After reading that, I will never again take my personal automobile for granted.
Heh, dont! I dont drive - And I dont mind…usually! But this? I am fairly strong, but man :-D
I just ordered a new PC too. The main driver for me is that working from home has been extended until the end of the year and one older (10 years old) PC we had at home just died. So we are left with mine and my daughter’s. If either of them dies (and school continues part time from home next school year), there are going to be issues…
Unfortunately, I am more budget constrained than several people in this thread, so mine is more of a compromise. But coming from my Intel I5-2500K (the most modern PC in the house) with 12GB of RAM and an old school 256GB SDE, I’m hopeful this will be a nice step up I can upgrade over time!
Given the recent talk about how well AMD is doing in the CPU space at competitive prices, my main focus was switching to AM4 and ensuring I have a 570 motherboard for PCIE4.0 support and future proofing.
| Components | |
|---|---|
| Processor (CPU) | AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Six Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4) |
| Motherboard | ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready! |
| Memory (RAM) | Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3200C16 Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz C16 XMP 2.0 |
| Graphics Card | PowerColor Red Dragon RadeonTM RX 5600 XT 6GB, AXRX 5600XT 6GBD6-3DHR/OC Memory speed 14Gbps |
| SSD | 500GB WD SN750 High-Performance NVMe Internal Gaming SSD, Black |
| 1st Storage Drive | 1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE |
| DVD/BLU-RAY Drive | 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM |
| Power Supply | CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET |
| Processor Cooling | Standard AMD CPU cooler |
| Thermal Paste | Standard themral paste |
| Extra Case Fans | 2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof) |
| Sound Card | ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) |
As someone who only uses a 1920x1200 and 1920 x 1080 monitor, I’m not looking to have a 4K capable GPU and I don’t care about ray tracing. So this combination seems to be the best bang for my budget I can get at the moment. And the ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F should be the future proofing I need for potential upgrades down the line.
The main things I’m looking forward to, beyond the work machine redundancy, is to get to play some MS Flight Simulator. Based on the Digital Foundry video, I’m hoping medium to high settings should run well on this machine.
And also, I’ll finally get to play Horizon: Zero Dawn (beyond a short play on my son’s PS4 Pro when he was visiting)… with an XBox Controller. The only true gamepad. Win! :)
Oh, and I hear there is some kind of CD Projekt Red game coming… Though I might actually play that one on the XBox Series X some day. The time spent in their worlds is worth enjoying on the comfort of my couch.
It’s partially a pre-assembled barebones machine I ordered and partly individual components I got elsewhere when cheaper that way. Now the wait begins…
Anything obvious I overlooked?
I would have looked at B550 boards if you didn’t. Why such a high end mobo if budget was a concern?
Good point. Thanks for mentioning it.
I had kind of reached my limit of knowledge on modern AM4 motherboards and wasn’t 100% sure what I was giving up with a 550. Since my machines tend to last 6-10 years (i.e. a console generation, fingers crossed), I thought the extra investment in the high end motherboard might be worthwhile (not that I expect AMD to maintain compatibility for that long. That lesson has been learned over many generations with both CPU manufacturers).
I think I did look at a 550 TUF gaming motherboard and the reviews mentioned a few shortcuts (sound processing, available slots, …). As the difference wasn’t huge, so I thought why not?
I focused more on having a robust base to build and upgrade on than being able to play in 4K right now. Having a better GPU and having to get a new monitor would be much bigger outlays, for instance.
Are you saying the 550 is functionally very similar?
Don’t get me wrong, my last two computers have had high-end Asus boards, and they have both been great, but it doesn’t seem like a cost-conscious sort of choice (the TUF line is still fairly high end, isnt it?). Some savings there might have bought a bigger nvme.
As I understand it, there are some limitations with b550 bandwidth, compared to X570, so you might see fewer USB ports, for instance. That should be easily rectified with an add-on Card, is necessary, I’d think. On the flip side, b550 boards don’t need the active cooling fan for the chipset that X570 does, which many consider a positive.
But I’m no expert here. Maybe someone else could weigh in. Does it matter, though? Sounds like everything is ordered.
It is definitely relevant and does matter, because my daughter’s PC is seriously getting on too. Should anything happen to it, I’d be very tempted to stick with AMD. And that’s given me something else I hadn’t really looked deep into to consider and allow me to be more budget conscious in that case.
For instance, I didn’t pay attention to the fact that the X570 required extra active cooling. Though I’m hopefully covered in the general cooling department and air flow between the stock cooler and extra fans.
A bigger NVME would be nice for sure. Though I’m thinking I can get a second and bigger one for games down the line? Same for more RAM (the mb supports 4 DIMMs).
