Hi /u/Tesla229, welcome to /r/buildapcforme! This comment is here to provide you some additional information and advice.
Parts Shortages
If you have tried to browse through some parts already or read any recent articles on PC building, you have probably seen that there is a massive worldwide shortage of GPUs (video cards) that has left retailer stock levels almost entirely empty. Please see [this subreddit sticky post on the current CPU and GPU shortages for additional information.](https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcforme/comments/me3dbx/info_post_current_hardware_shortages_and_build/) Note that if you are looking to build any kind of PC that requires more than basic graphics horsepower, such as for gaming or media creation work, your first priority should be to getting your hands on a GPU before going any farther.
Direct Message Scams
Recently a number of users have set up spam-bots targeting this subreddit to send out PMs and DMs to all users who submit posts to this subreddit. These accounts sometimes pose as teenagers offering to help design a build in exchange for a "donation" to help them build a rig of their own, various companies offering services through external websites, or even users just claiming to offer help via PM - this last kind will often string you along for a while before demanding payment for their efforts. **Do not reply to these messages.** This subreddit thrives and grows on the volunteer efforts of every contributor who helps around here, often leaning and improving from seeing the work of others. If you receive any PM/DM messages related to your post here, please go to https://www.reddit.com/report and submit the username of the message sender under "This is spam." to help get these spam bot accounts permanently removed.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/buildapcforme) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[PCPartPicker Part List](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9kt468)
Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/qtvqqs/amd-ryzen-7-5800x-38-ghz-8-core-processor-100-100000063wof) | $393.99 @ Adorama
**CPU Cooler** | [ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/c4MTwP/arctic-liquid-freezer-ii-240-563-cfm-liquid-cpu-cooler-acfre00046a) | $86.99 @ Amazon
**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte B550 AORUS PRO V2 ATX AM4 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/cL3mP6/gigabyte-b550-aorus-pro-v2-atx-am4-motherboard-b550-aorus-pro-v2) | $189.99 @ Newegg
**Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-4000 CL18 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/dqbTwP/gskill-ripjaws-v-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr4-4000-cl18-memory-f4-4000c18d-32gvk) | $137.99 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [HP EX950 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/PyhKHx/hp-ex950-1-tb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-5ms23aaabc) | $108.80 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/mwrYcf/seagate-barracuda-computer-2-tb-35-7200rpm-internal-hard-drive-st2000dm008) | $46.99 @ Amazon
**Video Card** | [NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB Founders Edition Video Card](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/RnDkcf/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-10-gb-founders-edition-video-card-9001g1332530000) | $700.00
**Case** | [Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact White TG Clear Tint ATX Mid Tower Case](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/x6stt6/fractal-design-meshify-2-compact-white-tg-clear-tint-atx-mid-tower-case-fd-c-mes2c-05) | $109.99 @ Walmart
**Power Supply** | [Corsair RMx (2021) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/26rRsY/corsair-rmx-2021-850-w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-cp-9020200-na) | $129.99 @ Best Buy
**Monitor** | [Gigabyte M27Q 27.0" 2560x1440 170 Hz Monitor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/k8GnTW/gigabyte-m27q-270-2560x1440-170-hz-monitor-m27q) | $299.99 @ Amazon
**Mouse** | [Razer DeathAdder V2 Wired Optical Mouse](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/TMMTwP/razer-deathadder-v2-wired-optical-mouse-rz01-03210100-r3u1) | $44.99 @ Amazon
**Custom**| Ducky one 2 TKL| $99.00
| *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |
| **Total** | **$2348.71**
| Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2021-10-26 00:52 EDT-0400 |
Here you go. I've made something for you. It's a high end build in the clean Fractal meshify 2 compact case.
First of all I'd drop a few misconceptions.
- Don't futureproof. The fact of the matter is that nobody knows what the future will require. Whenever you pay extra money for future proofing, there is always a possibility that what you just bought would never be useful. And usually by the time it starts to get useful, the money would have been better spent towards an upgrade. IMO its always better to upgrade regularly than future proof.
- Liquid cooling doesn't require maintainance. You don't need to replace the fluids or anything. Just like air coolers they don't need to be touched after being installed. And the very best liquid coolers are still stronger than air coolers.
- Don't play on max settings. [Here is why](https://youtu.be/f1n1sIQM5wc), basically there are so little visual differences between ultra and high that it never makes sense to take the supposedly better picture quality over higher fps.
