(Part 2) Best products from r/intel

I don't know what your use case is, and a lot of these things are budget/availability dependent, especially since I don't know what country you are purchasing in, so take some of my recommendations with a grain of salt on those bases:

>Core i7 8086k or 9700k (leaning towards the 8086k though)

Depending on if you can get your hands on it, and if price is similar, the 9700k is superior in every non-synthetic performance metric. I'd really recommend you go with the 8 core chip if you can.

> ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-F H or E (May opt for the WiFi variant)

The Z390-H has worse VRM than the F and E, and no AI VID autoclock features, which can help you determine stable frequencies if you are interested in that. Even for the first point alone though, since the price points are so similar between the Strix boards, I'd disregard it as an option. The F and E both use the same Vishay VRM and are much better for stability and efficiency of your overclock. The WiFi is up to you.

>Kraken X62 (instead of the x72 or coolermaster as it seems to perform better and looks better)

The Kraken series are great, and I love the X62. It's expensive, and you can get the same performance from Corsair and EVGA, but looks are firmly in the NZXT camp here. No problems with that.

>G-Skill 8gb x 2 3200Mhz

Good value and high quality RAM, excellent choice.

>Samsung 970 Pro 512GB m.2

This is somewhat up to you, but NVMe drives have very minor performance benefits for most people. While the speed on paper looks like a massive step up, it is only in sequential read/write speeds, which is only really good for video editors working with extremely high quality footage (4K RAW and above, basically). If this rig is for gaming primarily, or general workstation use not involving massive files, you can save a significant amount of money and go with something like a Crucial MX500 SATA M.2 Drive. For everyday performance and gaming, you will notice zero difference between the two.

>Fractal meshify C or possibly the nzxt h500

Both are great cases. The Meshify is objectively better for temps, but IMO the H500 looks better. As someone who owns the NZXT H500i, I can tell you that temps have never been an issue for my 1080Ti or 9900k, but again, the choice is yours, both are great.

>Corsair TXM SERIES 650 w

This is fine, but the Corsair RX series (the fully modular variants) are made by a better OEM (RX from Seasonic, TX from FSP) and have more port flexibility. Sometimes it is worth looking at the 750W and 850W variants, as even though you don't need the additional power, they often go on sale for cheaper. Other options include Seasonic FOCUS and FOCUS Plus series, or the EVGA SuperNOVA G2 (or G3, but go with a 750W minimum on these as the fan can be loud under high load) series. Power supplies are one thing I recommend spending extra on, as they are the lifeblood of your power delivery, and the only component in your computer in which a failure can cause every other device in your PC to fail as well. Just some food for thought. You can go with the least expensive of any of the ones I listed above.

> Evga 2080 xc ultra

Depending on your resolution/refresh rate, this is a great card, although obviously expensive. 1080Ti's are definitely becoming harder to find now, but if you can get one for cheaper and don't plan on using the RTX features, its effectively the same card. This may no longer be possible, though.

If you can give me some additional information, like what country you are purchasing from, your overall budget, the workload you are using it for (if games, give me specific games you play or intend to play in the future), and the display resolution and refresh rate you are using now/what you want in the future (IE 1080p/144, 1080p/240, 1440p/144, 4k/60, etc), I can give more accurate overall recommendations on all of these parts.

Valid concerns but trust me it’s a breeze to do. Given how hot your CPU gets you will benefit from a proper delid. Granted though you are still within safe temps. The temps are highish but they aren’t abnormal compared to most others. Higher temps do lessen the life of the CPU but we are talking a very small time span compared to the market life of the chip. I’d say you and 99% of all PC builders will have build a second or even third computer before silicone degradation even reaches minimal levels. If that makes sense. Yeah high temps kill it but it’s like saying the three cigarettes you smoked in high school took two minutes off your life when you live to be a hundred anyway. Analogy might be to the extreme but I wouldn’t worry about it.

With that said here’s some links that will help you.

Delid tool and re attachment tool:

https://rockitcool.myshopify.com

Plastic razor blades to remove stock glue (what you mentioned not knowing what to do with, yes remove it the easiest way I’ve done it was using these and a small amount of isopropyl alcohol):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D6EXLR0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_nvYleOEGfw2EO

Silicone “glue” for IHS re attachment. To be honest the very first delid I did was a 3570k using wood a vice and a hammer and I didn’t reglue it. It’s still alive too. I would personally just use a very small amount on the four corners. Just enough to stick. You are correct in your concern about the stock glue causing the IHS to not make perfect contact with the die. Remove the stock crap and use minimal amount of this and it will be a non concern:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002UEN1A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_2g9BJXXKzhp9F

Lastly, your liquid metal for the die to IHS and your TIM for the IHS to Kraken. You can use any but it’s probably safe to say Grizzly is currently the go to stuff:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011F7W3LU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_6QNoes1d24uyu

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A9KIGSI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_lBeHQg1WHWPGP



All in all it’s easy and it’s worth it. If you have any questions whatsoever message me or reply here. There are some good videos of walkthroughs (I think one really good one is on rockitcool’s website but I’m not sure). I can find them for you but tomorrow as I’m currently in bed and using a half open eye lid to write this.

