New PC build, please help

[Hailstorm BLX]

I've finally decided to build a new PC and would like to hear your tips on this. I apologise for the questions; 20 years of PC gaming and I still know sod all about hardware

Can I go horribly wrong with an Asus ROG STRIX B550 bundled with a Ryzen 5 5600X and two 8GB Kingston Fury Renegade sticks? PSU-wise I've been eyeing the Corsair RM850x. Headroom probably isn't a bad thing but is 850 watts overkill?

Finally, is there a noticeable performance difference between M.2 and SATA SSDs to justify the price difference? I'm probably going for a 2TB Samsung, unless you have better ideas. Also, is it advisable to have another, small SSD for the OS?

 

[danclark]

A 5600X is a good choice, as is a B550, which is what I'm running. Maybe check the speed and timings of the bundled RAM as if the bundle includes slow RAM you'll be giving away performance and fast RAM isn't that much more expensive. Ideally, you want 3600MHz and CL18 or better. 3200MHz and CL16 also fine but I'd suggesting avoiding anything slower as it's a false economy.

I've got the 750W version of that PSU and it's been absolutely fine with a 3080FE. You only really need 850W+ if you're going for a 3090 so perhaps can save some money there. PSUs are more efficient when using less of their full capacity so which makes most sense depends on the price gap between them. If the extra 100W is only a little more I'd get it.

There's not a great deal of real-world gaming difference between an M2 and SATA SSD. If you were doing lots of high res video editing then the M2 might be snappier. Personally I prefer to have a small SSD (M2) for my OS and separate larger SSDs for games but again I don't think it makes a huge amount of performance difference.

 

[robt100]

^^^ What he said!
Only thing I will add, is get a case with decent airflow and decent fans, not point getting the latest and greatest if its stuck running at 70% of its full potential due to being too hot.

 

[Hailstorm BLX]

The RAM is 3600 MHz and CL16.

There seems to be a sale on certain PSUs now, both 750 and 850 are just north of 100€. Think the 850 will be good well into the next decade I will upgrade the GPU at some point but at the moment it would just blow the budget!

For the case I was thinking the Phanteks P400A (non-RGB, I'm probably too old for those) might do the job; according to reviews it appears to breathe alright and will accept more fans if there's need.

 

[robt100]

Sounds like you've made good decisions there. Should be a cracker of a PC.
Stick with corsair for the PSU though. Don't want to get a Gigabomb...sorry, Gigabyte exploding special!

 

[Fennario]

Case: Lian Li Liancool 215 or 011 mini; or Fractal Meshify2 or Torrent
PSU: Corsair, Seasonic, or EVGA
RAM: GSkill 3600mhz CL16, (16-16-36)
M.2: Samsung 980pro, 1 or 2 TB
Storage SSD: 870 QVO
Fans: Noctua 120 or 140mm

 

[ArchLich]

B550 chipset is pretty good. Not top of the line, but good, and that's a high end mobo. If you're looking for a rig that can get 80+ FPS on any sim at full graphics, and 45+ at medium/high with full supersampling in VR, I'll recommend the one I built for myself:

I have a B450, but B550 works even better.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800x. If you're looking to take advantage of Smart Access Memory, then get the 5800x. The 3800x is an octa-core CPU base clocked at 3.9GHz, with a boost clock of 4.5GHz. with its incredibly fast 7 nm Zen2 architecture, it can keep up with, and even sometimes outperform, the likes of an Intel i9 9900k. I've been able to overclock mine to 4.5GHz sustainably, with no issues. I recommend at least a 120mm closed liquid cooler. Especially if you plan to overclock.

RAM: 16GB of XPG 3200MHz. 16GB is all you currently need in the RAM department. There isn't a game on the planet that utilizes more than that, so 32GB is a complete waste of money. 3200MHz is the sweet spot, because overclocking past that has little to no effect on performance.

Now for the most important aspect of a gaming computer: The GPU:
XFX Speedster MERC 319 Radeon RX 6700 XT. A very powerful high end card utilizing the latest RDNA2 architecture. The reference card(AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT) is great as it is, but the XFX versions have higher clock speeds, and are way more overclockable due to their triple dissipation, instead of the double dissipation of the reference card. Base clock is 2457MHz, Game clock is 2548MHz, and Boost clock is 2622MHz. I have mine overclocked to 2850MHz with no issues(2900 is possible, but it'll cause crashes eventually). With 12GB video RAM at 2000MHz combined with those clock speeds, this thing is a beast of the GPU.

