Kane is right. You definitely don't have to spend this much to get near maximal performance.
Use this website,
@Lubaolong. Everyone uses it. They automatically calculate shipping, tax, and factor in rebates if they apply (you can uncheck them if you don't want rebates to be factored in because you don't want to hassle with them). It also performs a basic compatbility check between parts:
https://pcpartpicker.com/
Setting up a profile is free. It isn't necessary to do this unless you want tax to be calculated accurately, but tax is significant, so I find this very useful. It also allows you to save your part lists. Go to preferences, and you can choose whichever merchants you want it to include. I include them all. I believe you're also in Cali, now, so just set our 7.5% sales tax rate for all the merchants
except the following where we don't pay tax. The three emboldened in particular often offer us the best price on components due to their tax advantage:
- Adorama
- B&H
- Mnpctech
- Modmymods
- OutletPC
- Steelseries
Here are some thoughts:
CPU
i9-9900K is still technically the best gaming processor, and your budget allows for it, but AMD is murdering Intel in sales right now. The R5-3600 is outselling Intel's entire CPU lineup in many national markets currently. Cliffs: AMD's top Matisse processors are only performing a few percent below the i9-9900K across the gamut of games, but the
R7-3700X ($329 w/tax) is a far superior value, while the
R9-3900X ($538 w/tax) has more cores, and more overall horsepower, meaning that it may prove superior in the long term as the software ecosystem becomes increasingly optimized for more cores (just as it has slowly progressed the last decade). The king of their new lineup, the 16-core R9-3950X ($750 MSRP), is set to be released on September 30th. But know the R7-3700X has taken over sales at this performance point because currently all of the others offer very slight practical performance benefit.
CPU Cooler
Your list is missing a cooler for the CPU (Intels no longer come with them by default). For value hunters this is another reason the R7-3700X is so attractive, since at $329 it comes with a Wraith Prism cooler, though at this budget, you might consider more powerful aftermarket CPU coolers for AMD, too. Not sure if you want to fuss with liquid coolers. Air coolers carry less maintenance & risk. The
Scythe Ninja 5 is a very attractive new cooler that offers high-end performance at a midrange price. The
Noctua NH-D15 is the longtime king of air coolers.
Motherboard
I like the
Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi motherboard slightly more than that MSI at the same price. If going with AMD, I also like the
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro WiFi. FYI, it's easy to swap Intel/AMD CPU + MoBo combinations in these blueprints since they're on the same form factor.
GPU
The
RTX 2080 Super costs a lot less money without sacrificing a great deal of performance (~10%-20% depending on the resolution). Still, the extra 3GB VRAM of the RTX 2080 Ti should prove useful in the long term. For the RTX 2080 Ti, EVGA Black is highly reliable, but I would suggest one of these two models instead:
- MSI Gaming X Trio RTX 2080 Ti (highest boost clock at reasonable price which is +210 MHz vs. EVGA Black= +21%; triple fan variant; custom PCB; 300W locked power limit which is +50W vs. EVGA Black; also happens to support one of the highest unlocked power limits-- 406W; all in all, well worth the extra $80)
- Asus ROG Strix Gaming OC RTX 2080 Ti (everyone wants these for the Quiet OC mode, and you'll pay for it)
RAM
The 3200 MHz sticks are the sweet spot, definitely, and with your budget, I think the 32GB overkill is reasonable looking forward. The 3600 MHz sticks are possible in your budget, but I noticed there is an undesirable premium on the 16GB+ sticks, so you'd want to go with 4x8GB. This would mean filling up every memory slot, so you want to double check clearance with the CPU cooler more closely. Low profile sticks are better for clearance either way. The
Crucial Ballstix Sport are nice for this (32.5mm height vs. 43mm height with G. Skill Sniper kit). The
white ones are even cheaper with Newegg's promo code until the end of the day if you don't mind the color.
SSD
The
Sabrent Rocket comes at a premium, but it is a more ideal NVMe SSD for your OS. Unfortunately it is cheaper per GB for the
1TB size than the
2TB size. You shouldn't be buying a secondary HDD for games with this budget though I suspect you intend games to also go on the SSD. For the
HDD 3TB tends to be a better value if you need mass extra storage for media (ex. photos, music, movies, ebooks, etc). Otherwise, SSDs are getting cheap enough I think you'd prefer them for secondary storage. That
Intel 660p 2TB is actually the cheapest SSD per GB, right now, and any motherboards you might consider have at least two m.2 slots to accomodate both. Still, 2x2TB SSD eats up quite a bit of budget.
PSU
You don't quite need 850W, but that's fine. Fully modular and Gold (or better) rated is a great start, and this is certainly more than adequate, but you can do better than the Seasonic Focus on this budget. The
EVGA G2 850W is worth a bit more, and has a $20 rebate available that brings it down to about the same price ($128 best total price = $30 cheaper than Seasonic via Newegg after shipping & tax).
Case
Corsair 760t is a bit older design, as you can tell from the external drive bays (for Blu-Ray/DVD/CD), but a phenomenal case, and Corsair tends to be more friendly to the builder than other premium brands. Note the similar
Corsair 780t is about the same price. A few other luxury cases I would highlight:
- Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic (gotta buy additional case fans with this one; doesn't fit the Noctua air cooler)
- Fractal Design Define R6 USB-C
You can get the highest level of cooling performance, with great build quality & features, in cheaper cases. The Corsair Carbide 270R, Corsair Carbide 275R, Phanteks Eclipse P400, Fractal Meshify C, NZXT H500i, Rosewill Cullinan, Silverstone RL05, Silverstone RL06, and Phanteks Enthoo Pro are all top cases around or below $100. Lot of flexibility here. Some filters for convenience:
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/c...&m=52,337,50,11,106,58,62,94,229,63,56&page=1
Used the Phanteks Enthoo Pro (no window) in this build since it is Full ATX, has external 5.25" drive bays, and enjoys acclaim from reviewers and customers alike:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/x8L3cY
After the $20 rebate, if you care to fill it out, you're at $2853, and that includes tax & shipping. So there is $350 in reserve (if you didn't intend the $3200 ceiling as a tender). Upgrade considerations would include faster RAM, swapping the HDD for the SSD as the secondary drive, a stronger motherboard, the Asus GPU, or a more luxurious case. Price would be roughly equal if you ran an R9-3900X build with the stock cooler.
Don't forget no Windows is included.
