Hey there computer building pals!

I lost my last computer in a flood. I'm now looking to build a new one that'll run like a beast for some time.

I'm looking for some opinions on the below build. It's probably more than I actually need, but that's fine with me. Are there any obvious issues I may run into, or are there ways I can save money without losing performance?

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bGMYV6

General info below:
Budget: $2,500ish
More specific use (what games, what programs): VR games, FPS, MMO, excel, light rendering (not a priority), etc
Planned time until purchase: Soon
Do you need an Operating System?: No
Do you have any specific preferred components?: Wifi mobo
Do you need a sound or wireless card?: No
Do you want stock cooling or do you plan on overclocking?: Yes I'll be overclocking, but nothing insane.
Do you need a monitor? mouse? keyboard?: No
Are you planning to use multiple monitors? Likely 2 monitors + TV + VR headset if you want to count that
Are you looking for upgrade-ability? Looking to make this pretty future proof
Do you have any preferred brands? No
Can you reuse any components from an older build? No. As stated above, previous computer was caught hanging out with his friends in 6ft of flood water

3tb drives have high failure rate, get 2tb or spring for 4tb.

Which VR headset are you going to use? Which resolution are we talking?

- buy a different brand Z390 mainboard. Go with Gigabyte to save some $$ and get better VRMs.

- or go AMD on the CPU, because a 9900k is oversized when 99% of the time your 2080ti or your headset's Refresh Rate will bottleneck anyway

- ADATA SX8200 Pro >> Samsung 970 Evo

This post was edited by MindlessSpam on Jul 26 2019 01:52am

2080t not worth the price

save the 500bux and spend it
elsewhere
rgb chair man

May be worthy of the scorpion chair

Easy enough

The HTC Vive Pro headset, 1440p

I'll look into Gigabyte. I just wasn't sure of the actual tradeoffs between the different models.

As for the CPU I'm not 100% set on intel. I've always used AMD in the past, but I figured to try it out since the 3000 series wasn't quite as close as I had wanted it to be on the benchmarks.

I'll also look into that SSD. Haven't heard of it before.

I'm aware the 2080ti is a bit much, but that's one of the things I'm set on having in this build. I've got a comfy chair for the time being

Yeah, for VR it's even more than enough for now. I would also change the 3TB drive like mentioned above.

Something to consider when overclocking the 9900k is VRM on the motherboard. If the VRM is not adequate it will overheat and throttle down which will starve the CPU of power and ruin your overclock.

Unfortunately Asus didn't do a great job on their mid range Z390 boards. The one you have selected is a 4 phase VRM which is arguably not enough. It would probably work but that VRM is going to get very hot during a 5Ghz overclock. Asus does make a better Z390 mobo but it's rather expensive.

The most budget friendly mobos for the 9900k overclocked is some Gigabyte boards. They have great 12 phase VRM which will stay cool. I'm not a fan of the Gigabyte brand and their bios user interface is ass. But unless you're willing to spend $450+ on a different brand, they are the only viable option for less than $300. That being said, I'm on a budget so I bought a Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master to go with my 9900k.

I can post more later but I'm on my phone right now.

CPU Cooler:
I'd get a NH-D15 instead of NH-D15S. Reason being is the D15 comes with two fans while the D15S only comes with 1 fan. The D15S has essentially the same heat sink but the heat plate has been shifted off center to allow space for the GPU on X99 motherboards or other boards that have the PCI slot too close to the CPU socket. If you do use a 9900k this shouldn't be a problem. I use a D15 myself on the Z390 chipset. If you're going to overclock you definitely want 2 fans on the heat sink. The i9 is a hot cookie.

Power Supply:
I'd go for a 850W, if not more. While 750W might be enough it may be cutting it close depending what else is connected to the machine. The 9900k can use 425W alone when overclocked, so keep that in mind. (Intel says it's a 95W part but that's only true when it's running at 3.6 GHz)

HDD:
I would go for a higher quality HDD, but It might depend on how much you value your data. The Seagate Barracuda only comes with a 2 year warranty, which is rather low in the industry. A Western Digital Black comes with a 5 year warranty and is built to last longer, but it comes at a higher price. Western Digital Blue comes with a 3 year warranty. I know most people are loyal to one brand of HDD and if they ever had a drive fail they exile that company for eternity. Personally I've never had a WD drive fail on me in 20 years so I'm a loyal customer.

SSD:
I think the Samsung 970 EVO you picked is a fine choice. Samsung has a very low rate of failure and I like the Samsung Magician software. 3400/2300 MS/s (read/write) isn't the fastest M.2 drive out there but it's pretty damn fast. Most of the time a SSD won't even reach those speeds under real-world gaming / Win10 use due to software-engine bottlenecks. About the only time you see max speed is in a synthetic benchmark or perhaps in some video edit workloads (I have not tested this).
Also I don't feel comfortable buying a brand like ADATA in order to save $30 and gain +100 Mb/s that I'll never see; not when 10% of their user reviews say it came dead upon arrival or failed within 30 days. I'm sure some people will disagree with me on this matter. But for me when it comes to storage I'll pay more money for a brand I trust.

RAM:
While I do agree DDR4-3200 makes sense because anything faster has extreme diminishing returns in games, the price of 3600MHz is almost the same as 3200MHz right now (on Amazon). If you're looking to future proof it may be worth it to spent the extra $15 and get 3600 ram. In years past, the point of diminishing returns has moved over time as cpu, gpu, and different games come out. I remember when DDR3-1600 was the peak of the curve. That sure changed in a couple years time.

Motherboard:
Just make sure it has VRM that can handle the 9900k when overclocked. There is some good YouTube videos on this subject. I can link them if you want.

Thermal Paste:
You will need some paste and there is many to choose from. I went with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut. It's not the absolute best paste but it's one of the better ones.

Saving money:
You could save money by choosing a Gigabyte mobo, sticking with DDR4-3200 ram, and choosing a cheaper case. You could also save money by buying cheap brands of HDD and SDD or slower models, but I don't recommend being cheap on these.

This post was edited by NatureNames on Aug 7 2019 03:21am

Quote

Do you want stock cooling or do you plan on overclocking?: Yes I'll be overclocking, but nothing insane.

please learn to read. k thx bye.