Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

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Wannaretireearly
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Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Wannaretireearly »

[Thread updated in this post -- admin LadyGeek]

Hi,

My son wants to build his first gaming PC.
I've tried to follow this thread : viewtopic.php?t=324546, however I thought it's best to start a new one for our project.

My son has been following this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO-V8E9MIBg.

The list of his components he has shortlisted are here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 6bf6#gid=0

1. We're newbies. Welcome any feedback on the components he has shortlisted.
2. We're about to buy the Memory as it's on sale (?): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TB ... 0DER&psc=1.

Is buying from Amazon recommended or another site (ease of returns, etc)? Is the memory component, a good deal to purchase now?

Appreciate any advice.

Thanks!!
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
stan1
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by stan1 »

He should use https://pcpartpicker.com

He can post his build for comments there as well as get comparison prices between the major retailers.

I would take the money from the protection plan and put it into a better microprocessor.
bogledogle
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by bogledogle »

stan1 wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 5:21 pm He should use https://pcpartpicker.com

He can post his build for comments there as well as get comparison prices between the major retailers.

I would take the money from the protection plan and put it into a better microprocessor.
+1
majincline
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by majincline »

stan1 wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 5:21 pm He should use https://pcpartpicker.com
I would take the money from the protection plan and put it into a better microprocessor.
+1. Pcpartpicker is awesome for speccing out a build and sharing it for comments. It's not great at finding deals, so keep that in mind.

It looks like you're going for an AMD build, so you should know that AMD has a new batch of CPUs and GPUs around the corner. The question is when they'll be in stock -- it could be weeks or months. Waiting could pay off but it could also turn into a long wait. But that's something to keep in mind if there isn't any rush.

For the SSD, SATA is getting a bit dated. You can often find a 1TB NVMe SSD in the $150 ballpark. Here are two deals on Amazon today. It'll be faster and make the cabling simpler. (No need to run a SATA and power cable.) Consult a list like this one for what others consider to be the best SSDs when looking for deals.

That RAM deal isn't unheard of. For example, a quick browse of the Buildapcsales subreddit shows another 32GB 3600CL18 set for $110 right now.

The case is very much an aesthetic choice. I'm too old for RGB so I'd go with something like this. That's entirely personal preference.

As for where to buy, there are plenty of good deals to find on Amazon. Newegg has been around a while and is also a decent bet, but their return policy isn't nearly as good. If you have a Microcenter in your area, I can't recommend them enough. They can help pick components for the pricepoint you're looking for in store, and often offer discounts for CPU+Motherboard combos.
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by oldcomputerguy »

This topic is now in the Personal Consumer Issues forum.
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mmmodem
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by mmmodem »

I'm confused why you would choose a lesser video card (RX 5600 vs RX 5700XT and CPU (Ryzen 5 2600 vs Ryzen 5 3600) than ones listed in the linked YouTube video for the same ~$1000 price point. You also have 32 gb vs 16 gb ram, 700 watt PSU vs 600 watt, and a x570 vs a b450 listed in the video.

Once you reach a minimum level of CPU power, your video card will drive gaming performance. I would maximize the budget on the GPU and pair with a CPU that won't bottleneck it. I think the YouTube video made a great choice with the $1000 budget with a few good alternatives for an Nvidia card if you so choose.

While 32 gb ram and 700 watt PSU is great, it may be overkill for a gaming build at this level. Look up some more videos, 16gb ram and 600 PSU is enough for this build. You can add another 16 in the future if you regret it. I'd also choose a b550 motherboard over the x570 you have listed. You'll save another $50 that can be used for a powerful video card.
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Wannaretireearly
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Wannaretireearly »

Thanks all who have responded so far!!
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
Independent George
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Independent George »

Wannaretireearly wrote: Wed Nov 11, 2020 5:17 pm I've tried to follow this thread : viewtopic.php?t=324546, however I thought it's best to start a new one for our project.

My son has been following this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO-V8E9MIBg.

The list of his components he has shortlisted are here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 6bf6#gid=0

1. We're newbies. Welcome any feedback on the components he has shortlisted.
2. We're about to buy the Memory as it's on sale (?): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TB ... 0DER&psc=1.
Welcome to the cult! This is a fantastic activity to share with your son. You're both going to learn a lot from the experience. I'll second the recommendation for PC Part Picker for shopping around.

Based on your Google Docs, I'd make the following points:

1. CPU: I'd rather have the 3600XT than the 2600, but I'd actually put the 3600 (non-X, non-XT) above both if you could get it for the $200 it was selling for a few weeks ago. I think the shortage of 5000 series chips has caused people to buy up the stock of 3600 CPUs, leading to unusual price increases at the moment. If you can wait a bit, I expect the price to go down again; if not, buy the 3600XT and not the 2600.
2. SSD: I think you can get better price/performance than the choices you listed. The Sabrent Rocket and Samsung EVO high cost/high performance drives that most people simply will not benefit from; the Teamgroup 2.5" drive is good, but you can find NVME drives at the same price. Right now, I think the sweet spot is the AData XPG 8200, which currently has a rebate offer on Amazon.
3. The MSI Gaming Edge is a very, very bad motherboard; do not buy it. If you are set on X570, MSI released the much better Tomahawk a few months later, and the ASUS Tuf Gaming is also outstanding, but I actually think X570 is not needed in the first place (see below).
4. I'd recommend a cheaper B550 motherboard instead. The MSI A-Pro ($140) or the Gigabyte Aorus Elite ($150) are really good values that offer all the features you need, and will accept a CPU upgrade later on. The B450 Tomahawk mentioned in the video is the best overall B450 board on the market, and an outstanding value when he released the video in 2019, but I would not recommend it today. A B550 board will give you the option to upgrade both the CPU (B550 is compatible with Ryzen 5000 processors) and GPU (because of the PCIE 4.0 expansion slot) in the future.
5. For a gaming PC, I would the 5700XT you listed instead of the 5600. This is the one component where you should expect to spend the most.
6. RAM: you selected a good kit, though if you can find a cheaper 3200 Mhz kit, I'd recommend that instead; the difference between 3200 and 3600 is minimal, but the cost is not.

That's as much as I can write at the moment; I'll be back later. I love building PCs (as you could probably guess from the other thread), and would love to hear about your experiences.
Nekrotok
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Nekrotok »

Yes, I agree with most of the feedback you've gotten. Here are my additional thoughts:
1. Personally, I'd cut even more cost from the motherboard with like the cheapest b500 you can find unless there's some specific feature you want.
2. I'd also cut cost from the ram by just getting 16gb
3. With the savings above and some other cost cutting, get at least a ryzen 3600 and then maximize GPU
4. I didn't see monitor, keyboard, or mouse. I'd get a 144hz IPS monitor, and at least a basic gaming keyboard/mouse.
5. Not sure if you'd really need the webcam. I like to use my phone for video conferencing and it leaves my computer free to work at the same time.

