New pc build, who dis?

Enhance

Enhance

Administrator
I'm planning to put together a brand new PC build next week for the first time since 2013. Over the years, I've occasionally upgraded my current pc (i.e. more ram, an SSD, GPU upgrades, etc.) but the MOBO and CPU are really outdated now and have a tough time managing some newer games. The GPU also isn't great by any means as I haven't updated that since 2016. This might also be one of the last times I plunk a lot of money into a PC build, at least for the next several years.

Anyways, I'm really excited about this. It's by no means a top end build, but, it should allow me to run most current games on max or near max settings which is all I really want. I'm not big into over-clocking or running games at as high of FPS as possible. I just want to have a great visual, stutter-free and (in the case of FPS games) competitive experience.

CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHz (4.6 GHz turbo) 6-Core Processor

GPU: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER BLACK GAMING

MOBO:  MSI PRO Z390-A PRO LGA 1151

Ram: 16GB GeIL EVO SPEAR

Power supply: Corsair 650W 80 Plus Gold

CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports edition

Storage: 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (also have another non-NVME SSD drive that I'm going to store games on. I plan to make the NVME mostly for the OS)

Case: Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case

Most everything should be here by Monday or Tuesday next week!

 
Sounds like fun!
 

I think you made the right choice building from scratch. Not that long ago I upgraded my CPU, GPU and RAM as part of a pretty decent overhaul. Problem was it was so long since I had bought my pre-built rig that the CPU required a different mobo as well. May have been easier to just build from scratch.

Googled the case. A bit minimalist but I like it. Should look very sleek when you get everything installed! Report back with pictures  :thumbs

 
Good power supply choice. I always tell people to get about 100 W more than you think you'll need and always buy upper end power supplies. Also, modular power supplies are really convenient.

 
What game will you break her in with?  I think I’m going to wait for the next gen release of NBA2k21 and madden 21 before I try any new games.

 
dubsker said:
What game will you break her in with?  I think I’m going to wait for the next gen release of NBA2k21 and madden 21 before I try any new games.
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Great question and sort of a weird situation.

I'll probably break her in with a game I'm already playing - Modern Warfare/Warzone, since it's such a hardware intensive game. My current rig is only capable of running WZ on Normal settings (without a lot of secondary settings off or lowered) at about a consistent 60 FPS. But, because the game isn't well-optimized on PC, I still experience a lot of FPS drops and have had to jump through a ton of hoops just to make the game functional. So, I'm excited to see how the game functions on a modern rig with significant upgrades.

(As a side note, some players have reported bans from the game after making hardware changes so I'm a bit nervous.)

Also, I'm really jacked about Cyberpunk 2077 when it's released, so that'll probably be the first 'new' game I play on it.

 
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BlitzFirst said:
Just curious on why you're not going with a threadripper AMD which outperforms anything Intel has on the market right now.
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Mostly for budget purposes in relation to some secondary expenses I'm making (i.e. a second 1444p monitor, new keyboard and monitor mount). I got a good deal on this CPU (only $149 and most places had it around $200) and based on most of my research it should meet the needs I'm looking for.

One crappy thing I experienced too is just the general access to parts. Stuff I had on my wishlist kept going in and out of stock (like the 2070 super). Got lucky and snagged one yesterday but a lot of the processors I was looking at kept going out of stock before I could get them.

 
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@BlitzFirst Yep! In fact, virtually all of this was put together based off of pcpartspicker. Took one of their custom builds and customized it a bit with available parts and then went out on the interwebs to find it all. I didn't use this (or didn't know about it if it existed) back in 2013 so I found it incredibly helpful.

 
BlitzFirst said:
Just curious on why you're not going with a threadripper AMD which outperforms anything Intel has on the market right now.

If I were to go Intel, I'd get the Intel Core i5-10600K which has hyperthreading (9600k doesn't) and has 3MB more cache to work with as well as a higher freq of memory supported for more throughput without sacrificing cost (since it costs about the same as the 9600k).
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The threadripper performance is very dependent on how well the software is optimized for parallel execution. The i5 will perform better in single thread throughput situations. So it's not as clearcut as one is simply always better than the other.

I built a rig a year ago for my brother using a threadripper. But my current machine has an older i7-4790K that blew the doors off that threadripper for transcoding video, as an example. I'm currently doing some machine learning test data generation that is easily split, so I might build another threadripper machine to use for that purpose.

 
@RedDenver @BlitzFirst what are your recommendations in regards to cloning/migrating my current drive (which includes the OS) over to the new SSD?

I bought an adapter that'll allow me to plug my new SSD into the USB port of my current computer. I've also linked my Windows 10 account to my Microsoft account in preparation. I've also seen some recommended free programs out there for the clone and transfer but otherwise I'm not sure the best way to go about the process to make the transition as smooth as possible.

 
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Thanks @BlitzFirst! Since I'm going to a drive of similar size (1 TB -> 1 TB) I probably won't have to worry too much about the partition issue will I?

Also, when I put the new SSD into the new computer and boot it all up for the first time, is there anything special I'll need to do or 'should' the system start to boot up the OS and everything by itself?

 
Enhance said:
@RedDenver @BlitzFirst what are your recommendations in regards to cloning/migrating my current drive (which includes the OS) over to the new SSD?

I bought an adapter that'll allow me to plug my new SSD into the USB port of my current computer. I've also linked my Windows 10 account to my Microsoft account in preparation. I've also seen some recommended free programs out there for the clone and transfer but otherwise I'm not sure the best way to go about the process to make the transition as smooth as possible.
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I don't use Windows, so I'll defer to others. But at least in linux, you can just plug the old drive into the new machine and it'll figure it out on startup. If I want to move my OS to a new drive, I just reinstall the OS instead of trying to clone.

I also keep my OS and installed software separate from my data, so that I can more easily move data and just reinstall the OS.

 
FWIW my Huskerboard ad experience is currently flooded with ads for new computers and computer parts, which I actually see as a benefit to doing this new rebuild. :lol:

 
Just completed the build last night and kicked her on - worked beautifully! Night and day difference on some of the current games I'm playing. Can virtually max out all settings if I want without issue.

Everything went pretty smoothly for the most part. The only thing I messed up was that I forgot to plug one of the case fans into the MOBO (the first time I turned it on I noticed that the back fan wasn't moving). So I had to open it up to fix that.

The only minor gripe I have is that the case is just a bit snug. Everything fit well and comfortably, but the additional drive bays are on the back side of the PSU and trying to put the PSU installed (with all the cords plugged in) was a bit of a squeeze with this case. Otherwise, she's a beauty!

 
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