Build Advice Upgrading from an i7-3770k to a i7-14700k ?

[Oseriduun]

As the title says, I've been away from the hardware world for a while and could use some help. I'd like to upgrade to the i14700k but I'm having difficulty narrowing down the rest of the hardware. I'll list what I have that can be used toward this new build;

1. CPU - i14700k (not bought yet) - I do not plan to use this PC strictly for gaming which is why I didn't opt for the 7800x3d. I decided on this purely because any upgrade at this point will be massive (I am aware that 15th gen brings any entirely new architecture), I don't need the power of the i9 and outta the bunch, the i7 seems the best fit. I do not plan to overclock anytime soon but I'd like to leave the option on the table. Let's pretend for a minute Intel aren't being idiots around the APO controversy so I could try to get an Intel build option vs an AM5 as I am not fully invested in an all-in 7800x3d gaming build.
2. Case - Corsair 7000X. This should be more than sufficient for any build
3. GPU - 4070Ti. I bought this earlier this year thinking I could finish this build around Thanksgiving with the announcement of the 14th refresh. It's uh, heavily bottle necked and I've waited long enough
4. Monitors - 165Hz Asus 27"/240Hz Alienware 27". I game at 1440p

That's it! Everything else will likely need replacing (dd3/aio/mb etc)

What I'd like help with are the following:

A) Motherboard - The most difficult part I can't seem to lock down. Anywhere from $200-400. I don't see much reason to cross beyond that since I don't go heavily into overclocking but like I said, I'm having real problems finding the right one. Ones that I've seen pop up a lot are MSI MAG z790 Tomahawk/Gigabyte Z790 Aorus ProX/Elite X AX/Master(????)/Asus Strix Z790 new boards. I read that I should get a refreshed z790 motherboard?? Totally lost

B) RAM - DDR5 6-7.2k. Anything in that range is fine. Always read good things about G.Skill Trident and I've used Corsair for years. 32GB or should I 64GB?

C) PSU - Modular, 850W (should be more than adequate?). I'd rather have more power needed than just enough

D) Cooling - AIO as full liquid cooling isn't an option for me. I've read that these CPU's run hot and my current AIO kept my CPU alive for 11yrs. Spending here is fine. Should I 240mm or 360? My case has Corsair iCue but it doesn't need to be Corsair. Read good things about EK AIO 360 and Arctic Freezer ii 360mm. I uh like RGB

E) Storage - M.2 Nvme. I don't need this to be blazing fast since I've read heating can be an issue. Fast and cool is fine (I'm still on sata ssd's)

F) Do I need a CPU Contact frame like those from Thermal Grizzly? I've read that the defining quality of 13th/14th gen Intel seems to be it's power draw and heating but I've also read under normal load and gaming it usually just tops off in the 60s. This thing is entirely new to me, should I get one?

Right, any advice would go a long way and I'm hoping to order around Black Friday. High-end but not break the bank high end! As you can tell, I don't upgrade my PC very often and I'm well aware that there's not that much point to future proofing in this day an age but I'm comfortable spending toward a PC that can perform well for several years.

 

[thestryker]

A) Motherboard - The most difficult part I can't seem to lock down. Anywhere from $200-400. I don't see much reason to cross beyond that since I don't go heavily into overclocking but like I said, I'm having real problems finding the right one. Ones that I've seen pop up a lot are MSI MAG z790 Tomahawk/Gigabyte Z790 Aorus ProX/Elite X AX/Master(????)/Asus Strix Z790 new boards. I read that I should get a refreshed z790 motherboard?? Totally lost

Generally speaking all Z series boards are pretty good these days so just pick based on what features are important to you. As far as picking refresh boards or not I'd lean towards doing so: MSI added "MAX" to the board names for theirs, Gigabyte added "X" to their names, but none of the others did a unified name change so the simplest way to figure it out is if they have wifi 7 (this means refresh).

B) RAM - DDR5 6-7.2k. Anything in that range is fine. Always read good things about G.Skill Trident and I've used Corsair for years. 32GB or should I 64GB?

