- Oct 23, 2000
- 9,188
- 753
- 126
Answers from the "sticky":
1. I'm looking to (finally) upgrade my very old main home PC. Primary uses are light gaming and heavy distributed computing (BOINC projects).
2. I'd really like to keep the budget around or below $800. Definitely need to keep it under $1000. I know that limits things, but it's all the boss (wife) will agree too. If she had her way, I wouldn't upgrade at all.
3. All parts will be purchased in the US.
5. Not a fanboy, but the Ryzen 3900x seems to be the best option for me right now to get as many fast CPU cores as possible on a limited budget for distributed computing projects.
6. Current PC is i7-3770, 32GB DDR3 RAM, 512GB Samsung EVO 850 SATA SSD, 2TB Western Digital HDD, EVGA GTX 1060, Corsair CX500 PSU, Corsair Carbide Air 540 case.
I'll be keeping the case, the SSD, the HDD, and the GTX 1060 (will probably upgrade the SSD to a cheap NVMe and maybe the GTX 1060 to something else eventually, but not any time soon). Might need to replace the PSU since it has two 6-pin PCIe connectors but only one 8-pin CPU connector and is only 500 watts.
7. Very light overclocking, if any at all. Not necessary, especially if running at stock will make it so the CX500 PSU will work.
8. 1080p light gaming
9. Want to build as soon as I sort out the best parts to get, but I can wait if price drops are expected in the near future.
10. No software really needed, but a 'discount' Windows 10 license could be useful to find in case my current license (upgraded to 10 from Windows 7) won't transfer.
These are my current thoughts on parts, but I'm not stuck on any of them except the Ryzen CPU:
CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X with Wraith Prism cooler: $450 from lots of places. Don't see it offered anywhere without the cooler. Microcenter has it for $399, but the closest one is about 800 miles away. I'd REALLY love to get the 3950X, but at almost twice the price it won't fit my budget.
Motherboard: Don't know. x570 is the best overall, but seem to all be well over $300. I've read that B450 boards are a good option for much lower cost for people who aren't using NVMe 4.0 drives (I won't be). A couple of sites recommended MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon (about $150).
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 3200MHz CL16 2x16GB - $147 and Crucial Ballistix 3600MHz CL16 2x16GB - $186 seem to be most recommended budget options, assuming they are on the QVL for the motherboard. 3600MHz is definitely preferred for my primary usage (distributed computing), but 3200MHz is fine if needed to fit the budget. I don't care about the color of the RAM, and definitely don't care if it has LED lights. Prefer not to have LEDs...
If the chosen motherboard has 4 RAM slots, then I can start with 2x8GB for now to save some money and get another 2x8GB later, but I will definitely want 32GB total eventually as some DC projects use a lot of RAM and I don't want to starve the 24 cores/threads of the CPU. If the board only has 2 slots, then I need to get 2x16GB right away.
PSU: If the current Corsair CX500 PSU will work, that's ideal as it leaves more of the $800 budget goal for RAM/motherboard. If not, then a good budget suggestion is appreciated. If the CX500 is borderline but will work short term, then I can get better RAM/Motherboard now and a better PSU later. I've run the build through several PSU calculators and all say that the system at 100% load will pull around 400 watts. I can also pull the 2TB HDD for a while if that will help make the CX500 work. The HDD just stores my movie collection so it doesn't necessarily have to be connected continuously.
1. I'm looking to (finally) upgrade my very old main home PC. Primary uses are light gaming and heavy distributed computing (BOINC projects).
2. I'd really like to keep the budget around or below $800. Definitely need to keep it under $1000. I know that limits things, but it's all the boss (wife) will agree too. If she had her way, I wouldn't upgrade at all.
3. All parts will be purchased in the US.
5. Not a fanboy, but the Ryzen 3900x seems to be the best option for me right now to get as many fast CPU cores as possible on a limited budget for distributed computing projects.
6. Current PC is i7-3770, 32GB DDR3 RAM, 512GB Samsung EVO 850 SATA SSD, 2TB Western Digital HDD, EVGA GTX 1060, Corsair CX500 PSU, Corsair Carbide Air 540 case.
I'll be keeping the case, the SSD, the HDD, and the GTX 1060 (will probably upgrade the SSD to a cheap NVMe and maybe the GTX 1060 to something else eventually, but not any time soon). Might need to replace the PSU since it has two 6-pin PCIe connectors but only one 8-pin CPU connector and is only 500 watts.
7. Very light overclocking, if any at all. Not necessary, especially if running at stock will make it so the CX500 PSU will work.
8. 1080p light gaming
9. Want to build as soon as I sort out the best parts to get, but I can wait if price drops are expected in the near future.
10. No software really needed, but a 'discount' Windows 10 license could be useful to find in case my current license (upgraded to 10 from Windows 7) won't transfer.
These are my current thoughts on parts, but I'm not stuck on any of them except the Ryzen CPU:
CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X with Wraith Prism cooler: $450 from lots of places. Don't see it offered anywhere without the cooler. Microcenter has it for $399, but the closest one is about 800 miles away. I'd REALLY love to get the 3950X, but at almost twice the price it won't fit my budget.
Motherboard: Don't know. x570 is the best overall, but seem to all be well over $300. I've read that B450 boards are a good option for much lower cost for people who aren't using NVMe 4.0 drives (I won't be). A couple of sites recommended MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon (about $150).
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 3200MHz CL16 2x16GB - $147 and Crucial Ballistix 3600MHz CL16 2x16GB - $186 seem to be most recommended budget options, assuming they are on the QVL for the motherboard. 3600MHz is definitely preferred for my primary usage (distributed computing), but 3200MHz is fine if needed to fit the budget. I don't care about the color of the RAM, and definitely don't care if it has LED lights. Prefer not to have LEDs...
If the chosen motherboard has 4 RAM slots, then I can start with 2x8GB for now to save some money and get another 2x8GB later, but I will definitely want 32GB total eventually as some DC projects use a lot of RAM and I don't want to starve the 24 cores/threads of the CPU. If the board only has 2 slots, then I need to get 2x16GB right away.
PSU: If the current Corsair CX500 PSU will work, that's ideal as it leaves more of the $800 budget goal for RAM/motherboard. If not, then a good budget suggestion is appreciated. If the CX500 is borderline but will work short term, then I can get better RAM/Motherboard now and a better PSU later. I've run the build through several PSU calculators and all say that the system at 100% load will pull around 400 watts. I can also pull the 2TB HDD for a while if that will help make the CX500 work. The HDD just stores my movie collection so it doesn't necessarily have to be connected continuously.
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