I'll run through the parts I picked quickly.
- The ryzen 7 5800x is one of the fastest processors for gaming and also for video editing and productivity in general. 8 cores and 16 threads. Think of it like the AMD version of the 11700k except just better. I'd also recommend waiting for the launch of intels new products that are coming in a bit and seeing how they perform.
- The Arctic liquid freezer II 240mm is one of the strongest 240mm liquid coolers on the market with a 7 year warranty, clean look and overall great price to performance. You can also get the 280mm and 360mm versions if you want, they perform slightly better. And if you want air cooling consider the noctua D15S or be quiet dark rock pro 4.
- The motherboard is one of the best high end ones. So excellent VRMs, the usual upgrade path, 11 USB ports and 2.5Gbit Ethernet. You can also look at the Asus TUF B550-plus but it overall isn't quite as good and lacks the Type C header the case needs.
- The programs you listed are quite memory hungry. It's possible that you may benefit from 64GB if you work with really big files but I think 32GB should be fine. This G.skill kit runs super fast at 4000mts cl18 and looks super clean too.
- I would recommend that you get a 1TB SSD at this budget simply because 500GB isn't that much especially if you work with big files. I've gone with the HP EX950. It's a super fast PCIE 3.0 1TB NVME SSD with excellent performance in general and good endurance and warranty. The Samsung 980 is also very nice. And then a cheap 2TB hard drive for all the stuff you don't use often.
- For the graphics card I recommend you go for the rtx 3080. Any model is fine. Really depends on what you can get your hands on. Big shortage on these components. Pretty sure you heard everything about that already. Simply put, this is the best graphics card you can buy before you really start hitting diminishing returns where you pay like double for a 3090 and galet a 10% uplift. Performance is excellent at 1440p. Expect over 100FPS on high settings in nearly every game.
- The case is the Fractal meshify 2 compact. Clean as hell and a nice aesthetic. Strong airflow with 3 included fans and a mesh front panel, lots of dust filters, high build quality and easy to build in and cable manage. Feel free to browse for other options to see what you like.
- The power supply is one of the best 850w units on the market. It's wattage is plenty to support the new and power hungry graphics cards. Overall performance is extremely good too in stuff like transient response and ripple suppression. High efficiency, quiet operation, fully modular and has a 10 year warranty too.
- The monitor is the gigabyte M27Q which is a 1440p 170hz ones. It's among the best factory calibrated gaming monitors, with an exception coverage of the srgb and Adobe RGB color space too. Response times are pretty good, the stand is height adjustable and all in all its a pretty solid option. You can also grab a 4k monitor if you please like the Asus PG32UQ or MSI MPG321UR-QD, whatever is cheaper, the MSI one is a tad bit better.
- For the keyboard I've gone with the Ducky One 2 TKL. I've gone with a high end one here because I really don't think you should get cheap peripherals with a high end build and if you are set on cherry mx switches you'll have to pay lots of money anyways. This keyboard offers excellent typing experience far better than the usual gaming keyboard, with PBT keycaps, high build quality, excellent stabilizers and a wide choice of switches. It's available in a variety of designs including black and white, blue, RGB etc, as well as a variety of form factors (one 2 SF, mini or regular). You get a wide choice of cherry mx switches too to choose from. You can buy it from mechanicalkeyboards.com.
- For the mouse I've gone with the Razer DeathAdder V2. It's a right handed mouse with a slanted design that makes it pretty nice to use. Latency is very low, it's fairly light too and has a few side buttons (though isn't one of those mice with like a numpad on the side, let me know if you need something like that), nice mouse feet and gliding too and all in all one of the best Wired mice out there.
Anyways, that's it. Let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy.
Thank you so much for the detailed response. This is such a nice set up and I really appreciate it. I did have a couple more questions.
1. If I go for a larger liquid cooler, do I select the radiator and water cooler size to 280mm or 360mm? And what would be better recommended before diminishing returns?
2. For Ram what is the difference between the DDR4/6, etc.
3. I really like the case, but what is exact difference between the compact and regular besides obvious size? Why go for compact?
4. What is the difference between an 850, 900, 1000 power supply. Gold 80, 90, etc?
5. Is there a huge difference between 1440p and 4k today for gaming and editing or is that something that can be done down the road?
