Technical Disruption - PCs, Gaming, Content Creation

AMD 3950x and Gigabyte PC Build (Gaming and Media Creation Build)

Build Reason: I have a mixed use case and wanted an updated Windows computer for gaming and media creation. I play mainly first person shooters such as PUBG, Overwatch, Call of Duty, Apex. I am a medium to low skill player but have been gaming almost my entire life. For medium creation I consider myself a prosumer photographer and videographer. I like to work with Adobe Lightroom Classic, Davinci Resolve, Adobe Premier, OBS, and ON1 Photo Raw software packages. I have a Sony A7R3, Canon 5d3, and several GoPros that produce large 4k video files and images.

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Google Docs Write Up Version

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Summary Video

Part	Model	Link	Why Purchased	Post Build Comments
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 3950X	https://amzn.to/2Qrhu8F	Intel doesn’t seem to be getting it done in 2019 and while the 9900k looked good for gaming I wanted to try something better for media creation. The additional cores on the AMD chip just seem like it would be better for Lightroom and Davinci.	Very happy with this CPU and it is performing very well. Extremely easy to install.
Motherboard	GIGABYTE X570 AORUS Xtreme	https://amzn.to/37j7NQx	I wanted 3 NVME slots, no fan built into the motherboard, at least 3 sata ports, and a built in 10 GbE network port. I wanted a standard size ATX or reluctantly an extended ATX, which is what this one is.	No problems with the motherboard and it booted the first time. The BIOS is easy to access and use. I really would have preferred that the size was ATX rather than eATX. The larger size made my case very tight. 10GbE port seems to be more stable than a former Intel add in card I was using in a past computer. Happy with the purchase. Gigabyte software looks old and clunky and keeps trying to push 3rd party app installs on me when I need to update drivers. The extra 4 pin fan connections on the board ended up helping later on in the build due to some hard drive cooling issues.
Case	Corsair Crystal Series 680X RGB	https://amzn.to/2MCmc2d	-I like the looks of the case -It had modern USB connectivity on top. -It had slots for 3 hard drives (3.5) -I was of medium size and smaller than my former Corsair Graphite 600t case. -I generally have liked the Corsair brand.	Looks won over functionality with this case. Corsair claims that 3 hard drives and 3 SSDs can run in this case, which is grossly wrong. They can all physically fit in the case, but the spacing between the 3 hard drives is to small for airflow and this side of the case does not have any fans to cool them. The hard drives all end up overheating which for me was causing performance issues. This will also cause reduced hard drive life span. I am very disappointed with Corsair on this issue. If you have this issue you can remove the middle hard drive from the cage and lay it vertically in the case unmounted. While this visually doesn’t look great it reduced the heat significantly. The hard drive still functions normally. I also added a small Noctua fan to this side of the case this didn’t look impactful enough to the temperature. Issue #2: 360mm coolers have to be mounted in the front of the case rather than on top. I knew this part before I bought it, but what I didn’t know is that if you have a long graphics card, such as my 2080ti, then the 2 items will not fit in the case. They should have clarified this a bit more on their website. I had to return a Corsair 150i cooler and get a H115i. The smaller cooler is working just fine. I now don’t believe 360mm cooles are worth it. Other issues: The rubber O ring ? pieces that are used for the holes between the case compartments were quick to fall off and difficult to put back on. The iCue software looks comprehensive but is difficult to use. My RGB lights seem to be always running. I can set a red profile, but when my computer locks and sets idle it goes back to a rainbow display. I would like no color on lock. In general I do like how the case looks, the glass door and top is nice. Everything is mostly stable for now, but I am concerned that since I had to add the extra fans the desktop might be louder than I wanted. As I type this the PC sound is 48 decibels with my phone laying on the top of the case. Had I knew I was going to run into the above issues I would have strongly looked at other cases and perhaps compromised on my size requirements and gone with a bigger case.
