The Overkill Build

The Overkill Build

Here we are, everyone. The endgame. This PC is aimed at 1440p high-refresh gaming at the least, or 4k gaming in excess of 60fps. Remember, the focus of this build is gaming, pure and simple. It just so happens that CPUs like Intel and AMD's high end offerings can also function as entirely capable entry level workstations... or, actually, really not so entry level. The amount of horsepower you can get on mainstream systems in 2019 is truly astonishing.

CPU - Intel Core i9 9900K or KS

For the most part - 9th Gen i7/i9 chips outperform their Zen 2 rivals. Often, the difference can be very small. Sometimes it can be non-existent. However, when pairing a CPU with a GPU like the one recommended later (though, realistically, you all know what it is), you need all the potential you can possibly get, and the fact is that games - even if they are optimised for multiple threads - also like raw clock rate. Zen 2, despite having higher raw instructions per clock than Intel's 9th gen CPUs, they run lower clockspeeds by several hundred Mhz. Due to the binning needed to find a chip that can all-core boost out of the box to 5GHz, 9900KS CPUs actually tend to have the edge over the 9900K in terms of power and thermals. There really isn't a huge amount more to say. It's fast, expensive, but it's also 'the best,' if 'the best' - to you - is pure and maximized gaming performance potential. That gap is getting smaller though.

Motherboard -MSI MEG Z390 ACE or Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master

You can find the review for the MSI board here, and the Gigabyte board here. We really liked both of these mainboards, and the differences between them are really very minimal. We did lament the Killer NIC on the MSI board, and 2 exposed M.2 slots (i.e. no heatsinks). That said, the Aorus' board's BIOS could have used a little work. Bits and bits here and there, but both - ultimately - took our 5 star rating. You will be happily able to run a 9900K/KS on this motherboard, and potentially overclock it further... and that, actually, brings us onto our next topic.

CPU Cooler... um, really big?

I will give the briefest of mentions to the highest end air coolers on the market, here. Deepcool's Assassin II, Noctua's NH-D15, and BeQuiet's Dark Rock Pro 4 are all exceptionally capable products that have upwards of 200W TDP ratings, likely more toward 250. With some good thermal paste and solid case airflow, these coolers will be able to tame a moderately overclocked 9900K or 9900KS without too much trouble.

However, we ALL know that - for this budget point - you will probably be looking at water cooling. There are several ways around this. The first is, perhaps, the most obvious. A single large CLC for your CPU, and keep the GPU air cooled. Naturally, your choice of CLC will largely depend on what case you decide to go for, but 280mm should be your starting point, with 360mm coolers being your option if you need some serious surface area.

What are the other options? Well, there are two. The first is to use pre-made kits from the likes of EKWB or Corsair (i.e. their new 'Hydro X' products). Depending on how you set up your loop, these may or may not necessarily outperorm a single 360mm CLC for your CPU, but... the main advantage is customisation, and the ability to also put your GPU under water as well.

The final (and perhaps most obvious choice for overkill builds like this one) is a fully custom loop. Here, the sky is the limit, but it can result in, A) Some very impressive thermals and, B) the ability to really make your PC your own. Want to go full on RGB vomit? Go ahead. Want to have a go at a black/chrome theme with rigid tubing? Again, go for it.

RAM

There are significantly diminishing returns when going to RAM that is any faster than 3600Mhz or so. CAS16 @ 3600Mhz is, really, where you should be aiming here, therefore. However, just because budget is no object doesn't mean that you should be daft with it, either. 16GB of RAM in 2x 8GB sticks is still more than sufficient for a gaming PC, and - as said before - it will be so for a while. If you wanted to get 32GB, then I wouldn't blame you, but it is still unnecessary to do so. Don't get any more than 32GB, however, as that really is a waste of money. RAM upgrades are the easiest ones to do on your PC as well, so it's not as though you'll be pulling your PC apart entirely to add and/or swap out DIMMs. The only exception to this is if you'll be custom water-cooling. Your loop may well block the DIMMs from being easily removed, so just bear this in mind.

Storage

My recommendations can spill over from the 'high end' build on the previous page... so they will. I paid £135 for a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO in 2015. Now, that would net me a 1TB version of Samsung's QVO drive, plus a decent chuck of change towards the next SSD. There is nothing stopping you from going for 1-2TB SSDs from flagship ranges (though most would probably go for the near-ubiquitous Samsung 970 Evo/Pro drives, and that would certainly be money well spent.

Power Supply

At this rate I'll start to sound like a broken record. I really don't think there is a need to shell out for 80+ Titanium rated units, unless your PC will be on 24/7 and you live in a country where electricity is costly. If so, it might be worth you looking at Titanium rated versions of the now many times aforementioned PSUs? If, however, you don't especially care, then the still bulletproof reliability of any previously mentioned unit in the 'high-end' build at 80+ Gold or higher will be A-Ok for this PC. Some might wonder if it's worth going for overkill capacity as well? I mean, you could, for sure. If you intended on adding another GPU down the line (the only other addition to a PC that could necessitate an 'over-buy' in power department), then please go ahead and spend the extra on a 1000W unit. Yes, SLI modern day GPU's and a 9900k could probably run just fine on 850W or so, with some headroom to spare... but I'd just go for broke and go all out.

Graphics Card

GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. There you go, easy. There is really no debate, here, at all. Note, that - with 32GB of RAM - the above build will total c. $4,250 USD. You could certainly add another 2080Ti to the mix, but that would be absolutely throwing money away, at this point. Whilst it might be overdramatic to say that SLI/Crossfire are a dying art, there is certainly less love for them out there than there used to be. Games must also support SLI/Crossfire, and - even then - they must be trusted to support it well. With that, we come to the end of the fairly well overdue 'end of 2019' buyers guide. I recognise that the 'Overkill' build segment was pretty brief, but the higher up the price point you go, parts choices tend to get a lot simpler (oddly enough). If you flip overleaf, there is a small section on the very turbulent HEDT market. It is likely of fairly limited interest to most, but it's included due to highly renewed interest into HCC CPUs and HEDT platforms since 2017.

With that, we are nearing the end of the main sections of this article, having covered all price points from the entry-level, right the way to the old equivalent of our 'end-all' PC. There is, however, one more entry, where I will discuss the HEDT platforms from both AMD and Intel, and what kind of PC one can build around them. This is where we will deviate, realistically, from the norm of this guide being meant for gamers.