The PC Builders Thread ("I Need a New PC") v2

Beer Monkey · Jan 10, 2020

EVGA's website has the GeForce RTX 2060 KO Gaming for $265.99 (5% off) if you enter an associate code (they are everywhere). It's a preorder, never preorder, wait for reviews.

If you're thinking of buying *any* video card in the next couple of weeks I'd suggest doing it somewhere with free returns and price adjustments because this will almost certainly trigger more price reductions. The cheapest 2060 at Micro Center right now is $339.99 and the cheapest GTX 1660 ti is $274.99 and these prices cannot hold.

amusix · Jan 10, 2020

So, I failed myself....

After my previous post, Wraith gave me awesome advice...and then I went and started putting stuff together. Decided not to build my rig this time (first time since 95) but put it in the hands of CyberpowerPC (they seem to have a decent track record).

I've got some questions (in bold red below) but I've pretty much decided to modify this:

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/EVO-Mini-I-2060-Super

Chassis: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv mini-iTX Gaming Case White w/ Tempered Glass Window
CPU: Intel® Core™ Processor i5-9600K 3.70GHZ 9MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1151
Should I bump this up to an i7? My current processor is an i7-2700
CPU / Processor Cooling Fan: CyberPowerPC Asetek 550LC 120mm Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler (Single Standard 120MM Fan)
I've never done liquid cooling. Better? Worse? Quieter? Should I go with the larger, double fan version?
Motherboard: ASRock Z390M ITX/ac w/ 802.11ac Wi-Fi, USB 3.1, 1PCIe x16, 6 SATA3, 1 M.2 SATA/PCIe
If I go with a different MB, can I get a second PCIe drive?
RAM / System Memory: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR4/3000MHz Dual Channel Memory (Crucial Ballistix Sport)
Video Card: GeForce® RTX 2060 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6 (Turing) [VR Ready] (Single Card)
Power Supply: 600 Watts - Standard 600Watts 80 Plus Gold high-efficient Power Supply
Is this enough power? It's less than the PS I have on my current rig.
Primary Hard Drive: 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD - Seq R/W: Up to 3500/3300 MB/s, Rnd R/W up to 600/550k (Single Drive)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

Essentially, this looks like it's going to run me $1500-2000...hoping it lasts about 8 years. Anything above looks like overkill, or underpowered?

Dave. · Jan 10, 2020

amusix said:
So, I failed myself....

After my previous post, Wraith gave me awesome advice...and then I went and started putting stuff together. Decided not to build my rig this time (first time since 95) but put it in the hands of CyberpowerPC (they seem to have a decent track record).

I've got some questions (in bold red below) but I've pretty much decided to modify this:

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/EVO-Mini-I-2060-Super

Chassis: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv mini-iTX Gaming Case White w/ Tempered Glass Window
CPU: Intel® Core™ Processor i5-9600K 3.70GHZ 9MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1151
Should I bump this up to an i7? My current processor is an i7-2700
CPU / Processor Cooling Fan: CyberPowerPC Asetek 550LC 120mm Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler (Single Standard 120MM Fan)
I've never done liquid cooling. Better? Worse? Quieter? Should I go with the larger, double fan version?
Motherboard: ASRock Z390M ITX/ac w/ 802.11ac Wi-Fi, USB 3.1, 1PCIe x16, 6 SATA3, 1 M.2 SATA/PCIe
If I go with a different MB, can I get a second PCIe drive?
RAM / System Memory: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR4/3000MHz Dual Channel Memory (Crucial Ballistix Sport)
Video Card: GeForce® RTX 2060 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6 (Turing) [VR Ready] (Single Card)
Power Supply: 600 Watts - Standard 600Watts 80 Plus Gold high-efficient Power Supply
Is this enough power? It's less than the PS I have on my current rig.
Primary Hard Drive: 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD - Seq R/W: Up to 3500/3300 MB/s, Rnd R/W up to 600/550k (Single Drive)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

Essentially, this looks like it's going to run me $1500-2000...hoping it lasts about 8 years. Anything above looks like overkill, or underpowered?

$2,000 for that seems absurdly overpriced, at a quick glance.

Duck Sauce · Jan 10, 2020

Anyone deal with ASUS Rma process recently? They have a notorious history of being shit and from my own personal experience years back they exactly lived up to it. Just wondering since i haven't had to do this for a long time. 7-8 years. Just hoping they got a little better.

Polyh3dron · Jan 10, 2020

amusix said:
So, I failed myself....

After my previous post, Wraith gave me awesome advice...and then I went and started putting stuff together. Decided not to build my rig this time (first time since 95) but put it in the hands of CyberpowerPC (they seem to have a decent track record).