Here's what I'm thinking. I didn't get to psu, mouse, and keyboard as I haven't got good suggestions there. With monitor, it's over budget, but you didn't have one in your budget so not sure if you'd need to cut, but if you do, then downgrade the GPU. The monitor regularly goes on sale for like $160 or so whenever amazon gets some in stock so look for that.

[PCPartPicker Part List](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2GWk9N)
Independent George
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Independent George »

One more thing I forgot to mention before: the case. The Meshify C is currently on sale at Newegg, and it's one of the best cases on the market.

Antec makes some good cases, but I'm not a fan of the one on your list because of airflow. Looking at the photo, I see three narrow vents in the front panel; there's just not a lot of space to allow the fans to pull air in. It's not as bad as some designs (such as putting a glass panel right in front of the fans), but it's clearly designed more for aesthetics rather than function. The Meshify C follows what's fast becoming a standard design for gaming cases: a large, open mesh front and top panels, direct airflow path from the front fans to the CPU/GPU, and space for radiators. At $60, it's a steal right now.
Slacker
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Slacker »

Pcpartpicker as others mentioned.

If this is basically a gaming only rig, often the suggestion is spend 1/3 (or more) of your total budget on the graphics card.

Thermaltake isn't that good of a PSU brand.

If going Zen+ I'd go with an R7 2700x if you can get it for $160 or less, but I'd say the R5 3600 is better if you find it at $160 (that is what I paid a few months ago). Skip the 3600X or XT, the gains aren't worth the price premium for your use case.

16 GB of RAM is all that is needed (2x8gb), but getting 32 GB ram will improve performance in 4x8gb form due to the ram now being dual ranked and interleaved (and not really from the actual size of the memory). However, this is a minor consideration for later upgrades and you can stick with 16gb for now to constrain budget.

1TB NVME m.2 pcie gen 3 drives can be purchased for less than $100 right now on sale. However, you won't see much performance difference vs a SATA SSD for gaming only.

Don't worry about the new Zen3 processors. They start at $300 and are impossible to purchase unless you want to pay double msrp to a scalper. However, due to the big performance uplift I recommend a B550 motherboard for future upgrades (x570 is overkill, B450 is okay but I still say B550 is ideal since one of the killer features of the 5000x processors only works on a pcie4 bus which b450 lacks).

Don't worry about the new Radeon graphics cards coming out next week. You likely won't get one and they start at $579. However, next year the mid tier RX6000 cards (navi22/23) should be coming out and will be a nice future upgrade path. The 5600xt is a fine card but if you can get a 5700xt, even better.

Make sure the monitor makes use of that graphics horsepower. You want a freesync compatible monitor for an AMD gpu system. 1440p unless your child is into high FPS competitive gaming (then the fastest 1080p monitor is what you want).

2600/3600/2700 plus an RX5600/5700 -> probably be fine with a 650w 80+ bronze power supply. Get modular or semi modular, it will make it easier to build. Could even get away with a 550W psu that is 80+ gold rated most likely.
Slacker
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Slacker »

Wanted to add a note:. The Zen3 processors (5600x, 5800x, 5900x, 5950x) are absolutely compatible with most B450 motherboards, but the individual manufacturers will decide which ones they support with new bios. B550/X570 are safest for Zen3 but B450 is fine too.

However, you won't get max performance from the Zen3 processors combined with the RX6000 series GPUs without a B550/X570 motherboard, as far as we know at this time. It is a 2-8% difference in performance with B550 vs B450 according to AMD (using smart access memory activated in BIOS).
Slacker
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Slacker »

Just checked the prices on processors and they are really out of the ordinary.

Last year the 2700x had black Friday sales price around $160. Now $213.

If you must buy now, I take back what I said about the 3600xt as it looks like at $233 a better buy than the 3600 at $213. However, I think these prices are not good. I'd wait for black Friday /Cyber Monday and see if you can get a much better deal. Don't expect the 3600xt to drop in price but the 3600 should. Worst case a ryzen 3 3100 or 3300x for less than $120 would be a good enough deal for a gaming only computer, but your child won't be able to do heavy multitasking without the game stuttering if it is a newer AAA title or they are trying to live stream with friends while playing (older or mid tier games would probably be fine with multitasking).

BTW epic games is giving away one or two older games every week. Purchase them for $0.00 in the epic game store.
Independent George
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Independent George »

So, you've gotten a lot of good suggestions here - perhaps a little too much (I'm guilty of this), as it can be a bit of information overload for someone new. So instead of specific hardware, I'm going to write a little more about the hows and whys of building a PC.

Pricing & Availability
1. In a normal year, the very best values for components is the previous generation hardware right after the next generation hardware launches. In a normal year, that would be today - the Ryzen 5000 line of CPUs just launched, and the Nvidia and AMD are both in the middle of their next gen graphics card launches, so the previous gen should be heavily discounted as retailers try to clear inventory.
2. Unfortunately, we're not in a normal year. Most components are manufactured in China, where supply lines were massively disrupted by Covid; meanwhile, demand for components has gone sky high as everyone tries to finds something to do with their time. In the US, there was a massive surge in demand (and prices) in the spring as people noticed that their $1,200 stimulus checks pretty well covered a $1,200 gaming PC build. The end result is that with new hardware insufficient to meet demand, prices on old hardware are being driven up right when it usually goes down. Several people above have noted that the Ryzen 3600 CPU - the go-to price/performance champion which was as cheap as $160 this summer - is currently at $220.
3. Combined with the Christmas rush, prices are not following the normal trends this year. If you need a computer today, you can expect to either spend a bit more than I would normally recommend. If you can wait until January, I expect prices to normalize, but this is not guaranteed.
4. On a brighter note, power supplies seem to be plentiful right now; they had been in severe shortage through most of 2020.

