Hardware Planning to build a machine centered around i9-9900k...

[felix.200]

Ok, I think I've got something worth presenting:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - MasterLiquid 240 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($74.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z370 AORUS Gaming 5 (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($171.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($279.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($154.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: *EVGA - GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB XC GAMING Video Card ($1149.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C Dark TG ATX Mid Tower Case ($96.78 @ Walmart)
Power Supply: *EVGA - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ B&H)
Other: Core i9 9900k ($520.00)
Total: $2508.51
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-10 21:12 EDT-0400

So first off, the obvious disclaimer that neither the 9900k nor the 2080ti are released yet, so prices are either based off preorders or speculation. So the final total may be higher or lower than what's shown here

With that out of the way, I'd like to say that this is a build where everything is just. Stupidly overkill. To keep price down, I compromised a bit on the PSU and the cooler. I would like to make it clear, though, that what I have picked is still from reputable brands that make durable and premium products, it's just that what I've picked is slightly more wallet-friendly than their highest-tier

RAM is something that I've given you the option to upgrade; it has 2x16GB DIMMs, which means if, 5 or 10 years down the line, you somehow end up needing 64GB of RAM (holy shit), you can just pop an extra two DIMMS in and fly on your way

Storage could be both compromised and improved simultaneously. You have a 500GB NVMe drive right now, but that could easily be swapped for a lower class SSD with a bigger capacity, or even a smaller SSD, along with a gigantic hard drive + an Optaine drive for acceleration

Lemme know your thoughts? I'd obviously like to save you as much money as possible, so if there's stuff you're willing to shave down let me know

I think with this kind of a budget you can get some faster RAM maybe 3200MHz instead of 2133MHz. In some games you'll really feel the difference.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

and I haven’t built a machine since 2012. I haven’t been following advances in pc hardware either and this machine is going to be top notch. I do have some questions for the more knowledgeable people here.

1) what is the difference between m.2 and nvme?

2) do psu rated gold and plantium offer better stability or just longevity? Which brands are most reliable?

3) is water cooling reliable? “Sealed for life” coolers good? Stick to air cooling on the i9-9900k? It would be a light overclock if anything. Thoughts?

4) is z370 currently the best mobo for an i9-9900k and which brands are most reliable?

5) in the past I’ve used only power strips that were generic that offer surge protection. I feel like it would have been a pretty poor amount of protection if it was ever needed. I’d like proper protection this time and would like to know what that entails?

6) do you have any questions or advice for me? Important to know planned specs are i9-9900k; 2080ti, minimum 64gb ram.

1) NVMe is m.2, however m.2 is not always NVMe. m.2 can support both NVMe/PCI-e and AHCI/SATA drives, or just one or the other, but modern motherboards will at the very least support NVMe, and maybe SATA. NVMe is much faster so there's no reason to go for SATA (you have separate drive bays for that anyway)
2) Neither, they offer better power efficiency so your PC draws less power, that's the whole point. That being said, always go for 80 Plus Gold at minimum, if platinum doesn't cost a whole lot more that's even better.
3) AIOs seem good, and they are a whole lot less work than custom watercooling. With custom watercooling you not only have to worry about building the thing: fittings, tubing, pump, reservoir, but you also have to worry about regular maintenance such as draining and cleaning.
4) Not sure. But motherboard is one of the few things you can cheap out on, just make sure it has quality capacitors (manufacturers will sometimes advertise this as a feature) as those can fail. And if you plan to overclock, not every motherboard will allow that (the z370 however does since the Z series is the enthusiast line). But you might find that there's not actually much difference between the z370 based motherboards, mostly just a different assortment of rear ports, PCIe and NVMe slots.
5) A quality UPS will provide good protection and they also come with a warranty for connected components, but actually getting anything back from that warranty might be tricky.
6) Well, first of all, do you really need an i9? In other words, are you going to be performing a lot of very CPU intensive multithreaded tasks on it? (Note: Games are not very CPU intensive nor do they multithread well. This might change in the future, but by that point you can get a CPU equivalent to an i9 for a third of the price or less)
If not, it's just a waste of money.
Also, maybe start with 2x16GB sticks. You can always add 2 more later when RAM is cheaper. 64GB is overkill, unless you have a very specific use for it.

