New Gaming Computer Feedback/Thoughts (Price ~ $1700)

adspiv78 on 21/07/2020 - 12:57
Last edited 21/07/2020 - 13:26 by 1 other user

Looking at building a gaming PC with my son and we have put together the following list.
I have found parts for around ~$1,700 and can get W10 so haven't included it in the price.
This isn't built for any particular game as he plays a variety of shooters and minecraft and other stuff.

Any thoughts on compatability, value or upgrade path considerations would be great.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU *AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor $281.60 @ Newegg Australia
Motherboard MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard $199.00 @ PC Byte
Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory $114.73 @ Amazon Australia
Storage Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive $164.93 @ Amazon Australia
Video Card Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card $899.00 @ Austin Computers
Case Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case $150.70 @ Newegg Australia
Power Supply Corsair CXM 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply $135.00 @ Skycomp Technology
Wireless Network Adapter Asus PCE-AC55BT B1 PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter $58.30 @ Newegg Australia
Computing Computer Desktop Computer

Comments

  • whiteflame on 21/07/2020 - 13:17
    +4

    You mentioned Minecraft so I assume he is around the typical age group. He can do with Gigabyte AMD RX5700 XT which is cheaper and its best bang for buck at that performance level. You could integrate the network adapter into the motherboard for similar cost by getting a motherboard with WiFi, advantage with that is you have one less part meaning, one less supplier and shipping to deal with. You might be missing a HDD to store data. The 500gb SSD will run out pretty fast nowadays, depending how many games he plays and which game he wants less loading time.

    • AustriaBargain on 21/07/2020 - 13:19
      +3

      I say get the best card you can afford. You'll feel the pain of having a weaker card for years until you buy a more powerful one anyway. If you're going to take care of it then why not save some money int he future and buy the more powerful one now.

      • whiteflame on 21/07/2020 - 13:28

        He mentioned $1700 but the sum is actually ~$2000, thought there could be some saving there for the age group of games that is potentially played.

        • AustriaBargain on 21/07/2020 - 13:33

          If he had more gpu power to spare then he could leave these older games running the background while starting a new one.

        • adspiv78 on 21/07/2020 - 17:42

          $2,000 is the price partpicker totalled but I found parts cheaper than listed.

    • ItsMeAgro on 21/07/2020 - 13:27
      +1

      I think it's often worth the premium for Nvidia for the better drivers and a few minor features. But yeah the AMD has better framerates per dollar.

      500GB is a bit small now - many popular games exceed 100GB. So that could be only 4 games at a time.

      • YeemaiI on 21/07/2020 - 13:54
        +2

        Yeah AMD Radeon drivers and software are 💩

        • smalltime0 on 22/07/2020 - 18:31

          I almost always go with AMD, but I 100% agree

    • [Deactivated] on 21/07/2020 - 14:39

      i agree with this.

      2070 is a beast of a GPU and with a price tag to match.

      So you not going to really make use of it may as well save a few hundred $$.

  • ItsMeAgro on 21/07/2020 - 13:20

    Pretty good. Not much to add.

    (With $60 going to the wifi card… you couldn't get a motherboard with wifi included for $60 more could you? Just wondering)

    • whiteflame on 21/07/2020 - 13:22
      +1

      Gigabyte B450 AORUS PRO WIFI (rev. 1.0) ATX AM4 Motherboard Ebay shopping express $255.2

      I bought this 4 weeks ago during eBay's promotion

  • cocywong on 21/07/2020 - 13:21
    +2

    Have you considered shipping in the pricing? The Meshify C at Newegg comes up as $150.70 + $115 delivered to Australia for me.

    • adspiv78 on 21/07/2020 - 17:43

      No I hadn't considered shipping with Newegg. Thanks for pointing that out.

  • jpv on 21/07/2020 - 13:30

    You've got a pretty solid build. It should last a few years as the progress for PC evolution has slowed down.
    Only feedback I'd provide is to upgrade the MoBo to a B550.
    Also, add a HDD (or another SSD) for bigger games. Modern Warfare is around 140GB alone so you might turn out of storage on the SSD.