I've got some questions (in bold red below) but I've pretty much decided to modify this:

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/EVO-Mini-I-2060-Super

Chassis: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv mini-iTX Gaming Case White w/ Tempered Glass Window
CPU: Intel® Core™ Processor i5-9600K 3.70GHZ 9MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1151
Should I bump this up to an i7? My current processor is an i7-2700
CPU / Processor Cooling Fan: CyberPowerPC Asetek 550LC 120mm Liquid Cooling CPU Cooler (Single Standard 120MM Fan)
I've never done liquid cooling. Better? Worse? Quieter? Should I go with the larger, double fan version?
Motherboard: ASRock Z390M ITX/ac w/ 802.11ac Wi-Fi, USB 3.1, 1PCIe x16, 6 SATA3, 1 M.2 SATA/PCIe
If I go with a different MB, can I get a second PCIe drive?
RAM / System Memory: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR4/3000MHz Dual Channel Memory (Crucial Ballistix Sport)
Video Card: GeForce® RTX 2060 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6 (Turing) [VR Ready] (Single Card)
Power Supply: 600 Watts - Standard 600Watts 80 Plus Gold high-efficient Power Supply
Is this enough power? It's less than the PS I have on my current rig.
Primary Hard Drive: 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD - Seq R/W: Up to 3500/3300 MB/s, Rnd R/W up to 600/550k (Single Drive)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

Essentially, this looks like it's going to run me $1500-2000...hoping it lasts about 8 years. Anything above looks like overkill, or underpowered?

I'd at least spring for a 2080 Super if I was looking for this to last 8 years. Also, yeah going for an i7-9700k would be smart.

You should definitely build it though. It's really not hard, and it'll end up cheaper.

Beer Monkey · Jan 10, 2020

Personally I can't see any current GPU holding up well for 8 years from a ray tracing perspective. My plan is to upgrade every couple of years for a while. I sell my GPUs on eBay or Craigslist or Reddit while they still have value.

Lakeside · Jan 10, 2020

Beer Monkey said:
Personally I can't see any current GPU holding up well for 8 years from a ray tracing perspective. My plan is to upgrade every couple of years for a while. I sell my GPUs on eBay or Craigslist or Reddit while they still have value.

I don't see today's GPUs holding up well for 1 year if ray tracing is the main factor.

amusix · Jan 10, 2020

Polyh3dron said:
I'd at least spring for a 2080 Super if I was looking for this to last 8 years. Also, yeah going for an i7-9700k would be smart.

You should definitely build it though. It's really not hard, and it'll end up cheaper.

I am in the very fortunate position that I can swallow a few hundred dollars to have a site like this build it for me.

Beer Monkey said:
Personally I can't see any current GPU holding up well for 8 years from a ray tracing perspective. My plan is to upgrade every couple of years for a while. I sell my GPUs on eBay or Craigslist or Reddit while they still have value.

Lakeside said:
I don't see today's GPUs holding up well for 1 year if ray tracing is the main factor.

Hmm...does this mean I should put off building this for another year? Not sure if new cards will come out quick enough...

Lakeside · Jan 10, 2020

amusix said:
I am in the very fortunate position that I can swallow a few hundred dollars to have a site like this build it for me.

Hmm...does this mean I should put off building this for another year? Not sure if new cards will come out quick enough...

The issue is that most of us wouldn't pay to have someone perform lower quality work than I would.

On the latter point, not if you want to game now. If you can afford to pay someone to build it then you can eat a few hundred when better cards come, which they always do.

Dave. · Jan 10, 2020

Finally some R9 3950X in stock in the UK (and at a small discount even!), so jumped on that quick and it arrived today!

New:
- R9 3950X
- Crucial Ballistix LT Sport 3200 CL16 (Micron E-Die, bargain cheap for 32GB and should do 3600 with any luck we will see!)
- Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master (very highly praised from some tubers I respect Buildzoid, L1 Wendell and more)
- Samsung 1TB 970 Evo NVMe (actually from last Prime day where it was on a huge discount, but still unopened)
- Noctua NH-D15
- Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut (normal stuff not liquid metal, not pictured)

Recycled from old PC (an FX-8350!)
- Asus 1070 Ti (good enough, no point buying a GPU right now with this available will wait and see RTX 30xx Ti and big Navi)
- Corsair RM750x (wonderful, actually silent at light load)
- Fractal Define R4 (not pictured, still has old PC in it for now!)

Will be memtested on the table right away, probably also into windows and tested a bit, then built in to the case in a week or two depending how much I need my windows PC working / can find a gap to migrate everything)

Evolution of Metal · Jan 10, 2020

Duck Sauce said:
Anyone deal with ASUS Rma process recently? They have a notorious history of being shit and from my own personal experience years back they exactly lived up to it. Just wondering since i haven't had to do this for a long time. 7-8 years. Just hoping they got a little better.

