Gaming PC Build Guide for making YouTube Gaming Videos

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Conclusion

Today we have put together a unique and informative build guide that we hope inspires your build process.  The computer today is built for a specific purpose, that being a YouTube Gaming Computer for recording Let’s Play videos.  However, if you take away the recording part of it this computer will stand on its own as a great guide for a general gaming computer for any computer hardware enthusiast in the summer of 2020.  It takes from parts readily available this summer and utilizes the latest AMD base components to build a great machine with upgrade potential to last a long time without a complete re-build.

The Components

We feel that for this summer there is no better value in gaming than with an AMD Ryzen 7 Zen 2 3000 series CPU.  Specifically, the Ryzen 7 3700X is a great deal that has benefited from reduced pricing lately.  This CPU is perfect for gaming.  It has the right amount of multi-threading for gaming and can boost up well for games.  You really won’t be held back in games with this CPU.

We utilized the only mATX AMD X570 motherboard available right now, the ASRock X570M Pro4.  We think mATX has kind of been underutilized this generation, with only one mATX X570 motherboard option it needs more attention.  There are more ITX options than mATX, and micro-ATX should not be overlooked.  It’s a great form factor that allows for smaller case sizes, but at the same time can fit a full-sized video card and AIO.  Now that AMD B550 chipset motherboards are out hopefully we’ll see more mATX varieties of them. 

The ASRock X570M Pro4 is not a bad motherboard if you aren’t going to be doing hard-core overclocking.  It can handle a 3700X just fine. This board offers all the X570 features so you get two fully realized PCIe 4.0 NVMe capable M.2 slots, and of course support for Zen 3.  I am not overclocking this CPU, but this motherboard could easily handle Precision Boost overclocking with this CPU. 

We can’t say enough about the Fractal Design Meshify C Mini Dark Tempered Glass case.  It is very roomy for an mATX case and is the perfect size to put on your desk.  This shows why the mATX form factor should not be forgotten.  It allows a full-sized ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 2080 Ti O11G GAMING video card to be installed so you don’t have to sacrifice on GPU performance.  You can put a 240mm radiator easily.  It has a very open front area that allows all the air to be pulled in without stopping airflow like those cases with solid front panels.  It just keeps everything in your case well cooled with no compromises.  The PSU is hidden with a shroud and it has a lot of cable management options.  It’s a great case, and I can tell you right now my next main system build will probably use this case as well.

Finally to the video card, if you are building a computer for the sole purpose of gaming and you want the best as I do, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is going to do that.  It is expensive, very, expensive.  However, that is what is required to get 1440p 60FPS with the game settings maxed out.  Even then, there will be some newer games that challenge it.  It’s just the price you pay to be on the bleeding edge.  The ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 2080 Ti O11G GAMING will serve me nicely.

Future Upgrades

I am a hardware enthusiast, so I am already thinking about upgrades for this build.  I know, I have a problem.  Many of these components were scavenged from what I had around the house and not exactly what I had wanted.  One area where I’d like to upgrade in the future is the storage.  I would prefer a 2TB primary SSD, and I would either like the newer 970 Evo Plus SSD or a next-generation PCIe 4.0 NVME 2TB SSD for primary.  Then, for my secondary recording drive, I want just one SSD, and I’d also like that to be 2TB but NVME as well, either the 970 EVO Plus or a PCIe 4.0 NVME 2TB SSD as well.  Two of the same SSDs would be nice, two 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVME SSDs would be my preference.

Since this is an X570 motherboard I will also have support for future Zen 3 CPUs.  Therefore, if I wanted to slap a new “4700X” or whatever AMD calls it, on this system, I could.  I would also be looking at replacing the RTX 2080 Ti with an “RTX 3080 Ti”, or whatever NVIDIA calls it.  This case should fit it just fine. 

In terms of recording, there is a newer microphone coming out from Samson that I am interested in upgrading to.  It is the Q9U microphone, it looks really great from the specifications and allows a better positioning for me as you talk into the front of it, pointed at you, which would allow me to modify the position of the microphone and help keep it out of the way a bit more.  I think it could possibly even sound better for the type of use-case I’m using it for.  In addition, a longer boom arm would be nice.

The monitor, the only other thing I’d like to improve upon when possible is the monitor.  I would really like a true HDR 1000+ capable monitor, but still at 1440p 16:9 aspect ratio and 60Hz.  The problem is most new HDR-capable monitors are coming in weird aspect ratios, and not the common 16:9.  I think a monitor with truly high-quality HDR plus Ray Tracing would look amazing for gaming at 1440p 60FPS with the game settings maxed out, but I’m still waiting for such a beast at a decent price.

Final Points

You can view this entire computer build on my KIT profile page.

This has been a fun side-project.  Sometimes you just like to get back to the basics and have fun building yourself a customized computer, getting your hands dirty and building it from scratch.  Today there are a lot of cool options for building a gaming powerhouse in a smaller form factor at affordable prices.  You can get a lot of performance these days in the mATX form factory without having to sacrifice performance. Maximum performance, no compromises.  

There can even be a lot of upgrade potential built into the system so you don’t have to do a major re-build a year from now.  This system I have built will last me a long time and has upgrade paths in many areas to keep it going.  This will allow me to record gameplay and put it on YouTube on my gaming channel JustGaming4Us.  Hopefully, this article has been somewhat informative and inspiring for the hardware enthusiast and gamer building a new PC this summer in 2020.

Discussion

Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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