CPU (Central Processing Unit)
1. The CPU is the actual microchip at the center of a computer, and it's the physical component that actually runs all the programs and controls what is happening on screen. In terms of gaming, a faster CPU basically allows more 'stuff' to be happening on screen simultaneously. Modern CPUs also use multi-cores and multi-threading - that is, it is able to break down very large and complex tasks into smaller ones, and run them simultaneously.
2. Each physical core on a modern CPU runs two compute threads simultaneously (known as simultenous multithreading, or SMT), and six cores/twelve threads is now considered the baseline for a gaming computer.
3. Gaming puts a heavy workload on one core, and uses the others to 'assist' it by running simultaneous calculations. When you read about 'single core workloads', or 'single core boost', that's what they're talking about - in broad terms, single core performance determines the top speed of the game, and efficient use of cores increases the 'smoothness' of the experience by preventing compute bottlenecks. More threads means more things can be tracked on the screen at a single time, and is important for large, dynamic game worlds.
4. After years of dominance (and stagnation) from Intel, AMD has recently taken the innovation & performance lead - the main reason 6C/12T is now the mainstream baseline is because of AMD aggressively pushing more cores and more efficiency to consumer processors. Until this year, Intel typically had slightly better single-core performance (important for gaming), while AMD had significantly better multi-core performance and power efficiency.
5. That changed with the just-released Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, which match or exceed Intel's single core performance while increasing the lead in multicore. Unfortunately, as the new market leader, that means prices have gone up significantly on the new AMD processors - basically, the previous-gen Ryzen 3000 series offered the best value per dollar, while the next-gen Ryzen 5000 series offers higher performance at a higher cost, and Intel sits between them.
6. But, as mentioned in the previous section, prices have entered crazy town. As a general rule in computing, there are no bad products, only bad prices - and since prices are crazy, that means value propositions are now equally crazy. Enthusiasts (including myself) love AMD, but with the right retailer discounts, you might actually find Intel offering the better value proposition on Black Friday. Black is white, white is black, we are through the looking glass.

That's as much as I can write for now. I'll try to cover motherboards, memory, and GPUs in the next round - those are comparatively simpler.
chesley
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by chesley »

You and your son might look at the recent article on $500/$1000/$1500 gaming builds at Tomshardware.com. I have enjoyed the site and the discussions about builds and components. Read discussions about processor $$ vs graphics card $$.
dwc13
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by dwc13 »

@Wannaretireearly

Welcome to the club, lol. Several of us who have posted on the other thread have recently completed or started a new PC build. As you can see from the responses thus far, expect quite a bit of feedback on your project. I'll take a look at the BOM you linked and respond in a subsequent post.

1. What is the approximate budget for the PC Build (excluding Windows 10 license, an additional cost if you don't already have a new/transferrable license)?

2. What type(s) of games does your son play?

First identify the core components: CPU, motherboard, graphics card, case and power supply. After you have made those selections, pick out compatible RAM, SSD/HD and other items such as case fans and coolers (for CPU and, if desired, graphics card), optical drive, mouse/keyboard, etc.

The case size & layout will determine which graphics cards and coolers (for CPU and, if desired, graphics card) will physically fit. Also note where the power supply will be housed in the case (top or bottom), as a few units require one or the other location (most can be installed top or bottom). For a first-time build, I do *not* recommend buying a small case or a small motherboard, as their confined space/layout will be frustrating to work with.

Power requirements (at load) for the CPU, motherboard and graphics card will largely determine what *minimum* wattage power supply you should purchase.

Power Supply Calculator
https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

FWIW, I prefer shopping at newegg.com and in-store at Micro Center. If there is a Micro Center in your area, pay attention to the periodic deals.
Topic Author
Wannaretireearly
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Wannaretireearly »

dwc13 wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 12:07 pm @Wannaretireearly

Welcome to the club, lol. Several of us who have posted on the other thread have recently completed or started a new PC build. As you can see from the responses thus far, expect quite a bit of feedback on your project. I'll take a look at the BOM you linked and respond in a subsequent post.

1. What is the approximate budget for the PC Build (excluding Windows 10 license, an additional cost if you don't already have a new/transferrable license)?

2. What type(s) of games does your son play?

First identify the core components: CPU, motherboard, graphics card, case and power supply. After you have made those selections, pick out compatible RAM, SSD/HD and other items such as case fans and coolers (for CPU and, if desired, graphics card), optical drive, mouse/keyboard, etc.

The case size & layout will determine which graphics cards and coolers (for CPU and, if desired, graphics card) will physically fit. Also note where the power supply will be housed in the case (top or bottom), as a few units require one or the other location (most can be installed top or bottom). For a first-time build, I do *not* recommend buying a small case or a small motherboard, as their confined space/layout will be frustrating to work with.

Power requirements (at load) for the CPU, motherboard and graphics card will largely determine what *minimum* wattage power supply you should purchase.

Power Supply Calculator
https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

FWIW, I prefer shopping at newegg.com and in-store at Micro Center. If there is a Micro Center in your area, pay attention to the periodic deals.
Thanks to you and the other recent responses! A lot to digest ;)
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
rich126
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by rich126 »

I've lost count of the number of pcs I've built, taken apart, etc. At one time at work many decades ago I did hardware design (circuit boards, signal processing stuff) so I'm familiar with doing a bunch of building. My last computer built was about 3-4 years ago. Cases certainly are much nicer and easier to use.

The one issue I had with doing it at home vs. at work is at work I had a ton of parts to swap out to help diagnose what was broken. For example, if something strange was going on with video I could easily swap out one video card for another to test that theory. Or could swap out power supplies, etc. Unfortunately when you are working on a single system at home it isn't as easy. instead you might have to send something back to a company and wait for replacement and you'd diagnose could be wrong. I personally haven't had that issue but it is a concern.

And one thing I'd never do again is to take apart an iMac. I did that a few years ago because the model I had (~2010) you could replace the CPU in it with another newer model (pin compatible) easily. It just had so many delicate ribbon cables that were so difficult to remove, and even harder to reconnect when you put it back to together, I was surprised it still worked afterwards. Obviously people who do that may have better equipment but it was a very painful thing to do.

It is a good experience for someone to try, if they like building things and messing around with technology. And most importantly you get a computer that isn't full of crappy software on it.

Good luck.
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Topic Author
Wannaretireearly
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Wannaretireearly »

Ok folks. We've narrowed the specs down to this new doc below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Take a peek. It's way beyond our budget at $1600!
Time to wait for Turkey day deals :D
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
dwc13
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by dwc13 »

Quick note on RAM for AMD Ryzen CPUs:

1. AMD *officially* supports up to DDR4 3200 MHz UDIMMs (modules). So even if the motherboard supports DDR 4 3600 MHz modules, there is no guarantee your Ryzen 3700X CPU will support DDR4 RAM running at 3600 MHz. If the PC won't boot or run properly at 3600 MHz, you can always downclock the RAM to 3200 MHz in the UEFI/BIOS.

In general, PC builders are able to get DDR4 3600 MHz modules to operate at full speed with a Ryzen 7 3700X CPU and AM4 motherboard, but once in a while someone runs into an issue (perhaps when using an oddball memory module, fickle motherboard and/or unstable firmware/drivers).

Information on RAM
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pc ... ill%2010ns.