Don't send them any accessories. Asus throws it away and only gives you the bare minimum back. Goodbye cables, manuals, antennas, trinkets etc. Even the nice original packaging is sometimes replaced with the plain cardboard box. Send only the motherboard itself or GPU, or whatever crap you have.

There are many horror stories from RMA, not exclusive to Asus. Either you RMA stuff (high chance that everything will be alright), or you keep your defective device.

I think all services got better. It actually costs both service/shipping/repairs in company's budget for RMAs, and it costs the reputation when RMA goes wrong. I don't think any service wants to dick around with prolonged tech support or multiple RMAs for the same product.

liquidmetal14 · Jan 10, 2020

Ok, pretty much focused on these parts for the build. I just got the Silverstone RL06 so I'm set with the case.

-Boards have been narrowed to the ASRock x570 Taichi or Msi Meg x570 Unify
-Corsair HX850 Platinum
-Ryzen 3900x
-Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240mm AIO
-Corsair Force MP600 1tb Gen 4 m.2
-2x16GB GSKILL 3200mhz 14-14-14-34

Open to suggestions on the cooler and maybe the memory. I know about the 3600mhz higher CAS but decided that it may not be worth the extra plus the overhead on the 3200mhz may allow for a reasonable OC.

Polyh3dron · Jan 10, 2020

amusix said:
I am in the very fortunate position that I can swallow a few hundred dollars to have a site like this build it for me.

Hmm...does this mean I should put off building this for another year? Not sure if new cards will come out quick enough...

We could be waiting until the early fall for Nvidia Ampere... It's rumored to be a significant jump, but so many factors leading to release could change that outlook. Since you are in such an aforementioned fortunate position and you want something long lasting, the 2080 Ti, albeit pricey as all hell, is of course the top of the line right now and will still most likely sell for a decent amount on the second hand market leading up to the Ampere release.

I'd recommend maybe going with iBuyPower... If you want a really badass spare-no-expense machine, that really will stand the test of time, here's a build for $4269:

https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/AMD-Ryzen-7-3rd-Gen-Configurator/W/847135

Of course you don't have to spend that much though. iBuyPower will let you customize it.

Rice Eater · Jan 10, 2020

Beer Monkey said:
If the base 2060 KO is truly $279.99 thats a new price performance ratio that bumps the card up to near 1660 Super on value and makes the 1660 ti irrelevant.

Many GPUs may need to get repriced in the next week or two.

https://wccftech.com/evga-geforce-rtx-2060-ko-series-279-usd-tackle-amd-rx-5600-xt/

If this was announced just a week ago I probably would have gotten this over the 5700 that I just bought this past Tuesday. It was a open box model and only $271 so it was a great deal. But I've been with Nvidia so long that I would have stayed with them if the price and performance were similar.

I am tempted by this and I do have 30 days to return the 5700 if I wanted. But I probably won't in the end because it isn't giving me any issues. I do find it weird that EVGA is doing this on their own. This is what Nvidia should have done when the 1660 Super came out.

dallow_bg · Jan 10, 2020

Couldn't start my build due to family issues I had to attend to but I did upgrade my sisters ancient Dell Optiplex 780.

Put in a SSD of course after cloning.
Changed the Core 2 Duo E8400 to a Core 2 Quad Q9550.
8GB ram from 4GB

The SSD alone makes it feel new.
Next up is a Nvidia GT 1030 and she'll be good haha.

Sandfox · Jan 10, 2020

Rice Eater said:
If this was announced just a week ago I probably would have gotten this over the 5700 that I just bought this past Tuesday. It was a open box model and only $271 so it was a great deal. But I've been with Nvidia so long that I would have stayed with them if the price and performance were similar.

I am tempted by this and I do have 30 days to return the 5700 if I wanted. But I probably won't in the end because it isn't giving me any issues. I do find it weird that EVGA is doing this on their own. This is what Nvidia should have done when the 1660 Super came out.

Isn't the 5700 at $271 the much better deal?

Pigs · Jan 10, 2020

Anyone know of a decent HDMI cable around 10' I can use to hook up my pc to my tv? I have a pretty long amazon basics one that says it's high speed with Ethernet, but when I try it my tv flickers and goes black.

catpurrcat · Jan 10, 2020

Pigs said:
Anyone know of a decent HDMI cable around 10' I can use to hook up my pc to my tv? I have a pretty long amazon basics one that says it's high speed with Ethernet, but when I try it my tv flickers and goes black.

Similar issue, ended up buying an "active" HDMI Cable by monoprice,CL2 - Cabernet Ultra Series

Works perfectly, does 4k and HDR at a long distance.

Rice Eater · Jan 10, 2020

Sandfox said:
Isn't the 5700 at $271 the much better deal?

Like I said, I would have stayed with Nvidia if the price and performance were similar. Those 2 cards are close in terms of performance but the 2060 is $350 almost every where I looked while the 5700 can regularly be found for 300(give or take). The open box model knocked it down even further.

