2020 Build - DarkPhoenix - My New PC

By ioplus3 

My current PC is 3 years old now. Thus, it’s time to build a new one. I have gotten all the top shelf-components for my new build. I will go through each part one by one and give reasons why I have selected them.

In India, first, it’s hard to find a component that you want to get if you do not live in a metropolitan city like me. Secondly, if you find one locally, it’s expensive than what online stores are offering. Even online stores list higher prices than what it is selling for in the USA or European countries. Enter “MD computers”, not the lower price as in the USA or EU, but cheaper than other online stores, 1000-5000 Rs less than Amazon. I have been ordering components from MD computers for 3 years now.

CPU – All Hail AMD Ryzen 3^rd Gen

This is the most important part and thus all the rest of the components are based on the selection of it. I went ahead with Ryzen 9 3900X. This is a good choice for Rs 45000. It has 12 cores, 24 threads, clocked at 3.8GHz. The next better CPU on the AMD side is Ryzen 9 3950X, but it would cost Rs 68000. It has 16 Cores and 32 threads.

I didn't go for Intel because of the reasons that can be found in my previous blog. Check it here.

To summarize, AMD is offering better CPUs than Intel and for a better price-performance ratio. Intel has failed to keep up with AMD’s Ryzen 3^rd Gen CPUs. 

Intel Core i9-9900K (@3.6 GHz, 8 Core, 16 threads), priced at Rs 51000, scores 20,195 in CPU Benchmark (Passmark) while AMD Ryzen 9 3900X (@3.8 GHz, 12 Core, 24 threads), priced at Rs 45000, scores 31,950, annihilating Intel’s offering.

Motherboard – Asus ROG Fanboy

I went with the Asus Rog Strix X570-E Gaming (Wi-Fi) motherboard priced at Rs 27000. Asus is my preferred brand over all others and X570 is the only chipset that is offering PCIe 4.0 (This is new generation slots for Graphics cards are other high-speed devices), all others are still PCIe 3.0, even on Intel's side. I also selected Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite WiFi priced at Rs 21000 but dumped it because I like the ROG theme and hardcore Asus fanboy for motherboards. Both the Motherboards offer wifi and Bluetooth. I would prefer Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite WiFi for you if you are not a sucker for Asus ROG like me.

RAM – Bedazzling the Rig

For RAM, my preferred brand is G.Skill Trident. This time I selected it's Neo version that G.SKILL launched for AMD Ryzen 3000 series CPUs on AMD X570 platform. I chose 64GB (16 x 4) DDR4, a 3600 MHz RAM kit as I use a lot of 3D rendering software. 32GB should work fine for you. Unless you enable D.O.C.P. (Direct Over Clock Profile) in BIOS, it will run at 2133 MHz by default. You have to change Ai Tweaker> Ai Overclock Tuner to D.O.C.P. from Auto in BIOS in order to run your RAM at full capacity.

Graphics Card – Radeon RX 5700 XT is the choice

For the graphics card, I chose AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT with 8GB GDDR6. I could have gone for Nvidia RTX 2070, but AMD FREESYNC monitors are cheaper than NVIDIA GSYNC monitors. Both the cards offer similar performance. Nvidia RTX 2070 is priced at min Rs 38000 and its benchmark score is 14,032 while AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT scores 13,804 at min Rs 37500.

The mistake I did here was that I trusted the ASUS TUF brand as they are Marketed as rated for military-grade components. It was also cheaper than other Models. But it is rated as worst 5700XT Card in online reviews. I normally read the reviews first but this time I skipped it. There is no performance issue, it's just that VRAM modules are not properly cooled on this card and run hot to up to 104°C, while VRAM is rated 90°C by its manufacturer. ASUS could have put more weight on the heatsink and cooled it better. While it's not going to affect any performance, but I would have rather gone with Sapphire RX 5700 XT Pulse OC 8GB for mere Rs 500 more.

SSD – It’s Fast and Furious

I selected the Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVME M.2 500GB drive. My old SATA Sandisk Extreme II SSD gave me Read speed of 450 MB/Sec while this one runs at 3.5GB/Sec. Writes speeds is also better. While the old one runs at 450 MB/sec, this one runs at 850MB/Sec. For comparison, Normal HDD runs at 100 MB/Sec Read and write.

SMPS – Full Modular

I had used Semi-Modular power supply before from Corsair. This time I went with Corsair RM750. It is fully modular and 80 plus Gold certified. 80 Plus (trademarked 80 PLUS) is a voluntary certification program intended to promote efficient energy use in computer power supply units (PSUs). 80 Plus Rating levels are White, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum & Titanium.

