New Gaming PC Build Advice

Edited by daveyd - 14 Oct 2021 at 8:19pm

You will be able to upgrade a 1650 GPU at more reasonable prices whenever it begins to displease you.

The only issue I want to bring to your attention is that you propose to buy a CPU that is locked into PCIe Generation 3. Gen 4 has been out for almost two years at double the bandwidth. Intel has only just produced a line of CPUs that enable that newer standard, while AMD has now TWO generations of CPUs that enable that bandwidth. The Intel proc you want is an i5-11400 or 11600, but they are not yet available here.

The equivalent competitor to the 1100 series from AMD is the 5600X which you can get here. It is reasonably priced, and will allow you to have the latest chipset platform going forward. There are so many PCIe Gen 3 computers still out there, that Gen 4 parts have been slow to market during the shortages we've seen. I think it's obvious that will not be the case even a year from now, and you may not want to be locked into a tech that's growing more obsolete by the day.

Your links couldn't take me to a build, but here is my best guess at what you'd like with the AMD proc and PCIe 4:

https://www.digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=4044529

As you can see, it's a slight increase of about $50, but brings you into the 2020s. This modern platform will enable you to choose any upgrade part going forward without concern or regard to what platform it's for. Gen 4 parts will perform as they are designed instead of being gimped.

If you have any concern about the speed, effectiveness, or reliability of AMD parts, and especially this processor, just look at the reviews.   

If you wanted a better performer than this, get the Samsung 980 NVMe SSD for 5-9 times the speed of the SATA SSD. It's a gen 4 part, and amazes. Wait on a GPU upgrade.

Edited by Cretae - 19 Aug 2021 at 4:21am

I pointed out salient facts that might well be something for the OP to consider. Your points are not without merit, but your original reply didn't lay out the whole story. I've been doing this for years, and one of the uppermost motives for a poster asking for advice is to be sure they are getting what they think they are paying for. Facts are what they are. It's always up to the customer to decide what's important.

He doesn't seem to be much of an upgrader at the moment, but if that changes in 2 or 3 years, he has a seriously gimped platform at that point with a 10400F. I think that's something current buyers would want to know.

Originally posted by MrCheetah Ultimately, we get there. :)

Sorry I had to edit that, hoserator, I think that's what you meant to say. I had to clean it up a bit...   

Thanks for the feedback guys. 

If it wasn't a $200 jump to the 1660 I'd be more inclined to go with that.  For now even the 1650 is a bit of an upgrade for me (I've got a 1050ti). 

But I wonder if I might be better off trying to wait a few months before ordering.  I am not really in a huge rush.  If there's any chance of DS offering the 11400 in the near future and / or if the availability / price of GPU's might improve, then I wouldn't mind waiting until the end of the year or even early 2022. 

Otherwise the price of a AMD 5600X build isn't too bad right now.  Decisions, decisions. 










Edited by daveyd - 20 Aug 2021 at 7:59pm

@daveyd The biggest reason I even suggested looking at the 1660 was it actually has a notable performance difference ~50% increase. But yeah, the current price isn't good as with all graphics cards at this point.

Any who... As for waiting, I agree with @Cretae. Supposedly, Intel has some significantly improved consumer-level products on the horizon -- I normally lack excitement until a product launches. Of course, being able to wait for whatever's next is typically best, though not always possible.


@Cretae Thanks for the kind words.

Originally posted by Cretae Your depth of knowledge exceeds mine,

I try my best to be thorough, including research. I certainly don't know everything and do make mistakes -- never easy to own up to. :) Nevertheless, I'm okay with stepping aside at times. From what I've seen, you and several other regulars here have had much more recent hands-on experience than me, an invaluable knowledge. I have casually kept up with tech but skipped more than a decade assembling or owning a desktop/tower PC. Tech specs are only a portion of the picture. My last build was in the AMD Athlon series era, when ATI was still (although ending) in existence and Biostar was a popular/mainstream motherboard brand. For example, this year was the first I handled/used a multi-slot graphics card, and now I know why several people here strongly warned me a dual RTX 3090 config without liquid cooling was more of a pipe dream.

Basically, you (and others) have insights I don't, and I'm aware of it.


... Back to our scheduled program already in progress ...

Edited by MrCheetah - 21 Aug 2021 at 5:49am

Hey, been a few months and I'm thinking of buying it soon. Even though the 12th gen i5s are available now, I think I'm actually leaning towards the Ryzen now. 

So the build I have is https://www.digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=4217962

Still debating exactly what SSD to get. I think 1TB total storage will probably be plenty for me.

I guess my main question now is which OS to get win 10 or win 11.  I was inclined to get win 10 as I'm more familiar with it and I figure there may be some issues with the new OS that haven't been resolved yet. As I understand it win 10 users can upgrade for free so I could always do it myself later. Any thoughts?

Anything else you'd suggest I change?

Thanks.

IMHO the SSD you selected will be fine for you. Since you won't have a 980 PRO to compare, the 970 EVO PLUS will scream past any SATA SSD you've ever used.

Your build is quite good for your price range. You might take a look at the same thing in the Intel 12600K. Here's a comparison of the two procs:

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-12600K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-5600X/4120vs4084

And here's the same build you want with the Intel proc and an all-in-one liquid cooler:

https://www.digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=4218343

The only reason it's $9 more is I included the $19 TPM firmware activation Onkel_Ken suggested. So it's actually $10 cheaper even including the cooler upgrade.

For essentially the same price, I think the Intel is tough to beat. Your call.

As to WIN 10/11, I think you have a plan. The TPM upgrade is a good idea. WIN 10 will be supported until 2025. Be sure you are aware of any sunset on the free upgrade.