But if I knew this EVGA KO edition was coming I would have waited. And I probably would have gotten it in the end. I've been Nvidia only since 2006 and it would have stayed that way if I could have gotten a 2060 for $300 or less that same day.

Rice Eater · Jan 11, 2020

OK so this just happened now. One of the display ports on the 5700 I just bought doesn't work anymore. I've only had this less than a week but I'm freaked out by the longevity of the card now because of this.

I bought it very recently so I can definitely return it. But it's the only one left so I can't go swap it out for another. And since it was a discounted open box model I'd probably be paying another 70+ if I ended up getting another 5700

Man, it's almost like fate is telling me to get the new EVGA 2060 KO lol.

Rice Eater · Jan 11, 2020

Me again for the 3rd straight time, but I kind of need to get this off my shoulder. Anyways, just wondered what you guys would do in my situation. I'm contemplating

A) Returning it and getting something else.

B) Going back to buy a 2 year warranty for $30.

Getting the warranty would basically be near the same amount I would pay to replace the card. I can get by with 1 broken display port for now. If it gets worse then I'd be thrilled as long as it's a year or more later so I can replace it with something newer and better. Any thoughts on this?

boris_feinbrand · Jan 11, 2020

Rice Eater said:
Me again for the 3 straight time, but I kind of need to get this off my shoulder. Anyways, just wondered what you guys would do in my situation. I'm contemplating

A) Returning it and getting something else.

B) Going back to buy a 2 year warranty for $30.

Getting the warranty would basically be near the same amount I would pay to replace the card. I can get by with 1 broken display port for now. If it gets worse then I'd be thrilled as long as it's a year or more later so I can replace it with something newer and better. Any thoughts on this?

Why is there no warranty? Discounted or not, you bought a defective product. Personally I'd get another card instead. Dealing with the constant fear of it failing is BS.

Dave. · Jan 11, 2020

Rice Eater said:
Me again for the 3 straight time, but I kind of need to get this off my shoulder. Anyways, just wondered what you guys would do in my situation. I'm contemplating

A) Returning it and getting something else.

B) Going back to buy a 2 year warranty for $30.

Getting the warranty would basically be near the same amount I would pay to replace the card. I can get by with 1 broken display port for now. If it gets worse then I'd be thrilled as long as it's a year or more later so I can replace it with something newer and better. Any thoughts on this?

It's really weird tbh. In all my hardware dealings, I don't think I've ever encountered a graphics card output that just stopped working! Not without a mangled pins or something like that. Maybe in the early days when cards only had 1 output, I guess - wouldn't be able to tell the difference between that and an otherwise dead card I suppose! Is it the usual 3x DP 1x HDMI, and just one of the DPs doesn't work?

Anyhow, personally I'd get rid of it by returning it to the vendor for a full refund or replacement, and if refund pick up one of those 2060 KO cards if they turn out to be an actual thing you can buy for $280.

Beer Monkey · Jan 11, 2020

RTX is in its infancy.

Dave. said:
Anyhow, personally I'd get rid of it by returning it to the vendor for a full refund or replacement, and if refund pick up one of those 2060 KO cards if they turn out to be an actual thing you can buy for $280.

You can actually buy them for that right now but we need to wait for the reviews.

Rice Eater · Jan 11, 2020

boris_feinbrand said:
Why is there no warranty? Discounted or not, you bought a defective product. Personally I'd get another card instead. Dealing with the constant fear of it failing is BS.

If you mean manufacturer warranty, that's still valid and will be for the next couple years. And it would have been good enough for me had this not happen. But since this happened so soon, it made me want to prepare for the worse case scenario and even benefit from it if it happens.

Dave. said:
Anyhow, personally I'd get rid of it by returning it to the vendor for a full refund or replacement, and if refund pick up one of those 2060 KO cards if they turn out to be an actual thing you can buy for $280.

That price is real, but I'm going to wait for reviews first. But if it reviews well, that will probably be my next card.

stat84 · Jan 11, 2020

Despite some problems such as not connecting the right wires to the correct place, last night i finally buit my first PC!

Ryzen 5 3600
16GB 3200mhz Ballistic Grey LT RAM
RX 5700 XT
B450 Tomahawk MAX

So far i have downloaded the drivers from the MB site and also from AMD for the GPU.Is there anything else crucial i should download now?I uprgraded the BIOS for the MB.

Also i enabled the A-XMP on the BIOS menus and that boosted the RAM speed from 2400 to the normal 3200.That is the only thing i changed there.However i see a ton of options and I don't know if i should change anything.Here is a pic from the BIOs

https://imgur.com/a/Cxr3Xkz

Is anything wrong here?

Btw thanks to everyone who posted here over the last few weeks it really helped me do all this

catpurrcat · Jan 11, 2020

Rice Eater said:
Me again for the 3rd straight time, but I kind of need to get this off my shoulder. Anyways, just wondered what you guys would do in my situation. I'm contemplating

A) Returning it and getting something else.

