Build Advice Wanting to Step up from Midrange. In uncharted waters. Please advise

[ss_56]

Hello!
When someone can make the time, i'd love some input on a new build. It will have to be built by 'someone' else as i am unable and unwilling to learn how to do it myself.

What I use my Desktop PC for - gaming, surfing and watching streaming video.
I'll want to play my old game rotation in ultra settings for a change and have better FPS. Games like fallout 4, Borderlands 1&2, Witcher 3, Skyrim and Halo MCC. i will be getting Starfield and Alan Wake 2 and who knows what newer games i may want in the future.

I do not overclock. I have a $3000 budget and tired of 'mid-range'. I'd love to build around the Ryzen 7 7800x3d CPU, paired with at least an RTX 4070 ti super. I want to step up to 1440p and have at least a 27" monitor for a change. (not the wide short ones but a big rectangle shape)
My biggest worry, in that regard, is that i'll still need to watch 720p movies and i need the text on webpages to be as clear as it is now on my 1080p 24" monitor. I sit about six feet from the screen in a small room, with no desire to sit any closer.
I'll add more once i land on a motherboard, psu and memory and such. For now, would you all advise and give me things to consider and maybe recommend a 1440p monitor and say something about my needing more screen real estate and watching 720p or lower video and having text on webpage be clear - basically what i can expect from going up to 1440p? I know the gaming will blow my mind but i don't want to compromise on the other.

Final note. If my tried and true friend can't build it for me, rather than rolling the dice on a SI or buying a prebuilt, I thought i may roll the dice on a local PC repair store to build it. I found one man that I also do not know - who says he would build it. My thinking is that he could keep it on the bench for a while to monitor and tweak the config and also, should something go wrong, at least i'll know where he lives!

Thank you all very much

 

[ss_56]

Ah man, i didn't look close enough. Since i'm doing the NZXT thing, i have to choose the parts they offer and they're only showing me two M.2 nvme drives and Both of them are gen 4! They have two motherboards i like - both of which have at least 1 or 2 gen 5 M.2 drive slots, along with a gen 5 pcie for the GPU, which is good. If they offer MBs with gen 5 storage slots they damn well should have drives to match!
I'll call them tomoro. They might would help me out with a gen 5 drive.

 

[helper800]

Ah man, i didn't look close enough. Since i'm doing the NZXT thing, i have to choose the parts they offer and they're only showing me two M.2 nvme drives and Both of them are gen 4! They have two motherboards i like - both of which have at least 1 or 2 gen 5 M.2 drive slots, along with a gen 5 pcie for the GPU, which is good. If they offer MBs with gen 5 storage slots they damn well should have drives to match!
I'll call them tomoro. They might would help me out with a gen 5 drive.

I made this white themed build with no monitor and a7800x3d + 4070 ti super.

 

[ss_56]

I made this white themed build with no monitor and a7800x3d + 4070 ti super.

Nice. That's really all the compute power i would need but i'm in a long story situation where i've come into some money that i am 'required' to spend down. It's an SSA thing. So i'm going all out...shy of getting the 4090...then again i may even change my mind about that
My idea about doing a white build for a change from always black - is that i'm hoping white would psychologically influence me to do better at keeping it clean Have you found this to be a real thing or is it simply an aesthetics thing for ya?

 

[ss_56]

I made this white themed build with no monitor and a7800x3d + 4070 ti super.

Also, have you picked a monitor that fits your needs? i urgently need a rig and monitor that will make my low pixel movie files and old games - display well and also not run into issues with reading text. That would require components with the best upscaling capability? Is it 'upscaling' what i'll need for that? That why I'm going with nvidia gpu - not for the ray tracing but for their alleged better upscaling features(is that true of those cards?) I might get the 4090 if i could know that card would be the very best for my need. I think the nvidia gpus have upscaling settings.

