New Build Inquiry

lDreaml

Weaksauce
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Jun 2, 2016
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I imagine this type of request is quite annoying, and for that I apologize, but I've always deem the collective knowledge of HardForum members to be top grade. After 10 long years I've finally decided to put together a new computer as my dated hardware can barely run anything nowadays and it shows in a big way. So to my point.. I'm looking for advice on what hardware I should be looking out for. I'm only interested in high end gear that'll last a long time. I want performance for the value, not just inflated brand prices. So could any of you guys help me pick out some stuff for my new build? Had I not been out of the loop for so long I'd rely on my intuition but.. So much has changed in 10 years it's insane. I'd greatly appreciate the input. I'm a Canadian customer if that's relevant. Thanks for the help in advance.
 
Budget? Gamer? Workstation needs? 4K? Need a lot more info on usage case for any recommendation.
 
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If I might be so bold as to make suggestions for a base system, and then you can enlighten us with what you are looking to do with it and we tweak and change accordingly.
I'd suggest going with an AMD Ryzen CPU. Depending on your needs and budget, 2nd generation Ryzen CPUs and compatible motherboards can be had for very decent prices.
If your requirements need more power than that, and your budget can support it, I'd say go for the new (literally they just came out) Ryzen 3 CPUs either on a 470 based chipset
motherboard, or you can wait for the 570 which was designed from the ground up for Ryzen 3s.

Beyond that, I'd go for 16GB of RAM (3200 DDR4 for 2nd generation Ryzens, and 3600 DDR4 for Third gen Ryzens, although the 570s (if you wait) will support DDR5 I hear),
an NVME M.2 SSD Boot drive and a large mechanical disk for data storage. Your video card will really depend on what you intend to use this for, but you can go with an nvidia
1650 for very decent 1080P gaming, or something AMD or nVidia higher end for beyond 1080P resolution gaming. If you have deeper pockets you could go for nvidia 2080ti
which is the top end for PC gaming right now. I'd suggest a Power Supply rated 500 to 1000 watts depending on what you'll put into it. www.pcpartspicker.com is helpful for just this
kind of thing.

I hope my suggestions help.

Good Luck with your build!

Silver
 
I apologize for the all too general request. My purpose is gaming and video encoding. Not so much to stream as to just make my own personal videos. I'd love to be able to play in 4k, and vr is a big driving force for this build, too. I didn't state a budget as I don't want to be limited in options here. I'm looking for really good parts that are priced fairly. Would prefer to run windows 7 on this machine but I'm just gonna give in and go windows 10. Anything else you guys need to know just let me know.

sknight Thanks bud, really appreciate the advice. I'm hearing nothing but good things about the Ryzen but I'm weary to commit to amd. They always seemed slower and just less reliable as intel. Maybe it's just consumer bias on my part, idk, just not too sure about the Ryzen so I may ultimately stick with intel unless you guys strongly disagree with that choice.
 
sknight Thanks bud, really appreciate the advice. I'm hearing nothing but good things about the Ryzen but I'm weary to commit to amd. They always seemed slower and just less reliable as intel. Maybe it's just consumer bias on my part, idk, just not too sure about the Ryzen so I may ultimately stick with intel unless you guys strongly disagree with that choice.

Nearly all modern midrange or above processors, and midrange graphics cards will do what you want to do. You will get more processor power for your dollars if you go AMD.

I basically cannot, due to the odd compatibility issue (which I've run into running software which is not mainstream).
 
Hate to ask but if you guys could link me to some stuff that you consider future proof and spot-on in terms of performance per dollar I'd appreciate it.
 
Nothing is future proof.

A 3800x with an Asrock Taichi x470 motherboard, with 16gig of Gskill trident-z (3200) DDR4, an nvidia 2080 and a 512-1tb samsung evo plus would fit your needs.

If you put those things into something like newegg's search engine, you'll get pricing
 
If I might be so bold as to make suggestions for a base system, and then you can enlighten us with what you are looking to do with it and we tweak and change accordingly.
I'd suggest going with an AMD Ryzen CPU. Depending on your needs and budget, 2nd generation Ryzen CPUs and compatible motherboards can be had for very decent prices.
If your requirements need more power than that, and your budget can support it, I'd say go for the new (literally they just came out) Ryzen 3 CPUs either on a 470 based chipset
motherboard, or you can wait for the 570 which was designed from the ground up for Ryzen 3s.

Beyond that, I'd go for 16GB of RAM (3200 DDR4 for 2nd generation Ryzens, and 3600 DDR4 for Third gen Ryzens, although the 570s (if you wait) will support DDR5 I hear),
an NVME M.2 SSD Boot drive and a large mechanical disk for data storage. Your video card will really depend on what you intend to use this for, but you can go with an nvidia
1650 for very decent 1080P gaming, or something AMD or nVidia higher end for beyond 1080P resolution gaming. If you have deeper pockets you could go for nvidia 2080ti
which is the top end for PC gaming right now. I'd suggest a Power Supply rated 500 to 1000 watts depending on what you'll put into it. www.pcpartspicker.com is helpful for just this
kind of thing.

