Here's what I'm thinking. Any thoughts or critiques? I'm not married to the Samsung 970 in particular, but it seemed fine? Bold are carryovers from the current system or things I've already got.
This machine will play games. Maybe a couple times a year fire up some hobby photo editing or something. Other than the CPU or GPU changes I mention below, I will probably ride this build for 9-10 years like I did the previous build.
Current, for context:
Case: Fractal Arc-Midi
Processor: Intel i5-3570
Processor Cooling: Stock Intel
Memory: 16 GB
Video Card: nVidia 9800GTX+, replaced with nVidia 1070 some years ago
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H
Power Supply -Corsair 550
Primary Drive - Some 6-9 year old 128GB SSD, I honestly can't remember when it was given to me.
Secondary drives - 1x Crucial MX500 1TB, 1x Crucial MX500 2TB
Case: - Fractal Meshify 2
Processor - AMD Ryzen 5 3600, to be swapped with a 5800x or 5900x when available* Processor Cooling - Noctua NH-D15
Memory - G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3600 PC4-28800 CL16 Video Card - EVGA RTX 1070, to be swapped with something in the 3 generation, maybe? Someday?
Motherboard - MSI X570 Tomahawk Wifi
Power Supply - Corsair RM750, 80+ Gold
Primary Drive - Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive Secondary Drives - 1x Crucial MX500 1TB, 1x Crucial MX500 2TB
*Edit: I'm ten minutes from a Microcenter and Neweggs bullshit has put me off of them for good. So when I say when available, I mean when I can get one from the Microcenter. I can walk in and get a 3600 right now, who knows when the 58 or 59 shows up in stock again while I'm not at work.
I’m so out of date on technology that I don’t know where to begin designing a system and picking parts. If anyone here loves doing that, what should I keep an eye out for if I want to spend, say 1500ish? I’d like to get everything so I can give my old PC to my son.
Ryzen 5600X or 5800X with X570 motherboard
GPU is lol? RTX 3070 or AMD 6800, depending on what you want
16-32 GB of RAM
1 TB NVME drive
750-850 watt Gold PSU (don't cheap out here, plan to spend at least $100, likely more)
But above all, recognize that there ain't shit in stock anywhere, so don't break down and buy from ebay
5600X and 5800X are pretty obtainable now, but good luck running down a Ryzen 9. Then again, a 5800X is a stonking CPU that will last a long long time.
$300 to avoid all this bullshit is a fucking steal
especially if you don't have a bunch of stuff you intend to keep.
If you are doing a net new system, buying prebuilt is the only sane option right now.
I'm seriously considering this option at the moment since my current computer setup is +10 years old and mostly hand-me-downs. I don't really care to save any of it.
Nothing is going to waste though and I'll just gift it to my parents.
It's just that I want that experience of putting together my own computer. I love me them electronic legos!
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
edited January 2021
I feel like I'm the only one who likes the smell of freshly opened electronics
For prebuilt, keep in mind, most have a backlog of a month or 2 at least. That may still be preferable to having to try and rush for each card that gets dropped, but just something to keep in mind you might be waiting quite a while.
What is the real world difference between a rog hero VIII and an Aorus Master? Since I'm going to be building this over the course of a year, I can afford to get a bit fancy, but the fine details escape me. I want the one that's goodest for games and vr.
Here's what I'm thinking. Any thoughts or critiques? I'm not married to the Samsung 970 in particular, but it seemed fine? Bold are carryovers from the current system or things I've already got.
This machine will play games. Maybe a couple times a year fire up some hobby photo editing or something. Other than the CPU or GPU changes I mention below, I will probably ride this build for 9-10 years like I did the previous build.
Current, for context:
Case: Fractal Arc-Midi
Processor: Intel i5-3570
Processor Cooling: Stock Intel
Memory: 16 GB
Video Card: nVidia 9800GTX+, replaced with nVidia 1070 some years ago
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H
Power Supply -Corsair 550
Primary Drive - Some 6-9 year old 128GB SSD, I honestly can't remember when it was given to me.
Secondary drives - 1x Crucial MX500 1TB, 1x Crucial MX500 2TB
Case: - Fractal Meshify 2
Processor - AMD Ryzen 5 3600, to be swapped with a 5800x or 5900x when available* Processor Cooling - Noctua NH-D15
Memory - G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3600 PC4-28800 CL16 Video Card - EVGA RTX 1070, to be swapped with something in the 3 generation, maybe? Someday?
Motherboard - MSI X570 Tomahawk Wifi
Power Supply - Corsair RM750, 80+ Gold
Primary Drive - Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive Secondary Drives - 1x Crucial MX500 1TB, 1x Crucial MX500 2TB
*Edit: I'm ten minutes from a Microcenter and Neweggs bullshit has put me off of them for good. So when I say when available, I mean when I can get one from the Microcenter. I can walk in and get a 3600 right now, who knows when the 58 or 59 shows up in stock again while I'm not at work.
