Question Newbie needs advice on prebuilt PC

[Walpurgis117]

I'm a noob when it comes to PC components, but I've been looking to buy a replacement PC to replace my 3.5 year old rig and I intend to game at 1440p. I've been waiting for the RTX 4000 series to be announced and was hoping to get a 4070. Seeing how expensive the new 4080 is has made me re-evaluate, and I'm considering buying a (pre-built) PC with a 3000 series card now that the prices are coming down. A vendor has been offering the following specs at a discounted price at the equivalent of about US$2,300:

• Intel Core i7 13700KF | 5.4GHz | 16 Cores 24 Threads
• GIGABYTE B660 GAMING X AX DDR4
• ZOTAC RTX 3090Ti AMP Extreme Holo 24GB
• 32GB Klevv Cras X DDR4 4000MHz (16GB X 2)
• 1TB Lexar NM760 Gen4 NVMe SSD
• 3TB Toshiba 3.5" 7200RPM Harddrive
• 850W Deepcool 80+ Gold

I'd like some advice as to whether you guys think this is a good buy at this time, or would the predicted features of the 4000 series (perhaps the 'cancelled' 12 GB 4080 which is supposedly going to be rebranded as the 4070Ti??) be a significant enough improvement to be worth the presumably significantly increased cost (or how about an AMD card?).

Also, is DDR5 RAM really necessary for future-proofing or is it OK to stick with DDR4?
Does the i7 13700KF really provide a significant boost i5 13600KF for 1440p gaming?
I've never had an AMD processor before. Should I consider an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X or Ryzen 7 7700X if the price is good?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Which exact model PSU? 850w is the min for a 3090ti, but even then, that's not the whole story. The 3090ti can have transient power spikes in the order of 650w alone for the GPU. Ideally, you'd be matching a 3090ti with a 1000w+ quality PSU, like a Corsair RMX1000w or even more if you intend to OC the CPU or GPU.

The SSD is a bit on the entry level side. Although does have decent enough read/write numbers. But good enough for a boot drive with some games on it.

At 1440p a lot of CPUs get bunched together as the load shifts from being CPU dependant to GPU. So you will get very close results with a 13600k/13700k and the same GPU.

We haven't seen the numbers yet for the other 4xxx series cards, so really hard to make a determination there.

Edit: Ryzen 7xxx series are a bit on the expensive side, purely because it's DDR5 only. Some really good performance numbers, but Raptor Lake really takes the crown this time around. It's tough to advise on those systems, until mobo costs come down.

 

[Walpurgis117]

Thanks for the advice. I just checked again and it looks like since the last time I checked they've changed the PSU to "1050W Deepcool 80+ Gold" though I don't know the exact model.
Could I get your view on whether DDR5 RAM really necessary for future-proofing or is it OK to stick with DDR4?
Also, if you were looking for a new PC, would you think it makes sense to buy this system now at that price (assuming a decent 1000W+ PSU). Or does it make more sense to wait a bit for the other RTX 4000 cards and AMD cards? I'm looking to spend no more than US$2,500.

 

[DSzymborski]

If you're gaming at 1440p, a 3090 or 4090 is overkill. And for that price, I wouldn't expect a midrange motherboard, DDR4 memory, and certainly wouldn't want to do business with a retailer that has Deepcool PSUs as the best option.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Thanks for the advice. I just checked again and it looks like since the last time I checked they've changed the PSU to "1050W Deepcool 80+ Gold" though I don't know the exact model.
Could I get your view on whether DDR5 RAM really necessary for future-proofing or is it OK to stick with DDR4?
Also, if you were looking for a new PC, would you think it makes sense to buy this system now at that price (assuming a decent 1000W+ PSU). Or does it make more sense to wait a bit for the other RTX 4000 cards and AMD cards? I'm looking to spend no more than US$2,500.

No ddr5 is not essential. But in some tasks, the extra bandwidth helps for better performance. A good DDR4 board with high-speed ram options (eg 4000mhz), then for gaming it's almost as good, within just a couple of percent.

The price is a bit high for me. It has some decent parts no doubt, but others are entry level. The PSU is key for me, once a 3090ti is mentioned in the same sentence.

Deepcool do make some decent PSU's. However, not knowing which one exactly, and also that some PSU's just aren't able to deal with 3090ti's even though they are pretty good PSUs. The Corsair RMX series is well renowned for handling this transient power spikes very well.

I'd suggest waiting. Then come back to us, and we can advise of a build you might be able to do yourself, giving you the best options, and possibly cheaper than the pre-built, but more performant.