So you’ve decided to get the newly released Intel Core i7 10700K CPU which is both cheaper and faster than the previous flagship, the Intel Core i9 9900K; they did a good job optimizing the 10700K’s thermals, power consumption and overclocking headroom even if it’s on an old 14nm process. Besides the usual CPU cooler debate and other parts for the build, we still need to have the talk of what GPU to pair it with and that’s more complicated than you think. If you have a limited budget and want to get the best GPU for you, we need to carefully consider what you’ll be using your system for.

Do you want to exclusively game on your PC? If yes, at what resolutions and refresh rates? Do you want a productivity build that will tear through 3D render applications or software programming? Or maybe you like VR and want to try it?

We are trying to address all these questions during this article in which we will analyze and recommend a GPU to pair with the i7 10700K in 10 different categories. We already have some 10700K builds up on our website, be sure to check them out!

This article will help you find the best GPU + CPU pairing based on your budget and build focus in categories such as VR, productivity and various gaming resolutions.

1. NVIDIA GTX 1660 Super

The workstation user who’s an occasional 1080p/1440p gamer or one that needs GPU acceleration in his work tasks. GPU of choice: GeForce GTX 1660 Super

This first category is more popular than you think. Do you use your home system to work extra on different hobbies or as a secondary workstation besides your job? Do you like to sometimes lean back and enjoy some quality time with your other gamer friends or have a kid that you want to entertain once you finish your work? Then this is the category for you!

The solution to this category is rather simple. You clearly don’t need an enthusiast grade GPU that will just take a lot of money out of your pocket and make your system needlessly power hungry. You need to pay only for the performance that you will use. At first, it would make sense to recommend a good value GPU out of the low/mid range market which would take our minds to something like an RX 580 8GB which has both the necessary power to deliver good FPS in games @ 1080p resolutions and comes in cheap at around $150-180.

The thing is though that the majority of people who want to use their system as a workstation, like graphic designers or just people who love entertainment such as movies will most likely use a 1440p or higher display. The RX 580 we talked about earlier is not a right fit for that resolution because it will feel rather slow in many games that you may be desiring to play. This is why we opted for a different graphics card, one that is a good performer even at 1440p and still comes with a very good value.

Introducing the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super which is a great buy at around the $230 price mark. This efficient Turing card comes with 6GB of GDDR6 memory and its performance levels are on par with the previous generation GTX 1070. A great 1080p performer at any refresh rate and capable of driving a 1440p monitor in the majority of games. This is a great choice for the occasional gamer who doesn’t want to pay for performance they’re not going to use.

On the other side, if you can use GPU acceleration in the applications you work with, the GTX 1660 Super is an inexpensive contender. Software like the Adobe Suite, 3DS Max, Maya and other similar productivity apps can make use of the GPU by leveraging the CUDA capabilities of the graphics card. This way, part of that load that would be previously handled by the CPU alone can be transferred to the CUDA cores and this way the CPU & GPU can work together and more responsive.

Regarding which specific card to buy, you can’t really go wrong with the majority of GTX 1660 Super implementations. This is mainly due to the fact that its not a power hungry card and doesn’t demand a beefy cooler in order to function properly. Normally, we would just recommend getting the cheapest GTX 1660 Super that you like the aesthetic of but at Premium Builds we’re not leaving anything uncovered; here are some of our recommendations for AIB GTX 15660 Super’s based on user experience:

• The Asus GTX 1660 Super TUF is one of the most inexpensive models and with a rather small footprint, it will fit in even the smallest of cases; it does the job right and comes at a good price.
• The MSI Ventus XS OC is $10 more expensive and comes with a better-looking fan shroud, better VRMs and slightly increased factory clock speeds.
• At another additional $10, you can also get the Gigabyte GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC which is a triple fan design; rather overkill for this class of GPU but it looks good and its dead silent during any overclocked load. It’s your decision from here on!

GPU Series	Recommended Aftermarket Card	Design	Price
GTX 1660 Super	ASUS TUF Gaming OC		$229
GTX 1660 Super	MSI Ventus XS OC		$239
GTX 1660 Super	Gigabyte Gaming OC		$249

2. AMD Radeon RX 5700XT

The workstation user who finds pleasure in gaming or the one who wants to try VR in his free time. GPU of choice: Radeon RX 5700XT

Like the previous category, this one is popular as well. There are many consumers out there who may work from home or have jobs that allow them to have daily time for gaming. I know that because I myself am one of them! For such a person, the GPU of choice really depends on the performance levels he’s expecting but we have a good recommendation for you if you’re expecting smooth performance in a large collection of current games. We don’t know what you’re playing but we sure know that you’re going to love this categories’ graphics card.

