New build, looking for some input.

[Hypasonic]

Hello, it's that time again where I acquire the latest (but probably not greatest) tech and I would love it if some of you with more knowledge of PC parts than me could guide me in the right direction.

I'm wanting to buy a completely new PC, aside from a GPU as I have a 1070 that I bought at the end of last year and I don't think that will be what "holds me back".

The last time I bought a new PC was in 2012 which I'm still currently using now:

Case PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready>>>>>>>>>>>> (Upgraded to 1070 8gb dec 2018)
1st Storage Drive 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)

As you can see, its getting on a bit. I don't think anything there is worth keeping given its age, but I'm getting sub 10 fps in mythic raids in WoW on pretty much every boss in eternal palace so far, but everyone else is moaning about low fps also so I'm guessing its not just my pc that is the issue here but obviously it isn't helping given its age.

I don't currently have a set budget in mind, although £1500~ ballpark should be enough. I went onto https://uk.pcpartpicker.com since most use that site now and picked something near what I *think* will do the job:

CPU https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/...bx80684i99900k
CPU Cooler https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/...u-cooler-nhd15
Motherboard https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/...aorus-pro-wifi
Memory https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/...2gx4m2b3200c16
Storage https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/...e-mz-76e1t0bam
Case https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/...case-phes614pb
Power Supply https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/...ly-220g20550y1
Monitor https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/...monitor-mg278q

Total: £1566.64
(I don't know how to link a setup so manually added the links)

I would just like to know if theres anything else I could add, or indeed alter for a "better" setup. To assist you, I'm mainly requiring help with the CPU cooler, and monitor as there are so many options there but would also love any guidance with the rest. I literally just added things that were reasonably priced, and had decent ratings. Is the PSU good enough? It was recently reduced but the one I chose before was around £100~ which seemed a little excessive for what it does. My current monitor is a bog standard 1080p 60hz and I would like to enter the 144hz zone just to see the difference, so any help there would be appreciated. I'm not wanting the best components money can buy, but I don't want to cut corners for cheap versions etc, I just want good value for money when it comes to price/performance.

I mainly play WoW but once I have a "capable" pc I will probably dabble in other games just to see how good they look with the right equipment :P

Also, since I already have windows 10 on my current PC, how would I go about putting it on my new pc? Would I have to install my exsisting HDD into the new pc and then transfer windows to the SDD?

Cheers for reading.

[Temp name]

How to link the full build:
On this picture you see a unique url, it's just above the components and compatibility checker. To the right of that you also get some markup options, the BB version is what you should use on MMOC

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£314.95 @ AWD-IT)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler (£58.97 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard (£208.93 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory (£94.99 @ Corsair UK)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£178.59 @ BT Shop)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£97.03 @ CCL Computers)
Case: NZXT H500 ATX Mid Tower Case (£67.98 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Platinum 650 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£110.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £1131.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-08-10 21:32 BST+0100

What I went with:
3700x vs 9900k: The 3700x is good enough. The only games you won't get the same experience on a 1080p display are the newest AAA titles, where a 3700x might not reach 144fps. Maybe. In WoW, it depends. From what I've seen of reviews and benchmarks, even a 3600 can match Intel's top offerings, but some people on the forum have said otherwise. Also it's just *SO* much cheaper.
Cooler: The NH-D15 is better, but there's no real reason to spend the extra money
Motherboard: Best value X570 board on the market, alongside the TUF. If you plan on going wireless, swap to the TUF, if not stay with the aorus
Memory: 32gb is overkill. Way overkill. Also since Ryzen 3000 scales decently up to 3600, I figured you might as well get some.
Storage: I'm normally against NVMe over SATA drives, but at this price category, you might as well just get them for cleaner cable runs. If you want better value: Either go with another 660p instead of the 970, or swap to 2.5" SSDs like the Samsung 860
Case: If you're going to go with a boring case, might as well go with a cheaper one. But, it's very subjective what you find pretty.
PSU: The EVGA G2 series is old and.. Less good than their G3 series. So I just replaced it with a Seasonic PLUS Platinum unit. Could drop to one of their PLUS gold units instead, or an EVGA G3 unit of 650W and you should be fine.

I have also not included a monitor for the simple reason that.. Well, which monitor you want depends on a lot of things. Like what GPU you want. You have a 1070, if you don't plan on upgrading you'd want to stick with either 1080p 144hz, or 1440p 60hz. It cannot do 1440p 144hz in most games. In WoW it might be fine, but that would assume that WoW behaves, which it never does. It's stupidly CPU bound and can barely use multiple cores.
What monitor you want also depends on if you value response times or colour accuracy more, or if you want free-/g-sync. Without knowing what you value more, we can't really give you a recommendation


As for how to put Windows on a new PC: If you have a Microsoft account, just install Windows through a USB and log in with your account, that should work. I wouldn't recommend re-using an old install of windows.

