I didn't even know what a CPU was last week. Please Help!

[MsLolaQuinn]

I am in desperate need of a content creation PC after gracefully spilling tea all over my macbook pro

Here are the specs I am thinking of going with:

-Fractal Define 7 case
-AMD Ryzen 7 3700x CPU
-ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard
-16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 RAM
-6GB Nvidia Geforce RTX 2060 GPU
-500GB Seagate Barracuda 120 SSD
-2TB Seagate Ironwolf Pro drive
-Corsair 550W TXm Series 80+ Gold PSU
-CoolMaster Masterliquid Lie 240 Liquid Cooler (CPU cooling)
-Artic MX-4 Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound
-Wireless Intel WiFi 6 AX200 card

I need it to work on Premiere Pro and Indesign mainly, but I use other Adobe programmes sometimes too
And I would like to stream on Twitch aswell

I really need a USB C port because I have a couple USB C sticks which is why I chose the Fractal Define 7 case
I don't think I really need a fancy motherboard like the Crosshair VIII Hero but it was the only one I could find that had the headers for the USB C at the front of the case

I chose the GPU sort of at random (6GB Nvidia Geforce RTX 2060), will it do for editing videos and streaming?

One thing I'm worried about is things getting too hot because the case doesn't seem to allow for a lot of ventilation, especially to the CPU, so that's why I put the CoolMaster Masterliquid Lie 240 Liquid Cooler. Would that be sufficient? Maybe it's too much even? There was also a 120 version for £9 less but I put the 240 to be on the safe side? No idea where the 240 Liquid Cooler would be installed but I'm hoping there's space for that in a Fractal Define 7 case.

Also, when I went on pcpartpicker and input Corsair 550W TXm Series 80+ Gold as my PSU, it said:

The Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero ATX AM4 Motherboard has an additional 4-pin ATX power connector but the Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply does not. This connector is used to supply additional 12V current to the motherboard. While the system will likely still run without it, higher current demands such as extreme overclocking or large video card current draws may require it.

Is this true? Does it not have the additional 4 pin connector? Do I need to opt for a different PSU? PC Specialist didn't flag any compatibility issues but I'm not quite sure what the above means so if anyone knows, I'd greatly appreciate your advice. Thank you!

 

[snappyhappy2015]

I do a lot of Video editing using Premiere Pro and I feel that more ram would be more useful than a more expensive motherboard. I have just gotten the same case and the USB C socket works just fine with other motherboards { PCS do a lovely job with cable management }. Puget systems a major high end maker over in the USA have a good page with recommendations and bench marks for the suggested components for Premiere pro . There are a number of very knowledgeable mods and regular posters here in the forum who will give you the best advice

Hardware Recommendations for Adobe Premiere Pro

Our Workstations for Adobe Premiere Pro are tested and optimized to give you the best performance and reliability. View our hardware recommendations.

www.pugetsystems.com

 

[Martinr36]

If you post the spec as below along with your budget and what monitor you have resolution & refresh rate or make and model I'm sure someone will help you out

How to Post Your Specification to the Forum - Check this Spec

Just a first note, if you've been provided this link, don't amend your first post as it won't update the queue, please add an additional comment to the thread, that way it will go back to the front of the queue. Otherwise we don't know it's been updated. When creating a forum post looking to...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[Deciqher_]

I may be able to help a little.

The Fractal case is a quiet case meaning its not great for temperatures. The case includes 3 fans at the front in which is blocked so only air can come in from those slits on the edjes meaning this won't be a high air flow case. Personally I would change the case to something with higher air flow. Unfortunately PC specialist doesn't offer many nice cases at the moment but you could order one from amazon and send it in.

Your CPU and GPU would be fine for running premiere pro and other adobe products. Although you may want to wait for the 3060 ti or 3070 as these GPU's offer a large performance boost at just a smaller price increase.

I would personally get the 750W Corsair power supply. 550 may not be enough especially if running high intensive programs while twitch streaming.

Forgot the artic thermal paste, you wont really need it if you've got a good cpu cooler.

