Mostly Gaming Focused Build - Looking for some final input

Mostly gaming focused. Overwatch is my go to at the moment. Otherwise I still even have a back log of some games over the last few years that I didn't start as my existing system wouldn't do 1080p60 max settings fluidly. Upcoming or newer games would the Outerworlds, Bloodlines 2, Cyberpunk to name a few but I can even hold off on those until late 2020 or 201 for next gen GPUs.

No set budget but I'm not a big spender in terms of preference. I originally planned to go to at least 3700x or 9700k for the CPU, ITX for the mother board, and a RTX 2060 Super for the GPU but a lack of deals, high price differential, and longevity concerns made my change my mind.

I've actually bought all these but Amazon return window isn't until January. Not all these have even shipped yet much less picked up. I converted all these to USD equivalents but I'm actually in Canada.

CPU - Ryzen r5 3600x - $175 + game promo

Memory (all 2x8GB) -

Adata D10 3200C16 - $53
Adata D10 3600C18 - $64
Adata D41 RGB 3200C16 - $60 (Not specifically looking for RGB, but dunno if it's a good deal and might resell better if I goto 2x16GB in the future).

Haven't really decided on which one to use. I have some use cases that scale with memory such as Overwatch (very high FPS) and Fallout 4/Skyrim.

In terms of B-Dies the price differential on those I can find are huge compared to the above. Thought about Micron E-Dies as well but I hesitated and missed the Crucial RGB 3200c16s at $72. Otherwise non RGB options I could find were all $75+.

Motherboard -

Gigabye b450m Aurous M - $60

Other options I considered were the Asrock b450m Pro4 and MSI b450m gaming plus.

Also thinking about just holding and seeing news on b550 as it may have better possible support Zen 4 and some PCIe 4.0 support.

GPU -

Gigabyte RTX 2060 Windorce Rev 2.0 - $270

MSI GTX 1660ti Ventus XS OC - $220 - $15 MIR.

EVGA RTX 2060 Super SC Ultra - $355

Planning to sell and upgrade next generation when the first deals roll around to something roughly $200-$400 and under 200w (around 150w preferably).


Existing build - 2500k (stock, never OCed), DDR3 1600 2x8GB, MSI GTX 970 Gaming.

Monitor - 144hz 1080p for the foreseeable future. Although I just bought it and haven't opened it yet. Might need to go back to 1080p60 if it doesn't work out and wait for the next thing (who knows when).

Okay, at the moment it's looking like the following -

Ryzen r5 3600x - $175 + game promo

Gigabyte b450 Auros M - $65

Adata D10 DDR4 3200C16 - $53

MSI GTX 1660ti Ventus XS OC - $220 - $15 MIR

Samsung 860 EVO 1TB - $79


Reuse - existing SSD (as boot), case, PSU

limitedaccess said:

Okay, at the moment it's looking like the following ...

Click to expand...

upgraded my built from a FX-8350 to the following just yesterday:

- Ryzen 5 2600
- MSI B450 Tomahawk Max (series 3 compatible out of the box)
- Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3000 CL 15 15-17-17-35
- Patriot Viper M.2 256GB 2280 (comes in 1TB version too)

I researched for a long time, everything I linked is fully compatible with Ryzen 5 2600, no issues but mem needs to be manually set to 1499MHz (3000) but then so do most if not all Ryzen boards I suppose. With series 3 cpu check compatibility mem list.

If you go with Samsung I'd say 960 EVO minimum. The Viper is very impressive though and has a stellar heat sink but 1TB model is $140 but why spend all that $$$ on a fast system and then go cheap on the M.2

I would probably have gone for the 2060, but other than that looks pretty good to me.

limitedaccess said:

ITX for the mother board

Click to expand...

Unless you already have an ITX enclosure and appropriate cooling solution, I'd skip -- ITX is 'fun', but it is not cheap, and if you want performance, you'll have to pay up to get it -- and pay more to keep it all relatively quiet. mATX or ATX are where it's at for keeping costs under control.

For the GPU, if you're really expecting to upgrade, I'd recommend waiting. I'm still gaming on a 970 on one of my systems, just with an 8700k -- at 1080p with lower settings, it should easily be in striking range of 144Hz. Next-gen should see a large bump from Nvidia, flip a coin on AMD.

And for the SSD, you might consider an NVME drive, and 2TB worth. With the move away from SATA the number of ports is getting restricted again and that's one spot that you might find yourself in a pinch. See if sale prices on Intel's 660p are tempting, as the performance of that drive is perfect for games.

ITX would really just be a "fun" thing for me. I'm trying to reclaim some space and portability (really just to easier move sometimes around home) but don't really need need an ultra tiny SFF build. Which is why I've kind of settled on mATX now given the pricing difference for everything even if the size savings isn't that big over ATX. Really the trade off is selection for me, don't use any of the space from ATX.

Regarding the SSD. 2TB with NVMe still seems quite high price wise for me. I really notice I just mostly hammer at 1-2 games, sometimes 3 or 4 and hardly touch the rest. I actually already have a SSD (7 years old now!), the problem with it is it's having a hard time fitting even 2 games. I'm actually now leaning towards down sizing to a 500Gb 860 EVO instead for $37. Then I can save the NMVe slot and upgrade more down the line and see how the consoles affect NVMe usage and for prices to go down, possibly when 128 layer NAND and controllers for that generation roll out.

2020Q2 release date for next gen wouldn't be as concerning a wait issue but if it drags to Q4. I guess the wait benefit would also be that the GTX 970 has driven down in value a lot in terms of resell and likely won't lose much more over a year. I am building up quite a few games I've been putting off until a better graphics situation.

I'm not really entirely happy with the GPU situation. In a large part the upgrade would also be driven by the new NVENC encoder (I use the encoder for gaming streaming) and VRR support. Also I might need it to offset a jump to 1440p, haven't decided yet.

The mining and memory price spike really messed up my last upgrade cycle, so the GTX 970 running on 4 years. I thought about settling with the 1660ti stop gap as I didn't really want to buy any higher due to the lack of VRAM this generation compared to what the consoles will bring next year and likely next gen GPUs. Also in general I prefer to more lighter GPUs in terms of TDP (sub 200w, if not closer to 150w) due to various reasons.

Also if I don't upgrade the GPU I'm not sure if I should put off upgrading the CPU as well.