2x Gaming Systems to build

[chazus]

My brother is building two systems for him and his wife. He tends to be the type that goes WAY over the top, and then uses that system for like 7 years until it's performance is lower than that of a middling current system. I'm trying to convince him to go a bit cheaper for once, save some money, and just upgrade the GPU in a few years. He indicated his budget is ~3k for each system, which I also feel is kind of a waste. He just does general gaming. No real streaming, nothing competitive. He does game development, but mostly 2d/unity stuff. No rendering as far as I'm aware, though he did mention he may want to look into VR dev at some point in this iteration.

I figure the best place to start would likely be something along the lines of a Ryzen 3800 or 5800 when they come out, 3070, 16-32gb of ram (Not sure if he does emu work with stuff). His only notable criteria is that he needs a lot of USB-C and USB3 ports on the case, as he swaps out a lot of external drives from developers. I guess he has 2-3 8-port USB3 hubs connected.

[Thunderball]

What about his wife? What does she do with the PC?

[Temp name]

You say he games? What resolution / frame rate?
How into game deving is he? Hobby, or job?

Also, you say he needs a lot of USB-C and USB 3 ports. How many is a lot? 2 USB 3 and 1 USB-C? Or we talking like 4 USB 3 and 1-2 USB C? Because then he's looking at an expensive board to accommodate that

[chazus]

What about his wife? What does she do with the PC?

Pretty minimal gaming. Her main requirement was "Run skyrim perfectly", and I think she only uses one monitor. She does some live streaming but its mostly for podcasts and electronics reviews, not streaming games.

You say he games? What resolution / frame rate?
How into game deving is he? Hobby, or job?

Also, you say he needs a lot of USB-C and USB 3 ports. How many is a lot? 2 USB 3 and 1 USB-C? Or we talking like 4 USB 3 and 1-2 USB C? Because then he's looking at an expensive board to accommodate that

He does but honestly its mostly casual stuff. 1080p. Game dev is a side job, we have a small studio that's put out a few 2d pixel art stuff. Its not system intensive at all, so it's sort of a non-issue. As far as USB ports.. I guess 'as many as possible'? 2-3 USB3 and 1-2 USB-C would probably be good.

[Thunderball]

He does but honestly its mostly casual stuff. 1080p. Game dev is a side job, we have a small studio that's put out a few 2d pixel art stuff. Its not system intensive at all, so it's sort of a non-issue. As far as USB ports.. I guess 'as many as possible'? 2-3 USB3 and 1-2 USB-C would probably be good.

Lots of boards have one Type C port but I can only think of 2 boards with two Type C's - Gigabyte's B550 Vision D and Asrock's X570 Creator. I'd say Vision D is not a bad choice considering. It obviously would be much easier to buy two identical boards to simply assembly but in this case there's just no point. Other decent choice is B550 Strix-F - comes with 2.5G Intel LAN. Not sure how important built in WiFi is.

[Synical123]

Sorry I have nothing to add, but I just find it hilarious when people have a budget of over 1.5k and they generally just play on 1080p. I simply don’t understand it.

[Twdft]

Is he old enough to switch off lights in rooms noone is in?

You might get him to save a buck or two by calculating electricity cost for an over the top system.

[Thunderball]

Is he old enough to switch off lights in rooms noone is in?

You might get him to save a buck or two by calculating electricity cost for an over the top system.

Extra electic teapot will always be more harmful to your electricity bill than any kind of over the top system.

[Twdft]

Extra electic teapot will always be more harmful to your electricity bill than any kind of over the top system.

A teapot is probably 1200 Watt and takes 2 minutes to make a cuppa.

Higher end gaming pc is probably 600 Watt and runs the whole evening.

I don't think an electric kettle does anywhere near the damage of a gaming pc.

[Kagthul]

Higher end gaming pc is probably 600 Watt and runs the whole evening.
.

Maybe if you have a massively OCed Intel CPU and a 3090.

My entire rig pulls ~400W from the wall under torture test. Real-life usage is mre in the 320-350W range. And thats an overclocked 8600K and a 1080Ti FTW3.

- - - Updated - - -

On the original topic, im not really aware of any cases that have extra USB-C ports (most only have one, and better hope the MoBo even has the Type-C FPC).

To get more than two (one on the case, one on the board), hes likely looking at a PCIe card with multiple USB-C ports.

Maybe you can get more than 1 included + 1 header if you get a board that also has a Thunderbolt controller and has TB ports.

As for "lots of USB 3" that should be any marginally OK board. My Z390i from ASUS has 8 USB 3 (6 3.0, 2 3.whatever10Gb/s is now called) and a USB C type-10Gb/s

And thats an mITX board.

- - - Updated - - -

this has 6x 3.2 Type A, and 2x Type C (that are Thunderbolt 3)

https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-b550...quicklink=true

[Linkedblade]

As long as you don't need upd then usb type c pcie cards go for about $30. Same with usb type-a 3.0.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074QGBXSP...ing=UTF8&psc=1

[Thunderball]

A teapot is probably 1200 Watt and takes 2 minutes to make a cuppa.

Higher end gaming pc is probably 600 Watt and runs the whole evening.

I don't think an electric kettle does anywhere near the damage of a gaming pc.

It doesnt pull 600W the whole evening.

[mrgreenthump]

It doesnt pull 600W the whole evening.

No, but it does pull idle power and power while gaming. Idle can be anything from 50 to 100W even. So having your computer on for an hour, even at idle is more power than teapot for 2 mins at 1200W.

[Kagthul]

No, but it does pull idle power and power while gaming. Idle can be anything from 50 to 100W even. So having your computer on for an hour, even at idle is more power than teapot for 2 mins at 1200W.

100W Idle?

With.. what? like 40 drives and 30 fans or something? (slightly hyperbolic).

[mrgreenthump]

100W Idle?

With.. what? like 40 drives and 30 fans or something? (slightly hyperbolic).

Depends how extreme your build is. A D5 pump takes around 10-12W alone on middle revs.

[Twdft]

If it's idle why is it even running?

My point was, 2 high end gaming pc that do something are drawing power that's visible on your electricity bill (at least here in Germany with about €0,32 per kWh). So if OPs brother doesn't play the newest games that require a $3000 rig electricity costs could be a deciding factor for a cheaper system.

For me at least, I play mostly WoW and older games on steam. Ryzen 5 2600 is 65W TDP and 1050Ti is 75W.