Help me build my PC 2020 Catch All

The king is dead. Long live the new king?
I kid...

Granath wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

Graphics card and SSD are going to be the biggest differences...
You probably could have just put those into your old system and had 90% of the boost moving to the completely new system.

No doubt that will be the bulk of the improvement but the significantly faster chip will come into play at times and I am looking forward to the 8GB increase in RAM so I can load mods like Roguetech for BATTLETECH which is too much for my existing computer.

RAM's pretty cheap right now... going to 32 gigs in two sticks might be a good bet. CPUs have long, long legs these days. Putting the RAM in now might save you hassle later on.

Malor wrote:

RAM's pretty cheap right now... going to 32 gigs in two sticks might be a good bet. CPUs have long, long legs these days. Putting the RAM in now might save you hassle later on.

2019 has been a great year for RAM. A mere 12 months ago 16GB would run $110. Now you can get 32GB kits for ~$90. Wish I was in the middle of a build right now. Perhaps I should change that.

Yea the 16 gig kit for my build in 2018 cost me $180 and it wasn't even anything special (Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz C16). Same kit runs $60 now. My server seems to be running fine on 16 gigs, but I am tempted to pickup another set just because I can

I'm a fan of grabbing quality RAM when it's cheap. I got this batch of 32 gigs of Corsair DDR3-1600 about eight years ago, during a time when it was fairly heavily discounted (I think I spent a touch over $300 on it), and it's served me flawlessly for thousands of hours across two motherboards. I see no reason to believe it won't work for thousands more.

I have used Corsair RAM in just about everything I have built or upgraded for around 10 years now. Was one of the few brands that worked in Apple products that were picky about their RAM back when you could upgrade those

Rykin wrote:

Yea the 16 gig kit for my build in 2018 cost me $180 and it wasn't even anything special (Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz C16). Same kit runs $60 now. My server seems to be running fine on 16 gigs, but I am tempted to pickup another set just because I can ;)

Same here! Build from August 2018, same brand but 3000Mhz, same price (€179 for me) back then, runs €69 now.

Also very tempted to expand...

I know I’m squeaking this under the wire, but would appreciate some build feedback/advice before I plunge into a Black Friday/Cyber Monday refresh. Money isn’t a large consideration but also don’t want to burn stacks of cash just because.

Here’s my work in progress build

I found a really good price on an i9-9900KS so going to dive in on that. Specifically looking for a build that is “Cyberpunk“ ready but I also do some AI/Machine Learning/Rendering work on the side so really just looking for beefy/fast RAM and top of the line video card for those tasks too.

I’m a little lost on the motherboard and memory side of things. The AORUS ultra I have pinned in that build has good reviews for not bottlenecking the CPU but in terms of memory I don’t have a clue what to look for so any help in that space would be lovely.

TheGameguru wrote:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...

Some testing on the new TR4 Threadrippers.. AMD really upped the price here and combined with Intel's price drop these new Threadrippers are not a complete slam dunk but overall they stomp the Intel competition. The real price/performance king will likely be the 3950x

Anad's take

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15044...

edit.

https://www.extremetech.com/computin...

Seems like Intel was pushing reviewers to use MATLAB to show off their performance advantage over AMD.. problem is MATLAB ships by default to cripple AMD CPU's.

staygold wrote:

I know I’m squeaking this under the wire, but would appreciate some build feedback/advice before I plunge into a Black Friday/Cyber Monday refresh. Money isn’t a large consideration but also don’t want to burn stacks of cash just because.

Here’s my work in progress build

I found a really good price on an i9-9900KS so going to dive in on that. Specifically looking for a build that is “Cyberpunk“ ready but I also do some AI/Machine Learning/Rendering work on the side so really just looking for beefy/fast RAM and top of the line video card for those tasks too.

I’m a little lost on the motherboard and memory side of things. The AORUS ultra I have pinned in that build has good reviews for not bottlenecking the CPU but in terms of memory I don’t have a clue what to look for so any help in that space would be lovely.

