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Chevy Slyme
May 2, 2004

We're Gonna Run.

We're Gonna Crawl.

Kick Down Every Wall.

Suburban Dad posted:

I'd guess you're probably fine. Open up your case and put a box fan into it if you're worried.:v:

Case? What's a case? It's gonna be on a cardboard box.

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Thom P. Tiers
May 29, 2008

Red Birds
Red Ass
Red Text

CaptainPsyko posted:

So, is it incredibly dumb to not bother installing a cooler/heat sink on a CPU if I'm only using it to update bios?

Just seems like a lot of extra work to do when I'm just borrowing an older processor to do an update so that I can buy a shiny new zen 3 in two weeks, but I don't want to fry the thing.

Don't do this. Just put the cooler on. If for any reason your CPU gets too hot, it could cause a shut down during the BIOS update and that's not good.

Suburban Dad
Jan 10, 2007


Well what's attached to a leash that it made itself?
The punchline is the way that you've been fuckin' yourself




Since that was just my gut feeling i looked to see what AMD loans when they give you a processor for updating. Sounds like they include a "thermal solution" when they loan a cpu.

Bryter
Nov 6, 2011

but since we are small we may-
uh, we may be the losers
Modern CPUs will throttle and crash the system before reaching a high enough temperature to do damage. So you won’t fry the thing, but if that happens in the middle of a BIOS update you could be looking at a bricked motherboard. I wouldn’t risk it.

spunkshui
Oct 5, 2011



Thom P. Tiers posted:

Don't do this. Just put the cooler on. If for any reason your CPU gets too hot, it could cause a shut down during the BIOS update and that's not good.

This.

The words rush and bios update don’t belong in the same post.

Just enjoy the process. Computers are expensive legos, put on some chill music and do it the slow way.

Spikes32
Jul 25, 2013

Happy trees
I checked the op and didn't see it, but is there a guide to actually putting together the pc? I can Google a generic guide but was wondering if there was a goon approved one. Only put together one computer before this 7 years ago and want a refresher.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

CaptainPsyko posted:

So, is it incredibly dumb to not bother installing a cooler/heat sink on a CPU if I'm only using it to update bios?

Just seems like a lot of extra work to do when I'm just borrowing an older processor to do an update so that I can buy a shiny new zen 3 in two weeks, but I don't want to fry the thing.

Yeah, that is probably dumb.


exmus posted:

Looking for some advice here since I haven't built a PC in a long time and don't have enough experience with the current part market.

What country are you in? US
What are you using the system for? Web/starting to learn programming with some light gaming. Mostly playing current gen fighting games and not looking to go beyond that.
What's your budget? Don't have a budget to work around, just looking to get the pieces that would be most beneficial.
If you’re doing professional work, what software do you need to use? What’s your typical project size and complexity? No professional work but looking to get more invested in programming. Looking to have at least a dual monitor setup as I'm currently working on a single monitor + laptop screen.

I put together this list https://pcpartpicker.com/list/pmhQZZ but am assuming there is definitely some optimization possible here.

Edit: forgot to mention, I live near a microcenter and can purchase pieces from there as well.

If you don't put a budget, people will start throwing crazy parts at ya! Working with what you have, I might do this:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B450 Gaming Plus MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($106.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($62.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB BLACK GAMING Video Card ($221.48 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($105.21 @ Amazon)
Total: $906.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-26 11:52 EDT-0400

The 1660 puts you on-par with a 1070, which will get you high/ultra at 1080p, but will need upgrades to keep that next year (3070 is a good option, picked an EVGA part in case you wanted to Step Up). Samsung drives are overpriced, got you a 1TB WD Blue for less than the two you had. I prefer Seasonic, but if you're getting a gold-rated power supply, it's hard to botch the job.

Spikes32 posted:

I checked the op and didn't see it, but is there a guide to actually putting together the pc? I can Google a generic guide but was wondering if there was a goon approved one. Only put together one computer before this 7 years ago and want a refresher.