Since the monitor would also factor in, I want either a 1440p monitor or a 4k display and i'd like a 32"; but to help with my upscaling needs(if that's what i should focus on) , i have the idea that sticking with 1440p monitor thats 27" would give me the best outcome. Are there monitors that would add to my upscaling needs? ideas on that? Ideally, i'd love a 32" screen that would display everything as well as they currently do on my 24" 1080p screen.
Is that even achievable? Thanks

 

[ss_56]

Guys, it's all over but the crying now. Please don't ask me how much i spent. I don't think i could bear the shame! Here tis:

CASE
NZXT's H7 Flow (2022) White
MOTHERBOARD
ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming WIFI
MEMORY
32gb G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Black DDR5
6800MHz CL34
CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Cores 4.2GHz
COOLER
NZXT's Kraken 360 RGB White
CASE FANS
3 140's Front intake, 120mm rear & rad exhausts
out the top
GPU
Gigabyte 4080 SUPER Windforce 16G
PSU
MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 1000W Gold
STORAGE DRIVES
Three 2TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2 DRIVES


Now i must figure out what monitor to buy. I thought i needed a straight up G-sync but i read that nvidia is having some company start making their module but they're not out yet, afaik. So just a G-sync "compatible" for now, i guess - and a IPS for now. I'd like it to at least have the Wide color gamut, like DCI-P3 or Adobe RGB. IDK if they make a monitor to specifically support nvidia's DSR. I'll be using that feature to try and polish up those old low rez movies.
Any recommends on a monitor like that or better?

Despite my going with an SI, your builds and ideas influenced me a lot, so thank you very much for the support.
Now just find me a damn monitor so i won't have to plug my new rig into this cheezy 1080P display! LOL

 

[helper800]

Guys, it's all over but the crying now. Please don't ask me how much i spent. I don't think i could bear the shame! Here tis:

CASE
NZXT's H7 Flow (2022) White
MOTHERBOARD
ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming WIFI
MEMORY
32gb G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Black DDR5
6800MHz CL34
CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Cores 4.2GHz
COOLER
NZXT's Kraken 360 RGB White
CASE FANS
3 140's Front intake, 120mm rear & rad exhausts
out the top
GPU
Gigabyte 4080 SUPER Windforce 16G
PSU
MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 1000W Gold
STORAGE DRIVES
Three 2TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2 DRIVES


Now i must figure out what monitor to buy. I thought i needed a straight up G-sync but i read that nvidia is having some company start making their module but they're not out yet, afaik. So just a G-sync "compatible" for now, i guess - and a IPS for now. I'd like it to at least have the Wide color gamut, like DCI-P3 or Adobe RGB. IDK if they make a monitor to specifically support nvidia's DSR. I'll be using that feature to try and polish up those old low rez movies.
Any recommends on a monitor like that or better?

Despite my going with an SI, your builds and ideas influenced me a lot, so thank you very much for the support.
Now just find me a damn monitor so i won't have to plug my new rig into this cheezy 1080P display! LOL

I can recommend this monitor or any of the monitors with its 4k OLED panel. If you don't want an OLED panel there are people with better recommendations than me for IPS, TN and MVA. Personally if I had to go without an OLED monitor and IPS monitor would be the next best bet.

Upscaling is dependent on the internal resolution of the video and what internal resolution you upscale it to, not the resolution of the monitors themselves. Just to be clear, upscaling will look the same on any resolution monitor as long as it maintains the aspect ratio of the original work's resolution. What will determine how good it will look is the upscaling process itself and the size in inches of the monitor at a fixed viewing distance. For example, if you upscale a 720p video to 1440p and view it on a 27 inch monitor at a 2 feet viewing distance it will appear exactly the same if you view it on a 32 inch screen from 2.4 feet away. The bigger the screen the "worse" it will look at a closer viewing distance, but the trade off is that it will be harder to see the smaller the screen you view it on.

 

[g-unit1111]

No, I do not think Microcenter will ship.

You'll have to make the AMD versus Intel decision and the air cooled versus liquid cooling decision. Maybe even the 32 GB versus 64 GB RAM decision.

You should be able to do quite well for 3000 dollars.


