Well my wife surprisingly gave me the okay for a modest budget ($1500-1600) to upgrade my P3Dv4 system. I've been limping along an I7-2600K build from late 2011 with respectable results, but it's time. Below is what I've come up with, any thoughts on system balance, or obvious poor choices etc... Rig is primarily for P3Dv4, but I do occasionally dabble in other games as well.

i7-9700k

ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-E

G.Skill DDR4 3200 32GB (2x 16GB, Cas 14)  Should I drop to 16GB and save some money?

EVGA GTX 1070 Ti (just purchased used, will reuse)

NZXT Kraken X62 AIO CPU Cooler

500GB WD Black SN750 M.2 2280 SSD

500GB Corsair SSD (reuse from current build)

NZXT H500 Case

Corsair AX850 Professional Series Gold 850W power supply (reuse from current build)

 

Thoughts?

I'd put a 2TB (min 1TB) HDD in there as well for backups and apps that don't need fast access. HDDs are very inexpensive so won't add much to your build.

Slight change of plans, I got to thinking and decided it probably wasn't wise to push my nearly 8 year old power supply into the new build. So I plan on using a new Corsair HX850i 850W instead.

I'm curious about 16 vs 32GB of RAM.. is the jump to 32GB worth it?

118 lookers and zero help other than Vortex the awesome flying bear above... super!  Who needs you guys! I can light money on fire all by myself! 😆

 

Anyhoo' I've done a bunch of homework over the past few days, putting together various mock builds and such... below is what I settled on, or rather what's on the way:

 

Jason's swing for the fence (ish) new P3D rig:

Case: NZXT H500 Black

Power Supply: Corsair HX850i, 850W 80+ Platinum Cert'd

CPU: I7-9700K (Plan to overclock, not sure how aggressively yet)

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E

CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X62 AIO

RAM: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series DDR4 3200, CAS 14 (I really struggled with this decision, I probably only needed 16GB. But future proofing, right? 🤪)

GPU: EVGA GTX 1070 Ti (Recently purchased a used one intending to upgrade the GTX 960 in the old rig. Obviously I'm going to run it in the new one until I can sell a kidney and mortgage my house to afford a 2080 someday)

OS Drive: SanDisk 480GB Ultra II SSD (reused from previous build)

P3D Drive: WD Black SN750 500GB NVMe M.2 2280 SSD

Backup & Storage Drive: Seagate BarraCuda 2TB

Other: NZXT RGB Exhaust Fans x2, NZXT HUE 2, NZXT GRID+v3

 

A lot has changed since I last built a PC in 2011! Here's hoping I chose wisely enough to pull off another 7 1/2 years with this build like I did my i7-2600k rig.

 

1 minute ago, Jason_Peters said:

RAM: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series DDR4 3200, CAS 14 (I really struggled with this decision, I probably only needed 16GB. But future proofing, right? 🤪)

Jason, I asked myself the same question when I built my new 9700K system and finally opted for 32GB (2x16) for future proofing. I don't regret it even though I never see all that RAM being used, but I often see up to 15GB in use when running P3D 4.5 in dense sceneries, and since I hate to be running close to the limit, the overhead makes me happy 😉

Best regards,

 

 

If this is the memory you're contemplating: https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-32gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820232560?Description=32GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series DDR4 3200%2c CAS 14&cm_re=32GB_G.Skill_Trident_Z_RGB_Series_DDR4_3200%2c_CAS_14-_-20-232-560-_-Product

Then you should jump right now and try not to make anybody make you feel guilty about the deal! Samsung B-Die that can be overclocked like a scalded cat!!  Very good stuff.  Also, since you seem to be able to go a number of years between builds you should be fine going with 32GB instead of 16.  By the time you build again 32GB may be too little!

If it were my build I'd be going with a bigger case that can easily handle a 360 radiator.  The 9xxx series CPU's are almost always heat limited rather than power limited.  They just run warm... keeping it cool should be a major priority.  Better cooling will of course help with the overclock, too.

HTH and good luck,

Greg

19 minutes ago, lownslo said:

If this is the memory you're contemplating: https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-32gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820232560?Description=32GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series DDR4 3200%2c CAS 14&cm_re=32GB_G.Skill_Trident_Z_RGB_Series_DDR4_3200%2c_CAS_14-_-20-232-560-_-Product

Then you should jump right now and try not to make anybody make you feel guilty about the deal!

Yep, that's the stuff. It's on the way! Glad I chose wisely... really struggled with the RAM decision.

19 minutes ago, lownslo said:

If it were my build I'd be going with a bigger case that can easily handle a 360 radiator.  The 9xxx series CPU's are almost always heat limited rather than power limited.  They just run warm... keeping it cool should be a major priority.  Better cooling will of course help with the overclock, too.

Yeah, I thought about that.  But, aesthetics won this round. I really want to put my case up on my desk this time to show off the build, hence the largely unnecessary, but super-cool RGB lighting stuff. My previous case, a Corsair Graphite 600T, is huge and resides under the desk hiding my nice build and trapping heat from the top mount H100i.  I'm hopeful the Kraken X62 will be up to the task and keep the temps reasonable, fingers crossed...

Edited May 27, 20197 yr by Jason_Peters

I’m running a 9700k 3.6ghz. 12 mb cach. 

