Putting together a gaming computer 2020: what to choose so as not to overpay?
The current computer hardware market is oversaturated. In order not
to be mistaken with the selection of computer components, you will have to
look through many offers. We did it for you and invite you to
familiarize yourself with the assembly, which is more than enough for
modern AAA games at high / ultra settings.
2019 is drawing to a close, but long before that moment, game
developers have told gamers about their plans for the next 12
months. And, apparently, 2020 promises to be very "hot". Dying
Light 2, Halo Infinite, Wasteland 3, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six:
Quarantine, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, Vampire: Masquerade -
Bloodlines 2, and, of course, Cyberpunk 2077. All of these projects are
likely to be very demanding to the computer hardware. Therefore, it
is worth preparing for the release of new products in advance.
Moreover, the computer hardware market has grown quite strongly over
the past year. A host of graphics cards from Nvidia and
high-performance multi-threaded processors from AMD make it possible to
build a powerful gaming machine at an affordable price. We did not
choose only the most top-end solutions on the market, but decided that
the cost of products is of key importance. Therefore, we bring to
your attention one of the best sets of components in terms of price /
quality ratio, which will be enough for all modern games at high / ultra
settings.
Gaming computer 2020: processor
Last time we told you about a budget computer for gaming , in
which we included the Ryzen 5 2600 processor. And in principle, this
model is sufficient for the vast majority of games. Only a few
projects are able to load the 16 threads that premium processors
have. Therefore, 12 threads are quite enough: you almost never come
across friezes. In order to get more "frames per second", you can
pay attention to the representative of the Zen 2
microarchitecture.
This model outperforms its predecessor by 15% on average, which makes it a good choice for a gaming build for a reasonable price. It will cost you an average of 14,000 rubles. For this amount, the competitor offers us Intel Core i5-9600, which has the same 6 cores, but the number of threads is also 6. In our opinion, this is not enough for modern gaming. And although you will get a higher FPS counter, in some projects you are guaranteed to encounter freezes, because, as mentioned above, 6 threads are already not enough.
If you want more, then you can look towards the Ryzen 7 3700X, which
has 8 cores and 16 threads. You won't see much difference in
performance compared to the Ryzen 5 3600. But if you are streaming,
editing videos, or working in any other program that requires processor
resources, then the difference will be noticeable. 16 threads are
able to process information very quickly and with this model you will
save a lot of time in your work and will be able to execute many
resource-intensive processes in parallel on your computer.
Anything that is higher in price, as it seems to us, in most cases is unnecessary. These are processors that have either high price tags, such as the Intel Core i7-7700K, or sharpened for highly specialized tasks. Today we are talking about gaming, so we won't even look further. We believe that it is better to distribute the budget in such a way where the video card will be the key component. And she, by the way, is next in line.
How to Build a Gaming Computer 2020: Graphics Card
In a budget gaming computer, we recommended you to put the GTX 1660
Super, because it is the best choice in terms of price / performance
ratio. But its power is clearly not enough for 4K gaming, towards
which the gaming world is actively moving. Monitors and cables are
not as expensive as they used to be, and Nvidia's new generation of
graphics cards are remarkable for their excellent performance at an
affordable price. Therefore, we will make the choice with an eye on
4K.
In one of the past posts where we selected a graphics adapter for 3840x2160 resolution , we
concluded that the RTX 2070 Super is the best buy in terms of price /
performance. We will not fully explain our choice but we will only
analyze the main contenders for a 2020 gaming computer.
In our opinion, comfortable gaming in AAA projects starts with the RTX 2060 video card. It provides a stable frame rate above 60 frames only at FullHD resolution. From 2560 x 1440 she already had difficulties. And although it supports ray tracing, the new technology is very difficult for her. Only a few projects will be able to turn the Ray Tracing sliders to the maximum. In the vast majority of games, if it is possible to enable ray tracing, then only to the minimum values (assuming stable 60 frames, of course). Therefore, we cannot recommend this chip to a gaming machine with a couple of years in advance. It is rather a model that is called "end-to-end" to the current recommended system requirements in modern AAA games. We would recommend the RTX 2060 for a mid-range gaming PC, but not a premium one.
And if you look at the lineup further, we will see the RTX 2060 with the Super prefix, which is only a couple thousand more expensive, but at the same time in terms of performance, on average, it is 15% ahead of the regular version in average. Therefore, it is more expedient to choose even it, and not the RTX 2060. But this is still not enough to play everything and not worry about anything. To do this, you will have to pay a little more.
For the next chip in the lineup - RTX 2070, you shouldn't pay extra about 4000 rubles. The 2060 Super is just a couple of percent behind. Accordingly, in our opinion, the overpayment is not worth it. To get a tangible increase, you will have to pay about 32,000 rubles for the RTX 2070 Super, which is 20% more powerful than the RTX 2060 Super. Yes, the difference in price is about 8000 rubles and from the point of view of price / performance, 60 turns out to be a better buy.