Both AMD Radeon RX 5700-series cards are based on the same Navi GPU and are manufactured on TSMC’s 7nm FinFET process and composed of 10.3 billion transistors, these chips occupy a scant 251 mm². The AMD Radeon 5700XT is the top model in AMD’s NAVI lineup. AMD confirmed that Radeon RX 5700 XT employs a fully enabled version of the Navi GPU; no part of the chip is turned off to improve yields or leave room for a more resource-rich model in the future. It exposes 40 RDNA (the NAVI architecture naming) Compute Units, each with 64 Stream processors, totalling 2560 ALUs across the processor. The CUs host four texture units, just as they did in AMD’s Graphics Core Next design, adding up to 160 in a complete Navi GPU that features 64 ROPs.

Enough with the tech talk, the 5700XT is designed to be a great 1440p performer; it’s around 30% faster than the previous GTX 1660 Super and sports 8GB of GDDR6 RAM which allows it to stretch its legs for an amazing performance at both 1080p & 1440p Triple-A or high refresh rate game titles.

Is VR an interest to you? Have you gotten excited about this rather new technology and can’t wait to try it out but you’re not really a gamer? It’s fine, VR will definitely open new realms for your entertainment. The RX 5700XT in this category is a great VR performer that can hold a steady 90+ FPS in the majority of new VR titles. We say 90 FPS because that’s the recommended frame rate by the majority of VR headsets in order for you to avoid getting dizzy or nauseous. Getting a lesser GPU than the RX 5700XT will limit the games you can play because of this 90 FPS sweet spot.

Some of the best implementations for this RX 5700XT graphics card are coming from MSI and Sapphire. Great value comes out of MSI’s Evoke OC and Sapphire’s Pulse lineup which are built with suitable coolers, decent factory OC, backplates and general quality materials; they are also very silent. A tier above them though is the more expensive Sapphire Nitro+ RX 5700XT which is the best RX 5700 XT aftermarket card you can get. Its factory boost clock is the best out of all other implementations, the GPU comes with a triple fan configuration that is very silent and great at cooling even in 100% load.

GPU Series	Recommended Aftermarket Card	Design	Price
AMD RX 5700 XT	MSI Evoke OC		$389
AMD RX 5700 XT	Sapphire Pulse		$399
AMD RX 5700 XT	Sapphire Nitro+		$433

3. RTX 2070 Super

The workstation user who games competitively. GPU of choice: GeForce RTX 2070 Super

Or the workstation user who may want to try Ray Tracing on the cheapest GPU which can do it decently. The RTX 2070 Super is not a big leap forward against the previously mentioned card, the Radeon RX 5700XT. It is just 5-10% faster but that counts a lot, especially if you have a 1440p monitor and try to squeeze those extra frames in order to stay over 144+ FPS.

The GeForce RTX 2070 Super comes with 40 SMs (streaming multiprocessors), and each SM contains 1 Ray Tracing core, 8 Tensor cores, 4 texture units, and 64 CUDA cores. Basically, the 2070 Super is like a trimmed down RTX 2080 at the cost of the RTX 2070. The RTX 2070 Super reference boost clock is 1770MHz, which is higher than even the overclocked 2070 Founders Edition boost clock of 1710MHz. That combined with the additional four SMs means performance is theoretically up to 22% faster than the RTX 2070. But theory and real-world results don’t always agree. Since the 2070 Super has the same memory bandwidth and configuration, in practice the performance improvement often ends up being closer to 10% but that’s still great!

The good news is that any added performance relative to the RTX 2070 comes without an increase in price. Of course, RTX 2070 cards have gone on sale for as little as $450 over the past nine months, but we’ll probably see the Super cards sell for less than the launch price at some point. And the arrival of the 2070 Super also heralds the phasing out of the regular 2070. While Nvidia’s RTX 2070 was similar in performance to AMD’s RX 5700XT but cost $100 more, the RTX 2070 Super is 10% better than the 5700XT at the same $499 price as the RTX 2070; it was a quick answer to the great value the 5700XT had over the RTX 2070 at launch.

You will be able to consistently game at 1080p & 1440p Ultra settings and be able to push very high frame rates at those resolutions if you need them in competitive eSport games. The i7 10700K we’re pairing these GPUs with is surely able to handle them.

Here are some of the best RTX 2070 Super implementations from third party manufacturers.

GPU Series	Recommended Aftermarket Card	Design	Price
RTX 2070 Super	Gigabyte Windforce OC		$499
RTX 2070 Super	MSI Gaming X		$549
RTX 2070 Super	Zotac Mini		$566

The Gigabyte Windforce OC is a great value aftermarket version of the RTX 2070 Super. It retails at MSRP and sports a triple fan design cooler that keeps the card cool during load. The RGB used on it is subtle but well laid out. The MSI RTX 2070 Super Gaming X aims at a more aggressive factory overclock and the cooler performance and noise levels are on par with the previously mentioned Windforce OC card even if it only has two fans. The card is also overall nicer looks-wise. Or maybe you’re looking for a smaller RTX 2070 Super that can fit in a crowded or tighter case. This is where the Zotac RTX 2070 Super MINI comes in. Its small form factor is great and it doesn’t sacrifice performance for it.

Overall, you generally can’t go wrong with any of the RTX 2070 Supers but we would recommend getting one of the above and staying away from the Founder’s Edition version.

