Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v6: My Power Supply Burned Down My House

From the research I've done my i7 2600k, still stands up fairly well performance wise. I'm kinda trying to do a budget build, for like 300,using some components I already have. It would be much easier to buy all new stuff, but I don't really use it enough to justify building a brand new, high end rig.
I like your approach. This obviously isn't a motherboard intended for future upgrades, nor for overclocks. Sticking to an H77 or Z77 motherboard was the key in that generation. I'm spoiled these days with the spreadsheets I have for the latest motherboard generations, but IIRC, that Asus was the best of those three Newegg used boards you shared under the hood. Gigabyte's D3H & DS3H are the codes that accompany their cheapest motherboard within the class. The other is a B75 Micro ATX board.

Also give eBay a look. I hate it as a seller, but it's solid as a buyer. There are some really high-volume, reliable sellers on there who move a ton of used/older electronics.
 
I like your approach. This obviously isn't a motherboard intended for future upgrades, nor for overclocks. Sticking to an H77 or Z77 motherboard was the key in that generation. I'm spoiled these days with the spreadsheets I have for the latest motherboard generations, but IIRC, that Asus was the best of those three Newegg used boards you shared under the hood. Gigabyte's D3H & DS3H are the codes that accompany their cheapest motherboard within the class. The other is a B75 Micro ATX board.

Also give eBay a look. I hate it as a seller, but it's solid as a buyer. There are some really high-volume, reliable sellers on there who move a ton of used/older electronics.

He's in Seattle as well so finding tech like that should be easy on local things like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, etc.
quick search on facebook marketplace produced a Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H for $60
 
That Centaurus is a nice find. I've never heard of them before. I'd give it the edge on paper:
  • 240GB SSD vs. 500GB SSD = -$30 value
  • 2TB HDD vs. No HDD = +$60 value
  • GTX 1660 Ti vs. RTX 2060 Super = -$50 value (discrete 1660 Ti cards are overpriced at the moment)
  • Actual Price Advantage = +$100 value
  • Total = +$80 advantage

R7-2700X is technically superior to the R5-3600 even though it's slightly inferior in games due to the more significant overall processing power advantage, but it's also coming with a lesser CPU cooler than is standard on the discrete market (Wraith Stealth, not Wraith Max). I'd rate them equal values.
Just wanted to say thanks for the help. I talked the wife into letting me get this one
CyberpowerPC Gamer Supreme Liquid Cool Gaming PC, Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB, 16GB DDR4, 1TB PCI-E NVMe SSD, WiFi Ready & Win 10 Home
 
Just wanted to say thanks for the help. I talked the wife into letting me get this one
CyberpowerPC Gamer Supreme Liquid Cool Gaming PC, Intel Core i7-9700K 3.6GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB, 16GB DDR4, 1TB PCI-E NVMe SSD, WiFi Ready & Win 10 Home

the-mask-sees-hot-girl-o.gif
 
So after a little feud with Russian post I got all my parts except for thermal interface and additional case fan (which I forgot to order). Will get them today and start the assembly!
 
Hey is this ryzen better?
Skytech Azure Gaming Computer PC Desktop – Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz, RTX 2070 Super 8G, 1TB NVME, 16GB DDR4 3200MHz, RGB Fans, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 802.11AC Wi-Fi
 
Hey is this ryzen better?
Skytech Azure Gaming Computer PC Desktop – Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz, RTX 2070 Super 8G, 1TB NVME, 16GB DDR4 3200MHz, RGB Fans, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 802.11AC Wi-Fi

It's better overall, I'd say, but not in gaming performance.

Meaningful Processing Power Differences
  1. R7-3700X vs. the i7-9700K
  2. DDR4-3200MHz RAM vs. DDR4-2400MHz RAM

For the CPU it's the same difference as the R7-2700X vs. R5-3600, but the trade of blows in this case is more acute; the R7-3700X has more overall horsepower, but the i7-9700K is better in games. If you stream or multitask like a banshee you would appreciate the 3700X. The RAM speed advantage in the 3700X unit might close the gap off the bat. Tough to say.

