I've been out of the game for awhile (checkout my signature for my current rig) and holy s**t a lot has changed. HardOCP only lives on in forum form and the last AMD CPU I owned was a Clawhammer FX-53 that I cooled with a Koolance Exos (remember those?). So I find myself back in HardForum to get some advice/feedback on moving forward with a new build. I can potentially push my budget up to $3000 should there be a very convincing reason to (one of the other things that has changed since I built this rig was getting married, so I can't go ham on parts like I used to lol).
I'm considering upgrading because of Coronavirus having (most of) us stay at home and finding that my ancient setup simply cannot keep up with most recently released games (the best I can do is Civ 6 and the recent HALO remasters) and also needing (wanting) a better optimized setup to run the programs I need to finish my degree (ArcGIS Pro and others). So I decided to reuse some of the components in my current rig in order to maximize the dollars spent on the fun stuff. Which means I plan on reusing my existing 800D chassis, the EK 360 rad and D5 pump/reservoir setup, and my AX1200i PSU, all of which have performed absolutely flawlessly over the last decade and only now is my case showing its age a bit. My current monitor is a 24" 144hz 1080p which I would love to replace with a widescreen 1440 or perhaps 4k in the future.
Here is what I have put together so far:
PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 3.5 GHz 16-Core Processor ($719.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($197.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($194.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB STRIX GAMING Advanced Video Card ($584.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $2077.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-15 02:54 EDT-0400
In the past when I've built new rigs I've gone all out so it's been a challenge not choosing every top of the line part out there and sticking to a budget. I'm a little brand loyal but when their components have lasted 10+ years it's hard to argue against.
You probably noticed I don't have any type of cooler in there. That's where the EK-Quantum Momentum ROG Crosshair VIII Hero D-RGB comes in along with an additional EK 120mm radiator to the cooling loop. So factor in about $250-300 for those items along with the required fittings, tubing etc. I go back and forth a lot on 3950x vs 3900x as well as spending the extra $$$ and getting a 2080 super instead of the 2070. Also, I considered going with CL 14 memory but its double the cost of the ones I have on the list, from what I understand Zen 2 likes ram speed and CL isn't as important/worth the extra cost? (I could be wrong)
My biggest concern is the fact that Zen 3 is coming towards the end of 2020 in addition to Big Navi. Waiting feels like the best choice in the long term since I've already gone 10 years so whats another 6-7 months?
But the age of my current rig has REALLY started to show and it's hard not to pull the trigger on something right now (especially since Asus X570 finally restocked today on newegg) and since I will be finding myself spending almost all of my time at home for potentially the rest of 2020, I'd like to maximize my enjoyment while I'm here.
I'm also not planning to upgrade the new rig since my other hobby (offroading/overlanding) usually takes up most of my time and money and I'll soon have kids and a mortgage to worry about along with the cost of living in California. For now I just want something that can play the latest games and perhaps a few titles of the future and be my ArcGIS/productivity workstation. Ideally I'd like the rig to hopefully last 5+ years knowing that over time I will have to lower settings on games to keep acceptable FPS.
Would you wait for the next hardware release? Do you think reusing parts of my now 10 year old rig isn't a good idea? What other parts would you choose? Should I watercool the GPU as well? Are you tired of getting asked the same upgrade questions 1892372 different ways?
Thanks in advance!
I'm considering upgrading because of Coronavirus having (most of) us stay at home and finding that my ancient setup simply cannot keep up with most recently released games (the best I can do is Civ 6 and the recent HALO remasters) and also needing (wanting) a better optimized setup to run the programs I need to finish my degree (ArcGIS Pro and others). So I decided to reuse some of the components in my current rig in order to maximize the dollars spent on the fun stuff. Which means I plan on reusing my existing 800D chassis, the EK 360 rad and D5 pump/reservoir setup, and my AX1200i PSU, all of which have performed absolutely flawlessly over the last decade and only now is my case showing its age a bit. My current monitor is a 24" 144hz 1080p which I would love to replace with a widescreen 1440 or perhaps 4k in the future.
Here is what I have put together so far:
PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 3.5 GHz 16-Core Processor ($719.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($197.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($194.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB STRIX GAMING Advanced Video Card ($584.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $2077.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-15 02:54 EDT-0400
In the past when I've built new rigs I've gone all out so it's been a challenge not choosing every top of the line part out there and sticking to a budget. I'm a little brand loyal but when their components have lasted 10+ years it's hard to argue against.
You probably noticed I don't have any type of cooler in there. That's where the EK-Quantum Momentum ROG Crosshair VIII Hero D-RGB comes in along with an additional EK 120mm radiator to the cooling loop. So factor in about $250-300 for those items along with the required fittings, tubing etc. I go back and forth a lot on 3950x vs 3900x as well as spending the extra $$$ and getting a 2080 super instead of the 2070. Also, I considered going with CL 14 memory but its double the cost of the ones I have on the list, from what I understand Zen 2 likes ram speed and CL isn't as important/worth the extra cost? (I could be wrong)
My biggest concern is the fact that Zen 3 is coming towards the end of 2020 in addition to Big Navi. Waiting feels like the best choice in the long term since I've already gone 10 years so whats another 6-7 months?
But the age of my current rig has REALLY started to show and it's hard not to pull the trigger on something right now (especially since Asus X570 finally restocked today on newegg) and since I will be finding myself spending almost all of my time at home for potentially the rest of 2020, I'd like to maximize my enjoyment while I'm here.
I'm also not planning to upgrade the new rig since my other hobby (offroading/overlanding) usually takes up most of my time and money and I'll soon have kids and a mortgage to worry about along with the cost of living in California. For now I just want something that can play the latest games and perhaps a few titles of the future and be my ArcGIS/productivity workstation. Ideally I'd like the rig to hopefully last 5+ years knowing that over time I will have to lower settings on games to keep acceptable FPS.
Would you wait for the next hardware release? Do you think reusing parts of my now 10 year old rig isn't a good idea? What other parts would you choose? Should I watercool the GPU as well? Are you tired of getting asked the same upgrade questions 1892372 different ways?
Thanks in advance!
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