Gaming in 2020 (new rig)

Started by endfire79, November 15, 2020, 10:37:36 PM

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endfire79

So after years of waiting, debating and procrastinating, I've finally updated my main PC gaming rig and built a new system.

Here's where I came from:

2009-2020

Intel Core 2 Quad 9550 (Yorkfield)
Asus P5N72-T Premium (Nvidia 780i Chipset, all USB 2.0)
8GB RAM (DDR2)
PNY GeForce GTX 760 TI (2GB)
Cooler Master H212 tower cpu fan/heatsink air cooler
SSD & HDD combo
27" 1080p/60hz monitors
Cooler Master CM690 ATX Mid-tower
Corsair 650W PSU (non modular)
Windows 7 Home OEM

Still runs well but I wasn't successful with the free update to Windows10 a few years back (system would just randomly hang).
Asus didn't seem to support Windows10 with this series of boards.  I might try to use a new SSD and attempt a fresh Windows10
installation later at some point. If that looks stable, then I can choose to purchase a license for it.


New 2020 rig:

AMD Ryzen 3600 (6 core processor, 12 threads with Hyper-Threading)
Asus X570 ROG Strix Gaming-E
32GB RAM DDR4-3200
MSI GTX 1660 Super Ventus OC (6GB).
Noctua NH-U12S dual tower CPU fan/heatsink air cooler
1x 500GB NVME SSD (used for O/S and anything I want to load fast)
2x SSD 1TB (Gaming, storage, movies, music)
1x HDD 3TB (storage for anything more important or long term, pictures)
Dell s3220dgf 32" 1440p 165hz and an HP 27" 1080p/60hz display
Phanteks Eclipse P600S ATX mid-tower case (black, no glass)
Corsair RM850X (850W) PSU (modular this time)
Windows10 Pro OEM
Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard (wired-USB) - you'll laugh at this but I got sick of the latency on my existing wireless keyboard after a while (as
well as the key feeling). I liked the look and feel of this one though. I checked out some mechanical keyboard offerings, but the key sound
was too loud (felt like it might wake my son up in the next room).
I still use a Wireless Logictech M705 mouse though


I went with AMD's Ryzen offering this time around after not being able to score some deals on existing Intel 9th and 8th gen CPUs and their motherboards
The Intel 9th/8th gen boards I checked out had some pretty crazy prices which I figure is either due to demand by overclockers or my lack of supply.
Since I never overclock CPUs, and then aftercomparing the reviews of the latest Intel 10th gen cpus and their prices, I decided to go Ryzen this time around.
I still got an aftermarket tower CPU heatsink/fan cooler though after hearing what the packaged Wraith Spire cooler sounded like online.   Most of the AM4 socket boards also support the whole
Ryzen range of CPUs which is a plus in my books - I can update to Ryzen 5000 after a year or two after their launch (when prices and supply make more sense hopefully).

I was worried due to an unfortunate incident decades ago when I went with a pre built AMD K6-2 based system and had problems that never ended.
PC tech has thankfully matured since then (and I learned to just build my own rigs after all that) and had no issues whatsoever. 

I splurged a little more on the case and motherboard this time around.  The case model was my favorite bit as it made
cable management a breeze, is very well made and solid and has pretty noise levels and airflow combined. My main priority was to avoid the RGB trend, and
, avoid breaking tempered glass doors, and a good combination of air flow & noise suppression if possible. The case supports both air and water cooling,
but I'm sticking with air cooling. 

The motherboard was nice in terms of features. In retrospec, I could have dialed back a bit and got one of the cheaper X570 offerings from Asus or MSI.
The extra features were mainly support for 2x NVME SSD, built in WIFI 6 support, and extra USB offerings (USB-C etc). 
Coming from 2009 tech, working with an UEFI BIOS is a breeze.  BIOS updates (and restores) are a breeze, along with fan control.

Installing Windows10 via USB was super fast (took less than 20 mins) on the NVME SSD I installed.  NVME is way faster than SATA, and the AM4
motherboards support PCIE 4.

For the GPU I went with the mid range GeForce GTX 1660 Super.  I'm still on 1080p displays for now and content for now (GPU prices for the higher end models are insane right now). That is until I see some sales on some nice 1440p displays.

I definitely had less time to invest in all this this time around (with a five year old to raise and entertain of course), but I was pretty happy spending a
few hours on the weekends to get up to date with the last few years of desktop pc technology.  There's such an abundance of video installation guides on
Youtube these days - unlike more than 10 years ago. 

Considering how this year has been going with the pandemic still running wild, I'm quite happy I can still do all this installation stuff with the little free time I have these days. I can finally get back into more recent PC game titles.  Last few years I just had some time for EUIV and Skyrim (I won't joke - it took me 9 years to finally finish Skyrim).

Cheers
"I will return before you can say 'antidisestablishmentarianism'."

"A man may fight for many things. His country, his principles, his friends. The glistening tear on the cheek of a golden child. But personally, I'd mud-wrestle my own mother for a ton of cash, an amusing clock and a sack of French porn."

endfire79

#1
d'oh - I've forgotten how this board works and all its controls - removing extra quote :)
"I will return before you can say 'antidisestablishmentarianism'."

"A man may fight for many things. His country, his principles, his friends. The glistening tear on the cheek of a golden child. But personally, I'd mud-wrestle my own mother for a ton of cash, an amusing clock and a sack of French porn."