What speed RAM did you choose?

 

[Bigfoot]

I was informed on this forum that the Fractal Define 7 case is good for air flow as well as being quiet.

 

[AgentCooper]

I was informed on this forum that the Fractal Define 7 case is good for air flow as well as being quiet.

You were informed... correctly! Whilst any of the quiet cases always have to compromise on thermals, the Define 7 is by far the best of the bunch. It's all in the design and my go-to recommendation for anyone who desires a 'silent' system.

 

[SpyderTracks]

You were informed... correctly! Whilst any of the quiet cases always have to compromise on thermals, the Define 7 is by far the best of the bunch. It's all in the design and my go-to recommendation for anyone who desires a 'silent' system.

Furthermore, the airflow is only really in relation to if you're using an air cooler, which we would pretty much never recommend. An AIO mitigates the airflow issue greatly due to the radiator fans being on the roof of the case pushing straight out.

 

[snappyhappy2015]

Furthermore, the airflow is only really in relation to if you're using an air cooler, which we would pretty much never recommend. An AIO mitigates the airflow issue greatly due to the radiator fans being on the roof of the case pushing straight out.

I value a silent PC the vast majority of the time . I have replaced the Fractal 7 case fans with Noctua models the temps under normal situations, surfing, Photoshop ETC are excellent using a Noctua CPU cooler unit. AIDA 64 screen shot attached after 3hrs of surfing, Photoshop, some office work { excel and word }. The results below are from Gamers Nexus test of the case using an air cooler link to review below. Certainly with the doors shut the temps are on the high side , however opening the front door { it is hinged } and/ or removing the clip on dust filter ends up with an excellent thermal performance . The case also comes with an included mesh top if you so desire. I have played Doom eternal { for too long on it } edited and rendered a 4k video with zero thermal issues with just the door open. Personally I would take the mild inconvenience of opening a door when doing some heavy duty processing { when I will typically be wearing headphones anyway } . For total silence the rest of the time. I agree with you totally that an AIO would be the way to go if your usage case balance is the opposite of mine where 90% + of the time I am not doing demanding stuff { skiving } and only 10% doing anything that demands some oomph. However for less demanding usage pattern I would not rule out an air cooler

This is based on AMD 5950X, 6800XT, 64gb RAM X570 motherboard set-up

Fractal Define 7 Case Review: High Build Quality & Thermal Challenges | GamersNexus

stub We’ve been hot and cold on Fractal over the past couple years. Their whole lineup has had consistently high build quality, but our opinions have ranged from the highly-rated Meshify cases that have excellent cooling potential (with some aftermarket fans added in) down to the highly-priced...

www.gamersnexus.net

 

[MsLolaQuinn]

I do a lot of Video editing using Premiere Pro and I feel that more ram would be more useful than a more expensive motherboard. I have just gotten the same case and the USB C socket works just fine with other motherboards { PCS do a lovely job with cable management }. Puget systems a major high end maker over in the USA have a good page with recommendations and bench marks for the suggested components for Premiere pro . There are a number of very knowledgeable mods and regular posters here in the forum who will give you the best advice

Hardware Recommendations for Adobe Premiere Pro

Our Workstations for Adobe Premiere Pro are tested and optimized to give you the best performance and reliability. View our hardware recommendations.

www.pugetsystems.com

Thank you for your advice After looking at the recommendations on PugetSystems, I think I will definitely go for 32GB of RAM as that is the minimum recommendation for 1080p. I can always add more if I want to edit in 4K I suppose.

The motherboard options available on PC Specialist right now for me are:

ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS​

ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WIFI​

ASUS® STRIX B550-F GAMING​

GIGABYTE X570 GAMING X​

ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING​

ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING​

ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO​

Would these be able to connect to the USB C port at the front of the case? I thought that only the ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero and the Gigabyte X570 Gaming X could, but maybe I'm wrong.

The other thing I noticed on PugetSystems recommendations is they recommend using the Intel Corei9 10900K CPU but I think that is probably outside of my budget. Do you think the Ryzen 7 3700x would be good for editing in Premiere Pro?

