The time has come for my current setup to be replaced with something new.

I have spent a few days analyzing what's available, discussing with friends, and reading reviews to come up with the new build. I wanted to share with you what I'm planning to buy, perhaps some of the info will be useful to you or an inspiration for something better.

Note that I have the following constraints:

• while my budget has basically no limit, I don't want to waste money on things I will not use


• I'm only changing the PC, so the monitor and peripherals stay


• I currently own a RTX 2060 which I got as a gift. Also, I have a G-Sync (but not freesync) capable display. If I would be building from scratch I would probably go AMD all the way, but I don't think changing mu current GPU would be wise. Besides who knows, maybe nVidia will truly reform by the time a GPU upgrade will be necessary?

Also worth noting is my use cases - I like to game on my PC, but also do some programming. I'm planning to look into VR whenever that will mature a bit (especially on Linux). I don't have nor plan to have a Windows install, but I'm open to using Proton.

I also want to future proof a bit. My current PC has served my well for about 7 years. I did double the RAM from 4 to 8 and replaced my HDD with a SSD, but all the other core components managed to stay comfortably usable. I want this next build to be like that as well.

With all that out of the way, lets start with the new build.

CPU
Considering I already have the GPU as mentioned above, figuring out which CPU to go with is the first step, as that will also impact what motherboard will be selected and that impacts further things.
Until very recently I would probably go with Intel for the CPU, but (as you might have guessed from the title) the new Ryzen series is incredible, both from a performance perspective and a cost-effectiveness one.

I have selected Ryzen 9 3900X which is a 12 core (24 thread) unit, with the clock set at 3.8 - 4.6 . If I was not interested in developing software on this PC and gaming would by my only goal, or my budget was limited I would probably go with the Ryzen 7 instead. But I like to have more cores available; the bigger L3 cache is also a nice bonus.
For some one in need of even more multi-threaded performance there is the Ryzen 9 3950X which has 16 cores, but the base clock drops to 3.5. But who knows, since Linus is planning to buy that one, perhaps the better option is to have the same CPU as the man himself. I'm sure the Kernel will always work flawlessly on it ;)

Motherboard
With the CPU selected, the next question to ask yourself is - which chipset you want. For the Zen 2 architecture (our CPU) I was considering x470 and the new x570. Main difference between them is that x570 can support PCIe 4.0 for peripherals, for example a MVNe SSD. Additionally, more USB 3.1 Gen2 ports are available and we can put faster RAM. If none of those seem important to you I would suggest to stick with x470 - especially if power consumption is something you care about. The x470 has a significantly lower TDP and doesn't require active cooling like the x570.

For my build I went with the x570 chipset. Next, there is a whole list of thing you should decide on, and will help with narrowing down which model to choose from. For me, I came up with the following:

• I DON'T need more the 1 GPU slot - I don't plan to use SLI/Crossfire. This alone remove a lot of potential boards.


• I DO need Bluetooth integrated - this will be used for wireless headphones and other stuff. For what I understand the BT connectivity is provided thanks to a Intel chip that also gives you WiFi. While I don't need the latter, it seems there's no board that can give you just Bluetooth.


• I DON'T need more than 1 Ethernet port or 2.5/5/10 Gigabit Ethernet. I simply would not use those for their full potential.


• I DO care about the number/type of USB ports - I think that's obvious. To little would be frustrating, too much will be wasteful. But I would prefer to have the latter problem ;) Of course you want more of the high speed USB 3.1 gen2 ports to be a little more future proof. I also want at least one USB-C type connection available.


• I DON'T care about RGB LEDs and the visual aspect of the motherboard.


• I DON'T care about bundled software that works only with Windows.


• I'M OK with only 2 slots for RAM.


• I'M OK with only 2 slots for NVMe disks.

After taking all of that into consideration and consulting this helpful and massive google doc, I selected Gigabyte X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI. It seems to fit all of my criteria and doesn't include too much of stuff I don't need. The reviews I saw were also positive. When selecting your motherboard, I suggest consulting some reviews first, since the design decisions made by the manufacturers are very nuanced and might be not obvious just from reading the spec sheet.

RAM
First, consider how much RAM do you need. I think 16GB is the minimum to be somewhat future proof. In my case I want with 32GB. Since my selected motherboard has 2 slots available I want 2 x 16GB sticks. Even if the board had 4 slots, I would still go with 2x16 instead of 4x8. This way it's actually cheaper, you have room for expansion, and I found that the quality of offered sticks is better in this configuration.
Next, go to your preferred PC parts store, select DDR4 (the type supported by our configuration), filter out all items with lower clock speed then the max supported by your motherboard (3200 MHz) and then select the one that has the lowest CL. If it doesn't have LEDs installed, then even better. In my case it happened to be G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 2x16GB 3200MHz CL14-14-14 XMP2 Black.

SSD
Storage requirements vary greatly from person to person, so lets focus on speed instead. Since both our CPU and motherboard chipset support PCIe 4.0 for SSDs it would be a shame not buy one. This is probably the most overkill part of the build, and the biggest cost savings opportunity. I could probably re-use my current 500GB SSD that uses SATA3. But let's treat ourselves - I want the highest speed. That means a NVMe SSD using our M2 motherboard slot which will use the PCI 4.0 interface. My pick was the Gigabyte AORUS M.2 Gen4 PCIe X4 NVMe 1TB. If you want less storage space, be mindful that some disks offer slower speeds for lower capacity models.

PSU
Honestly, didn't care too much. As long as it has enough power, and good ratings it's fine. I'm open to suggestions on this one, currently looking at be quiet! Pure Power 11 600W CM.

Case
Same as with the power supply, don't care too much. I don't want edgy gamer aesthetics, nor light my room with colors of the rainbow. It should have the ports I want easily available. It should let the air flow correctly. If it has neat tricks that help with the final assembly of the build - sure, why not. Open to suggestions on this one as well, currently considering Corsair Obsidian 500D CC-9011116-WW.
EDIT: It seems I completely missed the fact, that my selected motherboard is mITX, so smaller than the usual ATX. So I could very well go for a smaller case, unless I find a reason why this size is not a good fit for me. mITX case suggestions welcome!

That's it! Like I mentioned earlier, I have all other necessary parts. I will probably not purchase a separate cooler for the CPU - I would probably do that straight away for an Intel CPU or an older AMD, but I hear good things about the bundled ones in this generation. If I will find this to be not true once I play with this new PC for a while, it's relatively easy to order one and install later.

So this turned out to be a wall of text - I hope someone will find this useful. I will be ordering my stuff this month, so I can still change something; I would love to hear your input. Especially if something I want to buy is know to have issues with Linux - that would be a dealbraker.