Thanks for the added info.
I would get 32GB of RAM. 16GB is probably the minimum, but if you’re interested in something like Flight Sim, MS is recommending 32.
Sure, there are tweaks you could have made, but that’s a solid machine that should last you a while.
To clarify, X570 boards have an extra chipset fan (not something you add). I have seen complaints about the noise that fan makes. This probably varies with the specific board.
The DF video made it look like the game gets CPU constrained quite fast, but I would indeed think that more RAM would help a lot with the constantly streaming scenery and the level of detail everywhere. Something to consider as an upgrade in an upcoming sale (assuming we don’t go through another period where RAM prices go a bit crazy :) ).
Thanks! Glad to hear that as that’s one of the main goals.
Ah yes. Hopefully I’ll have one of the quiet ones. I’m sure there will be lots of advice online on playing with cooling profiles too. My BIOS is still text based. I’m sure I’ll have some fun figuring out the more modern versions. :)
Have everyone’s opinions on the best mostly games-oriented build changed now that Intel 10th generation chips & Ampere cards are (almost) out?
I’m planning the orders for my fall build & am vacillating mightily between something like an Intel i7-10700k vs AMD Ryzen 9 3900x. Some build guides suggest going way down to a cheap Ryzen 5 3600x or Intel i5-10400k, but I’m wary of going too cheap! My last build (around 4.5 years old now) has an Intel i5-6600k, which was fine, but in retrospect an i7 in that generation would have been better.
What I’m seeing online suggests that the Ryzen was better than the 9th generation Intel stuff for sure, but that the pendulum may have swung back towards intel for the 10th gen ASSUMING that you are mostly using the machine for gaming (since you get fewer cores with Intel but they are faster).
Any pertinent advice on the best processor and motherboard?
For sure I’ll be adding an Nvidia 3800 & 32 GB of DDR4 3600ghz RAM. This will all be going into my existing Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX case & I’ll be re-using my existing storage, so there should be plenty of room for the video card & air cooling.
Thank you!
Diego
Wait for Zen 3. It’s almost out.
If you’re going for a 3800, might be a good idea to get something with PCIe 4.0.
Which is why AMD makes sense. But I’m guessing Ampere will be sold out everywhere if we don’t jump on them ASAP even without waiting for Zen 3.
If you absolutely, positively have to build your PC now, then yes, Intel will give you a bit better performance for pure gaming. That won’t last long. If your current PC build is still functional and you have a fear of not being able to grab the 3080 or whatever later, you can grab it at release and drop it in there while waiting on Zen 3.
edit - re: motherboards, I spend more than most people do on these. Keep in mind there’s some wisdom of the crowd, but everyone has their own situation to consider. I’m going to be aggressively overclocking and will have some multi-use stuff going on. For me, it’s going to be an x570 to host the Zen 3. Of those, there’s a HUGE variety. A few to keep in mind and some highlights if you’re going in a similar direction:
Gigabyte’s X570 Aorus Master ($330-$360): awesome thermal performance, 3 M.2 slots, newest revisions allow high OC RAM.
ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) ($360): great thermal performance, tons of USB slots and SATA expansion, 2 M.2 slots
MSI MAG Tomahawk WiFi ($220-$240): great thermal performance, budget board saves $100+ to spend elsewhere on the build
Yep. That might ultimately be the decision assuming the wait isn’t super-long.
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Snipe an NVidia 3080 just as soon as possible
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Stuff it in the increasingly obsolete i5-6600k (where it will be severely bottlenecked)
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Enjoy somewhat sub-optimal ray tracing while waiting for Zen 3
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Jump on a Zen 3 Ryzen + x570 motherboard + RAM when those release towards (hopefully) the end of the year
(thanks for the motherboard tips!)
Diego
You’re welcome. Should you want to do a DEEP dive on motherboards, here’s a google docs spreadsheet. It’s a bit out of date (for instance, it doesn’t have the X570 Tomahawk or the A520s which released earlier this year), but it’s got the majority of AMD boards out there.
I’m in the same boat (though I’ll probably not pull the trigger until next year unless there’s a really good deal), coming from a 6600k and looking to get a 3080. I’m waiting for the Zen 3 announcement, which means Rocket Lake may get announced by the time I’m making a decision, but for chips available at the moment it’s pretty much a toss-up for me between the 3900X and the 10600K (leaning toward AMD for PCIe Gen 4 and just in general) though if it weren’t for Flight Simulator I’d probably drop down to a 3700X.
I was just reading the 4K TV discussion about which time of year is cheapest for buying a television. Is there a corollary for building a PC? I want to build a nice gaming/VR PC with my daughters sometime this year (homeschooling project) and am trying to do initial timing/budget planning.