2. Better to buy 2 x 8GB (16GB total) or 2 x 16GB (32GB total) DDR4 modules, rather than 4 x 8 GB (32 GB total) DDR4 modules. For Ryzen CPUs, there is a slight performance hit when using 4 modules. In addition, if you install 4 x 8 GB modules (using up all the memory banks on the motherboard), you will end up with 2 spare modules (removed 2 x 8 GB) if you want to upgrade to 48 GB (existing 2 x 8 GB + new 2 x 16 GB).

3. Read the motherboard manual and install the DDR4 modules in the correct memory banks so that Dual Channel configuration is enabled.

4. Do *not* mix memory speeds, timing and/or capacities for the paired modules. You should also avoid mixing manufacturers, at least for paired modules.

Crucial Advisor Tool -- Helpful tool for Crucial Memory / SSD products
https://www.crucial.com/store/advisor?c ... lector-btn

Newegg.com Memory Finder
https://www.newegg.com/tools/memory-finder


Power Supply:

Power Supply Calculator -- Great tool to help pick out appropriate PS
https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

Information about 80 Plus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus
https://www.plugloadsolutions.com/80Plu ... plies.aspx


Cooling:

The Big Air Cooling Investigation -- Interesting read about case fan placement, quantities, flow direction
https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/the-b ... igation/1/
Nekrotok
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Nekrotok »

You list 2 1tb SSDs but the price and links go to 512gb drives. Not sure which size you meant but I'd rather get one bigger one than two smaller ones unless there's significant price difference.

Get a ryzen 5600x instead of 3700x if you can find one in stock.
palaheel
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by palaheel »

If he's building a pc for the experience or to get the machine he wants, that's great. If he's building to save money, you might want to verify those savings. It's hard to save money over an already assembled machine.

https://www.tomshardware.com/best-picks

My first build was a close call. I was buying my parts at a computer fair, and the vendor did a smoke test on my subassembly. There was a problem, and he spent 15 minutes swapping parts until he discovered that the motherboard was bad. I realized at that moment that if I had bought mail-order parts, I'd have been dead--I had no extra parts to swap out to determine the bad component. After that, I always bought parts locally to have some backup, if needed.
Nothing to say, really.
bikesandbeers
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by bikesandbeers »

I've purchase lots of parts through newegg and never had a problem. I have had more issues with Amazon, although their return policy is good.

I do feel like I am getting a lot of "early black friday" emails right now, so shop around
Independent George
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Independent George »

palaheel wrote: Fri Nov 13, 2020 7:53 am If he's building a pc for the experience or to get the machine he wants, that's great. If he's building to save money, you might want to verify those savings. It's hard to save money over an already assembled machine.
While speccing out my own build, I found you can expect to spend an extra $200-$300 buying from a reputable system integrator like IBuypower (which is a fair margin in my opinion). Even then, you might still find a few issues - those were all easily fixable, but presumably the reason to buy a prebuilt in the first place is to avoid having to muck about in the BIOS.

The good SI's use name-brand parts, do proper cable management, and have user-serviceable cases. The less expensive SI's will cheap out on parts whenever they can, most commonly on the case and the PSU. A cheap case won't break your computer, but they might have terrible airflow/noise performance, and if they're not designed for user serviceability, replacing or upgrading your components can be difficult. That's exactly what happened with my Dell Studio XPS - with the corporate discount from my employer, I saved about $200 from building my own. Unfortunately, the beige box PSU failed shortly after the warranty expired, and replacing it was a nightmare because of the poor case design and cable management. Even with a replacement PSU, it cost less money than an equivalent DIY, and in hindsight I regret not building my own system.
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monkey_business
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by monkey_business »

Wannaretireearly wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:42 pm Ok folks. We've narrowed the specs down to this new doc below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Take a peek. It's way beyond our budget at $1600!
Time to wait for Turkey day deals :D
Hi there!

A few suggestions I would make:

1. Motherboard: https://www.amazon.com/MSI-MAG-B550-TOM ... B089CWDHFZ. This is a higher quality board for $20 more.
2. RAM: https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-32gb-288 ... klink=true. The Corsair memory you've selected is really overpriced.
3. Case: https://www.amazon.com/quiet-pre-instal ... B087D7DBW6. This is a great case in terms of airflow, and comes with 3 good 140mm fans. It is $40-50 more than the Antec you picked out but should provide much better thermal performance.
4. Unless you *really* need the gaming PC right now, I would not get the CPU and GPUs you picked out. The next generation of both is currently out, and offers superior performance for almost the same about of money. Only problem is that both are sold out everywhere. If you can wait, I would definitely get an RTX 3070 GPU for ~$500, and a Ryzen 5600X for $300. Those will be superior to the 5700XT and 3700XT you've picked out for gaming.
5. Ideally, I would not use the Wraith CPU cooler that comes with the 3700X. It's adequate but not great. If you can, I'd spring for this one: https://www.amazon.com/Original-Design- ... B07QMK5R45. It is just about the best cooling value on the market, and is very quiet.
6. I would not recommend getting that power supply. The 3 year warranty, especially, seems suspect to me. Most reputable power supplies come with a 7-12 year warranty. A good power supply can last a long time, and never needs upgrading unless the new components exceed its power output. Something like this would be my recommendation: https://www.amazon.com/Seasonic-Semi-Mo ... B07WTXYHY5.

Hope this helps and have fun!
palaheel
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by palaheel »

Wannaretireearly wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:42 pm Ok folks. We've narrowed the specs down to this new doc below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Take a peek. It's way beyond our budget at $1600!
Time to wait for Turkey day deals :D
Any software, like Windows?
Nothing to say, really.
Independent George
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Independent George »

Places to save money (within reason):
1. RAM. For the most part, memory is memory. 3000 Mhz or 3200 Mhz should be just fine, and RGB is a waste of money; unless you're willing to spend a lot of time mucking about with timings in the BIOS, you probably won't notice any performance differences beyond that. You don't want a cheap no-name brand, but you also don't need to spend a bundle on high end memory. G-Skill Ripjaws is the go-to for price/performance, Corsair Vengeance if it's on sale; both are well supported by board manufacturers.
2. Case. Buy the cheapest case with good airflow and decent cable management. Right now, I'd say that's the Fractal Meshify C, but you might find others. Having good airflow is the single most important aspect of the case - it's going to affect both computer performance and noise. Gamers Nexus has a great roundup here - they don't just tell you what to buy, but also give you a good explanation of why and what to look for. Prices and models change all the time, so it's good to be able to identify what to look for rather than just a list of cases.
3. Motherboard. I'm an absolute hypocrite on this, but you really don't need to spend over $150 on a board; find the one that has the features you want (USB slots, ethernet, etc.), and then look for the best price. I'd say the only must-have feature is a BIOS flashback button, which (I believe) is standard on the $150 boards.
4. CPU Cooler. Again, the caveat 'within reason' applies; don't cheap out on a bad cooler that makes a lot of noise while thermal throttling, but you also don't need to spend a bundle for a top-end Noctua (though Noctua is awesome and I own one). The Wraith cooler that comes with many AMD chips works just fine - it's a bit noisier than many prefer, but it works well enough that I don't typically recommend upgrading. If your processor doesn't come with a cooler, there are a lot of good ones in the $40 range.