If you're looking for performance, but want extra capacity then I'd suggest looking for a 48GB kit. 64GB kits haven't arrived with speeds higher than 6800 yet and their latency is typically higher than 32GB/48GB kits. DRAM brands aren't necessarily really important, but if you want to have overclocking potential SK Hynix memory ICs are what you want. The only brand I'm aware of which always uses SK Hynix is KLEVV though many high performance kits will be anyways. I would suggest not going over 7200 simply because most CPUs will do that okay, but above starts to require more hands on work. I've personally only used G.Skill DDR5, but used G.Skill, Corsair and Team Group DDR4 with good experiences across the board.

C) PSU - Modular, 850W (should be more than adequate?). I'd rather have more power needed than just enough

This one mostly depends on whether or not you think you're going to get a really high power GPU at some point. If you do then you need to get one that has 600W 12VHPWR which will be in the specs.

My current favorite review place has posted their best of for ATX 3.0: https://hwbusters.com/best_picks/best-atx-v3-0-pcie-5-0-ready-psus-picks-2023-hardware-busters/

This is a useful list anything A tier is good to go: https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

D) Cooling - AIO as full liquid cooling isn't an option for me. I've read that these CPU's run hot and my current AIO kept my CPU alive for 11yrs. Spending here is fine. Should I 240mm or 360? My case has Corsair iCue but it doesn't need to be Corsair. Read good things about EK AIO 360 and Arctic Freezer ii 360mm. I uh like RGB

I'd say a 240mm with radiator over 27mm thick or move up to 280/360/420mm would be the way to go here. I've personally used Arctic and Cooler Master AIOs, but anything with a good warranty (5+ years) is generally worthwhile. I believe Lian-li's new performance line are the best 360mm as far as performance is concerned. There have been reports of QC issues with them, but they're supposed to have been resolved.

E) Storage - M.2 Nvme. I don't need this to be blazing fast since I've read heating can be an issue. Fast and cool is fine (I'm still on sata ssd's)

I've only been using SK Hynix/Solidigm outside of my Optane drives as far as PCIe storage is concerned. Solidigm P44 Pro is my personal favorite choice on the market due to performance and software (windows only as far as I'm aware). Samsung 990 Pro, Western Digital SN850X, Seagate FireCuda 530, Crucial T500, SK Hynix Platinum P41 and Kingston Fury Renegade are all good high performance PCIe 4.0 drive choices.

F) Do I need a CPU Contact frame like those from Thermal Grizzly? I've read that the defining quality of 13th/14th gen Intel seems to be it's power draw and heating but I've also read under normal load and gaming it usually just tops off in the 60s. This thing is entirely new to me, should I get one?

Since you're talking about keeping this system for a long period of time I'd suggest doing so. I bought a Thermaltake one as Thermal Grizzly wasn't in stock here and it works very well.

1. Case - Corsair 7000X. This should be more than sufficient for any build

This is a pretty big case and might be overkill unless you have a specific reason for something that big. I have a Corsair 5000D AIRFLOW and it is plenty large. Lian-li O11 Dynamic EVO, Cooler Master HAF 700 and the Thermaltake CTE 700 are my favorite three cases on the market. InWin always has some interesting designs if that's the sort of thing you're interested in.

 

[bill001g]

I think the previous response sums things up pretty well. I would add after you decide on a mother board check the lists of memory they have tested on the board. This is much more a issue on a AMD cpu but it makes it one less thing you worry about. It is more important if you are going to try to push the memory speed to high speeds and go over say 32GB. It is best to use 2 sticks of memory rather than 4.

Contact frames mostly make up for a motherboard that is weak and deforms a tiny bit under pressure. I am not so sure how real this issue is.
Thermal grizzle finally got smart after the cheap knock offs starting coming out. The thermal grizzle was a pain to install they now like the cheap ones made it so you just tighten the screws until the frame is snug to the board rather than trying to count how many partial turns you made.

 

[Oseriduun]

Generally speaking all Z series boards are pretty good these days so just pick based on what features are important to you. As far as picking refresh boards or not I'd lean towards doing so: MSI added "MAX" to the board names for theirs, Gigabyte added "X" to their names, but none of the others did a unified name change so the simplest way to figure it out is if they have wifi 7 (this means refresh).