B) Going back to buy a 2 year warranty for $30.

Getting the warranty would basically be near the same amount I would pay to replace the card. I can get by with 1 broken display port for now. If it gets worse then I'd be thrilled as long as it's a year or more later so I can replace it with something newer and better. Any thoughts on this?

Refund it dude. Something that expensive should have zero defects. Having to worry about major defects like that is not something you have to put up with.

Get the evga 2060 KO instead, assuming it lives up to the specs hype.

Shake Appeal · Jan 11, 2020

Beer Monkey said:
RTX is in its infancy.

I've been cynical about it, or at least about it being pushed as a feature in the 20xx cards, but after playing Control for the first time yesterday with it on ... yeah, it's kinda wonderful and I can't wait to see it become more viable.

Didn't Nvidia create a studio just to patch RTX into old games? I'd love to see Thief: The Dark Project RTX.

shodgson8 · Jan 11, 2020

Got a new mouse (a Logitech 305) and mat to replace my 12 year old MX518.

I also have a HyperX Alloy FPS RGB keyboard on the way with Kailh Silver switches. I had zero idea what to go for & tried typing on a lot at a local store and that was the one that felt best to me. The Logitech's (which I was originally going to go for) felt surprisingly squishy - like a membrane keyboard, despite having switches in them.

Pigs · Jan 11, 2020

catpurrcat said:
Similar issue, ended up buying an "active" HDMI Cable by monoprice,CL2 - Cabernet Ultra Series

Works perfectly, does 4k and HDR at a long distance.

Thanks, I'll try it out.

Duck Sauce · Jan 11, 2020

Evolution of Metal said:
Don't send them any accessories. Asus throws it away and only gives you the bare minimum back. Goodbye cables, manuals, antennas, trinkets etc. Even the nice original packaging is sometimes replaced with the plain cardboard box. Send only the motherboard itself or GPU, or whatever crap you have.

There are many horror stories from RMA, not exclusive to Asus. Either you RMA stuff (high chance that everything will be alright), or you keep your defective device.

I think all services got better. It actually costs both service/shipping/repairs in company's budget for RMAs, and it costs the reputation when RMA goes wrong. I don't think any service wants to dick around with prolonged tech support or multiple RMAs for the same product.

Thanks. I'm sending in my 2 and half month old PG35VQ and I removed the stand just cause i've read some stories about broken stands. Trying to keep it as minimal as possible. I'm including the power block but i'll call to make sure. It's not a power issue at all as the firmware update bricked the monitor.

God I really hate dealing with them. The only time i don't buy a damn warranty from microcenter and this happens.

Advc · Jan 11, 2020

PlayALLTheGames said:
Wait, save up more and compare benchmarks when the card is out, then make a decision. It doesn't sound like you're desperate to change out now so might as well.

Thanks! Yeah I think I'm gonna wait to see the reviews of the 5600 XT and how it compares. I also saw that the EVGA 1660S I wanted to buy is already out of stock on Amazon and it's gonna be available again supposedly till january 19. It can take longer or shorter. It seems the 1660S is very popular cuz most of the premium models from MSI, Gigabyte and EVGA are currently sold out.Oh well. Currently rocking a Ryzen 5 2400G in the meantime.

shodgson8 · Jan 11, 2020

stat84 said:
Despite some problems such as not connecting the right wires to the correct place, last night i finally buit my first PC!

Ryzen 5 3600
16GB 3200mhz Ballistic Grey LT RAM
RX 5700 XT
B450 Tomahawk MAX

So far i have downloaded the drivers from the MB site and also from AMD for the GPU.Is there anything else crucial i should download now?I uprgraded the BIOS for the MB.

Also i enabled the A-XMP on the BIOS menus and that boosted the RAM speed from 2400 to the normal 3200.That is the only thing i changed there.However i see a ton of options and I don't know if i should change anything.Here is a pic from the BIOs

https://imgur.com/a/Cxr3Xkz

Is anything wrong here?

Btw thanks to everyone who posted here over the last few weeks it really helped me do all this

I have the same MOBO & I felt very little needed tweaking. I also turned on A-XMP which sorted out the RAM. The only other thing I did was tweak the fan curves within the hardware monitor as I have 5 case fans and wanted them all set a bit differently.

Evolution of Metal · Jan 11, 2020

shodgson8 said:
I have the same MOBO & I felt very little needed tweaking. I also turned on A-XMP which sorted out the RAM. The only other thing I did was tweak the fan curves within the hardware monitor as I have 5 case fans and wanted them all set a bit differently.

