My stop me from now Buying the HP Omen Obelisk RTX 2080Ti build if it doesn't explode

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I'm new to building a PC, fixed many at home by taking them apart (even all in one's) but never bothered to build one. I'm building this for the family living room so a vacuum cleaner running all day doesn't sound appealing, but I was ready to do a MSI Prestige P100 or Omen Obelisk with the RTX 2080 Ti and I9-9900, but if I can actually source these parts, I'd save $800. Small form factor important, but I'm not sure how reliable partspicker is at making sure parts compatible. I want to game at 4K (will just make me happy), I want to spend less than $3k total and I also do a lot of music writing with lots of plug ins, review 3D files for some projects (I don't make them) and general family computer. I've included the 34 in curved MSI monitor in build I want as well. Not sure if you can squish the water cooling in the Micro ATX case. This is my second build post, so I appreciate the help.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900KF 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($479.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($79.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z390M GAMING EDGE AC Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($179.93 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($174.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($119.58 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB Founders Edition Video Card ($1199.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C TG MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($121.30 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Best Buy)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($119.00 @ Amazon)
Monitor: MSI Optix MPG341CQR 34.0" 3440x1440 144 Hz Monitor
Total: $2619.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-04 21:09 EDT-0400
 
1) Micro ATX =/= small

The problem with so-called "mini" builds is that they're often not actually much smaller than ATX cases.

That's understandable when you consider you're trying to stuff basically the same things into a space with enough room for it to not melt.

The mini C is: 210 x 399 x 399 mm (W, H, D) - Micro ATX
Meshify C: 395 x 212 x 440 mm (D, W, H) - Normal ATX

So you're economising 40MM of height only. For which you lock yourself to Micro ATX instead of ATX

A scenario where that might matter: You decide to get a big beefy air cooler, maybe a Noctua NH D15 as it's really quiet. You find it encroaches on the top PCIe slot and blocks it.
M-ATX: Your MATX mobo has a 2nd x16 slot. However: The 2nd slot, although x16 length, is wired for x8 only, so you see a (granted, fractional) performance drop on your 2080 ti - perhaps more on future cards. Also you now only have 1 PCIe slot's worth of clearance between it and your PSU shroud, limiting airflow around the cooler
ATX: The main PCIe slot for the GPU is usually 1 down from the top anyway so no problem.

Granted there are alternative air coolers, or you could have a water cooler, but you're already wrestling with that above - and throwing yourself an extra hurdle for 40mm of height doesn't seem worth it to me.

Also you get more choice of mobo as you have more slots free to add in a PCIe wifi card if you want - maybe An AX200 Wifi 6 one which Z390s won't usually have. At the very least you have more options.

2) Mini-C thermals:
Relatively limited airflow keeps the GPU hotter, and so the GPU fans run louder than they otherwise might, making it louder than it ought to be. Maybe adding an extra intake fan helps (?) Maybe. PCPer don't seem to weight their review strongly towards thermals or noise, so seem to ignore their own criticisms... hmm.

3) Go for a PSU with semi-passive cooling. And also possibly slightly larger wattage. Not because you need the wattage, but because at lower % loads, the fan doesn't even need to switch on to cool the PSU. My RM850i for instance cools entirely passively even under gaming load. Consider a Corsair RMx/RM 2019, or one of the semi-passive Seagate (Focus Gold PLUS is semi passive, regular Focus Gold is not I think) or EVGA units.

4) Consider a larger HDD. If you need mass storage for photos, movies, music, etc and your media collections may grow over time, a larger drive may come in handy.

5) Consider an AMD R7 3700x build. As well as economising a lot of cash while delivering very competitive gaming performance, sometimes beating the i9 in other tasks, and bringing advantages like PCIe 4.0 on higher end mobos and compatibility for Zen 3 (LGA 1151 is a real dead-end now), it can use a lot less power under heavy load:
So, less heat in the case.

6) Whatever cooler you get, the H60 isn't the one you want. You'd either want a beefy air cooler, or a 240mm AIO that is relatively quiet / or that you replace the fans on with some Noctua ones. The H60 isn't particularly quiet, and doesn't delivery good performance for the price. Some similarly priced air coolers would out match it.