CPU Cooler – nothing fancy as the stock fan is COOLER.

For CPU cooler, I went with a stock cooler supplied with CPU. AMD Wraith Spire cooler is a nice cooler made by Cooler Master for AMD and works well under load unless you have huge overclocking in mind. A lot of RGB customization too.

Cabinet – Something Classy

Any good case like Asus Tuf Gaming GT501 or Cooler Master MASTERCASE H500P Mesh could be selected for Rs 13000, But I went with Cooler Master SL600M for 19000. It is a beautiful case with the power supply mounted behind the front panel vertically. Air is pushed from 2 big fans at the bottom to top. It is the first case to have vertical cooling and it makes the case very silent. With an Aluminum finish and tempered glass, this is a bit on the expensive side of cabinets. A lot of space to mount SATA SSDs and two HHD mounts are hidden in the front panel. It looks very clean inside and you can’t find any SATA drives, while I mounted two HDD in front & one SSD behind Motherboard.

Monitors – I am broke now

I haven't bought the monitors and still using my old two Benq GW2780 27” inch monitors but decided on what to buy. I wanted to go with 27-inch frameless monitors with a 144Hz refresh rate with Freesync and good stand to offer height, tilt and swivel adjustments. These criteria were cleared by two monitors. One Asus ROG Strix XG27VQ and second Gigabyte Aorus CV27F. First, I settled for Asus because of better cable management solution and ROG theme, of course, but launched in late 2018, but now I am choosing Gigabyte as it is rated for FREESYNC 2 and has better 165 Hz refresh rate and has launched recently in late 2019.

Keyboard, Mouse & HDD – Already have the best

I have the Asus Strix Flare keyboard that I bought a year ago. It features Cherry MX Red switches, the best mechanical switches out there (Cherry MX is the industry leader for mechanical switches). It also has a customizable illuminated badge, dedicated smooth-scrolling volume wheel, detachable wrist rest, one USB Port and Aura Sync (ROG Fanboy alert).

For mouse, I have Logitech G502 Hero gaming mouse with 11 fully programmable buttons, five 3.6g adjustable weights & scroll button has two modes. You can Unlock the scroll wheel for hyper-fast continuous scrolling to spin quickly through long pages, or lock it down for single click precision scrolling. It is one of the Best gaming mice but I have replaced it's left-click button once within a few months of usage. My finger is to blame as I keep my pointer finger at the very edge of the clickable area.

I also have WD Blue 4TB and 2TB HDDs from my old PC. 

Summary

Name	DarkPhoenix
Processor	44500	AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
Motherboard	27000	Asus Rog Strix X570-E Gaming
Graphics Card	37000	Asus TUF Gaming X3 RX 5700 XT OC 8GB
RAM	35800	2 X G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB (16GBx2) DDR4 3600MHz RGB
SSD	9700	Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB NVMe M.2
PSU	10000	Corsair RM750
Cabinet	19000	MASTERCASE SL600M
Monitor	97500	3 X Gigabyte Aorus CV27F 27"
Keyboard	15500	ROG Strix Flare (Cherry MX Red)
Mouse	4200	Logitech 502 Hero Gaming Mouse
HHD	4,400	Western Digital Blue 2TB  (WD20EZRZ) 5400 RPM
Total	304600	Rs

Accessories
HHD	8000	Western Digital Blue 4TB  (WD40EZRZ) 5400 RPM
Speakers	2600	Edifier XM2PF 2.1 Multimedia Speaker
Headphones	2400	Sennheiser PC 8 Over-Ear USB
Printer	13500	HP Laserjet Pro M1136
Gamepad	1400	Deepcool GamerStorm E-PAD Plus
Total	27900	Rs

Conclusion – How you like me now?

The total PC cost for the build is Rs 3 Lakh approx. Did you like it? The aesthetics have no relation with the performance of the PC but it becomes a facade to reflect the performance of your desktop that you can show off to others who don’t know anything about PC. If you want my help on building a new PC for a set budget, put your requirements in the comment below.

P.S. Regrets – Graphic card and my 4TB external drive

My old WD My Book 4TB external died on me. As I knew it was going to die soon, thus I didn't keep any important data on it. But all old offline software installers are lost and the movies I downloaded but didn't watch were on it. I accidentally quick formatted it while showing off my new PC to a friend as I was careless. I was unable to recover my lost data because of bad sectors on it. This was the first time I lost my data in 11 years of PC use. Not much useful data but still it is something that would haunt me for the rest of my life as I use to proudly say that I never lost any data. Well, I have to build my software library again now and buy a new External drive for back up.

Another regret is the Graphics card as described above. 

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