Hardware & Technical CPU and MOBO for games

[lysan]

Hi guys and gals,

I need to know from you fellows what CPU would be great for making a game computer.
I already got a very old PC and it runs with a i7 4960X and it’s doing a pretty good job.

However I need to build a second PC and I want to keep it on a budget, but still I want it to be fast enough to take one of the top end GPU’S.

So CPU and MOBO suggestion please.

 

[idahosurge]

What is your budget?

If you are only going to use it for Elite Dangerous then 16 GB's of ram is fine. If you plan on using it for Star Citizen (if it ever is released) then you will need 32 GB's of ram.

To use a high end GPU (GTX 2080 Ti) you need a higher end CPU so the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU.

For a CPU I would look at a i7-8700K or a i7-9700K. The i7-9700K has 8 cores, but for a game you really do not need 8 cores. The i7-9700K is just the latest Coffe Lake release.

16 GB Ram
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4YU3W46218

32 GB Ram

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

There are many motherboards, you need one with the Z390 chipset for the above CPU's I noted. Here is one example from Azus. All the PC's I have built over the years have been with Asus MB's. They are a good board. If you plan on overclocking the higher end MB's are usually the best overclocker's. If you are going to run your CPU at stock then the lower end MB's will be fine. If you buy the ram I noted above just make sure that the MB can run ram at 3600 MHz. If you decide on 32 GB's of ram make sure you get a MB with four ram slots (8 GB's per slot) or you will have to get ram that is 16 GB's per stick for a MB with only two ram slots.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAD7H8E09514

This is a good site to ask hardware questions and if you overclock to get help.
https://www.overclock.net/

 

[lysan]

Great, so lets say I would like to use a i7-8700K, is there any AMD CPUs that could be used too?
So Asus H310m-k + I7 8700 + 16gb Ddr4 would that do?

 

[Bladefeather]

You could also use something like an AMD Ryzen 2700x if you want. You will sacrifice some single threaded performance for more cores for multi threaded workloads, so it will depend on what you want to do with your PC. If it is mainly for gaming, I would probably go for Intel unless the price difference allows for say, a GPU upgrade, but if you plan to do content creation, streaming, or other tasks that can take advantage of more cores, I would personally go for Ryzen. Attached is a quickly put together pcpartpicker list of a potential build, but feel free to modify it however you wish to make it suit your needs better.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JFvF29

 

[Shadowdancer]

Budget that just works: Ryzen 2600 on an Asrock B450 Pro4 (the B450M µATX is great, but you want a dedicated fan controller for that).

Mainboards are generally overrated. You don't need anything super premium as long as you can plug in everything you want to use.

 

[lysan]

You could also use something like an AMD Ryzen 2700x if you want. You will sacrifice some single threaded performance for more cores for multi threaded workloads, so it will depend on what you want to do with your PC. If it is mainly for gaming, I would probably go for Intel unless the price difference allows for say, a GPU upgrade, but if you plan to do content creation, streaming, or other tasks that can take advantage of more cores, I would personally go for Ryzen. Attached is a quickly put together pcpartpicker list of a potential build, but feel free to modify it however you wish to make it suit your needs better.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JFvF29

Well I already got one PC with a i7 4960X CPU so in this case it’s only for gaming. Thank you for the suggestion looks good and also not super expensive.