I think I tweaked 4 things:
• Updated to the latest BIOS
• Enable XMP
• Fan curves and speeds
• Sleep states because USB power was off during sleep

I found MSI BIOS to be laggy and generally not great. Asus environment remains my favorite, both because I am familiar with the layout, and it is very nicely structures tabs/columns.
+ that Arsenal splash screen when booting is hideous. ROG Logo > Windows Logo > Nothing > MSI Arsenal graphic

shodgson8 · Jan 11, 2020

Evolution of Metal said:
I think I tweaked 4 things:
• Updated to the latest BIOS
• Enable XMP
• Fan curves and speeds
• Sleep states because USB power was off during sleep

I found MSI BIOS to be laggy and generally not great. Asus environment remains my favorite, both because I am familiar with the layout, and it is very nicely structures tabs/columns.

Agreed with the laggy-ness. I have moved from an (admittedly pretty old) Gigabyte board which had a better BIOS in terms of resolution, responsiveness and layout.

Also did the BIOS update however the USB sleep states don't bother me as I don't use sleep mode at all.

Everything seems to be working as I hoped at least!

Rice Eater · Jan 11, 2020

Advc said:
Thanks! Yeah I think I'm gonna wait to see the reviews of the 5600 XT and how it compares. I also saw that the EVGA 1660S I wanted to buy is already out of stock on Amazon and it's gonna be available again supposedly till january 19. It can take longer or shorter. It seems the 1660S is very popular cuz most of the premium models from MSI, Gigabyte and EVGA are currently sold out.Oh well. Currently rocking a Ryzen 5 2400G in the meantime.

You are aware of the EVGA 2060 KO, right? That thing comes out on Monday and you can get it for $280. Which I assume is only 30-40 higher than the custom 1660 Super's that you were looking at. Hell, I even found a coupon code that reduced the price to $266. I just haven't committed yet because I'm still thinking about buying a extended warranty on my 5700 and I want to see reviews of the KO first.

dallow_bg · Jan 11, 2020

Yeah. Really looking forward to the KO reviews since I haven't bought a video card yet

Advc · Jan 11, 2020

Rice Eater said:
You are aware of the EVGA 2060 KO, right? That thing comes out on Monday and you can get it for $280. Which I assume is only 30-40 higher than the custom 1660 Super's that you were looking at. Hell, I even found a coupon code that reduced the price to $266. I just haven't committed yet because I'm still thinking about buying a extended warranty on my 5700 and I want to see reviews of the KO first.

Omg I wasn't aware of of this card at all! Thanks for the heads up! A 2060 for the same price of a 5600 XT sounds really good in my book! And launching in just a few days which is even better. Will definitely keep an eye on this and on the reviews too! Glad I hold on getting the 1660 Super. I was about to pull the trigger just yesterday before deciding to post in this thread for advice first. Glad I did!

ChemicalWorld · Jan 11, 2020

Right guys update on my build for my mate. Specs detailed below;

Ryzen 5 3600
ASUS ROG Strix B450-I Gaming mobo (Micro-ITX)
Corsair H100i 240mm AIO Cooler
32GB 3000Mhz Vengeance RAM
MSI RX 590 8GB Armor
1x Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD1 500GB SSD
1x Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD4 500GB M.2. SSD
1x WD 2TB HDD
Fractal Design Nano S case.

Installation was a tad tricky due to the smaller form factor (I'm used to big ass cases) but managed fine enough. Only issue I had was that I had installed the M2 SSD on the slot on the rear of the mobo. And for the life of me I couldn't get the BIOS to recognise it even after a BIOS update. Turns out I was a numpty and the slot on the front of the mobo was obscured by a cover... Had to disconnect every connection to the mobo but leave the AIO cooler attached to move the M2 to the correct spot as I'd forgotten to bring thermal paste remover and extra thermal paste.

All working fine now and I've left him to install all the software and games he needs to himself. He even bought me a £50 Steam card in way of thanks. Thanks for the peeps in this thread for advising me on the correct mobo. Btw the current revision for this mobo has the Ryzen 3000 series support sticker on it and it works without a hitch. Cheers :)

stat84 · Jan 11, 2020

Evolution of Metal said:
I have the same MOBO & I felt very little needed tweaking. I also turned on A-XMP which sorted out the RAM. The only other thing I did was tweak the fan curves within the hardware monitor as I have 5 case fans and wanted them all set a bit differently.

All right thanks!Also yes i agree the BIOS is pretty laggy .

So my temperatures are around 30-40 Celcius and when doing nothing and went up to 88 when using Handbrake and Cinebech.Is that high?I am still waiting for another case fan(currently only have 1 in the front and one in the back) and use the stock cooler of the 3600.I did install it properly i am 100% sure of that.

I am now downloading the Witcher 3 and i will play a bit to see how it goes there.

dallow_bg · Jan 11, 2020

Hey guys, so my system turned on with just CPU and RAM. It recognized my 9th gen chip so no need to update the BIOS with an 8th gen chip first thank goodness.