 

[MsLolaQuinn]

If you post the spec as below along with your budget and what monitor you have resolution & refresh rate or make and model I'm sure someone will help you out

How to Post Your Specification to the Forum - Check this Spec

Just a first note, if you've been provided this link, don't amend your first post as it won't update the queue, please add an additional comment to the thread, that way it will go back to the front of the queue. Otherwise we don't know it's been updated. When creating a forum post looking to...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Thank you. My budget was originally £1300, but the spec below comes out to £1735 (with platinum warranty), I am hoping I can get some suggestions to at least bring it down below £1500. I have a very very old monitor so I will be buying a new one soon, I would appreciate any recommendations of a good monitor around £100 - £150. I don't need 4K.

Here is the full spec:

The specification below has been formatted so you can easily copy and paste this to our forums when discussing your specification. Once you've copied the specification, please click here to continue.
Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
500GB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 120 2.5" SSD, (up to 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Price: £1,735.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-workstation/57vsP8N3yk/

 

[MsLolaQuinn]

I may be able to help a little.

The Fractal case is a quiet case meaning its not great for temperatures. The case includes 3 fans at the front in which is blocked so only air can come in from those slits on the edjes meaning this won't be a high air flow case. Personally I would change the case to something with higher air flow. Unfortunately PC specialist doesn't offer many nice cases at the moment but you could order one from amazon and send it in.

Your CPU and GPU would be fine for running premiere pro and other adobe products. Although you may want to wait for the 3060 ti or 3070 as these GPU's offer a large performance boost at just a smaller price increase.

I would personally get the 750W Corsair power supply. 550 may not be enough especially if running high intensive programs while twitch streaming.

Forgot the artic thermal paste, you wont really need it if you've got a good cpu cooler.

What speed RAM did you choose?

Thank you for the advice I found this case on Amazon which looks quite nice, the Fractal Design Meshify S2.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Meshify-S2-Blackout-Dark-Tint/dp/B07MZZTYG5/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Would this one be significantly better than the Fractal Define 7?

I would like to have the 3060 ti/ 3070 but I saw it is only available for pre-order, I wonder would selecting that option mean a significant delay in receiving my PC? Not sure if it is known when PCS will get these GPUs? I unfortunately can't wait too long because I don't have a PC to do my work on at the moment.

I had originally put the Corsair 750W RMx PSU but then when I pressed 'proceed' a pop up window told me that 750W is too much and they recommend 550W which is why I changed it. I saw there's the option between the Corsair 750W TXm and the same but RMx. Do you know what the difference is?
Would something like playing GTA 5 while streaming be considered 'running high intensive programs'? I feel like I would probably come into more issues while doing my work such as opening several Adobe programs at the same time rather than whilst streaming. But maybe I'm wrong?

Is the CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler considered a good CPU cooler?

The RAM speed I put was 2666MHz.

 

[MsLolaQuinn]

You were informed... correctly! Whilst any of the quiet cases always have to compromise on thermals, the Define 7 is by far the best of the bunch. It's all in the design and my go-to recommendation for anyone who desires a 'silent' system.

Good to know I would say silent is not a necessary requirement for me personally but relatively quiet would be good. I don't want it to be super loud.

 

[Ash_]

I’m not familiar with the programs etc, so i’ll let others help you, but... put the SSD into the M2 slot.
You have two upgrades that won’t cost too much more (£35), faster ram and the R7 3800x. The motherboard in your build is insanely expensive, i’m sure one of the mods will be able to tell you, if this is something you can cut down on.