4. RTX 2080 Super

Wanting to be able to work but also own a very capable gaming machine? You have to take a look at the high-end GeForce RTX 2080 Super

One of the great things about the RTX 2080 Super is that it slots in at the same price as the superseded RTX 2080. Essentially, if you’re not already an owner of an RTX 2080, the Super version is a good buy if you’re looking for that kind of performance. The GeForce RTX 2080 Super is an improved RTX 2080 with 128 more CUDA cores, a higher base clock / boost clock and better, 15.5 GB/s memory compared to the latter’s 14 GB/s. Its memory bandwidth is also up to 496 GB/s.

This card offers solid shader performance, and for a bit of fun and giggles, you get to play around with RTX/DLSS if you desire. It’s the second best graphics card that handles Ray Tracing in a decent way. While we can still argue DLSS and RTX are not yet polished enough for consumer use, you do need to realize that the industry is at a clipping point, hardware-based ray tracing is coming, whether that is from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel. You are paying a price premium to be that early adopter with a handful of games to actually test it on. But you can’t blame NVIDIA for pioneering with technology. They refreshed the RTX 2080 to be faster and cheaper, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The RTX 2080 Super’s performance figures are great! Its the first card in this category list that we can comfortably call a 4K card. Its performance is somewhere around 15% better than that of the RTX 2070 Super and that’s enough to propel it into the great 4K performer that it is. Don’t get us wrong, you can use this card at any resolution and get comparable performance gains. You can, for example, play at 1440p and aim for 144 FPS with higher graphics details than you could use on the RTX 2070 Super. It’s overall, a very good card appealing to the high-end users that want exquisite gaming performance at a decent price proposition.

GPU Series	Recommended Aftermarket Card	Design	Price
RTX 2080 Super	Zotac Gaming		$709
RTX 2080 Super	MSI Gaming X Trio		$759
RTX 2080 Super	Gigabyte AORUS		$769

The RTX 2080 Super is a rather beefy card and thus needs adequate implementations in order to perform how it should. One good value card that retails very close to the $699 MSRP is the Zotac RTX 2080 Super GAMING video card; its nothing exciting but the triple cooler design does its job very well to keep the card and its very fast GDDR6 memory under 80 degrees even under heavy load. Its design is rather simple but there are some bells and whistles around in the form of RGB.

Following, we have one of the best performing RTX 2080 Super in the whole lineup, the MSI Gaming X TRIO which is a binned card with a high factory overclock and high overclocking capabilities. Its cooler is excellent and the card has a pleasant aesthetic, the RGB customisation being through the roof.

The third RTX 2080 Super card we can recommend is the Gigabyte RTX 2080 Super AORUS which comes in with a very unique triple fan design. Users that are willing to pay a small premium for good looks are going to love this card. Its also the most silent RTX 2080 Super version out there and performance levels are not far from the MSI Gaming X Trio, when overclocked.

Overall there is good implementation diversity for the RTX 2080 Super, allowing you to find the style and performer you like most.

5. RTX 2080 Ti

Enthusiast gamer that needs top performance or a workstation user that needs the most powerful GPU acceleration and enough fast memory. Or an aspiring VR enthusiast. GPU of choice: The GeForce RTX 2080Ti

Budget isn’t a problem and you don’t really care about value. You only care about having all the performance that you can muster into a 2020 PC build, be it for gaming, workstation acceleration use or VR. Then the RTX 2080Ti is the card that will make your dreams a reality.

The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the latest consumer flagship graphics card from NVIDIA and it has been fitted with the TU102 GPU. This GPU has a whopping 4352 active shader processors, which is substantial when compared with the previous generation GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. It sports 11GB GDDR6 graphics memory, and with that 11 GB, you will get a 352-bit wide memory bus. Ray tracing acceleration is performed by a new RT Core processing, the TU102 has 72 of them with 576 tensor cores and 96 ROP units. For clock frequencies, we’re looking at a 1350 MHz base frequency, with Turbo allowance towards 1635 MHz; keeping some margin in mind for the board partner clock frequencies. Even though that boost clock seems low when compared to other Turing GPUs, most AIB RTX 2080Tis with capable VRMs and coolers can be overclocked to around 2GHz.

The RTX 2080Ti is not a card for the masses. It’s not the card that Nvidia sells the most; quite the contrary. But its a gamer’s or workstation’s guru dream. It allows you to play the most demanding games at smooth frame rates, especially when paired with a capable CPU such as the Intel Core i7 10700K. It basically is the pinnacle of consumer GPU performance and will not care about any game that you throw at it, regardless of graphics settings and resolutions; and that is because game studios optimize their games to have peak performance on the best GPU of each generation and that is the GeForce RTX 2080Ti in this case.

Workstation users will be delighted to use the full capabilities of the 4352 CUDA cores together with boosting machine learning tasks with its whopping 576 Tensor cores. Many applications from the likes of Adobe, 3Ds Max or Autodesk are updating their software tree in order to benefit from this GPU’s acceleration features. Getting an RTX 2080Ti means getting the best performance with no compromises and it also means future-proofing your system.

