Question New Gaming PC Advice

Soccer55

Golden Member
Jul 9, 2000
1,660
4
81
Looking to replace the system I built in 2012 (as noted here). This one would probably be around for the next 5-7 years as well.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Primarily for gaming. My kids like to play Fortnite and I like all sorts of games from FPS to MMO.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
<=$1000 is the goal, but could probably go up to $1200

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
We can't be expected to scour the internet on your behalf, chasing down deals in your specific country... Again, help us, help YOU.
N/A

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
Not a fanboy of any particular brand, but have read that AMD Ryzen and nVidia are generally considered the top dogs right now.

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
  • 2x 24" 1080p monitors
  • 7200 RPM HDD (storage)
  • Case
  • PSU (if a Seasonic SS-650KM will cut it for the build, otherwise, will need a new one)

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Default speed

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
1080p

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.
Shooting for the end of this month/beginning of February

10. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
I may need Windows, depends on what I decide to do with the parts I'm replacing. I may throw them into a spare case w/PSU for one of my kids and they'll take the W10 license.


I was looking at the following parts thus far:
CPU: Ryzen 3700X
MB: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro
SSD: Silicon Power A80 1TB

The other two main components, I have some questions on:
GPU - I would probably be at 1660Ti or RTX 2060 in order to keep it close to or under $1k, but I'm not quite sure how much of a performance difference there is between these two or if there's an argument for moving up to a RTX 2070 (or something else entirely).
RAM - I feel like it used to be much easier to figure out which RAM to pair with a CPU/MB.....or maybe it's because I haven't looked at this stuff in ~7 years and haven't kept up with the progress in technology. What would be the RAM specs I'd look for? I saw a similar build in this forum that used DDR4-3600, but is it worth using say DDR4-4000 instead? Do I need to worry about timings? Kind of lost on this one.

After this, back to the PSU. Would a Seasonic SS-650KM be adequate given the CPU/MB/GPU power usage? If so, and there's no other reason to replace it, I won't need a PSU. Otherwise, I would take a PSU recommendation as well

I'm open to suggestions on any of these parts as I'm certainly not as well-informed as I'd like to be. As always, thank you in advance for your assistance and expertise.
 

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,220
988
136
The SS-650KM ought to be sufficient for what you are planning. Do you have an OS license, or are you going to have to buy one?

A good place to start for memory is the Gigabyte motherboard memory QVL list. You probably wouldn't notice the difference between DDR4-3600 and DDR4-4000 since you aren't planning to overclock.

If you have to buy the OS and can reuse the case and power supply, with a 3700X CPU and 1660Ti you will probably be closer to $1200 if you are buying all new.
 
Last edited:

Soccer55

Golden Member
Jul 9, 2000
1,660
4
81
The SS-650KM ought to be sufficient for what you are planning. Do you have an OS license, or are you going to have to buy one?

A good place to start for memory is the Gigabyte motherboard memory QVL list. You probably wouldn't notice the difference between DDR4-3600 and DDR4-4000 since you aren't planning to overclock.

If you have to buy the OS and can reuse the case and power supply, with a 3700X CPU and 1660Ti you will probably be closer to $1200 if you are buying all new.

I have a W10Pro license on my current machine that I should be able to use on the new box.
 

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,220
988
136
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($322.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard ($254.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($78.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Silicon Power A80 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB XC BLACK GAMING Video Card ($253.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1030.94 (after $20 rebate and $10 instant discount)
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-09 05:47 EST-0500


The Ryzen 7 3700x includes a Wraith Prism cooler, which should be sufficient since you aren't overclocking. Using the 1660Ti gets you close to your $1000 budget, while a GTX 2060 costs about $36 more, a GTX 2060 Super around $145 more, and a GTX 2070 goes $226 more. If you go with an AMD 5700XT it would cost you around $116.00 more than the 1660Ti .

In general, the 2060 will be probably 10-15% faster on average than the 1660Ti and it includes support for ray tracing and DLSS. Going forward, the 2060 includes more features and thus is more feature proof. I haven't decided yet about the 5700XT series yet, but it claims to provide ~ 2070 performance for $100 bucks less.

There are also cheaper X570 motherboards than the board chosen as well.
 
Last edited:

Soccer55

Golden Member
Jul 9, 2000
1,660
4
81
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($322.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard ($254.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($78.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Silicon Power A80 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB XC BLACK GAMING Video Card ($253.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1030.94 (after $20 rebate and $10 instant discount)
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-09 05:47 EST-0500


The Ryzen 7 3700x includes a Wraith Prism cooler, which should be sufficient since you aren't overclocking. Using the 1660Ti gets you close to your $1000 budget, while a GTX 2060 costs about $36 more, a GTX 2060 Super around $145 more, and a GTX 2070 goes $226 more. If you go with an AMD 5700XT it would cost you around $116.00 more than the 1660Ti .

In general, the 2060 will be probably 10-15% faster on average than the 1660Ti and it includes support for ray tracing and DLSS. Going forward, the 2060 includes more features and thus is more feature proof. I haven't decided yet about the 5700XT series yet, but it claims to provide ~ 2070 performance for $100 bucks less.