7) Don't buy the founder's edition 2080 ti, Most 3rd party models are likely to be quieter, especially if they're 2.75/3 slotters with better / more efficient cooling solutions.
 
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Zoid

Community Contributor
+1 to many of @Oussebon's great points.

Wow, thank you. No a new loop, HP just release the new omen 30l with Ryzen. Processors.
An HP Omen comes with a price premium that isn't really justified in terms of performance, and there are some areas (like motherboard and power supply) where the Omen is not going to be able to stack up in terms of quality to individually sourced components.

I wanted to circle back to form factor just real quick - where in your living room are you planning to put this computer? Will it sit on or under a desk, or is your goal to integrate it into an entertainment center? Good small form factor builds for gaming PCs are definitely possible, and I think they're really cool, but they do come with some extra challenges and costs.
 
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Hi, thanks. We have a beautiful desk in our living room for computer so it would sit on the floor, but it is in the living room so that is why I'm concerned about noise and not having a giant tower by the desk. A mid tower ATX case feel like the largest it would want to go. Looking at these compact systems at 6" wide looks so nice and unobtrusive under desk. Our entertainment system is on the other side of the living room and not connected. I don't plan on that for now either, maybe down the line.
 

Zoid

Community Contributor
Hi, thanks. We have a beautiful desk in our living room for computer so it would sit on the floor, but it is in the living room so that is why I'm concerned about noise and not having a giant tower by the desk. A mid tower ATX case feel like the largest it would want to go. Looking at these compact systems at 6" wide looks so nice and unobtrusive under desk. Our entertainment system is on the other side of the living room and not connected. I don't plan on that for now either, maybe down the line.
I definitely understand the appeal of tiny form factor systems. With every computer case on the market, you're looking to find the right balance of trade-offs for your needs. You'll hear most folks on this forum balancing their recommendations towards good thermal performance, since thermals are important if you want your hardware to perform at its best. However, since you say this is going to need to compliment a nice piece of furniture and operate quietly, you might make trade-offs that sacrifice some thermal performance in favor of aesthetics/size and noise level. If that's the balance that works best for you, that's totally valid.

If you want to try to keep the case size down while still leaving enough room for your components to breathe, then I think the Fractal Design Define C Mini that you picked is actually not a bad choice, or you could go with it's brother the Meshify C Mini. The NZXT H210i would also be a reasonable choice (though it's Mini ITX).

Going for a small HTPC form factor build (like those 6" wide systems you're talking about) is possible too, but consider whether or not the small size would be worth a possible trade off in higher noise levels and higher temps.
 
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Thermal performance is one thing - and not just about boost frequencies but also about component longevity.

But main concern about so-called mini cases is where they're really not much mini-er at all than compact ATX cases, so you get all the penalties of smaller form factors, without meaningful benefits. Whereas an ATX build eliminates those compromises, and in the case of Define Mini C vs Meshify C is almost exactly the same size.

If going for a genuinely low-profile, smaller-looking system for aesthetic reasons, then mini ITX cases really are the way to go, with something like the Fractal Node 304, say.
 
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I really appreciate all the input. I'm going to see how realistic it is to get the parts I need. I might go AMD now since there is a future upgrade path vs having to wait for the new Intel chipsets and mobo's. Oussebon, when you say compact ATX do you mean a mid-tower ATX or am I missing a category? I just saw the new Omen 30L as well. Zoid and Oussebon, do you use liquid cooling on your rigs? Thanks again and I'll try to stop with the questions. I am willing to give up some performance for the sake of aesthetics and size, but if the tradeoff is constant loud noise and short component life, then I need to find the best balance of size and at the very least something very good looking even if its a bit bigger. Kind of the Porsche design of mid ATX cases, sleek, all black with minimal lighting ;-)
 
Oussebon, when you say compact ATX do you mean a mid-tower ATX or am I missing a category?
It's not a specific category, I just mean an ATX case that is relatively small for an ATX case - e.g. the Meshify C as above. :)

do you use liquid cooling on your rigs?
No but I still have the same cooler from 2012. There is a good chance my next build, likely later this year, will have at least a 240mm AIO/CLC liquid cooler for the CPU.

