Building a High-End Gaming PC – The Parts

The Case

Corsair Crystal Series 680X

It didn’t take long to find my favorite case when watching case reviews on YouTube. The Corsair 680X is elegant, extraordinary and very thoughtfully designed.

It is a little wider than regular tower cases but for a good reason. Looking at it from the front, Corsair added a closed section on the right where all the cabelling can go and components that are not suited for the “aquarium” section on the left. That is very clever and makes your viisual interior clean and orderly.

The tempered glas cover on the left is a hinged door, so no srews and easy to open. There is a glas cover on top and in the front as well.

The case is available in white and in black. It comes with three RGB fans in the front and one regular fan in the back. I feel they could have made the latter and RGB fan as well considering the price of about € 250.

The CPU

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

I was going back and forth between Intel’s I9 and AMD’s Ryzen 9. Comparisons on the net don’t show a clear winner. I finally decided to go with the Ryzen for its higher core and thread count, better power efficiency at stock, a faster base memory spec, as well as bringing PCIe 4.0. I do have an I9 in my media PC already so it will be interesting to compare the two.

Also, the price of € 450 was a better than the I9’s.

The CPU Cooler

Corsair H115i RGB Platinum

I picked this liquid RGB cooler from Corsair because its RGB fans match the ones that come with the case and because it is perfectly sized for the case as well. Its designated location will be under the top of the case where they will nicely flood the interior with their light. It is an is an all-in-one liquid CPU cooler with a 280mm radiator.

The cooler was listed with a price of € 150.

The Motherboard

Asus ROG-Strix-X570-E-Gaming

For the motherboard I relied on several reviews and tests I found. In all of them, this board scored very high, up to being selected as a reference board in its class.

I had Asus computers and boards in the past and I was always happy with them. It has very classy RGB effects built in and looks just awesome all together. It also says “The Choice of Champions”, so that makes me a champion :-).

The board was available for a price of € 320.

The Graphics Card

Asus RTX 2080 Ti ROG Strix Gaming

The by far most expensive part in the list is the graphics card. That it had to be the Nvidia 2080 Ti chip was a no-brainer. All that was left was to pick a brand that builds cards with this chip.

Similar to the motherboard, the reviews and tests I read did not clearly point out the best. They are all similar in this class in regards to performance and pricing. I did saw one video though where the one from MSI was used and it did hardly fit in the case due to its size. So my argument to go with Asus here was that I already picked their motherboard assuming that they go well together.

This graphics card had a price of € 1300.

The RAM

Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32 GB DDR4-3600 CL18

For the RAM I decided to spend a bit more money than necessary. Reason was the new LED technology that Corsair came up with in thewir Dominator RAM modules. They are specifically deisgned to be used in small spaces while still providing bright lighting. They look amazing and there are several LEDs on each module that can be programmed to show different lighting patterns.

To enjoy the full optical capacity I went for four 8 GB modules, adding up to a total of 32 GB.

They had a price of € 344.

The Hard Disks

Samsung 970 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD (1 TB)

Games alone take a lot of disk space already and since I do not only want to use the workstation for gaming but also for other work, I decided to get two 1 TB SSDs. I chose the 970 EVO NVMe M.2 from Samsung. I found good reviews about them and thought I cannot make much wrong with them.

I got two of them, each for € 180.

The Power Supply

Corsair AX850

In regards to the power supply it was important to me that it was fully modular and that it had a high efiiciency rating. Corsair again had the product of my choice. It is one of the few that is 80 Plus Titanium certified providing a 94% efficiency. It is said to be silent and lwo in temperature and power consumption.

The power supply came for € 220.

The Extra RGB Fans

Corsair LL140 RGB

I added three more RGB fans from Corsair matching the case design. One is to replace the non-RGB fan in the back. Corsair should have done that right from the start in my opinion. The other two additional RGB fans will be mounted at the bottom above the dust filter where the auir is dragged into the case.

Each of these fans is about € 33.

The Extra Lighting

Corsair CL-8930002 RGB LED Lighting PRO

Matching the case and other components from Corsair I decided to add some extra lighting strips. The magnetic stripes can be nicely placed along the insde edges of the case so they won’t be directly visible. They are also programmable and will provide some nice indirect lighting effects.

The kit here came for € 55.

The Lighting Controller

Corsair Commander Pro

All these beautiful RGB light sources must be controllable. That’s what the Commander Pro is for. The fans and other lighting sources will be connected to it and via Corsair’s controller software iCUE they can be programmed to do all kinds of nice lighting effects.

The controller cost € 65.

The Final Touch

CableMod PRO ModMesh Cable Extension Kit – CARBON

Since the Beast will show all its guts through its glass walls I wanted the cabelling to look nice too. Yes, most of it will be hidden in the right section of the case but where it reaches the visible elements, the motherboard for example, they will be plain to see.

The carbon like looking cable kit from CableMod is very popular for its classy look and its reflection of what ever light color it hits.

I spent another € 50 for the kit.

The Shopping List

ItemProductPrice (May 2020)
Graphics CardAsus RTX 2080 Ti ROG Strix Gaming€ 1300.00
CPUAMD Ryzen 9 3900X€ 450.00
Hatd Disks (2 x 1 TB SSD)970 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD (1 TB)€ 360.00
RAMCorsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32 GB DDR4-3600 CL18€ 350.00
MotherboardAsus ROG-Strix-X570-E-Gaming€ 320.00
CaseCorsair Crystal Series 680X€ 250.00
Power SupplyCorsair AX850€ 220.00
CPU CoolerCorsair H115i RGB Platinum€ 150.00
RGB Fans (3x)Corsair LL140 RGB€ 100.00
RGB ControllerCorsair Commander Pro€ 65.00
Extra LightingCorsair CL-8930002 RGB LED Lighting PRO€ 50.00
Carbon Cable KitCableMod PRO ModMesh Cable Extension Kit – CARBON€ 50.00
€ 3665.00

What’s Missing?

Of course, a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse (and maybe a game controller).

I did not include these items here because they are not directly parts of the computer and you might own such peripherals already. However, I have put mine together on the Peripherals page.

 


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