Read all of your manuals carefully before installation. Watch a few youtube videos of other people doing it. Go slowly, and do not force anything. Henry Cavil is a good jumping-off point, because he fucks up so many things and it's still fine. I would be much more careful than him and wear a grounding bracelet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2gYUVQrLzQ

For an actual step-by-step:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCDw7zopnDg

Fantastic Foreskin
Jan 6, 2013

A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

Spikes32 posted:

I checked the op and didn't see it, but is there a guide to actually putting together the pc? I can Google a generic guide but was wondering if there was a goon approved one. Only put together one computer before this 7 years ago and want a refresher.

Don't use the one from the Verge and you should be good, its really pretty simple.

Important tips:

Putting the core components (cpu, ram, gpu, psu) together with the motherboard on the box makes both building and troubleshooting (if necessary) easier. May as well install your m.2 drive while you're at it.

Your CPU will have a dot/triangle in one corner as will it's socket. Those need to be lined up or bad things will happen.

RAM is keyed (has a little notch that lines up with a prong in the socket) and takes more force than you think it should to insert - ram not being all the way in is a common cause of issues. Both sides need to be fully clicked in.

Likewise, psu cables need to be oriented to have the clip on the cable fit over the ledge on the socket and need to be all the way in.

Don't do it in socks / on carpet. Once your psu is in your case you can plug it into the wall while switched off and touch an unpainted part of your case to ground yourself / discharge and static electricity you may have built up if you had to walk away mid-build for whatever reason. Unplug it before you continue to build.

Beyond that it's all tab A into slot B.

spunkshui
Oct 5, 2011



I honestly have never seen or heard of anything getting destroyed by the person building not being grounded.

You will notice its basically never mentioned when tech tubers build fancy PCs or when Linus finds and excuse to build a computer fast.

Its far more likely you will drop a part and break it then shock one.

That I absolutely have seen.

spunkshui fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Oct 26, 2020

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

You'd be surprised by how much force it can take to fully put a component in place, but conversely nothing should initially require much force if it's aligned to the right slot.

midge
Mar 15, 2004

World's finest snatch.
I'm starting a second PC build. I'll be transplanting my SSDs and 1080ti into this untill the graphics card market is a bit more stable (or the 3080ti comes out!).

Looking for a sanity check on these parts (Canada) :

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($502.25 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($109.95 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z490M GAMING EDGE WIFI Micro ATX LGA1200 Motherboard ($229.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($174.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Case: Fractal Design Define C ATX Mid Tower Case ($94.99 @ Canada Computers)
Power Supply: *EVGA 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($150.99 @ Vuugo)
Total: $1263.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-26 12:42 EDT-0400

This is all good right? Any glaring errors in judgement?

Pilfered Pallbearers
Aug 2, 2007

spunkshui posted:

I honestly have never seen or heard of anything getting destroyed by the person building not being grounded.

You will notice its basically never mentioned when tech tubers build fancy PCs or when Linus finds and excuse to build a computer fast.

Its far more likely you will drop a part and break it then shock one.

That I absolutely have seen.

Cause it’s pretty minor damage that’ll cause issues later. It’s pretty unlikely to show up at boot.

Not that I am grounded when I build (I do build on hardwood and less static clothing though, plus case grab sometimes). But it is real and does happen.

bus hustler
Mar 14, 2019

I ran a 3rd gen i5 that was physically disconnected from the HSF due to a bad clip & dried up thermal paste and it still took forever to shut down when playing CS GO. it was difficult to diagnose because when i'd lay the pc down on its side it looked perfectly normal. :colbert:

Spikes32
Jul 25, 2013

Happy trees
Thanks folks appreciate the tips for building

Harold Fjord
Jan 3, 2004
I built this non qvl and am struggling with OCing the ram to regular speed. updated the bios and trying the xmp but nothing seems to work, about to try all manual setting to the numbers of the calculator. When that most certainly fails, any tips before I give up and return the ram? Thanks use a calculator they own. Thanks for the advice over my months of shoppin.g I love my new machine

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($309.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B550M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($61.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $476.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-26 15:00 EDT-0400

Other than this it's a PSU gold 750w I bought a week ago, a spare 670, a random samsungs SSD (bought a crucial NVME but it busted itself randomly during use) and a trash case I'm going to replace once I've picked a gpu and know the fit.