 

[Kioku]

I think with this kind of a budget you can get some faster RAM maybe 3200MHz instead of 2133MHz. In some games you'll really feel the difference.

I always aim for 3000 minimum with solid timings.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

1) NVMe is m.2, however m.2 is not always NVMe. m.2 can support both NVMe/PCI-e and AHCI/SATA drives, or just one or the other, but modern motherboards will at the very least support NVMe, and maybe SATA. NVMe is much faster so there's no reason to go for SATA (you have separate drive bays for that anyway)
2) Neither, they offer better power efficiency so your PC draws less power, that's the whole point. That being said, always go for 80 Plus Gold at minimum, if platinum doesn't cost a whole lot more that's even better.
3) AIOs seem good, and they are a whole lot less work than custom watercooling. With custom watercooling you not only have to worry about building the thing: fittings, tubing, pump, reservoir, but you also have to worry about regular maintenance such as draining and cleaning.
4) Not sure. But motherboard is one of the few things you can cheap out on, just make sure it has quality capacitors (manufacturers will sometimes advertise this as a feature) as those can fail. And if you plan to overclock, not every motherboard will allow that (the z370 however does since the Z series is the enthusiast line). But you might find that there's not actually much difference between the z370 based motherboards, mostly just a different assortment of rear ports, PCIe and NVMe slots.
5) A quality UPS will provide good protection and they also come with a warranty for connected components, but actually getting anything back from that warranty might be tricky.
6) Well, first of all, do you really need an i9? In other words, are you going to be performing a lot of very CPU intensive multithreaded tasks on it? (Note: Games are not very CPU intensive nor do they multithread well. This might change in the future, but by that point you can get a CPU equivalent to an i9 for a third of the price or less)
If not, it's just a waste of money.
Also, maybe start with 2x16GB sticks. You can always add 2 more later when RAM is cheaper. 64GB is overkill, unless you have a very specific use for it.

"Games are not very CPU intensive". That's actually not true anymore. There are some that draw more on the GPU side.. However games like Ark, Arma, and even Battlefield 1 benefit more from a stronger CPU. However, the i9 MAY be a bit much for strictly gaming.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I always aim for 3000 minimum with solid timings.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


"Games are not very CPU intensive". That's actually not true anymore. There are some that draw more on the GPU side.. However games like Ark, Arma, and even Battlefield 1 benefit more from a stronger CPU. However, the i9 MAY be a bit much for strictly gaming.

I have seen the benchmarks. When I say "very CPU intensive" I'm thinking of stuff like 3D rendering on the CPU, video editing/encoding, various simulation software (physics etc) and stuff like that. That's the kind of thing you'd need an i9 for, games are nothing by comparison.
And there is no game that will give an i7-8700k any trouble even at high refresh rates.

 

[felix.200]

For storage I would get a fast SSD with about 256-512GB and a 2-4 TB HDD where you can store all those steam games you bought but never played

 

[DKB]

I have seen the benchmarks. When I say "very CPU intensive" I'm thinking of stuff like 3D rendering on the CPU, video editing/encoding, various simulation software (physics etc) and stuff like that. That's the kind of thing you'd need an i9 for, games are nothing by comparison.
And there is no game that will give an i7-8700k any trouble even at high refresh rates.

minecraft with shaders (and no shaders at times)

 

[Kioku]

minecraft with shaders (and no shaders at times)

Minecraft is too much for this world.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I have seen the benchmarks. When I say "very CPU intensive" I'm thinking of stuff like 3D rendering on the CPU, video editing/encoding, various simulation software (physics etc) and stuff like that. That's the kind of thing you'd need an i9 for, games are nothing by comparison.
And there is no game that will give an i7-8700k any trouble even at high refresh rates.