If you want to get a good board at a good price with good VRMs but no flashiness check out Gigabyte z390 UD ~$100

Gigabyte Z390 UD (Intel LGA1151/Z390/ATX/M.2/Realtek ALC887/Realtek 8118 Gaming LAN/HDMI/Gaming Motherboard) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HS59X7P/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_W6XlDbAZJG465

For better looks and a decent price z390 Arous Elite ~$160

Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Elite (Intel LGA1151/Z390/ATX/2xM.2/Realtek ALC1220/RGB Fusion/Gaming Motherboard) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HRWJ555/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_38XlDbN4P9ZKR


Buildzoid did a really good roundup of z390 mobos and VRM and Gigabyte did quite well, with the UD being his "best VRM value" or something like that.

Also FWIW I've been running a 9700k on a Arous Master, and I can hit 5.0 at 1.335 on medium llc, plus 4x8 gb ram at XMP 4000mhz.

Eh, it's more like they gave you a cheap cooler. It's probably ok, but as you can see you're hitting the max temps in some situations (100C).

Depends on what you want to spend really. Noctua is considered the best for air coolers.

This is like the most popular noctua model I think:

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-D15-heatpipe-NF-A15-140mm/dp/B00L7UZMAK

And then there are all in one (AIO) water coolers for $100 (but noctua is on par with them and beats many of them). Here is the one I have for my 9900k:

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Liquid-Cooler-Cooling-400-HY-CL28-V1/dp/B01N16CAKN/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=evga+clc+280&qid=1574222298&sr=8-1

There are definitely cheaper options that should be solid especially if you're not going to be pushing an overclock and all that. I'm not an expert on coolers but if you search 'cpu cooler 9700k' on /r/buildapc you can probably find a lot of good recommendations.

Sure man. It's awesome, but just know that the top, front and both sides are tempered glass so it's easy to get finger prints on if you plan on moving it around. That also means the right hand side shows what you have packed in there like your solid states and stuff. Lastly, it has room in the front for a reservoir so it's spacey if you don't put in an open loop. Personally, I love it without. It's a Corsair Crystal 570x rgb mid-tower. Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073D1XJ55/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gJipDbA46C6RE

all audio solutions amongst them arent exactly the same but they all seem pretty good for onboard, and if you dont know which one, just get the one with dual bios.

But if i did care that much about audio, id get an external dac or audio card.

For the wifi replacing the antenna to a couple like this improved the signal significantly between the motherboard and the router for me. Rssi went from -55~ RSSI to -35~.

According to reviews, 1080p video playback can be sketchy. If that's not on your list of necessities, it will do just fine. An alternative to consider is a full notebook like this one. You would lose out on a solid state, but the i3-7100u is a much more powerful CPU and GPU. A fun project would be to replace the hard drive with a solid state down the line.

A Ryzen 3 2200u system would also be perfect for you, but I don't believe any are on sale at the moment.

I would say that your best bet would be to take the gamble on the MSI B450 Tomahawk -- or, if you can wait until it is released, the MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX. The reason I am suggesting this board in particular is that it has good VRM, which will be good for overclocking, though at the 3600-tier, it probably won't matter, but most importantly, it features BIOS flashback, which means you will not need a Ryzen 1000 or 2000-series CPU to update the BIOS to accept a Ryzen 3000-series.

Yes, that means you will lose out on the pretty GUI BIOS, but in the end, it should just work. That's what is important, right?

https://smile.amazon.com/MSI-Crossfire-Motherboard-B450-Tomahawk/dp/B07F7W5KJS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3EDOJC4HMDM30&keywords=msi+b450+tomahawk&qid=1564154484&s=electronics&sprefix=msi+b450+%2Celectronics%2C209&sr=1-1

Dropping idle power usage is tough, and dropping max-speed power usage isn't really beneficial since it won't save much money (unless you plan on having your CPU crunching for long periods of time).

Honestly, your best bet is to get a system meant for lower power usage. You can sometimes shave off a few watts from idle on a "big" computer, but you risk stability issues, and an unstable NAS is a pointless NAS.

My recommendation is to look into Synology units. I have an old DS216j that uses something like 15-25 watts on load, far less on idle. Most of the power usage is by the disks, which are set to hibernate when not being used.

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS218j-Diskless/dp/B076G6YKWZ

Here's an example of a unit that might be good. These aren't good as media streaming servers, but if you're looking for a place to dump some drives and storage that can manage itself well and do stuff like automatic backups, then they're awesome. They make more powerful units, too, but those of course use more power on idle (especially if they're x86 units with i3s and stuff).