If you're looking for performance, but want extra capacity then I'd suggest looking for a 48GB kit. 64GB kits haven't arrived with speeds higher than 6800 yet and their latency is typically higher than 32GB/48GB kits. DRAM brands aren't necessarily really important, but if you want to have overclocking potential SK Hynix memory ICs are what you want. The only brand I'm aware of which always uses SK Hynix is KLEVV though many high performance kits will be anyways. I would suggest not going over 7200 simply because most CPUs will do that okay, but above starts to require more hands on work. I've personally only used G.Skill DDR5, but used G.Skill, Corsair and Team Group DDR4 with good experiences across the board.

This one mostly depends on whether or not you think you're going to get a really high power GPU at some point. If you do then you need to get one that has 600W 12VHPWR which will be in the specs.

My current favorite review place has posted their best of for ATX 3.0: https://hwbusters.com/best_picks/best-atx-v3-0-pcie-5-0-ready-psus-picks-2023-hardware-busters/

This is a useful list anything A tier is good to go: https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

I'd say a 240mm with radiator over 27mm thick or move up to 280/360/420mm would be the way to go here. I've personally used Arctic and Cooler Master AIOs, but anything with a good warranty (5+ years) is generally worthwhile. I believe Lian-li's new performance line are the best 360mm as far as performance is concerned. There have been reports of QC issues with them, but they're supposed to have been resolved.

I've only been using SK Hynix/Solidigm outside of my Optane drives as far as PCIe storage is concerned. Solidigm P44 Pro is my personal favorite choice on the market due to performance and software (windows only as far as I'm aware). Samsung 990 Pro, Western Digital SN850X, Seagate FireCuda 530, Crucial T500, SK Hynix Platinum P41 and Kingston Fury Renegade are all good high performance PCIe 4.0 drive choices.

Since you're talking about keeping this system for a long period of time I'd suggest doing so. I bought a Thermaltake one as Thermal Grizzly wasn't in stock here and it works very well.

This is a pretty big case and might be overkill unless you have a specific reason for something that big. I have a Corsair 5000D AIRFLOW and it is plenty large. Lian-li O11 Dynamic EVO, Cooler Master HAF 700 and the Thermaltake CTE 700 are my favorite three cases on the market. InWin always has some interesting designs if that's the sort of thing you're interested in.

Thank you for this! Summarizes a lot of the info around a ton of threads I've been trying to decipher over the last couple days

 

[Oseriduun]

Generally speaking all Z series boards are pretty good these days so just pick based on what features are important to you. As far as picking refresh boards or not I'd lean towards doing so: MSI added "MAX" to the board names for theirs, Gigabyte added "X" to their names, but none of the others did a unified name change so the simplest way to figure it out is if they have wifi 7 (this means refresh).

If you're looking for performance, but want extra capacity then I'd suggest looking for a 48GB kit. 64GB kits haven't arrived with speeds higher than 6800 yet and their latency is typically higher than 32GB/48GB kits. DRAM brands aren't necessarily really important, but if you want to have overclocking potential SK Hynix memory ICs are what you want. The only brand I'm aware of which always uses SK Hynix is KLEVV though many high performance kits will be anyways. I would suggest not going over 7200 simply because most CPUs will do that okay, but above starts to require more hands on work. I've personally only used G.Skill DDR5, but used G.Skill, Corsair and Team Group DDR4 with good experiences across the board.

This one mostly depends on whether or not you think you're going to get a really high power GPU at some point. If you do then you need to get one that has 600W 12VHPWR which will be in the specs.

My current favorite review place has posted their best of for ATX 3.0: https://hwbusters.com/best_picks/best-atx-v3-0-pcie-5-0-ready-psus-picks-2023-hardware-busters/

This is a useful list anything A tier is good to go: https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/

I'd say a 240mm with radiator over 27mm thick or move up to 280/360/420mm would be the way to go here. I've personally used Arctic and Cooler Master AIOs, but anything with a good warranty (5+ years) is generally worthwhile. I believe Lian-li's new performance line are the best 360mm as far as performance is concerned. There have been reports of QC issues with them, but they're supposed to have been resolved.

