£2,000 Build Advice

[Jayke]

I built my first system many years ago from the help of people on this forum and I was completely satisfied with the free service provided here along with the CS on OCUK throughout the years so I would once again appreciate some of your expertise.

Parts Required
CPU
Memory
GPU
PSU
Motherboard
Case + Fans (If Required)
Storage (~1TB)

Deseriables
Micro ATX form factor.
32GB Ram
2080ti
Modular PSU
Liquid CPU Cooler (Had great experience with the Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML120L)

Not Required
RGB
Thermal Paste
Components
Windows License
Overclocking (Never been interested or really required to OC)

My budget is £2,000 however I may be able to squeeze £100-£200 over if required. I can wait a little if new components are set to release and it logically makes sense.

 

[Jayke]

@Jayke

whats the system being used for ? what monitor/res/hz do you currently have ?

wanting 2080ti usually means you've got 4k montior/tv or 1440p ultra wide monitor to power

Sorry I forgot to include that, it's being used for gaming, general work/usage and the occasional use of virtual machines. Right now I will be using a 144hz 1920 but I want the GPU power there (if within budget) to upgrade to 4K later down the line. It's not a case of, this is what I want, what should I get. But, this is my budget, what is the absolute best setup I can buy with that budget.

Micro-ATX motherboard selection is overall quite lacking and most cases aren't even much smaller than ATX cases.
(only like 4cm lower in height)
So unless there's very specific height limit for case, I would suggest getting normal ATX.
Or are you intending to use current case?
(in which case what's the model?)


Also watertube coolers are mostly useless marketing hype.
Unless you move case lot and not having weight hanging from mobo is important.

While water's high heat capacity slows down temperature rise, waterpipes in place of heatpipes simply don't make heat disappear anywhere.
And that heat has to be always dissipated into air.
And modern slim radiators don't have excess of surface area.
In fact high end heatpipe coolers beat majority of them in continuous cooling per noise.
And such tiny radiator...
£43 Scythe Mugen 5 curbstomps that Coolerhamster MarketingLiquid.


If you want actual return/value for money and especially holding that value over time, now is about historically bad time to buy expensive graphics card.

@EsaT OCUK need to start stocking sliger cases. 19 Litres for ATX case that can hold dual 240mm rads . would sell well on here if they could bulk buy.

@Jayke Jonsbo make some insanely good atx cases the size of mATX case. But might as well go ITX or ATX personally

Shall we drop the watercooling and just go with a blower in that case? mATX is not necessary but would be preferred. Also as per the GPU mention, you say now is a bad time? I assume there is going to be a new line of Nvidia cards coming out soon, I just checked and I saw June 2020? That is a little longer than I wanted to wait to be honest.

Summing up;

- Bin off the CPU cooler, go with a standard blower?
- Consider an ATX case?

My main query is what CPU to go with, AMD/Intel if so which. As I mentioned, I would like to be playing any/every game I want really, some AAA, some older. I have no direct usage for a CPU other than just general gaming.