The rm 850w psu would be recommended, as it in not likely to ever need a replacement in the pc’s lifetime, where as a lower one very well could need upping (an issue i have right now with a 450w)

 

[MsLolaQuinn]

I value a silent PC the vast majority of the time . I have replaced the Fractal 7 case fans with Noctua models the temps under normal situations, surfing, Photoshop ETC are excellent using a Noctua CPU cooler unit. AIDA 64 screen shot attached after 3hrs of surfing, Photoshop, some office work { excel and word }. The results below are from Gamers Nexus test of the case using an air cooler link to review below. Certainly with the doors shut the temps are on the high side , however opening the front door { it is hinged } and/ or removing the clip on dust filter ends up with an excellent thermal performance . The case also comes with an included mesh top if you so desire. I have played Doom eternal { for too long on it } edited and rendered a 4k video with zero thermal issues with just the door open. Personally I would take the mild inconvenience of opening a door when doing some heavy duty processing { when I will typically be wearing headphones anyway } . For total silence the rest of the time. I agree with you totally that an AIO would be the way to go if your usage case balance is the opposite of mine where 90% + of the time I am not doing demanding stuff { skiving } and only 10% doing anything that demands some oomph. However for less demanding usage pattern I would not rule out an air cooler

This is based on AMD 5950X, 6800XT, 64gb RAM X570 motherboard set-up

Fractal Define 7 Case Review: High Build Quality & Thermal Challenges | GamersNexus

stub We’ve been hot and cold on Fractal over the past couple years. Their whole lineup has had consistently high build quality, but our opinions have ranged from the highly-rated Meshify cases that have excellent cooling potential (with some aftermarket fans added in) down to the highly-priced...

www.gamersnexus.net

View attachment 20896View attachment 20897

Thank you for this Did you get your Fractal Define 7 case from PCS? I was wondering whether they include the extra mesh top to swap out for the solid top if desired when sending the finished build.

Would you say the hinged door is sturdy? I am a clumsy person and I can guarantee I will forget it is open and walk into it one day so I am worried about damaging it.

Personally I don't see myself ever taking the filter off like Gamer Nexus has so maybe I should order a Fractal Design Meshify S2 on Amazon and send it in to PCS? I see on the above chart that the Meshify S2 is cooler, presumably without taking anything off it.

I will have to be doing demanding stuff on my PC at least 60% of the time which is why I put the AIO but I heard that the standard AMD CPU cooler is not bad either. Maybe I could get away with that if I get the Meshify S2 but I think personally I don't want to risk it. I'm definitely someone that sometimes has an absurd number of tabs and programs open on my PC so I think I could benefit from an AIO
Not sure if I could opt for the CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 120 High Performance Liquid Cooler instead of the 240 to save some money though.

 

[Ash_]

Good to know I would say silent is not a necessary requirement for me personally but relatively quiet would be good. I don't want it to be super loud.

I have an inwin 101 case, which is a budget case and i find it super quiet, to the point that i only know i’ve accidentally left the thing is on, because of the lights. So budget cases can certainly still be very quiet, my laptop on the other hand... sounds like a jet about to take off.

 

[MsLolaQuinn]

Haha, this was the same with my macbook pro, sounded like a jet and it would get very very hot, I really didn't like this.

I am now leaning towards getting a Fractal Meshify S2 case for better thermals and I saw on Gamers Nexus channel that this case produces about 37.7 dBA of sound, which sounds pretty reasonable to me

 

[Deciqher_]

Thank you for the advice I found this case on Amazon which looks quite nice, the Fractal Design Meshify S2.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Meshify-S2-Blackout-Dark-Tint/dp/B07MZZTYG5/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Would this one be significantly better than the Fractal Define 7?

I would like to have the 3060 ti/ 3070 but I saw it is only available for pre-order, I wonder would selecting that option mean a significant delay in receiving my PC? Not sure if it is known when PCS will get these GPUs? I unfortunately can't wait too long because I don't have a PC to do my work on at the moment.

I had originally put the Corsair 750W RMx PSU but then when I pressed 'proceed' a pop up window told me that 750W is too much and they recommend 550W which is why I changed it. I saw there's the option between the Corsair 750W TXm and the same but RMx. Do you know what the difference is?
Would something like playing GTA 5 while streaming be considered 'running high intensive programs'? I feel like I would probably come into more issues while doing my work such as opening several Adobe programs at the same time rather than whilst streaming. But maybe I'm wrong?