Overclocked to 4.9 on all cores, useing Corsair H115i pro top mounted in a cooler master h500 mesh case,  max temp under load is 76c.

18 hours ago, MaDDogz said:

I’m running a 9700k 3.6ghz. 12 mb cach. 

Overclocked to 4.9 on all cores, useing Corsair H115i pro top mounted in a cooler master h500 mesh case,  max temp under load is 76c.

I’m using a different h500, NZXT. But it’s good to know that a smaller 280mm AIO cooler is able to keep the 9700k running cool. 

Well, I've spent the last few days assembling the build and the last day or so tinkering with the overclock and stress testing.

Pleased to report, the system is stable and running 5.2 on all cores! Idle temp holds at approx 35-40c (Would like to get this down a bit, may back down the overclock a tad). During stress testing, with all 8 cores running 100% load (a load level I seriously doubt I'd see in normal use) the cooling held strong averaging 75-77C with a brief max at 82C. Not too bad I'd say...only one real disappointment so far is I've been unable to get the RAM to run at 3200. I can't get it to post in either XMP or manual. It's a G.Skill TridentZ RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 3200 (F4-3200C14D-32GTZR).  Best I've done so far is 3000 at 14-14-14-36 1.35v, which is stable.  Not sure if I should continue searching for the quoted speeds or give up and be happy, I'm not the most seasoned overclocker...

Anyone have any thoughts/ideas?

Edited May 31, 20197 yr by Jason_Peters

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?108680-Asus-ROG-Strix-Z390-E-Gaming-I7-9700K-G-Skill-TridentZ-3200Mhz-issue

HTH,

Greg

Not sure how I missed this post.   You're on the same boat as me (or you were).  I've got a GTX 980 with 2500K at 4Ghz.  I've franksteined most of the parts in it...I've got mix and match 16GB ram and that video card I got second hand.   I have a 1TB storage drive with a 500GB SSD.  Nearly all of my drives are full.

The CPU needs to be upgraded badly.  And then the rest of the board and I really need a new GPU with 8GB VRAM.  

I also use XP11 and it can be RAM heavy so I'd go 32GB like you.  But the video card choice will be expensive...I like that 1070 Ti as well.

5.2 GHz?  That's really awesome!  Hope you get the RAM figured out.  Gskill is usually so excellent!

On 5/30/2019 at 11:04 PM, lownslo said:

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?108680-Asus-ROG-Strix-Z390-E-Gaming-I7-9700K-G-Skill-TridentZ-3200Mhz-issue

HTH,

Greg

Greg, thanks for this! I'm not sure how I missed this last night while searching for a solution!  At any rate, I utilized a few of the settings mentioned and now have the RAM running at 3200Mhz as advertised.  Though I'm still not on the XMP profile (May try it tomorrow), running with it manually set to the correct numbers.

 

15 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

Not sure how I missed this post.   You're on the same boat as me (or you were).  I've got a GTX 980 with 2500K at 4Ghz.  I've franksteined most of the parts in it...I've got mix and match 16GB ram and that video card I got second hand.   I have a 1TB storage drive with a 500GB SSD.  Nearly all of my drives are full.

The CPU needs to be upgraded badly.  And then the rest of the board and I really need a new GPU with 8GB VRAM.  

I also use XP11 and it can be RAM heavy so I'd go 32GB like you.  But the video card choice will be expensive...I like that 1070 Ti as well.

5.2 GHz?  That's really awesome!  Hope you get the RAM figured out.  Gskill is usually so excellent!

Ryan, yeah the 2600k was a beast! I got nearly 8 years out of that build and it was still putting up respectable performance.  But like you I've been ready for an upgrade for some time, and when the wife gave me the go ahead I swung as close to the fence as I could afford.

 

So far I'm quite pleased.  I was running 5.2GHz without issue, but wasn't happy with the temps even though they were safe.  I've since backed it down to 5.1GHz which appears to have made a really nice improvement 8-10C drop in the temps under 100% load.  Though I'm still idling at 35-40C, and would really like to bring that down a bit.  It'll be a few more days of testing and tweaking my overclocking, AIO, and fan settings before I'm ready to install P3D again.  Hopefully this system crushes P3Dv4 without issue!

 

If you have time let us know ...I'm curious to see the results of P3D

On 6/1/2019 at 5:33 AM, Jason_Peters said:

Greg, thanks for this! I'm not sure how I missed this last night while searching for a solution!  At any rate, I utilized a few of the settings mentioned and now have the RAM running at 3200Mhz as advertised.  Though I'm still not on the XMP profile (May try it tomorrow), running with it manually set to the correct numbers.

 

Ryan, yeah the 2600k was a beast! I got nearly 8 years out of that build and it was still putting up respectable performance.  But like you I've been ready for an upgrade for some time, and when the wife gave me the go ahead I swung as close to the fence as I could afford.

 

So far I'm quite pleased.  I was running 5.2GHz without issue, but wasn't happy with the temps even though they were safe.  I've since backed it down to 5.1GHz which appears to have made a really nice improvement 8-10C drop in the temps under 100% load.  Though I'm still idling at 35-40C, and would really like to bring that down a bit.  It'll be a few more days of testing and tweaking my overclocking, AIO, and fan settings before I'm ready to install P3D again.  Hopefully this system crushes P3Dv4 without issue!

 

What software are you useing for fan curves?