You say you are 'tired of mid-range', so you may be prone to buyer's remorse......which might lead you to spend more than necessary. You'll have to deal with that as you see fit. We can't know exactly what you are thinking in the last 30 seconds before you poke the "buy now" button. Good luck.

That totally depends on what you're ordering. Big ticket items like CPUs and GPUs they will not ship, you have to go to the store to purchase.

Things that are not high in demand like SSDs, cases, peripherals, monitors, PSUs, that sort of thing, they will ship as long as you're in the US.

 

[logainofhades]

Microcenter has an Amazon store through their Inland brand. Might want to check there.

 

[g-unit1111]

Guys, it's all over but the crying now. Please don't ask me how much i spent. I don't think i could bear the shame! Here tis:

CASE
NZXT's H7 Flow (2022) White
MOTHERBOARD
ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming WIFI
MEMORY
32gb G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Black DDR5
6800MHz CL34
CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Cores 4.2GHz
COOLER
NZXT's Kraken 360 RGB White
CASE FANS
3 140's Front intake, 120mm rear & rad exhausts
out the top
GPU
Gigabyte 4080 SUPER Windforce 16G
PSU
MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 1000W Gold
STORAGE DRIVES
Three 2TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2 DRIVES


Now i must figure out what monitor to buy. I thought i needed a straight up G-sync but i read that nvidia is having some company start making their module but they're not out yet, afaik. So just a G-sync "compatible" for now, i guess - and a IPS for now. I'd like it to at least have the Wide color gamut, like DCI-P3 or Adobe RGB. IDK if they make a monitor to specifically support nvidia's DSR. I'll be using that feature to try and polish up those old low rez movies.
Any recommends on a monitor like that or better?

Despite my going with an SI, your builds and ideas influenced me a lot, so thank you very much for the support.
Now just find me a damn monitor so i won't have to plug my new rig into this cheezy 1080P display! LOL

Nice, that's about what I spent on my most recent build (June 2023). Only I went with a 13700K and a 4070TI.

 

[ss_56]

Seriously good info that, thanks. Let me throw this at you.

"Personally if I had to go without an OLED monitor and IPS monitor would be the next best bet."

Agreed that OLED would be awesome; for the time being though, i think i'll go with an IPS for now - and wait to see if the nvidia/mediaTech module pans out in future monitors. If that innovation is great then i'll def get an OLED panel!

"upscaling will look the same on any resolution monitor as long as it maintains the aspect ratio of the original work's resolution."

So just be sure my upscaled version maintains the aspect ratio of the original, got it - and that's done in my media player settings? or in DSR settings or both? thanks

"how good it will look is the upscaling process itself and the size in inches of the monitor at a fixed viewing distance."

So my sitting 6' away from a 1440P 32" should have a huge benefit then, correct?

Very helpful details here, thanks again

Oh crap; what about sound reproduction? Does that all stay the same? Not affected by the video upscaling? DSR do things with audio?
My hearing is about a poor as my vision - so a real consideration.

 

[ss_56]

Things that are not high in demand like SSDs, cases, peripherals, monitors, PSUs, that sort of thing, they will ship as long as you're in the US.

Well alrighty then! I did not know that. Don't you just love Tom's forum!
Now i can include MC for my monitor purchase and possibly and external drive. Thanks so much for letting me know!

 

[ss_56]

Nice, that's about what I spent on my most recent build (June 2023). Only I went with a 13700K and a 4070TI.

Until i came into this 10k windfall, i was planning on your GPU as well. It's a very good card. It did cross my mind to go Intel but i wasnt studied up on their architecture and i've been AMD from the beginning....had AMD not had that 78003xd that was so highly touted for gaming, i might have gone Intel. It's all good

 

[helper800]

"upscaling will look the same on any resolution monitor as long as it maintains the aspect ratio of the original work's resolution."

So just be sure my upscaled version maintains the aspect ratio of the original, got it - and that's done in my media player settings? or in DSR settings or both? thanks

"how good it will look is the upscaling process itself and the size in inches of the monitor at a fixed viewing distance."