This is very close to my new build (AIO cooler instead of Noctua, Corsair RMX 850 instead of 750) and the Samsung 970 is a great drive and deal right now (forget the PCIe v4 hype imo).
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ElldrenIs a woman dammitceterum censeoRegistered Userregular
What is the real world difference between a rog hero VIII and an Aorus Master? Since I'm going to be building this over the course of a year, I can afford to get a bit fancy, but the fine details escape me. I want the one that's goodest for games and vr.
The actual, real world “I will notice this” difference is going to be the BIOS
Like compare ASUS and Gigabyte’s bios programs.
Edit: other actual you will notice differences from the spec sheets: the GB board has 3 M.2 slots over the ASUS board’s 2,
What is the real world difference between a rog hero VIII and an Aorus Master? Since I'm going to be building this over the course of a year, I can afford to get a bit fancy, but the fine details escape me. I want the one that's goodest for games and vr.
Nothing really other than aesthetics and the number of USB ports (the Hero 8 does come in two versions: with or without WiFi so there is that too). There have been major cold boot issues with the Aorus Master but that's been an ongoing Gigabyte x570 issue for years. Still unresolved so proceed with caution. I'm pretty sure at least one person here is using the Aorus Master without any issues but it's a chance I'd personally rather not take. It's a shame because it's my favorite looking X570 board.
I'd also consider the MSI X570 Ace, Tomahawk, and Unify. The Tomahawk can be very hard to find in stock but the Unify is the best bang for the buck in the $300-400 boards and has zero RGB if that's something which appeals to you. It has RGB headers but no on board lights.
ElldrenIs a woman dammitceterum censeoRegistered Userregular
Also if you aren’t going to be spending a bunch of time in the BIOS tweaking timings and clock speeds there isn’t really much a $300-$400 board offers you that you won’t get from the same manufacturers’ $150-$250 boards
Asus has an awesome BIOS (much better than, say, Asrock's) but Asus has this nasty habit of super over-segmenting their motherboards in terms of features. My board is $250 retail, I got it for $210, and it doesn't have wireless, BIOS flashback, or a 2-digit POST code display. I really prefer having the last one there, but it does have four color-coded diagnostic LEDs so it's kind of halfway there. And not having BIOS flashback in an over $200 board is ridiculous, but I didn't need it because I had a 2600x in my current rig and could use it to update the BIOS.
If you want a specific combination of features you might actually have a hard time finding it on an Asus board under $300, depending on your particulars. That's not necessarily true with other vendors. I echo the statements of others that an x570 board at/under $200 is probably going to give you everything you need if you're not super into manual overclocking. And especially if you're running a 5600x or equivalent instead of something like a 5900/5950x.
The plan is to drop in a 5900x or 5950x, whichever shows up at my local microcenter first. Because I have an 850 titanium power supply just sitting here, along with a darkbase pro 900 for the case, and a gifted rtx 2070, most of my cost is already paid. I can go a little nuts on the mobo. I was thinking about doing all aorus, ram mobo and aio.
Gigabytes x570 bios is not well organised for some stuff which is a pain in the arse whenever you need to find something that should be in X place in any other bios but isn't because gigabyte. Or they call it something else because gigabyte.
It likely won't be an issue if you aren't overclocking though. Most of the stock stuff is where it makes sense. They just didn't put too much thought into where they put some of the OC stuff.
Asus bios is supposed to be better organised and pretty decent.
Yeah if you aren’t tweaking settings and doing some higher lvl OC, a mobo won’t really give you more fps.
I’d save the money for a newer GPU down the road personally. You could always go a higher end CPU, larger drives or more memory.
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
Also keep in mind that buying a top of the line x570 motherboard right now is a TINY bit of a waste, as this is a "dead end" generation for AMD. The next time you upgrade your processor, you will at a minimum be upgrading the motherboard as well.
I know thats been the norm on the intel side for a while, but AMD has managed multiple generations off of the current B/X chipsets.
Would be nice if they kept that up next CPU, and the chipsets on that side of the jump last a few processor generations as well.
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
@expendable if you're going to a Microcenter, the drives by Inland are very good. They make both NVME and 2.5" form factors now.
Get an associate to help you pull everything together since they may know about combo deals. They may have in-store markdowns on PSUs as well (I picked up a 550W Cooler Master from them at one point because it was $30 and I could use it as a known-good for troubleshooting )
@expendable if you're going to a Microcenter, the drives by Inland are very good. They make both NVME and 2.5" form factors now.