Harold Fjord fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Oct 26, 2020

KingKapalone
Dec 20, 2005
1/16 Native American + 1/2 Hungarian = Totally Badass
How I can I help a friend make this not overkill? The 3900X is a placeholder for a 5900X and he would also get a 3080. No monitor decision yet but I assume 1440p.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($439.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($189.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY ATX AM4 Motherboard ($299.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Royal 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-4000 CL16 Memory
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($289.74 @ B&H)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P600S ATX Mid Tower Case ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($284.99 @ Corsair)
Total: $1654.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-26 18:00 EDT-0400

Maybe 5600X, air cooler, cheaper X570, 16GB DDR4-3600 or maybe 32GB, non Samsung SSD, don't know this case, and a 750W Gold PSU?

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness
It's an open question whether a 5600X vs 5900X will be the more reasonable long-term buy, so if he's happy to spend the money there, I might just let that go.

The AIO is silly for a 5900X. If he wants it for the aesthetics or whatever, fine, cool, it's not a bad cooler, but otherwise he could get very good cooling out of either a smaller AIO (240/280mm versions) or one of the perennial be Quiet! or Noctura coolers for $100.

Motherboard is silly if he doesn't plan on something phenomenally dumb like SLI. $300 and it doesn't even have TB3. The ASUS TUF Gaming B550-PLUS Wifi is $180 and has all the big features: Wifi 6, BT5, TB3, 2.5Gb NIC, etc., and the difference in PCIe configuration won't ever matter if he's only gonna run it with 1x GPU and 1x NVMe drive.

32GB RAM is fine and reasonable these days if he's a heavy user, though knocking down to 3600@CL16 or even 3600@CL18 / 3200@CL14 only gives like a 1-3% difference in most applications. 4000@CL16 -> 3200@CL16 is like a 5% drop in games and would cut about $200 off the RAM price.

The ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB is effectively as fast as the 970 Evo in all the ways that actually matter, and is $50-75 cheaper.

Case is fine if he likes the styling. There are cheaper options available, but cases are 80% ~*~aesthetic choices~*~ as long as you're not picking something that's objectively terrible, which that case isn't.

PSU is enormously over-spec, could easily be cut down to the 750W version for $200 with no negative impacts. Unless he actually plans on using the Corsair Link portion, moving to the HX instead of the HXi drops another ~$50 off it, down to $160ish.

All said that'd be about $600 off the bill.

DrDork fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Oct 26, 2020

FreeKillB
May 13, 2009

Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:


Storage: Western Digital Blue 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ Amazon)

Samsung drives are overpriced, got you a 1TB WD Blue for less than the two you had. I prefer Seasonic, but if you're getting a gold-rated power supply, it's hard to botch the job.


Right now the WD SN550 NVME drives are exactly the same price as that WD Blue. I'm not an expert on what use cases can actually use that extra speed, but I think it's a clear choice at the same price.

I also think that the Arctic Freezer 34 is now the go-to budget cooler recommendation instead of the Hyper 212 but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

FreeKillB posted:

Right now the WD SN550 NVME drives are exactly the same price as that WD Blue. I'm not an expert on what use cases can actually use that extra speed, but I think it's a clear choice at the same price.

I also think that the Arctic Freezer 34 is now the go-to budget cooler recommendation instead of the Hyper 212 but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Good catch, The SN550 was the one I meant to post! :ohdear:

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


Mu Zeta posted:

Most people here will recommend AMD unless you need to play CS GO as 500fps or something. You might get more useful help in the Mini ITX megathread for motherboard options.

What's the latest "middle-of-the-road" AMD Processor? Doing a bit a Googling, it looks like I'm seeing the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X as that choice but I'm super confused - do I want the B550 or X570 Chipsets?

sean10mm
Jun 29, 2005

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World

Gabriel S. posted:

What's the latest "middle-of-the-road" AMD Processor? Doing a bit a Googling, it looks like I'm seeing the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X as that choice but I'm super confused - do I want the B550 or X570 Chipsets?

B550 unless you need to connect a ton of SATA and M.2 drives at once plus multiple pcie cards.

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

Gabriel S. posted:

What's the latest "middle-of-the-road" AMD Processor? Doing a bit a Googling, it looks like I'm seeing the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X as that choice but I'm super confused - do I want the B550 or X570 Chipsets?

