAS/Game/Plex/Other Server):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7 6700
  • Motherboard: ASRock FATAL1TY H270M
  • RAM: 64GB DDR4-2133
  • GPU: Intel HD Graphics 530
  • Case: Fractal Design Define 7
  • HDD: 3X Seagate Exos X16 14TB in RAID 5
  • SSD: Inland Premium 512GB NVME, Sabrent 1TB NVME
  • Optical: BDXL WH14NS40 flashed to WH16NS60
  • PSU: Corsair CX450
  • Display: None
  • Cooling: Noctua NH-U14S
  • Keyboard/Mouse: None
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

NAS:

  • Synology DS216J
  • 2x8TB WD Red NAS HDDs in RAID 1. 8TB usable space
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