The RTX 2080Ti is also the best graphics card that you can buy for a high-end VR setup. The GPU is able to hold high frame rates in any Virtual Reality game out there meaning that you can explore the worlds with no compromises or headaches. There’s no VR game out there yet that can tank the RTX 2080Ti under 90 FPS; the i7 10700K sure helps that process as well with its incredible performance. Moving on, the following implementations of the RTX 2080Ti have been carefully selected for you. There have been some inadequate examples of cooling solutions stuck to RTX 2080Tis but you’re not going to find them here. Here’s the list.

GPU Series	Recommended Aftermarket Card	Design	Price
RTX 2080 Ti	Gigabyte Gaming OC		$1299
RTX 2080 Ti	MSI Gaming X Trio		$1239
RTX 2080 Ti	Gigabyte AORUS XTREME		$1299

Starting this list we have the close to MSRP offering by Gigabyte, the RTX 2080Ti Gaming OC. It sports a similar cooler design with the one on the RTX 2080 Super but has a thicker heat sink to deal with the heat coming from the 300W and higher power consumption. Overall, nothing exciting but Gigabyte’s implementation has good value and it surely performs well. Next up, we have one of the best performing RTX 2080Tis out there, the MSI Gaming X TRIO. It’s a personal favorite of ours as we are frequently using it in many of our builds. For the price increase of just $10 over the previous card, you are getting a stellar cooler and heat stink combination, together with a sturdy triple fan RGB’ed design. The card comes highly overclocked from the factory but it doesn’t consume much more power than other RTX 2080Tis; this means it’s well binned and can overclock even further. The last choice of ours in this list is the Aorus Xtreme implementation by Gigabyte (again). This card is the top-end product from Gigabyte and gets a futuristic cooler design. Everything is well laid out, built extremely well and very customizable. It also sports a 4-year warranty, proof that they are not fooling around with this design.

Closing Thoughts

As you can see, you don’t necessarily have to pair a high-end CPU like the i7 10700K with the most expensive GPUs out there. There are choices that need to be made based on what you’re going to be using your PC for. As an analogy, think about how it would feel to get a car that sports high horsepower but you’re only able to drive it slow in the city traffic. It would sound good, of course. It will also look nice. But you’ve just paid a lot more for something that gets bad fuel consumption and you’re not going to use to its fullest potential.

This is why it’s important to try and fit yourself in one of the upper categories. What do you need from a GPU? Are you a power user? Which games are you playing? Which resolution would you like to try now or in the future? These are all questions that need answers before deciding what graphics card to buy. We hope that we helped you leap forward in deciding what to pair your high-end CPU with.

Our recommendations should be of help to you regardless of what you decide to use your system for since we tried to cover almost every use a consumer has from a high-end PC, be it gaming or productivity acceleration. Happy building!

The post 5 Best Graphics Cards for the i7-10700K appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

As part of our PC build series here at PremiumBuilds, we aim to assemble the best possible PCs based on a specific need (e.g., gaming), form factor (e.g., ITX), budget (e.g., $500 or $2500) or component selection (e.g., building around the RTX 2080 Super or Ryzen 9 3900X).

For this entry to the series, we are focusing on the increasingly-popular ITX form factor with the best possible price-to-performance and the best possible aesthetic. Thus, we have decided to build a powerhouse SFFPC, at a mid-range budget of $1500, in the highly-rated LOUQE Ghost S1.

Our goal is to select components that offer extreme levels of performance, but don’t necessarily command an expensive price tag. We at PremiumBuilds are confident that we’ve created one of the best price-to-performance ITX gaming PCs in the mid-range market, and arguably one of the best looking SFF systems out there.

Note: We have cherry-picked the best components, proven to perform in the Ghost S1, and if we were to build in another chassis such as the Dancase A4-SFX – the case fan, CPU cooler, and PSU selection may be completely different.

How fast will this ITX gaming PC perform?

For this particular mid-range ITX build, we want to be able to game at 1440p resolution – preferably at a 16:9 ratio and minimum 100hz, or at 21:9 ultrawide 1440p at 80hz on high settings. The perfect graphics card that can achieve this, within budget, and provide futureproofing is Nvidia’s RTX 2070 Super – which is arguably the best mid-range 1440p graphics card currently on the market.

At only a $1500 price bracket for this SFF build, we, unfortunately, can’t expect to be gaming comfortably at 4K above 60Hz, even on Medium-Low graphics settings. Thus, we are aiming to nail >60Hz at 1440p on High settings for many AAA titles – with ray tracing.