I wouldnt buy a 9900 over say a Ryzen 3900. Pretty much won't see any measurable difference and in many cases the Ryzen will stomp the 9900. Plus you save money.

It looks like he's going super high-end. As of last year, the really ridiculously high-end stuff still benefited from Intel processors, particularly with NVidia builds, as apparently the NVidia drivers really liked the per-thread performance.

I realize that Ryzen 3XXX parts are, for the most part, about comparable now in per-thread performance, and you get many more threads, but do they hold up with the NVidia drivers in high-end rigs like that?

Rendering could be cuda (nvidia) specific too.
If that isn't an issue then you would be foolish not to get a 3900x ($500) or 3950x ($750) and save money while smoking intel in non gpu rendering.

Staygold what price are you getting the Intel chip at?

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Staygold what price are you getting the Intel chip at?

$700 CDN as of right now, in line with the MSRP accounting for Canada tax and currency conversion (assuming there might be some Black Friday discounts, we'll see)

I did do a little more digging around over my lunch break today, and as I'm sure several of you are already well aware, the 3900x vastly outperforms to flat out annihilates the 9900k in all "random" or "useful" tasks related to analytics and data science (simulations, natural language processing, optical character recognition etc). I'll admit I've only ever had Intel so that's part of my bias there but it looks like the AMD chips not only perform better, but perform better with faster memory (another important component of helping with data science stuff) so definitely leaning in that direction now. Couldn't find any recent reports of the 3900 not playing nice with a 2080ti in either gaming or data science tasks so not as worried on that front either.

I am seeing an uptick in requests for AMD processors from my customers doing that kind of work, although they usually purchase nVidia cards along with the systems.

One thing I need to figure out is how best to set up my couch PC experience, software-wise.

Hardware-wise I'm fairly good, with a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard and a G502 wireless mouse that are both low-latency enough for anything short of hardcore competition gaming. I'm upgrading my living room TV soon to a Samsung 4K TV that supports 120hz (at 1080p and 1440p) and FreeSync. I have an Xbox One controller and Steam controller.

But I find the pick-up-and-use experience to just not be smooth enough. One problem is remote powering on, or at least waking from sleep. My wireless mouse will wake it, but nothing else will. I've read that the XB1 controller should be able to, so this may be a shortcoming in the cheap motherboard I have in there.

Besides that, the software experience. Steam Big Picture is alright for Steam stuff, but not really good at integrating anything outside of Steam. I tried Kodi at one point but didn't get anywhere that I was happy with. I have Launchbox (and BigBox) for emulators and I like a lot of what that offers, but BigBox's startup time is so obnoxiously slow.

The other things I use on my TVs are a Nintendo Switch and Roku devices, both of which have very no-nonsense UIs that make it easy to get to things in a hurry. I need to get my couch PC setup somewhere in that ballpark.

staygold wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Staygold what price are you getting the Intel chip at?

$700 CDN as of right now, in line with the MSRP accounting for Canada tax and currency conversion (assuming there might be some Black Friday discounts, we'll see)

I did do a little more digging around over my lunch break today, and as I'm sure several of you are already well aware, the 3900x vastly outperforms to flat out annihilates the 9900k in all "random" or "useful" tasks related to analytics and data science (simulations, natural language processing, optical character recognition etc). I'll admit I've only ever had Intel so that's part of my bias there but it looks like the AMD chips not only perform better, but perform better with faster memory (another important component of helping with data science stuff) so definitely leaning in that direction now. Couldn't find any recent reports of the 3900 not playing nice with a 2080ti in either gaming or data science tasks so not as worried on that front either.

I use a 3900x with a 2080Ti as a gaming HTPC right now.. works great at 4K no issues. There is zero reason to buy anything Intel right now at pretty much every price point.

Basic question if I may - my onboard wifi card only does 2.4ghz and I thought i might upgrade for a modern one. Is there any performance-related reason to go for a new card versus just a dongle that plugs into a Usb3 port?

