- Sep 11, 2024
- 16
- 3
- 15
Hello to everyone visiting this post and welcome to my PC build advisory thread 
Please follow down below to see the list of parts and the PCPartPicker link.
I am not highly knowledgeable with tech specs and I fail to follow many compatibility specifics, so I mostly read articles, google and occasionally watch videos. In case of this thread, I will be following your advises and editing the build further until im happy with the outcome.
Approximate Purchase Date:
the closer the better. I expect to buy parts in my home country (Latvia) and I do not mind overpaying above MSRP unless overpaying is too much. In terms of waiting for next gen, I didnt find new Intel interesting enough for me. Dont get me wrong, I saw a few articles about Intel Core Ultra but it didnt catch me. On the other side, Zen5 released late 2024 and more so, Ryzen 900 series is the most recent AMD release. So I expect to close this thread within this or next week, by when I will have ordered all parts as there is no going back after that
Budget Range:
I dunno, around 2500-3000K usd? I think so far I reach almost 3k usd. its doable for me, but I do not want to raise the stakes to 4k usd. Also, while this is still up for discussion, I have made a tough decision to shush my inner Intel fanboy and begin exploring AMD options, where Im ready to pay more for Ryzen CPU if it can offer multithreading capabilities.
System Usage from Most to Least Important:
multithreading workload - I have made a decision to edit the post and put this as top priority. As far as im concerned with CPU, I need it to stand its ground during heavy Excel sheets lifting. Modelling and engineering is also a new area im going to explore within my next years, so I must be ready,
>
gaming - long story short, I want to launch CP200 Phanton Liberty with RTX turned on with ultra settings and enjoy it in 50-60+fps. If I can do it with my setup, I trust it to do well for years to come
>
surfing, lightweight programming, blah blah yada yada, the usual stuff
Are you buying a monitor: No, I got benq 27inch 1440p and I love it
Parts (and my reasoning):
CPU:Intel i7-13700K AMD Ryzen 9 7950x (still deciding)
Why intel?I do not want to go with AMD, call it my stupidity or stubbornness, I call this my preference.
I dont know anymore, perhaps why the hell indeed. This is new for me as Intel fanboy, but I have to accept the reality and make a decision soon.
Then what got me confused?
So I went through some articles, thanks @logainofhades for sending in a few Tom's Hardware links down the thread. I saw quite a few alarming posts about Intel, and my insecurity with Intel reached its peak. Initially I thought, well, a few years into the issue, they must have fixed it by now. Silly me. Anyway, my second impression about intel got suddenly very positive after I continued to read news ( here at Tom's) and reached 9th august, when Intel released microcode patch which should have end edthe long-running series of instability issues surrounding gen13/14 cpus. Imagine my surprise, when a few pages of news later, I stumble upon post of instability issues with most recent Wukong video game. That is, after the patch was released. Perhaps that was the final hit on the nail, but after reading that article, I randomly scrolled a few more pages and found myself reading about freshly baked Ryzen 9000 series. They seem to offer improved multithreading and are still decent for gaming, so my current goal is to read up more about these cpus. ask You (reading this) for your feedback and PROBABLY switch to Ryzen, while keeping everything else in the build the same.
Generally, let's not talk about Ryzen. I read a lot about Ryzen 7 and I acknowledge that they have arguably the best cpu for gaming at the moment. But I do not want to focus solely on gaming and I feel like staying with Intel despite all fuck-ups they have recently.
Why i7-13700k? Honestly, I got scared reading about gen13/14 instabilities, degradations and faults. I think 13900 and 14900 are crazy unstable. Also, unironically, my friend bought 14900k with his super-duper expensive build and couldn't launch any game without it crashing xD (he fixed this by now with some bios tinkering, and I do not want to go down this route). So I chose 13700k because it is still one-of-the-best modern intel cpu's, offers decent productivity, is usually within top10 of cpus charts and generally seems somewhat stable. At least not as unstable as 13900 or 14900.
updated: and so i guess, i will be reading about ryzen for a day or two before updating pcpartpicker list. But I will need something powerful, more powerful in terms of multithreading than 7800x3d offers. I have returned to this card for a short while to see general opinions on this card, and I got strong "primarily for gaming" vibe, which is my second priority for the build.
updated2: Im settling down with ryzen 9, specifically 7950x because it is a balanced choice between gaming and computing tasks. Also im not sold on 3d v-cache just yet.