I hope my suggestions help.

Good Luck with your build!

Silver
Solid info here, if you are looking to do video editing I'd definitely go AMD.

Because I'm working on an upgrade myself I'll attach what I'm looking at. I'm still bouncing back and forth from Intel to AMD but I'm leaning more to AMD by the minute. The only differences with the Intel build is swap the 3900X for the 9900K and the Aorus Master for the Maximus XI Code.

20190713_002157.png
 
Sorry to necro this thread but I have an update of sorts. The primary if not sole purpose of this build will be to game. 4k and vr gaming. The budget is 4k (CAD). Any updated recommendations or heads up about new releases around the corner would be appreciated. Honestly at this point I'm torn between buying my first 4k tv or this, but maybe with some help the choice will become a lot easier. idk. Thanks in advance.
 
Primary purpose gaming at 4K?

Here are the ingredients

9900k(or kf if lots of overclocking is on the menu), Noctua D15 or D15s
Gigabyte Aorus z390 ultra - or master if the price difference isn't huge
16 gig trident z 3200 CAS whatever (32 gig if you want)
1tb Samsung evo plus 970
Nvidia 2080 ti (I like Zotac’s variants) or 2080 super if price is a problem

750-850w gold rated psu

Make sure you have a freesync or gsync monitor

Draw a line under it, done
 
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Keljian I like you, friend. Thank you. I was thinking of spending the money on my first 4k tv but that list and the idea of being able to build a computer again... Brought a huge smile to my face. Any suggestion on a monitor? I've spent countless hours studying them and the prices get insane.
 
I recently went on an adventure looking at 4K screens.

I came to the conclusion that they are a personal preference.

My purchase? An LG 32UK550-B.

It is not a high end IPS with all the bells and whistles, it is a good, solid, VA screen with freesync.

Enhanced freesync at that.

It is 32 inch. Getting a better 32 inch will cost you 50%-150% more. That said, there are some overclockable VA panels, but you will need to hunt for them.

There are 28 inch 4K screens, I needed space for my work.

You will have viewing angle issues with VA, that’s a given.

Bigger than 32 is possible, but unless you are sitting meters away, not worthwhile, you will still need to sit away from the monitor.

The reality is at 4K you will be looking at a maximum frame rate of 60-70fps generally speaking, without lots of mucking around, so a faster screen won’t help you.
 
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There are 28 inch 4K screens, I needed space for my work.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you talking about the desktop real estate in Windows or the physical size at 28"?

You will have viewing angle issues with VA, that’s a given.

It depends on the size of the panel. Allot of the big TV's are VA panels and they aren't necessarily a problem. If you were talking about TN, I'd absolutely agree. VA isn't IPS, but viewing angle issues being a given? I don't think so.

Bigger than 32 is possible, but unless you are sitting meters away, not worthwhile, you will still need to sit away from the monitor.

This is the part of the post that I take the most issue with. I suspect this thinking comes from all those home theatre calculations and decades of parents telling you that you need to be 50 feet from a 27" TV so as not to fry your eyes. Old CRT TV's aside, this is totally untrue. If I'm sitting 2 feet from a 20" screen, and then I double or triple the distance with a 40" screen, I'm getting no benefit from having a 40" screen. The reason you get bigger monitors is to gain greater immersion by filling up more of your peripheral vision with the display.

I sat about 3 feet from a 49" Samsung KS8500. It was perfectly fine for playing games and even productivity for the most part. I think that's actually slightly too big for work, at least with my crappy eyes. For gaming though? I think it's glorious. If ASUS makes their upcoming 43" 120Hz 4K display reasonably priced, I'll have one. To me a perfect display would be around 38-43".

The reality is at 4K you will be looking at a maximum frame rate of 60-70fps generally speaking, without lots of mucking around, so a faster screen won’t help you.

Depends on the game, but this is where I agree with you completely. Even with an overclocked RTX 2080 Ti, this was my experience as well most of the time. On the plus side, I could usually max out most games. RTX options not withstanding. I think 60Hz is fine for a 4K display right now. However, VRR is a must.

From a performance standpoint, dropping down to an Ultra-wide 3840x1440 display is a good option. You still get good resolution but you'll pick up a lot of FPS and your options open up considerably.
 
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Dan_D

28 inch vs 32 inch, I went 32 because I wanted more actual space for the work I do (laying out PCBs, programming) , both vertically and horizontally in the real world, as well as pixels. My other monitor is/was 27inch 1440p, and I am tempted to replace it with a 32/4K as well. This seems optimal to me. I also wear glasses so I suppose I don’t have as much usable peripheral vision as those who don’t.