The 3700X unit comes with a a better motherboard, better case, better case fans, better PSU, and American assembly. It also appears to come with the Wraith Prism cooler. While this isn't superior to the 120mm liquid cooler in the 9700K unit it will require less hassle of maintenance over time.

At the same price I'd definitely take the 3700X unit. For $100 more they feel like roughly equal values.
 
It's better overall, I'd say, but not in gaming performance.

Meaningful Processing Power Differences
  1. R7-3700X vs. the i7-9700K
  2. DDR4-3200MHz RAM vs. DDR4-2400MHz RAM

For the CPU it's the same difference as the R7-2700X vs. R5-3600, but the trade of blows in this case is more acute; the R7-3700X is has more overall horsepower, but the i7-9700K is better in games. If you stream or multitask like a banshee you would appreciate the 3700X. The RAM speed advantage in the 3700X unit might close the gap off the bat. Tough to say.

The 3700X unit comes with a a better motherboard, better case, better case fans, better PSU, and American assembly. It also appears to come with the Wraith Prism cooler. While this isn't superior to the 120mm liquid cooler in the 9700K unit it will require less hassle of maintenance over time.

At the same price I'd definitely take the 3700X unit. For $100 more they feel like roughly equal values.
ok so probably last question. I was considering upgrading to a 2080 but not sure its worth the jump in price

ATM im looking at this one i just showed with the 2070
Skytech Azure Gaming Computer PC Desktop – Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz, RTX 2070 Super 8G, 1TB NVME, 16GB DDR4 3200MHz, RGB Fans, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 802.11AC Wi-Fi


would it be worth another $200 for this with a 2080 super . I notice the ram is 3000mhz instead of 3200 and the 1tb ssd is just labeled that instead of NVME (what is the difference?)
SkyTech Azure Gaming Computer PC Desktop – AMD RYZEN 7 3700X, RTX 2080 Super 8G, 1TB SSD, 16G DDR4 3000, B450 Motherboard, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, ARGB, Window 10 Home


and if i realllly wanted to piss off the wife i could get this one
Skytech Azure Gaming Computer PC Desktop – Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz, RTX 2080 Super 8G, 1TB NVME, 16GB DDR4 3200MHz, RGB Fans, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 802.11AC Wi-Fi


so is it worth the extra money for the 2080super over the 2070 super and does the extra 200mhz in ram and NVME make the cost worth it?

this is the last 3 im down to i figure i will buy one of these .. unless you can find something under $1800 thats a better deal (on amazon)
thank you again for all your help this is a big purchase and i want to be able to game for a few years
btw i will be playing mostly diablo3, and diablo 4 wow and new expansion, COD, GTA, and doing some work from home and surfing the net etc.. I play all my other games on xbox one x and ps4 and switch etc.. (i plan on getting next gen consoles as well ) i have a teenager
 
ok so probably last question. I was considering upgrading to a 2080 but not sure its worth the jump in price

ATM im looking at this one i just showed with the 2070
Skytech Azure Gaming Computer PC Desktop – Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz, RTX 2070 Super 8G, 1TB NVME, 16GB DDR4 3200MHz, RGB Fans, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 802.11AC Wi-Fi


would it be worth another $200 for this with a 2080 super . I notice the ram is 3000mhz instead of 3200 and the 1tb ssd is just labeled that instead of NVME (what is the difference?)
SkyTech Azure Gaming Computer PC Desktop – AMD RYZEN 7 3700X, RTX 2080 Super 8G, 1TB SSD, 16G DDR4 3000, B450 Motherboard, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, ARGB, Window 10 Home


and if i realllly wanted to piss off the wife i could get this one
Skytech Azure Gaming Computer PC Desktop – Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6GHz, RTX 2080 Super 8G, 1TB NVME, 16GB DDR4 3200MHz, RGB Fans, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 802.11AC Wi-Fi


so is it worth the extra money for the 2080super over the 2070 super and does the extra 200mhz in ram and NVME make the cost worth it?