3700X is good if you do more productivity things than gaming. If you do more gaming than productivity things, you'd probably be better off with the 5600X. Also consider that the 3700X may very well get a price cut in the next two weeks once Zen3 actually hits shelves, or at minimum should have solid discounts on eBay from used chips as people upgrade.

The B550 and X570 are basically the same except:

-B550 is usually cheaper
-B550 often has slightly newer feature sets (WiFi 6 vs 5, for example)
-X570 will better support PCIe devices beyond the normal 1x GPU + 1x NVMe configuration, though unless you're doing high-end stuff it's not likely to matter

Basically, if you need to ask the question, you probably should go with B550.

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


DrDork posted:

3700X is good if you do more productivity things than gaming. If you do more gaming than productivity things, you'd probably be better off with the 5600X. Also consider that the 3700X may very well get a price cut in the next two weeks once Zen3 actually hits shelves, or at minimum should have solid discounts on eBay from used chips as people upgrade.

The B550 and X570 are basically the same except:

-B550 is usually cheaper
-B550 often has slightly newer feature sets (WiFi 6 vs 5, for example)
-X570 will better support PCIe devices beyond the normal 1x GPU + 1x NVMe configuration, though unless you're doing high-end stuff it's not likely to matter

Basically, if you need to ask the question, you probably should go with B550.

Thanks! My main goal is a SFF Gaming PC with that NZXT H1 Case that isn't extremely loud nor turn my room into a furnace.

Pegnose Pete
Apr 27, 2005

the future
When we say 1x nvme on B550 we mean at full speed right? Like could you have 1x pcie 4 and 1x pcie 3 without going up to X570?

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

Pegnose Pete posted:

When we say 1x nvme on B550 we mean at full speed right? Like could you have 1x pcie 4 and 1x pcie 3 without going up to X570?

With B550 you get:
1x dedicated PCIe 4.0 16x slot for a GPU
1x dedicated PCIe 4.0 4x slot for a NVMe
Some number of other PCIe slots (board dependent) that all effectively share a single PCIe 3.0 x4 link.

So a board could have, in addition to the two dedicated PCIe 4.0 slots, say another two 4x slots and a second NVMe slot. Those three slots (since NVMe is basically just a PCIe 4x slot with a different physical connector) would all share the bandwidth of the single PCIe 3.0 4x bridge link, which is 4GBps.

So if you just had another PCIe 3.0 NVMe drive, like a 970 or XPS 8200 and nothing else in those three slots, it'd run at "full speed" since that's all it's specced out for, anyhow. If you had two NVMe drives in those three slots, they'd be able to run at "full speed" independently, but if you tried to do stuff with them at the same time they'd fight each other for bandwidth. Same if you shoved a second GPU into the system as well as a second NVMe: they'd be fighting for bandwidth under load. Since there's no real point in SLI anymore, though, you're unlikely to ever be doing that. If you wanted a second PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive, like the new 7GBps Samsung 980 Pro's, you'd be limited to just 4GBps thanks to the downlink bandwidth limit. You'd also be sharing bandwidth with your NIC, any SATA devices, and some number of USB ports (you get 4x 10Gbps USB running on dedicated lines). So if you've got a whole lot of data transfer going on all at once, you can get limited. HOWEVER, to do that you'd need to be trying to use multiple high-speed NVMe drives at once, realistically.

Note that the above is independent of the "dedicated" GPU and NVMe slot, which would continue to operate at full speed regardless of what else you're doing.

A X570 switches the downlink from PCIe 3.0 x4 to PCIe 4.0 x4, effectively doubling the bandwidth. So now you could run two additional PCIe 3 NVMe drives, or a single newer (980 Pro, for example) PCIe 4 NVMe before you ran into bandwidth issues.

tl;dr, B550 you can do 1x GPU + 1x PICe 4.0 NVMe + 1x PCIe 3.0 NVMe and never know the difference. Anything more than that and you might notice some blocking.

DrDork fucked around with this message at 03:50 on Oct 27, 2020

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

Gabriel S. posted:

Thanks! My main goal is a SFF Gaming PC with that NZXT H1 Case that isn't extremely loud nor turn my room into a furnace.

