Is this PC going to be amazing?

Jason Dupley

Jason Dupley

Jason Dupley

Associate
Joined
17 May 2021
Posts
5
Location
England
Hello Overclocker Family,

I have meticulously sifted through each and every component and attempted to build my dream PC. I do have some questions which would definitely put my mind at ease when it comes to hitting order if anyone can help, it would be appreciated.

I have built this spec on another site so if anyone official was to look at this they may be like, we don't sell this or something along them lines, I am simply trying to piece it together and haven't shopped around.

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Things to note:

- My budget is £4,000 with a little bit of wiggle room.
- I want to synchronise as much of the RGB controls as possible so I don't have to have a multiple controllers or applications handling them.
- I plan on streaming my gameplay of Fortnite and Rocket League using my Elgato 60S+ USB Capture Card combined with OBS. I also want to be able to think about video editing, playing VR games, 4K games and be ready for 8K games, finally it would be amazing if I could mine for crypto in the PC's downtime (don't hate me I haven't done it yet!).
- The case in my opinion is super beautiful, absolutely love it. I really want to build my PC around it.

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Here is the build:

Case - CoolerMaster MasterCase H500M Gaming Case (LS)
Custom Liquid Cooling Kit - Liquid Series RGB Mid Kit - Corsair Hydro X
Tubing - Clear Hardline PETG Tubing (Bent/Metallic Fittings)
Graphics Card Cooling - GPU Water Block - For One Graphics Card!
Coolant Colour - EK-CryoFuel Purple
LED Lighting - 2 x 50cm RGB LED Strip
Overclocked CPU - Overclocked AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core (3.4GHz @ up to 4.65GHz)
Motherboard - ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO WIFI (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM) - 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card - 10GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP (Pre-Order Only)
1st Storage Drive - 1TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive - 1TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
M.2 SSD Drive - 500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
RAID - RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD)
Power Supply - CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable - 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Braided Power Supply Cables - CORSAIR Premium Individually Sleeved PSU Cable Kit Pro - Black
Sound Card - Asus Xonar AE 7.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card
Other - Windows 10 Pro, full insurance cover for 3 years, other things nobody cares about.
Price - £4,075.00

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Questions I have regarding the build (I have numbered them so you can reply directly without having to quote them in your responses):

1) Topic: Restricted water cooling options due to the size of the case selected.

The water cooling options are restricted to:
- Liquid Series RGB Mid Kit - Corsair Hydro X
- Liquid Series RGB Mid Kit - EK

Question: Which of these performs better, I think the only difference I have been able to find is the sizing of the tubes. Is this a cosmetic difference or will this effect the cooling performance, amount of energy required to pump the fluid through them.

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2) Topic: Restricted water cooling options ability to cool such a powerful computer.

Question: As the parts I will be using are very high spec, will the Liquid Series RGB Mid Kit's be up to the task?

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3) Topic: RGB Strip lighting within the CoolerMaster MasterCase H500M Gaming Case.

Question: I have selected two RGB lighting strips, assuming there is only dedicated space for two strips, is my assumption correct?

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4) Topic: The CoolerMaster MasterCase H500M Gaming Case can support up to 3 additional fan(s). I have added the Liquid Series RGB Mid Kit - Corsair Hydro X that comes with a 360mm radiator and quoting from the more info specs 'Up to 4x Corsair RGB Fans'.

Question:
a) Will the radiator be situated at the top of the case with the fans attached; occupying the 3 additional fan slots?
b) Also, the 4th Corsair RGB Fan that comes in the cooling kit, could I replace the plain black fan located at the rear of the PC Case?

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5) Topic: Selecting the right RAM for the ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO WIFI (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) Motherboard.

Not knowing if the ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO WIFI (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) Motherboard's RAM slots are bi-channel or quad-channel.

Question:
a) Am I best getting 4 x 8gb or 2 x 16gb sticks of RAM?
b) Should swap the 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB) RAM for the lower MHz 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB) RAM to occupy all four channels?