Places worth spending extra money (within reason):
1. Power supply. Corsair, Seasonic, EVGA, Be Quiet, NZXT, and Cooler Master are good brands, and you'll want at least 80+ Bronze efficiency rating and definitely modular cables. You definitely want modular cables - given a choice, modular is always worth it. Not getting the above will save you $35 at most, and can be the source of many, many headaches down the road. You don't need to go ridiculous on the PSU, but this is not the place to save a few bucks.
2. GPU. You don't need to go super high-end, but the GPU is what you're going to notice the most when gaming; depending on what games you play, this is not the place to save $50 or so. The GPU is also the hottest and noisiest component in the entire machine - you will definitely notice when the fan starts spinning up, or if the chip starts thermal throttling.
3. CPU. Again, you don't need to spend a ridiculous amount for high-end, but for the most part you get what you pay for. Unlike other components, CPUs are a bit of a pain to replace, so you're generally better off spending a bit more on a CPU and holding on to it for as long as possible while upgrading other components.
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Brain »

dwc13 wrote: Fri Nov 13, 2020 2:33 am
2. Better to buy 2 x 8GB (16GB total) or 2 x 16GB (32GB total) DDR4 modules, rather than 4 x 8 GB (32 GB total) DDR4 modules. For Ryzen CPUs, there is a slight performance hit when using 4 modules. In addition, if you install 4 x 8 GB modules (using up all the memory banks on the motherboard), you will end up with 2 spare modules (removed 2 x 8 GB) if you want to upgrade to 48 GB (existing 2 x 8 GB + new 2 x 16 GB).
In fact, it's the opposite. Four sticks is better than two. Check this article for more details:

https://www.techspot.com/article/2140-r ... rformance/

And I don't think it's ever advisable to mix sizes of memory. If you're at 4x4 for 16 and want to upgrade, move to 4x8 for 32.
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by harland »

All the other posters made great points. Here are my thoughts.

- Definitely consider a better power supply. My friend likes the EVGA SuperNOVA G3 series and I prefer the Seasonic GX series. Both are great choices from reputable makers. Think about paying more for the 750 W models if your son will upgrade to the Ryzen 5000 series CPUs or NVIDIA RTX 30 series / AMD 6000 series GPUs in the future.

- RAM is definitely an area where it doesn't make a lot of sense to pay a premium. The lights don't make the computer crunch numbers any faster. Also, 32 GB is overkill. 16 GB is more than enough for gaming.

- Why a SATA III SSD? The motherboard supports two NVMe SSDs. Just buy two 1 TB WD Black series. Or heck, a single 2 TB NVMe SSD if the cost is not too much more than 2 x 1 TB. Cleaner build and makes more sense - plus you have a spare slot for more storage if needed.

- I would drop the 'protection plan'. Sounds fishy to me.
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Slacker »

Brain wrote: Fri Nov 13, 2020 12:23 pm
dwc13 wrote: Fri Nov 13, 2020 2:33 am
2. Better to buy 2 x 8GB (16GB total) or 2 x 16GB (32GB total) DDR4 modules, rather than 4 x 8 GB (32 GB total) DDR4 modules. For Ryzen CPUs, there is a slight performance hit when using 4 modules. In addition, if you install 4 x 8 GB modules (using up all the memory banks on the motherboard), you will end up with 2 spare modules (removed 2 x 8 GB) if you want to upgrade to 48 GB (existing 2 x 8 GB + new 2 x 16 GB).
In fact, it's the opposite. Four sticks is better than two. Check this article for more details:

https://www.techspot.com/article/2140-r ... rformance/

And I don't think it's ever advisable to mix sizes of memory. If you're at 4x4 for 16 and want to upgrade, move to 4x8 for 32.
This takes a little more nuance.

2 sticks that are dual rank is likely best.
4 sticks that are single rank are almost as good.
2 sticks that are single rank offer the lowest performance...but you probably won't notice it very easily unless you are pushing the performance boundaries for what you are doing.

Since the average person won't know if they have single rank or dual rank, then I would say Brain's post is probably safest (go with 4 sticks if max performance is what you desire). BTW -> 8GB DDR4 ram is likely to be single rank more often than not.
ACN
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by ACN »

Here is a good website that builds the computer for you.. Only $75 markup.

https://buildredux.com/

I would definitely go zen 3 ryzen at minimum along with Nvidia 3080 gpu. The rest doesn't matter really.
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mmmodem
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by mmmodem »

Wannaretireearly wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:42 pm Ok folks. We've narrowed the specs down to this new doc below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Take a peek. It's way beyond our budget at $1600!
Time to wait for Turkey day deals :D
OP, your components are a lot more expensive than it needs to be. A 5700XT and Ryzen 3000 series CPU really should belong in a $1000 PC level. At $1600, you should be at RTX 3070 and Ryzen 5000 series. However, good luck on building with those components because stock is difficult to find since they were recently released.

Nothing wrong with spending more money if you so choose.
Independent George
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Independent George »

Three easy places to cut:

1. You don't need two 1 TB NVME drives; you can easily buy one 1TB drive for the OS and games, and then buy a $60 2TB HDD for documents. If you're dead set on 2TB, it's actually cheaper and easier to buy a single 2TB drive for less than the $265 you're currently budgeting. The Adata 8200 Pro is currently $225 with a coupon.
2. There are cheaper RAM kits out there if you're not set on RGB. The G-Skill Ripjaws is currently at $116, and there are currently several kits below $100 (though you'll have to check your motherboard to confirm if those brands are on the QVL). Memory will almost certainly be on sale.
3. You don't need the custom cables. Your PSU will come with some. They won't be as pretty, but they'll work. Alternately, instead of a $60 PSU and $35 in custom cables, you can buy this EVGA model for $75. It's semi-modular, comes with the black cables (so you don't get the ugly ketchup & mustard connections), and is from one of the more reputable brands
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Wannaretireearly
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Wannaretireearly »

Thanks All.

Hi,

Here's the latest (almost final) list my son has:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 1728953728

1. I'm not sure the power supply we've chosen is good. Reviews say its semi-modular. Any thoughts on a better power supply? We've tried looking on part picker.