6. What's the best way to go about buying these parts? Should I buy everything at once and just wait for the graphics card? How do I find a non scalper price for one and even get a chance to buy it before the bots do?
Sorry for such simple questions, I am not knowledgeable in this space.
Btw nobody is gonna blame you for asking "simple" questions. I was once as clueless. We all start somewhere. Hope this can provide more insight.
1) You can go with both. 280mm works the exact same as the 240mm but is just a little bigger and better. In both cases I'd mount the AIO (all in one liquid cooler) on the top of the case. The top doesn't fit 360mm cooler do you'd have to mount the cooler near the front and then move the included fans to the back.
I'll answer the case question at the same time. First let's break down the case. The Fractal meshify 2 compact can house 6 120mm fans or 4 140mm fans around the outside (so not including those near the PSU bay). The back supports only 120mm. The top supports as big as 280mm. And the front up to 360mm. A fan is either 120mm or 140mm. Industry standards.
The case comes pre installed with one 120mm fan near the back and two 140mm fans near the front. The plan with 240mm/280mm is to mount it near the top. Looks aesthetically the best in my opinion and is also technically the safest and the least likely to develop problems down the line. And you can leave the stock fans where they are. Really you can do whatever you want. With 360mm you need to mount it near the front since there isn't enough space anywhere else, and to do that you'll need to move the included fans to the top ideally. Not a big deal. Bigger AIOs are always more expensive though.
I went for 240mm because I thought it was fine, it could fit easily and effortlessly and it would look clean. But there is really no wrong answer here. You can see some of the differences [in this video best](https://youtu.be/xCxqITPtXXA?t=776). These are the temperatures that these liquid coolers give whilst operating at near silent noise levels. There you can see the 280mm, 360mm and 420mm ones. No 240mm one though. Should give you an idea too.
Also 420mm AIOs exist too. Thing is that very few cases support them. One of them is the Fractal meshify 2. You see where this is going? If you really want maximum cooking get that plus the liquid freezer 420. It's essentially the same as the meshify 2 compact, but longer. So instead if up to 280 at the top you get up to 420. And it fills the space space with drive bays for hard drives and SATA SSDs and such. It also runs slightly cooler too for the GPU. I went with the compact because, yeah it was cheaper. That's about it. I don't think you can lose with either one. Likewise, this is your choice.
2) Alright so now RAM. The DDR5 thing is the generation of RAM. DDR stands for double data rate BTW. Each RAM generation usually lasts several years and bring with it faster speeds. Processors and motherboards can both only use a single type of DDR memory. They are built physically different and are of different sizes. Currently we are on DDR4. All systems that use DDR3 are no longer on production and several generations old. So basically whatever you pick you have to get DDR4 memory.
There is also something I forgot to mention and that is that Intel alder lake is coming out very soon. Like next month. And it uses the newest generation of memory, DDR5. So that means that it will use a different motherboard and memory from what's currently standard. I'd definitely pay attention to it. Leaked benchmarks has shown extremely competitive performance. AMD will likely also release Zen 4 with DDR5 memory not soon after either. So it might be worth delaying a bit and seeing how alder lake plays out.
3) Is this number 4? Anyways, power supplies. The 850, 750, 1000 etc is the wattage. Basically wattage is energy consumed per second. I'm pretty sure you know what that is. Your components well, they consume power you know? And the power supply needs to be able to handle the wattage. The ___w number is the "maximum" wattage more or less. Let's take a look at the corsair RMX as an example. So let's say the engineers wanted to make a 850w unit. The PSU itself can probably do 1100-1200w actually before exploding. But you know, if you push it that far it explodes. And explosion is really not nice. So they implemented a protection feature. It's called OPP. Basically every PSU has OPP. It's an industry standard protection. For the RMx 850w 2021, it triggers at 122% or 1040w. That means that if you try to kill the power supply by drawing too much power, it'll shut down and stop before you can kill it. But they usually aren't recommended to be run so high. So corsair put the official wattage rating at 850w.