He wants something that will stay relavant for 10+ years. Again, I doubt the i9 would be worth it for the marginal performance gain, but it still may be

 

[The Real Jdbye]

He wants something that will stay relavant for 10+ years. Again, I doubt the i9 would be worth it for the marginal performance gain, but it still may be

In all likelyhood an i9 won't still be good in 10 years. Better to spend the money saved on an upgrade later.

 

[Classicgamer]

Ok, I think I've got something worth presenting:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - MasterLiquid 240 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($74.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z370 AORUS Gaming 5 (rev. 1.0) ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($171.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($279.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung - 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($154.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: *EVGA - GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB XC GAMING Video Card ($1149.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design - Meshify C Dark TG ATX Mid Tower Case ($96.78 @ Walmart)
Power Supply: *EVGA - 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ B&H)
Other: Core i9 9900k ($520.00)
Total: $2508.51
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-09-10 21:12 EDT-0400

So first off, the obvious disclaimer that neither the 9900k nor the 2080ti are released yet, so prices are either based off preorders or speculation. So the final total may be higher or lower than what's shown here

With that out of the way, I'd like to say that this is a build where everything is just. Stupidly overkill. To keep price down, I compromised a bit on the PSU and the cooler. I would like to make it clear, though, that what I have picked is still from reputable brands that make durable and premium products, it's just that what I've picked is slightly more wallet-friendly than their highest-tier

RAM is something that I've given you the option to upgrade; it has 2x16GB DIMMs, which means if, 5 or 10 years down the line, you somehow end up needing 64GB of RAM (holy shit), you can just pop an extra two DIMMS in and fly on your way

Storage could be both compromised and improved simultaneously. You have a 500GB NVMe drive right now, but that could easily be swapped for a lower class SSD with a bigger capacity, or even a smaller SSD, along with a gigantic hard drive + an Optaine drive for acceleration

Lemme know your thoughts? I'd obviously like to save you as much money as possible, so if there's stuff you're willing to shave down let me know

Good info!

I’d like a cooler that will keep the 9900k as frosty as possible. I recall water cooling to be finicky and high maintenance so to see aio coolers maintenance free is a joy! Do they have replacement periods? I guess if temps creep up over the years the block must be gunking up? LoL


I’m excited to see what the z390 brings to the table. I’m wondering what todays current reliable mobo brands are - im seeing a lot of reviews around Asus, gigabyte and msi?

I would like top notch ram and timings for sure. I only put 16gb in my 3770k because ram was cheap then. Like stupid cheap. I will take your advice and only use 32gb for now

The nvme is a must. However, I’m thinking of going 1tb with a backup sata. I’m reading terms like intel optaine support and such...?

I will get a Blu-ray drive with some
sort of burning capacity though - definitely still have cd-rom games LoL

I’m highly anticipating the 2080ti reviews. I don’t care much for 10% increases in current games though and would likely get a 1080ti in that case. Again- names like evga, MSI and gibabyte come up with various overclocking and speed differences?

The psu...oh brother...this is one of the items I feel id like the highest quality part available. Name brand and reliability matter for me here within reason.

I see you shaving money down yet I’m shaving them up for you haha

6) Well, first of all, do you really need an i9? In other words, are you going to be performing a lot of very CPU intensive multithreaded tasks on it? (Note: Games are not very CPU intensive nor do they multithread well. This might change in the future, but by that point you can get a CPU equivalent to an i9 for a third of the price or less)
If not, it's just a waste of money.

Well a lot of cycle accurate emulators are heavy cpu intensive. I much prefer this to my original systems with heavy shader usage

While a 9900k would likely be overkill for them most likely it does future proof me for them. I do plan on checking out performance numbers as them come out from more reviews - 10% gain, if that, isn’t worth the price tag for sure. Then the next question would be 9700k? 8700k? I’m excited to see how the 9900k fairs next month!