Thanks in advance

LondonLoo wrote:

Basic question if I may - my onboard wifi card only does 2.4ghz and I thought i might upgrade for a modern one. Is there any performance-related reason to go for a new card versus just a dongle that plugs into a Usb3 port?

All other things being equal, the PCIe solution will give you larger (and often more) antennas, which can make a difference in terms of radio performance.

In terms of bus speed, both PCIe and USB3 are more than sufficient to handle the throughput of a wifi connection without introducing a bottleneck.

The downside of PCIe is that you typically get zero flexibility in terms of positioning. You may have a smaller antenna on a USB device, but you gain the ability to reposition it, which can make a difference. Some PCIe solutions now move the antennas to breakout boxes, though, taking this away as an advantage of USB.

I suspect a high quality PCIe solution, particularly with an antenna breakout box, would likely be the best performing option.

Thanks Legion

Another option you maybe consider is a WiFi Range extender with a ethernet port on it. That is the solution I am using on my desktop after having tried a USB based option that ended up being very unreliable. I had to reset the USB option every week or so by unplugging it and then rebooting my computer and then plugging it back in. I haven't had to reset the range extender ever. Here is the one I have. Setup was super easy.

Hello, all! I am finally ready to pull the proverbial trigger on my gaming PC build, but aside from some advice from dear friends and Rock Paper Shotgun, I am almost flying blind here due to profound ignorance. What I am posting here is approaching my $ limit. Please tell me if I have made any egregious errors...I am not sure if I have the best video card for the CPU, but I can't spend too much above that. Many, many thanks!

AMD RYZEN 5 3600X 6-Core 3.8 GHz (4.4 GHz Max Boost) Socket AM4 95W 100-100000022BOX Desktop Processor $240

MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX AM4 AMD B450 SATA 6Gb/s ATX AMD Motherboard $115

MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER DirectX 12 GTX 1660 SUPER VENTUS XS OC 6GB 192-Bit GDDR6 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card $230

Phanteks Eclipse P300 PH-EC300PTG_BK Black Steel Chassis, Tempered Glass Window ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $50

CORSAIR CX-M Series CX550M 550W 80 PLUS BRONZE Haswell Ready ATX12V & EPS12V Semi-Modular Power Supply $77.50

CORSAIR Vengeance RGB Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 DRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model CMW16GX4M2C3200C16 $95

Intel 660p Series M.2 2280 1TB PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 3D2, QLC Internal Solid State Drive $83

Razer Cynosa Chroma Gaming Keyboard: Customizable Chroma RGB Lighting - Individually Backlit Keys - Spill-Resistant Design - Programmable Macro Functionality $40

BenQ EW277HDR 27" Full HD 1920 x 1080 60Hz 4ms 2x HDMI VGA HDR10 Compatible Built-in Speakers LED Backlit LCD Monitor $150

First off, get the 3600 instead of the 3600X and save yourself $45. A 20% cost increase for a 5% performance boost makes no sense. Even if you want the beefier Wraith Spire cooler that comes with the 3600X over the Wraith Stealth, you can buy one for less than $40.

If you're pinching pennies, you can certainly shave some money off the cost of your motherboard too. Unless you're actually going to use the expansion capabilities of a full-size ATX board, you might as well use a cheaper microATX board instead. I like this guy for simple builds that are using a B450.

I would then take some of those savings to bump your monitor budget up to be able to get a 144hz display. Like maybe this guy if you jump on the Black Friday deal, and get 144hz and G-Sync-compatible FreeSync for your trouble. A 1660 SUPER will definitely push 1080p games over 60fps, might as well get a monitor that can see those frames.

*Legion* wrote:

First off, get the 3600 instead of the 3600X and save yourself $45. A 20% cost increase for a 5% performance boost makes no sense. Even if you want the beefier Wraith Spire cooler that comes with the 3600X over the Wraith Stealth, you can buy one for less than $40.

