Returned the prebuilt and decided to build my own. How'd I do?

Off-Topic Games, Gaming and Hardware
1

Hello all,

My saga with a gaming PC continues. I had bought the PowerSpec G358 from micro center however I decided to return it. It worked good (although it crashed every once in a while), however, I decided that I wanted to build my own. I went into Micro Center today and this is what I got/the salesman helped me with.

Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F GAM WIFI
Computer Case: NZXT H510 ELITE WHT TG RGB MT (I know it’s not the best, I went for aesthetics here)
Motherboard Chipset: AMD B550

CPU Summary: AMD RYZEN 7 3700X
RAM: G.SKILL 16GB 2X8GB DDR4 3200 KIT
SSD: SAMSUNG E 1TB 970EVO+ NVME M.2 SSD
GPU: EVGA RTX2070 SUPER XC DUAL 8GB
Power Supply: SEASONIC FOCUS+ 850W 80+G FM ATX

Operating system: Windows 10 Home

Total cost: $1,728 (I got a bit of a first responder discount)

Couple things: EVGA has a step-up program so it sounds like I will be able to step up to the 3070 for basically 0 dollars when it is released next month. Also, the 3070 requires a 850w power supply which is why I went with that one (or how the salesman convinced me).

So yes, thoughts on this? Micro center has a good return policy which is why I felt comfortable getting it, but I want to see what others think.

2

Looks good - some things I would have changed

1 - I probably would have gone with 3600mhz CL16 RAM, but 3200mhz is okay.
2 - I probably wouldn’t have gone with the 970 EVO+ NVME because it’s so expensive - that said the new RTX IO seems compelling and this drive would suit it when the application allows it. So this could be a smart move.
3 - I probably would not have got an RTX card today. If the EVGA lets you upgrade without any extra cost, then that’s not a bad idea.

3

Thanks for the reply!

1.) What benefits are there from the 3600mhz compared with 3200mhz? From my quick review it looks like there isn’t a huge difference between them, but again I don’t know what I’m talking about.

2.) wondering if you are opposed to the 970 line in general or just the 970+? Micro Center was running a deal so it was $55 off when paired with other things. The 970 was $170 while the 970+ was $175.

3.) when he was initially telling me about the new graphics cards that are coming out this/next month I thought “welp I should probably wait”. Then he told me about EVGAs program where you have 90 days to upgrade a gpu and only pay the difference + shipping. Since I payed about ~$550 for the 2070s I should be able to get the 3070 for close to $0. He was saying that it was better than the 2080ti which is like $1200+! Crazy how much technology advances/cheapens.

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  1. It’s a bit faster, and generally speaking it’s worth it to get 3600 over 3200 if you have neither, but not worth upgrading if you already had 3200.

  2. I’m not opposed to it specifically, it’s just that fast pcie4 drives don’t (yet) offer a real benefit for gamers over less expensive qlc drives. The new RTX IO may change that, and that’s available on both 2000 and 3000 series gpus.

  3. I would look I to this more to make sure it’s true, it sounds right but I don’t usually buy evga gpus. It’s possible that you may not get a 3070/3080 due to supply issues within 3 months and you’re limited to evga units for their promotion. If you do get stuck, then your $500 2070 super will be a hard pill to swallow when rtx 3070 costs the same and gives performance greater than a 2080ti

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From what I’ve seen (mainly GamersNexus videos) the benefit of a 3600 kit vs. a good 3200 kit is minimal, even with Ryzen. If that’s true I think the choice between the two would come down to price for me.

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Even if its minimal, I’d still get it. Cost between them is like $15, and $30 on a more expensive kit.

If it’s choosing between upgrading from existing 3000, then no. But initial purchase, absolutely.

I wouldn’t want to make such a small concession for potentially hamstringing myself if future software applications need more memory bandwidth.

In some games, there’s a not-insignificant difference between the cheap 3200mhz CL16 (which is what we’re talking about here, since 3200mhz CL14 is more expensive) and 3600mhz CL16.

In some games, it’s only a few %, but in others, like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the difference between cheap 3200/16 and 3600/16 is as much as 16%+.

And if you are comparing the cost of +/- $20-30 on memory for a 16% difference, that’s almost as big of a delta between an RTX 2060 Super and an RTX 2070 super, which is almost an entire tier of GPU.

Small price to pay, IMO, to not get stuck.

7

Ahh ok, that’s where the difference lies. The 3200Mhz kit I advised a friend to get was the CL14 3200Mhz kit linked in the article for that exact video, not just any 3200Mhz kit.

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Yeah most of the cheap 3200mhz kits are cl16 sk hynix, around $65.

You can get a 3600mhz cl16 kit for $75, which is still skhynix iirc, but still i think offers a good value for such a small price bump.

The more expensive TridentZ 3600/cl16 is around $105, which is a $40 bump more or less but if you get gains of 10% or more, that $40 is pretty inexpensive cost/frame when you are looking at diminishing returns of other components.

Like i’d get this

https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820232194?Description=3600%20cl16%20trident&cm_re=3600_cl16%20trident-_-20-232-194-_-Product

over

https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820231941?Description=3200%20cl16&cm_re=3200_cl16-_-20-231-941-_-Product&quicklink=true

twice the cost but faster and lower latency, and even though as a percentage its high, it’s a teeny tiny overall system cost percentage.

Or this is a good cheap 3600cl16 kit

https://www.newegg.com/ballistix-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820164195?Description=3600%20cl16&cm_re=3600_cl16-_-20-164-195-_-Product