Critique How I Built a New Gaming Rig For Around $1,000

[dDave]

Hey all, I just built a new gaming computer yesterday. Really nice for me since I haven't had a proper gaming rig since 2016 (been surviving on consoles). The last time I built one for myself was 2012, I thought it was time to do it again.

After waiting 2 full weeks for Amazon to get me my CPU due to COVID-19...

Here's what I got.

MB: ASUS TUF Gaming X570 motherboard
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3600X 6-core (cooled by Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo)
GPU: EVGA RTX 2060 Super 6GB GDDR6
RAM: 16GB G. Skill Ripjaws 3600
SSD: Samsung 860 evo 1TB SATA III
PSU: Corsair 650w 80 plus gold modular
Case: Cooler Master MB511 RGB mesh
Display: Dell 27" 1440p 144hz (g sync compatible) TN panel
Audio: 3.1 logitech
Mouse and Keyboard: ASUS cerberus

I'm a little upset about the CPU cooler. I've used it in several builds for friends and family and the design has changed. It's now super hard to mount and doesn't mount securely anymore (you can literally easily twist it even after tightening it down all the way)

Anyway. I'll probably change out the cooler at some point but the build definitely gives me some room to grow for years.

Probably going to break it in with some Mass Effect (I realize the game won't even come close to fulfilling the potential of this system, lol)

 

[Doc]

Nice to see you're not trying to put a billion megs of RAM in a gaming computer. I love your taste in GPUs, also. Can't wait to see what that thing benchmarks.

 

[dDave]

Nice to see you're not trying to put a billion megs of RAM in a gaming computer. I love your taste in GPUs, also. Can't wait to see what that thing benchmarks.

Hey man. I got a good deal on that 32GB set last time, haha. There were also a few ridiculous scenarios where I ended up using a crap ton of RAM for school (I was in programming). Where other peoples computers would have crashed, I had some nice headroom to stop it and save my windows session! lol.

In all seriousness though, 16GB is a minimum these days. I'll see how it does. Not unwilling to go for 32 but only if I must.

One of the case fans (rear exhaust) was vibrating the case something fierce so I took it out. Going to order some higher quality fans at some point but it's fine for now without the one.

 

[Doc]

I like to have a matching set of fans in mine. Super quiet. Have you ever considered liquid cooling? I'm not a fan, personally.

 

[dDave]

I like to have a matching set of fans in mine. Super quiet. Have you ever considered liquid cooling? I'm not a fan, personally.

I don't think I'll go for liquid cooling. It's just too risky in my mind and honestly, I don't see that much of a difference in cooling capacity or decibels when you're using a good high quality air cooler. You still have to have fans, that heat still has to go somewhere. I will say AIOs are easier to install and look cool but I'm not about to shell out over $100 for one.

 

[Doc]

That's the same exact reason I don't water cool.

Heck, the prices on laptops are so reasonable that all I use anymore is my MSI with a GTX 1050, a SSD, and 16 gb of RAM. I've had it a year now and it still does everything that I could ask it to do.

 

[dDave]

That's the same exact reason I don't water cool.

Heck, the prices on laptops are so reasonable that all I use anymore is my MSI with a GTX 1050, a SSD, and 16 gb of RAM. I've had it a year now and it still does everything that I could ask it to do.

There’s a select group of games that will really stress modern high end GPUs and use them to their full potential. Most games simply won’t even come close to stressing a modern rig though.

The 1050 is a testament to that. It’s really not that old. Great little card that packs a pretty big punch.

I think the power you can get for so cheap means people will upgrade less frequently and less dramatically when they do.

I had an ASUS GL702VM for a while but I ultimately decided that I wanted a truly portable laptop. I settled on getting a 14 inch Dell Inspiron 2 in 1 and then building the tower I have now. I like to tinker so it’s perfect for me.

 

[Doc]

I'm way impressed by the power of my laptop 1050. It gets 30 FPS average on Heaven benchmark at 1920 x 1080 at defaul settings. Max framrate is 124. Your new build probably gets 40-50 fps.

 

[dDave]

I'm way impressed by the power of my laptop 1050. It gets 30 FPS average on Heaven benchmark at 1920 x 1080 at defaul settings. Max framrate is 124. Your new build probably gets 40-50 fps.

Oh! I happened to run that yesterday. Saved the benchmark scores.

Score: 1793

2560x1440
Quality: Ultra
8xAA
Tesselation: Extreme

Average FPS: 71.2
Min FPS: 8.8
Max FPS 138.7

 

[Doc]

71.2!!!

Awesome. Those settings are insane, too. It would probably kill my card!