There are also cheaper X570 motherboards than the board chosen as well.
Wow, thanks for the detailed suggestions! What other boards would be good to use here? I'll be honest, I pretty much went to the Holiday 2019 Motherboard guide on the main site and took the recommendation for Gaming/Performance there. I'm not really set on any particular part, so if there are other boards that you think would work just as well, I'd be open to those suggestions. Thanks again for all of your help!
 

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,220
988
136
I'm not going to recommend a specific board, but I'm sure others here will jump in with recommendations at some point.

The Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro is probably an excellent board. My question to you would be this: What does it have that you want vs what you need? If it has what you want and need, go for it.

ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI all have several good X570 boards in the $150 to $275 range. I'd suggest looking at the specs of each board and deciding which ones have the features that you want as you may be paying for things (like onboard bluetooth, WIFI, or fancy RGB lighting) that aren't important to you. You might decide to get a slightly cheaper board and use the difference to upgrade to a 2060 Super or even 2070 (if you can catch a sale) which is a significant upgrade over a 1660Ti without completely busting your budget.

The more expensive boards are usually going to have slightly better VRMs for power management, good for longevity, but as you are not indicating you will be overclocking I wouldn't consider it to be that big of a deal. All of the X570 boards support PCIe 4.0 which is good (current video cards won't benefit, but future cards probably will. And while current SSDs should benefit from the additional bandwidth, future ones will massively benefit).

Overall, you are probably off to a good start.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
26,126
15,271
136
Your power supply only has one 8 pin for the CPU. Its needs that and a 4 pin (usually 4+4 on both of them)
And for those that say you don't need to plug them both in, I can't count how many times people have said lately they could not get their PC to boot without both plugged in.
 

dlerious

Golden Member
Mar 4, 2004
1,883
757
136
After this, back to the PSU. Would a Seasonic SS-650KM be adequate given the CPU/MB/GPU power usage? If so, and there's no other reason to replace it, I won't need a PSU. Otherwise, I would take a PSU recommendation as well
What Markfw said and how old is your PSU? If it's 7 years or more, I'd consider replacing it. I've been using Prime (or Prime Ultra) in the 750-1300W range,but they can be expensive. Maybe a Focus or Focus Plus. johnnyguru has reviews for PSUs

 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
26,126
15,271
136

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,220
988
136
Your power supply only has one 8 pin for the CPU. Its needs that and a 4 pin (usually 4+4 on both of them)
And for those that say you don't need to plug them both in, I can't count how many times people have said lately they could not get their PC to boot without both plugged in.

Now, that is something I didn't catch. Which, will change the complexion a little regarding how you can spend your budget.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
26,126
15,271
136
Now, that is something I didn't catch. Which, will change the complexion a little regarding how you can spend your budget.
I would just take your previous post and add a PCU $150 is still below what his max is. I am sure you can get at least a gold. I got an EVGA gold G3+ 750 watt for $125.

Its powering a 3950x 16 core + 2080TI and draws 480 watts at full load for CPU+GPU. Thats 65%load, and is about where the optimal efficiency is. And a 10 year warranty.
 

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,220
988
136
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($322.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX AM4 Motherboard ($254.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($78.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Silicon Power A80 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB XC BLACK GAMING Video Card ($253.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G1+ 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1156.94 ($1118.92 net after promo discounts/rebates)
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-09 19:26 EST-0500


Selected power supply as suggested by Markfw has a 10 year warranty. If you want to go with the RTX-2060 video card instead of the 1660Ti, you'd still be around your $1200 budget.
 

Soccer55

Golden Member
Jul 9, 2000
1,660
4
81
@Steltek I took your suggestion on the motherboard and swapped out the one I originally picked with another one that seems comparable, but doesn't have Wifi and is ~$100 cheaper (per PCPartPicker)
I also took @Markfw 's suggestion on the EVGA PSU (I assume 650W is fine instead of the 750W in his box)

So right now, I'm looking at:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($322.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($164.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Silicon Power A80 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G1+ 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $825.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-09 22:01 EST-0500


Notably, the video card is missing from the parts list above. If I go to the high end of my stated budget, I have ~$375 to work with. If I drop down to 16GB RAM, I'd have $425 instead. From what I'm seeing on PCPartPicker, it appears that I would be right around a 2060 SUPER or RX 5700 XT. A good sale on a 2070 or 2070 SUPER could potentially bring it within range, but I can't imagine something like $80 off happening any time soon. I'm guessing that a 5700 XT would be the better choice here. I'd probably be looking at one of these if I went with the 5700 XT.
 

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,220
988
136
If you want the 750W power supply, it is ~$20 more in that same model. If you see future upgrades (such as a future higher end CPU) or plan any future overclocking, you might want to go ahead and do that now. Otherwise, I think you'd be just fine with the 650 watt PS on the current build as the 3700x at stock isn't a high TDP chip.

The 5700XT mostly matches up between 2060 Super and 2070 according to benchmarks. However, that being said, I've never used one myself so I can't say how well those benchmarks translate to real world performance. I know others here on the board have the 5700XT (you listening, Larry?), though, so hopefully they will chime in at some point.