this is the last 3 im down to i figure i will buy one of these .. unless you can find something under $1800 thats a better deal (on amazon)
thank you again for all your help this is a big purchase and i want to be able to game for a few years
btw i will be playing mostly diablo3, and diablo 4 wow and new expansion, COD, GTA, and doing some work from home and surfing the net etc.. I play all my other games on xbox one x and ps4 and switch etc.. (i plan on getting next gen consoles as well ) i have a teenager

Generally speaking the RTX 2080 and above is not worth the jump in price. The performance/value curve tails off hard above the RTX 2060 Super (the jump to the RTX 2070), and it craters above the RTX 2070 Super (the jump to the RTX 2080). The current 3DMark Time Spy chart will paint you the big picture of raw processing power in GPUs:
https://benchmarks.ul.com/compare/best-gpus

The second option there for $200 more with the RTX 2080 Super is an inferior value. The RAM might be slower, maybe not, depends on the timings, but I'd assume so. The SSD might not be NVMe, you can't rely on Amazon products being as pictured, and I'd assume they're using the same SSD as in other units, but there is none installed in that picture in the top m.2 slot where it should go (the secondary slot is blocked by the GPU). The bigger issue is the the RTX 2080 Super is only ~13% more powerful. Furthermore, the motherboard is a nondescript MicroATX B450 motherboard, not the ATX X570 Asus TUF WiFi. The one pictured is the ASRock B450M Pro-F. This motherboard alone is worth $125 less than this counterpart on the open market. More importantly, without liquid cooling or a powerful downdraft cooler, it may at times be forced to throttle the 3700X with its weak VRM design.

For this reason I'd rate the last $1749 the superior value among the RTX 2080 Super options (the upgraded variant of the base model you've chosen as your new benchmark). But a $250 premium for a 13% advantage in GPU performance? Pass.
 
Generally speaking the RTX 2080 and above is not worth the jump in price. The performance/value curve tails off hard above the RTX 2060 Super (the jump to the RTX 2070), and it craters above the RTX 2070 Super (the jump to the RTX 2080). The current 3DMark Time Spy chart will paint you the big picture of raw processing power in GPUs:
https://benchmarks.ul.com/compare/best-gpus

The second option there for $200 more with the RTX 2080 Super is an inferior value. The RAM might be slower, maybe not, depends on the timings, but I'd assume so. The SSD might not be NVMe, you can't rely on Amazon products being as pictured, and I'd assume they're using the same SSD as in other units, but there is none installed in that picture in the top m.2 slot where it should go (the secondary slot is blocked by the GPU). The bigger issue is the the RTX 2080 Super is only ~13% more powerful. Furthermore, the motherboard is a nondescript MicroATX B450 motherboard, not the ATX X570 Asus TUF WiFi. The one pictured is the ASRock B450M Pro-F. This motherboard alone is worth $125 less than this counterpart on the open market. More importantly, without liquid cooling or a powerful downdraft cooler, it may at times be forced to throttle the 3700X with its weak VRM design.

For this reason I'd rate the last $1749 the superior value among the RTX 2080 Super options (the upgraded variant of the base model you've chosen as your new benchmark). But a $250 premium for a 13% advantage in GPU performance? Pass.
yeah im gonna stick with the 2070 super.. and thanks again for helping me iron all this out :)
 
I also want to build a new PC.

Was thinking of Ryzen 3900 and a rtx2070 super?

It seems like a bad time to get a new graphics card before the 30xx series but does it really matter? If they are as fast as people say they will just be insanely expensive and the price of current cards won't drop that much. Right?

Also is there any benefit in an expensive motherboard if I don't care about all the additional features and slots? Are they higher quality?
 
I also want to build a new PC.

Was thinking of Ryzen 3900 and a rtx2070 super?

It seems like a bad time to get a new graphics card before the 30xx series but does it really matter? If they are as fast as people say they will just be insanely expensive and the price of current cards won't drop that much. Right?