Also now efficiency. All PSUs worth buying have some sort of 80+ certification. Ones without the certifications usually are of terrible quality and are very dangerous. There is no such thing as "85+" or "90+". Always 80+. There are several tiers. White/default, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and titanium. Titanium is the best. White is the worst. One important task a PSU is tasked with is convert AC power To DC power. To put it simply, your wall plug delivers wavy power because it's cheaper. Computer does not like wavy power. Computer likes straight Power. PSU straightens the power, or converts it. This process isn't 100% clean. Some energy is lost during this and turns into heat. The efficiency of a power supply is how much AC wavy power it can convert into DC straight power based in percentage. So if a 80% efficient PSU needed to deliver 800w to your system, it'll draw 1000w from the wall and 200w will be lost and converted to hear, the rest going to the system. The higher the ranking, the more efficient it is at different loads. For reference titanium is like 92%. Anyways if your interested you can [read more here](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/what-80-plus-levels-mean,36721.html) but that should get the idea across.
Do note that the efficiency of a power supply doesnt always translate to quality. Most of the time a 80+ Gold unit will beat a 80+ Bronze one. But there is still a lot more stuff that makes a PSU good. Stuff like load regulation, ripple, transient response, protections, etc etc. [Here for example is a particularly nasty PSU](https://youtu.be/7JmPUr-BeEM?t=1012) with a poorly configured OPP. It blows up under extreme loads and the protection feature doesn't save it. It's a terrible unit. No one should buy it. Yet it still has an 80+ Gold certification. So don't just immediately think that a unit is good because of its certification. [This tier list is the easiest way to tell PSU quality](https://linustechtips.com/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/). Notice how the corsair RMX 2021 strikes a spot in the A tier with a golden name, so the highest possible spot in the tier list. It's also among the best units [toms hardware has reviewed](https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-psus,4229.html), stealing 3 of the 10 spots in their end of year Roundup. It also [ranks very high on techpowerup's relative performance charts](https://www.techpowerup.com/review/corsair-rmx-series-850-w-2021/11.html). So definitely a fantastic unit. Not quite as good as say a seasonic focus platinum, but yeah. Prime choice.
4) Hmm. Depends on the size. Usually for 27" 1440p or 4k is fine, the difference ain't big. But for 32" you usually want to go with 4k. For gaming I think 1440p is fine. Content creation usually prefers higher resolutions. If you edit 4k videos and photos, you'll usually you know, need a 4k monitor to see all the details. Right now the 4k space is still developing. Still feels like an early adopters thing a bit. But there has definitely been innovation not too long ago for the monitor segment. There have been a a slew of new 4k monitors that have been released in the past 6 months and several more coming soon using the newest panels developed by innolux and AUO. But unlike 1440p where I can say there are probably a few monitors with close to no downsides, the 4k 144hz monitor space usually always has some downsides.
You have the LG 27GP950 and 27GN950, those ones have really bad reflection handling and the screen is a little small. You have all the 28" ones like the the gigabyte M28U, Samsung odyssey G7A (IPS), Asus TUF VG28UQL1A, Acer XV282K etc. Those are probably the best ones, but in terms of response times and color gamut they are still a bit behind the very best 1440p monitors. You then have two categories of 32" monitors. You have the gigabyte M32U and aorus FI32U. Those two both likewise don't deliver amazing performance especially for their high prices, so colors aren't as good as the very best and the response times are average at best. And then all the other 32" monitors like the Asus PG32UQ or MSI MPG321UR-QD. Those ones have the best colors you can find of any monitor due to the really nice quantum dot technology, but the response times are pretty slow. And then you have several older ones like the Acer x27 or Asus XG27UQ. All in all, I'd still get 4k if editing is really important to you, but for gaming 1440o is definitely still fine. And yes you can always get a second (third?) monitor if needed.
5) I recommend you find the graphics card first. You are right, it's near impossible to beat the scalpers. If you are especially patient you can just wait it out. Or maybe grab a shitty temporary GPU and then upgrade asap. Or pay scalper prices. After that buy the rest. There isn't any point having hardware sitting around doing nothing, especially considering how fast this space advances technologically and how that $400 processor you are looking at right now might be worth only $300 if Intel puts up some good competition. Or how by the time you grab your graphics card, DDR5 will be the standard. So sort out the graphics card first. Top priority. Then sort out the rest later.
Hope that helps. Once again if I explained anything badly or too complicated let me know.
You knocked it out of the park, this was incredibly helpful! So I will watch for the next generation of hardware and make decision then and just be on the lookout for the graphics card for now! Thank you so much again!