GPU	EVGA Geoforce RTX 2080Ti FTW 3 Ultra	https://amzn.to/2tgjHf9	Gaming and media creation. This was the best at the time to get.	Although I hated the price point, which is still ridiculous, the card does work well and is easily overclocked. No problems with the card other than price.
Memory	CORSAIR VENGEANCELPX64GB	https://amzn.to/2ZHQhDb	I wanted at least 64gb of RAM using only 2 slots and 3600 speed. This is basically all that was available.	Happy seems to work ok. Make sure you enable XMP in your bios to get the 3600 speed boost.
Power Supply	Power Supply CORSAIR HX Series, HX1000	https://amzn.to/2SGsUYO	I had a power issue in a past computer build so I likely over purchased on this one.	No issues
Cooler	CORSAIR HYDRO Series H115i PRO RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler,280mm, Dual ML140 PWM Fans	https://amzn.to/2Fn4eNc	Required to keep the chip cool. I have had good experience with Corsair coolers.	No issues, fan direction was confusing based on their written instructions and the case instructions. I probably would have gotten the RGB version if it was in stock at the time. Mounting this on an AMD CPU was difficult. Keep the bolts loose, latch one side just slightly and then try to latch the other side trying to go in evenly on both sides. The iCue software looks comprehensive but is difficult to use.
Storage Tier 1	Storage/NVME Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe 4.0 Gen4	https://amzn.to/39hTqxT	-I wanted a high speed boot drive along with a gaming/cache drive. -I wanted to use the Gen 4 technology available with the AMD CPU and Motherboard. -I wanted 2tbs because managing storage on the boot drive is tedious with 1tb. I have certain programs (Adobe) that refuse to use any other drive for cache except C. -At the time of my purchase there were only vendors meeting the criteria (Gigabyte and Sabrent) and both were using Toshiba technology as I understand it. Gigabyte was $50 higher so I went with Sabrent. It is odd that Samsung is a no show with gen 4 technology as of Jan 2020.	Very easy to install on my board. They run faaast.. It is up for debate as to whether the improvements in my media software is from the NVMEs or CPU. I bought 2 of these and I am using the second one for quick media imports and cache for Davinci, Lightroom, and ON1 Photo 2020.
Storage Tier 2	Storage/SSD Samsung SSD 860 EVO 2TB	https://amzn.to/2t8CpWa	I had this already and I use it for second tier games, docs, some cache.	Always happy with my Samsung SSDs, but the price should be lowering after so many years.
Storage Tier 3	Toshiba X300 12TB Performance & Gaming Internal Hard Drive 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 256 MB Cache 3.5 inch - HDWR21CXZSTA	https://amzn.to/36szg2j	Toshiba has been performing good lately and with a competitive price point. I use this for original media with backups going to NAS.	Happy. This one seems noticeably fast for a hard drive.
Operating System	OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro	https://amzn.to/368wTRZ	Windows is great	No issue with install.
Monitor #1	Asus Swift PG279 Gaming Monitor	https://amzn.to/2ufoJcl	I had this already. I wanted a 27inch, 2k gaming monitor with at least 144mhz.	This monitor ended up being good enough for photo and video work as well. I have an older Dell ultrasharp and the color difference is not noticeable enough for the price premium of the ultrasharp.
Monitor #2	LG 27UD68-W 27-Inch 4K UHD IPS Monitor with FreeSync, Silver/White	https://amzn.to/37MpmsH	I had this already. I wanted a 4k monitor. This is more of a utility monitor for tools, apps while gaming, etc. I have not had any issues with it, but my past experience with LG has been very poor.	It could use more connectivity options.
Keyboard	Keyboard Logitech G915 Clicky	https://amzn.to/2SAbFs9	My old keyboard was falling apart and I wanted to try wireless again. I bought a logitech lightspeed mouse for gaming and was very happy with it so I wanted to try their keyboard. I generally like a gaming keyboard, dedicated media controls, and keys that have some response to them when activated.	I am very happy with this keyboard and I have been using it for several weeks (typing now on it). This version is way too expensive for a keyboard and I have a little bit of a foolish feeling for buying such an expensive keyboard. That being said it is working well. I am not experiencing any lag in Call of Duty, Overwatch etc. This is a full size keyboard but the keys seem slightly smaller or closer together, but I got use to that. This clicky version is very noisy. I would have liked to try the 3 different versions in a store but that was not an option. The wireless works as expected, and so far I don’t have to fiddle with connectivity. “It just works.” I would have like a USB port built into the keyboard for my fingerprint reader.