Also is there any benefit in an expensive motherboard if I don't care about all the additional features and slots? Are they higher quality?
If you're going to be getting the Ryzen 3900X, you don't need the most expensive motherboard but in terms of temperature the more expensive ones will be better due to having superior voltage regulators, again you don't need the most expensive models just don't get the entry level ones imo.
 
I also want to build a new PC.

Was thinking of Ryzen 3900 and a rtx2070 super?

It seems like a bad time to get a new graphics card before the 30xx series but does it really matter? If they are as fast as people say they will just be insanely expensive and the price of current cards won't drop that much. Right?

Also is there any benefit in an expensive motherboard if I don't care about all the additional features and slots? Are they higher quality?
That was the RTX generation due to the ray-tracing hype despite that they didn't add much performance at all. Usually that isn't the case. For the first few months after a launch when the new GPUs are impossible to get (and the mid-tier cards haven't been released yet) they don't drive down the prices of the previous generation very much, but that changes as stores begin to be stocked, and they roll out more of the mid-tier cards that gamers actually buy.

But NVIDIA hasn't even released the roadmap for the Ampere GPUs, nor have they unveiled them. They probably won't even launch until the late Summer or possibly the late Fall. So unless you plan on waiting for a year, or limping on a current GPU for that long, assuming you already have one in a PC you can transplant, then the current generation is what you've got.

The 3900X doesn't really add anything to gaming performance over the 3700X. The RTX 2070 Super is definitely the strongest card I'd consider. The RTX 2060 Super and RX 5700 XT are better values, but the value really drops off above that (as I just explained to Lucas Troy in this post above: https://forums.sherdog.com/posts/159532751/).

Per Slobodan's suggestion if you do go with the 3900X you definitely want to go with an X570 motherboard with better heat dissipation and voltage regulation. The cheapest that really register at the elite end for this are the Gigabyte Aorus Elite boards-- not that they're cheap ($200+ atm):
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nH...us-elite-atx-am4-motherboard-x570-aorus-elite
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/XV...ifi-atx-am4-motherboard-x570-aorus-elite-wifi

To step above these in terms of overall features, but not thermal design, you'd want to the MSI X570 Gaming Pro Carbon WiFi ($240). To step above them in terms of both the Asus ROG Strix X570-E is the top seller ($300). North of that is silly. Going the other way the cheapest board you'd probably want to consider is the Asus PRIME X570-P ($145).
 
Thanks for the suggestions, some things were not available or the price seemed off, ended up going with this:

AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus
32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 DIMM CL16 Dual Kit
1000GB Gigabyte AORUS M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe
1000GB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe

Decided to keep my gtx1070 for now and hope the GPU prices don't blow up due to corona fucking the economy.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, some things were not available or the price seemed off, ended up going with this:

AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus
32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 DIMM CL16 Dual Kit
1000GB Gigabyte AORUS M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe
1000GB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe

Decided to keep my gtx1070 for now and hope the GPU prices don't blow up due to corona fucking the economy.
Beautiful. You're well-set.

If you can get by on that 1070 for 6+ months you might hold out for the new lines:
RUMOR: NVIDIA to announce the GeForce RTX 3000 in August
Tweaktown said:
According to the latest leaked gossip (and it is just that), NVIDIA would now be launching its new GeForce RTX 3000 at the end of August so that its partners can display their custom models at Computex 2020, which will finally take place from September 28 to 30.

Of course it remains SUPER unsure if Computex will open up at all. The company is expected to launch Tesla and Quadro models first, based on the Ampere architecture. We have already seen leaks with up to 8192 Cuda Cores and 48GB of HBM2E memory.

For gaming, line rumors indicate that GeForce RTX 3080 Ti would get 5376 Cuda Cores, a 384-bit memory bus, 12GB of VRAM offering an estimated 40% performance increase over RTX 2080 Ti. The RTX 3080 could feature 3840 Cuda Cores, 320-bit bus, 10GB ram, 10% better performance than the RTX 2080 Ti. It will be interesting to see if this information ends up being true, or ends up being false rumors.
At the very least it will depress the prices on current GPUs, eventually.

