Help me build my new rig... yet again.

motolube

Gawd
Joined
Dec 18, 2006
Messages
1,002
It is that time again and I feel lucky this one lasted me more than 5 years (almost 8 to be exact :);)). I have a budget of 800 bucks and I really don't want to go over it. I know this is by far the worse time to be building a new rig but so be it, mine has started acting up, I have freezes and locks on some of the games I play so I have to pull the pin sooner rather than later when it decides to call it quits.

My rig is on my signature and this (below) is what I am thinking on going with. I am not a professional gamer nor I do a lot of PvP, mostly solo and the sporadic Co-Op with some friends. I only like shooters (CoD, Ghost Recon, Far Cry). The rest of the stuff I am going to reutilize from this old one and perhaps upgrade in a few months.

Intel Core i7-10700KF 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor $299.99 from the Egg.​

ARCTIC Alpine 12 LP CPU Cooler $ 9.99 from Amazon​

ASRock Z490 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 Mini ITX LGA1200 Motherboard $229.99 from Amazon​

G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory $74.99 at the egg. (This is the one I am a bit confused with, it did not give me any compatibility issues in pc parts builder I am using but it is NOT listed in the ASRock compatible RAM. I could go with a 2x8 GBs as well, and I do believe that going with 32 GBS is over kill).​

EVGA SuperNOVA GA 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $ 69.99 from the Egg.​

I have also chosen a Mid Tower Case with 2 120mm fans ($45.00) + Asus Optical drive ($17.98).

Any help and/or suggestion would be greatly appreciated and I sure hope I am not breaking any rules as I have not been here in a long while. My apologies if I do.
 
I agree with the comment to go with a dual channel kit for memory other wise you're throwing half your possible bandwidth out the window. 32GB is more than needed for most tasks but not ridiculous overkill. it's what I would go with if I was building a system right now but I'm in no rush to upgrade my current system from 16GB. Sticking to the approved list for ram is a good idea but most memory should work.

I don't know anything about that specific motherboard however I would generally avoid mini-ITX unless I was doing a SFF build, generally they cut a lot to make the boards that small and you often pay a premium for that lack of features.

I also doubt I'd go Intel right now unless it was for a specific reason but the 10700KF isn't really a bad option. If I was getting that CPU I'd want to put a decent OC on it though so I wouldn't be cheaping out on the CPU cooler, I'd probably get a 240-360mm AIO but a decent 120-140mm tower should do the trick too.

Be aware that not all EVGA supernova gold PSUs are equal, not sure how the GA 650 stacks up because they have a million supernova golds now but to save yourself some trouble you could also just look at the Superflower leadex line since that what EVGAs good old G2s were anyway.

Edit: I should clarify that none of your choices are bad outside maybe the single ram stick I would just do a few things different.
 
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Noctua NH-U12S, Premium CPU Cooler with NF-F12 120mm Fan (Brown)​


Something like this it's pricey but these latest Intel chips are hot you can get by with a 212 EVO but I wouldn't even risk that.
 
Thanks guys, you guys are awesome and I do love the honesty of this place, there is no beating around the bushes here and that is why I keep coming. here. The pandemic has hit most of us hard and I am no exception so what I have decided to do is just add another dual channel 8GBs of Ram to my old rig and keep on keeping on until such time that I can afford something better, this way I won't have to go cheap where I don't have to.

If the addition of the +8GBs of Ram has no effect on the games I play, then and only then I will start to look for an upgrade. I did think I was ready but something just came up that needs more attention than my upgrade.

Again, your honest help is greatly appreciated.

Are all the Z490 boards that bad or just the ASRock? By the way, that is another thing I was thinking, the 11th Gen CPUs are about 100 bucks more than the 10th but the Z590 boards are about 80 bucks less than what I was going to pay for this one, and then I did saw that this one was a Mini and I was about to make a huge mistake, hence, why I decided to back the truck up and think about it.
 
I have a Z490 Asus TUF it's flawless I would get a Z590 because it's the newer thing and has PCIE 4.0
I had a Asrock Z370 but I just think it was good because it's was the top of the line board.
 
There are plenty of great Z490's from ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte out there, just do your research and pick the best one for you. That being said, I have nothing but praise for my $175 MSI Z490 Tomahawk, except for the push pins holding down the PCH heatsink.
 
Your system is all kinds of FUBAR.

Go with an AMD system. You're paying too much for a motherboard. (you don't need to spend more than $150-170)

And get a dual channel kit of memory an 8GBx2 kit is the same price.

Get rid of that junk cooler. Get a Noctua cooler from the money you save when you pick an different motherboard. At the very least get a Cooler Master Hyper 212. Make sure whatever cooler you get, that its rated for the TDP of your processor.
 
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CPU ($270-300)
Are you tied to 8 core vs 6 core for any productivity tasks? I'm not a fan of intel by any means, but microcenter has their 10700k for $270 right now which IMO is a pretty good deal, or you could step down to a 10600k and save $80. If you are more gaming focused though a Ryzen 5600 at $300 starts to make more sense, especially if you can save money on an AMD motherboard vs an intel.