Re screen size vs viewing distance: everyone has a different size/shape of focus, for me, at about 50-60cm (2 feet?) maybe a little more from the monitor, I need to move my eyes a fair bit to see the edges of the 32.

Re VA vs TN, VA certainly has a wider angle. It’s not bad at all, it is worse than IPS though (which is what the 27inch is). That said, VA panels produce sharper lines to my eyes vs IPS, and this is important for my work.

Re VRR, definitely, this is a must on a 4K screen as you will drop down below 60hz sometimes with current tech. That said, with VRR (freesync et al) I don’t see it as a huge deal, and everything is mostly maxed out on my 1080ti that is factory overclocked but otherwise untweaked.

Gotta say, things look very pretty. Note however, these days I wait for games to go on sale, so often that is 6-12 months after release, at least. I have only just started rise of the tomb raider, for instance, and it is an absolute visual feast.
 
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Keljian Dan_D Hate to ask anything further of you guys, but could you suggest/link specific monitors? Even with all this information I feel like a fish out of water as I've been using a 59hz samsung monitor that doesn't even fully support hdmi for the last 10 years. The pricing on monitors can get as high or higher than 4k tvs.. Which to me is ridiculous, entirely. So if you guys could like narrow down a few models you'd think would suit me best I'd really, REALLY appreciate it. Thank you so much.
 
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I don't have an opinion because I didn't look at any of them beyond visiting the sites you linked.

Essentially they don't have the height for my use case, and they are more expensive than the 550 so wouldn't fit my criteria.

My advice is if you can go look at them yourself in person, you'll be able to make more of an informed choice.
 
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Keljian Fair enough, I really wish big retailers like bestbuy carried quality monitors. I understand they can't have every choice out there but it almost feels as if they reach for the bottom of the barrel all the while having TVs that cost 13k up for display in store.. A little strange. Anyways, I have another question (sorry). What is your opinion on the X series chips from Intel? If I could make it work budget-wise with a compatible mb, would I see any noticeable improvements in terms of performance?

https://www.newegg.ca/core-i9-x-series-intel-core-i9-9900x/p/N82E16819117962

https://www.newegg.ca/p/N82E16813119187

https://www.newegg.ca/p/N82E16813188192

https://www.newegg.ca/p/N82E16813145132
 
If your load is primarily 4k gaming then processor wise going beyond a 9900K will not net you any appreciable gain.

If money is no object, the Nvidia titan series graphics cards would potentially net you a few more frames, but the difference will be marginal in comparison to the price increase. That said, I'd rather a titan than two 2080tis.

 
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lDreaml - You've convinced me to put my system config in my sig. I've resisted this for a long time... (13 years)

I haven't attempted higher speeds, I don't need them

Note however my system is very much configured to suit my work/study needs in the first instance, with gaming as a secondary thing.
 
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Keljian About a decade ago is when I was able to finally put some money away to build my first rig. It's the same computer I still use today. As far as financials go I haven't ever been all that successful so to me it was a huge milestone. Got all the bells and whistles and somehow it still holds up even with most modern games. The only thing I changed up in it was the GPU (1050ti), but besides that it's all 10+ year old parts. Gen 1 i7 chip and all. To my point, when I finally put it all together I just had to flaunt it. As a personal achievement for all the years I had waited (finally built it in my mid 20s. Your rig is no joke, in fact it's incredible (as far as I can tell) so I mean hell if it makes you happy then flaunt the hell out of it. Thanks for all the help bud. Despite the currency conversion rate being god awful I think I'll manage. Just gotta put away a bit more and I'll be set. Much better than buying an overpriced 4k tv.
 
Keljian Your rig is no joke, in fact it's incredible (as far as I can tell) so I mean hell if it makes you happy then flaunt the hell out of it.

To me it's not about flaunting it or personal achievement. Lots of people are looking for recommendations on parts that work well together. I've recommended similar hardware to my rig because I know it all "just works" and is stable as a rock. Many of the decisions were based on work as opposed to gaming though because that is the primary function of the machine. Most users don't really need the Z390 ultra, or 64 gig of memory, or optane. All of the Gigabyte aorus range work well, memory wise I prefer Gskill but it was harder to get what I wanted from them locally.

I have the 9900k mainly for compiling software and rendering, the 1080ti is a throwback to my mining days, I had a spare card and popped it in, otherwise I'd most likely be running something like a 1660/2060, but it does help with rendering 3d and videos in Davinci... I’m all about eye candy, but I am not going to splurge on a 2080ti for RTX, I simply don’t game enough.

The motherboard was purchased as I had a bad experience with VRMs on a Ryzen 1700 board, I wanted overkill, I got it.

Gamers are typically better served with 1440p monitors, or widescreen monitors because there are simply fewer pixels to drive than 4k monitors. If you go 1440p or widescreen, you can definitely down-rate the graphics card (2070-2080 level) if you are happy with 60fps. Hardcore gamers are better served with faster screens with fewer pixels (120-144hz or better).
 
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