2020 Black Friday PC Build

Limsuperimposed on 29/11/2020 - 18:35

(Not that anyone cares, but I'm excited) So finally finished my Black Friday PC build, first PC build in about 15 years as I've been a Mac user (i mostly use it for music recording and a bit of gaming and VR with eGPU)

Given there is a few years before the new Apple silicone is settled in and no telling where it will end up with Bootcamp support, I've decided on a PC build to tie me over for the next few years as I still have my MacBook Pro to keep me going as a daily driver.

Consideration - Why did I go Intel when 5000 series is so much better right now? - As I write and record music mostly, my hardware needed to support Thunderbolt for my audio interfaces and I needed a board that supported it which are limited. Also there are known issues with some of my music software that would have been a deal breaker for AMD which is a shame as I really wanted 5000 Series.

  • CPU - i9 10850K Seemed best value to power ratio for Intel right now. Lots of cores for music and overclocked hits pretty much the same as 10900k for $599 - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/585471
  • Cooler NZXT z63 basically only because it was too much of a bargain to not give it a shot! and who doesn't want pointless gifs on their CPU Cooler… $223 including delivery - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/586708
  • Motherboard - Gigabyte z490 Vision D - 2x Thunderbolt 3, 3x M.2, and lots of expansion Not the best gaming board but seemed like a good compromise as I'm not going for extreme overclocking - $469 https://www.centrecom.com.au/gigabyte-z490-vision-d-lga-1200…
  • RAM - G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB 16C (2x16GB) 3600MHz for $269 x2 for 64gb all up reasonable timings (Not the best price every but best available now) - https://www.shoppingexpress.com.au/buy/g.skill-trident-z-neo…
  • SSD Samsung 970 Plus 1tb $223.20 and Samsung 970 Plus 2tb $337.08 (Via amazon us)
  • PC Case - NZXT H510i Honestly not my fave choice, but this was really hard and not much available I really wanted to the Lian Li o11d Mini but it wouldn't fit in my under-desk mount for my sit stand desk will see how this one goes basically the deciding factor was compatibility with z63 and the basic front panel, I really dislike the spaceship design of most cases - $175.so - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NZXT-ATX-H510i-MATTE-Black-Case-…
  • PSU ASUS ROG STRIX 850 Watt White.. Yep it's not the best PSU, yep it's white (I wanted the white connectors and gives me the option to go white build in the future it'll do as I was over looking for more bargains, this sale was exhausting!! $263.20 - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/586498

Overall I'm happy with the build, should get me through just fine, lots of power, will be great for VR and will smash through most of the mixes I do.

I'll be using my existing 5700xt till the new Gen GPUs go on sale next year sometime. I can wait haha

Anyway, that was not fun to find and put together….

Cheers

Computing

Comments

  • AustriaBargain on 29/11/2020 - 18:55

    Apple silicon runs emulated x86 apps just fine apparently. There's a youtube video of a guy running a 1000 samples or plugins or whatever at once. And when native ARM versions of those apps come then performance will be even better. You could spend less on the PC and get new Mac as well, so then you'll have a powerful PC and a powerful new Mac. It can be nice to have independent workstations with the current workfiles linked over the cloud.

    • imsuperimposed on 29/11/2020 - 19:01

      Absolutely, it can work, but not officially supported and I've battled trying to keep my eGPU working on bootcamp for the last two years, was such a pain with multiple re installs of windows after updates breaking it. Will be nice to have a dedicated PC build for a while, whilst the transition happens. Plus my currently Mac is no slouch, works fine for mobile recording and day to day use. Nice to have the combo of both now.

      • AustriaBargain on 29/11/2020 - 19:08

        Oh I thought you meant x86 native Mac apps for music making.

  • Diji on 29/11/2020 - 19:05
    +1

    2020: where 2 grand buys you a computer without a graphics card

    • imsuperimposed on 29/11/2020 - 19:12
      +1

      haha I know hey! I remember the last time I bought a PC you could buy all the best bits and not even spend 2k. I managed to save about $600 based on PC Part Picker prices, but man PCs can be expensive these days….

      • Diji on 29/11/2020 - 19:16
        +1

        last time I bought a PC you could buy all the best bits and not even spend 2k

        The good ol' days :')

    • xuqi on 29/11/2020 - 21:40
      +2

      Not necessarily, the deal below (sold 100's of them) was under $2K, and came with a RTX3070.Perfect for anyone looking for an OEM build.