Is the CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler considered a good CPU cooler?

The RAM speed I put was 2666MHz.

If you want equal airflow using the Fractal Define 7 you'll have to open the door to equal the Meshify S2.

If your using the Fractal Define 7 you'll have to open the door to get equal airflow to the Meshify S2. However I beleive that the Meshify S2 would be less quiet but I'm not sure by how much.

Yeah the 3060ti and 3070 does have some waiting time but a 2060 would be okay for what your using it for

The difference between the TXm and RMx is that the TXm is semi modular whereas the RMx is fully modular. A higher PSU enables more expanablility for when you want to upgrade your computer.

Here's a comparion chart of the 240 vs 120:
Both 240 and 120 are good.

 

[MsLolaQuinn]

If you want equal airflow using the Fractal Define 7 you'll have to open the door to equal the Meshify S2.

If your using the Fractal Define 7 you'll have to open the door to get equal airflow to the Meshify S2. However I beleive that the Meshify S2 would be less quiet but I'm not sure by how much.

Yeah the 3060ti and 3070 does have some waiting time but a 2060 would be okay for what your using it for

The difference between the TXm and RMx is that the TXm is semi modular whereas the RMx is fully modular. A higher PSU enables more expanablility for when you want to upgrade your computer.

Here's a comparion chart of the 240 vs 120:
Both 240 and 120 are good.

View attachment 20907

Thank you, this is very helpful!

I think personally I will benefit more from the Meshify S2, the only drawback I can see is losing the option to add an optical drive but I can't remember the last time I have even held a CD.

On Gamer Nexus channel, it says that the Meshify S2 would make 37.7 dBA of sound, whereas the Define 7 would make 34.6dBA with the door closed and 38.9 dBA with the door open. Considering that I would have to do quite intense tasks rather frequently, meaning I'd have to have the door open a lot, the Meshify S2 seems like the quieter case.

Maybe I can upgrade to those or something else in a few years, I'm sure the price would be less aswell

Okay, I think I might go with the Corsair 750W or 850W RMx, hopefully it will last a long time. Fully modular seems like a good option for durability, in case I damage the motherboard wire.

I will see how much I can bring the price down of this build (hopefully), might get the 120 to save as much as I can

 

[SpyderTracks]

Haha, this was the same with my macbook pro, sounded like a jet and it would get very very hot, I really didn't like this.

I am now leaning towards getting a Fractal Meshify S2 case for better thermals and I saw on Gamers Nexus channel that this case produces about 37.7 dBA of sound, which sounds pretty reasonable to me

The meshify s2 is an amazing case, I built a friends high end rig with a 3950x and it’s very quiet.

 

[MsLolaQuinn]

This is what I would spec if I was in your shoes:

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2060 - HDMI, DP - VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Price: £1,565.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-workstation/xmF6vu65uX/

USB-C I'm afraid I have no clue as I don't really understand the differences. From the specs list of the various motherboards, I don't see why the X570 wouldn't be able to given it has a C port, though whether that's a rear port or connected to front is a different matter

Thank you. I need to look into using M.2 memory more as I don't know too much about them and their benefits. I'm assuming using M.2 might drive up the cost and considering I'm already over my budget, I might skip it.

I quite liked the ASUS TUF X570-PLUS GAMING motherboard when I was first looking to configure this PC. But from my understanding it only has a USB C port on the back but not enough headers on the board to connect it to the front USB C port on the case. I could be wrong but I think it needs another USB3.1 header on the board to be able to actually connect it to the USB C port on the front of the case.

I also liked the ASUS STRIX B550-F GAMING motherboard but I think it has the same problem. Not enough headers on the actual board to connect it.

Earlier I said that only the ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero and the Gigabyte X570 Gaming X have enough headers but I think I made a mistake, I think it's actually only the ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero and the ASUS ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING that have enough headers. I'm not sure, I will go look at the manufacturers website for each one in a minute.

But if anyone has used a ASUS ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING motherboard and can let me know if it's good, I'd appreciate it.