CPU COOLER:NZXT Kraken 360 Thermalright Phantom Spirit EVO
I dunno. For starters, I wanted AIO. I respect huge air coolers, like Noctua or Be quiet!, but I wanted stylish AIO solution. I concluded that I need 240mm at least, so 280mm is comfortable overkill. And since im considering NZXT case, I might as well go with their relatively OK kraken. I read that i7-13700k needs a lot of cooling, but I also read that kraken seem to handle this.
I heard arctic is ok but meh, like it's decent but if you got extra budget, you might want to skip it. I dunno, but I chose NZXT in the end.
update: I switched to 360mm based on advise. 3 fans look gorgeous as well!
update2: i know im chaning my opinion a lot since the first version of the build, but i decided to go for air cooling based on advise. generally, more reliable, less fancy. I can always switch later if i feel like im missing aio neaty looks too much.
MoBo: Gigabyte z790 Aorus Elite X (not AX) B650 Aorus Elite Pro
why z790? no comments. I do not want to go with B.. line, I can pay for Z. I believe this is just something you can agree with if money is not the issue.
so i switched to Ryzen and therefore ended up with B650, which seem to fit the best for AMD.
why gigabyte? Another I dunno - please say it's ok situation: I wanted to combine GPU+MoBo by brand so I ended up with Gigabyte. I think it's decent? The quality of Gigabyte as brand I mean. Particularly Aorus Elite is just something I ended up with after reading forums and reddit. Looks like this is simply decent choice, not too expensive, and it's not widely unrecommended (like Asus ROG it seems). Also this MoBo seems to feature all compatibility that you may need (ddr5 ram, pcie5 video card, im not too proficient in these specs but I think this MoBo works for my particular build?)
Memory: G.skill trident z5 32gb (2x16) ddr5-6000 cl30 -6600 cl34
G.skill because I want to.
32gb because im not convinced in 64gb, should I?
ddr5 because I can afford it. I slightly remember some discussions that ddr5 is not completely stable just yet, but I also believe this is mostly true for speed of 7000+ MHz? I chose 6000 cl30 based on PC Builder advise for intel setup. But I thought about going 6400mhz . I would like to hear opinions on this. im not sure with my decision here.
update: switched to 6600 cl34 based on advise. I generally think anything below 7000mhz is stable so If I can afford it, I can go for it.
update2: im still deciding. i saw a tons of recomendations to stay with 6000-cl30 and some to go for 6400-cl32, did not decide yet. But i guess i need a low profile ones since I decided to use air cooler. That probably means i will have to accept no-rgb...
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro M2 + Some simpler SSD for storage like Samsung 860 Evo??
no comment. 990 pro as top of the notch for the OS, also gives extra space for whatever
+ ssd for storage, perhaps some Evo 860? Not important I. think, I can take 860 Evo 1tb from my current PC.
Disclaimer: I do not have a lot of important data that I absolutely cannot lose. This is mostly in cloud. So for ssd storage, I think about storage for games that come and go (and some other minor data).
Video Card: Gigabyte 4080 Super Gaming OC
for a moment there, I was going to settle with Asus tuf and combine it with Asus MoBo. But Asus tuf video card is overpriced in my country at least at the moment so I switched to Gigabyte. I read a few forums to decide which Gigabyte 4080S model is OK - and it seems Gaming OC is fine. I would definitely prefer EVGA, but you know... I am missing evga tbh
Case: NZXT H7 Flow
because it is simply ok? offers good airflow which is important for my choice of cpu. otherwise clean and decent quality case. not overwordly expensive so affordable.
