Edit: Parts are ordered, though I ended up upgrading a couple of things. Original post is below.
Hello all,
To start, I’ve been building my own PC’s (friends and family’s too over the years) for 14 years now. I’ve done a ton of builds over the years, so I know my way around a computer. But I am less and less and less involved in the PC tech world as I’ve gotten older, so I’ve noticed that every new build that I do (ever 3-4 years or so) I’m further and further behind on the “latest and greatest” in tech. I’ve tried to do my research like always, but I need some extra insight. The one person who I’ve reached out to in RL took one look at my build and then insisted I should be spending a good $1,000 on super RGB/Overclock stuff (I don’t care about RGB, like at all).
I do have a rough draft for my build, which you can look at by clicking here. I appreciate any insight anybody can help me with here, if nothing else to ease my worried mind a bit. With that, here are my criteria’s, what I need help with, and what I intend to use this PC for and all that info:
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Nvidia and Intel only, I won’t be using AMD. I haven’t used AMD since I was still a teenager, and I’ve never EVER used a Radeon card. So even if you are a fan of either, you can argue until your face is blue, I won’t be changing my mind on this.
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I know next to nothing about CPU water cooling. I’ve been told that air cooling isn’t enough for the new i9’s. I really didn’t want to do water cooling, but I’m told that the new AIO’s are really easy to maintain, and are necessary for the latest and greatest. I do want to give it a modest OC (4.0, 4.25, 4.5 if I’m lucky), but I won’t be going insane 5.0ghz or anything like that. I always go corsair’s for my coolers, so I figured that was a reliable goto to start. I’m just not sure WHICH corsair I should be getting.
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The Case: I suck at picking out cases, like legit freaken suck. The one time I picked out a case I ended up falling in love with, it was a build for my uncle and Corsair no longer makes them (one of their Obsidian’s, and it was also super expensive). I need plenty of room to fit a I expect, rather large RTX 2080 ti (more on that in a sec), and I tend to also hate smaller Mid-Tower cases (prefer the Mid-Towers that are a bit on the larger size). The current case in the parts picker is more or less a placeholder, but I figure its “okay” if nothing else, but I honestly don’t know. I do want the case to be fully covered, as in no see-through side panels. I do not want RGB or care for it at all. This computer needs to go in a room where it needs to stay as dark as possible, as cool as possible, and as quiet as possible. Cooling is yet another thing I can’t seem to get my head around. I don’t really know what is best for fan set ups to keep things cool. Are the larger fans better, or lots of small fans? Does the case need a certain amount of fan mounts to be considered ideal?
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RTX 2080 TI I got my hands on a a Gigabyte 2080 TI, which will arrive early November. So good to go there!
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RAM: I would love to go 64 GB’s here, LOVE to, but the current price market on RAM is just insane. So 32 will have to do for now. The speed of the RAM is where I don’t really understand what to go for. I typically have just gone the slowest speed RAM and called it a day. Because several years ago, a computer store owner told me that RAM speed made almost no difference, at the time. Now my understanding is that RAM speed can and does make a difference, so I’m not really sure what’s best bang for your buck here. 3000 speed, 3200 speed? I don’t want top of the line (I can’t afford it), so something that makes sense. Corsair is the brand I always go with, but I’m out of the loop so I don’t really know if there are other good brands out here for this.
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Hard Drive Space: I’m really debating on how to approach this one. Right now, I have 3 TB"s on my current computer. 1 TB that is a typical Samsung EVO SSD, and 2 TB’s that are on 2 typical Western Digital HDD’s (Raid 0). I’m beyond full, and both my HDD’s are getting old (2011, Samsung is 2015). I know that I want an NVME for production stuff, Conan Stuff, OS stuff, and dev kit stuff. If I was made out of money, I would get nothing but huge NVME hard drives and be happy, but my budge has already ballooned as it is. So I’m think 512 is too little, and 1 TB is “just right.” Then get another 1 TB Samsung Evo and Raid 0 it with my older Samsung, and use my HDD"s until they die (my guess is another 3 years or so). Originally I was going to use my existing computer as a server, but as my budge ballooned, I am instead going to pick out the Hard Drives and maybe install a cheaper SSD after a few months or something. Not sure if I need help with this section, but if you have a thought on another idea, I’m all ears.
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OS: You can largely ignore this one, I’ll probably get it from a local computer store whose new owner just happens to be a friend of mine. Much cheaper options that way
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Power Supply: I always go with a high rated 1000 Watt, and then use it until it stops functioning. The one in my computer is from my 2011 build so it’s getting up there in age, so rather just get a new one here. I often will match the power supply with the case, though this probably isn’t a big deal. Corsair makes a great power supply though, and I’ve used this version of Power Supply in 3 different builds now.
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Motherboard: Wow, this year, I have no freaken clue what the difference is between all the Gigabyte Z390’s. I typically pick out the Gaming 7’s because that’s usually when they had the Creative Audio Chips on them, which I don’t see to be the case anymore. Gigabyte also changed the name from Gaming 7 to “Master”, and other’s to whatever else names. I honestly don’t know what I’m getting between the Master and the cheaper versions (other then build quality of parts, I’m sure). In this section, I need help picking out which Gigabyte Z390 to get, I won’t be purchasing any other board from another manufacture. I’m sure MSI makes a good board, but I just like my Gigabyte boards
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Speaking of Audio: I haven’t bought a dedicated sound card since 2011, which ended up going bad by the time 2015 rolled around. By then Gigabyte was installing creative sound chips directly into the boards, which was awesome to me. I’m not a sound geek, I just like at least above average quality of sound if I can. Creative Audio has always been a reliable source of that for me, so I’m really unsure if the on board audio will be enough with the new Z390’s. Should I be considering to go with a dedicated sound card again like the good ole days? If so, which one?
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Purpose: Conan Exiles (duh), so lots of gaming. I’ll probably host a solo server for myself off of it also (I’m hoping with a high end modern PC that hosting my own server and playing it off the same machine won’t be that big of a deal). I’m also into the development stuff. If you don’t already know, I’m a modder and have spent nearly double the hours in the dev kit as I have actually playing the game (I’m approaching 800 hours on dev kit time, and 400 hours or so of play time). What’s more though, I want to get more involved in 3D modeling and texture making. So these are things like texture baking and the like that are important to me (hence the i9 and not the i7, and the RTX 2080 ti). Yes, I’m aware that Quadro’s exist, I’m not made of money to have two computers so I can pursue a 3D modeling hobby. One will have to do
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Budget: Normally, I like to stay under $2500 for my builds, but because EVERYTHING costs more (for various reasons that I’m not going to get into), my budget will be around $3500.