Help me build my PC 2020 Catch All

Do you want dual onboard M.2 PCIe 4.0 slots? If so, X570.

Do you want a multi-GPU setup? If so, X570.

Do you want 10GB onboard LAN? If so, X570.

Do you need PCIe 4.0 on ALL the PCIe lanes? If so, X570.

Do you not need any of those things? Then a B550 board will have you covered.

For B550 boards, I like the ASUS TUF B550 Plus. (I'm using the X570 version of this board in my main build)

Heretk wrote:

I am working on a parts list for my AMD build. GPU is up in the air of course but I am seeing mixed opinions on the net regarding chip set. I am down to choosing between a B550 or X570 board. I see examples of both at similar price points. What do you all think about it for a solid mid-range build using the 5600X?

If you can get a x570 board from a relatively quality vendor that's about the same price as a B550, you'll get the list of features that Legion lists. Personally, I think the all-PCIe4 feature is pretty cool. The B550 chipset doesn't support PCIe4, where the X570 does. On either chipset, you get one x16 slot of PCIe4, because that's driven by the CPU, and I think one PCIe4 M.2 slot, also driven by the CPU. That last is definitely there on the 570, not certain on the 550. The third (x4) slot and second M.2 (also x4) will be PCIe3 on a 550, and PCIe4 on a 570.

If there's a downside, it's that the x570 runs hotter, meaning that it will cost a little more to run (probably not noticeable on the power bill unless you're really using the bejezus out of the system), your case will have to exhaust a little more heat, and the cooling system on the motherboard needs to be a little better, which is part of the increased cost.

Higher temps on the 570 could potentially shorten motherboard life, but we're probably not going to know for sure for at least another five years.

Oh, and Legion? The 10G LAN is not guaranteed. My ASUS board comes with only 2.5G Ethernet.

Malor wrote:

Oh, and Legion? The 10G LAN is not guaranteed. My ASUS board comes with only 2.5G Ethernet.

Right, I should have said more clearly: if you need 10G onboard LAN, you have to look at X570 boards because that's not supported in B550 at all. But like you say, it's not standard across X570 boards.

Heretk wrote:

I am working on a parts list for my AMD build. GPU is up in the air of course but I am seeing mixed opinions on the net regarding chip set. I am down to choosing between a B550 or X570 board. I see examples of both at similar price points. What do you all think about it for a solid mid-range build using the 5600X?

I'm in the middle of a new build too, and have been researching the same thing for the past couple of weeks.

For me, I don't think I have any need of an X570 board. If I use this new PC like I use my current one, I'll be putting a 5600x, 3070, and one SSD in it and calling it a day. Then over the next few years I'll upgrade the GPU once or twice, maybe buy a second SSD, and that's about it.

So I've been trying to figure out the best sort of all-purpose, general B550 board, probably in the $150-160 range. For me it's probably a toss-up between the Gigabyte Aorus Elite V2 and the MSI B550-A Pro, probably leaning towards the Gigabyte right now. I've also had my eye on the Asus Tuf Gaming B550-Plus, though haven't really seen it talked about as much as the other two.

For higher-priced boards, I don't think I'd use the extra features to justify the higher cost. For my use case, it seems like about any of those boards I buy should be fine, and

Brother wants a VR capable PC... now-ish... and found this prebuilt to be cheaper than any other way he can piece together parts. He was setting a budget of $1000.

I don't see a catch. If I try to get it it piece by piece the GPU is still too difficult to find.

That's an awfully low-spec machine for VR. He'd want a much more powerful graphic card.

I don't think you're likely to get something that would actually be good at VR for much less than $1500, probably $2K if it's a prebuilt.

I'd suggest looking for a system with a 5600X and probably a 3070 for a genuinely good VR experience. You could drop back to the 3600X, like in the system you link, but the 5600X will likely have substantially longer legs, and may be better at playing console ports because of its extra cores.

A 3060Ti would probably also work okay, but VR needs a ton of horsepower to work well. VR means driving two high-res screens at high frame rates, which puts a massive load on the GPU. A 3080 would be ideal, but those things started at $800 before the crunch and new tariffs, and are over $1000 now, all by themselves. 3070s are $650ish, if you can find them at all.

vlox_km wrote:

For higher-priced boards, I don't think I'd use the extra features to justify the higher cost. For my use case, it seems like about any of those boards I buy should be fine, and

The difference isn't huge, the B550 is a very capable chipset. I'd probably have bought one if I'd spotted any ASUS B550s with the CPU-free BIOS flash feature.

A 1660 is fine for VR. Unless you are looking to drive a Pymax or Valve mega high rez screen.
And I am guessing since you are looking to spend $1000 on a computer that the high end VR gear is off the table. Also don't forget the Quest 2 is running off a mobile processor and GPU so again a 1660 will do fine.