Yeah, if you're going SFF B550 makes a lot of sense since you're highly unlikely to need the additional downlink bandwidth: you're basically just limiting yourself to a PCIe 3.0 NVMe secondary drive instead of a PCIe 4.0 one, and that's assuming the board even has a second NVMe slot in the first place. For a board with only one NVMe slot, there's literally no reason to get a X570, because you can't even utilize the one advantage it has over B550.

I'm building a SFF and ended up "having" to go X570 just because there literally are no mITX B550 boards with TB3 support :mad:

Pegnose Pete
Apr 27, 2005

the future

DrDork posted:

With B550 you get:
1x dedicated PCIe 4.0 16x slot for a GPU
1x dedicated PCIe 4.0 4x slot for a NVMe
Some number of other PCIe slots (board dependent) that all effectively share a single PCIe 3.0 x4 link.

So a board could have, in addition to the two dedicated PCIe 4.0 slots, say another two 4x slots and a second NVMe slot. Those three slots (since NVMe is basically just a PCIe 4x slot with a different physical connector) would all share the bandwidth of the single PCIe 3.0 4x bridge link, which is 4GBps.

So if you just had another PCIe 3.0 NVMe drive, like a 970 or XPS 8200 and nothing else in those three slots, it'd run at "full speed" since that's all it's specced out for, anyhow. If you had two NVMe drives in those three slots, they'd be able to run at "full speed" independently, but if you tried to do stuff with them at the same time they'd fight each other for bandwidth. Same if you shoved a second GPU into the system as well as a second NVMe: they'd be fighting for bandwidth under load. Since there's no real point in SLI anymore, though, you're unlikely to ever be doing that. If you wanted a second PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive, like the new 7GBps Samsung 980 Pro's, you'd be limited to just 4GBps thanks to the downlink bandwidth limit. You'd also be sharing bandwidth with your NIC, any SATA devices, and some number of USB ports (you get 4x 10Gbps USB running on dedicated lines). So if you've got a whole lot of data transfer going on all at once, you can get limited. HOWEVER, to do that you'd need to be trying to use multiple high-speed NVMe drives at once, realistically.

Note that the above is independent of the "dedicated" GPU and NVMe slot, which would continue to operate at full speed regardless of what else you're doing.

A X570 switches the downlink from PCIe 3.0 x4 to PCIe 4.0 x4, effectively doubling the bandwidth. So now you could run two additional PCIe 3 NVMe drives, or a single newer (980 Pro, for example) PCIe 4 NVMe before you ran into bandwidth issues.

tl;dr, B550 you can do 1x GPU + 1x PICe 4.0 NVMe + 1x PCIe 3.0 NVMe and never know the difference. Anything more than that and you might notice some blocking.

This makes a lot of sense, thank you!
My imaged use case is having 1 PCIe 4.0 GPU, potentially 1 PCIe 4.0 nvme, and 1 PCIe 3.0 nvme.
My plan is to get an SN550 now and use it a my main drive, then when PCIe 4.0 drives become cheaper in a year or two, upgrade and use the old SN550 in a second slot as just a media drive.

Parallelwoody
Apr 10, 2008


Can someone recommend me a specific board for an upcoming amd build when the new zen drops? I have 2 nvme drives, 3 or 4 sata ssds, 1 hard drive, and I plug a lot of usb poo poo in all at once. Not doing sli because it's dumb so it seems like I should still go for a B550 board based on the chatter from the past couple pages. Only other thing I can think of is that I'd like built in bluetooth. I'd like to keep it under $200 but I'm flexible, and I'm in the US.
Would that Asus tuf gaming mentioned a few posts up be the best choice?

Suburban Dad
Jan 10, 2007


Well what's attached to a leash that it made itself?
The punchline is the way that you've been fuckin' yourself




Parallelwoody posted:

Can someone recommend me a specific board for an upcoming amd build when the new zen drops? I have 2 nvme drives, 3 or 4 sata ssds, 1 hard drive, and I plug a lot of usb poo poo in all at once. Not doing sli because it's dumb so it seems like I should still go for a B550 board based on the chatter from the past couple pages. Only other thing I can think of is that I'd like built in bluetooth. I'd like to keep it under $200 but I'm flexible, and I'm in the US.
Would that Asus tuf gaming mentioned a few posts up be the best choice?