Kind of the Porsche design of mid ATX cases, sleek, all black with minimal lighting ;-)
That's more or less Fractal's 'thing' :D
 
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If you want cheap storage for photos, get an external HDD.
No. get an internal HDD for photos and use the external media NAS / Cloud Storage etc to back them up.

Internal HDDs tend to be faster than portable external ones, involve (obviously) less cable + box clutter than external 3.5" drives, and are less physically vulnerable as they are protected by the PC chassis.

And as a bonus, you're more likely to get issues with USB devices not behaving properly if there's a problem with your Windows install / a bad update / etc than with devices connected by Sata.

Using external storage as main storage is a genuinely fantastic way to self-sabotage, unless you absolutely need the portability between devices. In which case, NAS or Cloud storage is probably the better option anyway. There's just no good reason to do it for 99.999% of people.

Any particular choice in Geforce RTX 2080Ti
Pretty much anything that's not the Founder's Edition. Or a blower card.

EVGA Black if you can get it for its proper low price of ~1100 USD

EVGA XC Ultra Gaming (not to be confused with the XC Gaming that isn't Ultra) for the ~3 slot heatsink,

Apparently the Strix is one of the less expensive ones at the moment, and it's not often you can ever say that about Asus's Strix GPUs. It's also a ~3 slotter, though it is not clocked as high as the EXGA XC Ultra Gaming. And EVGA probably have better warranty terms and service...

It seems the AORUS Extreme is cheaper than either of them due to a mail in rebate here making it $1200. Also a triple slot cooler.

I think the last 3 all have idle fan stop which you'd want for your needs, but can't check personally atm. Not sure about the EVGA Black.
 
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I looked closely at a bunch of cases after comments and I think the Fractal Meshify C looks like a good size and great design although the R6 didn't look that much bigger and nice as well. Going to read up on the GPU's you mentioned and see if i can maybe find most of the parts I need to make this build. I'm basically choosing a mobo based on whats available. Ok, looks like I'm going to try to do this.
 
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Aside from the Fractal Meshify which B&H doesn't have and I'd have to order separately, I can build this system pretty quickly.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($432.41 @ B&H)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($169.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital SN750 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card ($1234.00 @ B&H)
Case: NZXT H510i ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA PQ 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($199.99 @ B&H)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Full 32/64-bit ($129.99 @ B&H)
Monitor: MSI Optix MPG341CQRV 34.0" 3440x1440 120 Hz Monitor ($749.99 @ B&H)
Total: $3026.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-06 00:50 EDT-0400
 

Zoid

Community Contributor
Aside from the Fractal Meshify which B&H doesn't have and I'd have to order separately, I can build this system pretty quickly.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor ($432.41 @ B&H)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($169.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital SN750 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB GAMING X TRIO Video Card ($1234.00 @ B&H)
Case: NZXT H510i ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA PQ 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($199.99 @ B&H)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Full 32/64-bit ($129.99 @ B&H)
Monitor: MSI Optix MPG341CQRV 34.0" 3440x1440 120 Hz Monitor ($749.99 @ B&H)
Total: $3026.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-06 00:50 EDT-0400
This is a pretty good build overall. I mean, performance wise it's excellent and I'm jealous, and product choice wise it's pretty good.

If I were to tweak it, I would suggest upping RAM speed to 3600MHz since Ryzen CPUs like fast RAM, and since you can get into 3600MHz RAM for only about $10 more than what you have listed. Something like this would give you better memory performance, albeit with less flash than the RGB version. But you want this to be a stealth build, right?

The power supply you've chosen, while undoubtedly excellent, is more than you need. There's nothing wrong with going for a higher than necessary wattage, like @Oussebon outlined above, but once you're spending $200 on a power supply for a living room PC you're getting well into diminishing returns territory. The EVGA SuperNova G3 750W is still an outstanding power supply, still gives you healthy voltage headroom, and will still run quietly. I think it's a more sensible pick so that you can apply the money saved towards silent operation elsewhere in the build.

Zoid and Oussebon, do you use liquid cooling on your rigs?
I use air cooling in my older, backup rig and AIO liquid cooling in my current gaming workhorse. For you, I would recommend the NZXT Kraken X63 (or X62 rev2). It's a 240mm AIO cooler with excellent performance and very low noise. I am currently running a smaller Kraken cooler on my Ryzen 7 3800X and I can attest to its quiet performance, especially with some fan curve tuning.
 
