help with my first 2000$ pc (prebuilt)

[dirty_daaaann]

Hey, I am trying to get a hefty gaming PC that will last me for years, mind you I'm getting this prebuilt in the iBuyPower site. I don't have time at the moment to learn how to build a PC, nor to actually build it, since I am a very cramped college student with a full time job, so I'm going with a prebuilt one at the moment.

This build is modeled as the AMD Ryzen Configurator in the iBuyPower site:https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/AMD-Ryzen-Configurator

My full build is right here: https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/AMD-Ryzen-Configurator/W/1157563

How it looks like inside: https://prnt.sc/uwjht3

I chose this build since I didn't want a Ryzen 9 or a Threadripper, since they are too expensive/ overkill.

NOTE: Refer me parts that are available in the site builder. I can't take parts that are not in the part selector in this SI. Please and thank you!

 

Budget (including currency): 2000$ - can be more if needed be

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Streaming, Video Editing, Gaming, Recording Videos

 

SPECIFICATIONS:

Case :: be quiet! Pure Base 600 Tempered Glass Gaming Case - Black

(360 mm processor cooling? I only intend to fit it with the default AMD fan cooler at the moment -- a definitely good case to upgrade stuff in there)

Case Fans :: Default Case Fan

Case Lighting :: None

iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction :: None

iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion :: None

Processor :: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Processor (8x 3.6GHZ/32MB L3 Cache)

(Might wait for the Big Navi release in November, meaning I might upgrade this processor to the Ryzen 7 5800x with Zen 3/Gen 4 if possible)

Processor Cooling :: AMD Ryzen Wraith Spire RGB CPU Cooler

(Not going for a liquid cooler. If needed I can upgrade to a better air cooling: "be quiet! DARK ROCK SLIM PWM CPU Cooler" for an additional 47$)

Memory :: 32 GB [8 GB x4] DDR4-3000 Memory Module - Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO (RGB LED) 

(I chose 32GB over 16GB since I am trying to video edit in this build, although I don't know if its a bit overkill, but the 4 RGB LED strips look beautiful in combination with the RGB cooler.

If preferred, I can downscale to 16 GB to save some money)

Video Card :: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT - 8GB (VR-Ready)

(Another Option: Wanted to upgrade to a 2080 Super, but it is not available in the site. I also wanted to upgrade to a 3080, but that jumps my build to 2.3K$ without monitor)

SLI Bridge :: None

Motherboard :: ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING (WI-FI) - WiFi 6, ARGB Header (1), USB 3.2 Ports (1 Type-C, 5 Type-A), M.2 Slot (2)

Power Supply :: 650 Watt - Thermaltake Smart Series - 80 PLUS Bronze (Free Upgrade to 650 Watt - Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB - 80 PLUS Gold, Full Modular) or

(Another Option: 750 Watt - ADATA XPG Core Reactor 80 PLUS Gold, Full Modular; since the overall power output of the system is 550 Watts)

Advanced Cabling Options :: None

(might get the Professional Wiring - for all standard default cables inside the system(19$)

Primary Hard Drive :: 1 TB WD Blue SN550 M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD -- Read: 2400MB/s; Write: 1750MB/s (Free Upgrade to 1 TB WD Black SN750 M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD)

Secondary Hard Drive :: 1 TB Seagate Barracuda Hard Drive -- 64MB Cache, 7200RPM, 6.0Gb/s (FREE Upgrade to 2 TB Seagate Barracuda Hard Drive)

Media Card Reader / Writer :: None (Don't know if needed)

Sound Card :: 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard 

Network Card :: ASUS PCE-AX3000 Dual Band PCI-E WiFi 6 (802.11ax). Supporting 160MHz, Bluetooth 5.0, WPA3 network security

(Don't know if needed??)