Mouse	Mouse Logitech G603	https://amzn.to/354NqVF	I had it already. I like a medium size mouse with minimalist buttons on the left side. More buttons are not always better especially in gaming.	Lightspeed tech is good. Impressed
Headphones	Logitech G935 Wireless DTS:X 7.1 Surround Sound LIGHTSYNC RGB PC Gaming Headset	https://amzn.to/36shbkW	I had these already. If you are into gaming on PC you need headphones. They make a difference in hearing footsteps. When I bought these I did significant research on headphones for gaming. I wanted something that had surround sound, wireless, 50mm drivers, and was comfortable	Happy with these. I think the customizable buttons are useless on any headphones. I wish the batteries would last longer and the battery compartment can accidentally easily open.
Exhaust Fan	Exhaust Fan Noctua NF-A14 iPPPC-3000 PWM	https://amzn.to/2QwZJos	I was having cooling issues with the hard drives so I bought a bunch of fans. Noctua has a great product. I replaced a 120mm case fan with this 140mm fan.	This fan is insanely loud at speed. Don’t buy it for your main case fans. I am reducing the speed in my bios. They work great but I should not have got the “heavy duty series”
Supplemental Intake	Intake Fans (Extra) Noctua NF-A14 iPPPC-2000 PWM	https://amzn.to/2tVMvdf	I was having cooling issues with the hard drives so I bought a bunch of fans. Noctua has a great product. I added 2 140mm fans at the bottom of the case.	I should have only bought one but it would have looked odd. The fans are very much cooling the GPU and CPU but they are contributing to noise. The CPU_Opt fan header on my board was not able to control the speed of one of these fans so it was running full speed all the time, which was defaning. I had to disable it for now. I would suggest not buying the heavy duty series for consumer PCs
Hard Drive Fan	(Extra) Noctua NF-A4x10 PWM	https://amzn.to/2MEaggF	I was having cooling issues with the hard drives so I bought a small fan to add close to the hard drives.	There wasn’t any clear place to mount the fan so I have it dangling on this side of the case. It is really just circulating the case air. On install it didn’t noticeably lower the temperature of the hard drives. I may disconnect it or try it again on the back grid of the case with an extension cable. Moving the middle hard drive seem to have the biggest temperature impact.
USB 3 Motherboard Cable Adapter	USB 3 Header	https://amzn.to/2MxqwzZ	I wanted to see and control my cpu and rgb lights in the corsair iCue software.	It worked. The iCue software is difficult.
USB C Extension Cable	USB C Extension Cable	https://amzn.to/2rGvjba	My old case had a built in panel for SD, MicroSD, and CF cards. I wanted a reader on my desk so this cord was needed.	It worked
USB C Hub Multiport Adapter	USB C Hub Multiport Adapter	https://amzn.to/2Q7V3Xo	I wanted a faster reader on my desk.	Works
Fingerprint Reader	Mini USB 3 Fingerprint Reader	https://amzn.to/369ZSF2	I had this already. Easy and secure log in via Windows Hello.	Ease to use and integrates with Windows, no burden of extra software.
USB C Hub Multiport Adapter	Cable Matter 10GBs USB Hub	https://amzn.to/354Hps3	I wanted a faster reader on my desk and a usb port for my finger print reader	It is only working via the USB port in the back of my case. I get an instant blue screen of death when using the USBC port on top of my case with this reader. I don’t know what that is about and I was close sending it back.
Web Camera	Logitech BRIO	https://amzn.to/2FmeNjB	I had it. Used for occasional video creation and streaming	Ok for web camera. 4k can’t be easily used anywhere. Image quality is not impressive. 2-3 year old phone cameras are often better.
Stream Deck	Elgato Stream Deck - Live Content Creation Controller with 15 Customizable LCD Keys	https://amzn.to/2SUyS8L	Fun toy for the most part. I use it to change lighting and monitoring the CPU usage, launching gaming apps.