One of the most interesting processors from AliExpress in 2020 - 12 core / 24 thread monster is sold just over $100 mark.
Huananzhi offers new motherboard for gaming - X99-TF. Improved power lines allow more powerful CPUs and overclocking. Nice white radiators gives it a premium look. By coinsidence I had white Zalman case.
I also got package-new GTX 980, probably it has spent couple of years on store shelf. And to power all that Watt-hungry electronics, I bought 750W power supply.
Epic graphics in Fortnite took 100% of GPU producing 95-100 fps on FullHD. However CPU was only 25% busy. This make me think that replacing GTX 980 even with 1060s or 1070 will not load CPU over the top.
I used Prime95 to load CPU and memory to the max. CPU temperature on Windows Desktop is about 30° Celsius. After half an hour on Prime95 test, temperature rose to 55-56°C and stopped rising.
Hardware was purchased on AliExpress, while China was heavy hit by coronavirus. Because of lockdown it took 5 weeks for motherboard to be shipped, however it usually takes 3 weeks to arrive.
CPU Intel Xeon E5-2678v3 2.5GHz | $112 |
CPU Cooler SilentimPC Fera2 | $26 |
Motherboard Huananzhi X99-TF Gaming LGA 2011-3 | $106 |
RAM 4x 8GB DDR3 1866MHz ECC REG | 4x $16 = $64 |
MSI GeForce 980 4GB | $162 |
SSD KingSpec 240GB m.2 PCIe | $42 |
SSD KingSpec 480GB 2.5" SATA3 | $68 |
HDD 1.5TB Samsung (used) | $26 |
Power Chieftec A-90 750W (used) | $60 |
Case Zalman Z3Plus (used) | $30 |
Total: | $696 |
Building computer off AliExpress parts is more a sport than necessety. What if not to go for exotic configuration but assemble comparable PC from local store? I came up with this config (East European prices are higher than those in USA):
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 | $158 |
CPU Cooler SilentimPC Fera2 | $26 |
Motherboard Gigabyte B450M DS3H | $76 |
HyperX 8GB DDR4 2666MHz CL16 Fury Black | 2x $46 = $92 |
Gigabyte Radeon RX 570 GAMING 4GB GDDR5 | $164 |
WD Green SSD M.2 240GB | $38 |
Kingston SSD A400 480GB | $58 |
HDD 1.5TB Samsung (used) | $26 |
Power Chieftec A-90 750W (used) | $60 |
Case Zalman Z3Plus (used) | $30 |
Total: | $728 |
Xeon CPU is still going strong in 2020, easily running modern games and video editing software. It has a lot to offer with its 12 cores / 24 threads. There's no price gain in building PC with chinese motherboard and used CPU, I bet in terms of calculating power Ryzen 5 with passmark of 13298 is as good as Xeon E5-2678v3 with 14514. But building PC with exotic hardware is definitely brings more fun.