Motherboard ($110ish)
I'm a cheapskate when it comes to motherboards and it's never hurt me. I would get something around $100, maybe less if you find a refurb/open box special, and put that money towards something else. As long as the board has the features you want I wouldn't waste money here. I'm not sure on intel boards, but for AMD an MSI B450 Tomahawk Max lets you BIOS flash without a CPU and can be found cheap ($85-100ish).

Cooler ($30)
If you want to save a little bit of money, get a Vetroo V5 cooler for $27 on ebay. Basically a Hyper 212 knock-off but prettier.

RAM ($90)
2x8GB as others have mentioned should cost you around $80-90. If you decide to go with AMD, I would definitely go for 3600MHz RAM (make sure to enable XMP, etc. settings in BIOS)

PSU ($75)
I'm a PSU snob and love seasonic, so I would get something like their Focus GX-550 instead ($75 on ebay) but the one you chose doesn't seem like it'll blow anything up.

Case ($80)
This is really subjective based on looks, but I'm a fan of Silverstone or Lian-Li. Lian-li sells some great budget cases right now such as the Liancool-215 for around $80. If you can get to a microcenter though I think you might be able to find them cheaper and cross-shop other brands.

This gives you about $150 leftover. The best you might be able to do with that is to sell your GTX 1070 for $400-450 and then hope to get a newer card around MSRP by camping out at microcenter or getting lucky with a newegg shuffle. A 2060 goes for around $420 if you can find one in-store and probably wouldn't be worth upgrading to, but something a step up like a 1080TI, 5700XT, or 6700XT would probably be out of your price range so maybe just pocket the money and stay with what you have. It is a really good time to sell a used GPU though so if you're able to find a new card in stock at/near MSRP I would jump on it and sell your old card.
 
The Cooler Master NR 400 case is pretty good for a budget case, I've purchased one for a build about a year ago, good airflow & has a 5.25 bay option. Its around $75 dollars and you get a glass side panel if that's your thing. It only fits mATX & ITX sized motherboards though.
 
If you're trying to find cheap watercooling check out Vetroo.com I just did a build with their mesh6 case and 240mm radiator on an amd fx9590 and its keeping temps low

edit: i just checked im not sure the 20% promo i had used is still available :(
 
Again, what can I say but praises for this forum. I am a creature of habit though and I have always had very bad luck with AMD stuff, more so when it comes to drivers, etc, etc. (except for workforce stuff, that has always been solid even if again, their drivers suck in my view and personal opinion) so this is why I have stuck to Intel but yes, I have heard the same thing from multiple people, right now, AMD is kicking intel in the teeth when it comes to CPUs.

I have also seen the prices for the used GPUs and OMG, i just can't fathom how people are paying those extreme amounts of monies for old GPUs but I may have to get in on the action if I am lucky enough to get something on a shuffle (two of my kids have also enter it because they are also looking to upgrade). Unfortunately, there are no Microcenter in the Banana Republic third world city where I live ;) and I don't blame them :)

I will keep this post handy in case I need to return the RAM I am expecting to get but I am hopeful that will solve my immediate need and I won't have to upgrade until such time that supply and demand comes back to normal. perhaps by then I am going to need to bother you kind folks again.

Oh and speaking of ASRock, I have been very happy with my Z87 board, I mean, I am not one to OC anything and I got a decent price on a combo from the egg, this is why I initially purchased it with the CPU. The other day, I went ahead and go to the Bios and OC'd my CPU to 4.0Ghz and I also up the anti on my RAM speeds but that did not help any with the game I am currently playing (Breakpoint. I know the game is the biggest unoptimized piece of crap ever but I am very choosy when it comes to what shooters I play and I mostly do Solo so my options are slim). In short, I am hoping the addition of the other 8GBs of Ram (for a total of 16GBs) will solve the issues I am having with locks and freezes.

The pisser here is that my 1070 ti has 8GBs of Ram but the F'ng game is only utilizing 4 to 5 Gibs and strong holding my 8GBs of regular RAM.

Edit: So, anything equal or above a Ryzen 5 5600X for about 300 bucks I am doing good? just for clarification, that would be equal or better than an i-5 or i-7?
 
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In a nutshell: A Ryzen 5600X or above on the AMD side is equal/better to basically anything intel has out right now when it comes to gaming. On the productivity side, core for core AMD is also winning. On the higher end, the only reason to go with Intel right now is (ironically) cost in some specific circumstances, such as if you're able to get something like a 10700k + mobo combo for less than an AMD equivalent. If you a have a program you use all the time for work that needs more cores, doublecheck specific reviews/benchmarks for it, but generally speaking Intel will probably only win if you're comparing an 8 core intel vs a 6 core Ryzen CPU.
 
Ok, understood, I was building wokstuff with AMD but that was a while ago.

This build is purely for Gaming and like I said, mainly Shooter and 85% Solo gaming and 15% Co-Op... NEVER PvP

Ram has shipped but it seems the guy bringing it decided to personally deliver it to me but took the city bus from wherever the Ram is coming from because I don't expect it until towards the end of next week. :(
 
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