2. The SDD we've already bought is in red ( only thing we've bought so far). My son seems to want to go with a different second 1 TB SSD in yellow. Not sure about these SSD's. An thoughts?

Thanks!!
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
Independent George
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Independent George »

Wannaretireearly wrote: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:45 pm 1. I'm not sure the power supply we've chosen is good. Reviews say its semi-modular. Any thoughts on a better power supply? We've tried looking on part picker.

2. The SDD we've already bought is in red ( only thing we've bought so far). My son seems to want to go with a different second 1 TB SSD in yellow. Not sure about these SSD's. An thoughts?
1. That's a good power supply. Seasonic is a great brand, and semi-modular is fine. 'Semi' just means the main motherboard power cable is permanently attached, which is not a big deal because that one is always in use. The important thing is you won't have to manage a ton of unused cables in the narrow space behind the PC.

2. That second SSD is pretty good, though I still don't think it's necessary; is there any possibility of returning the WD drive and just buying a single 2TB drive? It's not a big deal if you can't - WD Black is a fantastic drive. I just find two 1 TB drives a bit inefficient compared to a single 2TB today, with an empty slot to buy another (probably better and cheaper) one down the road. The 2TB Samsung 970 EVO plus is currently on sale for $250 - that's less than the combined cost of the two 1TB drives you listed, for what's widely considered the best drive on the market.
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Wannaretireearly
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Wannaretireearly »

Independent George wrote: Wed Nov 18, 2020 10:47 am
Wannaretireearly wrote: Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:45 pm 1. I'm not sure the power supply we've chosen is good. Reviews say its semi-modular. Any thoughts on a better power supply? We've tried looking on part picker.

2. The SDD we've already bought is in red ( only thing we've bought so far). My son seems to want to go with a different second 1 TB SSD in yellow. Not sure about these SSD's. An thoughts?
1. That's a good power supply. Seasonic is a great brand, and semi-modular is fine. 'Semi' just means the main motherboard power cable is permanently attached, which is not a big deal because that one is always in use. The important thing is you won't have to manage a ton of unused cables in the narrow space behind the PC.

2. That second SSD is pretty good, though I still don't think it's necessary; is there any possibility of returning the WD drive and just buying a single 2TB drive? It's not a big deal if you can't - WD Black is a fantastic drive. I just find two 1 TB drives a bit inefficient compared to a single 2TB today, with an empty slot to buy another (probably better and cheaper) one down the road. The 2TB Samsung 970 EVO plus is currently on sale for $250 - that's less than the combined cost of the two 1TB drives you listed, for what's widely considered the best drive on the market.
Thank you George! Not sure we can return that ssd easily.. I'll check. Appreciate your feedback. Many thanks!!
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
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Wannaretireearly
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Wannaretireearly »

Hi, this is Wannaretireearly's son

Which ram is better
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084P ... UH5X&psc=1

OLOy DDR4 RAM 32GB (4x8GB) Warhawk Aura Sync RGB 3600 MHz CL18 1.35V 288-Pin Desktop Gaming UDIMM (MD4U083618BEQA)

or

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0171 ... 0ZKT&psc=1

G.SKILL 32GB (2 x 16GB) Ripjaws V Series DDR4 PC4-25600 3200MHz for Intel Z170 Platform Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-32GVK

Thanks!
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
Independent George
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Independent George »

Wannaretireearly wrote: Wed Nov 18, 2020 10:58 pm Hi, this is Wannaretireearly's son

Which ram is better
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084P ... UH5X&psc=1

OLOy DDR4 RAM 32GB (4x8GB) Warhawk Aura Sync RGB 3600 MHz CL18 1.35V 288-Pin Desktop Gaming UDIMM (MD4U083618BEQA)

or

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0171 ... 0ZKT&psc=1

G.SKILL 32GB (2 x 16GB) Ripjaws V Series DDR4 PC4-25600 3200MHz for Intel Z170 Platform Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-32GVK

Thanks!
Of the two, the OLOy has higher specs (3600 MHz clock speed compared to 3200 MHz). The thing is, though, (1) you likely won't even notice that difference, and (2) it costs $40 more. I would personally go with the G Skill - 3200 MHz is plenty, and fully supported by your CPU with XMP enabled. Note: in order to get that speed, you will have to manually enable that in the BIOS - here is one primer on how to do this.
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jakehefty17
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by jakehefty17 »

Independent George wrote: Fri Nov 13, 2020 11:03 am Places worth spending extra money (within reason):
1. Power supply. Corsair, Seasonic, EVGA, Be Quiet, NZXT, and Cooler Master are good brands, and you'll want at least 80+ Bronze efficiency rating and definitely modular cables. You definitely want modular cables - given a choice, modular is always worth it. Not getting the above will save you $35 at most, and can be the source of many, many headaches down the road. You don't need to go ridiculous on the PSU, but this is not the place to save a few bucks.
2. GPU. You don't need to go super high-end, but the GPU is what you're going to notice the most when gaming; depending on what games you play, this is not the place to save $50 or so. The GPU is also the hottest and noisiest component in the entire machine - you will definitely notice when the fan starts spinning up, or if the chip starts thermal throttling.
3. CPU. Again, you don't need to spend a ridiculous amount for high-end, but for the most part you get what you pay for. Unlike other components, CPUs are a bit of a pain to replace, so you're generally better off spending a bit more on a CPU and holding on to it for as long as possible while upgrading other components.
I'd agree with everything here. GPU/CPU should be where you are spending most your money, it's the bread and butter of any gaming PC. Also, don't cheap out on your power supply. I'd make some savings elsewhere (like RGB ram/fans) if needed. The only RGB I have is on my GPU... didn't even know it had RGB (got it on sale).

I recently built my first PC... only lasting mistake I made is my motherboard doesn't support (have connections) for my tower's micro-USB-C ports. So make sure your motherboard supports everything you're planning. Thankfully this isn't a major issue for me, just a small disappointment.

I also failed to boot at first... checked all my connections and found one not completely snapped in. Make all the connections you can before you mount the motherboard, because once it's in there things get tricky.

I assume it'd be much easier to do again now that I've done it once. I get frustrated easily, but was able to get through it without much stress.