Power Supply:Corsair rm1000x Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 TT 1000w Super Flower Leadex VII XP or PRO? (will decide )
this is the most confusing part of my build. Please help me, pretty please!
So, I know this is hot topic to count your watt output but I think you cannot go wrong with overkilling.
I wanted to settled with 750w but decided to go for 1000w for a good measure. do not mind the power consumption here.
But, im honestly confused with the brand and the model.
For brand, I think Corsair or Seasonic. For model? oh man, too much to choose from. HX, RX, Vertex, nada nada... so much models and everyone seems to have his own take on what good what's not. After a lot of hesitation, I decided to go for Corsair and I chose RM1000x (x, not e, because x>e in terms of quality or something?)
So I was advised to go for Thermaltake down below, as Corsair can be considered pricey or rather overpriced. I also finally decided to refer to PSU Cultist list of PSUs. I was initially dazed by the list, as there was too much information at the screen. But eventually, I noticed myself returning to this link in every while and I each time feeling like I understand it better now. Mostly, also, because I already knew most of the brand names and model names from all the googling I did. However, I currently went for Thermaltake GF3 instead of GF A3. I think A3 is newer, but I saw that GF3 has more Cybenetics rating so I went for it to stay extra safe (I think Cybenetics are like award for quality which is now considered notable in psu world)
Another advise in favor of Super Flower. It seems Cultist PSU list is not your ultimate one-in-all guide since it wasnt updated for a year already, so i got advised to this guide on psus: https://hwbusters.com/best_picks/best-atxv3-pcie5-ready-psus-picks-hardware-busters/
Please let me know if you have other opinion on PSU choice.
OS: Win10 pro ( I do not appreciate win11)
Monitor: 2560x1440 144hz
Do you need to buy OS: No (and I will use win10 pro)
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: PCPartPicker for reference, otherwise I do not care about prices and "good deals" that much
Location: Latvia
Parts Preferences (updated after some advises and further articles reading):Intel for CPU 1000%, G.Skill for RAM I guess, Samsung for M2 ssd, no preference for CPU, GPU, PSU, Cooling, Case, but you probably saw my explanations for every choice above
Overclocking: More No then Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: No? Single gpu is enough for me
Your Monitor Resolution: 2560x1440 144hz
Additional Comments: thanks for reading this
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:
I "woke up" with decision to act on my new build that I was cooking up for a while. My current setup is doing me a good service up to this day, but I have always wanted to experience rtx first hand. I waited for 30 series as technology slowly evolved and improved. I waited for crypto mining boom and at some point I stopped bothering. Until 2024 that is, when random news started popping up about price drops and crypto ming decline. Almost half a year later here I am, as september hit me with readiness to act so I began composing parts. My knock-up call was something as trivial (or not) as my birthday and hence the decision to make myself a present that I hold onto for so long.
My vision is as clear as the day, I need PC build that can do me good for next 7+ years, that will offer me RTX experience with ultra settings, that will boost my heavy Excel multithreading workload productivity and that, finally and most importantly, will allow me to launch CP2077 Phantom Liberty in RTX Recommended mode on ultra settings and enjoy it in 50-60+fps.
Also, I feel that my 1080 EVGA and i7-8700 setup has earned their well-deserved rest It will stay in the house as a secondary build and kids will love it.
Today I drop this thread here to seek advises on a few unclear points of the build, where my own expertise doesnt give me confidence in choices Im about to make when I hit my first and consequent "Buy/Order" button.
TL;DR:
im building new pc and i need Your advise.
