
How to Choose Parts for Your Custom Computer Build

Hello! Welcome to the Micro Center Community. If you've been here before, you probably noticed the multiple threads I posted going over how to choose parts for a custom built PC. Rather than having each thread stay at the top and clutter up the page, I'm going to have this single mega-thread we keep at the top that links to each respective part of the guide.
For those of you who are new here, this is a comprehensive guide across a series of posts on how to choose individual parts for your computer and what sorts of things you should be looking for. Whether you're new to building or have experience, there's a lot of information that I think you'd find helpful.
For those of you who are new here, this is a comprehensive guide across a series of posts on how to choose individual parts for your computer and what sorts of things you should be looking for. Whether you're new to building or have experience, there's a lot of information that I think you'd find helpful.
- The Processor (CPU)
- The Video Card (GPU)
- The Motherboard
- RAM (Memory)
- The Power Supply (PSU)
- SSDs and Hard Drives
- The Case
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I wouldn't call any of this overkill either. The GTX 1660 will handle all the games you listed well, and the 3600 will pair well with GPU upgrades in the future if you go that route. Same goes for your power supply, it should last you a long time and leaves plenty of room for upgrading or reusing in a more powerful system.
AMD 5 3600X
Cool Master cooler
Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi) or the B550
G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 2x8
Samsung 550gb SSD
SeaGate 2TB HD
NVDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super
NZXT H510 Elite ATX Mid Tower
And a Corsair CXM 650 W 80+ bronze.
I also saw on the sight there is an option to “hire” an associate to help build the PC which I would desperately need since this is my first build. What all goes into that process? Is there anything in my listing where you might recommend something else?
NASH
Besides me having a preference for higher end PSUs (80+ Gold rating, models like EVGA Supernova and Seasonic Focus series), your build overall looks really good.
As for the custom build services, our service/repair desk can handle those. Labor starts at $149.99 and can go up from there depending on the tier of build you get. Click this link then scroll down to the bottom for pricing:
https://www.microcenter.com/site/service/instore-service-complete-build.aspx
You can click on each tier of build to see exactly what it includes.
I sent a friend of mine a screen shot (we are building our first PCs very close together so we are sharing experiences) and he seems confident we can build them on our own.... but still! Lol
Thanks for the feedback!!
NASH
Ryzen 9 3900X Matisse
Asus X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero
64 GB G. Skill Trident Z Neo Series RGB
EVGA Super NOVA 850+ 80 Gold
Gigabyte GeForce RTS 2070 Super 8 GB PCIe 3.0
Western Digital Black SN750 1 TB
Lian Li Lancool II
I'm on the fence about cooling, I'm really liking the custom liquid cooling setups I've seen. I also incorporated some RGB in the case and RAM. I know the RAM is excessive from what my reading has shown. It seems most folks stop at 32 GB. I've also considered a second M.2 SSD.
I welcome any advice or suggestions, Thanks for reading.
64GB of RAM is definitely overkill in my opinion, unless you're specifically using the system for an extremely RAM intensive task that can utilize all of it. Otherwise, even just 16GB is more than enough for typical daily use and gaming. If you bumped down to 32GB or 16GB of RAM, you'd save enough that you could then upgrade the video card. But of course it's up to you at the end of the day.
Custom liquid cooling setups are cool, and when designed correctly, will offer you the best overall cooling performance. That said, custom setups are very expensive and require long-term maintenance. At some point you'll have to drain your loop and clean it out. It just depends on what your preferences are. For the 3900X, a good air cooler or AIO liquid cooler will be more than sufficient for cooling it properly.
If a 4x8GB kit costs less, then personally I'd probably go that route, as 32GB of RAM would be more than enough for me for a very, very long time anyway. If I anticipated that I'd want or need to upgrade, I'd go with 2x16GB so I don't have to purchase a whole entire set of new memory when that time comes.
Ryzen 9 3900X Matisse
Asus X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero
32 GB G. Skill Trident Z Neo Series RGB
Corsair RM750x 80+ Gold (biggest they had in stock Other than 1200w unit for big money)
EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Super KO 8 GB PCIe 3.0
Samsung 970 EVO NVMe M.2 1 TB
Seagate Barracuda 3.5” (Cheap storage)
Lian Li Lancool II
Lian Li graphics card Antisag bracket
I’m pretty hyped about build this beast! Thanks for the suggestions!
Zach D at the Brentwood, Mo location was a fantastic help!
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x 3.6 GHz 8 Core Processor
MSI MPG X570 Gaming plus ATX AM4 Motherboard
G Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB DDR4 3600 MHz CL-16
Western Digital Blue 500 GB M.2 2280 SSD
Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5” 7200RPM IHD
Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB Pulse Video Card
Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case
Corsair RM (2019) 750W 80+ Gold Fully modular ATX Power Supply
3 Extra Case fans
Please give any feedback you can. My goal is to max out 1080p gaming for now and then move into 1440p when I can afford a 240 Hz monitor.
Chase Hare
Besides that, overall I think you'll be pretty happy with that build.
First, 128GB of RAM is absolutely massive and I'd say waaaaaay overkill for the vast majority of people. You could easily bring that down to 32GB so you'd still have a lot for any kind of design related work, and then be able to upgrade your video card to something better like a 2080 super. Unless you are doing extremely RAM intensive work, 128GB is just unnecessary.
The second thing is the CPU cooler you choose is not something I would recommend at all. While it looks cool with the low profile, that Thermaltake Engine 27 doesn't have good performance. Unfortunately the design is kind of a gimmick and the 9900K just runs too hot for that cooler to be effective. I would recommend something like the Noctua NH-U14S instead which will perform much better.
While this isn't really a problem, you might want to consider picking up the i7-10700k and a Z490 motherboard. The i7-10700k is essentially the same CPU as the 9900k, but you'll have the benefit of thew newer Z490 platform which could be better for future upgrades. That's just a preference really, there's nothing wrong otherwise with the 9900k.
There's also no optical drive slot in the case you chose, and the copy of Windows you put in comes on a USB so an optical drive isn't really necessary unless you have other software you plan to load via DVD. If so, I'd look for a different case that specifically has an optical drive slot, or just use an external USB DVD drive instead.
Ryzen 5 3600
RTX 2060 KO
ASUS TUF GAMING B550M-PLUS (WIFI)
16gb RAM 3200Mhz
500GB SSD
Thermaltake 600 WATT 80+ GOLD PSU
Montech Fighter 600 Case
I was reading the reviews on the case and I people were saying that the fans were molex, is there a adapter I need to buy or will it just plug in directly to the motherboard and psu? A reply would be nice.
Is the $700 budget for just the PC itself or did you need peripherals such as a monitor/keyboard/mouse, as well?