So my sitting 6' away from a 1440P 32" should have a huge benefit then, correct?

Very helpful details here, thanks again

Oh crap; what about sound reproduction? Does that all stay the same? Not affected by the video upscaling? DSR do things with audio?
My hearing is about a poor as my vision - so a real consideration.

1. So as long as the resolution of the upscaling process is set for a 16:9 resolution you are fine. Are you manually upscaling the videos? If so just make sure the resolution is 1080p, 1440p, 2160p et cetera. I do not know specifically how you are upscaling these old 720p videos so I cannot give you an exact answer. If you are trying to make streaming services look better look int RTX VSR which is built into your graphics card / Nvidia control panel and just automagically happens when you turn it on. If you are upscaling your videos manually in software like Topaz the settings I am talking about are set before you start the upscaling process.

2. I would say that the bigger the better considering you are 6 feet away from the monitor. There are larger monitor options than 32" available by the way.

3. Sound is unaffected by upscaling.

 

[ss_56]

Microcenter has an Amazon store through their Inland brand. Might want to check there.

That is interesting and logical. Thanks for the tip!

Okay then - all noted! Thank you
For various reasons, i'm sticking with a 27". I found an LG that has a most or all of the features i think i need, but there's one hiccup with the LG UltraGear QHD 27-Inch Gaming Monitor 27GL850-B...in the title description it says it's a QHD - but in the description it shows QHD "WIDE'. Despite the 'wide' designation, this monitor states that it has a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2560x1440 - what you'd expect from a straight up QHD. oh and they do not include pixel density! From what i gathered for my needs, i've been told to get a PPI range of between 110 and 120 - any more and it could defeat my needs requirement's. I learned that with PPI, theres a point of diminishing returns, ergo, having more PPI could hurt me. Is it too much to ask for a monitor to have the features of this LG model - and also have the proper PPI count?

 

[ss_56]

Going the Topaz route is not an immediate concern - until i see what the hardware alone can do for me.

2. I would say that the bigger the better considering you are 6 feet away from the monitor. There are larger monitor options than 32" available by the way.

For various reasons, i'm going 27" It will have all great enhancement features and i feel convinced the 2560x1440p 16:9 may work out better...i can always upgrade. Thanks again

 

[helper800]

"...in the title description it says it's a QHD - but in the description it shows QHD "WIDE'."

Wide screen is 16:9, Ultra widescreen is 21:9, double widescreen is 32:9.

 

[ss_56]

Personally if I had to go without an OLED monitor and IPS monitor would be the next best bet.

Hey, is this correct? to improve my vids, another consideration is PPI. I've been told that more is not necessarily better and that I should look for a PPI range of between 110 and 120 - and any higher, i could get diminishing return. I've lookd at several monitors that don't seem to want to say what their pixel count is . One had super features and did show PPI, but it was only in a range of 108-112...just not quite enough...sheesh. Does a body have to contact a manufacturer to get something as simple as PPi numbers? That's kinda where I'm at now.I like the specs on this monitor. Still not clear why they call it both QHD and QHD 'wide'

LG UltraGear QHD 27-Inch Gaming Monitor 27GL850-B​

Whatcha think? Get the 'wide' outta my head and don't worry bout PPI? Thanks

 

[ss_56]

This is what i 'think' i will need in a monitor, if anyone could link me to one with all these features combined, that would help a lot...fing A.I. hasn't been much help
27" IPS panel with 2560x1440 (QHD) resolution, not WQHD
G-Sync compatible
Low latency: 1ms GtG response time speed
LED backlighting like Full-Array Backlighting or some form of local dimming capabilities
DCI-P3 color gamut coverage: 98%
Max brightness: 1,000 nits
Supports highest refresh rate at its max resolution
Refresh rate of 144hz should be right
Pixel density - in a range between 110 and 120PPI - is supposedly to help with text clarity and with my upscaled videos. Higher count maybe up to like 200 wouldn't hurt, not sure

A bit confused when i see a traditional QHD monitor and a QHD 'wide' both having a 16:9 aspect ratio and 2560x1440p resolution; aren't those identical? If so then why do the ads add the 'wide'?