Also is the 9xxx series specter and meltdown patched at the hardware level?

For storage I would get a fast SSD with about 256-512GB and a 2-4 TB HDD where you can store all those steam games you bought but never played

Haha I don’t have many steam games like that. That problem lies on my Switch!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Good info!

I’d like a cooler that will keep the 9900k as frosty as possible. I recall water cooling to be finicky and high maintenance so to see aio coolers maintenance free is a joy! Do they have replacement periods? I guess if temps creep up over the years the block must be gunking up? LoL


I’m excited to see what the z390 brings to the table. I’m wondering what todays current reliable mobo brands are - im seeing a lot of reviews around Asus, gigabyte and msi?

I would like top notch ram and timings for sure. I only put 16gb in my 3770k because ram was cheap then. Like stupid cheap. I will take your advice and only use 32gb for now

The nvme is a must. However, I’m thinking of going 1tb with a backup sata. I’m reading terms like intel optaine support and such...?

I will get a Blu-ray drive with some
sort of burning capacity though - definitely still have cd-rom games LoL

I’m highly anticipating the 2080ti reviews. I don’t care much for 10% increases in current games though and would likely get a 1080ti in that case. Again- names like evga, MSI and gibabyte come up with various overclocking and speed differences?

The psu...oh brother...this is one of the items I feel id like the highest quality part available. Name brand and reliability matter for me here within reason.

I see you shaving money down yet I’m shaving them up for you haha



Well a lot of cycle accurate emulators are heavy cpu intensive. I much prefer this to my original systems with heavy shader usage

While a 9900k would likely be overkill for them most likely it does future proof me for them. I do plan on checking out performance numbers as them come out from more reviews - 10% gain, if that, isn’t worth the price tag for sure. Then the next question would be 9700k? 8700k? I’m excited to see how the 9900k fairs next month!


Also is the 9xxx series specter and meltdown patched at the hardware level?




Haha I don’t have many steam games like that. That problem lies on my Switch!

Emulators don't make use of heavy multithreading though (they can't, due to the hardware they're emulating), so an i9 isn't going to benefit you there.
But well, we don't even know what the price of the 9900k will be yet. If it's cheaper than the previous i9 offerings, it might still be worth it for future proofing. 8 cores (as is rumored) is not an insane number, so hopefully the price will be reasonable.
The new Intel CPUs will indeed be Spectre and Meltdown patched, as well as Foreshadow.

 

[Classicgamer]

Emulators don't make use of heavy multithreading though (they can't, due to the hardware they're emulating), so an i9 isn't going to benefit you there.
But well, we don't even know what the price of the 9900k will be yet. If it's cheaper than the previous i9 offerings, it might still be worth it for future proofing. 8 cores (as is rumored) is not an insane number, so hopefully the price will be reasonable.
The new Intel CPUs will indeed be Spectre and Meltdown patched, as well as Foreshadow.

Good points! Some utilize two cores like Dolphin but not extensively. I mainly meant the high single core clock.

Im really glad specter and meltdown are fixed at the hardware level here.

 

[Kioku]

For PSU, I'd recommend an EVGA G2/G3 or P2/P3 series. Their warranties and customer service are pretty amazing imo.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

God, you are like. The dream client lol, you're basically giving me no constraints for designing the system XD

Ooooookay, this is slightly different than what I usually do, because again, I usually try to balance performance and cost, whereas you're trying to build a system that's really not very cost-effective. That said, I'll do a revision later today and see what you have to say about the price it will come to (because didn't you say some of the money would be going towards kids' education?)

