Opinions on a build

[Voeille]

Here's my build I ordered on the 17th:

Case	PCS SR-819 RGB FULL TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)	Intel® Core™ i9 10 Core Processor i9-10900X (3.7GHz) 19.25MB Cache
Motherboard	ASUS® ROG STRIX X299-E GAMING II: ATX, USB 3.2, SATA 6 GB/s, Wi-Fi AC - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)	64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card	10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080
1st Storage Drive	8TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 256MB CACHE Partitions: 4000GB, 4000GB
1st M.2 SSD Drive	1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W) Partitions: 200GB, 800GB
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply	CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable	1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling	Corsair H80i V2 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste	STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans	2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card	Asus Xonar SE 5.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card
Wireless/Wired Networking	WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0

I'd be open to any amendments, however I'd rather not cancel and start over (switching to AMD would require that as far as I know as that's the core of the build — I know it's usually considered a better option, but I wanted to give Intel a chance in a powerful build).

Edit: A bit of a late edit but I completely forgot to include the configurable link!

 

[Voeille]

So you're suggesting ditching the sound card altogether? I'm not a lot into audio so as long as it's decent I'll be fine — I don't know much about hardware so I genuinely thought you need a separate one. Just in case though — if the board audio does sound bad, how hard would it be for a newbie to buy one separately and install it? My only experience with PC building was adding some RAM with my dad when I was at school, so yeah...

One question about amending my order — would it slow things down if it's still in pre-production? My guess is no as I'm still waiting for the 3080, and interestingly, removing the sound card and switching the cooler to H115i ends up with no price change altogether.

Case: is the noise the only problem, or does that case not have a good airflow? I do like the look of it and noise isn't a big deal, so if there would be no overheating issues caused by that case, I'd keep it. If not, which one would you recommend?

As for the usage, I'd like this PC to run virtually any game with good framerate, no matter if I'm playing something over a decade old, or newer titles I might buy in the coming years. Other things I'm doing is modding, which involves mostly texture work in Photoshop, and recently in Substance Designer. At work I'm using a Mac from the office (working from home these days), and when I get the PC I'd like to try it, however given that I work as a web dev, it won't really make a difference as I don't need peak performance to run some JS or 3080 to watch a button animate
I was advised in a different thread to not buy a 4K 60Hz monitor as 144Hz will make a huge difference, so most likely I'll get one late this year or very early in 2021. I'm going to use it in a two monitor setup with a standard 1080p one for older games and apps that wouldn't scale nicely (and given that my setup is in bed [no gaming chair could ever be as comfortable as lying down!], it's handy to have a small lightweight monitor mounted on an adjustable arm; the 4K one will be placed on a table and adjusted to give me a good viewing angle).

 

[SpyderTracks]

I would cancel that build in its entirety, it’s on entirely the wrong platform, X299 is extremely expensive but outdated, generally you’ll get much better value out of an AMD build.

 

[Voeille]

My main concern with cancelling is that I'd lose my spot in the queue for the 3080, or would it be possible to talk to support and keep it? I wouldn't mind waiting a little bit longer, however if the difference is going to be months, then I'd rather stay with X299 unless it's a really bad and not future proof investment? I'd like this PC to serve me well for a long time.

In any case, here's what I came up with for a similar price using the AMD configurator:

Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 16 Core CPU (3.5GHz-4.7GHz/73MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080
1st Storage Drive
8TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W AX SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® TITANIUM
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i PRO Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0

Configurable link

 

[SpyderTracks]

You can try phoning PCS to see if they'd keep your place in the queue.

The below is of what''s availble now, but there are new AMD processor being released on 5th November which will be a significant upgrade, I would swap out the CPU for the 5950x when it's available.

This would be significantly better balanced:

Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 16 Core CPU (3.5GHz-4.7GHz/73MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080
1st Storage Drive
8TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 256MB CACHE
1st Storage Drive
256GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (500MB/R, 400MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Price: £3,153.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/n2zn00ef5z/

 

[Crizzy G]

I'd agree with @SpyderTracks. The queue for the 3080 is so big it prob wouldnt make much of a difference.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Sorry, edited above build a bit to include scratch drive.

 

[Voeille]

I'll try to contact them (via email first, I prefer written communication even if it means waiting a little longer) and see what they tell me.

A few details though:
1. I'm set on 64 GB RAM, I have 16 in both my old laptop (upgraded from 8 a couple of years ago) and work Mac and I'm really often running out. Even just Substance Designer can eat a large chunk out of it, so I just want an overkill really.
2. How much different are the 3900XT and 3950X CPUs with respect to performance? If it's significant, I'd go with 3950 as a little bit over 3K is still fine budget-wise. If not then I'd definitely go for the cheaper one (and get my 4K screen sooner!).
3. What is a scratch drive used for? Do you just use it to allocate virtual memory on it, or am I misunderstanding it completely (sorry if it sounds stupid — I'm a complete hardware noob).
4. Isn't a 1000W PSU recommended for the 3080?

Thanks for the advice to all of you!

 

[Deleted member 17413]

I thought it was 850w for the 3080? 750w for the 3070?
Maybe its the 3090 (Titan replacement) thats 1000w?

 

[SpyderTracks]

I thought it was 850w for the 3080? 750w for the 3070?
Maybe its the 3090 (Titan replacement) thats 1000w?

850W will be fine for the 3080

I'd edited the build if you look again.