Get an associate to help you pull everything together since they may know about combo deals. They may have in-store markdowns on PSUs as well (I picked up a 550W Cooler Master from them at one point because it was $30 and I could use it as a known-good for troubleshooting )
I’ve got an Inland 2 TB NVMe drive and it has worked perfectly, so I can second this recommendation.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
I definitely need better cooling, though - this case is pretty much made for watercooling so the end goal is an AIO, but for now I'll get another 3-pack of fans. At the moment I have three intake, one outtake.
Is that the O11 Dynamic Mini? I'd be tempted to move the motherboard up so that GPU has a little more room to breathe.
Yep, that's the one. And yeah, had that thought myself. I'll need to do a partial teardown when I add more cooling anyway, so I'll see if a mini-ITX fits one slot above.
I'm noticing a lot of recommendations for the X570 motherboards over a B550 motherboard? Any particular reason people are suggesting these motherboards if the posters aren't looking for something for overclocking? A quick check indicates a $50-$100 price difference between the two.
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
I'm noticing a lot of recommendations for the X570 motherboards over a B550 motherboard? Any particular reason people are suggesting these motherboards if the posters aren't looking for something for overclocking? A quick check indicates a $50-$100 price difference between the two.
I usually recommend X570 boards for people getting 105W TDP chip and a B550 for those getting a 65W TDP chip, since the X570 is a bit sturdier and has more features on it and is built to take higher power delivery.
The B550 is for people running mid-range PC's (70 series and under Nvidia, 3600/5600X chips from AMD, etc) and aren't doing any overclocking.
I'm noticing a lot of recommendations for the X570 motherboards over a B550 motherboard? Any particular reason people are suggesting these motherboards if the posters aren't looking for something for overclocking? A quick check indicates a $50-$100 price difference between the two.
X570 also has much better support for PCIe-4.0, more NVMe slots (which are all Gen4), more USB ports, more robust VRM's, and often don't cost that much more than B550. When B550 boards are in the mid-$200 range it makes sense to just spend a bit more and go for the X570 boards in the same price range.
I don't look at the motherboard as a place where I can save money. When I'm already spending $2000 what's another $50-100 to get a really nice motherboard with robust cooling, features, and better looks? Even if I never really use some of the features I just really like have a higher end motherboard.
That said when I build my current/new computer I considered all the X570 boards in the $275-400 range and felt that the MSI X570 Unify was the best bang for the buck. All of the high end features, minus RGB, and was the cheapest one by far. Had the X570 Tomahawk been available at the time I might have gone with that, but it wasn't so the Unify was the next best choice for what I needed/wanted in a motherboard. The Asus X570 Hero VIII was my next choice but at $80 more the only thing it had over the Unify were more USB ports. While I don't have a set budget when building a computer there is a point when something is just too expensive. The Hero VIII falls into that category as did the "high end" 3080's.
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
The motherboard manufacturer isn't where I'd save money, or if it has certain critical things (good VRMs, for example). Beyond that, it's a tradeoff of desired features/possible future-proofing vs. budget.
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especially if you don't have a bunch of stuff you intend to keep.
If you are doing a net new system, buying prebuilt is the only sane option right now.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
This machine will play games. Maybe a couple times a year fire up some hobby photo editing or something. Other than the CPU or GPU changes I mention below, I will probably ride this build for 9-10 years like I did the previous build.
Current, for context:
Processor: Intel i5-3570
Processor Cooling: Stock Intel
Memory: 16 GB
Video Card: nVidia 9800GTX+, replaced with nVidia 1070 some years ago
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H
Power Supply -Corsair 550
Primary Drive - Some 6-9 year old 128GB SSD, I honestly can't remember when it was given to me.
Secondary drives - 1x Crucial MX500 1TB, 1x Crucial MX500 2TB
Case: - Fractal Meshify 2
Processor - AMD Ryzen 5 3600, to be swapped with a 5800x or 5900x when available*
Processor Cooling - Noctua NH-D15
Memory - G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3600 PC4-28800 CL16
Video Card - EVGA RTX 1070, to be swapped with something in the 3 generation, maybe? Someday?
Motherboard - MSI X570 Tomahawk Wifi
Power Supply - Corsair RM750, 80+ Gold
Primary Drive - Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Secondary Drives - 1x Crucial MX500 1TB, 1x Crucial MX500 2TB
*Edit: I'm ten minutes from a Microcenter and Neweggs bullshit has put me off of them for good. So when I say when available, I mean when I can get one from the Microcenter. I can walk in and get a 3600 right now, who knows when the 58 or 59 shows up in stock again while I'm not at work.
5600X and 5800X are pretty obtainable now, but good luck running down a Ryzen 9. Then again, a 5800X is a stonking CPU that will last a long long time.
GPUs... buy what you can get.
wait what is this, did I miss something?