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6) Topic: Braided Power Supply Cables.

I wanted to have purple braided cables, but they are not available in that colour.

Question: Are braided cables safer, offer a better quality power transfer, noticeably different to standard cables when they are simply black braided cables, do they come with some kind of warranty or protection standard cables would not offer? Or, are they just cosmetic!

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7) Topic: Choosing the right sound card for my intended use.

I plan to stream my gameplay, I play using Nuraphone headphones using their gaming microphone cable, I have a Rode microphone too, I listen to music 24/7 on (currently 5.1 but will potentially upgrade to 7.1) surround sound speakers.

Question: Has the Asus Xonar AE 7.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card got me covered / should I be using the stock sound from the ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO WIFI (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) / or should I be getting a better sound card?

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8) Topic: HD / SSD / m.2 Partitions

I want to make the best use of my m.2 drive. The things I will be using the most on the computer are:

- Booting the PC.
- Google Chrome.
- OBS.
- Fortnite.
- Rocket League.
- Spotify.
- Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator, editting software.

Question: What should I specify the partitions to be to make these all have priority and ability to sit on the m.2 for quickest reads and writes?

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I would really appreciate if you could respond using a numbered system as I am not a wizard when it comes to the naming structure of all of the PC components, so if you could copy and paste this template below and respond to the questions you can help me with accordingly it would help me massively:

My experience with these components: Owned / Tested & Reviewed / Watched Reviews / Looked at the Specs / I just know better than you - deal with it!

Q1) Answer

Q2) ...

Q3) ...

Q4 - a) ...
Q4 - b) ...

Q5 - a) ...
Q5 - b) ...

Q6) ...

Q7) ...

Q8) ...

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Appreciate this is a very long post, thank you all for taking the time.

Thanks, Doops.
 
I can't really help much with the water cooling part as never done it but what I can help with is below.

5) a) Always 2 x 16
b) No

Any motherboard you get on x570 will only ever operate in dual channel (even if you buy a quad channel kit such as 4x8gb). In regards to a) this is because 2 sticks is easier to run than 4 sticks. Unless you really need the PC now, I would wait till next month to see if the X570 chipset refresh comes out (X570S). With that much storage being active the x570 fan is probably going to come on a lot. I'd also probably go to the Dark Hero for this reason as it doesn't have a fan.

6) I am almost certain the cables are just more flexible for easier cable routing. Also be careful that you get the actual proper compatible cables from Corsair. Some can have different pinouts.

7) I think external soundcards are not needed these days. Pretty sure the headphones/amp matter way more than this.

8) Do you even need to set partitions in a case like this? Just have your m.2 for the Windows install/programs and the 1TB SSDs for storing games/storing video content.
 
You won’t get a 3080 let alone the one you want. No way I’m dropping that much money on a pc especially with new platforms and memory not too far away.
 
Except for absorpting short load spikes some mid size waterpipe cooler isn't really better than top heatpipe coolers.
You need big radiator to have more surface area for dissipating heat into air.


Super over expensive board doesn't make PC any faster or longer good staying, but only you that much poorer.
Asus even has chipset cooling relying on fan to actually cool well as break down timer.
MSI has completely superior chipset coolers capable to passive cooling, if you have working case cooling.
And already £220 X570 Tomahawk has off the charts bat crazy overkill VRM for CPU.


For highest performance you'll want memory to have two ranks per channel.
Two DIMMs is easier for signaling integrity, but only guaranteed dual rank 16GB DIMMs are those with Samsung B-die chips.
Meaning 3600 MHz 16-16-16 latency kits.
Though those aren't problem with this kind budget.
Other two ranks guaranteeing option is two DIMMs per channel of 4x8GB.


Forget Samsung QVOs.
Those are QLC Flash drives sold at heavy brand overprice for garbage tech with worser native/unbuffered write speed than 10 years old HDD!
Heck, TLC based NVMes can be nowaways gotten at same price level.
And in general 980 Pro is only Samsung with price at level of competition.