Production might delayed or slower than normal, too, but Taiwan has got the WuFlu under control, and they are where NVIDIA manufactures their GPUs. If this very flimsy rumor is accurate, August will be their announcement, September will be exhibitions of the aftermarket cards, and that means it shouldn't be until early October that the official release date is set. If things go as normal, they will start with the RTX 3080 and maybe one or two other cards, and you will have a very difficult time procuring one in October. Inventory will start to loosen up by late November or December, but I suspect between the demand of holiday shoppers, and retailers' awareness of supply, you won't see the older generation of cards drop too much in price. Although there ought to be some great sales in there you might catch as some retailers are keen to clear out older inventory.

January 2021 is when things ought to start getting good. Of course the performance value of current lower end cards (i.e. RTX 2070 and below) doesn't drop until the next gen's renditions of those lines are released-- disrupting their respective value. Ultimately, it seems like my predictions of these things are never quite right. It seems impossible to predict the behavior of the global hardware market.
 
He's in Seattle as well so finding tech like that should be easy on local things like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, etc.
quick search on facebook marketplace produced a Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H for $60


I can’t remember the name off the top of my head but Seattle has one of those recycling places where you can go and find parts to buy and shit and can even do volunteer work to go towards parts. Or even scrounge around and build a whole pc.
 
I can’t remember the name off the top of my head but Seattle has one of those recycling places where you can go and find parts to buy and shit and can even do volunteer work to go towards parts. Or even scrounge around and build a whole pc.
Free Geek. I checked but it looks like they closed down.
 
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus
32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 DIMM CL16 Dual Kit
1000GB Gigabyte AORUS M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe
1000GB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe

So I got my stuff but have some issues.

First time I tried to boot I just had a bleck screen and the DRAM debug LED was on.

I took one of the RAM out and tried again, then it worked and I got into the BIOS. RAM frequency was 2300mhz. I activated XMP and the frequency was automatically set to 3600mhz.
Restarted, frequency still 3600mhz, Looking good.
Put the second RAM back in, pc switching on and off like crazy while trying to boot, looked like a power issue.
Installed Windows and some Tools. The MSI cpu tool shows a DRAM frequency of 1066mhz, the MSI motherboard tool shows 2300mhz...

No idea what the hell is going on, is my PSU too weak? Shouldn't 650w be plenty?
There are 2 CPU power slots on the motherboard but the PSU only has 1 CPU power pin. I read that 1 is enough unless you do crazy overclocking. Could that still be an issue?


EDIT:
Its working now. Had to manually set the frequency and voltage for whatever reason.
 
Last edited:
So I got my stuff but have some issues.

First time I tried to boot I just had a bleck screen and the DRAM debug LED was on.

I took one of the RAM out and tried again, then it worked and I got into the BIOS. RAM frequency was 2300mhz. I activated XMP and the frequency was automatically set to 3600mhz.
Restarted, frequency still 3600mhz, Looking good.
Put the second RAM back in, pc switching on and off like crazy while trying to boot, looked like a power issue.
Installed Windows and some Tools. The MSI cpu tool shows a DRAM frequency of 1066mhz, the MSI motherboard tool shows 2300mhz...

No idea what the hell is going on, is my PSU too weak? Shouldn't 650w be plenty?
There are 2 CPU power slots on the motherboard but the PSU only has 1 CPU power pin. I read that 1 is enough unless you do crazy overclocking. Could that still be an issue?


EDIT:
Its working now. Had to manually set the frequency and voltage for whatever reason.
Take out the second RAM stick, and restore the RAM frequency to its baseline setting for before installing the second stick. You don't want to overclock RAM like that except as a pair working in tandem. That will cause issues. Until you get all the hardware installed and functioning don't mess with calibrations or software.

Yes, your PSU has way more than enough power.

*Edit* I see I missed the edit.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top