Shoe String Budget Build (Gaming Rig Upgrade)

The Old School Gamer · 12 Dec 2019 at 04:56

[BUILD COMPLETE]

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

The Old School Gamer · 12 Dec 2019 at 13:42

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.

The Old School Gamer · 12 Dec 2019 at 18:52

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 · 13 Dec 2019 at 05:57

What's important is the future upgrade path is now open.
The 3500X can be replaced at anytime.

The Old School Gamer · 13 Dec 2019 at 08:51

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.

The Old School Gamer · 16 Dec 2019 at 16:41

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.

The Old School Gamer · 20 Dec 2019 at 16:23

Some generic benchmarks (3500X).

https://valid.x86.fr/ssbblw

The Old School Gamer · 27 Dec 2019 at 04:39

Well I managed to hit 3733/1866 C18 on the memory OC.
But there does not appear to be any advantage running at this speed with slightly looser timings.
3600/1800 C16 yielded the best results overall so will run with that.

The Old School Gamer · 27 Dec 2019 at 13:51

[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.

The Old School Gamer · 9 Sep 2020 at 21:42

Snagged a second hand Seasonic 760w Platinum PSU for just £69 in preparation for the graphic card upgrade to come.

Check one of the few reviews of the 3900 out there.

The Old School Gamer · 13 Apr 2021 at 12:54

- 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...

I sell it to pay down the costs of the new build.
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).

The Old School Gamer · 21 Apr 2021 at 21:28

Picked up a second hand 5900X via my work today.
It didn't cost me anything, the boss man basically let me have it for a straight swap.
Which is really good of him, as he could have easily sold it on and made a nice healthy profit on it.

The Old School Gamer · 22 May 2021 at 19:14

Messing around a bit tonight, so here are some updated benchmarks.