It's not too hard. Youtube is your friend. Do everything in order.
"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence." -Charles Bukowski
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Wannaretireearly
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Wannaretireearly »

jakehefty17 wrote: Thu Nov 19, 2020 12:37 pm
Independent George wrote: Fri Nov 13, 2020 11:03 am Places worth spending extra money (within reason):
1. Power supply. Corsair, Seasonic, EVGA, Be Quiet, NZXT, and Cooler Master are good brands, and you'll want at least 80+ Bronze efficiency rating and definitely modular cables. You definitely want modular cables - given a choice, modular is always worth it. Not getting the above will save you $35 at most, and can be the source of many, many headaches down the road. You don't need to go ridiculous on the PSU, but this is not the place to save a few bucks.
2. GPU. You don't need to go super high-end, but the GPU is what you're going to notice the most when gaming; depending on what games you play, this is not the place to save $50 or so. The GPU is also the hottest and noisiest component in the entire machine - you will definitely notice when the fan starts spinning up, or if the chip starts thermal throttling.
3. CPU. Again, you don't need to spend a ridiculous amount for high-end, but for the most part you get what you pay for. Unlike other components, CPUs are a bit of a pain to replace, so you're generally better off spending a bit more on a CPU and holding on to it for as long as possible while upgrading other components.
I'd agree with everything here. GPU/CPU should be where you are spending most your money, it's the bread and butter of any gaming PC. Also, don't cheap out on your power supply. I'd make some savings elsewhere (like RGB ram/fans) if needed. The only RGB I have is on my GPU... didn't even know it had RGB (got it on sale).

I recently built my first PC... only lasting mistake I made is my motherboard doesn't support (have connections) for my tower's micro-USB-C ports. So make sure your motherboard supports everything you're planning. Thankfully this isn't a major issue for me, just a small disappointment.

I also failed to boot at first... checked all my connections and found one not completely snapped in. Make all the connections you can before you mount the motherboard, because once it's in there things get tricky.

I assume it'd be much easier to do again now that I've done it once. I get frustrated easily, but was able to get through it without much stress.

It's not too hard. Youtube is your friend. Do everything in order.
Thanks!
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
Independent George
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Independent George »

FYI, if you're still looking at the 3700X, it is now $280 with promo code at NewEgg. That matches the lowest price I saw back in June/July.

Also, if you haven't been following the other thread, note that Ryzen can be finicky with the exact RAM kit. You want to search your motherboard manufactuer's website for their qualified vendor list (QVL) and confirm that the RAM sticks you buy have been tested to work with the manufacturer. I typically recommend G-Skill Ripjaws or Corsair Vengeance because they are typically very well-supported by manufacturers. For the MSI Gaming Edge listed in your doc, the QVL can be found here.
Whew-Only10MoreYears
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Whew-Only10MoreYears »

I don't know if you started placing orders yet but I just wanted to share my experience with building gaming PC's. I built a golf simulator in my garage and I needed a gaming capable PC to run the simulation software. There was no way I was going to leave a $1,000 - $1,500 PC out in my garage so I stared searching for options. I spent about 2 months researching and just trying to understand what a GPU was (I'm not a gamer or PC savvy at all)

What I found was a group that buys 2nd hand Dell workstations, changes out the GPU and makes some very affordable and capable gaming PC's. I ended up with a Dell Optiplex with an i7 processor , 16gb ram, 1tb hd, 128gb SSD for $210 and added a GTX 1060 6 gb GPU for $150 and I couldn't be happier.
As someone else mentioned even prices for these PC's have skyrocketed but it is certainly a much more cost effective (Boglehead-ish) option. You and your son could have just as much fun installing additional ram, the SSD, swapping out hard drives, and adding a gaming capable GPU vs building a machine from scratch. Some of the more advanced Youtube videos even detail swapping out cases, switching power supplies and even adding RGB lights & stickers to make it faster. :-)

This gentleman seems to be extremely knowledgeable of Dell Optiplex's and their quirks and I watched all of his videos to get a sense of what's what but there are tons of other videos out there too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snUV0wGPnPk

There is also a Facebook group that is quite helpful too;

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DellOptiplexOG/

I'd be happy to answer any questions or share what I've leaned in my old guys descent into the wild world of affordable gaming PC's.
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Wannaretireearly
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Wannaretireearly »

Independent George wrote: Mon Nov 23, 2020 8:36 am FYI, if you're still looking at the 3700X, it is now $280 with promo code at NewEgg. That matches the lowest price I saw back in June/July.

Also, if you haven't been following the other thread, note that Ryzen can be finicky with the exact RAM kit. You want to search your motherboard manufactuer's website for their qualified vendor list (QVL) and confirm that the RAM sticks you buy have been tested to work with the manufacturer. I typically recommend G-Skill Ripjaws or Corsair Vengeance because they are typically very well-supported by manufacturers. For the MSI Gaming Edge listed in your doc, the QVL can be found here.
Aha. Thank you! We've only bought one of the SSD's so far. Waiting for deals this week, so your post is perfect timing!
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
tsm1th
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by tsm1th »

Sorry if I missed your answer here, but you need an OS as well. Win10 home is probably sufficient. Runs about $100 for the OEM version off Newegg.

Overall you guys are headed in the right direction. However, I would recommend deciding if you want to double down on building a gaudy RGB "gaming box" or switch to something a little more subdued and cheaper. (but just as fast)

Also consider if you want to overclock and get into that or not. Some of the parts you guys picked are definitely in RGB land and/or for overclockers and you will pay a premium for that. Overclocking can be very fun and addicting but it can also be a time and money sink if you are not careful. You will spend many weekends tweaking everything in order for achieve diminishing returns on your frame rate. Certainly thrilling and a fun challenge but maybe not what you want to aim for for your first ever build.

For example, here's two sticks of Corsair ram 16GBx2. Same speed and latency rating (please double check me). Still look plenty cool to me, but minus the RGB and auto-overclocker stuff. About $50 less expensive. Two sticks also leaves room to go to 64GB in a few years.
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-32gb-288 ... 6820236596

For the motherboard, I'd drop anything with built in Wifi, you'll want to directly connect to your router and having an antenna on the floor is sub optimal anyways. I'd also probably just go with a single Gen3 speed NVME drive, 1-2TB. Only get the spinning disk if your son has a huge gaming library, or better yet pick up a HDD later if you run out of space on the SSD.

Depending on your target monitor resolution you may want to go bigger on the GPU. If 1080 or 1440P you are probably fine, but if you want to play new games in 4K with high settings, you may want to shift more budget to a better GPU.
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Wannaretireearly
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Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Wannaretireearly »

monkey_business wrote: Fri Nov 13, 2020 10:09 am
Wannaretireearly wrote: Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:42 pm Ok folks. We've narrowed the specs down to this new doc below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Take a peek. It's way beyond our budget at $1600!
Time to wait for Turkey day deals :D
Hi there!

