Hyperstrike Posted September 11, 2020 Posted September 11, 2020 Okay, my current rig is QUITE serviceable. But it's getting long in the tooth (coming up on it's 10th anniversary). It's an old i7 970 (Hex-Core, 3.2Ghz, Hyperthreading) It's essentially maxed on RAM (24 Gigs) 500GB SSD 2x1TB 7200 RPM Western Digital RE drives. 1x6TB HGST Deskstar NAS drive Formerly a 300GB 15,000 RPM (not a typo) Serial-Attached SCSI drive. (Has since failed.) So, looking at a new rig. Self-built again, because everything out of the major vendors is a locked-in rip-off. I could drop 2 large on an Alienware box. But I'd be horrendously disk-space-limited. Please keep in mind that my rig is PRIMARILY a WORKING computer with some gamer hardware in it. Otherwise I'd simply get a board, memory, CPU, a new SSD, liquid cooler, save a butt-ton of money and call it done. I'd be reusing my Thermaltake Core X9 case. An older version of this one. I'd be reusing my 3x U2718Q Monitors. I'll be reusing my RTX2060 as well. It's only about a year-ish old. Most of my system fans would remain the same (have a brand new replacement fan for the big 200mm system fan up front. I will probably also move over the 500GB SSD (and an identical brother), as well as the 6TB HGST. I won't be going hard-wire Optical drive on this one. So that frees up several SATA slots. I'll need to inspect it, but my Seasonic power supply may just stay where it is too. It was OP for the system to begin with. Going to be crossing the tracks too (unless Intel prices come WAY down). Ryzen 7 3800XT (8 core w/ Hyperthreading, 3.9Ghz base clock with a maximum boost clock of 4.7Ghz)No, this is not the top of the line for Ryzen 7, or even the Ryzen line. I COULD spring for a Threadripper 3990x and a sTRX4 board. But I can't really JUSTIFY that kind of expenditure for edge-case performance. The 3800XT (right now) sits at kinda the sweet spot of price and performance. Initially spec'ed a Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master. But I'm thinking about spending the extra money to get the X570 Aorus Master board instead. 32GB of RAM (Gimme 6 months and I'll probably bump it to 64...) 2TB PCI-E SSD (This is a BIT iffy, and kinda a splurge. My current SATA SSD is 500GB and is just over half full. I MAY back down to a 1TB to economize. I'll still have the two 500TB SATA drives if I want fast storage for things like instant reboot VMs. I'm going to be liquid cooling the CPU again as well. I sit right next to the thing. A small susurus of 140mm fans isn't a terrible thing. But some giant HSF would bite crank. My NZXT Kraken X61 (dual 140mm) is getting long in the tooth. So I'll be trading out for the Kraken X63. The X61's successor. Slightly larger, thicker radiator, more efficient pump, better cooling. Wish I could get a 420mm (3x140mm) setup, as my case can readily support it. But I'd have to custom-build my own solution. 4x 6TB WDC Red Pro drives. I have 7TB of NAS storage already. And it isn't really responsive enough for some of what I need to do (wouldn't run a VM off it to save my life.) So, mass local storage. Here's the initial build I did on Newegg.https://secure.newegg.com/wishlist/sd/Is8UVAhGAEowd1ZGJ4daVg== Here's a nearly identical build I put together over on Amazon. (Went with a slightly better motherboard. Was limited by Amazon to 3 drives. May order 2 from Newegg and 2 from Amazon (price is identical), just to make sure the drives aren't all same-batch)https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/E2NC0ENP9DNV Please note the component list may drift a bit too, depending on CPU and memory pricing around the time of purchase. I may, also, make a trip to my local MicroCenter. Because if I can get the CPU/Motherboard combo THERE, it'll almost certainly be cheaper. Not the board I WANT. But a $470 for a set of components that'd cost me $540 elsewhere? They even have a bundle that's the board I want, a 3900X (more cores, 3.8-4.6Ghz) for $894 (individual component prices, $959). We'll see what prices do. I'll check again around Black Friday. If the prices aren't SIGNIFICANTLY better, I'll check again on Boxing Day (Dec 26). Any questions? Comments? Criticisms? Have at please! If you want to be godlike, pick anything. If you want to be GOD, pick a TANK!
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