Best Value Mini ITX Gaming PC Build for 2020 – The Parts List

Component	Selection	Design	Price	Reasoning
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600		$174	Best value, price/performance CPU on the market today
CPU Cooler	Noctua LH-12S		$49	Best air cooling performance for the LOUQE Ghost S1
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-I Gaming		$135	Best feature-packed B450 ITX motherboard, with Ryzen 3000 pre-flashed onto BIOS
Memory	Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB 3200 MHz CL16 (2x8GB)		$97	Great value, Easy to overclock to 3600 MHz CL16, Low-profile
Storage	Sabrent Rocket 1TB NVMe M.2 2280 SSD		$149	Great price/performance NVMe SSD, cheaper than the Intel 660p but similar performance
Graphics Card	Nvidia Geforce RTX 2070 Super Founders Edition		$489	Capable of 1440p ultrawide gaming, future proofed, best value mid-range GPU of 2020
PC Case	LOUQE Ghost S1 (No Tophat, Copper Grill)		$269	Great build quality, performance, possibly the best ITX case (so far?)
Power Supply	Corsair SF600 Platinum		$149	Best in class SFX power supply, Platinum variant for sleeved cables (vs Gold rated)
Case Fan	Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM		$19	Best performing 120mm slim case fan
Thermal Paste	ARCTIC Thermal MX-4		$9	Top budget, carbon-based thermal paste
		Total Price	$1539

CPU

We want to squeeze as much performance as possible out of our components, which only leaves one option for our processor – AMD’s Ryzen 5 3600. For the money, the 3600 is regarded as the best price-to-performance value currently on the market, especially for SFF systems. It’s a fantastic 65W chip that offers performance on par with the Intel Core i5-9600K (overclocked) and its more expensive brother, the 3600X. See our comparison of the Intel Core i5-9600K and the Ryzen 5 3600.

With 6 cores, 12 threads, a base/boost frequency of 3.6/4.2 GHz, and PCIe 4.0 support – all at an extremely modest price point – there is very little to dislike about the Ryzen 5 3600.

CPU Cooler

The Noctua NH-L12S, considered to be one of the best low profile CPU coolers on the market, offers significant cooling performance improvements over the stock Wraith cooler (included with the Ryzen 5 3600). Moreover, it has shown best-in-class performance over other CPU air cooling solutions when paired with the LOUQE Ghost S1 – and considering we are building an ITX machine focused on price-to-performance – this is our best bet.

Note: The Noctua NH-L12S is just a few millimeters too large for the LOUQE Ghost S1, so for it to be compatible, many ITX builders opt to slightly bend the heat pipes to gain that few extra millimeters of headroom. Space is tight, but once you get it to fit, you know you have the best possible cooling setup within the LOUQE Ghost S1. See our guide for bending the NH-L12S.

Motherboard

For our platform, we decided to go with a B450 motherboard, which either had to be pre-flashed with the latest BIOS, or at least have USB BIOS Flashback so we can do it ourselves. If we want to utilize the latest PCIe 4.0 support offered by the Ryzen 5 3600, we would have to choose an X570 motherboard. However, both X570 motherboards and PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs are simply too expensive for a mid-range build. With our budget, we, unfortunately, won’t be able to utilize PCIe 4.0.

Our best option here is the ROG Strix B450-I Gaming. Despite its size, this ITX board certainly packs a punch with the number of features for the price: RGB, onboard WiFi module, 8x USB ports, a robust VRM for great thermals, all with a super sleek design. If only this motherboard also had USB Type C…

Memory

Picking RAM specifically for the LOUQE Ghost S1 and Noctua NH-L12S combo can be especially tricky – and many builders have found out the hard way that theirs do not physically fit in the case. Due to the Noctua NH-L12S being a low-profile CPU cooler, it has severely limited RAM clearance (even with a topside fan configuration), so we’re required to opt for super low-profile RAM to get it actually to fit.

Another consideration when picking the best RAM for the Ryzen 5 3600 is CAS latency – of which we have a comprehensive guide here. The main takeaway is that DDR4 3600MHz CL16 appears to be the sweet spot for price-to-performance, so that’s where we’re aiming. Interestingly, the Crucial Ballistix Sport LT with a 3200 MHz CL16 configuration can be easily overclocked to 3600 MHz, thus offering fantastic value for its impressive performance. The Ballistix Sport LT also has just enough clearance to fit under the NH-L12S. Additionally, this RAM features white ‘digital camo’ heat spreaders, which give them a very sleek look.

For most use cases, 16GB is still more than enough memory for gaming and basic multitasking, hence why we decided against a 32GB kit. We’re not going to be able to utilize that amount of RAM unless we start getting into intensive workstation tasks like rendering and editing.

Storage

For our storage, we decided that a single 1TB NVME SSD would be sufficient. 1TB is more than enough space for our boot drive, general storage, and game library. Our ROG Strix B450-I Gaming has a single M.2 slot, as well as 4x 6Gb/s SATA ports (though we won’t be using them in this build due to internal case volume restrictions). The LOUQE Ghost S1 has enough room for a drive at the bottom of the case, but you can decide to replace that with a new 120mm slim case fan – which is what we’ve done to ensure maximum cooling performance.

