Xmas build advice

DecTenToo

I've gone a bit overboard and would appreciate if people could check if the configuration could be improved or cost reduced ... while I wait for my lottery win this evening.

Any advice appreciated

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£313.98 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i PRO 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£109.84 @ More Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£167.63 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£75.95 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£113.67 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£99.03 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card (£518.98 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A Digital ATX Mid Tower Case (£78.99 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: *EVGA 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£100.42 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1578.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-15 12:19 GMT+0000

K.O.Kiki

DecTenToo wrote: »

I've gone a bit overboard and would appreciate if people could check if the configuration could be improved or cost reduced ... while I wait for my lottery win this evening.

Any advice appreciated

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£313.98 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i PRO 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£109.84 @ More Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£167.63 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£75.95 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£113.67 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£99.03 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card (£518.98 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A Digital ATX Mid Tower Case (£78.99 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: *EVGA 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£100.42 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1578.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-15 12:19 GMT+0000

I see little reason to go Intel when AMD offer twice the thread count at the same price.
AIO: get Arctic Liquid Freezer II, legit best AIO on the market right now (check case clearance as it's also a larger 38mm radiator).
2070 S: personal preference, but Palit/MSI dual fan or Gigabyte triple fan are much cheaper and perform the same.
750W is overkill, you can get a 550-650 as it's only single GPU.

DecTenToo

Thanks.

I was considering an AMD and was starting to spec something up.

I'll definitely look at the Arctic Liquid Freezer II, and reduce the PSU wattage.

Much appreciated.

SweetCaliber

DecTenToo wrote: »

Thanks.

I was considering an AMD and was starting to spec something up.

I'll definitely look at the Arctic Liquid Freezer II, and reduce the PSU wattage.

Much appreciated.

Heres an example AMD build:

Are you mainly gaming or gaming/streaming etc..

If your mainly gaming I'd go with the 3600 if the latter then go with the 3700x. The 3700x has double the amount of threads than the 9770k.

Heres the 3700x anyhow, your saving over £330 already.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£283.98 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£59.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC ATX AM4 Motherboard (£114.49 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£65.58 @ Aria PC)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£114.37 @ Box Limited)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB WINDFORCE OC 3X Video Card (£474.97 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid Tower Case (£64.17 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: SeaSonic EVO Edition 620 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£69.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1247.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-15 19:48 GMT+0000

The B450's BIOS may need to be flashed for the Ryzen 3 Series, if so MSI have a flash bios button allowing you to do it with a USB rather than trying to get a loan of a Ryzen 2 Series CPU.

DecTenToo

Thanks. I've been playing around with AMD choices. It's gaming more than streaming at the moment. I was looking more at the directly compatible boards but I see you can flash the bios directly without needing a compatible CPU.

SweetCaliber

DecTenToo wrote: »

Thanks. I've been playing around with AMD choices. It's gaming more than streaming at the moment. I was looking more at the directly compatible boards but I see you can flash the bios directly without needing a compatible CPU.

Most of the B450's are directly compatible now but there are still some that arent. Thats one of my reasons for MSI as its easier to flash the BIOS without a CPU.

If you are mosty gaming you could drop down the the 6300 and thats a saving of £105 just on the CPU.

DecTenToo

All, thanks for the feedback so far.

I have taken advice and gone for the ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II, reduced the PSU, changed the video card, but stayed with the 3700 as I want to avoid doing any upgrades for a while. The case is currentlly a Meshify S2 but that's not fixed in stone.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£283.98 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£59.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI X470 GAMING PRO ATX AM4 Motherboard (£113.44 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£82.96 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£114.37 @ Box Limited)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£99.03 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB GAMING OC Video Card (£481.98 @ Aria PC)
Case: Fractal Design Meshify S2 ATX Mid Tower Case (£109.99 @ Box Limited)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G1+ 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£85.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1431.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-16 20:09 GMT+0000

I did look at changing the board to an X470, which seems to be the same as X570 minus PCI-E 4.0. I'm not sure there's a benefit to going to an X570, given I've a single GPU and NVME SSD, no PCI4 drives, and that's not going to change for the forseeable.

