Here goes...

[travs]

Little bit of background. I've built a few pc's but my main desktop (built 8 years ago) has recently died. I built a replacement (similar to specs below) and spent about 6 weeks trying to get to the bottom of a regular DPC Watchdog Violation bsod without any luck. This has led me here. I'm now happy to pay a little extra for the experience and expertise of professionals and for the peace of mind.

My budget is definitely a max of £2,000 but I don't really want to spend that much.
It's going to be a all rounder workhorse with video editing and encoding as well as some gaming and will also be a media server and possibly a VM or 2! I've lots of drives I'll be loading in (possibly up to 6 HDD's and 2 SSD's) in addition to the M.2 in the spec. I'm not bothered about RGB, it's all about functionality for me. I'm also after longevity. I don't expect the 8 years I got from my last pc but I'm happy to pay a little extra for some "future proofing" (whatever that means).

As for my monitor, I've a couple of old 1080p monitors that aren't very good but if all goes well with a new pc I'll be on the lookout for a budget 1440p at a later date.

Here's where I'm at so far. I'm not sure whether to go for Corsair H100i or Noctua air cooler. All feedback is welcome - thanks:

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 5700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
NOT REQUIRED
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 520 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 5000MB/R, 4400MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
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 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/t0fkAMAxU2/

 

[SpyderTracks]

Motherboard - I don't believe the Rog Strix boards are worth the £70 premium you pay for them but motherboards are an area where my knowledge is lacking.

GPU I'd go with NVIDIA but the price increase is a fair bit.

ALl I'd really change is to upgrade the cooler to the H115i RGB Platinum as it is the best cooler and is only £11 more than the H110i and up the warranty to SIlver (£6 for much better coverage). That would take you £15 over the £2k but would be worth it..changing the motherboard would bring the price well below budget but that will need someone more knowledgeable than me to comment on

With anything over the 3800x it's worth going for the Strix as it has better VRM capabilities which is all important with the higher end Ryzens.

 

[travs]

Great input - thanks @Nursemorph and @SpyderTracks. I'm definitely going to remove the extra case fans, up the warranty and go for the H115i.

Shame the 850w psu is no longer in stock. Will the 750w suffice with say an extra 8 drives (eg. 6 HDD and 2 SSD) or should I bite the bullet on the 1200w (ouch)?

Also which Nvidia GPU would be the best choice comparatively instead of the 5700xt and why go Nvidia over AMD?

Thanks again.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Great input - thanks @Nursemorph and @SpyderTracks. I'm definitely going to remove the extra case fans, up the warranty and go for the H115i.

Shame the 850w psu is no longer in stock. Will the 750w suffice with say an extra 8 drives (eg. 6 HDD and 2 SSD) or should I bite the bullet on the 1200w (ouch)?

Also which Nvidia GPU would be the best choice comparatively instead of the 5700xt and why go Nvidia over AMD?

Thanks again.

I believe the 1000w is still in stock? I would take that as it's an amazing PSU.

The RTX 2070 would be the equivalent of the 5700XT and uses a lot less power also.

NVidia tend to have far better driver support, the AMD cards have had a lot of driver issues over the last year. I do think the 5000 series AMD cards are cursed with the issues they've faced, they've had constant problems.

 

[travs]

Awesome - thanks @SpyderTracks . The 1000w isn't showing as in stock for me so I'll go for safe over sorry with the 1200w. Given I want a nice stable problem free build I think I'll swallow the price difference and go for the 2070.

Really appreciate the help (and you too @Nursemorph )

 

[SpyderTracks]

Awesome - thanks @SpyderTracks . The 1000w isn't showing as in stock for me so I'll go for safe over sorry with the 1200w. Given I want a nice stable problem free build I think I'll swallow the price difference and go for the 2070.

Really appreciate the help (and you too @Nursemorph )

Aw that's a shame... The 1200W is just another level of quality, it really is a bit of a work of art, it's certainly not a bad thing to have in your system. It's the kind of PSU that you can carry over on builds for the next 15 years. It will also drastically reduce noise on the system. Incredible PSU's.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I did hear reports recently that PSU stocks worldwide were facing shortages along with a few other components, looks like that's being realised in the UK now....