Solved! Working from Home, Time to settle in

mike8675309

Senior member
Jul 17, 2013
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Working at home for at least another 6 months most of the time and want to be more comfortable.
I spend much of my time in Word, Excel, and then Visual Studio, VS Code, and then all over the cloud. GCP, GCS, Github, Cloud stuff. Then we have our virtual meetings. Have a work laptop but it doesn't have the power to handle all the above, plus run a MS Teams session without bringing things to a crawl. I use virtual desktops a lot, and want more screens, and more performance.

I want to build a machine to be my cloud workhorse (browser memory essentially), support local VM's for Kubernetes, or docker.
AND
Support my limited video editing and production for youtube. Not 4k video, just 1080 video maybe 2 times a month. I use DaVinci Resolve as my editing platform.
Essentially this build is replacing my current Latitude E5470 (personal machine currently doing video work on) and my Latitude E7470 (work machine) while I'm working from home.
AND
support 3 Monitors.
AND
Grandkids likely will want to play a game from time to time.

2. budget is $1,000-$1,200. Monitors are separate purchases.
3. I'm in Minnesota and have access to Microcenter.
4. Microcenter or otherwise online (Newegg, amazon) will be my sources
5. I have no brand preference, I'm most bang for the buck that meets my need. I may check that my video card can be optimized by my editing software.
https://www.richardlackey.com/the-best-gpu-davinci-resolve-nvidia-amd-2020/
6. I have a keyboard and a mouse and 1 monitor
7. No overclocking planned
8. I'll be using 3 2560 x 1440 monitors.
9. I Plan to acquire parts beginning of August and build before end of the month.
10. I'll need Windows 10
 
Solution
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dtQwBZ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($389.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken 3 50.79 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($131.65 @ Amazon)
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 5600 XT 6 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($259.99 @ B&H)
Case: Cougar MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case ($61.88 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12III 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($67.98 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus...

RLGL

Platinum Member
Jan 8, 2013
2,115
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I am also in MN, love Microcenter. I did a new build just before parts became scarce. I had some pieces on hand, still I spent about $1500 to get where I am at. Quite happy with the results. I use it for photo editing 3D CAD drawing and rendering.
The build:
Asrock X570 Taichi
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 3.9GHz
NZXT Kraken X62 280mm Water Cooling
Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32GB
EVGA RTX 2070
NZXT H510i Tempered Glass ATX Mid-Tower Case
960 EVO 500 GB "C" drive
2 ea 970 EVO 1T ssd
Logitech MX Master 3 Mouse
Logitech K 800 Keyboard

I had the RTX 2070, a power supply from EVGA 750W Supernova along with the 960 EVO and 1 970 EVO plus the KB and mouse. My monitor is an Acer Predator Z1 Z321QU.
 
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fralexandr

Platinum Member
Apr 26, 2007
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www.flickr.com
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dtQwBZ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($389.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken 3 50.79 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($131.65 @ Amazon)
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 5600 XT 6 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($259.99 @ B&H)
Case: Cougar MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case ($61.88 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12III 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($67.98 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AC55BT B1 PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter ($34.99 @ B&H)
Total: $1153.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-15 21:38 EDT-0400

don't know if you want a wifi card. You can drop that or add a DVD drive or Blu-ray Drive or a HDD or speakers.
if you want to save ~$100, you can drop the 3900x for a 3700x. Or you could use that $100 to upgrade your GPU to a 5700xt/2060 super/2070 or add more storage or something.

windows 10 pro 64-bit retail digital key $40

if you need speakers:
If you have the desk space, a pretty decent speaker set for ~$60 (They're BIG though at 11"x7"x7" each). promo code: pop7 for 7% off.

otherwise you can just get something cheap like the logitech z213
 
Last edited:
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Solution

mike8675309

Senior member
Jul 17, 2013
508
116
116
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm looking to avoid water cooling in this build to reduce the possible maintenance issues.
I hadn't thought about wifi, but yeah, that wouldn't hurt.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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mike8675309

Senior member
Jul 17, 2013
508
116
116
Starting to source parts. Wow, prices are volatile and many parts are not in stock. I forgot how much covid has impacted supply.
 

RLGL

Platinum Member
Jan 8, 2013
2,115
322
126
Starting to source parts. Wow, prices are volatile and many parts are not in stock. I forgot how much covid has impacted supply.

Covid may be a piece of the puzzle, don't forget about Trump's tariffs
 

mike8675309

Senior member
Jul 17, 2013
508
116
116
The system is built, Windows is installed, and here is the final list.
Turned out I didn't need the Wireless Network Adapter as the motherboard came with an m.2 intel wireless adapter installed even though all documentation about the motherboard said it wasn't included.
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($389.99 @ Microcenter)
  • CPU Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken 3 50.79 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.99 @ Microcenter)
  • Motherboard: ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($145.25 @ Amazon)
  • Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($109.99 @ Newegg)
  • Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($69.99 @ Microcenter)
  • Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
  • Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 5600 XT 6 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($279.99 @ Newegg)
  • Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Microcenter)
  • Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
  • Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AC55BT B1 PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter ($34.99 @ Newegg)
  • Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound AS5-3.5G ($6.99 @ Newegg)
Total system costs with TAX $1491.08
From the original list I added the 2TB of 7200rpm storage and the best value for power supplies just are not in stock so I went with a fully modular unit from Corsair.
Forgot windows from the list above. Picked up windows 10 pro for $30 from the link shared above.

Bonus items for buying these AMD devices at this time included some games.
With the Video Card I get: Godfall and World of Warcraft
With the CPU I get: Assassins Creed Valhalla
And I can sell the CPU cooler that came with the CPU to someone else.

Yet to pick up, one more case fan (case came with 2) and 2 more monitors. And I need to get a desk. I'll get a desk and case fan first, monitors can wait.