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll be pushing the button around Black Friday to see if I can gain any further benefit.

K.O.Kiki

With motherboard, get an MSI model that has "MAX" in the product name - they'll have the updated BIOS to work with.

DecTenToo

Buttons pushed ... some price reductions as well.

fx:twiddle thumbs

Thanks all

DecTenToo

Well,well .. all the parts arrived but I have appear to have messed up on the PSU/board compatability, as it looks as though the "EVGA SuperNOVA G1+ 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply " isn't compatible with the board.

Anyone know of somewhere in Dublin I could look for a compatible PSU?

K.O.Kiki

It's fully compatible, just ignore the little 4-pin EPS12V CPU power connector in top-left of the board (between the large heatsinks) - not needed for a 3700X.

*edit*
Actually that mobo should have 2x 4+4-pin connectors - why did you think it was not compatible?

DecTenToo

I must be losing the plot

The cables I have (marked CPU) are 8 pin on one end and 4+4 on the other. I can plug into CPU_PWR1 using the 8 but not the 4+4.

*edit* Checks box ... X570 BOARD delivered :-)

MUPPET I am :-)

DecTenToo

Ordered a Corsair PSU that is shown to be compatible.

Dunno what I was doing.

There'll be an EVO PSU going cheap soon enough

I have to say that the Mesh case is really easy to work with, especially as to tidying up wiring, SSD placement, and HDD.

Everything else is in place. Need to make sure it boots before I do the final clean up.

K.O.Kiki

??

The G1 is compatible with the motherboard.
Why did you go & order another PSU?

DecTenToo

Honest, I''ve tried ... there's an 8 pin CPU_PWR1 on the board (X570) that I can't get to connect in any way, given the cables I have. I understand that the VGA+ ones are wired differently, and the two CPU ones I have have different shape pin-outs so there's no way I can see for them to fit, unless I am having the most amazing brain fade.

The orientation of the cables vs those on the board don't line up as regards those that are square and those that are a semi-circle.

Both cables are 4x2 and 2x2

SXXS
XSSX

SX XS
XS SS

The board CPU_PWR1 and 2 are

SXXS XS
XSSX SX

So yes, it should be a better fit

However the clip points on the top of each connection on the 2x2 ends don't match up to the board or PSA

...and after that explanation, now I realise why I hated 1st level tech support

There is no way that PSU is incompatible with your board.

DecTenToo

Agree

I'm seriously doing something wrong or a cable is missing

Will look at it tomorrow, and probably

1. go FACEPALM
2. remove my boards account
3. move to another country

K.O.Kiki

DecTenToo

Mea cupla, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Clucking bell.

Ferry tickets booked. For sale sign going up next week. Kill me now.

Thanks for your patience.

DecTenToo

After my spectacular cable faux-pas. I've gone back to the start and everything booted first time

Installed windows 10
Updated bios

Starting to get intermittent black screen problems

1. Checked and reseated board
2. Checked power cables
3. Tried 2 different HDMI cables
4. Ran in safe mode for a while with no black screens
5. Removed all NVIDIA drivers
6. Rebooted
7. Same issue started to appear
8. Installed the drivers from the gigabyte site
9. Same issues

Any other suggestions I could try?

Apologies

Lu Tze

DecTenToo wrote: »

After my spectacular cable faux-pas. I've gone back to the start and everything booted first time

Installed windows 10
Updated bios

Starting to get intermittent black screen problems

1. Checked and reseated board
2. Checked power cables
3. Tried 2 different HDMI cables
4. Ran in safe mode for a while with no black screens
5. Removed all NVIDIA drivers
6. Rebooted
7. Same issue started to appear
8. Installed the drivers from the gigabyte site
9. Same issues

Any other suggestions I could try?

Apologies

Install a Linux distro, if its happening that also it's likely to be hardware related

DecTenToo

Installed Ubuntu
Exactly the same issues
Looks like it's the card then

Thanks