Looking for comments/feedback/concerns because I’m just taking guesses at what I’m building honestly.
This is intended to replace my current machine, from which I will move two dedicated SSDs (one for gaming, one for music tools & software). I already have a solid external sound card, so that won’t need to be replaced.
What I want to do with it:
- Gaming: Sometimes 1080p, sometimes “3K” (Eyefinity on triple monitors at 1920x1080 each)
- Development: Needs fast processor and plenty of RAM to compile/build and run
- Music production: Needs fast processor and plenty of RAM to load samples and tools in memory
Budget is ~$1,000 USD with some wiggle room. Hoping this build will last 4-5 years at least (for comparison, this is my current build, still serviceable: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/jodawznev/saved/jpvTCJ after 6+ years).
I would greatly appreciate any comments or feedback on this!
Is 16GB RAM “plenty?” I’m not so sure. It depends on what kind of development you’re doing, what you’re running locally, etc. My work laptop has 16 gigs hard capped, and I always wish I had more headroom. Obviously, budget matters, so that’s a call for you to make, but 16 gigs is probably the smallest amount to call “enough” these days.
(Of course, it’s also extremely easy to expand if you find you need more, so…)
Great point! I’m not doing anything super-intensive in terms of development, but current build does get close to the limit when I’m writing music. Easy enough to add more like you said.
You mentioned needing more RAM and your price point would hardly move up if you scaled up to a faster DDR5 build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Rtqmrv
Thanks! That’s a great suggestion
I just built a rig with that CPU, cooler, SSD, and a similar gigabyte motherboard in August and it runs great. The Samsung 980 is PCIe 4.0, 970 is 3.0. Pretty big difference in speed.
DDR5 has much better options for denser kits, just make sure to select RAM that is on your motherboard’s QVL list if you’re not already in the habit of doing so. I won’t be making that mistake again lol
That’s exactly the kind of advice I was looking for, thanks! I’ve built machines before, I just get lost in the compatibility of MBs and components so I’m grateful for the pointers. Also worried about room in the box, but I think I have it right. Just need to triple check the dimensions of the GPU and that the case has space for two 2.5" SSDs.
I would definitively go for at least 1 TB, preferably 2 TB on the SSD. The cost increase is minimal, but you avoid the headache of having to replace it down the line or having to micromanage your stored files. For example, the CS2 update was around 27 GB, about 5% of the total space on a 500 GB drive.
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https://pcpartpicker.com/list/gJtnTY is my suggestion. – full atx, more expansion options in the future, 2tb drive vs 1tb, faster ram, case come with 6rgb fans preinstalled, 32gb of ram vs 16, etc.
Oh wow, thanks! I’ll take a look at all that. I prefer a smaller case, but if I’m going to do incremental upgrades in the future this makes sense. Also clearly better components, and I didn’t consider fans at all when putting mine together. Thanks again!
The power supply listed in the other guys would be fine on this as well - I noticed mine looks ‘cheaper’ because pcpartpicker isn’t picking up prices for it. So just keep that in mind.
Also I HAVE built this system. It’s the machine my wife is currently running and in many ways I’m a bit jealous.