I've only been using SK Hynix/Solidigm outside of my Optane drives as far as PCIe storage is concerned. Solidigm P44 Pro is my personal favorite choice on the market due to performance and software (windows only as far as I'm aware). Samsung 990 Pro, Western Digital SN850X, Seagate FireCuda 530, Crucial T500, SK Hynix Platinum P41 and Kingston Fury Renegade are all good high performance PCIe 4.0 drive choices.

Since you're talking about keeping this system for a long period of time I'd suggest doing so. I bought a Thermaltake one as Thermal Grizzly wasn't in stock here and it works very well.

This is a pretty big case and might be overkill unless you have a specific reason for something that big. I have a Corsair 5000D AIRFLOW and it is plenty large. Lian-li O11 Dynamic EVO, Cooler Master HAF 700 and the Thermaltake CTE 700 are my favorite three cases on the market. InWin always has some interesting designs if that's the sort of thing you're interested in.

Any chance you can take a look at this and see if it looks ok?

Case - Corsair 7000X full tower (already owned)

GPU - 4070 Ti (already owned)

CPU - Intel Core i7 14700k

Motherboard - Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite X WiFI 7 (price is a bit high for a mid-range board @$300 and no gen5 m.2 but it's one of the latest motherboards released specifically for the Intel refresh launch). This part has been specifically difficult to decide on

CPU Cooler - Arctic Freezer ii RGB 420mm - Only about $15 over the 360. Pcpartpicker lists it as compatible with the Elite X and case but at the same time notes that it may have a mounting bracket issue. If anyone can confirm this is true would be great as it's a very new motherboard

RAM - G.Skill Trident Z5 Intel XMP 3.0 DD5 7200MT CL34-45-45-115 1.40V (2x 16GB) - There are a lot of comments on older threads concerning anything over 6600. Board wise it's approved but should I just opt for 6600?

PSU - Corsair RM1000x Shift ATX 3.0 Fully Modular

Storage - Samsung 990 PRO Series - 2TB

Contact frame - thermaright



https://pcpartpicker.com/list/drL97R



I may have gone a bit overboard with the PSU & Cooler. The cooler fit also worries me.

The motherboard is mostly where I'm unsure of since it's a newly released board. Should I opt for an older z790, Ram @ 6600MT and flash Bios? WiFi 7 is not a selling point to me, mostly just selected the board for the faster RAM speeds and the fact that it was released specifically for this launch. There's also the very sweet MSI Z790 Carbon that doesn't have wifi7 but does have an gen5 m2 and a fantastic look but still a very premium price

 

[thestryker]

Motherboard - Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite X WiFI 7 (price is a bit high for a mid-range board @$300 and no gen5 m.2 but it's one of the latest motherboards released specifically for the Intel refresh launch). This part has been specifically difficult to decide on

You don't want a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot on current Intel platforms because it pulls those lanes off of the primary PCIe slot so it runs at x8 when using one so this is absolutely no loss.

CPU Cooler - Arctic Freezer ii RGB 420mm - Only about $15 over the 360. Pcpartpicker lists it as compatible with the Elite X and case but at the same time notes that it may have a mounting bracket issue. If anyone can confirm this is true would be great as it's a very new motherboard

It will fit fine the warning is about the LGA 1700 socket itself as it requires a different mounting bracket. They've updated the SKUs to include the bracket, but if you ended up without one you can just go here and they'll likely be able to get you one: https://support.arctic.de/lf2-lga1700/support

RAM - G.Skill Trident Z5 Intel XMP 3.0 DD5 7200MT CL34-45-45-115 1.40V (2x 16GB) - There are a lot of comments on older threads concerning anything over 6600. Board wise it's approved but should I just opt for 6600?

This was a big concern with 12th gen, but not so much 13th and 14th.

I think that addresses the important bits.

 

[Oseriduun]

You don't want a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot on current Intel platforms because it pulls those lanes off of the primary PCIe slot so it runs at x8 when using one so this is absolutely no loss.

It will fit fine the warning is about the LGA 1700 socket itself as it requires a different mounting bracket. They've updated the SKUs to include the bracket, but if you ended up without one you can just go here and they'll likely be able to get you one: https://support.arctic.de/lf2-lga1700/support

This was a big concern with 12th gen, but not so much 13th and 14th.

I think that addresses the important bits.

It did! Thank you very much for all your help