Shoe String Budget Build (Gaming Rig Upgrade)

The Old School Gamer

The Old School Gamer

The Old School Gamer

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Joined
22 Feb 2019
Posts
1,189
Location
Guernsey
[BUILD COMPLETE]

rig.jpg


This build is to replace and upgrade my ageing i7 6700k mITX gaming rig I built in 2016.

https://www.guernsey-ci.com/public/ocuk/?dir=mini ITX Gaming PC
  • BitFenix Prodigy mITX Case
  • Gigabyte GA-Z170N Gaming 5 mITX Motherboard
  • i7 6700k 4-Core CPU @ 4.2Ghz
  • Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler
  • Crucial 2x8Gb (E-die) C16 @ 3200Mhz
  • Samsung 500Gb 840 EVO M.2 SSD
  • MSI GTX 1080Ti Seahawk
  • Seasonic 660W Platinum PSU
  • Samsung 1Tb SSD (SATA)

So this build had under gone a few upgrades since the initial day one build in early 2020.
But I think I'm finally at a point in mid 2021 where I can say that I'm happy where it is at.
Hopefully I should now be able to enjoy a good few years of quality gaming on it.

PARTS
  • AMD Ryzen 5900X 12-Core
  • ASUS TUF GAMING X570 PLUS (WI-FI) AM4 ATX Motherboard
  • Be Quiet! Pure Rock Tower Cooler (Push/Pull, offset so I could fit 4 sticks of DDR4)
  • Seasonic 1000w Platinum PSU
  • Team Group 8Pack Edition 32GB (4x8GB)(B-die) DDR4 C14 3200MHz - (Running @ 3600Mhz / 16-16-16-32-48-T1)
  • Samsung 970 EVO Plus V-NAND M.2 500GB SSD (OS)
  • Samsung EVO SATA 1Tb SSD (game installs)
  • ADATA SX8200 Pro 1Tb M.2 SSD (game installs)
  • Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Midi Tower Case with Black Window
  • 3x Be Quiet! Pure Wings 2 140mm PWM 1600rpm Fans
  • ASUS RTX 3080 Ti Strix OC 12Gb
Gaming @ 3440x1440p 144hz

completed.jpg
 
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Going for a b450 max and a ryzen 5 3600/x would give you more performance at around the same cost and having Smt would be more future proof.
 
6700k with an 1080ti is aging? That'll last you a few more years yet unless you need max settings at 4k. I would have waited for Nvidia next round of cards which is out late next year.
That £500 could be used to go towards a new shiny 3000 series card.
 
The platform was ageing more than anything.
Their is no upgrade path left on the Z170 chipset.
I could only go to an 7700k which isn't really an upgrade from an 6700k.

'IF' I could have dropped an 8700k or 8086k in I probably would have held off to be honest.

The 1080ti is an keeper for now.
 
The Old School Gamer said:
Been happily gaming on 4 cores for the last few years so the 3500X will be fine.
could have gone for an cheaper mobo, but I wanted PCIe gen4 going forward for future GFX/SSD upgrades.
Click to expand...

The 3500x is more of a sidegrade though, your losing 2 threads but gaining 2 cores so it's not going to be much different from what you have now.
 
Just don't think an better CPU is required, the 3500X should do the gaming job perfectly fine @ 1440p with an decent discrete graphic card.
One of the main points of this build was to keep costs down while future proofing going forward, I think I've achieved that.
The time I've sold the i7 6700k and the other parts this build would have cost me very little, job done.
 
Everything turned up today so I made a start putting it all together. :)

I need to tear my old gaming rig apart next as I'm re-using the PSU and watercooled 1080ti.
But I have xmas parties and other things on for the rest of this week, so it will have to wait for now.

20191216_155843.jpg


20191217_124028.jpg

20191216_155743.jpg
 
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Your latency seems quite high for that ram, I'm using the same stuff and getting around 64 latency and 5000 more on read and copy, at 3733 that ram should easily hit 16 with tight subs. Have you tried using typhoon/ryzen d-ram calc?
 
[UPDATE]

The latest BIOS update has brought the latency down under 70ns.

[UPDATE]

I've now replaced the 3500X with a 3900 (non-X). :)
New benchmarks below.

Ironically the ALL core boost on this 3900 actually boosts 100mhz higher than my 3900X.
Single core peak boost is still higher on the 3900X though as the 3900 tops out 4.3Ghz vs 4.6Ghz.

3900_AIDA_cachemem.png


cpuz_3900-info.PNG
CPU-Z_Bench_3600_C16.png

3900_Coretemp_Idle.png
3900_Coretemp_Load.png

3900_TimeSpy.png
3900_Firestrike.png

CBR20_3600.PNG
 
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- Updated the info on the first post.

I'm already saving towards my next replacement gaming PC build (DDR5 based) for sometime in 2022 I would think.
It's up in the air at the moment, and not sure if it's going to be a Intel or AMD build at this point.
All I know is if Alder Lake ends up disappointing then I'll be sticking with AMD/Zen 4.

Not too concerned about securing high end parts as I will just purchase a whole pre-built PC via my work if need be and simply take the bits I want out, rework it and then sell the rest on in the shop.
(We did that to get hold of a couple of ASUS RTX 3090 STRIX's and it worked out well).

Needless to say I'm done with waiting months on pre-orders and dealing with out of stocks everywhere.
Hence I'll just go nuclear on the OEM route and bypass all of that crap if I have to.

As what happens to this build...
  1. I sell it to pay down the costs of the new build.
  2. It replaces my 24/7 always on daily driver PC.
Maybe the second option this time around as I'd like to replace the X370 mobo and transition away from watercooling back to air cooling on my daily driver (less maintenance, less to go wrong).
 
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