The scratch drive is for when the system runs low on memory, it will offload some to the scratch drive, greatly improves rendering times. If you're saying 64Gb is required, you can guarantee it will need more than that, scratch drive is a must on any kind of texture rendering.

 

[Voeille]

Thanks! I thought about it more and decided to downgrade the hard drive to 4TB — 8TB is a big overkill, and if I do ever run out, I can always buy an extra one in the future (at least the configurator allows to add a 3rd and a 4th hard drive, so there must be space for it).

I emailed the support, will post here what they say in case anyone else considers switching a platform (I wish their configurator allowed for more thorough amendments, however then it'd make things a lot more complicated for them as they check compatibility).

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks! I thought about it more and decided to downgrade the hard drive to 4TB — 8TB is a big overkill, and if I do ever run out, I can always buy an extra one in the future (at least the configurator allows to add a 3rd and a 4th hard drive, so there must be space for it).

I emailed the support, will post here what they say in case anyone else considers switching a platform (I wish their configurator allowed for more thorough amendments, however then it'd make things a lot more complicated for them as they check compatibility).

The reason you can't swap from AMD to Intel is it's an entirely different build, normally you'd cancel and redo it.

 

[Voeille]

We'll see what they say in the email, I think it's reasonable to expect a reply by Wednesday (at least they were relatively quickly responding to my 3080 questions).

In case they can't hold my spot in the queue, I amended the Intel build to be up to date with the tweaks to the AMD one (mainly the drives and cooler):

Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 10 Core Processor i9-10900X (3.7GHz) 19.25MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X299-E GAMING II: ATX, USB 3.2, SATA 6 GB/s, Wi-Fi AC - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080
1st Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
1st Storage Drive
256GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (500MB/R, 400MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i PRO Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0

Configurable link

I had to get rid of that 4 fan case I had before as it turned out to be incompatible with the newer processor cooler (shame as I did really like the looks, however the Obsidian case is nice too), and interestingly, that case is not an option to choose any more. Perhaps they stopped producing them?

And by the way, this is what I'm upgrading from:
Intel i7-4710HQ 2.5 GHz (4 physical cores) with Intel HD Graphics 4600
NVidia GeForce GTX 860M 4 GB
16 GB RAM
I got this laptop in spring 2014, and it might be just my mindset (I have been thinking about getting a new desktop for a while now, planned to order in summer but was advised to wait for the RTX 3080 as that's both better price and performance), but it feels like it's getting slower and slower each month.

 

[Deleted member 17413]

When was the last time you did a complete fresh install of windows?

 

[SpyderTracks]

When was the last time you did a complete fresh install of windows?

And a clean and repaste.

 

[Voeille]

Never did a fully clean install, I only did a 'soft' one few times with keeping all the programs and files when the windows update broke, so my install is... let's go with not ideal. The only time I opened it was to add more RAM a few years ago. Another problem started (I think) early this year with the screen hinge breaking, so the only thing keeping it together now is duct tape and card attached to a wooden board (now I'm using a separate screen, keyboard and mouse to avoid further damage). So yeah I wasn't doing a good job at maintaining it and I'm glad it survived without any big issues (minus the screen) as long as it did. I don't think I've ever had overheating issues. It's not exactly this model, but it's fairly similar.

I'd like my new PC to last longer than that — ideally 3-4 years without upgrades and about a decade with swapping a few parts. How often would it be good to open it up and clean? And speaking about being future-proof, how worth would it be to cancel my order regardless or the queue spot in order to swap for AMD? If it's going to last about a decade, getting it 2-3 months later is relatively not that much, especialy it's going to make a significant difference in the long term. The laptop should survive until then, especially given that I'm not using it that much recently (spending most of my gaming time on Switch instead until I get the new PC).

 

[SpyderTracks]

how worth would it be to cancel my order regardless or the queue spot in order to swap for AMD? If it's going to last about a decade

It would be absolutely crazy not to, you'd be paying a premium for a 5 year old defunct platform that has no upgrade potential over a brand new platform that has huge upgrade potential and better performance at a lesser cost. Can't put it any simpler than that, Intel is really really really poor by todays standards, they're years out of date.

Any well built PC will last 7 - 10 years with one or 2 GPU upgrades in that time.

 

[Scott]

I can't even begin to explain how bad the X299 platform is. It wasn't even that good when it was new to be honest.

Even if absolutely stuck on Intel you wouldn't choose the X299 as the base, it's completely redundant and closed completely to CPU upgrades in the future.

Cancelling is the right thing to do regardless of the 3080 scenario. You would be kicking yourself for the sake of a GPU. If they can transfer it without any issues then that's a bonus, but I wouldn't hold onto a poor choice of build to keep your place in line for a GPU.

 

[Voeille]

In that case I will cancel then, but I will wait for the reply to my email — perhaps I will be able switch without too much of a delay. I admit, my build was a bit of a last minute decision — until the evening of the 17th I was still considering getting 3090 instead, but then realised 3080 will be more than enough, and it was already available, so I ordered quickly without doing a proper research (I foolishly assumed there wasn't a big of a difference between platforms, and I've always had an Intel CPU...). I'm glad I asked for advice here, I'd rather pay for my mistake with a longer wait than with a build with no future potential. Thank you all a lot, you just saved me a lot of money.

 

[Scott]

Always worthwhile posting up before hitting the order button. That way you can have confidence that you're getting everything spot on for your uses