I noticed the CPU cooler instructions said to remove the white protective film from the heatsink before installing, but there doesn't seem to be any film at all on there. Feels like brushed, cold metal to metal to me. Could it just be generic instructions from their other models maybe?

It looks exactly like this: (timestamped video)

https://youtu.be/FapmWsa_108?t=115

sweetmini · Jan 11, 2020

I am long overdue a refresh, but i stopped watching pc hardware evolution close quite a lot of years ago... i lagged to catch up and my computer shows signs of wanting to give up, i took a giant hit with the meltdown mitigation updates (my workflow is very IO heavy).
I'm starting to profile what i would like, but honestly i have issues identifying stuff matching adequately to make the whole thing with good equilibrium
The setup i want is:
ThreadRipper 3970X
a motherboard that can use efficiently fast memory, i need 128GB of ram (8x16 i guess)
water cooling
a 2080ti to go with (i doubt there will be the 30xx series before my current PC dies)
i will have at least 4HDDs in there at some point (i need to start with a 2TB SSD).
I have an old big CoolMaster ATX case, with good space to work in, but if modern motherboards are incompatible i'll need a new one

so far my quest lead me to
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X (of course)
NZXT Kraken X62
ASRock TRX40 CREATOR
Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 128 Go (8x 16Go) DDR4 3600 MHz CL18
ASUS GeForce RTX 2080 Ti DUAL-RTX2080TI-O11G
Samsung SSD 860 QVO 2 To
Western Digital WD Gold 14 To (WD141KRYZ)
Corsair HX1200 80PLUS Platinum
but i feel very uneasy .
I fear for the watercooling, never installed any, i have no clue if that's an appropriate one, if there's extra stuff to buy to adapt with the 3970X or if it ages well (i kept my current pc a looooooooong time)... and i fear the memory might be incompatible with the motherboard, or that the motherboard is a poor choice... i don't know.
I don't know if the power supply would be appropriate.

Considering the price of the thing, i don't want to miss a spot... so any help will be very much appreciated
(for those wondering why the heck i want a 3970X with 128GB, goal of the setup is offline local fluid dynamics/physics calculations, media editing, and big source code builds, but i plan on playing on there as well, hence the 2080ti)

Vulcano's Assistant · Jan 11, 2020

dallow_bg said:
Hey guys, so my system turned on with just CPU and RAM. It recognized my 9th gen chip so no need to update the BIOS with an 8th gen chip first thank goodness.

I noticed the CPU cooler instructions said to remove the white protective film from the heatsink before installing, but there doesn't seem to be any film at all on there. Feels like brushed, cold metal to metal to me. Could it just be generic instructions from their other models maybe?

It looks exactly like this: (timestamped video)

https://youtu.be/FapmWsa_108?t=115

Yeah it must be a generic instruction, not even the old non chromax NH-L9 came with a protective film.

dallow_bg · Jan 11, 2020

Vulcano's Assistant said:
Yeah it must be a generic instruction, not even the old non chromax NH-L9 came with a protective film.

Ok cool. Just nervous about everything. Thanks!

Only thing holding me back now is I don't have the right M.2 screws (mobo was given to me). Ordered a set earlier today that should arrive tonight and then I'll continue.

shodgson8 · Jan 11, 2020

ChemicalWorld said:
Right guys update on my build for my mate. Specs detailed below;

Ryzen 5 3600
ASUS ROG Strix B450-I Gaming mobo (Micro-ITX)
Corsair H100i 240mm AIO Cooler
32GB 3000Mhz Vengeance RAM
MSI RX 590 8GB Armor
1x Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD1 500GB SSD
1x Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD4 500GB M.2. SSD
1x WD 2TB HDD
Fractal Design Nano S case.

Installation was a tad tricky due to the smaller form factor (I'm used to big ass cases) but managed fine enough. Only issue I had was that I had installed the M2 SSD on the slot on the rear of the mobo. And for the life of me I couldn't get the BIOS to recognise it even after a BIOS update. Turns out I was a numpty and the slot on the front of the mobo was obscured by a cover... Had to disconnect every connection to the mobo but leave the AIO cooler attached to move the M2 to the correct spot as I'd forgotten to bring thermal paste remover and extra thermal paste.

All working fine now and I've left him to install all the software and games he needs to himself. He even bought me a £50 Steam card in way of thanks. Thanks for the peeps in this thread for advising me on the correct mobo. Btw the current revision for this mobo has the Ryzen 3000 series support sticker on it and it works without a hitch. Cheers :)

Looks like a solid build! Good job.

Creamium · Jan 11, 2020

Went to pick up my pc yesterday and all's well, but I have one question. I have the Phanteks 400S case and it has a fan control button (low, mid, high speed). Now I don't mind this but on my previous pc I never had to adjust this, it automatically sped up and lowered accordingly. Can I still set this up, do I need to get into the bios?

