New build to replace my venerable ~6 year old PC

[Yamosu]

Budget (including currency): £2500 GBP

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Transport Fever 2, Stellaris, Cities: Skylines, GTA V, FS2020 (potentially at least)

Other details

 

Currently I run a stock Intel Core i7 4790k, 16GB 2133MHz DDR3, a Radeon R9 295x2, a 128GB m.2 boot SSD, 1TB SSD for games and a 8TB RAID array for bulk storage. Monitors are 3x 1080p, 60Hz IPS panels - 2x 21.5" and 1x 24". I used to be a big Eve Online player and the GPU was chosen so I could run 3-4 characters at once at close to 60FPS. It worked surprisingly well but now it seems to be showing it's age - especially when well modded installs of TpF2 and CS have obscene memory footprints (Around 32GB for Cities as an example)

 

This new build originally started out as just something to get me more frames in things like Transport Fever 2 and Cities Skylines. Sure, the latter is poorly optimised and I doubt I'd get much benefit from something like a 5950x but I also think despite being a beast in it's time, the 295x2 just doesn't hold water for the sort of games I am now playing. Furthermore, I've not completely ruled out moving to a high refresh rate 1440p panel but my eyesight is such I'm not sure it would be of much benefit. I had to upgrade my primary monitor to a 24" display for work to help me read text for example. Higher res displays aside, I'm still not sure if I would benefit from a higher refresh rate despite users on Reddit claiming they wonder how they survived at 60Hz for so long. Issue here is I would want to upgrade all three monitors if I went down the high refresh rate route so I get a consistent experience.

 

What I had in mind:

• Would prefer a white case (and innards) as that fits in with the colour scheme for my space.
  • Size: mATX preferred
  • Side panel: Tempered glass would be nice
  • IO: Preferably on the front (cat can't stand on the buttons then) but open to all suggestions
  • Air filters a must and preferably on the quiet side when gaming
• AMD CPU is non-negotiable and I would prefer a team red GPU also. Games I play don't support ray-tracing so that's of little interest to me
• Motherboard: On-board Bluetooth desired and would like a number of USB ports - USB2.0 is fine as my use case doesn't need USB3.whatever
• Memory: Intention was to get 64GB - gives me room for today and room to grow
• GPU: Something capable of 1080 at 144hz or 1440 at 144hz
• Storage: Having a separate boot and game drive sounded ideal but frankly it's a pain in the arse. Plan here is a 2TB M.2 for boot, apps & games with a storage drive (min 4TB)
• Cooling: Had thought of going down the AIO route again but I know air coolers can be just as quiet so not overly fussed.
• RGB: Would be nice but doesn't have to be rainbow barf-tastic
• Displays: Any new displays would need to be IPS or at least be capable of IPS like colours. White fascias preferred (if they exist!)

Uses for this machine are going to be work (web based apps) & gaming. Also, opinions on 1440p & high refresh rate displays welcome.

 

Thanks in Advance

 

 

[IkeaGnome]

Is this only for gaming, or do you have a use for the more cores of the 5900x?

[curiousmind34]

11 minutes ago, Voluspa said:

Is this only for gaming, or do you have a use for the more cores of the 5900x?

if they is going to use this pc as close to as long as they had the 4790k, the extra cores will be optimized for and used.

[brob]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor  (£611.51 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A 60.09 CFM CPU Cooler  (£89.95 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£154.98 @ CCL Computers) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Royal 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  (£384.40 @ Newegg UK) 
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£291.93 @ Senetic) 
Storage: Seagate EXOS Enterprise 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£130.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 6800 16 GB Video Card  (£620.00) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV TG MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£130.37 @ More Computers) 
Power Supply: Corsair RMx White 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£149.99 @ AWD-IT) 
Total: £2563.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-03-06 21:22 GMT+0000

 

[Yamosu]

1 hour ago, Voluspa said:

Is this only for gaming, or do you have a use for the more cores of the 5900x?

 

1 hour ago, curiousmind34 said:

if they is going to use this pc as close to as long as they had the 4790k, the extra cores will be optimized for and used.

 

I neglected to include this in the original post but have amended this accordingly. There will be no primary purpose per se - given the current situation I am working from home and hope to be doing so many months to come. However, this is a gaming rig first and foremost. In regards to Transport Fever 2 performance (as an example), I've loaded up an older save which I gave up with because of the lag. I'm allegedly getting between 30-40 FPS but when moving around it stutters and judders. I know it's never going to be buttery smooth 100FPS + but based on what I am seeing, I am out of actual RAM and VRAM. A CPU upgrade would also help here I suspect but to what degree I don't know.

 

 

Edit:

6 minutes ago, brob said:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor  (£611.51 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A 60.09 CFM CPU Cooler  (£89.95 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£154.98 @ CCL Computers) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Royal 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  (£384.40 @ Newegg UK) 
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£291.93 @ Senetic) 
Storage: Seagate EXOS Enterprise 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£130.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 6800 16 GB Video Card  (£620.00) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV TG MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£130.37 @ More Computers) 
Power Supply: Corsair RMx White 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£149.99 @ AWD-IT) 
Total: £2563.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-03-06 21:22 GMT+0000

 

This looks good. Not far off what I had in mind

Edited March 6, 2021 by Yamosu
edit to save another reply

[curiousmind34]

3 hours ago, brob said:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor  (£611.51 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A 60.09 CFM CPU Cooler  (£89.95 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550M MORTAR WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£154.98 @ CCL Computers) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Royal 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  (£384.40 @ Newegg UK) 
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (£291.93 @ Senetic) 
Storage: Seagate EXOS Enterprise 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£130.00 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 6800 16 GB Video Card  (£620.00) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV TG MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£130.37 @ More Computers) 
Power Supply: Corsair RMx White 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£149.99 @ AWD-IT) 
Total: £2563.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-03-06 21:22 GMT+0000

 

[brob]

Guess you were not fast enough . Supply is spotty. Once you are ready to buy you will have to monitor likely merchants for stock. Some may have a wait list. Same with the gpu.

[Yamosu]

56 minutes ago, brob said:

Guess you were not fast enough . Supply is spotty. Once you are ready to buy you will have to monitor likely merchants for stock. Some may have a wait list. Same with the gpu.

Once I've set my mind on components, I'll just buy them as and when - as close to MSRP as possible! The 5800x and 5600x seem to be better off stock wise at the moment but the 5900x and 5950x are rare as rockin' horse whatsit. Need to buy the new desk and finish decorating first though!