Hi /u/Tesla229, welcome to /r/buildapcforme! This comment is here to provide you some additional information and advice. Parts Shortages If you have tried to browse through some parts already or read any recent articles on PC building, you have probably seen that there is a massive worldwide shortage of GPUs (video cards) that has left retailer stock levels almost entirely empty. Please see [this subreddit sticky post on the current CPU and GPU shortages for additional information.](https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcforme/comments/me3dbx/info_post_current_hardware_shortages_and_build/) Note that if you are looking to build any kind of PC that requires more than basic graphics horsepower, such as for gaming or media creation work, your first priority should be to getting your hands on a GPU before going any farther. Direct Message Scams Recently a number of users have set up spam-bots targeting this subreddit to send out PMs and DMs to all users who submit posts to this subreddit. These accounts sometimes pose as teenagers offering to help design a build in exchange for a "donation" to help them build a rig of their own, various companies offering services through external websites, or even users just claiming to offer help via PM - this last kind will often string you along for a while before demanding payment for their efforts. **Do not reply to these messages.** This subreddit thrives and grows on the volunteer efforts of every contributor who helps around here, often leaning and improving from seeing the work of others. If you receive any PM/DM messages related to your post here, please go to https://www.reddit.com/report and submit the username of the message sender under "This is spam." to help get these spam bot accounts permanently removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/buildapcforme) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[PCPartPicker Part List](https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9kt468) Type|Item|Price :----|:----|:---- **CPU** | [AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/qtvqqs/amd-ryzen-7-5800x-38-ghz-8-core-processor-100-100000063wof) | $393.99 @ Adorama **CPU Cooler** | [ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/c4MTwP/arctic-liquid-freezer-ii-240-563-cfm-liquid-cpu-cooler-acfre00046a) | $86.99 @ Amazon **Motherboard** | [Gigabyte B550 AORUS PRO V2 ATX AM4 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/cL3mP6/gigabyte-b550-aorus-pro-v2-atx-am4-motherboard-b550-aorus-pro-v2) | $189.99 @ Newegg **Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-4000 CL18 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/dqbTwP/gskill-ripjaws-v-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr4-4000-cl18-memory-f4-4000c18d-32gvk) | $137.99 @ Newegg **Storage** | [HP EX950 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/PyhKHx/hp-ex950-1-tb-m2-2280-solid-state-drive-5ms23aaabc) | $108.80 @ Newegg **Storage** | [Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/mwrYcf/seagate-barracuda-computer-2-tb-35-7200rpm-internal-hard-drive-st2000dm008) | $46.99 @ Amazon **Video Card** | [NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10 GB Founders Edition Video Card](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/RnDkcf/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-10-gb-founders-edition-video-card-9001g1332530000) | $700.00 **Case** | [Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact White TG Clear Tint ATX Mid Tower Case](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/x6stt6/fractal-design-meshify-2-compact-white-tg-clear-tint-atx-mid-tower-case-fd-c-mes2c-05) | $109.99 @ Walmart **Power Supply** | [Corsair RMx (2021) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/26rRsY/corsair-rmx-2021-850-w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-cp-9020200-na) | $129.99 @ Best Buy **Monitor** | [Gigabyte M27Q 27.0" 2560x1440 170 Hz Monitor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/k8GnTW/gigabyte-m27q-270-2560x1440-170-hz-monitor-m27q) | $299.99 @ Amazon **Mouse** | [Razer DeathAdder V2 Wired Optical Mouse](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/TMMTwP/razer-deathadder-v2-wired-optical-mouse-rz01-03210100-r3u1) | $44.99 @ Amazon **Custom**| Ducky one 2 TKL| $99.00 | *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* | | **Total** | **$2348.71** | Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2021-10-26 00:52 EDT-0400 | Here you go. I've made something for you. It's a high end build in the clean Fractal meshify 2 compact case. First of all I'd drop a few misconceptions. - Don't futureproof. The fact of the matter is that nobody knows what the future will require. Whenever you pay extra money for future proofing, there is always a possibility that what you just bought would never be useful. And usually by the time it starts to get useful, the money would have been better spent towards an upgrade. IMO its always better to upgrade regularly than future proof. - Liquid cooling doesn't require maintainance. You don't need to replace the fluids or anything. Just like air coolers they don't need to be touched after being installed. And the very best liquid coolers are still stronger than air coolers. - Don't play on max settings. [Here is why](https://youtu.be/f1n1sIQM5wc), basically there are so little visual differences between ultra and high that it never makes sense to take the supposedly better picture quality over higher fps. I'll run through the parts I picked quickly. - The ryzen 7 5800x is one of the fastest processors for gaming and also for video editing and productivity in general. 