Despite whining about RAM prices as recently as yesterday morning, I’ve pulled the trigger on some stuff, some of which is now here (though the case won’t get here until Tuesday, expedited shipping is apparently expensive for steel boxes ).
Full machine will be:
- Intel Core i7-8700K
- Noctua NH-D15 CPU cooler
- MSI Z370M Gaming Pro AC
- 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz DDR4
- ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 1070 STRIX (from existing computer)
- Samsung 970 EVO NVMe M.2 1TB
- Sandisk Ultra II 960GB SSD (from existing computer)
- Samsung 840 EVO 750GB SSD (from existing computer)
- Fractal Design Define Mini C
- SeaSonic SS-520FL2 (from existing computer)
Hopefully will be good. Definitely running on the expensive side with the RAM and SSD (thankfully I didn’t pay what’s on the price tag for any of these things), but I haven’t built a new machine since 2011, so I figure it’s not the end of the world.
I’m a bit concerned that the CPU cooler might not fit (case says it can do up to 170mm in height and Noctua specifies 165mm, but their diagram shows a 140mm fan and 32mm of RAM clearance fitting in that 165mm, which seems unlikely). If not though, I can run it with one fan, or with a 120mm fan over the RAM to make some room.
Was tough choosing between Intel and AMD for the CPU, but the i7 fits my uses a bit better than Ryzen+, and there aren’t any X470 mATX motherboards (I could use an X370 one, but getting one with a BIOS that doesn’t support the new chips would have been a pain). Ryzen’s memory speed limitations were also a concern.
In any event, I eagerly await putting stuff together on Tuesday (I less eagerly await reinstalling a bunch of software and copying lots of stuff over).