  • Brotality on 21/07/2020 - 13:32
    +2

    Great build overall, a few comments:

    • At this Mobo budget, definitely get a B550
    • If you already decided to get a PCI Wi-Fi adapter and you're okay with this budget, definitely get something that supports Wi-Fi 6
    • Look into the Kingston A2000 1TB NVME SSD that should be around $180 these days and should be as fast as the 860 EVO for gaming (and 95% of day to day use)
    • I have the same memory kit on a B450 Aorus M MoBo and I get random crashes when I enable XMP at 3200MHz. I've changed it to 2133 to see if the issues go away and they did. (just some heads up that might save you some headache!)
    • As mentioned above, look into the 5700XT as it's a bit better bang for buck.

    I have a very similar build, happy to answer any specific questions.

  • scrimshaw on 21/07/2020 - 13:34
    +1

    I have the Fractal Design Meshify C, even though it is a great case it is actually relatively expensive here in Australia, for some unknown reason Fractal Design commands a price premium in the lower hemisphere. I would recommend looking at some other options particularly the Phanteks P300A which is $50 cheaper than the Meshify C.

    And per what whiteflame said about picking a motherboard that has Wifi built in. There are B550m motherboards with Wifi such as the MSI B550M-PRO-VDH-WIFI which costs just shy of $230.

  • Fergy1987 on 21/07/2020 - 13:40
    +1

    I literally just built this before Covid with a different power supply and case.

    Cant fault your build. I built my partners PC in the Meshify C and its a great case to build in. But as suggested if you wanted to save a buck you could get something else. I even like the look of those new Lian-Li Mesh cases. Though they are probably the same price.

    I'd also slap something like a 2TB Seagate Barracuda in there for storage

    • smalltime0 on 22/07/2020 - 18:35

      Cases are somewhere where you can always pour money into. I'm rocking a 10 yr old case that I spent ~$200 on it, but it fits everything and is super easy to put components into.

  • pharkurnell on 21/07/2020 - 13:56
    +3

    IMWO I'd scrap wifi and get a cable run by a sparky - I got cable run right through out the house.. happy with the result too. Extra cost, but you'll never look back.

    Nothing worse than kids start moaning once the WiFi dies or gets flaky while they are in the middle of a world championship tournament or at least they think they are.

    • Fergy1987 on 21/07/2020 - 14:09

      I also wanted to do this, but did a speedtest on my wifi and was getting 46mb/s on wifi and 47mb/s on wired and couldnt justify the cost.

      • TChalla on 21/07/2020 - 14:17
        +1

        What about latency, definitely better with wired connection.

  • [Deactivated] on 21/07/2020 - 14:35
    +1

    nice build imo
    Should smash any game.

    Depending on what you play you could probably get away with cheaper GPU

    Are you planning on playing VR or having high res (4K) monitor?

    • adspiv78 on 21/07/2020 - 17:46

      I haven't bought the monitor yet, anything you'd suggest?

      • [Deactivated] on 21/07/2020 - 18:58

        Haha not a gamer.

        So cant recommend. But if i am not mistaken you probably don't get much benefit from 2070 unless you plan to go 4k res or high freq monitor.

        Having said that its great tech. Its nice to have nice speca :)

      • smalltime0 on 22/07/2020 - 18:38

        I'd wait until you are about to buy the rest of the components, but there are decent 4k monitors from top tier manufacturers

  • garetz on 21/07/2020 - 17:57

    The evo is much cheaper from https://www.onlinecomputer.com.au/samsung-970-evo-plus-500gb…

  • lew380 on 22/07/2020 - 09:25

    $900 for the 2070 super? 5700xt go for around 600-700 and are marginally slower, about 5%. I can't see how a 5% boost is worth $300 dollars. Can't see many perks with nvidia, the drivers of the 5700xt are fine, don't know why
    people whinge about them for this long, my 5700xt has never had driver problems. Ray tracing is still shit on a 2070, it's a tech for the next few generations so wouldn't hold my breath for Ray tracing. The 2070 S does not justify a $300 price step, unless you can find one for 50-100 more than a 5700xt it's pushing the budget.