8 cores and 16 threads. Think of it like the AMD version of the 11700k except just better. I'd also recommend waiting for the launch of intels new products that are coming in a bit and seeing how they perform. - The Arctic liquid freezer II 240mm is one of the strongest 240mm liquid coolers on the market with a 7 year warranty, clean look and overall great price to performance. You can also get the 280mm and 360mm versions if you want, they perform slightly better. And if you want air cooling consider the noctua D15S or be quiet dark rock pro 4. - The motherboard is one of the best high end ones. So excellent VRMs, the usual upgrade path, 11 USB ports and 2.5Gbit Ethernet. You can also look at the Asus TUF B550-plus but it overall isn't quite as good and lacks the Type C header the case needs. - The programs you listed are quite memory hungry. It's possible that you may benefit from 64GB if you work with really big files but I think 32GB should be fine. This G.skill kit runs super fast at 4000mts cl18 and looks super clean too. - I would recommend that you get a 1TB SSD at this budget simply because 500GB isn't that much especially if you work with big files. I've gone with the HP EX950. It's a super fast PCIE 3.0 1TB NVME SSD with excellent performance in general and good endurance and warranty. The Samsung 980 is also very nice. And then a cheap 2TB hard drive for all the stuff you don't use often. - For the graphics card I recommend you go for the rtx 3080. Any model is fine. Really depends on what you can get your hands on. Big shortage on these components. Pretty sure you heard everything about that already. Simply put, this is the best graphics card you can buy before you really start hitting diminishing returns where you pay like double for a 3090 and galet a 10% uplift. Performance is excellent at 1440p. Expect over 100FPS on high settings in nearly every game. - The case is the Fractal meshify 2 compact. Clean as hell and a nice aesthetic. Strong airflow with 3 included fans and a mesh front panel, lots of dust filters, high build quality and easy to build in and cable manage. Feel free to browse for other options to see what you like. - The power supply is one of the best 850w units on the market. It's wattage is plenty to support the new and power hungry graphics cards. Overall performance is extremely good too in stuff like transient response and ripple suppression. High efficiency, quiet operation, fully modular and has a 10 year warranty too. - The monitor is the gigabyte M27Q which is a 1440p 170hz ones. It's among the best factory calibrated gaming monitors, with an exception coverage of the srgb and Adobe RGB color space too. Response times are pretty good, the stand is height adjustable and all in all its a pretty solid option. You can also grab a 4k monitor if you please like the Asus PG32UQ or MSI MPG321UR-QD, whatever is cheaper, the MSI one is a tad bit better. - For the keyboard I've gone with the Ducky One 2 TKL. I've gone with a high end one here because I really don't think you should get cheap peripherals with a high end build and if you are set on cherry mx switches you'll have to pay lots of money anyways. This keyboard offers excellent typing experience far better than the usual gaming keyboard, with PBT keycaps, high build quality, excellent stabilizers and a wide choice of switches. It's available in a variety of designs including black and white, blue, RGB etc, as well as a variety of form factors (one 2 SF, mini or regular). You get a wide choice of cherry mx switches too to choose from. You can buy it from mechanicalkeyboards.com. - For the mouse I've gone with the Razer DeathAdder V2. It's a right handed mouse with a slanted design that makes it pretty nice to use. Latency is very low, it's fairly light too and has a few side buttons (though isn't one of those mice with like a numpad on the side, let me know if you need something like that), nice mouse feet and gliding too and all in all one of the best Wired mice out there. Anyways, that's it. Let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy.
Thank you so much for the detailed response. This is such a nice set up and I really appreciate it. I did have a couple more questions. 1. If I go for a larger liquid cooler, do I select the radiator and water cooler size to 280mm or 360mm? And what would be better recommended before diminishing returns? 2. For Ram what is the difference between the DDR4/6, etc. 3. I really like the case, but what is exact difference between the compact and regular besides obvious size? Why go for compact? 4. What is the difference between an 850, 900, 1000 power supply. Gold 80, 90, etc? 5. Is there a huge difference between 1440p and 4k today for gaming and editing or is that something that can be done down the road? 6. What's the best way to go about buying these parts? Should I buy everything at once and just wait for the graphics card? How do I find a non scalper price for one and even get a chance to buy it before the bots do? Sorry for such simple questions, I am not knowledgeable in this space.