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This is a pretty good build overall. I mean, performance wise it's excellent and I'm jealous, and product choice wise it's pretty good.

If I were to tweak it, I would suggest upping RAM speed to 3600MHz since Ryzen CPUs like fast RAM, and since you can get into 3600MHz RAM for only about $10 more than what you have listed. Something like this would give you better memory performance, albeit with less flash than the RGB version. But you want this to be a stealth build, right?

The power supply you've chosen, while undoubtedly excellent, is more than you need. There's nothing wrong with going for a higher than necessary wattage, like @Oussebon outlined above, but once you're spending $200 on a power supply for a living room PC you're getting well into diminishing returns territory. The EVGA SuperNova G3 750W is still an outstanding power supply, still gives you healthy voltage headroom, and will still run quietly. I think it's a more sensible pick so that you can apply the money saved towards silent operation elsewhere in the build.


I use air cooling in my older, backup rig and AIO liquid cooling in my current gaming workhorse. For you, I would recommend the NZXT Kraken X63 (or X62 rev2). It's a 240mm AIO cooler with excellent performance and very low noise. I am currently running a smaller Kraken cooler on my Ryzen 7 3800X and I can attest to its quiet performance, especially with some fan curve tuning.


zoid, thanks for the check on the system. I agree on power supply and it was basically one of the only modular/semi modular supplies available. I was looking for something good in the 700 watt range at a better price point but none avail. I can buy that off BH. I’m trying to consolidate order from one place and I get it with no tax. I’ll definitely modify based on your suggestions. It checks out on partspicker, but my knowledge is not good enough to know it will all fit. Cross your fingers I really appreciate the help.
 

Zoid

Community Contributor
zoid, thanks for the check on the system. I agree on power supply and it was basically one of the only modular/semi modular supplies available. I was looking for something good in the 700 watt range at a better price point but none avail. I can buy that off BH. I’m trying to consolidate order from one place and I get it with no tax. I’ll definitely modify based on your suggestions. It checks out on partspicker, but my knowledge is not good enough to know it will all fit. Cross your fingers I really appreciate the help.
As far as compatibility goes, everything in your current parts list should work fine together. Are you going with that NZXT H510 instead of the Fractal Meshify C? If you do go with the Fractal, you'll need to double check GPU length, because with front fans (or a radiator) installed, the Fractal only supports 315mm long GPUs apparently, and the one you have selected is 327mm. The NZXT H510 supports up to 381mm so should be fine there, even with a Kraken X62 radiator installed.
 
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As far as compatibility goes, everything in your current parts list should work fine together. Are you going with that NZXT H510 instead of the Fractal Meshify C? If you do go with the Fractal, you'll need to double check GPU length, because with front fans (or a radiator) installed, the Fractal only supports 315mm long GPUs apparently, and the one you have selected is 327mm. The NZXT H510 supports up to 381mm so should be fine there, even with a Kraken X62 radiator installed.

I prefer the design of the fractal and was going to go that way but didn’t notice that. THANK YOU , that would have been a bummer. I might need to revise my card choice. The fractal seems really nice. The NZXT was my second choice.
 

Inspireless Llama

Community Contributor
I haven't checked the cases, but so far from what I noticed from most cases: Unless your drivebays are in the main compartment of the chassis, pretty much every GPU will fit in terms of how long they are.

Also: I just checked, the specs of both cases, and technically the Fractal Design case should support the GPU from Asus (that's taking into account there are no bays for harddrives in use there). The NZXT one supports it without a doubt.
 

Inspireless Llama

Community Contributor
It would be a tight fit though: Maximum supported lenght: 315mm. Asus ROG lenght: 305mm.

Quite honestly I haven't double checked if that was with or without a front radiator. Please check before going for that one!
 
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Zoid, on the power supply, anticipate the Vega I picked save $20 in taxes so my real cost is $199 with not tax and then nice unit you suggested is $149 + tax so about $155. To keep it simple and for an extra $45 is it stupid to go with the available Vega.
 

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