Monitor :: None - In need 

Microphone :: None - In need

Headset :: None- In need

(Another Option: RAZER Seiren X Gaming Condenser Microphone with Supercardioid - 99$)

Video Capture Device :: None (Dont know if needed)

Mouse ::iBUYPOWER ARES M2 Gaming Optical Mouse (0$)

Mouse Pad ::iBUYPOWER High Performance Gaming Mouse Pad(5$ - a 19$ value) 

Keyboard ::iBUYPOWER MEK 3 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard [Blue Switches] ($9 - a $49 Value) 

Webcam ::Creative Live! Cam Sync 1080p Webcam (44$)

Speaker System ::Logitech Z213 2.1 Speaker System(39$)

Power Protection / Power Strip ::CSU CSB604 Essential Surge Protector - 6 Outlets, 4ft Cord(15$)

+ 3 year warranty

TOTAL COST: $2000, Windows 10 included (with 84$ savings without any coupons with current build recorded at 10/9/2020, but I expect to lower this build cost even more coming Cyber Monday or Christmas.)

 

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): 

Resolution: I want 2 monitors, both 1080P

I need two monitors, one could be 144 GhZ (for straight gaming), and the other a mediocre 60 GhZ (for other tasks) monitor.

One good mic (the Razer in particular seems good - but I can always cheap out on this)

One good headset (there's options but idk which one to pick)

A gaming chair (not a necessity right now)

And anything that I need for gaming/streaming/recording videos -- Please tell me! 

 

Edited October 11, 2020 by dirty_daaaann

[Bombastinator]

There are some oddities I notice:

CPU:
Stock cooler is considered marginal for 3700s.  My memory is that I buy power doesn’t have great non stock cooler options though, so I’m ambivalent. I don’t know where to go with that one. 

memory:

large amounts of not very fast memory with rgb

do you need 32gb? Do you want to spend extra money on rgb memory?

Drives:

the WDblue is much slower than the WD black but is the same price.  Iirc the WD blue is M&B key which does you no good in this situation.  It’s effectively sata speed.  My temptation would be to ditch the secondary drive entirely and put the OS on a big SATA SSD for less money and save your single pcie4.0 m.2 port for a gaming upgrade if it turns out to be needed.  It might have to have some insanely fast pcie4.0 drive in it for gaming come 2021.  It’s unknown right now.  If it does you can just take your big sata SSD and treat it a s secondary storage.  Won’t cost any real speed and could save you trouble in the future.

wifi card:

your motherboard already has wifi, why add more?

PSU:

might be OK, might not.  Needs looking at by someone other than me.  Maybe check options against the PSU tierlist 

 

 

[dirty_daaaann]

20 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

There are some oddities I notice:

CPU:
Stock cooler is considered marginal for 3700s.  My memory is that I buy power doesn’t have great non stock cooler options though, so I’m ambivalent. I don’t know where to go with that one. 

memory:

large amounts of not very fast memory with rgb

do you need 32gb? Do you want to spend extra money on rgb memory?

Drives:

the WDblue is much slower than the WD black but is the same price.  Iirc the WD blue is M&B key which does you no good in this situation.  It’s effectively sata speed.  My temptation would be to ditch the secondary drive entirely and put the OS on a big SATA SSD for less money and save your single pcie4.0 m.2 port for a gaming upgrade if it turns out to be needed.  It might have to have some insanely fast pcie4.0 drive in it for gaming come 2021.  It’s unknown right now.  If it does you can just take your big sata SSD and treat it a s secondary storage.  Won’t cost any real speed and could save you trouble in the future.

wifi card:

your motherboard already has wifi, why add more?

PSU:

might be OK, might not.  Needs looking at by someone other than me.  Maybe check options against the PSU tierlist 

For the CPU cooler: I heard the stock cooler is pretty adequate, but i can always upgrade the cooler if needed be if i upgrade the gpu (in the future)

Memory: is DDR4-3000 really slow? I am debating if I should get 3200/3600/ or 4000

Drives: I need some tips in here. I might go for a straight 1 or 2 TB single drive like you said.

wifi card: gotcha, thanks

PSU: ima try and get a 80+ gold psu.

