Question Need suggestions for new i7 configuration

[Nitingupta131]

Hi All,

Requesting suggestion on below parts for best value for money setup. I am looking for close to 1500-1700 Aud. I am currently building this for my home lab and day to day stuff. later will add GPU for gaming. I currently require base windows 11 with vmware with 5 linux VM and one windows server 2019 or 2022, docker desktop for some basic stuff.

The current shortlisted parts are below I am looking for suggestions to lower the budget. Can go beyond the budget in case required just want to confirm I am not spending extra as per my overall configuration so resources are not properly utilised.

14 gen Intel core i7 14700k 619AUD
Asus prime Z790 p wifi 319AUD
G.skill trifent 2X24 gb ddr5 7200mhz 319AUD
Samsung 990 pro 2tb pcle4 nvme ssd 270AUD
Coolermaster masterliquid 360L core 135AUD
Coolermaster gx3 80+ psu gold 750W 179AUD
Corsair icu 4000x rgb tempered glass 179 AUD
Total-2030

 

[jeremyj_83]

With all the problems reported by 13th and 14th Gen i7s and i9s I would avoid Intel. End of the month the 9000 series Ryzens will be released so 7000 series might get cheaper.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor ($486.00 @ Centre Com)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler ($83.00 @ Centre Com)
Motherboard: ASRock B650E PG RIPTIDE WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($289.00 @ Centre Com)
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory ($262.19 @ Amazon Australia)
Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($237.27 @ Amazon Australia)
Case: Corsair iCUE 4000X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case ($179.00 @ Centre Com)
Power Supply: Super Flower LEADEX VII XG 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($199.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $1735.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-07-15 02:32 AEST+1000

 

[Nitingupta131]

I a

With all the problems reported by 13th and 14th Gen i7s and i9s I would avoid Intel. End of the month the 9000 series Ryzens will be released so 7000 series might get cheaper.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor ($486.00 @ Centre Com)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler ($83.00 @ Centre Com)
Motherboard: ASRock B650E PG RIPTIDE WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($289.00 @ Centre Com)
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory ($262.19 @ Amazon Australia)
Storage: Western Digital Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($237.27 @ Amazon Australia)
Case: Corsair iCUE 4000X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case ($179.00 @ Centre Com)
Power Supply: Super Flower LEADEX VII XG 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($199.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $1735.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-07-15 02:32 AEST+1000

m looking to run miltiple VM’s do less cores have issues. Also what will you suggest if I am more keen to get intel one.

 

[jeremyj_83]

I a

m looking to run miltiple VM’s do less cores have issues. Also what will you suggest if I am more keen to get intel one.

8c/16t can run multiple VMs at a time, especially in a home lab environment. I am going to be rebuilding by virtual home lab this year and only using an 8c/16t CPU for multiple virtual ESXi hosts. If you need more cores you can always run the 12c/24t 7900. For Intel I would avoid and 13th or 14th Gen i7 or i9 right now. Maybe things will be better with 15th Gen but that will be several months from now.

 

[Nitingupta131]

Hi Folks,

Can you please review and provide suggestions for below configuration. My budget is around 1500-1700AUD for running home lab with 5-6 linux VM and 2 windows VM. I want to stick to intel and I have read in forum that i7 and i9 have stability issues.

Intel core i5 14600k 438AUD
Gigabyte z790 Eagle AX ATX 317AUD
Kingston Fury (2X32 GB) DDR5 6000 MHZ 236AUD
Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB PCL4 NVME 297 AUD
Corsair iCUE 4000D RGB 189AUD
Deepcool AK500 DIGITAL 99AUD
Coolermaster v850GOLD v2 169AUD
Total 1746

 

[jeremyj_83]

Hi Folks,

Can you please review and provide suggestions for below configuration. My budget is around 1500-1700AUD for running home lab with 5-6 linux VM and 2 windows VM. I want to stick to intel and I have read in forum that i7 and i9 have stability issues.

Intel core i5 14600k 438AUD
Gigabyte z790 Eagle AX ATX 317AUD
Kingston Fury (2X32 GB) DDR5 6000 MHZ 236AUD
Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB PCL4 NVME 297 AUD
Corsair iCUE 4000D RGB 189AUD
Deepcool AK500 DIGITAL 99AUD
Coolermaster v850GOLD v2 169AUD
Total 1746

Looks good. I would save the money on the SSD and go with the WD SN850X and put that savings towards the Super Flower LEADEX VII XG 850 W PSU instead of the Cooler Master. The SSDs are close in performance and the Super Flower PSU is much better than the Cooler Master.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

Do you need the digital version of the AK500 cooler? the normal version would cost you less.

I would get a better mobo like the Aorus elite or the MSI tomahawk - If you plan on running your PC with heavy load for longer duration.

AK620 cooler would be a better option for the same reason.

 

[35below0]

How important is the gaming part of the equation? Because gaming benefits from lower latency RAM, which costs more.

If you're not a competitive gamer and you're not expecting super high refresh rates, you can save a bunch of money using higher latency RAM.
I will list both the high latency and low latency RAM, but i do not suggest you buy both. Choose one of them.

