First time building a PC, help appreciated!

Associate
Joined
26 Dec 2020
Posts
7
Hey guys,

So I was waiting for a 3070 restock to start building my rig and I finally managed to get a MSI 3070 Gaming X Trio, thing is, since it's my first time building a pc I'm kinda overwhelmed with so much information on parts and stuff and I would appreciate some tips. I would really enjoy sticking to MSI so I could use a single software to configure things and RGB related stuff. Here are the expected parts:

GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio;

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900x (If available, a 3900xt which seems to be better and the cost is almost the same here);

CPU Cooler: MSI MAG CoreLiquid 360R AIO;

Motherboard: Having an hard time with this one since it's the only part I can't really understand what makes one better than the other, but I had an eye on either MPG B550 Gaming Edge Wifi or MPG X570 Gaming Edge Wifi. I also saw the MPG X570 Gaming Pro Carbon Wifi if those 2 aren't really that good (highly accept recommendations);

RAM: Similar mobo situation except I know about the latency and MHz, but since the different mobos have different MHz supports I'm unsure on what to do. And i don't really understand the RAM XMP. I would go for a 16GB (2x8GB) 3200MHz CL16 either Corsair or G.SKILL;

HDD: SeaGate Barracuda 4TB;

SSD M.2: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB;

Power Supply: Corsair RM850 (it's the same cost as RM750 or RM650 and they're out of stock either way);

Case: MSI Gungnir 100RGB.

Overall I think everything is compatible, but I really need help on the mobo/ram stuff. I would like opinions on any other thing that could be done better.

Thank you very much!
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
18 Apr 2013
Posts
588
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...-am4-ddr4-x570-atx-motherboard-mb-351-ms.html
Or
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-mag-b550-tomahawk-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-359-ms.html
I went with the x570 version due to the reviews being very good for this board. It has a very good build quality and features at the price point. It has been down as low as £183 which is what I got mine for.
I think I'm right in saying the other boards you had mentioned were criticised for their build quality. After that criticism MSI went and released the tomahawk and unity boards and went a little OTT to try and get their reputation back.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2008
Posts
11,616
Location
Finland
Badpartspicker recommending bad bang per buck parts/very suboptimal allocating of budget as usual....

In practise only difference betweeen 3900XT and 3900X, is that T-letter costing extra.
Both are now one generation old 2019's architecture and in gaming beaten by even 6 core 5600X in most games.

Marketing liquid hype cooler is pretty much £100 down the drain for no real good and certainly bad value keeping in long run.
(many degradation/wear mechanisms)

Whole lower half of MSI's X570 board range plain sucks except Tomahawk.
CPU VRMs (power circuitry) are simply copypastas from £100 B450 boards and totally substandard for the board prices.
https://www.kitguru.net/components/...0-vrm-temperature-analysis-luke-deep-dive/11/
https://nl.hardware.info/artikel/94...den-review-op-de-proef-met-een-3900x-vrm-test

And unless PC is for media use gonig for old spinning rust of bad choise.
Anyway even at lot lower budget 1TB SSD should be standard level.
Tiny half TB drive starts filing up after few big games.
And Samsungs are usually more or less badly brand overpriced.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2008
Posts
11,616
Location
Finland
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/patr...dual-channel-kit-pvs416g400c9k-my-102-pa.html
this is pretty much the same ram I got athough mine was marginally faster. It seemed to get good reviews and good value for money.
Yes you will need to enable the XMP in bios but this is very straight forward on the MSI tomahawk.
Zero sense in 4000MHz RAM with very high extra in price.
Getting InfinityFabric to run at 2000MHz would need golden sample Zen3 and would be pretty much impossible with Zen2.
For which 3600MHz would be highest certainly working.
And it's also good for Zen3.
Going for 2x16GB kit would give lot more future value.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 May 2005
Posts
4,896
CPU get whatever in your budget but generally for a 3900X or XT you can get a 5800X with the latter faring much better in games (assuming you are talking about 1440p rasterisation)

motherboard, x570 avoid MSI other than the tomahawk or the unify. B550 you can’t go wrong with any really just a matter of picking the one with the best feature for you.

ram you want 3600MHz as it is similarly priced to 3200. Crucial and Corsair (2x8GB) can be had for as cheap as £55. If you want to go with g.skill or other Samsung b die parts then you are doubling your cost. For me it doesn’t offer anything tangible.

the rest of your build is fairly straightforward. Regarding AIO - I have a 7-8yr old AIO which is still going strong. I never had a need to change it cos it can deal with the thermal loads from all that time back with plenty headroom to handle the current CPU load. I can’t say any air coolers from then can deal with CPU nowadays. So it is a toss up.
 
Soldato
Joined
3 May 2012
Posts
8,520
Location
Wetherspoons
I dunno, with AIO's Vs air coolers there are pros and cons with both.

Air coolers are cheaper, simpler, basically will never fail, and actually some of the better air coolers are actually better in terms of cooling performance.

AIOs, much more expensive, more power used, more moving parts, they need to be setup in the correct orientation, and you can have a pump failure and it might not be that obvious.

But........ They do look soooooooo much better, plus the radiators act as a good intake/exhaust.

I think it's this one:

https://youtu.be/23vjWtUpItk

But pretty sure Gamers Nexus came to the same conclusion.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
26 Dec 2020
Posts
7
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...-am4-ddr4-x570-atx-motherboard-mb-351-ms.html
Or
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-mag-b550-tomahawk-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-359-ms.html
I went with the x570 version due to the reviews being very good for this board. It has a very good build quality and features at the price point. It has been down as low as £183 which is what I got mine for.
I think I'm right in saying the other boards you had mentioned were criticised for their build quality. After that criticism MSI went and released the tomahawk and unity boards and went a little OTT to try and get their reputation back.