The specs for the Rift S was a 970 (960?) or some such IIRC. The 1660 is equivalent to a 980ti by comparison. So well above spec.

The Rift S was 1280x1440, so half the resolution of a 2560x1440 screen, but with two screens, so about the same, and running at 80Hz.

My 970 gets overwhelmed running a single 2560x1440 screen at 60Hz with most games that use full screen effects, so it would be very weak for trying to run an 80Hz headset. A 1660 would be mostly okay for that, but as I understand it, the Rift S is pretty lousy compared to most newer offerings.

Maybe it would be better if manta can tell us what specific headset his brother has?

Malor wrote:

The Rift S was 1280x1440, so half the resolution of a 2560x1440 screen, but with two screens, so about the same, and running at 80Hz.

My 970 gets overwhelmed running a single 2560x1440 screen at 60Hz with most games that use full screen effects, so it would be very weak for trying to run an 80Hz headset. A 1660 would be mostly okay for that, but as I understand it, the Rift S is pretty lousy compared to most newer offerings.

Maybe it would be better if manta can tell us what specific headset his brother has?

Headset TBD.... maybe a borrowed original Vive. He just wants to play half life Alex and doesn't want to wait a year to be able to buy a video card.

Half Life Alex minimum specs:
Processor: Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600
Memory: 12 GB RAM
Graphics: GTX 1060 / RX 580 - 6GB VRAM

You should be perfectly fine with that prebuilt. An r5 3600 + gtx1660 will have considerably more CPU muscle and about 20-30% more gpu performance.

fangblackbone wrote:

Half Life Alex minimum specs:
Processor: Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 5 1600
Memory: 12 GB RAM
Graphics: GTX 1060 / RX 580 - 6GB VRAM

You should be perfectly fine with that prebuilt. An r5 3600 + gtx1660 will have considerably more CPU muscle and about 20-30% more gpu performance.

Thanks. I haven't looked at prebuilts in so long I was afraid I was missing some sort of catch.

manta173 wrote:

Brother wants a VR capable PC... now-ish... and found this prebuilt to be cheaper than any other way he can piece together parts. He was setting a budget of $1000.

I don't see a catch. If I try to get it it piece by piece the GPU is still too difficult to find.

You might want to find out who makes the power supply.

Chairman_Mao wrote:
manta173 wrote:

Brother wants a VR capable PC... now-ish... and found this prebuilt to be cheaper than any other way he can piece together parts. He was setting a budget of $1000.

I don't see a catch. If I try to get it it piece by piece the GPU is still too difficult to find.

You might want to find out who makes the power supply.

Good point. thanks.

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/vlox_k...

I'm pretty close to buyingthe rest of my parts for a new build. Does anything look terribly wrong here, or could be improved? I've already got the CPU, GPU, and power supply

Obviously I'm not getting 2 CPU coolers, but I haven't quite decided on which one yet.

I go back and forth on the motherboard, and have also been considering the MSI B550-A PRO. I've also been back and forth on the case. Of the major airflow cases, I think the Lancool II Mesh looks the nicest. I'm not a super big fan of most cases having tempered glass sides. I was also considering the Phanteks P400a and Fractal Meshify C.

My biggest question is probably the SSD. For my gaming/Internet general usage, I don't think a PCIe 4 would be worth it. I'd seen several articles that the Western Digital Blue SN550 is good enough and good value for gaming/Internet use. And that I wouldn't really notice the higher speed on faster drives. I could also maybe buy a faster drive in a couple years when they're cheaper and/or PCIe 4 is actually used by games or something. I'm not sure if it's worth another $30 or so dollars for a faster drive with DRAM (something like a WD SN750, Sabrent Rocket, or SK Hynix Gold P31 are the other ones I'd been looking at).

Your build sounds really similar to what I wound up building. So far, no complaints. I also decided that for regular gaming use, Gen 4 wasn't worth the premium for the SSD right now. Same thinking around getting a B550 board instead of an X570.

Good to hear. That does look pretty similar. Are those the prices you purchased at? I have noticed that almost every component I’ve looked at is at least $10 higher than it was 3-4 weeks ago. I’m guessing from the tariffs kicking in, or whatever.

Yeah, those were purchase prices. I got a handful of them in black friday sales, and got really lucky on some others.

vlox_km wrote:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/vlox_k...

I'm pretty close to buyingthe rest of my parts for a new build. Does anything look terribly wrong here, or could be improved? I've already got the CPU, GPU, and power supply

Obviously I'm not getting 2 CPU coolers, but I haven't quite decided on which one yet.