The SeaSonic has probably more watts than you need at 1000w, but models with less watts are more expensive. The PSU will draw the same amount regardless of it's max capacity, so there's no penalty in buying higher watt units.

Samsung is great, but you don't have to buy it to get a fast and reliable SSD. Only if you want to.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-13700K 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor ($538.77 @ JW Computers)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($59.00 @ Scorptec)
Motherboard: ASRock Z790 PRO RS WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($309.00 @ Centre Com)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 48 GB (2 x 24 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory ($299.95 @ Amazon Australia)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws M5 RGB 48 GB (2 x 24 GB) DDR5-5200 CL40 Memory ($192.91 @ Amazon Australia)
Storage: TEAMGROUP MP44L 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($189.00 @ Centre Com)
Case: Antec DP503 ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.00 @ Centre Com)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX-1000 ATX 3.0 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($202.33 @ Amazon Australia)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Home Retail - USB 64-bit ($195.00 @ Centre Com)
Total: $2084.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-07-15 20:36 AEST+1000

It's over budget by almost $200 if you buy the faster RAM kit. Also, if you already have a Win 10/11 license, you can transfer it. Unlicense your old PC before assembling the new one, and select "i don't have a license" when installing Windows.
After Windows is installed and there are no problems, move to activate it.

One other way to save money is to choose a 13600K CPU. It's not much slower than the 13700K but that depends on exact work being done.
The 13600K is a fast CPU, and it's not affected by the instability issues that have stuck some i7 and i9 intels from the 13th and 14th gen. However, i'm not sure how much it will affect your VM stuff. The 13700K is the sensible default choice.

You can read a lengthy article that details some of the changes Intel and motherboard manufacturers have made in the wake of the issues:

Extensive workstation and AI test with Intel’s i9-13900K - The power profiles Baseline, Performance, Extreme and Insane from reasonable to pointless in practice | Page 7 | igor´sLAB

After we published Aris’ article about the power consumption of the Core i9-13900K in Cinebench 23 on Monday, I’m following up today with a larger program scope. And yes, I’m deliberately using a Z690…

www.igorslab.de

Selecting a modest power profile could be all you need to get the most out of your 13700K.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

^ I would pay the extra and get the 14700k. 4 more E cores, helpful for OP's use case.

I would also not cheap out on the storage. with constant read write requests coming from the virtual use instances, the DRAM-less MP44L might be throttling.

the 990 pro is a great choice, but not really needed. The NM790 is a good middleground: https://au.pcpartpicker.com/product...0-x4-nvme-solid-state-drive-lnm790x002t-rn9nu

cheaper than the 990 pro and arguably better option: https://au.pcpartpicker.com/product...e-40-x4-nvme-solid-state-drive-ct2000t500ssd8

 

[Nitingupta131]

Kindly help me to shortlist the CPU. If there are issues with i7 14th gen I can also go for i5 however on sone reviews its mentioned that i5 13 gen is more value for money.

 

[jeremyj_83]

Kindly help me to shortlist the CPU. If there are issues with i7 14th gen I can also go for i5 however on sone reviews its mentioned that i5 13 gen is more value for money.

Overall the 14600k is about 10% more expensive than the 13600k, however, the difference in performance is less than 10%. Therefore going with the 13th Gen gives better price/performance. That said going with the 13600kf will give the best price/performance of those CPUs as it is 20% cheaper but offers 97% the performance of the 14600k.

 

[Nitingupta131]

Overall the 14600k is about 10% more expensive than the 13600k, however, the difference in performance is less than 10%. Therefore going with the 13th Gen gives better price/performance. That said going with the 13600kf will give the best price/performance of those CPUs as it is 20% cheaper but offers 97% the performance of the 14600k.

Then what are your thoughts on below.

Intel core i5 13600k 399Aud
Gigabyte z790 Eagle AX ATX 317AUD
Kingston Fury (2X32 GB) DDR5 6000 MHZ 236AUD
Kingston kc 3000 2 TB PCL4 NVME 248 AUD
Corsair iCUE 4000D RGB 189AUD
Deepcool AK500 DIGITAL 99AUD
Super Flower LEADEX VII XG 850 W PSU 199Aud
Total 1687AUD

 

[Nitingupta131]

Then what are your thoughts on below.

Intel core i5 13600k 399Aud
Gigabyte z790 Eagle AX ATX 317AUD
Kingston Fury (2X32 GB) DDR5 6000 MHZ 236AUD
Kingston kc 3000 2 TB PCL4 NVME 248 AUD
Corsair iCUE 4000D RGB 189AUD
Deepcool AK500 DIGITAL 99AUD
Super Flower LEADEX VII XG 850 W PSU 199Aud
Total 1687AUD

Can save -100 by taking a cheaper case

 

[jeremyj_83]

Can save -100 by taking a cheaper case

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor ($399.00 @ Centre Com)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler ($83.00 @ Centre Com)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 EAGLE AX ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($327.77 @ JW Computers)
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory ($236.82 @ Amazon Australia)
Storage: Kingston KC3000 2.048 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($227.81 @ Amazon Australia)
Case: Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case ($122.00 @ PLE Computers)
Power Supply: Super Flower LEADEX VII XG 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($199.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $1595.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-07-16 00:24 AEST+1000