But the trend is set by game developers who have been releasing very
demanding projects lately. In order to play comfortably in 2K
resolution at high settings or ultra settings at FullHD - 2060 Super is
the perfect choice. If you want more, like touching 4K or ray
tracing, you'll have to pay for the RTX 2070 Super.
If we take it even higher, the difference in performance between the RTX
2070 Super and the RTX 2080 is not so significant if we take into
account the difference in price (about 10,000 rubles). And for the
RTX 2080 Super, they ask a lot. If the wallet is so fat that your
pocket is torn and you feel uncomfortable, then you can drain its
contents immediately onto the RTX 2080 Ti and not think about anything
for a few more years. For other buyers, we recommend the RTX 2060
Super in the mid-budget build and the RTX 2070 Super in the premium
segment.
Gaming PC 2020: motherboard
For the aforementioned Ryzen 7 3700X, you will have to choose an appropriate motherboard with good cooling. If the motherboard overheats due to a high load on the controller, the processor can reset the frequency. Thus, budget motherboards are not suitable for high-performance processors due to the fact that they have poor cooling of the power supply circuits.
Our choice fell on the Asrock B450 Pro4. This is an ATX form factor motherboard. It has a quality power circuit with two massive heat sinks that will fight overheating. The number of slots for RAM is 4. This number is not necessary, but it will come in handy for a future upgrade. In general, 2 slots for Ryzen are more than enough, because overclocking 2 strips is much easier than 4. But if the modules are overclocked from the factory, then in the future you can buy 2 more strips of the same volume as planned at the initial purchase. The maximum memory frequency is 3200 MHz with the support of the XMP profile. Mother also supports CrossFire. Although a duo of video cards from AMD is such an idea. There is a slot for M.2 storage and 14 USB ports. What else is needed for complete happiness?
Gaming PC Build 2020: RAM
If you want the RAM to work out of the box at a high frequency, you will have to overpay a little. Among high-frequency memory, we like modules from Corsair, which often take the declared frequency and keep it stably. Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3200C16 is a set of two 8 GB brackets. 16 GB is still an overkill for most games, but in the next couple of years, AAA projects will come close to this value. So we take with a small margin so that you can sit in the browser in parallel. And 8 GB doesn't look solid anymore. It's okay for a budget gaming computer, but not for a solid gaming computer.
Build a gaming computer 2020: hard drive and SSD
We have deliberately combined two different types of media in this
category, since both are desirable to install on your gaming PC. An
SSD is needed for fast loading and operation in Windows 10, and an HDD
is needed for storing large amounts of data and working with them, for
example, a bunch of games with a huge size. Now some games already
need 100 GB of hard disk space - no SSD is enough.
So, to install the system, we offer ADATA Ultimate SU800 256GB, which costs about 2500 rubles for 256 GB. One of the most inexpensive but reliable drives available today. In our tests in the CristalDiskMark benchmark, it showed excellent write speeds for large files - 370 MB / s, and reads - 407 MB / s.
Hard drives, in our opinion, survive the rest of their times and practically do not evolve in any way. High-speed drives are conquering new peaks in terms of volume and are getting cheaper every year. Thus, in nature very soon there will be hard drives that have huge volumes that are not needed for home use, but will only be useful in server stations. Therefore, you can choose almost any hard drive from famous companies. According to their characteristics, they are all very similar. For example, here's a good option:
2020 gaming PC case and power supply
For our needs, a 600-watt power supply is enough. We have tested the Thermaltake TR2 S 650W for 3500 rubles more than once and, perhaps, will stop at it. As for the case, we liked the Deepcool Matrexx 55 Black for 3000 rubles. It can easily accommodate a large graphics card. Has a lower horizontal position of the power supply, as well as 3 USB connectors on the front panel. Equipped with RGB lighting, two 2.5 "drive bays and two 3.5" drive bays.
Gaming computer 2020: final configuration
·
Processor - AMD Ryzen 5 3600 for 151.68$ or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X for 240.16$
·
Video card - RTX 2060 Super for 303.36$ or RTX 2070 Super for 404.48$
·
Motherboard - ASRock B450 Pro4 for 75.84$
·
RAM - Corsair CMK16GX4M2B3200C16 for 63.20$
·
SSD - ADATA Ultimate SU800 256GB for 31.60$.
·
Hard drive - Seagate ST1000DM010 for 37.92$.
·
Case - Deepcool Matrexx 55 Black for 37.92$.
· Power supply - Thermaltake TR2 S 650W for 44.24$.