      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/584484

  • Dr Techno on 29/11/2020 - 19:18

    Im still rocking my 1st gen i7. my most intensive task is just playing 1 game.. Was thinking of upgrading just to get sata 3 controller ot make it a little more snappy.. and was thinking of converting the i7 into a NAS/media player of some sorts. but since 2020 I should save my money for a rainy day :)

    • imsuperimposed on 29/11/2020 - 19:29

      The 1st Gen i7s are awesome, totally outlived their intended life and still do an awesome job. That would be a beast of a NAS.

  • Kangal on 29/11/2020 - 19:20

    weird flex but ok.

    (btw, use the two different m.2 slots with two different boot drives. That way you can boot one 1TB drive with Windows10 Pro, and boot the other 1TB drive with OS X Mojave. Then have a third main drive with lots of capacity (eg 4TB) that gets shared by the two different OS's, and its purpose to simply store your Data and Media, but not the programs which will be installed in their individual 1TB drives. Basically, a Hackintosh that'll play all Mac Programs, all Windows Executibles, all Android Apps through Nox, and all Linux Packages through WSL2).

    • imsuperimposed on 29/11/2020 - 19:28

      Totally not intended as a flex wife gave me the go ahead for my upcoming bday, (But I could see how it looks that way) more a download of the anxiety of trying to buy it during the sales.. seeing bargains and then missing them by minutes as our community ozbargains them. I was very lucky to be able to buy it.

      Great idea, I was going to use the main 1tb partitioned 500gb to boot Win 10 and Try Hackintosh on the other partition, second slot for all the sound files for plugins I have nearly 2tb data, then a third for the actual sessions. I also have a 1tb MX500 I was going to install the games on to. Your idea might be a safer option though.

      • Kangal on 29/11/2020 - 20:05

        Yeah, don't partition the drives.
        Just have a dedicated (fastest) SSD for Windows10, and a dedicated (decent) SSD for macOS.

        Not sure if your case has it, but extra buttons.
        Also not sure if your motherboard supports it, but a command to choose which drive to boot.
        ….if you do that, you can walk upto your PC. Then either press Button 1 to boot into Windows, or instead press Button 2 to boot into Hackintosh. Then have the settings setup so that WindowsOS doesn't see Boot drive 2, and OS X doesn't see Boot drive 1. However, both OS'es see Boot Drive 3 which would be your slowest drive but with most capacity.

        For example;
        Drive 1 = nVme SSD (1TB ~$200 - Kingston A2000)
        Drive 2 = Sata SSD (1TB ~$150 - SanDisk Ultra3D)
        Drive 3 = 2.5in HDD (2TB ~$100 - Seagate BarraCuda 5400rpm)
        Total = ~4TB for ~$450

        Or you can move everything up by one tier;
        Drive 1 = Premium nVme (512GB ~$200 - Samsung 980 Pro)
        Drive 2 = Budget nVme (512GB ~$100 - Kingston A2000)
        Drive 3 = Cheapest 2.5in SSD (4TB ~$400 - WD Blue)
        …or Drive 3 = Premium 3.5in HDD (4TB ~$200 - Seagate BaraCuda Pro 7200rpm)
        Total = ~5TB for ~$500 or ~$700

        • imsuperimposed on 29/11/2020 - 20:35

          Cheers, this is really good info, I’ll use the two first slots as boot drives, then third for sound files etc as the pci lanes of that slot are shares with the data ports for data drives. And then use the 2.5 data for games and media. That should work well. As for the case unfortunately only has one button and 3 USB.

        • HodiernAl on 29/11/2020 - 21:37

          Any recommendations for pc cases and motherboards that support multiple buttons? I've never actually seen one before but it would be super cool to have separate buttons for separate boot drives instead of using a grub menu (linux/windows dual boot).

      • Ryanek on 29/11/2020 - 20:10

        I didn't take this as a flex at all, I appreciate the write up. Its always interesting to read why people choose the hardware that they do.

        • imsuperimposed on 29/11/2020 - 20:38

          Cheers, yeah I thought I’d put the use case in as it’s not the best board for gaming, but for what I need it has a nice balance of features for my compatible devices with enough power for decent gaming and VR. Looking forward to putting it together when it all arrives

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