850W PSU is fine, just make sure it's rated to last(I would recommend Gold or better)

SSDs do not improve gaming performance over HDDs. Literally the only thing they do is make applications load faster. So, your games will have significantly shorter load times, but the same framerates. If faster load times seems to justify the price for you, then buy it. I would definitely recommend getting at least a 2TB HDD to go with it, however, if you plan on really gaming with this machine.

Good luck with it.

 

[brc19]

SSDs do not improve gaming performance over HDDs. Literally the only thing they do is make applications load faster. So, your games will have significantly shorter load times, but the same framerate

I agree, maybe load times/game saves will be a bit quicker. Another aspect to consider is reliability of SSD versus HDD. I've had a few hard disk crashes, no data loss but loading a new drive from a backup is slow. If the data I need to store is two terabytes or less I go with SSD. More than two terabytes I still use HDDs because of cost.

 

[Turk]

There isn't a big difference between SSD and NVME from what I've experienced. But you can get an SSD that will fit into the M2 slot, last I saw they work out cheaper than a traditional SSD because your not paying for the box part of the SSD. Much neater option too.

 

[brc19]

There isn't a big difference between SSD and NVME from what I've experienced. But you can get an SSD that will fit into the M2 slot, last I saw they work out cheaper than a traditional SSD because your not paying for the box part of the SSD. Much neater option too.

Agree, I should have specified M2/NVMe rather than a generic SSD.

 

[Hailstorm BLX]

Are there any downsides to using M.2 only? Given the mobo has two sockets I thought of using a 250 GB 980 Pro as a system drive and a 2 TB 970 Evo Plus for games and stuff. The store I'm ordering from has the 970 for only a tenner more than the 870 Evo SATA drive, so the price isn't much of an issue there.

I'm such a noob, until this week I wasn't really even aware of these NVMe things

@ArchLich thank you for the GPU recommendation, I'll definitely keep that in mind for later

 

[RasmusP]

Are there any downsides to using M.2 only? Given the mobo has two sockets I thought of using a 250 GB 980 Pro as a system drive and a 2 TB 970 Evo Plus for games and stuff. The store I'm ordering from has the 970 for only a tenner more than the 870 Evo SATA drive, so the price isn't much of an issue there.

I'm such a noob, until this week I wasn't really even aware of these NVMe things

@ArchLich thank you for the GPU recommendation, I'll definitely keep that in mind for later

No, nvme is faster and usually more expensive.
If you want a good ssd for a good price I would recommend the crucial mx500. I have 3 of these since a few years and they are basically cheaper Samsungs, great quality and speed.

Here in Germany, you can get a 2 TB mx500 for 180€. A 1 TB 970 evo plus costs 150€.

About cpu: get a 5600x (or better ofc). The 5000 series has the best single thread performance right now on the market for games and simracing really only needs that and at least 5 cores (I disabled one after another on my 10600k and the performance starts to drop when only using 4 cores.
4 cores + virtual doubling is okay, but 5 physical cores really is where the improvement stops.

So 6 cores is the sweetspot for cost/performance right now and probably for some years to come.

Everything else is already said and you're good to go!

I can personally recommend the Fractal Design Meshify S2 but the Phantek you told us looks really good too! Mesh and ssds is the way to go for a cool and silent PC!

 

[Hailstorm BLX]

Thank you all for the help, I've ordered a pile of parts

 

[Fennario]

No one has mentioned cooling... with the 5600x you should be ok with Air and hard to beat a Noctua: https://noctua.at/en/nh-d15-se-am4

 

[RasmusP]

No one has mentioned cooling... with the 5600x you should be ok with Air and hard to beat a Noctua: https://noctua.at/en/nh-d15-se-am4

Very true! Although I would argue that you're okay with Air cooling for all of the CPUs.
They will keep their max boost during simracing for maximum fps and if you really stress them, they'll simply throttle down accordingly.

A bit of waffling:
My "Le grand macho RT" is pretty beefy in theory but even with 3x 140mm in the mesh front, 1x 140mm in the bottom, 1x 140mm in the rear top and rear back, my 10600k runs into the upper 80°'s if I load all cores and don't power limit it...

But honestly, simracing never puts such loads onto the cpu so even with all fans locked at 50% (about 800 rpm), my cpu never goes above 75° while racing.