Great! I just got a similar comment on another forum. But what kind of separate CPU coolers would I purchase, and do you think this build requires it?

*Legion* wrote:

If you're pinching pennies, you can certainly shave some money off the cost of your motherboard too. Unless you're actually going to use the expansion capabilities of a full-size ATX board, you might as well use a cheaper microATX board instead. I like this guy for simple builds that are using a B450.

I've heard from a friend that the AMD Ryzen chip may not play well with the B450 motherboard series. Is there a way to verify that for a non-tech person (me)?

*Legion* wrote:

I would then take some of those savings to bump your monitor budget up to be able to get a 144hz display. Like maybe this guy if you jump on the Black Friday deal, and get 144hz and G-Sync-compatible FreeSync for your trouble. A 1660 SUPER will definitely push 1080p games over 60fps, might as well get a monitor that can see those frames. :)

Sweet! Thank you so much!

Natus wrote:

Great! I just got a similar comment on another forum. But what kind of separate CPU coolers would I purchase, and do you think this build requires it?

I think unless you're building in an airflow-constricted case or if you're particularly sensitive to CPU fan noise, you probably will be fine with the Wraith Stealth.

The good thing is, you can always use the Stealth first, and if it somehow is a problem, you can buy an aftermarket cooler and pop the Stealth out and put it on. It's not a decision you have to make ahead of time. In most environments, the Stealth will be perfectly fine, which is why it's bundled with the CPU to begin with.

I've heard from a friend that the AMD Ryzen chip may not play well with the B450 motherboard series. Is there a way to verify that for a non-tech person (me)?

Well B450 is for Ryzen chips. But what he might have been referring to is the fact that the B450 board released with second gen (2000 series) Ryzen chips, and you're looking to buy a 3000 series chip.

B450 supports 3rd gen Ryzen, but the board's firmware must be sufficiently up to date. You're not guaranteed to receive a B450 board with a firmware recent enough to run with a 3000 series chip, which gives you the chicken-and-egg problem of needing to update the board's firmware to run your CPU, but needing a CPU that the board can run in order to update the firmware. (AMD has a CPU loaner program to work around this, but that's not the most convenient thing)

There's a good chance a B450 board you buy now will have a recent enough BIOS, but if you don't want to risk it, you can buy one that supports USB Flashback (allowing you to flash the BIOS without a CPU). Probably the ones you'd be looking at would be the MSI B450 A-PRO or the MSI B450M Gaming Plus. The Tomahawk Max you already have in your build list also supports it, so if you're more comfortable with that one rather than these less expensive options, you can also stay with that.

Nature, just picked up a 3900x and going with custom cooling so depending on cost I could ship you my stock cooler, not sure if that would help?

staygold wrote:

Nature, just picked up a 3900x and going with custom cooling so depending on cost I could ship you my stock cooler, not sure if that would help?

Oh, thanks, I have no idea yet if it will be necessary. I have yet to even purchase the build. Thanks for the offer, though!

I'm looking for a black friday or cyber monday deal for new gaming comp, monitor and speakers. Was thinking monitor could also replace old tv.

I'm trying to make peace with my decision to go with the 2070 super over the 5700 XT.
Yes, I paid more. Yes, 7nm is damn sexy. Yes, this will be my first Nvidia card in a long time. But I hope to be pushing 2-3 1440p 144Hz displays and am very likely to jump into VR in the next few years. The 2070S seemed like it would give me more room for growth in the near term while the XT would have been a more direct upgrade for where I am.

Still I should probably stop looking at reviews until the new card is in.

Upgrading from crossfired R9 290 which are fine except for how I have been using my machine. 90% of the time only one of the cards is working leading to a rollercoaster of performance from what should be a kick-ass system.

Don't know if this is the correct thread for this question or not, but I am looking for a monitor mount that can attach to my desk and allow me to mount two 27" monitors vertically, in landscape orientation. As an example, there is a link below. Are there any out there that anyone would recommended over another? Thanks!

https://www.amazon.com/VIVO-Monitor-...