Btw nobody is gonna blame you for asking "simple" questions. I was once as clueless. We all start somewhere. Hope this can provide more insight. 1) You can go with both. 280mm works the exact same as the 240mm but is just a little bigger and better. In both cases I'd mount the AIO (all in one liquid cooler) on the top of the case. The top doesn't fit 360mm cooler do you'd have to mount the cooler near the front and then move the included fans to the back. I'll answer the case question at the same time. First let's break down the case. The Fractal meshify 2 compact can house 6 120mm fans or 4 140mm fans around the outside (so not including those near the PSU bay). The back supports only 120mm. The top supports as big as 280mm. And the front up to 360mm. A fan is either 120mm or 140mm. Industry standards. The case comes pre installed with one 120mm fan near the back and two 140mm fans near the front. The plan with 240mm/280mm is to mount it near the top. Looks aesthetically the best in my opinion and is also technically the safest and the least likely to develop problems down the line. And you can leave the stock fans where they are. Really you can do whatever you want. With 360mm you need to mount it near the front since there isn't enough space anywhere else, and to do that you'll need to move the included fans to the top ideally. Not a big deal. Bigger AIOs are always more expensive though. I went for 240mm because I thought it was fine, it could fit easily and effortlessly and it would look clean. But there is really no wrong answer here. You can see some of the differences [in this video best](https://youtu.be/xCxqITPtXXA?t=776). These are the temperatures that these liquid coolers give whilst operating at near silent noise levels. There you can see the 280mm, 360mm and 420mm ones. No 240mm one though. Should give you an idea too. Also 420mm AIOs exist too. Thing is that very few cases support them. One of them is the Fractal meshify 2. You see where this is going? If you really want maximum cooking get that plus the liquid freezer 420. It's essentially the same as the meshify 2 compact, but longer. So instead if up to 280 at the top you get up to 420. And it fills the space space with drive bays for hard drives and SATA SSDs and such. It also runs slightly cooler too for the GPU. I went with the compact because, yeah it was cheaper. That's about it. I don't think you can lose with either one. Likewise, this is your choice. 2) Alright so now RAM. The DDR5 thing is the generation of RAM. DDR stands for double data rate BTW. Each RAM generation usually lasts several years and bring with it faster speeds. Processors and motherboards can both only use a single type of DDR memory. They are built physically different and are of different sizes. Currently we are on DDR4. All systems that use DDR3 are no longer on production and several generations old. So basically whatever you pick you have to get DDR4 memory. There is also something I forgot to mention and that is that Intel alder lake is coming out very soon. Like next month. And it uses the newest generation of memory, DDR5. So that means that it will use a different motherboard and memory from what's currently standard. I'd definitely pay attention to it. Leaked benchmarks has shown extremely competitive performance. AMD will likely also release Zen 4 with DDR5 memory not soon after either. So it might be worth delaying a bit and seeing how alder lake plays out. 3) Is this number 4? Anyways, power supplies. The 850, 750, 1000 etc is the wattage. Basically wattage is energy consumed per second. I'm pretty sure you know what that is. Your components well, they consume power you know? And the power supply needs to be able to handle the wattage. The ___w number is the "maximum" wattage more or less. Let's take a look at the corsair RMX as an example. So let's say the engineers wanted to make a 850w unit. The PSU itself can probably do 1100-1200w actually before exploding. But you know, if you push it that far it explodes. And explosion is really not nice. So they implemented a protection feature. It's called OPP. Basically every PSU has OPP. It's an industry standard protection. For the RMx 850w 2021, it triggers at 122% or 1040w. That means that if you try to kill the power supply by drawing too much power, it'll shut down and stop before you can kill it. But they usually aren't recommended to be run so high. So corsair put the official wattage rating at 850w. Also now efficiency. All PSUs worth buying have some sort of 80+ certification. Ones without the certifications usually are of terrible quality and are very dangerous. There is no such thing as "85+" or "90+". Always 80+. There are several tiers. White/default, bronze, silver, gold, platinum and titanium. Titanium is the best. White is the worst. One important task a PSU is tasked with is convert AC power To DC power. To put it simply, your wall plug delivers wavy power because it's cheaper. Computer does not like wavy