New Gaming PC!

[DanIsBuyingAPC]

This is my new gaming PC spec, the only thing I'm not happy with is the monitor (it's a stopgap which I'll replace with the one I'm after once it's back in stock) and use the Ilyama as a secondary monitor with my 1080 Ti from my old machine (can anyone advise if this won't work?). I went with the Intel 10900K, most benchmarks I looked at (there weren't many as it's pretty new) put it top of the pack for everything except complex media work.

I'm thinking of grabbing another 2TB SSD drive and adding RAID at some point to increase the speed, I'm not sure on this as I did it with my last PC and noticed little difference in games but a large difference when I was working on large databases/videos and this is primarily a gaming PC.

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 Ten-Core Processor i9-10900K (3.7GHz) 20MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z490-F GAMING (LGA1200, USB 3.2, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 240 Series RGB High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy™ FX OEM
Monitor
IIYAMA ProLite B2791QSU-B1 27" WQHD

My two queries are, firstly will my monitor plan work - can I have the 1080 Ti and 2080 Ti installed at the same time? And is it worth putting two SSDs in RAID for a gaming PC? Theory says yes but experience says no.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Please don't order this, it's all kinds of wrong!

 

[SpyderTracks]

The 10900k is only relevant at 1080p for high FPS, outside of that it's actually outperformed by the £100 AMD 3300x. it's not a good CPU for normal gaming ie 1440p and above, none of the Intels are:

An AMD build would be far better and cost a lot less.

Aside from that, you've got 64Gb RAM, but gaming only utilises 16GB

You don't mention what resolution monitor you're going to be getting so it's hard to say if the build fits.

Why the soundcard?

The cooler isn't adequate.

It just doesn't make any sense as a gaming build. I would cancel and get some advice.

 

[DanIsBuyingAPC]

Thanks for the reply, the gaming I'm thinking of is Stellaris, Civ, Total War, etc. which are CPU bound to a greater extent hence my choosing the i9-10900. I know I'm splashing out a bit extra for a 3-5% improvement over the AMD top-of-the-line chip according to passmark, it's intentional. I have little spare time, every second I'm not waiting after hitting next turn is a win. I agree on GPU limited games it would be the AMD chip for sure.

I've chosen 64GB of RAM because I currently have 32GB of RAM and according to performance monitor I regularly max this out when I'm doing some image editing, have a game running on another screen, Netflix in the background, sometimes a virtual machine for work, etc. Soundcard is so that I can have a decent sound system attached. The display I'm going to wait a bit, I wanted a 4K screen but PCS had none in stock, therefore I'm going to wait a couple of months before making a decision on that front and the Ilyama is a reasonably priced stop gap.

So.… Can anyone answer these questions?

1. Which cooler would you advise if that one isn't sufficient?
2. Can I chuck in my 1080Ti as well? (I'm going to use an 850W PSU not a 650W as stated above)
3. Would you recommend RAID SSDs? (I've had them before and seen little gain)

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for the reply, the gaming I'm thinking of is Stellaris, Civ, Total War, etc. which are CPU bound to a greater extent hence my choosing the i9-10900. I know I'm splashing out a bit extra for a 3-5% improvement over the AMD top-of-the-line chip according to passmark, it's intentional. I have little spare time, every second I'm not waiting after hitting next turn is a win. I agree on GPU limited games it would be the AMD chip for sure.

I've chosen 64GB of RAM because I currently have 32GB of RAM and according to performance monitor I regularly max this out when I'm doing some image editing, have a game running on another screen, Netflix in the background, sometimes a virtual machine for work, etc. Soundcard is so that I can have a decent sound system attached. The display I'm going to wait a bit, I wanted a 4K screen but PCS had none in stock, therefore I'm going to wait a couple of months before making a decision on that front and the Ilyama is a reasonably priced stop gap.

So.… Can anyone answer these questions?

1. Which cooler would you advise if that one isn't sufficient?
2. Can I chuck in my 1080Ti as well? (I'm going to use an 850W PSU not a 650W as stated above)
3. Would you recommend RAID SSDs? (I've had them before and seen little gain)

Ok, if you'd stated those things at the start it would have made more sense.

1/. You'd need the H115i Platinum as a bare minimum on that CPU, but most reviewers actually suggest a 360mm Rad which would mean the H150i.

2/. You'd need more like a 1000w to have both the cards in, but you wouldn't be able to pair them for SLI so they would run independently.

3/. Raid is an old technology and rarely the correct solution these days as it doesn't really provide a speed boost with modern drives. And for redundancy there are far better methods.

 

[DanIsBuyingAPC]

Thanks for the advice! Time to go make a couple of changes - glad I ordered at the weekend when they're not working. On the RAID front I have RAID controllers on some of my other PCs/work PCs where it does make a difference on things like DBs/Video editing, etc. so I tried it on my last gaming PC and it seemed slower if anything.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for the advice! Time to go make a couple of changes - glad I ordered at the weekend when they're not working. On the RAID front I have RAID controllers on some of my other PCs/work PCs where it does make a difference on things like DBs/Video editing, etc. so I tried it on my last gaming PC and it seemed slower if anything.

I've just been reading more on the power requirements of the Chip and cooling.

Most people recommend a 360mm Rad on the cooler, 280mm as a minimum.

At full pelt, which gaming won't reach particularly even on more cpu based stuff, but more on the video editing, it's likely to push it quite hard, it can draw up to 330W just for the damn CPU!!!....

https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/gag8jh

Intel Core i9-10900K Review: Ten Cores, 5.3 GHz, and Excessive Power Draw

Kick the tires and light the TDP fires

www.tomshardware.com

So if you wanted to get the 2080ti plus the CPU plus your 1080ti, I would actually suggest getting a 1200W to be completely safe, that should leave 100W or so of headroom clear which you're going to want.

I think with regards to Raid, it may be more effective with a dedicated controller, but I don't think the board controllers would be able to push any meaningful higher speeds on M2's..... must admit though it's not my area of expertise.

 

[DanIsBuyingAPC]

That article was really handy - I sat down with a pencil and paper and came up with the current spec having about 150-200W of headroom when the 10900K and 2080 Ti were at full power drain, which means that the spare capacity is about 20%. There's nowhere near enough power for the 1080Ti as well.

Thanks a lot for the help!

 

[SpyderTracks]

That article was really handy - I sat down with a pencil and paper and came up with the current spec having about 150-200W of headroom when the 10900K and 2080 Ti were at full power drain, which means that the spare capacity is about 20%. There's nowhere near enough power for the 1080Ti as well.

Thanks a lot for the help!

It's a crazy hungry CPU, there's no doubt!

No worries, glad it helped.