 

[Bombastinator]

27 minutes ago, dirty_daaaann said:

For the CPU cooler: I heard the stock cooler is pretty adequate, but i can always upgrade the cooler if needed be if i upgrade the gpu (in the future)

Memory: is DDR4-3000 really slow? I am debating if I should get 3200/3400/ or 3600

Drives: I need some tips in here. I might go for a straight 1 or 2 TB single drive like you said.

wifi card: gotcha, thanks

PSU: ima try and get a 80+ gold psu.

 

Not a bad plan with the cooler.  It’s kind of dependent on how good a chip you get.  Older ones seem to have frequently run hotter.  
 

3000mhz memory is considered the bottom of what I’ve heard is generally considered acceptable for ryzen2.  The chip is famous for reacting to memory speed more than other chips.  Fast memory is considered more useful than overclocking.  There’s an effective maximum speed of 3733 unless the infinity fabric is messed with. If you go beyond it the chip actually gets slower until you hit like 5000mhz. When the 3700x first came out the “sweet spot” was said to be 3600mhz cas16.  I don’t know how that was determined though.  It might have had a current pricing component which of course has long since evaporated. Basically the faster the memory the faster the chip goes.

 

if you’re looking for storage tips HardwareUnboxed just did a huge test of a bunch of different types of storage.  

 the issue is it remains possible that the way games may perform after 2021 when the games written for the new consoles start to hit. It may change radically because they’ll likely be written differently.  Meanwhile pcie4.0 drives are quickly getting faster and cheaper and what is considered “blazingly fast” now may be slow and expensive in 6 months. So my idea is to leave the Nvme 4.0 slot blank.  If there is a 3.0 nvme and a 4.0 nvme filling the 3.0 nvme slot would work too instead of a sata drive. Whichever is cheaper.  If you get a big one you can simply allocate it to storage depending on how things jump.  It’s sort of a cost saving move.

Im afraid I understand very little about the particulars of the PSU thing so I just drop tierlist links.  The only thing I’ve heard that may be pertinent i didn’t put in earlier is the Nvidia 30xx series eats LOTS of power.  AMD 6xxx series is totally unknown.  There are guesses it may be lighter on power requirements though.

[dirty_daaaann]

On 10/10/2020 at 7:21 PM, Bombastinator said:

Not a bad plan with the cooler.  It’s kind of dependent on how good a chip you get.  Older ones seem to have frequently run hotter.  
 

3000mhz memory is considered the bottom of what I’ve heard is generally considered acceptable for ryzen2.  The chip is famous for reacting to memory speed more than other chips.  Fast memory is considered more useful than overclocking.  There’s an effective maximum speed of 3733 unless the infinity fabric is messed with. If you go beyond it the chip actually gets slower until you hit like 5000mhz. When the 3700x first came out the “sweet spot” was said to be 3600mhz cas16.  I don’t know how that was determined though.  It might have had a current pricing component which of course has long since evaporated. Basically the faster the memory the faster the chip goes.

 

if you’re looking for storage tips HardwareUnboxed just did a huge test of a bunch of different types of storage.  

 the issue is it remains possible that the way games may perform after 2021 when the games written for the new consoles start to hit. It may change radically because they’ll likely be written differently.  Meanwhile pcie4.0 drives are quickly getting faster and cheaper and what is considered “blazingly fast” now may be slow and expensive in 6 months. So my idea is to leave the Nvme 4.0 slot blank.  If there is a 3.0 nvme and a 4.0 nvme filling the 3.0 nvme slot would work too instead of a sata drive. Whichever is cheaper.  If you get a big one you can simply allocate it to storage depending on how things jump.  It’s sort of a cost saving move.

Im afraid I understand very little about the particulars of the PSU thing so I just drop tierlist links.  The only thing I’ve heard that may be pertinent i didn’t put in earlier is the Nvidia 30xx series eats LOTS of power.  AMD 6xxx series is totally unknown.  There are guesses it may be lighter on power requirements though.

Ok thank you. Will look into these deeper.