And yes, I am quite a lot under your budget, but as I said, I'm not including a monitor in that, and they can quite easily take up the rest and more depending on what you want in one

[Hypasonic]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. For the CPU, I don't know why, but I have an affinity towards intel and I've heard they are better for WoW also. If its down to my monitor, I would rather get an i9 and then get a better monitor also and perhaps a better GPU in the near future. As for the RAM, I guess I just think that more is better, like if I buy a new GPU I would want one that has more VRAM than my last card as I just *feel* that its progression. Probably a dumb way to think but yeah.

The case is a means to an end, the look means nothing to me, I won't be streaming or taking it anywhere I just want it to be big enough and have good air cooling capabilities. As for the USB windows thing, I guess I need a USB stick and I have to download my windows settings to it or something, and then when I build my new pc I plug it in and that then begins the download process?

With the storage, you say you are against NVMs over SATA, you'll have to forgive my ignorance but what exactly is the difference? I've never used SSD's before so I apologise. What SSD would you get in my position? I would rather just have one than multiple unless they are really easy to use and you don't have to spend alot of time setting multiple up.

[Temp name]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. For the CPU, I don't know why, but I have an affinity towards intel and I've heard they are better for WoW also.

If you have an affinity towards Intel I'd go with a 9700k instead of a 9900k. They perform identically in (most) games at the same clock speeds, and if you get a good 9700k you can OC it further than you can a 9900k: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/xBjYyX

If its down to my monitor, I would rather get an i9 and then get a better monitor also and perhaps a better GPU in the near future.

Again, I don't know which monitor you would want. Do you want more resolution or framerate? Better colour or better input lag? What size? Any brand loyalties?

As for the RAM, I guess I just think that more is better, like if I buy a new GPU I would want one that has more VRAM than my last card as I just *feel* that its progression. Probably a dumb way to think but yeah.

Yeah that is a bit silly. 16GB RAM is more than enough for a current user. You should only get more if you do work that requires more, like CAD or video editing

The case is a means to an end, the look means nothing to me, I won't be streaming or taking it anywhere I just want it to be big enough and have good air cooling capabilities.

Yeah then the NZXT H500 is a very good bet. It's not the best cooling case, but it will be enough

As for the USB windows thing, I guess I need a USB stick and I have to download my windows settings to it or something, and then when I build my new pc I plug it in and that then begins the download process?

Go on Microsofts website, download the Windows installer to the USB stick and then plug it into the new PC. Then make sure it boots to that first (might have to go into the bios and re-arrange the boot order, but it should default to the USB stick)

With the storage, you say you are against NVMs over SATA, you'll have to forgive my ignorance but what exactly is the difference? I've never used SSD's before so I apologise. What SSD would you get in my position? I would rather just have one than multiple unless they are really easy to use and you don't have to spend alot of time setting multiple up.

The difference between NVMe and SATA is that NVMe is a newer, and theoretically faster, standard. SATA SSD's max out at around 550-600MB/s reads and writes because that's all the protocol can handle.
Current NVMe drives are split into those using PCIe 3.0 and those using PCIe 4.0. The drives using 3.0 max at at anywhere between 1.5GB/s to 3.5GB/s reads and writes, with 4.0 drives reaching 4.5-5GB/s currently, and eventually going to get up to ~7
While that might sound like a big improvement, most of what you do is going to be random reads and writes and not sequential, where the NVMe drives get most of their speed. In random they perform the same as standard SATA drives because the controller on them can't handle more.

It's fairly easy to have multiple drives, you plug them in when you build your PC (though you probably should wait until you've installed windows), and they show up as another drive letter. The main drive where you install windows will be (C and the next drive you plug in will be (D, and so on.
It might happen that it doesn't show up immediately, in which case you'll need to initialize the drive: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-f...ive-windows-10
If that seems like too much work: Samsung makes 2TB versions of their SSDs, which cost a bit more than double their 1TB SSDs: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/...e-mz-v7s2t0bam

As for what I'd suggest: If you want value, go with SATA drives. They're generally cheaper per gigabyte than NVMe.
If you want a cleaner looking build, go with NVMe. You won't have to run any cables, and they can for the most part be hidden away under heatsinks so you won't even see them. It's also worth noting that intels 660p lineup is actually a super good value, with the 2tb version being the 6th best in gigabytes per pound, and the 1tb version coming in at 8th place (0.93 and 0.95 pound per gigabyte respectively)

[Kagthul]

I'm normally against NVMe over SATA drives, but at this price category, you might as well just get them for cleaner cable runs.