And if I render a video, I don't care about 5 seconds more or less so I limited my power to 90W and my cpu simply throttles down a little.
It's not because the temperature would be an issue for the cpu. But I don't like the smell of 90°c dust coming out of the case

These modern CPUs are built for throttling at the temperature limit. All laptop CPUs do it, desktop CPUs do it too now.

There's a video from der8auer where he takes off the cooler while stress testing an 8700k.
It goes up to 100°c, then slowly throttles to 800 mhz and when the temperature drops to 98°, it tries to boost up...

Der8auer summarizes: "I wanted to show how these modern CPUs protect themselves by shutting down without any issues if your cooling fails. But instead I demonstrated that you absolutely can't hurt these modern CPUs and won't even get a pc shut down.
(without extreme voltages)"

 

[Durge Driven]

From SSD to M2 the main difference is you will get away with 4 less leads in your case

Thing is no matter which it is they all break down copying lots of files

Fact is my 3 x M2 ( 2 Pro versions ) run no faster then my 3 x 1TB, all Samsung IE: with heavy workload

I have never seen my Pros reaching anywhere near advertised speeds because they do those tests in factory enviroment with perfect files to read fast

edit: having said that I would still buy M2's where possible if for nothing more then get rid of leads

I have a 15 port Orico hub I share between my gamning and everyday tower. I have Samsung 1TB external ( 1,000mb/s so they say ) connected

That way I only need one backup and is very easy to unplug and take with you when you go out so you not leave a single important file on any tower and/or have duplicates

 

[ArchLich]

No one has mentioned cooling... with the 5600x you should be ok with Air and hard to beat a Noctua: https://noctua.at/en/nh-d15-se-am4

Actually I did mention it. I recommended at least a 120mm liquid cooler for the CPU I recommended to him.

 

[RasmusP]

Actually I did mention it. I recommended at least a 120mm liquid cooler for the CPU I recommended to him.

To beat one of the good air coolers like noctua d15 or bequiet dark rock pro, you need at least 2x120mm radiators.
There will be a lot louder at the same temperatures though.
2x140mm rads will start to gain some advantage at full load, while being louder at medium loads due to the liquid cooling air pressure efficiency.

So to really beat a big fat air cooler at all loads and gain a significant advantage both in noise and temperature, you need 3x120 or 3x140 liquid coolers.

Gamers Nexus video about it:

I built a pc for a friend of mine a few months ago with a 5600x + be quiet pure rock 2.
It's a pretty slim cooler, only 1x 120mm.
The case is a be quiet pure base dx with mesh and great airflow. Comes with 3x 140mm fans.

I didn't overclock the 5600x yet but on stock settings it's happily running 3 or 4 thread cinebench runs while being around 70°c and all fans only at 50%, really quiet, just a slight "whoosh" sound from the moving air.

At full load it will get hotter, around 80°c and the fans become noticeable but still "okay" to game without headphones.
The cpu won't throttle, so it's all fine.

That's a 32€ cooler.. She didn't want to spend a cent more, sadly.

 

[Durge Driven]

I really don't know why people say 16GB ram is future proof

32GB 56% used means ............oh wait lol

32GB Neo 3600MHz 14-15-15-35

P.S. Mind you that is only RTX 2080 and 1440p windowed
.....add VR triples 3080 to mix etc

 

[Novopaine]

Since no one mentioned it, I want to add that M.2 comes in a couple of flavors. NVME and SATA. Many of today's current motherboards can accept both, as long as the module is Type M or Type B+M. For example, ASUS lists this in the M.2 description as "SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode" for the ROG Strix B550.

Unless your motherboard is keyed to only accept a SATA type M.2, always go for the NVME version or you will be limiting your speed to that of SATA. SATA theoretical speed tops out at 550MB/s or 600 MB/s, depending on who you ask. The prices between SATA and NVME M.2 consumer grade modules are nearly identical, so keep an eye on the description and make sure you purchase the correct one.

For example, on Newegg.com:
Western Digital WD Blue SN550 NVMe M.2 2280 1TB is $94.99
WD Blue 3D NAND 1TB Internal SSD - SATA III 6Gb/s M.2 2280 is $99.99

They are both M.2 and they look the same (except for the keyed slot), but they are very different animals. You probably won't notice a big speed difference between the two in actual real world use, but why limit yourself?