Definitely choosing X570 Tomahawk, been warned a LOT about those others 2. Besides, after watching some reviews on it, totally sold.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
26 Dec 2020
Posts
7
Badpartspicker recommending bad bang per buck parts/very suboptimal allocating of budget as usual....

In practise only difference betweeen 3900XT and 3900X, is that T-letter costing extra.
Both are now one generation old 2019's architecture and in gaming beaten by even 6 core 5600X in most games.

Marketing liquid hype cooler is pretty much £100 down the drain for no real good and certainly bad value keeping in long run.
(many degradation/wear mechanisms)

Whole lower half of MSI's X570 board range plain sucks except Tomahawk.
CPU VRMs (power circuitry) are simply copypastas from £100 B450 boards and totally substandard for the board prices.
https://www.kitguru.net/components/...0-vrm-temperature-analysis-luke-deep-dive/11/
https://nl.hardware.info/artikel/94...den-review-op-de-proef-met-een-3900x-vrm-test

And unless PC is for media use gonig for old spinning rust of bad choise.
Anyway even at lot lower budget 1TB SSD should be standard level.
Tiny half TB drive starts filing up after few big games.
And Samsungs are usually more or less badly brand overpriced.

After rethinking on my stupid decision over the 4TB 5400RPMs Barracuda, I will go with the 2TB 7200RPMs Barracuda. Any recommendation on the SSDs? Is it really worth it to go M.2 or should I stick to a normal 1TB SSD one for example and get most of my favourite games on it?
 
Associate
OP
Joined
26 Dec 2020
Posts
7
Zero sense in 4000MHz RAM with very high extra in price.
Getting InfinityFabric to run at 2000MHz would need golden sample Zen3 and would be pretty much impossible with Zen2.
For which 3600MHz would be highest certainly working.
And it's also good for Zen3.
Going for 2x16GB kit would give lot more future value.

Will probably go for 2x8GBs for now and other 2x8GBs if needed in future, since I'm making some adjustments to my build with the things I've been learning xP
 
Associate
OP
Joined
26 Dec 2020
Posts
7
CPU get whatever in your budget but generally for a 3900X or XT you can get a 5800X with the latter faring much better in games (assuming you are talking about 1440p rasterisation)

motherboard, x570 avoid MSI other than the tomahawk or the unify. B550 you can’t go wrong with any really just a matter of picking the one with the best feature for you.

ram you want 3600MHz as it is similarly priced to 3200. Crucial and Corsair (2x8GB) can be had for as cheap as £55. If you want to go with g.skill or other Samsung b die parts then you are doubling your cost. For me it doesn’t offer anything tangible.

the rest of your build is fairly straightforward. Regarding AIO - I have a 7-8yr old AIO which is still going strong. I never had a need to change it cos it can deal with the thermal loads from all that time back with plenty headroom to handle the current CPU load. I can’t say any air coolers from then can deal with CPU nowadays. So it is a toss up.

Between a 3600MHz CL18 or a 3200MHz CL16, should there be a big difference? Or which one would be better? Since there's not much stock on RAMs at the moment, I don't really know why...
 
Soldato
Joined
3 May 2012
Posts
8,520
Location
Wetherspoons
After rethinking on my stupid decision over the 4TB 5400RPMs Barracuda, I will go with the 2TB 7200RPMs Barracuda. Any recommendation on the SSDs? Is it really worth it to go M.2 or should I stick to a normal 1TB SSD one for example and get most of my favourite games on it?

I dunno how much storage you need?

I would try and avoid mechanical drives at all now, of course if you do need lots of storage it can get expensive putting it all on SSDs.

On mine I have a 2tb m.2 SSD and a 1tb SATA SSD that's enough for me.

With m.2 Vs SATA, on paper, the latest PCIE 4 m.2 drives are 10 times faster than SATA SSDs, oddly, in practice, it makes so little difference, the difference in loading games is basically nothing.

Edit: actually there is a bonus of m.2 drives, no cables, no drives to fit in your case, if you are going for a really clean looking build they are better for that, that's purely aesthetics though.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 May 2005
Posts
4,896
Between a 3600MHz CL18 or a 3200MHz CL16, should there be a big difference? Or which one would be better? Since there's not much stock on RAMs at the moment, I don't really know why...
Probably very similar. You can get 3600C16 at next to no difference in cost tho

in terms of storage depend on what it is you using it for. If you are thinking about game drive then a large capacity 2TB SSD will be beneficial. And have a 1TB system nvme drive will make your experience snappy. Sabrent Rocket, WD black drives are good value pcie3 drives. If you want pcie4 drives then MP600 Rocket 4 etc are good performers.

if you need storage for storing files, music, films etc then HDD is still your best friend.
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2008
Posts
11,616
Location
Finland
After rethinking on my stupid decision over the 4TB 5400RPMs Barracuda, I will go with the 2TB 7200RPMs Barracuda. Any recommendation on the SSDs? Is it really worth it to go M.2 or should I stick to a normal 1TB SSD one for example and get most of my favourite games on it?
Standard level NVMes don't cost really any extra over SATA.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds100t2b0c-hd-56l-wd.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds200t2b0c-hd-57n-wd.html
 
Back
Top Bottom