Yeah, I’d been considering trying to snag a monitor for Xmas maybe, but the options for 24" 1440p IPS HDR600+ <5ms response time monitors are effectively zilch. And I don’t think I can quite muster the horsepower for full 4k or the desk setup for 27"+. Alas.
Best to go pre-built or be on a waiting list for a card. Unless you have a microcenter or best buy to be camping out at in the early AM.
I’d still be waiting to build my PC if it wasn’t for that EVGA wait list my turn came up on. Also it seems prices are going up on just about all kinds of hardware again. Ryzen 5900x is either out of stock or above msrp again.
Trying to decide what configuration would be best. I’d like to keep it reasonably priced, but willing to pick more expensive option if there is a compelling reason. Any comments on the below configuration?
PROCESSOR: Stick with Ryzen 5 5600X or Ryzen 7 5800X for +$245. Tom’s hardware says it has better multi threaded performance but it uses much more power.
GRAPHICS CARD: GTX 3080 10 GB. Any reason to step down to a 3070 to save $196? Doesn’t seem like it. Should I consider the AMD RTX 6800 or 6900 XT? Save $294 with the RTX 6800, but isn’t the NVidia line of cards better these days? Should I consider the 3080 Ti or 3090
MEMORY: 32 GB of 3466MHz… Could save $147 going down to 16 GB.
HARD DRIVE: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (Boot) + 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s (Storage). Probably a SSD drive to put games on.
CASE AND COOLING: 1000W power supply. Should I go to the liquid cooled for $50 more? I have no intention of over clocking.
5600X is fine for gaming.
3070 is fine if you aren’t playing at 4k. Don’t buy AMD.
16GB RAM is fine.
1000w PSU is more than needed, but I wouldn’t go below 850w.
Yes, go with the liquid cooling. I got that Alienware Aurora, and the stock cooler on the Ryzen 5600X is really loud. If I’m playing a game, it’s like gaming with a vacuum cleaner in the room. I really wish I’d gone with the liquid cooling instead.
Nvidia, is the way, imho. ;)
And any GPU with less than 12GB of RAM is weak. ;)
10 and 8 GB are fine when gaming at <4k.
They’re fine at 4k too. Games won’t really require >8GB VRAM until all mainstream cards start including more than >8GB VRAM.
Got the OK from the wife to order a PC.
What is the website that allows you to enter parts and it looks for the best price, just to compare to the Alienware build?
Thanks Armando!
Question, is there still a reason these days to have a separate OS drive from applications and games. I’m wondering if I should just get a 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD without a second drive for now.
No, one drive is fine.
So, that SAVE17 coupon didn’t work. I called them up and they claim it never did work on the Ryzen R10 systems. I think they are BSing me because it sounds like it worked for some people on Slickdeals. After I configured my system it was up to $2,832.19, so would have been $2350 after the coupon. They agreed to reduce it to $2600. By that time I was already in the mindset that I was getting a new PC so I did it.
That’s a lot more than $1732. But I’m sure you’ll be happy with it.
Not bad, thats about what I paid for my parts last month , with discounts. I recall sending you a list.
Plus you get extra performance due to RGB exterior case lighting.
Now you will feel a great pressure come off your shoulders. I am still feeling after purchase bliss from my build. All the time I wasted since last year trying to get a CPU and GPU was brutal.
What was your config in the end?
Yeah, I hear ya. If I could have gotten the parts easily I think I would have built it myself. My last PC had barely any problems. I think I had one power supply fail in 11 years? I upgraded the the motherboard and CPU once, video card 2 or 3 times. I’m a bit worried the Alienware won’t have the same durability.
- AMD Ryzen™ 5 5600X (6-Core, 35MB Total Cache, Max Boost Clock of 4.6GHz)
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 10Gb GDDR6X - 10 GB is enough no matter what @lordkosc says :-)
- 32GB, 2x16GB, DDR4, 3466MHz, XMP (I couldn’t help going up to 32. Sometimes I do a little video editing)
- 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (Boot) + 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s (Storage)
- High-Performance CPU Liquid Cooling
- 1000W Power Supply (It was that or 550)
- Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 (2x2) 802.11ax Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 5.1
I can’t imagine they would even allow that build with a 550 watt psu.
I am telling you all a FACT, that Antihero runs better with 12GB of video ram. :)
Good call on the 32GB RAM, especially if you’re going to be doing video editing. It’ll also give you more perf if you decide to get into MS Flight Simulator. :) The advice to go 16GB is valid for gaming today, but it’s shortsighted given you used your last rig for 10 years. There are already titles that can take advantage of >16GB RAM, and you can be damn sure there’ll be a lot more 5 years from now.
I was questioning how this could be until I looked up a video of Antihero gameplay. I’d probably suggest a pair of 3090s in SLI for that.
I’ve owned multiple Alienware PCs. They are very upgradeable. Given what you bought though you won’t need to touch it for at least five years IMO.