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.
I have
other content about this build on my youtube channel. Please check it
out, like, and subscribe.
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Part
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Model
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Link
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Why Purchased
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Post Build Comments
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CPU
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AMD
Ryzen 9 3950X
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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.
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Very happy with this CPU and it is performing very
well. Extremely easy to install.
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Motherboard
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GIGABYTE X570 AORUS Xtreme
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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.
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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.
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Case
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Corsair Crystal Series 680X RGB
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-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.
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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.
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GPU
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EVGA Geoforce RTX 2080Ti FTW 3 Ultra
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Gaming
and media creation. This was the best at the time to get.
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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.
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Memory
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CORSAIR VENGEANCELPX64GB
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I wanted
at least 64gb of RAM using only 2 slots and 3600 speed. This is
basically all that was available.
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Happy
seems to work ok. Make sure you enable XMP in your bios to get the 3600
speed boost.
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Power Supply
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Power Supply CORSAIR HX Series, HX1000
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I had a
power issue in a past computer build so I likely over purchased on this one.
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No
issues
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Cooler
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CORSAIR HYDRO Series H115i PRO RGB AIO Liquid CPU
Cooler,280mm, Dual ML140 PWM Fans
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Required
to keep the chip cool. I have had good experience with Corsair coolers.
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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.
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Storage Tier 1
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Storage/NVME Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe 4.0 Gen4
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-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.
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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.
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Storage Tier 2
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Storage/SSD Samsung SSD 860 EVO 2TB
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I had
this already and I use it for second tier games, docs, some cache.
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Always
happy with my Samsung SSDs, but the price should be lowering after so many
years.
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Storage Tier 3
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Toshiba X300 12TB Performance &
Gaming Internal Hard Drive 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 256 MB Cache 3.5 inch -
HDWR21CXZSTA
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Toshiba
has been performing good lately and with a competitive price point. I
use this for original media with backups going to NAS.
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Happy.
This one seems noticeably fast for a hard drive.
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Operating System
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OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
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Windows
is great
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No issue
with install.
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Monitor #1
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Asus Swift PG279 Gaming Monitor
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I had
this already. I wanted a 27inch, 2k gaming monitor with at least
144mhz.
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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.
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Monitor #2
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LG 27UD68-W 27-Inch 4K UHD IPS Monitor with FreeSync,
Silver/White
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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.
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It could
use more connectivity options.
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Keyboard
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Keyboard Logitech G915 Clicky
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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.
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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.
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Mouse
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Mouse Logitech G603
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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.
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Lightspeed
tech is good. Impressed
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Headphones
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Logitech
G935 Wireless DTS:X 7.1 Surround Sound LIGHTSYNC RGB PC Gaming Headset
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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
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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.
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Exhaust Fan
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Exhaust Fan Noctua NF-A14 iPPPC-3000 PWM
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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.
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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”
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Supplemental Intake
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Intake Fans (Extra) Noctua NF-A14 iPPPC-2000 PWM
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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.
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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
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Hard Drive Fan
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(Extra) Noctua NF-A4x10 PWM
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I was
having cooling issues with the hard drives so I bought a small fan to add
close to the hard drives.
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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.
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USB 3 Motherboard Cable Adapter
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USB 3 Header
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I wanted
to see and control my cpu and rgb lights in the corsair iCue
software.
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It
worked. The iCue software is difficult.
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USB C Extension Cable
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USB C Extension Cable
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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.
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It
worked
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USB C Hub Multiport Adapter
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USB C Hub Multiport Adapter
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I wanted
a faster reader on my desk.
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Works
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Fingerprint Reader
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Mini USB 3 Fingerprint Reader
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I had
this already. Easy and secure log in via Windows Hello.
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Ease to
use and integrates with Windows, no burden of extra software.
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USB C Hub Multiport Adapter
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Cable Matter 10GBs USB Hub
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I wanted
a faster reader on my desk and a usb port for my finger print reader
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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.
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Web Camera
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Logitech
BRIO
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I had
it. Used for occasional video creation and streaming
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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.
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Stream Deck
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Elgato
Stream Deck - Live Content Creation Controller with 15 Customizable LCD Keys
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Fun toy
for the most part. I use it to change lighting and monitoring the CPU
usage, launching gaming apps.
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Part List:
CPU AMD Ryzen 9
3950X https://amzn.to/2Qrhu8F
Motherboard GIGABYTE
X570 AORUS Xtreme https://amzn.to/37j7NQx
Case Corsair Crystal
Series 680X RGB https://amzn.to/2MCmc2d
GPU EVGA Geoforce
RTX 2080Ti FTW 3 Ultra https://amzn.to/2tgjHf9
Memory CORSAIR
VENGEANCELPX64GB https://amzn.to/2ZHQhDb
CORSAIR HYDRO Series
H115i PRO RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler,280mm, Dual ML140 PWM Fans https://amzn.to/2Fn4eNc
Power Supply CORSAIR HX Series, HX1000 https://amzn.to/2SGsUYO
Storage/NVME Sabrent
2TB Rocket NVMe 4.0 Gen4 https://amzn.to/39hTqxT
Storage/SSD Samsung
SSD 860 EVO 2TB https://amzn.to/2t8CpWa
Storage Tier
3 Toshiba X300 12TB Performance
& Gaming Internal Hard Drive
https://amzn.to/36szg2j
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro https://amzn.to/368wTRZ
Monitor Primary:
Asus Swift PG279 Gaming Monitor https://amzn.to/2ufoJcl
Monitor
Secondary: LG 27UD68-W 27-Inch 4K UHD
IPS Monitor with FreeSync, Silver/White https://amzn.to/37MpmsH
Keyboard Logitech
G915 Clicky https://amzn.to/2SAbFs9
Mouse Logitech G603 https://amzn.to/354NqVF
Exhaust Fan Noctua
NF-A14 iPPPC-3000 PWM https://amzn.to/2QwZJos
Intake Fans (Extra)
Noctua NF-A14 iPPPC-2000 PWM https://amzn.to/2tVMvdf
Hard Drive Fan
(Extra) Noctua NF-A4x10 PWM https://amzn.to/2MEaggF
Web
Camera Logitech
BRIO https://amzn.to/2FmeNjB
Stream
Deck Elgato Stream Deck -15
buttons https://amzn.to/2SUyS8L
USB 3 Header https://amzn.to/2MxqwzZ
USB C Extension
Cable https://amzn.to/2rGvjba
USB C Hub Multiport
Adapter https://amzn.to/2Q7V3Xo
Mini USB 3
Fingerprint Reader https://amzn.to/369ZSF2
Cable Matter 10GBs
USB Hub https://amzn.to/354Hps3
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