That Asus seems decent. Just make sure it has a bios flash button on the back if you don't have another ryzen CPU to flash the bios.

sean10mm
Jun 29, 2005

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World
I feel like the Tuf B550 is kind of mediocre for the price. The B550 Aorus Pro and B550M Mortar both have better specs for the same price, and if having better VRM/PCB don't matter to you (arguably they shouldn't for most people) then just get the B550M Bazooka or Pro-VDH WiFi or something.

MaxxBot
Oct 6, 2003

you could have clapped

you should have clapped!!

KingKapalone posted:

How I can I help a friend make this not overkill? The 3900X is a placeholder for a 5900X and he would also get a 3080. No monitor decision yet but I assume 1440p.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($439.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($189.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY ATX AM4 Motherboard ($299.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z Royal 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-4000 CL16 Memory
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($289.74 @ B&H)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P600S ATX Mid Tower Case ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($284.99 @ Corsair)
Total: $1654.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-26 18:00 EDT-0400

Maybe 5600X, air cooler, cheaper X570, 16GB DDR4-3600 or maybe 32GB, non Samsung SSD, don't know this case, and a 750W Gold PSU?

I just swapped out the bad value stuff with similar but better value stuff.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($439.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($147.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($249.99 @ Adorama)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P600S ATX Mid Tower Case ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ B&H)
Total: $1367.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-10-27 08:01 EDT-0400

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

sean10mm posted:

I feel like the Tuf B550 is kind of mediocre for the price. The B550 Aorus Pro and B550M Mortar both have better specs for the same price, and if having better VRM/PCB don't matter to you (arguably they shouldn't for most people) then just get the B550M Bazooka or Pro-VDH WiFi or something.

As far as I can tell, for the $30 extra the Aorus Pro costs, you move from 8+2 power to 12+2 power, Intel vs Realtek NIC (some people say the Realtek is the better choice), and BT 5.1. Of those, only including BT seems worth anything, and you could get a BT USB adapter for $10. But if you like the aesthetics of it, yeah, it's a decent choice, too.

The Mortar doesn't seem to have any features of note on the TUF, and seems harder to find on Amazon for some reason. I'm sure it's fine, though.

bus hustler
Mar 14, 2019

For whatever its worth I love my Aorus Pro Wifi and will be sticking a new Ryzen 5xxx in it when the BIOS update comes out for B450. A good motherboard generally just gets out of the way I guess and this one has been rock solid.

Something super nice is how easy it is to update BIOS & OC memory with Gigabyte boards, but that's only something I'm doing because I bought 2666MHz RAM, if you're buying new it's a non issue since you're buying the right speed to start with.

Jimbot
Jul 22, 2008

On the subject of the Zen 3 stuff, this will be the first CPU launch where I'm actually in the market for getting one. Which US retailer tends to be the best place to pick one up within the launch window?

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

Jimbot posted:

On the subject of the Zen 3 stuff, this will be the first CPU launch where I'm actually in the market for getting one. Which US retailer tends to be the best place to pick one up within the launch window?

Top five places are gonna be Amazon, NewEgg, Microcenter, BestBuy, and B&HPhoto, probably in that order. Microcenter as #1 if you're near a store and can be there in person.

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

Would you like to play a game?



IGN tested an RTX 3070, and they determined that the performance was on par or slightly above that of the RTX 2080 TI

https://www.ign.com/articles/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-review

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness
Yup. It'll be interesting to see what AMD has to say tomorrow, but for 2080Ti performance to now be obtainable in a $500 package (vs ~$1400) makes this an amazing time to be in the market for a new GPU.

Assuming you can actually buy one, at least.

Toxic Fart Syndrome
Jul 2, 2006

*hits A-THREAD-5*

Only 3.6 Roentgoons per hour ... not great, not terrible.




...the meter only goes to 3.6...

Pork Pro

FlamingLiberal posted:

IGN tested an RTX 3070, and they determined that the performance was on par or slightly above that of the RTX 2080 TI

https://www.ign.com/articles/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-review

30-60fps @ 4k with Ray Tracing on High.
:popeye:

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

Would you like to play a game?



If they are actually available I may just buy one instead of waiting for the 3080 to be in stock.

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hambeet
Sep 13, 2002

i'm excited for big navi, bring it on now!

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