Also, a lot of monitors don't even give you PPI or say what type backlighting they use. Saw this on a $700 monitor!

Also of note, a traditional 27" monitor screen size should be about
23.5 inches wide, 16.5 inches tall
I'm seeing some that are much shorter in height and wider - and they're not dubbed 'wide-screen', ugh

If y'all could help me find all these requirements in a monitor, that'd be great. The PC is on the way so i may have to temp use my cheezy 1080p one for now.
If i must settle for less and compromise then so be it, i guess :/

All right then. thanks guys

 

[helper800]

A bit confused when i see a traditional QHD monitor and a QHD 'wide' both having a 16:9 aspect ratio and 2560x1440p resolution; aren't those identical? If so then why do the ads add the 'wide'?

Also of note, a traditional 27" monitor screen size should be about
23.5 inches wide, 16.5 inches tall
I'm seeing some that are much shorter in height and wider - and they're not dubbed 'wide-screen', ugh

Most "27 inch" monitors have varying bezel sizes so that may be part of the discrepancy A lot of manufacturers call 26.5 inch monitors "27 inch" as well. If the monitor has a 16:9 aspect ration that means it is considered a "wide screen" display. That is where they get "wide" from.

As far as your requirements on a monitor that is 98% DCI, 2560x1440p, 120+hz, G-Sync compatible, 27 inch, and is a FALD IPS with 1000 nits brightness, it does not exist as far as I am aware. You mind as well get a 27 inch OLED because they have all of those requirements other than 1000+ nits brightness is only peak and for highlights and not all the time. This is one of many of those monitors. Here is a review of that monitor on a very detailed reviews site.

 

[ss_56]

Got it somewhat narrowed down and found a dozen that would do........all out of stock! i can't win over here. I'm just gonna get something under $300 and be done with it. upgrade later if it don't work out

 

[ss_56]

If the monitor has a 16:9 aspect ration that means it is considered a "wide screen" display. That is where they get "wide" from.

That cleared my up hearing that! thank you.
Yes i'll look in to the OLED scene - possibly. They are quite pricy. My pc is on the way and i'll have to use this 1080 while waiting on a new one. May just get...something that will be just okay and cheap, for now, then take my time on an upgrade later. Once i saw the plethora of acer and viewsonics and others all outta stock, i threw up my hands Ha.

Good to get that wide issue solved!!! Cheers

 

[ss_56]

Now i'm reading folks saying that IPS and OLED displays have an issue with the matte coating causing white pages to look dirty or whatever. Is that something we can get used to? Some also report poor text clarity...now i'm thinking about PPI again. oh well, i'm taking a break from this.
I almost bought a $281 ASUS

 

[helper800]

Now i'm reading folks saying that IPS and OLED displays have an issue with the matte coating causing white pages to look dirty or whatever. Is that something we can get used to? Some also report poor text clarity...now i'm thinking about PPI again. oh well, i'm taking a break from this.
I almost bought a $281 ASUS

Text quality could have more to do with the pixel layout even more then the density of them in the monitor. Each pixel is subdivided into 3 or 4 subpixels. RGB being the most common. If your monitor does not have an RGB subpixel layout text can look bad even with high pixel density. OLED monitors less than 4k can have fringing issues with text. There are some ways to mitigate some of the issues. Gen 2 and Gen 3 QD-OLED monitors have triangular pixels that have square shaped subpixels and look pretty good.

 

[ss_56]

Okay, be sure it has an RGB subpixel layout. Is there any marketing term that might refer to this or would it say RGB subpixel layout in the description? Something i'd have to ask the manufacturer? I'm sure 'Rufus' on amazon wouldn't know
Thanks for the heads up!

 

[ss_56]

varying bezel sizes
Yep that could explain it. Still torn about the OLED, at least for now. i still have to buy a house generator then my money will be gone oh and still some home repairs.