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Hauki
May 11, 2010


alright, my system is getting kinda dated, and while it still does everything I need it to, it’s been a while and I’ve got a newish 144hz 1440p 27” monitor and it’s struggling a bit on some more resource-intensive games. I also use occasionally it for some basic rendering & modeling tasks for work. Obviously this isn’t urgent, if it’s worth waiting a bit.

I’m “at work,” so some of the details are fuzzy but my current sys is something like a q6600 with a decent oc, couple newish samsung ssds, 4gb ram, an evga gtx760(?) in whatever base lian li matx case & whatever older gen rated 550w psu (I think evga or corsair?).

I’d like to reuse the case, ssds, monitor, peripherals... how bad of an idea is it to try to reuse that same psu? I ask because I’m trying both to keep budget down & to get things locally through microcenter & their PSU stock looks absolutely dire right now. Don’t have a hard budget per se, but aiming to keep total spend ~$800 or less.

In any case, I’m looking at the following right now, based on skimming others’ recommendations:

AMD Ryzen 5 3600x w/ ASRock - B450M Pro4 bundle - $259.98
https://www.microcenter.com/product/5003875/-amd-ryzen-5-3600x-with-wraith-spire-cooler,-asrock-b450m-pro4,-cpu---motherboard-bundle

RAM - no firm ideas here, there’s some G-Skill & Corsair ddr4-3200 16gb packs that look decently reviewed/priced.
This, maybe? - $91.99

GPU - again, undecided. Would definitely like to keep it <$400. There’s a few 5700XTs in stock locally that meet this requirement, a couple 2060s and a bunch of older generation stuff. I still can’t parse out the difference between various models within the same manufacturer & chipset. The only upcoming game on my radar right now is cyberpunk.

PSU - see at top

Anything else I should be aware of? How is the stock fan on the 3600x?

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Hauki
May 11, 2010


Hauki posted:

for reference

Alright, I was embarassingly wrong in my memory of my current system, but I did some more reading in any case and here's the new plan with (pretax) prices based on local pickup at Microcenter & using what I have where I can:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($159.99)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 74.34 CFM CPU Cooler ($19.99)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($69.99)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB CHALLENGER D OC Video Card ($359.99)
Case: Nanoxia Deep Silence 4 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (Purchased For $0.00)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 450 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $0.00)
Monitor: AOC CQ27G1 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor (Purchased For $0.00)
Total: $669.95

CPU Cooler - that one was recommended by a couple places and a friend, I'm mostly swapping it for noise purposes, but I don't know if that's entirely necessary? I've read some good & some bad about AMD's current stock cooling.
For what it's worth, my current system has a Phanteks PH-TC12DX_BL and I don't really want to get louder.

RAM - that's just the like, the cheapest/most popular 16gb pack with those specs that I saw - they have a ton of stuff in stock/on sale right now. Is this fine or should I replace it with something else?

Video Card: I'm of two minds here, one is just get the (cheapest) 5700 XT as linked above, the other is get like an EVGA 1660 Super or whatever and try to do their upgrade thing, but that only saves like $100 now, and I don't know when I'd be willing to upgrade or how much I'd want to spend to do so. Are 2060s etc. worth looking at if they're roughly in the same price range as the 5700 XT?

Case: yeah, it's smallish, but I'm preeeetty sure everything fits based on some quick measurements & what's in there now. I need to measure the video card length again.

PSU: this has a few years on it, but like...gold+ are barely in stock anywhere and are like twice what I paid for that one now. Oh, also it's actually this model which I couldn't find on pcpartpicker.

Anything else wrong with the build or worth noting?

Hauki fucked around with this message at 02:47 on May 29, 2020

Hauki
May 11, 2010


Klyith posted:

CPU cooler: AMD stock are adequate for cooling but not for noise. That deepcool gammax is at least good for keeping the CPU quiet at idle and won't have the fan rev up and down all the time like the stock one. It shouldn't be louder than your phanteks. * = I dunno what fan the deepcool has, if it has high RPM you might need to lower the fan curve to be as quiet as the phanteks.

If you want your CPU fan to be quiet even when playing games or loaded, you would need to step up to a Scythe Mugen 5 Rev B or basic Noctua.

RAM - other people ITT have gotten that and it's worked with ryzens, it's not on mobo QVLs because it's a pretty new kit.

Video Card - a 5700XT solidly outperforms a 2060S. It's a relative tie with a 2070S in fact, but no raytrace. The EVGA upgrade thing has always seemed like a bad rent-to-own scheme to me, but I always go at least every other generation with video cards so it's very much not for me.

Case: if you remove the middle HD cages I'd think any GPU would fit. You should do that anyways for less air constriction.

PSU: certainly has some years left on it, but maybe look up when you bought it and mark the 10 year anniversary as "replace PSU this year"

Cheers, thanks. A better/quieter fan is kinda tempting, but both of those appear to be out of stock or hilariously gouged right now, are there others I should keep an eye out for?

Yeah, I think there’s only one cage in there right now - that card is about 1.5” longer than my current one, but a PowerColor 5700XT went on sale this morning for a similar price, and it’s actually (fractionally) smaller than my current card - any reason to prefer one over the other?

Gotcha, PSU looks like it’s about 4.5 years old now I think.

Hauki
May 11, 2010


Klyith posted:

The powercooler is one of the best 5700s, def grab that.

Uh, from what coolers are in stock, you'd have to go all the way up to a noctua U14S or bequiet dark rock -- both of qhich are very good and I'd consider a worthy investment, because you'll be able to use them again in your next build.

Sweet, alright. I was glancing at the dark rock last night already - is it worth stapling a second fan to it since it only comes with one stock, or is that unnecessary? Or is that just the difference between the dark rock 4 and the dark rock 4 pro?

Hauki
May 11, 2010


kinda kicking myself for this matx case because there's a powercolor 5700xt red devil on sale now locally for $370, but having just measured internals I think there's a very good chance it would hit the lower hdd cage too

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Hauki
May 11, 2010


Klyith posted:

If you removed both HD cages as shown in this review it would definitely fit. Do you have more than 2 HDDs?

I have 3 actually, although one’s just a backup and not really an ideal one at that. Looks like it’s gone now in any case though.

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