I hushed my inner Intel fanboy and im currently open to cpu suggestions.
psu as well, maybe ram, otherwise pretty finalised.
after a few revisions of feedback, my current edit of the build:https://pcpartpicker.com/list/L9BMBL
latest version of build, almost finished: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JC8RZJ
case and memory undecided yet
Updates:
switched cooling from 280mm to 360mm but its still kraken aio,
switched ram to ddr5-6600 34cl from ddr-6000 30cl (came from recommendation by PC builder for intel build),
added4tb storage, 2tb storage,
followed advise of switching corsair rm1000x to thermaltake toughpower gf3 tt premium,
switched further to super flower gpu,
decided on cpu (7950x amd),
went for b650 mobo since i switched to amd cpu,
swaped aio for air cooler,
...
Cheers guys! I appreciate every response and Im happy knowing there are people reading this and sharing their thoughts. As I have previously been repeatedly reading this forum anonymously, looking for threads that ask the samne questions I have in my head, I do hope that this thread will follow my legacy and will be of some use to other people out there looking for suggestions on their pc builds.
Please follow down below to see the list of parts and the PCPartPicker link.
I am not highly knowledgeable with tech specs and I fail to follow many compatibility specifics, so I mostly read articles, google and occasionally watch videos. In case of this thread, I will be following your advises and editing the build further until im happy with the outcome.
Approximate Purchase Date:
the closer the better. I expect to buy parts in my home country (Latvia) and I do not mind overpaying above MSRP unless overpaying is too much. In terms of waiting for next gen, I didnt find new Intel interesting enough for me. Dont get me wrong, I saw a few articles about Intel Core Ultra but it didnt catch me. On the other side, Zen5 released late 2024 and more so, Ryzen 900 series is the most recent AMD release. So I expect to close this thread within this or next week, by when I will have ordered all parts as there is no going back after that
Budget Range:
I dunno, around 2500-3000K usd? I think so far I reach almost 3k usd. its doable for me, but I do not want to raise the stakes to 4k usd. Also, while this is still up for discussion, I have made a tough decision to shush my inner Intel fanboy and begin exploring AMD options, where Im ready to pay more for Ryzen CPU if it can offer multithreading capabilities.
System Usage from Most to Least Important:
multithreading workload - I have made a decision to edit the post and put this as top priority. As far as im concerned with CPU, I need it to stand its ground during heavy Excel sheets lifting. Modelling and engineering is also a new area im going to explore within my next years, so I must be ready,
>
gaming - long story short, I want to launch CP200 Phanton Liberty with RTX turned on with ultra settings and enjoy it in 50-60+fps. If I can do it with my setup, I trust it to do well for years to come
>
surfing, lightweight programming, blah blah yada yada, the usual stuff
Are you buying a monitor: No, I got benq 27inch 1440p and I love it
Parts (and my reasoning):
CPU:
Why intel?
I dont know anymore, perhaps why the hell indeed. This is new for me as Intel fanboy, but I have to accept the reality and make a decision soon.
Then what got me confused?
So I went through some articles, thanks @logainofhades for sending in a few Tom's Hardware links down the thread. I saw quite a few alarming posts about Intel, and my insecurity with Intel reached its peak. Initially I thought, well, a few years into the issue, they must have fixed it by now. Silly me. Anyway, my second impression about intel got suddenly very positive after I continued to read news ( here at Tom's) and reached 9th august, when Intel released microcode patch which should have end edthe long-running series of instability issues surrounding gen13/14 cpus. Imagine my surprise, when a few pages of news later, I stumble upon post of instability issues with most recent Wukong video game. That is, after the patch was released. Perhaps that was the final hit on the nail, but after reading that article, I randomly scrolled a few more pages and found myself reading about freshly baked Ryzen 9000 series. They seem to offer improved multithreading and are still decent for gaming, so my current goal is to read up more about these cpus. ask You (reading this) for your feedback and PROBABLY switch to Ryzen, while keeping everything else in the build the same.