My one concern about your proposed build is that the memory modules you selected are not shown as compatible by either the motherboard QVL list or by gskill's memory finder. Both do show these modules to be known compatible. Your selection might actually work, but there is also the possibility they won't.

BTW, if you decide to go with 16GB (2x8GB), the modules linked in the original list are also on the compatibility list for the ASUS board as well.
 
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Soccer55

Golden Member
Jul 9, 2000
1,660
4
81
If you want the 750W power supply, it is ~$20 more in that same model. If you see future upgrades (such as a future higher end CPU) or plan any future overclocking, you might want to go ahead and do that now. Otherwise, I think you'd be just fine with the 650 watt PS on the current build as the 3700x at stock isn't a high TDP chip.

The 5700XT mostly matches up between 2060 Super and 2070 according to benchmarks. However, that being said, I've never used one myself so I can't say how well those benchmarks translate to real world performance. I know others here on the board have the 5700XT (you listening, Larry?), though, so hopefully they will chime in at some point.

My one concern about your proposed build is that the memory modules you selected are not shown as compatible by either the motherboard QVL list or by gskill's memory finder. Both do show these modules to be known compatible. Your selection might actually work, but there is also the possibility they won't.

BTW, if you decide to go with 16GB (2x8GB), the modules linked in the original list are also on the compatibility list for the ASUS board as well.
I thought I saw the red 32GB set as compatible on the G.Skill site, but evidently I was thinking about or seeing something else. Thanks for that catch. I may drop down to 16GB and/or get the 750 depending on how close to budget I end up. Interested to see if anyone has any feedback on the 5700 XT. From reading some reviews on Newegg, it looks like some people have had some issues with the ASUS card.
 

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
3,220
988
136
My take on the 5700XT from what I've seen review-wise across different sites and different manufacturers the last few days is that it is very powerful, it tends to run very hot (across manufacturers, which says something about the design probably), and that the drivers are a mess. AMD usually is pretty good with driver issues over time, but it sounds like there would be some growing pains. It does sound like the card has potential, though I don't like all the reports of overheating. Again, I hope somebody else here who has one will chip in with a recommendation.

If you don't want to deal with the driver issues, Newegg and Amazon both have a Gigabyte GTR-2060 Super at the same price point. Newegg also does have two GTR-2070s at a same/similar price point, but it some of the reviews have them sounding like a leaf blower at times (maybe a case of, you get what you pay for?).
 

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
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Note : if gaming is the primary task, you can significantly uograde that experience by dropping from 3700X to 3600 non-X and adding those funds to jump GPU brackets. Unless you're doing heavy compute/encode consistently (as in, "this 45 minute wait would be nicer if it were 32 minutes!"), you probably won't be able to tell the difference in 99% of the situations.

You can then revisit it when Ryzen 2+/3 4000 series desktop SKUs hit possibly later this year.
 
Reactions: DAPUNISHER

Campy

Senior member
Jun 25, 2010
785
171
116
Out of the four 5700 XT you listed, I'd get the MSI Gaming X or the Sapphire Pulse. At just $10 more the Gaming X is actually a nice deal.

Don't even consider the Asus TUF, it's trash.
 

Soccer55

Golden Member
Jul 9, 2000
1,660
4
81
Note : if gaming is the primary task, you can significantly uograde that experience by dropping from 3700X to 3600 non-X and adding those funds to jump GPU brackets. Unless you're doing heavy compute/encode consistently (as in, "this 45 minute wait would be nicer if it were 32 minutes!"), you probably won't be able to tell the difference in 99% of the situations.

You can then revisit it when Ryzen 2+/3 4000 series desktop SKUs hit possibly later this year.
That's an interesting proposition for this build. While I will use this machine for other computing type applications from time to time, I doubt it will be anything heavy enough to warrant the extra power of the 3700X if the performance drop in gaming wouldn't be very noticeable. Dropping down to the Ryzen 5 3600 leaves ~$475 for a GPU per PCPartPicker. So either I could comfortably go for a 5700XT (almost definitely the MSI Gaming X based on what I've read) or go over budget by $10-$20 (alternatively, drop to 16 GB RAM) and get some flavor of 2070 SUPER.

Here are all of the cards I was looking at based on the budget resulting from going with the 3600 that would be close enough to make them work. Any suggestions/recommendations on these cards or cards that might be worth reclaiming ~$50 from the RAM (by dropping to 16 GB) and put me within budget for them?
 
Reactions: Arkaign

Arkaign

Lifer
Oct 27, 2006
20,736
1,377
126
Yeah, I mean if you're not going to be going 144hz and 2080S/2080ti type gaming, then by all means the 3600 won't hold you back in any way, while the 2070S is a nice boost.

The 2060S and 2070S were the big winners of the 'Super' series. I don't feel the 2080S did enough to differentiate itself. I remember being really skeptical when Nvidia announced them, thinking it was going to be "Super" expensive lol. Which in a way it is to some extent, but it actually brought down the TF/$ ratio overall (respective to Nvidia TF measurements), as opposed to the original expensive Turing launch that was mostly the exact same $/perf going clear back to Pascal.
 
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