But forget tiny drives.
Even at lot lower budget you should be aiming for 2TB NVMe as starting point for main drive.
Phison E16 based drives would have high write endurance, if you're going to be constantly working with large video files etc.


That's actually rather entry level sound card.
And typical for Asus can't even use sound chip the way it's designed to be used...
But instead uses USB sound chip through PCIe bridge chip.
Also headphone output is standard level further negating sense in it over motherboard's integrated.
And if competitive gaming in the cards Sound Blaster X3 would have also head shape customizable HRTF possibly giving clearly better positioning than fixed average head shape based HRTF.
 
Jason Dupley said:
- Booting the PC.
- Google Chrome.
- OBS.
- Fortnite.
- Rocket League.
- Spotify.
- Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator, editting software.
Click to expand...

You're about 2-3k over budget for even a high end machine which will laugh at the above.

I personally would save some money in your position, but if this rig is what floats your boat, you'll cruise though those tasks. It's a top 0.1% level machine... Up until the next round of hardware turns up that is ;).
 
Cooler running said:
You're about 2-3k over budget for even a high end machine which will laugh at the above.

I personally would save some money in your position, but if this rig is what floats your boat, you'll cruise though those tasks. It's a top 0.1% level machine... Up until the next round of hardware turns up that is ;).
Click to expand...

When are we looking at the next release from all the big names? Should I be waiting until then so the price on this kit above drops?
 
With your budget you should look at Threadripper Pro.

You don't need a sound card unless you're a musician.

Don't bother with multiple SSDs; just get one large NVME drive.

But really, you don't need anything near the hardware you've specced. MSI Tomahawk or Mortar B550 board, Ryzen 5900, 2-4 TB M.2 drive, and RAM. Just add fluid cooling.
 
Jason Dupley said:
When are we looking at the next release from all the big names? Should I be waiting until then so the price on this kit above drops?
Click to expand...

I spent some more time breaking down the numbers, you could probably still go in at about 2.5-3k for a similar build, but only with MSRP pricing. I'm assuming the custom loop also adds about £400 over an AIO and GPU stock cooler, so it's decent value in retrospect.

I guess I'm just jaded that a 4K build can't even fit the flagship GPU in anymore, what made times we live in.
 
Quartz said:
With your budget you should look at Threadripper Pro.

You don't need a sound card unless you're a musician.

Don't bother with multiple SSDs; just get one large NVME drive.

But really, you don't need anything near the hardware you've specced. MSI Tomahawk or Mortar B550 board, Ryzen 5900, 2-4 TB M.2 drive, and RAM. Just add fluid cooling.
Click to expand...

I have taken the note about one large m.2 drive. It is a bit pricier, but will be worth it, good idea!
 
Cooler running said:
I spent some more time breaking down the numbers, you could probably still go in at about 2.5-3k for a similar build, but only with MSRP pricing. I'm assuming the custom loop also adds about £400 over an AIO and GPU stock cooler, so it's decent value in retrospect.

I guess I'm just jaded that a 4K build can't even fit the flagship GPU in anymore, what made times we live in.
Click to expand...

I agree I think the value is there, I just want to make sure I have all the parts I want and to have given all the other components a fair chance to say no pick me!

I will wait until July, I hear that March - June are traditionally quite expensive for parts. Do you know when the new variations of all the components are released? I imaging RRP will drop on the parts I want when there is a shinier toy released.
 
Jason Dupley said:
I agree I think the value is there, I just want to make sure I have all the parts I want and to have given all the other components a fair chance to say no pick me!

I will wait until July, I hear that March - June are traditionally quite expensive for parts. Do you know when the new variations of all the components are released? I imaging RRP will drop on the parts I want when there is a shinier toy released.
Click to expand...

I mean honestly at the current pricing if you can get a water cooled 3080 at around 1k then I'd definitely go ahead with the build. I personally am hoping on a 3080 ti, but historic experience says it's not going to happen at a price I can accept.
 
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