A few suggestions I would make:

1. Motherboard: https://www.amazon.com/MSI-MAG-B550-TOM ... B089CWDHFZ. This is a higher quality board for $20 more.
2. RAM: https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-32gb-288 ... klink=true. The Corsair memory you've selected is really overpriced.
3. Case: https://www.amazon.com/quiet-pre-instal ... B087D7DBW6. This is a great case in terms of airflow, and comes with 3 good 140mm fans. It is $40-50 more than the Antec you picked out but should provide much better thermal performance.
4. Unless you *really* need the gaming PC right now, I would not get the CPU and GPUs you picked out. The next generation of both is currently out, and offers superior performance for almost the same about of money. Only problem is that both are sold out everywhere. If you can wait, I would definitely get an RTX 3070 GPU for ~$500, and a Ryzen 5600X for $300. Those will be superior to the 5700XT and 3700XT you've picked out for gaming.
5. Ideally, I would not use the Wraith CPU cooler that comes with the 3700X. It's adequate but not great. If you can, I'd spring for this one: https://www.amazon.com/Original-Design- ... B07QMK5R45. It is just about the best cooling value on the market, and is very quiet.
6. I would not recommend getting that power supply. The 3 year warranty, especially, seems suspect to me. Most reputable power supplies come with a 7-12 year warranty. A good power supply can last a long time, and never needs upgrading unless the new components exceed its power output. Something like this would be my recommendation: https://www.amazon.com/Seasonic-Semi-Mo ... B07WTXYHY5.

Hope this helps and have fun!
Hi this is Wannaretireearly's son,
The "be quite" case looks good but it only has one usb 3.0 port and one 3.1 port.

I need at least 3 usb ports. (Keyboard, Mouse, Headset)
I'm looking at this case with 4 usb ports;
https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Ma ... 7DBW6?th=1
I would like it if you give feedback on this case.

Thanks!
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
Independent George
Posts: 1592
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:13 am
Location: Chicago, IL, USA

Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Independent George »

Wannaretireearly wrote: Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:58 pm
Hi this is Wannaretireearly's son,
The "be quite" case looks good but it only has one usb 3.0 port and one 3.1 port.

I need at least 3 usb ports. (Keyboard, Mouse, Headset)
I'm looking at this case with 4 usb ports;
https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Ma ... 7DBW6?th=1
I would like it if you give feedback on this case.
One thing to note - for keyboard & mouse, you'll probably be using the USB ports on back of the motherboard, not the front USB ports on the case; those are meant for connecting external devices like your phone, or a backup drive. Amazon unfortunately does not show a photo of the back panel or list it in the spec sheet, so you will have to search either the MSI site, or Newegg, to see what connectors you actually have - the MSI Gaming Edge board you have selected has one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports on the back. Most headsets connect with 3.5 mm analogue jacks - the only thing you need to verify versus the case is whether it uses two separate jacks for the headphones & mic, or one combined jack.
Topic Author
Wannaretireearly
Posts: 4880
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 4:39 pm

Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Wannaretireearly »

Independent George wrote: Tue Nov 24, 2020 9:04 am
Wannaretireearly wrote: Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:58 pm
Hi this is Wannaretireearly's son,
The "be quite" case looks good but it only has one usb 3.0 port and one 3.1 port.

I need at least 3 usb ports. (Keyboard, Mouse, Headset)
I'm looking at this case with 4 usb ports;
https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Ma ... 7DBW6?th=1
I would like it if you give feedback on this case.
One thing to note - for keyboard & mouse, you'll probably be using the USB ports on back of the motherboard, not the front USB ports on the case; those are meant for connecting external devices like your phone, or a backup drive. Amazon unfortunately does not show a photo of the back panel or list it in the spec sheet, so you will have to search either the MSI site, or Newegg, to see what connectors you actually have - the MSI Gaming Edge board you have selected has one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, and two USB 2.0 ports on the back. Most headsets connect with 3.5 mm analogue jacks - the only thing you need to verify versus the case is whether it uses two separate jacks for the headphones & mic, or one combined jack.
Makes sense. Thanks for the detail George!
“At some point you are trading time you will never get back for money you will never spend.“ | “How do you want to spend the best remaining year of your life?“
Shortsellforfun
Posts: 79
Joined: Sat Aug 16, 2008 1:02 pm

Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Shortsellforfun »

Has anyone done a FREE Win 7 to Win 10 upgrade recently (like this year)?

I read that it is still possible since MS wants to move everyone to Win 10.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how ... 0-upgrade/

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... /windows10

I am considering a PC Build and simply upgrading my (fully legal) Win 7 from the old (2012ish) computer to the newly built one. (not sure that follows all MS's T&Cs but I'll take the risk for personal use). Worst case is I pay an extra $99 or so to buy Win 10 in the end.

Great thread and indoor/solitary hobby as winter starts.
Independent George
Posts: 1592
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:13 am
Location: Chicago, IL, USA

Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by Independent George »

Shortsellforfun wrote: Tue Nov 24, 2020 1:02 pm Has anyone done a FREE Win 7 to Win 10 upgrade recently (like this year)?

I read that it is still possible since MS wants to move everyone to Win 10.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how ... 0-upgrade/

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... /windows10

I am considering a PC Build and simply upgrading my (fully legal) Win 7 from the old (2012ish) computer to the newly built one. (not sure that follows all MS's T&Cs but I'll take the risk for personal use). Worst case is I pay an extra $99 or so to buy Win 10 in the end.

Great thread and indoor/solitary hobby as winter starts.
You can also buy a grey market Windows key, such as from CDK Offers. OEM keys go for about $20, retail keys for $50, less if you use a discount code (I would use 'brokensilicon' for 25% off).
lightheir
Posts: 2684
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 11:43 pm

Re: Gaming PC Build: Newbie questions and feedback!

Post by lightheir »

I figured I'd post on this thread just in case anyone's like me and was thinking of getting a good value gaming-dedicated PC or laptop -

I've decided to wait, and NOT get it. For one main reason, which I just tried today and it blew my mind, not just with the performance, but with the potential.

Google stadia.

Mind you I've only tried ONE game, but it was pretty crazy - you can run freaking Destiny 2 , with very smooth framerate as far as I could tell, with freaking NO GRAPHICS CARD. Felt literally insane to me.

There is a 3-month free promo right now, and you do not need to purchase a separate controller (yet) so you can just give a try on your old laptop.

The game selection is quite limited as of now, but just one try was all it took for me, and I see the writing on the wall for all these gaming-PCs. It feels very reminiscent of watching Netflix online video in its early days and wondering how the heck Blockbuster was going to continue competing with in-store DVD rentals. I'm no guru so I could def be way off here (esp if your internet is slow, Stadia won't work well with it) but having tried it, if they get a good game selection and keep the prices low/reasonable, it will literally render all these buy-your-own-PC decisions completely obsolete.
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