I go back and forth on the motherboard, and have also been considering the MSI B550-A PRO. I've also been back and forth on the case. Of the major airflow cases, I think the Lancool II Mesh looks the nicest. I'm not a super big fan of most cases having tempered glass sides. I was also considering the Phanteks P400a and Fractal Meshify C.

My biggest question is probably the SSD. For my gaming/Internet general usage, I don't think a PCIe 4 would be worth it. I'd seen several articles that the Western Digital Blue SN550 is good enough and good value for gaming/Internet use. And that I wouldn't really notice the higher speed on faster drives. I could also maybe buy a faster drive in a couple years when they're cheaper and/or PCIe 4 is actually used by games or something. I'm not sure if it's worth another $30 or so dollars for a faster drive with DRAM (something like a WD SN750, Sabrent Rocket, or SK Hynix Gold P31 are the other ones I'd been looking at).

PCIe4 isn't all that big a deal unless you're really saturating bandwidth with multiple devices, correct.

Genuine question, how are you gonna handle getting a GPU? It's ridiculous out there.

I got super lucky with the Best Buy drop a couple of weeks ago. Was able to snag a 3070 and a 5600x somehow. Just went and picked them up today.

I was really trying for the 3060ti, but couldn’t get it in the cart.

Guess I'll have to keep an eye out for Best Buy restocks to try and get an affordable card. I'm not up to date on current models at all, what cards of theirs are good value under $400? Any models to avoid?

Also will a PCIe 4 card work in a PCIe 3 slot?

From what I’ve read, Best Buy seems to be the only somewhat consistent method of trying to get one. I think they get more every 2-3 weeks, and usually release them on a Tuesday or Friday morning. I got mine about 2 weeks ago Tuesday, somewhere between 11-11:30 EST.

You may want to look up some tips. You’ll want to be logged in with all your info saved. Then when they become available, clicking Add to Cart will grey out the button and give you a message to wait. Then when the button turns yellow again, you need to click it and hope it gets added to your cart, then check out as fast as possible. Don’t refresh while the button is grayed out and waiting, as I think that takes you out of the queue.

I’d basically just been leaving my browser and phone open on most weekday mornings for a couple weeks, trying to keep an eye out.

I’m not too sure about models. I know the FE ones are the cheapest. I got the 3070 for $500, and the 3060ti is $400. The 3060 coming out will be $3-hundred-something. And all the other brands cost more.

With how scarce everything is, it seems like the best value one is whichever one you can actually check out with!

Renji wrote:

Also will a PCIe 4 card work in a PCIe 3 slot?

Yes. It will run at PCIe 3 bus speed, which for current GPUs is rarely a meaningful difference.

Alright, I have a bit of a weird conundrum. I've decided to go with a pre-built PC instead of continuing to try and get lucky with a CPU/Graphics card. It seems to me that the Alienware R11/R10 are pretty good systems for the money and I've essentially come down to two options:

R11 - $2800
Intel 10700KF
16GB RAM
1TB SSD
RTX 3090
1000W PSU

R10 - $2100
AMD 5800X
32GB RAM
1TB SSD
6800XT
1000W PSU

I'd prefer to go Radeon, but I'd rather have an Nvidia GPU. I want to strike while the wife is willing to let me pull the trigger. Thoughts?

The price/performance of the AMD system is far better. I hope that is a typo on the 16GB RAM because that makes the intel system even worse if it is not...

I think it would be helpful to know the mobo on the AMD system. Is it a decent looking 570?

Why only those specific R10/R11 builds? There's a lot of customization available. There are R10 options with Ryzen + an RTX 3080.

I'm guessing they are deals because on Dell's website that r10 build is $2400 not $2100.

I need to find a KVM that won't break the bank, so I don't have to keep swapping cables between my work laptop and gaming rig.

I use a Dell D6000 docking station that is connected to the laptop via USB-C and when I want to game I unplug all the USBs from the dock as well as as the DP cable, followed by unplugging the DVI cable from the adapter that runs to the laptop, then running them into the mid-tower.

Anyone have good experience with a KVM that can handle both DP and DVI connections, that won't cost an arm and a leg?

Anybody got any recommendations for an M2 enclosure? For a 2280. Bought one awhile ago that I never got around to using.

Reviews are all over the place on Amazon.

If it's PCIe, there are cheap cards that let you just plug it into a slot directly. I think they cost about $15. You mount the M.2 on the card's socket, screw it down, and put the card in the slot. If your BIOS understands NVME, you can boot from it; if it doesn't, it only wakes up after the OS loads drivers for it.

I can get you a link to one that works if you need it; it would take a few minutes to chase down.

If it's an SATA version of M.2, that I don't know off the top of my head, as I haven't bought an adapter yet.