Need advice on my first gaming pc build

LJMtheDestroyer

LJMtheDestroyer

LJMtheDestroyer

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19 Apr 2020
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Budget: £1500 Country: UK Location: On top of desk (43cm deep) Use: Gaming Peripherals: Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor, Speakers (Lighting?) OP System: Windows 10 Form Factor: ATX

I already have the monitor, keyboard and speakers. I assume a mid tower case would be best and I have chosen a CPU and GPU, (Intel Core i9-9900K) and (Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super), I am now stuck at picking out a motherboard and further, if anyone could help that would be great. I feel like there needs to be at least 4DIMM slots but am not sure. Thanks for any help.
 
At the moment I have decide on a CPU (Intel Core i9-9900K 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor), a GPU (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB Video Card) and a Motherboard (Asus PRIME Z390-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard). Does that seem okay?
 
LJMtheDestroyer said:
I currently have a Dell 27 Gaming Monitor - will upgrade in future
Click to expand...

Knowing the resolution helps us to cater the build as it directly impacts performance, but if you intend to change monitor anyway we can skip it I suppose.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,482.08 (includes shipping: £13.20)
​

Intel isn't worth going for right now, investing into a 9700 or 9900 is throwing money at a dead socket. With the above build you've an upgrade path, and as games become more multi-threaded AMD will gain further advantage over Intel. Intel is also poor value for money, you're not going to get as far as the above with a 9900K eating up almost a third of your budget.

Case choice is down to personal preference but the one listed is a quality piece of kit.

Zotac 2070S suggested as they've fantastic customer support and a 5 year warranty, longer than any other Nvidia vendor as far as I'm aware.

32GB of RAM for longevity, although not entirely necessary RAM prices are rising and certain AAA games are already nearing the 16GB barrier, heavily modded games (cities Skylines for example) can easily break it. It's also Micron E-Die so it'll hit 3600MHz with good timings easily enough. If you don't want to fiddle about with tweaking you could save £20 and go for a Patriot Viper set at £150.
 
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The 9900K is on a dead platform, the difference in real world performance between it and the 3700X is minimal once you start gaming at resolutions above 1080P. If there comes a point where you need more CPU power in a few years time, with Intel you have nowhere to go. You'll have to buy a new motherboard, CPU, and potentially RAM once DDR5 launches. With AM4/Ryzen you can pop in a Ryzen 4000 series 12-16C/24-32T processor, and it's worth pointing out that AMD are highly likely to take the single threaded crown with the Ryzen 4000 chips, they're already ahead in IPC (instructions per cycle), literally the only thing Intel has right now is raw clockspeed.

AMD are stronger with multi-threaded loads even when looking at matched core and thread counts. Games are becoming more multi-threaded, not less, and that trend is likely to grow come the launch of the new consoles at the end of the year, both of which will have a CPU extremely similar to the Ryzen 3700X.
 
Those Intels are brand overpriced yester-yesteryear's models on dead end upgrade path platform.
Future's games are going to be core heavy with next-gen consoles bringing 8 core/16 thread CPU as base level.

And besides already having 12 and 16 core models AMD is also bringing actually improved (instead of rebranded) Zen3 architecture for AM4 giving all around upgrade path.
Once Zen4 comes out Zen3 goes into discount in about two years and 12 core/24 thread model would likely drop to near £300 level.
 
Can confirm that Zotac warranty is good.... Just RMA'd a faulty 980ti that was 4.5 years old... Got sent a 1070 amp extreme as a replacement... Was asked first if that was an acceptable replacement.

They replace a faulty card with same or better performance...performance based rather than cost of card when new.

They were a joy to deal with and turnaround was very quick as rma done in UK.

Just make sure you register the card with them within 30 days of purchase to get the extended warranty.
 
Just to stick up for the other side, don't buy AMD. Raw technical specs and performance aren't the only reasons you should buy anything. Compatibility and support are every bit as important, and personally I believe intel clearly win out on this. Yes, I am sure there will be others who disagree on everything I'm saying, but of the many, many years I have been buying and building PC equipment, the most serious problems have always been with AMD. intel may be less ambitious but they work more often than AMD do.
 
The new Xbox and ps5 are going to be using amd ryzen CPUs so if anything games in the future will be more compatable with ryzen.

Here a vid showing the difference between a 9900k and ryzen 7 3700x on a mid range Gpu at 1080p and 1440p while the 9900k is slightly ahead it's £200 more and if you went with the 3700x and used that £200 saving on a better Gpu the 2080 super for instance then you Would get better gaming performance.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MQQ740jSYwY
 
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