Why i7-13700k? Honestly, I got scared reading about gen13/14 instabilities, degradations and faults. I think 13900 and 14900 are crazy unstable. Also, unironically, my friend bought 14900k with his super-duper expensive build and couldn't launch any game without it crashing xD (he fixed this by now with some bios tinkering, and I do not want to go down this route). So I chose 13700k because it is still one-of-the-best modern intel cpu's, offers decent productivity, is usually within top10 of cpus charts and generally seems somewhat stable. At least not as unstable as 13900 or 14900.
updated: and so i guess, i will be reading about ryzen for a day or two before updating pcpartpicker list. But I will need something powerful, more powerful in terms of multithreading than 7800x3d offers. I have returned to this card for a short while to see general opinions on this card, and I got strong "primarily for gaming" vibe, which is my second priority for the build.
updated2: Im settling down with ryzen 9, specifically 7950x because it is a balanced choice between gaming and computing tasks. Also im not sold on 3d v-cache just yet.
CPU COOLER:
I dunno. For starters, I wanted AIO. I respect huge air coolers, like Noctua or Be quiet!, but I wanted stylish AIO solution. I concluded that I need 240mm at least, so 280mm is comfortable overkill. And since im considering NZXT case, I might as well go with their relatively OK kraken. I read that i7-13700k needs a lot of cooling, but I also read that kraken seem to handle this.
I heard arctic is ok but meh, like it's decent but if you got extra budget, you might want to skip it. I dunno, but I chose NZXT in the end.
update: I switched to 360mm based on advise. 3 fans look gorgeous as well!
update2: i know im chaning my opinion a lot since the first version of the build, but i decided to go for air cooling based on advise. generally, more reliable, less fancy. I can always switch later if i feel like im missing aio neaty looks too much.
MoBo: Gigabyte
so i switched to Ryzen and therefore ended up with B650, which seem to fit the best for AMD.
why gigabyte? Another I dunno - please say it's ok situation
: I wanted to combine GPU+MoBo by brand so I ended up with Gigabyte. I think it's decent? The quality of Gigabyte as brand I mean. Particularly Aorus Elite is just something I ended up with after reading forums and reddit. Looks like this is simply decent choice, not too expensive, and it's not widely unrecommended (like Asus ROG it seems). Also this MoBo seems to feature all compatibility that you may need (ddr5 ram, pcie5 video card, im not too proficient in these specs but I think this MoBo works for my particular build?)Memory: G.skill trident z5 32gb (2x16) ddr5-6000 cl30 -6600 cl34
G.skill because I want to.
32gb because im not convinced in 64gb, should I?
ddr5 because I can afford it. I slightly remember some discussions that ddr5 is not completely stable just yet, but I also believe this is mostly true for speed of 7000+ MHz? I chose 6000 cl30 based on PC Builder advise for intel setup. But I thought about going 6400mhz . I would like to hear opinions on this. im not sure with my decision here.
update: switched to 6600 cl34 based on advise. I generally think anything below 7000mhz is stable so If I can afford it, I can go for it.
update2: im still deciding. i saw a tons of recomendations to stay with 6000-cl30 and some to go for 6400-cl32, did not decide yet. But i guess i need a low profile ones since I decided to use air cooler. That probably means i will have to accept no-rgb...
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro M2 + Some simpler SSD for storage like Samsung 860 Evo??
no comment. 990 pro as top of the notch for the OS, also gives extra space for whatever
+ ssd for storage, perhaps some Evo 860? Not important I. think, I can take 860 Evo 1tb from my current PC.
Disclaimer: I do not have a lot of important data that I absolutely cannot lose. This is mostly in cloud. So for ssd storage, I think about storage for games that come and go (and some other minor data).
Video Card: Gigabyte 4080 Super Gaming OC
for a moment there, I was going to settle with Asus tuf and combine it with Asus MoBo. But Asus tuf video card is overpriced in my country at least at the moment so I switched to Gigabyte. I read a few forums to decide which Gigabyte 4080S model is OK - and it seems Gaming OC is fine. I would definitely prefer EVGA, but you know... I am missing evga tbh
Case: NZXT H7 Flow
because it is simply ok? offers good airflow which is important for my choice of cpu. otherwise clean and decent quality case. not overwordly expensive so affordable.