Reminder: NVMe is a data transfer protocol, not a connector.

M.2 is a connector, not a transfer protocol.

M.2 drives can be SATA, NVMe, or AHCI.

Just posting for clarity because the constant confusion/continued use of NVMe/M.2 interchangeably, when they are not, is going to end up getting someone in trouble... if, for instance, they buy a SATA M.2 SSD and put it in an M.2 slot that doesn't support SATA, (or, more likely, buy an NVMe SSD and try to put it in an M.2 slot that doesn't support NVMe) because they dont understand the difference.

[Temp name]

Reminder: NVMe is a data transfer protocol, not a connector.

M.2 is a connector, not a transfer protocol.

M.2 drives can be SATA, NVMe, or AHCI.

Just posting for clarity because the constant confusion/continued use of NVMe/M.2 interchangeably, when they are not, is going to end up getting someone in trouble... if, for instance, they buy a SATA M.2 SSD and put it in an M.2 slot that doesn't support SATA, (or, more likely, buy an NVMe SSD and try to put it in an M.2 slot that doesn't support NVMe) because they dont understand the difference.

Honestly I keep forgetting that you can buy SATA m.2 drives..

[zox2]

For the windows thing to work, you have to have a windows account (not local account), and your windows key has to be linked to it. You may also have to de-authorize your old machine, I'm not 100% sure about that.

[Hypasonic]

For the windows thing to work, you have to have a windows account (not local account), and your windows key has to be linked to it. You may also have to de-authorize your old machine, I'm not 100% sure about that.

Yeah, I'll probaby just buy another copy of windows, seems like a lot of hassle figuring out what version I have and if I can transfer the license etc.

[Temp name]

Yeah, I'll probaby just buy another copy of windows, seems like a lot of hassle figuring out what version I have and if I can transfer the license etc.

If you're using Windows 10 and didn't buy an OEM version you should be able to transfer it by just logging into your microsoft account on the new computer.

[Hypasonic]

If you're using Windows 10 and didn't buy an OEM version you should be able to transfer it by just logging into your microsoft account on the new computer.

Think I had windows 7 on this pc when I bought it, then I got the free upgrade to windows 10 a couple of years back. It says that "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account" so I guess that means I can just swap it over, but I assume I'll have to get a usb with some windows info on it to tell my new pc to download windows.

[Temp name]

Think I had windows 7 on this pc when I bought it, then I got the free upgrade to windows 10 a couple of years back. It says that "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account" so I guess that means I can just swap it over, but I assume I'll have to get a usb with some windows info on it to tell my new pc to download windows.

Yeah, that should work.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10 download the installation tool and follow the steps on the website/in what you downloaded, then just plug it into your new computer when booting it the first time

[Hypasonic]

Yeah, that should work.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10 download the installation tool and follow the steps on the website/in what you downloaded, then just plug it into your new computer when booting it the first time

Cheers and thanks for the help.

[Kagthul]

Honestly I keep forgetting that you can buy SATA m.2 drives..

Prior to the recent price cratering, it was way cheaper to get a SATA m.2 than an NVMe.

A lot of motherboards have slots that dont support NVMe (My Asus Strix Z370i, for instance, has two m.2 slots - one on the top of the board and one on the back.) The one on the top of the board supports NVMe, AHCI, and SATA, but the one on the back only supports SATA and if you use it, closes down two of the SATA ports on the board.

Thats the only reason i'd worry about it. You woldnt want to buy a pair of NVMe drives, for instance, and then find out you couldnt use one.

[Temp name]

Prior to the recent price cratering, it was way cheaper to get a SATA m.2 than an NVMe.

A lot of motherboards have slots that dont support NVMe (My Asus Strix Z370i, for instance, has two m.2 slots - one on the top of the board and one on the back.) The one on the top of the board supports NVMe, AHCI, and SATA, but the one on the back only supports SATA and if you use it, closes down two of the SATA ports on the board.

Thats the only reason i'd worry about it. You woldnt want to buy a pair of NVMe drives, for instance, and then find out you couldnt use one.

Yeah that's true. I also just double checked, the X570 board I suggested has 2 NVMe m.2 slots, so it's fine for this specific board.

[acphydro]

Cheers and thanks for the help.