Edit: I went in the bios (I have the Tomahawk MAX mb) and there's an automatic setting, I should probably enable that for both?

shodgson8 · Jan 11, 2020

stat84 said:
All right thanks!Also yes i agree the BIOS is pretty laggy .

So my temperatures are around 30-40 Celcius and when doing nothing and went up to 88 when using Handbrake and Cinebech.Is that high?I am still waiting for another case fan(currently only have 1 in the front and one in the back) and use the stock cooler of the 3600.I did install it properly i am 100% sure of that.

I am now downloading the Witcher 3 and i will play a bit to see how it goes there.

I have a Noctua D15-S so am not the best person to compare to as I never installed the stock cooler, mine maxes out at 67 degrees on Cinebench R20...I was actually expecting hotter.

These CPU's are rated to 95 degrees by AMD. I personally would not want it to get that hot though. Someone else here with a 3600 might be able to give you a better stock comparison.

Vulcano's Assistant · Jan 11, 2020

sweetmini said:
I am long overdue a refresh, but i stopped watching pc hardware evolution close quite a lot of years ago... i lagged to catch up and my computer shows signs of wanting to give up, i took a giant hit with the meltdown mitigation updates (my workflow is very IO heavy).
I'm starting to profile what i would like, but honestly i have issues identifying stuff matching adequately to make the whole thing with good equilibrium
The setup i want is:
ThreadRipper 3970X
a motherboard that can use efficiently fast memory, i need 128GB of ram (8x16 i guess)
water cooling
a 2080ti to go with (i doubt there will be the 30xx series before my current PC dies)
i will have at least 4HDDs in there at some point (i need to start with a 2TB SSD).
I have an old big CoolMaster ATX case, with good space to work in, but if modern motherboards are incompatible i'll need a new one

so far my quest lead me to
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X (of course)
NZXT Kraken X62
ASRock TRX40 CREATOR
Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 128 Go (8x 16Go) DDR4 3600 MHz CL18
ASUS GeForce RTX 2080 Ti DUAL-RTX2080TI-O11G
Samsung SSD 860 QVO 2 To
Western Digital WD Gold 14 To (WD141KRYZ)
Corsair HX1200 80PLUS Platinum
but i feel very uneasy .
I fear for the watercooling, never installed any, i have no clue if that's an appropriate one, if there's extra stuff to buy to adapt with the 3970X or if it ages well (i kept my current pc a looooooooong time)... and i fear the memory might be incompatible with the motherboard, or that the motherboard is a poor choice... i don't know.
I don't know if the power supply would be appropriate.

Considering the price of the thing, i don't want to miss a spot... so any help will be very much appreciated
(for those wondering why the heck i want a 3970X with 128GB, goal of the setup is offline local fluid dynamics/physics calculations, media editing, and big source code builds, but i plan on playing on there as well, hence the 2080ti)

You are right about having doubts about that water cooler for the 3970X. May not be the best price/performance option since Ideally you want a cooler designed for TR4 socket which is much bigger than normal IHS.

There are few TR4/ TRX40 AIOs at the moment. There is a Cooler Master MasterLiquid TR4 Edition, that also doesn't have great reviews. There is the infamous Enermax liqtech which was a disaster because they liquid would corrode or grow contaminants that blocked the whole thing. Unless there is confirmation that this has been fixed I would avoid it.

Air coolers doesn't do a bad job, but the thing is that you are going to have RAM clearance issues with the bigger ones. Those Corsair Dominator Platinums are very tall.

Since most of the help I can offer would be regurgitating this content, I would recommend checking the YouTube Channel Level 1 Techs. Wendell is super enthusiastic about Threadripper so he has many reviews.

Here's for instance testing various air coolers against a custom loop:

Here's his review of the mobo you listed:

sweetmini · Jan 11, 2020

Vulcano's Assistant : thank you very much for the assistance ! i'll check this out after a good night's sleep !

shodgson8 · Jan 11, 2020

Creamium said:
Went to pick up my pc yesterday and all's well, but I have one question. I have the Phanteks 400S case and it has a fan control button (low, mid, high speed). Now I don't mind this but on my previous pc I never had to adjust this, it automatically sped up and lowered accordingly. Can I still set this up, do I need to get into the bios?

Edit: I went in the bios (I have the Tomahawk MAX mb) and there's an automatic setting, I should probably enable that for both?

Yes to the last bit in my experience...you can tie the fan speed to a number of different sensors, CPU, board temp etc. It might be worth just messing around with it as you may prefer to set a speed in the bios rather than having fluctuations (which I find are more noticble audibly). Would recommend you have something like afterburner to monitor system temps if you make any bios adjustments to the fans but I can't imagine the smart fan/automatic setting being a problem.

The PC Builders Thread ("I Need a New PC") v2

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