All-purpose high-end gaming PC

Blowsy said:
I've delayed getting cracking for a month already
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Indeed as I said, don't delay, just think about the near future, and R5 3600 is a mighty fine CPU and, but it is almost written in stone that the 4xxx series of desktop CPU's will be a significant step up, and also the last CPU's on the AM4 socket which is what you are buying into. Grab a 3600, get your system up and running, enjoy it and in 12 weeks (guesstimate) drop in a superb upgrade that will last the life of the system, be that a 4900X, or a 4950X or whatever they are going to call it. :)
 
mickyflinn said:
What you going to do then @Blowsy ?
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Plec said:
Heh, I think his head has probably spun off with all the choice he has...
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Yeah it's quite complicated isn't it :D I'm still doing plenty of reading. It looks like it may be worth seeing what AMD has up their sleeve in terms of GPUs to rival the next-gen Nvidias. From what I can gather, it looks like AMD will have a 3080 equivalent, but not a 3090 equivalent. So, if the price jump between the 3080 and 3090 is a bridge too far I'll wait and see what the comparative results are like for AMD before deciding on a GPU.

What do you think? I assume AMD's GPUs will be launching a few weeks after Nvidias?

Journey said:
Indeed as I said, don't delay, just think about the near future, and R5 3600 is a mighty fine CPU and, but it is almost written in stone that the 4xxx series of desktop CPU's will be a significant step up, and also the last CPU's on the AM4 socket which is what you are buying into. Grab a 3600, get your system up and running, enjoy it and in 12 weeks (guesstimate) drop in a superb upgrade that will last the life of the system, be that a 4900X, or a 4950X or whatever they are going to call it. :)
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I think this is a good plan. I'll go with an R5 to get the system up an running and then drop-in a Zen3 chip when the time is right. Even if I buy the R5 for £160 and sell it for ~£60 in a few months, it hasn't cost me much.

Question: is removing a CPU a big job in terms of cleaning off thermal paste etc, I've never actually done it? Does thermal paste go hard like glue or does it remain soft?


Another question regarding storage:
I've been reading up on SATA vs NVMe etc. What should be stored on what? So, if I went for, say 2TB M.2 and 2TB SATA. Which drive(s) should the OS be installed on, which should have applications/games etc. and which should house media (if not the same)
 
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Blowsy said:
Question: is removing a CPU a big job in terms of cleaning off thermal paste etc, I've never actually done it? Does thermal paste go hard like glue or does it remain soft?
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Unless it has been there years it will be soft and gooey especially if you take it out after the system has been on for a while.

I changed a CPU yesterday from an R5 1600 to a 2700X for someone, took about 10 minutes, unscrewed the AIO nuts/bolts, lifted away from CPU, lifted the lever on the socket (wearing a nitrile glove) took CPU out of socket, placed new CPU in socket, put lever back down, put some ASMX4 on it, and then put cold plate/pump assembly back on and refastened the four nuts/bolts.
 
Have you picked a a monitor yet ?
4k 144hz is what you wanted.

Will you build before your pc before or Are you going to wait 3 weeks for ampere release ?
 
Journey said:
Unless it has been there years it will be soft and gooey especially if you take it out after the system has been on for a while.

I changed a CPU yesterday from an R5 1600 to a 2700X for someone, took about 10 minutes, unscrewed the AIO nuts/bolts, lifted away from CPU, lifted the lever on the socket (wearing a nitrile glove) took CPU out of socket, placed new CPU in socket, put lever back down, put some ASMX4 on it, and then put cold plate/pump assembly back on and refastened the four nuts/bolts.
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Great, sounds relatively straight forward then. Presumably some alcohol-based cleaner to remove leftover paste?

mickyflinn said:
Have you picked a a monitor yet ?
4k 144hz is what you wanted.

Will you build before your pc before or Are you going to wait 3 weeks for ampere release ?
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I was looking at this. Thoughts? Whether the next-gen GPUs will be able to handle these sort of frame rates at 4k remains to be seen, but it would be great to have a future-proof monitor.

I'm not sure I could start building the PC until I have all the parts because the anticipation would kill me, so I'll probably wait until Sept. Do you think it'll be hard for me to get my hands on a new GPU once they launch? Surely they'll be in high demand.
 
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Blowsy said:
Anyone got any thoughts on my question in post #22 re: M.2 and SATA?



Nearly, but need to understand the above first.
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M2 is the faster drive so operating system and games drive
Sata ssd everything else.


In real terms of performance there is little between the 2, e.g loading times for games or windows the m2 will be about 1 second faster.
 
Real world, you'll notice no difference with M.2 SATA and M.2 NVMe... NVMe is faster than SATA though.

So I'd install your OS, software and main games on the NVMe - then use the M.2 SATA for other games, storage, etc.
 
Blowsy said:
I've been reading up on SATA vs NVMe etc. What should be stored on what? So, if I went for, say 2TB M.2 and 2TB SATA. Which drive(s) should the OS be installed on, which should have applications/games etc. and which should house media (if not the same)
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Just buy two NVMe drives, there is such a small difference in cost these days, and if you wanted to copy a large amount of data from one to the other it will be hugely faster. Good news for you is NAND prices are going down the toilet now, so every day that passes SSDs in general get cheaper. :)
 
Thanks for all the support so far guys. I'm getting closer to a final spec. Budget is definitely going to be nearer £4,000 than £3,000 since I need peripherals too.

Quick follow-up question... memory: I notice how most people are speccing 3,600mhz. Is there any practical benefits to selecting faster, or is this definitely an area where I can apply some measure of cost-control?
 
Blowsy said:
Quick follow-up question... memory: I notice how most people are speccing 3,600mhz. Is there any practical benefits to selecting faster, or is this definitely an area where I can apply some measure of cost-control?
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Time will again tell here, Ryzen loves fast RAM with tight timings, and if the ZEn3 parts support a faster IF clock speed then to get a 1:1 ratio with the RAM you'll want faster RAM. Presently most CPU's do 1900MHz IF so convert that to DDR is 3800MHz, the new CPU should hopefully do 2000MHz+ so RAM will be at 4000MHz+

Good news is RAM prices are continuously falling. :)
 
Nvidia formally announcing their next-gen cards at 5pm BST today, this will give me enough info to kick things off (3080 vs 3090 cost/benefit etc)
 
Update:

Doing some research, I'm having a bit of a 'wobble' about the 3090 Ampere card. It's not the card itself, but more the lack of sensibly priced 4k 120hz+ monitors to do it justice. There's no stock anywhere of the current crop of decent 27" panels because we appear to be on the cusp of the new generation of gaming monitors from the likes of Acer and Asus and theyve stopped producing the existing models.

The challenge is that a top notch 4k, high-refresh rate screen is likely to cost c. £1,500 and I'm questioning whether I'll notice much of an improvement above 1440p @ 140+ fps since I mostly play fast-paced FPS games.

"Settling" for high FPS 1440p gaming will likely mean I can save £800 and buy a 3080 and a top dog 1440p monitor will only be £300-400.

I guess, in summary, what I'm saying is that by committing to decent 4k gaming, I'm committing £800 more on a GPU plus, probably £1,000 more on a monitor in the new year - is that justified?

Thoughts welcome.
 
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