    I've had a mix of nvidia and AMD over the years, the major difference is mainly marketing, both produce good cards and AMD offer better value up to upper mid range. The only reason I would go for nvidia is for $1000+ 5yr future proof cards, at least a 2080ti or something, and given that the next generation of cards is coming out, these high end cards are really bad value right now!

    • adspiv78 on 22/07/2020 - 09:34

      I was looking at MS Flight Sim 2020 last night and their ideal specs are:
      CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X or Intel Core i7-9800X
      GPU: Radeon VII or Nvidia RTX 2080

      What do you think I do for GPU?

      Shipping express has Open Box Sale — Gigabyte RTX 2070 WINDFORCE 2X 8G Graphics Card for $699 but doesn't sound like it is up to MS suggested specs

      • scrimshaw on 22/07/2020 - 11:02
        +1

        Those are the ideal specs — intended for the most hardcore of flight-sim users to run the game at the best looking settings (probably a proper ultra-widescreen monitor for peripheral vision, not just a bog standard 1x1080p 16:9 monitor most gamers use) and highest draw distances for max realism.

        You can sacrifice one or two graphics tweaks and run it with as little as a Nvidia GTX 970, RTX 2060 SUPER or 5700XT can easily match that.

      • lew380 on 22/07/2020 - 14:06

        I have noticed in il2 BoS, my upgraded ram and CPU offered a much larger boost in performance to the GPU upgrade. Flight sims tend to be very CPU heavy so something to consider, although MS FS20 might be better optimised than other flight sims, I don't know.

        Check FS forums, it seems that the game could be more CPU bound than GPU. If your after FS20 performance, consider a better CPU and cut some costs on a GPU and run the game smoother with less intensive graphics, but we won't know for sure until the Simulator comes. I doubt a 2080 will be anything close to essential, that rules out 99% of the flight summing community otherwise

  • Snave on 22/07/2020 - 10:45
    +1

    I am currently building a similar machine with the Ryzen 5 3600. I already have PSU, GPU, SSD (for games), HDD from my current PC. I am looking to upgrade my GPU when the NVidia 3000 series is released

    I was originally looking at the Meshify C or Phantek P400A. I ended up with a Coolermaster NR400 (mATX), it still has the pressed mesh grill on the front. The NR600 is the ATX case.

    Maybe consider a RTX 2600 super to lower the price.

    Maybe look at a CPU cooler. I did go the B450 as the Ryzen is potentially only one more generation (4000 series) on the AM4 and I don't upgrade every year.

    Also for a monitor definetly look at 144hz for shooters, i have a AOC 24g2 https://au.aoc.com/product_5738_24G2_monitor_AUSTRALIA.php

    My list including shipping.

    Type Item Price
    CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
    CPU Cooler CRYORIG H7 Plus 59 CFM CPU Cooler
    Motherboard Gigabyte B450M AORUS ELITE Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
    Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
    Storage Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
    Case Cooler Master MasterBox NR400 (w/o ODD) MicroATX Mid Tower Case
    Total $810.00
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-22 10:31 AEST+1000
    • adspiv78 on 22/07/2020 - 20:18

      Between Meshify C or Phantek P400A which is the better option?

      Phantek P400A delivered by PCG for $179 (https://www.pccasegear.com/products/47311?gclid=CjwKCAjwx9_4…)
      Meshify C delivered from Centre Com for $189 (https://www.centrecom.com.au/fractal-design-meshify-c-blacko…)

      • Snave on 22/07/2020 - 23:27

        If you are purely looking for cooling, stock vs stock the Phantek is better based on reviews. With additional fans the Meshify C is on par. Below is a link that has benchmarks for stock cooling and also adding additional fans.
        https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3579-phanteks-p300a-ca…

        The case I recommended above, the Coolermaster NR600 preforms better with an additional fan and is generally $110 + shipping. This is an option to potentially save money.

        The hardest part is find stock at the moment, contact any stores before pre-ordering to check the ETA. The websites ETA may be wrong. The case I wanted has an ETA of 4 days but when I contacted them it was change to TBA. I ended up getting it of Ebay for cheaper.

  • smalltime0 on 22/07/2020 - 18:40

    I doubt you'll need the CPU cooler, the included Wraith coolers by AMD are actually pretty decent.
    I'd buy some Noctua fans to add to the case.

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