As we mentioned previously, Ryzen 3000 CPUs support the latest PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, which offer blazing-fast transfer speeds compared to their predecessors. However, with our focus being maximum price-to-performance, we decided to stick with PCIe 3.0, and opt for one of the best values on the market. That title goes to the Sabrent Rocket 1TB NVMe SSD, which has proven to be an excellent NVMe SSD for gaming.

Graphics Card

Although there are plenty of AIB/aftermarket RTX 2070 Super cards that offer improved stock overclocks, PCBs, and VRMs over the Nvidia 2070 Super Founders Edition, we decided to stick with it here. The main reasons include the surprisingly decent performance of this dual fan design within the LOUQE Ghost S1, as well as its gorgeous design that feels right at home in such a stunning enclosure. We readily admit that the aesthetics are still a critical deciding factor in this particular build (while retaining the maximum price-to-performance for our given budget).

We wanted this system to be capable of gaming at 16:9 1440p, as well as pushing up to 4K should we decide to upgrade in the future. The alternative was a 5700 XT, but we’ll need that slight bit of extra headroom to be able to push 1440p at higher settings. See our head-to-head comparison of the Nvidia RTX 2070 Super and the AMD Radeon 5700 XT.

PC Case

Ever since the Kickstarter announcement of this small form factor (SFF) ITX case, the LOUQE Ghost S1 has been an absolute hit. Widely regarded as one of the most desirable PC cases in 2020, it had to be the star of our next build. It’s certainly not cheap and won’t maximize our overall price to performance, but the overall look and build quality justifies the cost, especially if it’s going to be sitting on our desk for the next few years. With a jaw-dropping, understated design – this ITX case will undoubtedly impress any of your fellow PC builders and fill them with envy!

Note: There have been reported shipping issues for many people that have bought this case, and many PC builders (including us!) have had to wait months upon months to get their hands on it. Most of these issues have reportedly been ironed out by LOUQE, but it may still be difficult to acquire one – so be aware. If you don’t feel like waiting or shelling out $269 for your enclosure – here is our guide on the best Ghost S1 alternatives to consider.

Power Supply

Corsair’s SFX series of PSUs, widely regarded as the best on the market, left us with an easy decision here: the SF600 Platinum. With this 600W unit, we have some overclocking headroom and the ability to upgrade components in the future. Furthermore, it was rated 9.8/10 by JohnnyGuru – a testament to its fantastic voltage regulation, performance, build quality, and value.

Benefits of the Platinum rated version of the SF600 over the Gold version include premium sleeved cables (perfect for cable management in our ITX system) for a clean interior, as well as an improved fan. However, we wouldn’t recommend the $10 premium over the Gold SF600 if you aren’t planning on using the stock sleeved cables, and are instead going for a custom sleeved cable configuration.

Case Fan

The LOUQE Ghost S1 allows for one additional 120mm case fan slot at the bottom of the chassis – should you choose not to install a 2.5” SSD drive. Occupying this slot is, of course, the industry-leading brand – Noctua. They need no introduction, offering best-in-class airflow, cooling performance, and build quality – as long as you don’t mind Noctua’s striking color scheme! The specific model we opted for was the Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM, which is a 120mm x 15mm slim case fan – with PWM fan control..

Thermal Paste

In our roundup of the best thermal pastes on the market earlier this year, we found the Arctic MX-4 to be the best carbon-based thermal paste on the market. It offers fantastic performance for its price, costing considerably less than the highly-regarded Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut, while still competing on thermal performance.

Priced at just $7 for 4 grams, the addition of the Arctic MX-4 to our build is a cheap but effective upgrade for our Ryzen 5 3600’s thermals.

Closing Thoughts

For the money, it’s tough to beat a reliable ITX gaming system. As manufacturing processes continue to improve, and smaller components offer more performance and features, SFF computers have been skyrocketing in popularity. If ever you’ve found yourself interested in joining the SFFPC community, we’re confident this build is a fantastic place to start… even if you lack the patience to wait for the LOUQE!

Have you built in the LOUQE GhostS1? Are you considering switching to an ITX system? Let us know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading!

The post Best ITX Gaming PC Build under $1500 (ft. LOUQE Ghost S1) for 2020 appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

While PC builders are almost always interested in price-performance more than anything else, many of us are equally interested in building an aesthetically-pleasing machine that can sit on our desk without being an eye-sore. Creating a ‘battlestation’ that is eye-catching and as exciting to look at as to use allows us to enjoy our hobbies as more than simple tools, but as expressions of our hobbies.

And while every person’s aesthetic is different, most of us look to add a little personal flair with some RGB, matching colors, an overall theme, or generally pleasing products. They might cost a bit more than the simples, no-frills, budget components, but if you plan on keeping your computer for years at a time, the joy of using it might be worth the extra dollars.

White-themed PC’s are popular for people focusing on a certain aesthetic for several reasons:

1. White components allow for almost any combination of RGB lighting to reflect easily and avoid conflicting colors;
2. White goes with everything, so simply changing your RGB coloring or swapping out less-expensive colored components over the years won’t create conflicting color schemes if you decide you no longer like blue but prefer orange;
3. For RGB-haters or minimalism fans, white and black builds offer a very zen style build that fits with almost any décor scheme for your office or battlestation.