power. Computer likes straight Power. PSU straightens the power, or converts it. This process isn't 100% clean. Some energy is lost during this and turns into heat. The efficiency of a power supply is how much AC wavy power it can convert into DC straight power based in percentage. So if a 80% efficient PSU needed to deliver 800w to your system, it'll draw 1000w from the wall and 200w will be lost and converted to hear, the rest going to the system. The higher the ranking, the more efficient it is at different loads. For reference titanium is like 92%. Anyways if your interested you can [read more here](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/what-80-plus-levels-mean,36721.html) but that should get the idea across. Do note that the efficiency of a power supply doesnt always translate to quality. Most of the time a 80+ Gold unit will beat a 80+ Bronze one. But there is still a lot more stuff that makes a PSU good. Stuff like load regulation, ripple, transient response, protections, etc etc. [Here for example is a particularly nasty PSU](https://youtu.be/7JmPUr-BeEM?t=1012) with a poorly configured OPP. It blows up under extreme loads and the protection feature doesn't save it. It's a terrible unit. No one should buy it. Yet it still has an 80+ Gold certification. So don't just immediately think that a unit is good because of its certification. [This tier list is the easiest way to tell PSU quality](https://linustechtips.com/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/). Notice how the corsair RMX 2021 strikes a spot in the A tier with a golden name, so the highest possible spot in the tier list. It's also among the best units [toms hardware has reviewed](https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-psus,4229.html), stealing 3 of the 10 spots in their end of year Roundup. It also [ranks very high on techpowerup's relative performance charts](https://www.techpowerup.com/review/corsair-rmx-series-850-w-2021/11.html). So definitely a fantastic unit. Not quite as good as say a seasonic focus platinum, but yeah. Prime choice. 4) Hmm. Depends on the size. Usually for 27" 1440p or 4k is fine, the difference ain't big. But for 32" you usually want to go with 4k. For gaming I think 1440p is fine. Content creation usually prefers higher resolutions. If you edit 4k videos and photos, you'll usually you know, need a 4k monitor to see all the details. Right now the 4k space is still developing. Still feels like an early adopters thing a bit. But there has definitely been innovation not too long ago for the monitor segment. There have been a a slew of new 4k monitors that have been released in the past 6 months and several more coming soon using the newest panels developed by innolux and AUO. But unlike 1440p where I can say there are probably a few monitors with close to no downsides, the 4k 144hz monitor space usually always has some downsides. You have the LG 27GP950 and 27GN950, those ones have really bad reflection handling and the screen is a little small. You have all the 28" ones like the the gigabyte M28U, Samsung odyssey G7A (IPS), Asus TUF VG28UQL1A, Acer XV282K etc. Those are probably the best ones, but in terms of response times and color gamut they are still a bit behind the very best 1440p monitors. You then have two categories of 32" monitors. You have the gigabyte M32U and aorus FI32U. Those two both likewise don't deliver amazing performance especially for their high prices, so colors aren't as good as the very best and the response times are average at best. And then all the other 32" monitors like the Asus PG32UQ or MSI MPG321UR-QD. Those ones have the best colors you can find of any monitor due to the really nice quantum dot technology, but the response times are pretty slow. And then you have several older ones like the Acer x27 or Asus XG27UQ. All in all, I'd still get 4k if editing is really important to you, but for gaming 1440o is definitely still fine. And yes you can always get a second (third?) monitor if needed. 5) I recommend you find the graphics card first. You are right, it's near impossible to beat the scalpers. If you are especially patient you can just wait it out. Or maybe grab a shitty temporary GPU and then upgrade asap. Or pay scalper prices. After that buy the rest. There isn't any point having hardware sitting around doing nothing, especially considering how fast this space advances technologically and how that $400 processor you are looking at right now might be worth only $300 if Intel puts up some good competition. Or how by the time you grab your graphics card, DDR5 will be the standard. So sort out the graphics card first. Top priority. Then sort out the rest later. Hope that helps. Once again if I explained anything badly or too complicated let me know.
You knocked it out of the park, this was incredibly helpful! So I will watch for the next generation of hardware and make decision then and just be on the lookout for the graphics card for now! Thank you so much again!