Power Supply:
this is the most confusing part of my build. Please help me, pretty please!
So, I know this is hot topic to count your watt output but I think you cannot go wrong with overkilling.
I wanted to settled with 750w but decided to go for 1000w for a good measure. do not mind the power consumption here.
But, im honestly confused with the brand and the model.
So I was advised to go for Thermaltake down below, as Corsair can be considered pricey or rather overpriced. I also finally decided to refer to PSU Cultist list of PSUs. I was initially dazed by the list, as there was too much information at the screen. But eventually, I noticed myself returning to this link in every while and I each time feeling like I understand it better now. Mostly, also, because I already knew most of the brand names and model names from all the googling I did. However, I currently went for Thermaltake GF3 instead of GF A3. I think A3 is newer, but I saw that GF3 has more Cybenetics rating so I went for it to stay extra safe (I think Cybenetics are like award for quality which is now considered notable in psu world)
Another advise in favor of Super Flower. It seems Cultist PSU list is not your ultimate one-in-all guide since it wasnt updated for a year already, so i got advised to this guide on psus: https://hwbusters.com/best_picks/best-atxv3-pcie5-ready-psus-picks-hardware-busters/
Please let me know if you have other opinion on PSU choice.
OS: Win10 pro ( I do not appreciate win11)
Monitor: 2560x1440 144hz
Do you need to buy OS: No (and I will use win10 pro)
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: PCPartPicker for reference, otherwise I do not care about prices and "good deals" that much
Location: Latvia
Parts Preferences (updated after some advises and further articles reading):
Overclocking: More No then Maybe
SLI or Crossfire: No? Single gpu is enough for me
Your Monitor Resolution: 2560x1440 144hz
Additional Comments: thanks for reading this
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:
I "woke up" with decision to act on my new build that I was cooking up for a while. My current setup is doing me a good service up to this day, but I have always wanted to experience rtx first hand. I waited for 30 series as technology slowly evolved and improved. I waited for crypto mining boom and at some point I stopped bothering. Until 2024 that is, when random news started popping up about price drops and crypto ming decline. Almost half a year later here I am, as september hit me with readiness to act so I began composing parts. My knock-up call was something as trivial (or not) as my birthday and hence the decision to make myself a present that I hold onto for so long.
My vision is as clear as the day, I need PC build that can do me good for next 7+ years, that will offer me RTX experience with ultra settings, that will boost my heavy Excel multithreading workload productivity and that, finally and most importantly, will allow me to launch CP2077 Phantom Liberty in RTX Recommended mode on ultra settings and enjoy it in 50-60+fps.
Also, I feel that my 1080 EVGA and i7-8700 setup has earned their well-deserved rest
It will stay in the house as a secondary build and kids will love it.Today I drop this thread here to seek advises on a few unclear points of the build, where my own expertise doesnt give me confidence in choices Im about to make when I hit my first and consequent "Buy/Order" button.
TL;DR:
im building new pc and i need Your advise.
psu as well, maybe ram, otherwise pretty finalised.
after a few revisions of feedback, my current edit of the build:
latest version of build, almost finished: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JC8RZJ
case and memory undecided yet
Updates:
switched cooling from 280mm to 360mm but its still kraken aio,
switched ram to ddr5-6600 34cl from ddr-6000 30cl (came from recommendation by PC builder for intel build),
added
followed advise of switching corsair rm1000x to thermaltake toughpower gf3 tt premium,
switched further to super flower gpu,
decided on cpu (7950x amd),
went for b650 mobo since i switched to amd cpu,
swaped aio for air cooler,
...
Cheers guys! I appreciate every response and Im happy knowing there are people reading this and sharing their thoughts. As I have previously been repeatedly reading this forum anonymously, looking for threads that ask the samne questions I have in my head, I do hope that this thread will follow my legacy and will be of some use to other people out there looking for suggestions on their pc builds.
Last edited:
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