You just might consider an 850W PSU for either build, so you can be ready if your GPU needs get more ambitious. If that's not you, a 3060 Ti capability is not a bad place to be.

Hope it helps.

Originally posted by hoserator The reviews regarding W10 vs. 11 show that all the "trusted" security costs some performance as compared to W10. W11 is being compared to Vista and W8 and you know how good they were. I'm still running W7U and loving it. Have a system with W10 (home built) and not impressed and a laptop w/W11 and....its a laptop.

Yep I've been reading about that. It sounds like you can disable Virtualization-Based Security and there are supposed to be fixes on the way.  There's also an issue with Nvme SSDs being slower on Win 11 than they should. Apparently there's a patch for that one already... But reading about these things made me nervous about getting Win 11 now.

I do like Win 7 (it's what's still on my wife's ~10 year old PC). Windows 10 is fine IMO but I disabled Cortana. 

I even considered getting a Linux machine, but relatively few games I play ever get official Linux support, and those that do tend to get it much later than Windows. While I've been told most Windows games will run fine with Proton / Wine, even die-hard Linux gamers usually seem to recommend having a Windows partition for when games don't.. and if I can't avoid giving Microsoft ~$100, I figure why bother?


Edited by daveyd - 17 Dec 2021 at 9:45pm

daveyd,

Be sure that the motherboard will actually support the number of PCI slots needed since sometimes the size of one card may prevent the use of another PCI slot. I have a RTX 3080 that is so big that it prevents using the other big PCI slot since it would block the fans if it would fit at all. One of the small PCI slots is also blocked by the huge RTX 3080.

So instead of 3 small and 2 large PCI slots I have use of 1 each. I have them both in use so I am maxed out.

Having Bluetooth on the MB is nice. I use Bluetooth for my x-box controller when I play racing games.



Edited by Onkel_Ken - 17 May 2022 at 2:16pm

Originally posted by db188 see if they offer the Asus TUF B550M-Plus.  it's a more durable line.

Just FYI, you can also order the 12600K in a Slade build. In the Configurator, choose the Lumos and you'll have the option to change it to a Slade case. It is a significantly better CPU than the 5600X due to it's 6 faster performance cores, and the additional 4 efficiency cores. In that proc, you have 16 cores working for you, instead of 12, and it is actually the best bang-for-buck gaming CPU available. The "stock" motherboard DS recommends with that processor is already an upgrade from the base offerings. I think this combo offers you what you're looking for, and will have a longer effective lifespan. Then you can go either direction you want for CPU cooling.   

Edited by db188 - 25 May 2022 at 9:24am

Yeah, it's a shame that DS can't provide big air coolers like the Noctua models. I ordered a Velox last summer. Since I live near DS, and was going to pick up my computer in person, I was able to convince them to install a Noctua DS-15S. That cooler is nearly silent, and my CPU temps are amazing. I'll never go back to liquid cooling.

That being said, I understand why DS doesn't want to ship anything with a Noctua cooler. That's some significant weight attached to the CPU, and one giant bump during shipping could cause an issue. It would be awesome if DS could design some internal supports for a cooler like that. Then maybe they would be safe to ship. That sounds like some significant engineering work that ultimately might not help though. I understand their point of view.

The Lynx is a Digital Storm design and the Lumos is a Corsair Crystal series 570X.

db188 raises a possible real issue. When we started out, we weren't talking about a more recent CPU. For cost savings, the Lynx has better airflow than the Slade at just 8 bucks more. You can always decline the internal light strip, but you might be stuck with the fans. You could request stock fans if it's that important, and see what they say.   

Alright, I think I'm really going to go for it soon. I mean it this time

After looking at benchmarks, watching some videos, etc. I think I decided that I would be quite happy with an i5-12400. It is comparable to the 5600x I was considering but cheaper and it doesn't run as hot as the 12600 so DS considers the Air Cooling Stage 1 sufficient.

Now the big question is do I go with the level 1 aka "Good" Lynx prebuilt or do a custom Lynx build?

The prebuilt Lynx 1 price is hard to beat $1249 and it has an RTX 2060 which seems like it'd be a great card for me though I'm pretty sure I'd be happy with the GTX 1660 too.

The only things that make me hesitate are

1. Windows 11 - I was really hoping to go with 10 because some people seem to really hate 11. But at least according to this article if I really hate 11 there's a way to "downgrade" to win 10. I'm hoping this is (still) accurate.

2. Storage- only 500 GB SSD. I wanted at least a 1TB so I would likely plan to add another drive soon. Other downside as it's the Digital Storm brand so not quite as good quality as the Samsung; I'm more concerned about longevity than speed differences I'm not sure I'd notice anyway. 

3. Motherboard- DS can't tell me exactly what model or even chipset it would be since it varies based on what they had in stock.  But it sounds like probably a H610 or maybe a B660.  If it's the H610, then no PCI-e 4.0 but I guess that's not really a big deal to me.

But if I don't just go with the prebuilt then I would probably go with something like this: 4414175

So what do you guys think? Is the prebuilt a better buy?  If I do go with the prebuilt what kind of SSD / HDD do you think I should get for extra storage?  (Assuming I'll still want to run some games off of it). 

Again thanks for all the input so far. 


Edited by daveyd - 07 Jun 2022 at 9:27pm

Lynx 2 might be the best idea except the mobo has only one M.2 slot. To upgrade storage, you'd have to replace the DS NVMe M.2, or add a SATA SSD, keeping the NVMe just for your OS, fave apps, and a handful of games. You could rotate the games you're playing in and out of the NVMe, but most games will load pretty well from a SATA SSD, and they're getting cheaper by the minute. It does come with the faster proc and air cooling!

The rule of thumb is you want to build for gaming around the GPU, always. I agree with db188.