It doesn't fit. The max height for a CPU cooler is 155 mm for that case.

The best price/performance coolers that fit and be better then most smaller aio's would probably be the Scythe Mugen 5 PCGH Edition or a scythe fuma rev b. Both perform similar (the mugen is slightly better though) and should retail around 40 to 55 euros.

Keep in mind that even though putting a kilogram of aluminum on your processor cools better than a small aoi an air cooler is more dependent on the air temperature inside the case. So you would probably want 2 or 3 intake fans instead of 1.

https://www.amazon.com/Scythe-5PCGH-Cooler-Mugen-PCGH/dp/B06X9MPQ5Z/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1526154813&sr=8-9&keywords=scythe+mugen+5

https://www.amazon.com/Scythe-FUMA-Rev-B-Cooler-SCFM-1100/dp/B075FX95F2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1526154813&sr=8-3&keywords=scythe+mugen+5

What GPU you have? Figure a healthy 250W for everything in your system before a GPU, and add for instance ~300W for a 2080 ti, so for that total draw of 550W, I'd spec a 750 or 850W 80+ Gold to give some leeway for spikes and the efficiency curve.

On the other hand if you're going for something like a 2070, the GPU power draw would be closer to only 200W, so something like a 650W 80+Gold.

I use SeaSonic power supplies in all of my PC's.

Something like this https://www.amazon.fr/Seasonic-SSR-650FX-Modular-Warranty-Compact/dp/B073H33X7R

It needs to fit in your case. If either of these fits your case, the bigger one is better. Both are enough.

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-U14S-Premium-Cooler-NF-A15/dp/B00C9FLSLY/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1540066524&sr=8-4&keywords=noctua+cooler

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-U12S-Premium-Cooler-NF-F12/dp/B00C9EYVGY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1540066524&sr=8-3&keywords=noctua+cooler

I would go with 4x8 and purchase these.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KXLFDL6/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A26PVB3960EU85&psc=1

Downclock if you need to and tighten the timings and its also Samsung B-Die. Much better value than the Corsair @ $280 for 4 sticks vs $500+ for the Corsair.

Thanks all. Thinking about going with this MOBO. Never had a bad experience with ASUS.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HCPLQ2H/ref=sr_1_1/139-7179214-5050352?ie=UTF8&qid=1539469787&sr=8-1&keywords=ASUS+ROG+Strix+Z390-E+Gaming

ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero (WiFi): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HCXT591/

I'd advise against the Ryzen mobile line for now. Especially for gaming. The single thread performance of Zen and Zen+ just isn't there.

Look at the single threaded and multi threaded performance:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AMD-Ryzen-5-2500U-vs-Intel-i7-8750H/3123vs3237

A laptop with that and an Nvidia GTX 1050 going for only $750:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VB4QMRV/

And this is a comparison from the Vega 8 and the 1050 mobile chip:

https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare/GeForce-GTX-1050-(Mobile)-vs-Radeon-Vega-8-Mobile/4088vs3845

Unless that laptop you are talking about has a dedicated GPU, you likely won't be gaming very easily on it. I'd love to get an AMD CPU in a laptop but they just aren't there performance wise. When Zen 2 drops, it will be another story. This is that same benchmark with the Ryzen 3600 added:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/AMD-Ryzen-5-2500U-vs-Intel-i7-8750H-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-3600/3123vs3237vs3481

I had a Hyper 212 on mine when it came out and I decided it wasn't good enough. I ended up getting this and it fixed everything and still runs like a dream.

Thanks for the list I always wonder what to buy for my next build, between this two:


https://www.amazon.de/Seasonic-Modular-Netzteil-Computer-Gaming/dp/B073H33X7R/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1524348350&sr=8-2&keywords=seasonic+prime+650


http://www2.seasonic.com/product/prime-650-w-gold/

It’s more like a 70 dollar difference between the two. And you’d have to get an aftermarket cooler for both of them because the 8700 is going to get uncomfortably hot under the stock cooler and paste. And if you get a b360 motherboard you’ll be stuck with 2666mhz ram while you can get a decent Samsung B-die here for the same price or less than lower quality ram and overclock it to around 3600 cl14 and tighten the timings and create a huge gap in gaming performance over the 8700 with a decent overclock on the 8600k.

https://m.newegg.com/products/N82E16820313711

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i5-8600K-Processor-Unlocked-BX80684i58600K/dp/B0759FKH8K/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525142418&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=8600k&dpPl=1&dpID=51sSl9xb6zL&ref=plSrch

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-8700-Desktop-Processor-BX80684i78700/dp/B07598HLB4/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525142463&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=8700&dpPl=1&dpID=512Nn%2BHAsrL&ref=plSrch

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HCXT591/ref=emc_b_5_t

I found that hopping through someone else's link on here. For some reason it doesn't show up if you search though.