Last page somebody was asking how bad the markup is on a prebuilt
As long as the SI uses off-the-shelf parts, yeah 100%
I'm seriously considering this option at the moment since my current computer setup is +10 years old and mostly hand-me-downs. I don't really care to save any of it.
Nothing is going to waste though and I'll just gift it to my parents.
It's just that I want that experience of putting together my own computer. I love me them electronic legos!
Yeah it's off-gassed VOC's, but it's good stuff
I suspect very strongly that you're not alone here.
For prebuilt, keep in mind, most have a backlog of a month or 2 at least. That may still be preferable to having to try and rush for each card that gets dropped, but just something to keep in mind you might be waiting quite a while.
although I did find out that PC's power supply was 750w (wtf why did I buy that) so we just swapped those purchases around and he's golden.
This is very close to my new build (AIO cooler instead of Noctua, Corsair RMX 850 instead of 750) and the Samsung 970 is a great drive and deal right now (forget the PCIe v4 hype imo).
The actual, real world “I will notice this” difference is going to be the BIOS
Like compare ASUS and Gigabyte’s bios programs.
Edit: other actual you will notice differences from the spec sheets: the GB board has 3 M.2 slots over the ASUS board’s 2,
Nothing really other than aesthetics and the number of USB ports (the Hero 8 does come in two versions: with or without WiFi so there is that too). There have been major cold boot issues with the Aorus Master but that's been an ongoing Gigabyte x570 issue for years. Still unresolved so proceed with caution. I'm pretty sure at least one person here is using the Aorus Master without any issues but it's a chance I'd personally rather not take. It's a shame because it's my favorite looking X570 board.
I'd also consider the MSI X570 Ace, Tomahawk, and Unify. The Tomahawk can be very hard to find in stock but the Unify is the best bang for the buck in the $300-400 boards and has zero RGB if that's something which appeals to you. It has RGB headers but no on board lights.
If you want a specific combination of features you might actually have a hard time finding it on an Asus board under $300, depending on your particulars. That's not necessarily true with other vendors. I echo the statements of others that an x570 board at/under $200 is probably going to give you everything you need if you're not super into manual overclocking. And especially if you're running a 5600x or equivalent instead of something like a 5900/5950x.
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It likely won't be an issue if you aren't overclocking though. Most of the stock stuff is where it makes sense. They just didn't put too much thought into where they put some of the OC stuff.
Asus bios is supposed to be better organised and pretty decent.
I’d save the money for a newer GPU down the road personally. You could always go a higher end CPU, larger drives or more memory.
I know thats been the norm on the intel side for a while, but AMD has managed multiple generations off of the current B/X chipsets.
Would be nice if they kept that up next CPU, and the chipsets on that side of the jump last a few processor generations as well.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
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This is the first time I have an M.2 drive, and god damn is this fast.
Get an associate to help you pull everything together since they may know about combo deals. They may have in-store markdowns on PSUs as well (I picked up a 550W Cooler Master from them at one point because it was $30 and I could use it as a known-good for troubleshooting )
I’ve got an Inland 2 TB NVMe drive and it has worked perfectly, so I can second this recommendation.
Yeah man.
Feels fn good to boot up your PC and be in the Windows login screen 5 seconds after the mobo startup is done.
Yeah, first time I booted it just felt wrong.
Good news! Motherboard has one.
Yep, that's the one. And yeah, had that thought myself. I'll need to do a partial teardown when I add more cooling anyway, so I'll see if a mini-ITX fits one slot above.
I usually recommend X570 boards for people getting 105W TDP chip and a B550 for those getting a 65W TDP chip, since the X570 is a bit sturdier and has more features on it and is built to take higher power delivery.
The B550 is for people running mid-range PC's (70 series and under Nvidia, 3600/5600X chips from AMD, etc) and aren't doing any overclocking.
X570 also has much better support for PCIe-4.0, more NVMe slots (which are all Gen4), more USB ports, more robust VRM's, and often don't cost that much more than B550. When B550 boards are in the mid-$200 range it makes sense to just spend a bit more and go for the X570 boards in the same price range.
I don't look at the motherboard as a place where I can save money. When I'm already spending $2000 what's another $50-100 to get a really nice motherboard with robust cooling, features, and better looks? Even if I never really use some of the features I just really like have a higher end motherboard.
That said when I build my current/new computer I considered all the X570 boards in the $275-400 range and felt that the MSI X570 Unify was the best bang for the buck. All of the high end features, minus RGB, and was the cheapest one by far. Had the X570 Tomahawk been available at the time I might have gone with that, but it wasn't so the Unify was the next best choice for what I needed/wanted in a motherboard. The Asus X570 Hero VIII was my next choice but at $80 more the only thing it had over the Unify were more USB ports. While I don't have a set budget when building a computer there is a point when something is just too expensive. The Hero VIII falls into that category as did the "high end" 3080's.