Question Building a pc for the first time in a while, should I overdo it?

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robincurtisza

robincurtisza

Commendable
Sep 11, 2020
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Hey guys, I spent a lifetime building my own PC's and then spent a couple of years on a hiatus from hardcore gaming so haven't had a decent spec for a while. It's time to get a rig going again and I have started doing some research. So the question is whether I should be going BIG, or just big where it matters (that's what she said). In the same breath, I don't just want to go for the most expensive component each time.

So here is what I am currently looking at:

Intel Core i9-13900K - Core i9 13th Gen Raptor Lake 24-Core (8P+16E) P-core Base Frequency: 3.0 GHz E-core Base Frequency: 2.2 GHz LGA 1700 125W Intel UHD Graphics 770 Desktop Processor - BX8071513900K

ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi 6E LGA 1700 (Intel 12th&13th Gen) ATX Gaming Motherboard (PCIe 5.0, DDR5, 18+1 Power Stages, 2.5Gb LAN, Bluetooth 5.2, Thunderbolt 4, Support up to 5xM.2, 1xPCIe 5.0 M.2, Front Panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C)

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti AERO OC 12G Graphics Card, 3x WINDFORCE Fans, 12GB 192-bit GDDR6X, GV-N407TAERO OC-12GD Video Card

CORSAIR Vengeance RGB 64GB (4 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR5 5600 (PC5 44800) Desktop Memory Model CMH64GX5M4B5600C36

Additional pieces, 850W Corsair power supply, Cooling and a case. This is not as expensive as some builds, but it seems quite high end. Is it worth the dollars for the motherboard and CPU or would I be satisfied with some form of I7 with a cheaper board?
 
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Are you planning on a lot of heavy workloads? 16E cores is cool and all, but you have to have something for them to do.

I would say for most people that are into high end gaming can get away with the 13700K, you lose 8-E cores and a little clock speed that you can overclock back to, if you want to.

You could get a cheaper motherboard. Higher end B760 can run these chips just fine, but you won't be able to overclock.

You will need a very beefy CPU cooler. Either a large air cooler like the NH-D15 or be quiet! Dark Rock Pro, or some other dual tower cooler, or go for liquid cooling; 280mm or 360mm.

You should be getting 2x32GB of memory if you want 64GB. 4 sticks has proven problematic to get working at XMP speeds. You don't "need" 64GB of ram, but it is possibly worth doing it now rather than later. Though future upgrades are probably going to be much faster DDR5, speeds up to 8000 are expected to be pretty common by the time we hit the end of the cycle (7200 kits are already available for extreme prices)

You are better off targeting low latency like CL30 or CL32 rather than absolute clock speeds. Should be plenty of memory CL32 5600 kits, but for not a lot more there are CL30 6000 kits from Corsair, Kingston, and G.Skill.

4070Ti is pretty cost effective all things considered. 3080 are creeping back up in price and are slower with the same amount of VRAM. 850W should be fine.

I do somewhat suggest getting matching Motherboard and GPU in these days of RGB, one less piece of software to install.
 
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robincurtisza said:
Hey guys, I spent a lifetime building my own PC's and then spent a couple of years on a hiatus from hardcore gaming so haven't had a decent spec for a while. It's time to get a rig going again and I have started doing some research. So the question is whether I should be going BIG, or just big where it matters (that's what she said). In the same breath, I don't just want to go for the most expensive component each time.