That’s not to say that some people will not go for a black/red or black/yellow themed build, but once you go down that road, it becomes difficult to adjust. White offers a flexibility that can range from an all-white LED setup for an elegant, clean look to a unicorn-vomit, RGB-rainbow, all-out color extravaganza without too much difficulty.

So for this build guide, we will focus on that upper mid-range machine that offers a strong aesthetic while still giving you enough horsepower to maintain 1440p 100-144hz in the majority of games available today.

Ultimate 1440p 144hz White Ryzen 5 3600 Gaming PC Build – The Parts List

Component	Design	Model	Price
CPU		Ryzen 5 3600	$198
CPU Cooler		Corsair H100i Platinum SE	$155
RAM		Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro White 3200MT/s CAS16	$100
SSD		Intel 660p 1TB NVMe	$95
GPU		Gigabyte 2070 Super Gaming OC White	$530
Motherboard		ASRock X570 Steel Legend WiFi	$210
Power Supply		Corsair RM750x White	$130
PC Case		Lian-Li O11 Dynamic White	$135
Case Fan(s)		Corsair LL120 White (3-pack)	$120
Fan Hub		Corsair Commander PRO	$65
		Total Price	$1735

CPU – Ryzen 5 3600

The heart of any PC is the processor. The processor, or CPU, is the starting point for any build and the piece that will lay the foundation for the other pieces, based on the planned usage of the computer. For gaming, the CPU is one of the two most critical components in determining the FPS, or frames per second, of which the build will be capable.

As this is a gaming build and not a workstation build, more than 6 cores will not be useful. In the future, games may be optimized for multi-core usage, but for now, 4 cores or more are more than enough, especially if those cores can hit higher clock speeds. So to balance more cores in case of future optimization with high single-core boost speeds, and all at a great price, this build uses the Ryzen 5 3600. With six cores and 12 threads, and a 4.2ghz all core boost speed, this processor will push 100+ frames in almost all games, and 144+ frames in more than half of current titles. At $200, this processor is an absolute steal for the modern gaming PC.

If you think you may also do some productivity workloads and have $130 more to spend, upgrading to a Ryzen 3700x will help with some applications like video/photo editing, but wouldn’t impact gaming to any noticeable degree.

CPU Cooler – Corsair H110i Platinum SE

As this is an all-white themed build and aesthetics are important, this build uses an AIO (all-in-one) CPU Cooler. AIO coolers are expensive, but subjectively look much nicer than bulkier air coolers, and offer quieter performance in the majority of cases. This build went for one of the top-rated white AIO’s on the market today: the Corsair H100i Platinum SE. The special edition white 240mm cooler uses a high-quality ASETEK pump, is backed by the strong Corsair warranty, and features enough RGB to make any rig explode with colors or simmer in elegant white light. This baby isn’t cheap at $155, but it certainly is a statement in the beauty of the right components.

As an alternative, if you don’t like AIOs or just prefer a cheaper, high-performance option, the Noctua DH-15 with the white Chromax frame is a very elegant, minimalist CPU cooler (although very large in pure size) that should offer top-of-the-line performance to keep your 3600 very chilly under even the heaviest loads. For around $100-$110 total on sale, not a bad option at all.

RAM – Corsair RGB Pro White 3200MHz CAS16

Ryzen processor discussions almost always include sections on which RAM to use to make the most out of your system. According to AMD, the sweetspot for RAM is 3600MT/s with CAS 16, but that requires either a bit of luck with the silicon lottery with a chip like Micron E-Die, or a Samsung B-Die RAM module. As both of those options can be expensive, especially when adding in the requirements for a white, RGB RAM that fits our white-themed PC, alternatives seem to a better choice. For that reason, we recommend Corsair RGB Pro White 3200MT/s CAS 16. The difference in clock speed will be insignificant for the vast majority of users, and if you really want to raise that clock speed, a small overclock should get you close. The RGB on this RAM and its easy compatibility with Corsair iCue make it the most reliable RAM module available that mixes high performance with absolutely stunning aesthetics.

If you really want to try and hit that Ryzen sweet spot, the 3600MT/s CAS 18 version of this RAM is a great alternative, although the extra $40 is a steep price for what should amount to a very minor difference in almost all games.

SSD – Intel 660p 1Tb

While storage is important, gaming simply isn’t the most demanding in terms of constant loading or unloading. Most SSD’s today will be perfectly adequate for gaming and will offer very fast load times and strong reliability. However, as this build is meant to also be beautiful, we recommend choosing an NVMe drive to take away those extra cables and improve that minimalist look. But since we do not need anything too fancy, we recommend the affordable, reliable, and still shockingly fast for 95% of users, Intel 660p 1Tb.

The 1Tb option is the sweet spot for many because the 660p is a better performer at higher capacities (over 512GB), and because of the very attractive price of the 1tb option (regularly around $85 on sale). So we say go for the 1Tb NVMe storage now and have no regrets later, letting you have one drive for both booting and game storage.