Just a few minor tidbits from me.

With a 1070 I’d stay at 1080p unless you mostly just play wow. It’ll run good at 1440p with a high refresh rate in most circumstances but it will dip lower in some cases. I don’t raid anymore but based on what I’ve seen in heroic warfronts with very similar or better setups I’d expect worst case dips down to 45fps or so.

You can buy a windows 10 key via eBay for $3-8 or similar price to your own local currency. I’ve bought several and they have all worked great. I’ve used at least 7-9 in the past 12 months for various builds including my own.

[Temp name]

Just a few minor tidbits from me.

With a 1070 I’d stay at 1080p unless you mostly just play wow. It’ll run good at 1440p with a high refresh rate in most circumstances but it will dip lower in some cases. I don’t raid anymore but based on what I’ve seen in heroic warfronts with very similar or better setups I’d expect worst case dips down to 45fps or so.

You can buy a windows 10 key via eBay for $3-8 or similar price to your own local currency. I’ve bought several and they have all worked great. I’ve used at least 7-9 in the past 12 months for various builds including my own.

GPU doesn't matter for fuck all in WoW. The dips you've seen are because your CPU is struggling to keep up because WoW is programmed like a crap. And just to be clear, I'm not shitting on your CPU, I'm shitting on WoW's engine for being terribly optimized.
To just drive home the point: In legion /Early BFA I was using a 980ti on a 4k monitor. I swapped to a 2080ti with a 1440p monitor. I got maybe 5-10 fps more outside of raids, and nothing more in raids

[acphydro]

GPU doesn't matter for fuck all in WoW. The dips you've seen are because your CPU is struggling to keep up because WoW is programmed like a crap. And just to be clear, I'm not shitting on your CPU, I'm shitting on WoW's engine for being terribly optimized.
To just drive home the point: In legion /Early BFA I was using a 980ti on a 4k monitor. I swapped to a 2080ti with a 1440p monitor. I got maybe 5-10 fps more outside of raids, and nothing more in raids

I have a 7700k@4.6ghz with a 1070 at 1440p and an 8700k@4.8ghz with a 2080 at 1440p. Unless wow is using my 2 extra cores I’m guessing it’s the 2080 that is only allowing my FPS to dip down to 55fps on it vs the PC with the 1070 going down to 45fps and not the extra 200mhz.

The 8700k with 2080 frequently hits my 140fps cap where as the other one struggles to hit 120fps in same areas. It is possible it’s the difference between the 7700k and 8700k but I haven’t tested each GPU using the same CPU so can’t say for sure. If it really is the CPU 100% at fault then I guess I should try to squeeze out another 200mhz because that’s a big difference.

However is why I suggested if he mostly does wow then 1440p would be fine on that 1070 but if he wants to play other games then I’d stick with 1080p.

[Temp name]

I have a 7700k@4.6ghz with a 1070 at 1440p and an 8700k@4.8ghz with a 2080 at 1440p. Unless wow is using my 2 extra cores I’m guessing it’s the 2080 that is only allowing my FPS to dip down to 55fps on it vs the PC with the 1070 going down to 45fps and not the extra 200mhz.

The 8700k with 2080 frequently hits my 140fps cap where as the other one struggles to hit 120fps in same areas. It is possible it’s the difference between the 7700k and 8700k but I haven’t tested each GPU using the same CPU so can’t say for sure. If it really is the CPU 100% at fault then I guess I should try to squeeze out another 200mhz because that’s a big difference.

However is why I suggested if he mostly does wow then 1440p would be fine on that 1070 but if he wants to play other games then I’d stick with 1080p.

90% sure it's just the CPU making a difference in that case. WoW is very much not a graphically intense game, which is where you see GPU bottlenecks happening.

[js3915]

90% sure it's just the CPU making a difference in that case. WoW is very much not a graphically intense game, which is where you see GPU bottlenecks happening.

Not trying to thread steal, but what would you recommend for a GPU between an xx70 and xx80?? I run 2 4k montiors, I am not competing for world first or best mythic dungoens. I do game alot i run a 970... I think ti is overkill for me.. Looking between 2070 and 2080 but dont see much difference, would there be any?

[Kagthul]

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90% sure it's just the CPU making a difference in that case. WoW is very much not a graphically intense game, which is where you see GPU bottlenecks happening.

There’s a slim possibility of the extra cores making a difference. With the recent multi-core enhancements, minimums went up quite a bit.

And you need to make absolutely sure that both machines have the exact same settings. Even just stepping up Shadows or particles up one step can butcher your framerate.