And also yeah, I'll respond to your stuff as well:

I’d like a cooler that will keep the 9900k as frosty as possible. I recall water cooling to be finicky and high maintenance so to see aio coolers maintenance free is a joy! Do they have replacement periods? I guess if temps creep up over the years the block must be gunking up? LoL

So obviously liquid coolers are a little more complex mechanically than air coolers, which means that logically they have more potential points of failure (leaks, clogs, pump failures, etc.). That said, today's AIOs are much better than the DIY kits of yesteryear; they're completely sealed (some of them you can open for maintenance, although it may void the warranty, others you definitely can't), but all of them include fluid in them that is designed to be not only thermally efficient, but also to kill any potential contaminants that may enter the system. Plus, compared to the rest of the system, this is dirt cheap So if one fails outside of the warranty period (which is actually pretty lengthy for some, but that's something you may want to research on your own), you can realistically just get another one and eat the ~week of downtime

Alternatively, there are also some pretty thicc air coolers for around the same price we can look at as well, if you want negligibly hotter temps for potentially much higher fault tolerance

I’m excited to see what the z390 brings to the table. I’m wondering what todays current reliable mobo brands are - im seeing a lot of reviews around Asus, gigabyte and msi?

Gotta admit, I completely forgot about that as well. Depending on features compared to quality, that may also potentially make the build cheaper. And yeah, the boards I recommend will usually come from ASUS or Gigabyte at this price range, although MSI may catch my eye as well and are just as good as the other two (I just don't have any experience with them)

I would like top notch ram and timings for sure. I only put 16gb in my 3770k because ram was cheap then. Like stupid cheap. I will take your advice and only use 32gb for now

Noted. RAM prices are annoying right now, but not as bad as they were a few months ago

The nvme is a must. However, I’m thinking of going 1tb with a backup sata.

So when you say "backup", do you mean a drive for games/videos/documents? Or do you mean something that you could use a software solution to clone important data to?

I’m reading terms like intel optaine support and such...?

Yup! It's a relatively young technology by Intel that uses a special Intel SSD module to effectively cache frequently accessed files on a SATA hard drive of your choosing. The idea is that after a restart or two, you'll get SSD-like performance on a mechanical hard drive

I will get a Blu-ray drive with some sort of burning capacity though - definitely still have cd-rom games LoL

Oh, that's something I didn't even think to ask. I'll find a case with a 5.25" bay in it for the revision then

I’m highly anticipating the 2080ti reviews. I don’t care much for 10% increases in current games though and would likely get a 1080ti in that case. Again- names like evga, MSI and gibabyte come up with various overclocking and speed differences?

EVGA is generally regarded as THE brand to get NVidia cards from, although MSI is definitely a contender. I've never bought a Gigabyte card, and don't know that I ever would. That said, my reasoning is based more on aesthetics than anything; I just really don't like the looks of their cards

The psu...oh brother...this is one of the items I feel id like the highest quality part available. Name brand and reliability matter for me here within reason.

Agreed, I let the parametric decide but I agree that the PSU it picked is a little wimpy. I'll properly pick on next time, then[/QUOTE]

 

[silvershadow]

64gb of ram.

A friend of mine runs chrome with all tabs open. Groups them in sections so its easy to find common everyday sites versus one time look sites. Not sure if he maxes out the 64gb though.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

64gb of ram.

A friend of mine runs chrome with all tabs open. Groups them in sections so its easy to find common everyday sites versus one time look sites. Not sure if he maxes out the 64gb though.

"All tabs open" doesn't it cap at something like 255?

Edit: Nope, the current record is 100,022

 

[linuxares]

650w with a 2080 Ti and an i9. That's just asking for trouble.

 

[fatsquirrel]

If I were you Id buy an I7 and donate the rest of the money to local charity instead.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

650w with a 2080 Ti and an i9. That's just asking for trouble.

I did the math, it should work just fine actually. I'm redoing the part list almost completely tonight though

 

[Classicgamer]

If I were you Id buy an I7 and donate the rest of the money to local charity instead.

My wife does lot of charity work. I’m keeping about 10% for my pc and the rest is in savings for schooling and life. After all the furnace is 35 years old, water heater is 14yrs old and ac unit 12yrs old lol