Graphics Card – Gigabyte RTX 2070 Super Gaming OC

Aside from the CPU, the GPU is the other major component in determining the FPS you will push for any given title. While the CPU is often more important in getting from 60FPS to 144+ FPS, the GPU is largely responsible for the resolution you will be able to support. To hit 1440p and not experience difficulty maintaining high FPS, the GPU will need to be one of the higher-end models. And while white-themed GPU’s exist, they are few and far between. With all those criteria, our recommendation is the Gigabyte 2070 Super Gaming OC which combines a beautiful white backplate and shroud with very high performance.

The 2070 Super is one of the new Super-line graphics cards that are essentially refreshes to last years Nvidia Turing release that bump each model one rung up the stack. A 2070 Super should perform like a 2080 and be able to maintain 1440p and keep frames above 100 FPS in almost all titles, with most hitting between 120-144 frames with High/Ultra graphics, depending on the detailed choices you select.

If the 2070 Super is outside of your budget, a Gigabyte 2060 Super Gaming OC should be able to achieve close to 144 FPS at 1440p for eSports titles and older games and will keep over 60 FPS even in ultra-quality for almost all games available today. Check out our article for some strong 1440p 144hz alternatives to the GPU in this build.

Motherboard – ASRock X570 Steel Legend Wifi/ax

This section will be a bit shorter since we recently put out an article talking about strong budget X570 motherboards that goes in-depth on our recommendations. For the motherboard of a white-themed build, there are only two quality options out there for the X570: the ASUS X570 Prime Pro, and the ASRock X570 Steel Legend WiFi ax. Between the two, the Steel Legend is quite a bit cheaper and offers almost all of the features while sporting VRMs that will have no trouble with our recommended Ryzen 3600 (or Ryzen 3700x) processors, even with a significant overclock. So for this white-themed gaming build, we recommend the ASRock X570 Steel Legend WiFi ax. For more information, check out the dedicated article.

Power Supply: Corsair RM750X

The PSU is the behind-the-scenes hero of any build. A strong build is always at risk of failure if you choose a weak PSU, so we recommend being sure to go for a high-quality warranty backed by a 10 year (or at least 7 year) warranty from one of the major manufacturers. For this build, the fit the white theme, we chose the Corsair RM750x. This PSU will give you plenty of power, has an 80+ Gold efficiency rating, a 10-year warranty, and those sweet, sweet white cables to match with your build.

PC Case Case Fans, and Fan Hub

Finally, we need something to put all these components in. And since you spent so much time and money choosing components that are beautiful, the case needs to showcase (see that pun?) your parts and highlight the white elegance and RGB. The fans need to provide some extra RGB to top-off your build color flexibility while also offering strong cooling and avoiding too much noise.

So to satisfy all those needs, we recommend the Lian-Li 011 Dynamic White and 3 x Corsair White LL120 fans. The case has two tempered glass panels that will allow your guests to ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over your beautiful build, and the fans offer the best RGB/performance/noise value on the market, and luckily come in a great matte white version perfect for this build. With the 240mm AIO Radiator (and its two included LL120 fans) on top and the 3 x LL120 fans serving as cool air intake on the side of the Lian-Li Dynamic, your case will look great and keep all the components nice and cool.

Because the Corsair LL120s offer so many lighting options and plenty of fan curve customization options, we recommend getting the Corsair Commander Pro hub to hook up all your fans to the iCue software, giving you total control over your builds performance and lighting.

Summary

Component	Design	Model	Price
CPU		Ryzen 5 3600	$198
CPU Cooler		Corsair H100i Platinum SE	$155
RAM		Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro White 3200MT/s CAS16	$100
SSD		Intel 660p 1TB NVMe	$95
GPU		Gigabyte 2070 Super Gaming OC White	$530
Motherboard		ASRock X570 Steel Legend WiFi	$210
Power Supply		Corsair RM750x White	$130
PC Case		Lian-Li O11 Dynamic White	$135
Case Fan(s)		Corsair LL120 White (3-pack)	$120
Fan Hub		Corsair Commander PRO	$65
		Total Price	$1735

There you have it, our recommendations for building a beautiful, powerful, 144 FPS-pushing, 1440p high-definition resolving, $1750 gaming PC. The different pieces of this build will often go on sale, so keep an eye out for any deals to ensure your gorgeous PC will be as affordable as possible – if you time it right, the whole rig can be had for around $1500. Of course, if you are looking for pure performance, take a look at our GPU guide for 1440p 144hz gaming as well.

White-themed PCs are certainly beautiful, but they also cost quite a bit more than your average color-agnostic build when speaking about the same computing power. If you want to achieve performance that is still very good but at about 2/3 the price, check out our article on another great gaming build guide. And if you are looking to upgrade your monitor to take full advantage of your new gaming PC, check out our article on 1440p 144hz monitors.

The post Ultimate $1750 White 1440p 144hz Gaming PC Build appeared first on PremiumBuilds.