So here is what I am currently looking at:

Intel Core i9-13900K - Core i9 13th Gen Raptor Lake 24-Core (8P+16E) P-core Base Frequency: 3.0 GHz E-core Base Frequency: 2.2 GHz LGA 1700 125W Intel UHD Graphics 770 Desktop Processor - BX8071513900K

ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi 6E LGA 1700 (Intel 12th&13th Gen) ATX Gaming Motherboard (PCIe 5.0, DDR5, 18+1 Power Stages, 2.5Gb LAN, Bluetooth 5.2, Thunderbolt 4, Support up to 5xM.2, 1xPCIe 5.0 M.2, Front Panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C)

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti AERO OC 12G Graphics Card, 3x WINDFORCE Fans, 12GB 192-bit GDDR6X, GV-N407TAERO OC-12GD Video Card

CORSAIR Vengeance RGB 64GB (4 x 16GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR5 5600 (PC5 44800) Desktop Memory Model CMH64GX5M4B5600C36

Additional pieces, 850W Corsair power supply, Cooling and a case. This is not as expensive as some builds, but it seems quite high end. Is it worth the dollars for the motherboard and CPU or would I be satisfied with some form of I7 with a cheaper board?
Click to expand...
The 13900K runs warm, you want two sticks of RAM not four, 32GB (2x16GB) is more than enough for a gaming build, etc ... What country are you located, what is your budget and what is your monitor resolution?
 
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Eximo said:
Are you planning on a lot of heavy workloads? 16E cores is cool and all, but you have to have something for them to do.

I would say for most people that are into high end gaming can get away with the 13700K, you lose 8-E cores and a little clock speed that you can overclock back to, if you want to.

You could get a cheaper motherboard. Higher end B760 can run these chips just fine, but you won't be able to overclock.

You will need a very beefy CPU cooler. Either a large air cooler like the NH-D15 or be quiet! Dark Rock Pro, or some other dual tower cooler, or go for liquid cooling; 280mm or 360mm.

You should be getting 2x32GB of memory if you want 64GB. 4 sticks has proven problematic to get working at XMP speeds. You don't "need" 64GB of ram, but it is possibly worth doing it now rather than later. Though future upgrades are probably going to be much faster DDR5, speeds up to 8000 are expected to be pretty common by the time we hit the end of the cycle (7200 kits are already available for extreme prices)

You are better off targeting low latency like CL30 or CL32 rather than absolute clock speeds. Should be plenty of memory CL32 5600 kits, but for not a lot more there are CL30 6000 kits from Corsair, Kingston, and G.Skill.

4070Ti is pretty cost effective all things considered. 3080 are creeping back up in price and are slower with the same amount of VRAM. 850W should be fine.

I do somewhat suggest getting matching Motherboard and GPU in these days of RGB, one less piece of software to install.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I do some development and photo editing, but nothing that will grab all the cores, and the I7 13700k looks like it will do the trick and the price comes down quite a bit with a different motherboard.
Why_Me said:
The 13900K runs warm, you want two sticks of RAM not four, 32GB (2x16GB) is more than enough for a gaming build, etc ... What country are you located, what is your budget and what is your monitor resolution?
Click to expand...

I'm in the States (Texas), budget is like less than 3500, but don't want to spend 3500 if I don't have to.

I have made some changes to my build now, maybe the 13900 isn't worth it, looking at the following:

Intel Core i7-13700KF
G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series (Intel XMP) 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin SDRAM DDR5 6600
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti AERO OC 12G
GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX LGA 1700 Intel Z790 ATX Motherboard with DDR5

I am not certain about cooling though.
 
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robincurtisza said:
Thanks for the info. I do some development and photo editing, but nothing that will grab all the cores, and the I7 13700k looks like it will do the trick and the price comes down quite a bit with a different motherboard.


I'm in the States (Texas), budget is like less than 3500, but don't want to spend 3500 if I don't have to.

I have made some changes to my build now, maybe the 13900 isn't worth it, looking at the following:

Intel Core i7-13700KF
G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB Series (Intel XMP) 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin SDRAM DDR5 6600
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti AERO OC 12G
GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX LGA 1700 Intel Z790 ATX Motherboard with DDR5

I am not certain about cooling though.
Click to expand...
Are you near Houston or Dallas / Ft Worth? If so Microcenter has stores in both locations and they usually have some pretty decent deals with their cpu / motherboard combos.
 
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