I've always built high end gaming pc's and am due again , is it still worth buying the best ?

Titchy

Titchy

Titchy

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Hey all , so...i have always bought the "must have components" when i build my new systems, have done since years. I am fancying building a new system in the next month i reckon. My current PC is an i7 7700k which i overclocked and at the time was the cpu in demand and it is running 2x overclocked Nvidia 1080 gfx cards. 32 gb of ram and watercoling etc.

I am fancying a change and currently pricing up components. It is apparent now that if i buy the 4090 and the i9 13900k cpu along with a good mobo the price of a new PC is now staggering. I get that it is probably overkill ( as were my other PCs at the time ) but i always liked building from the current top end.
For the first time ever i am on two minds as to whether i really should go all in and ought to throttle back on the level of components i buy.
What are folks opinions on coming down a rung on the gaming PC ladder from the absolute top ? Those of you with 4090s and 13900 processors etc , are you delighted with your PCs ?

I look forward to any opinions !
 
tamzzy said:
if you have the money, go for it

personally, would i? no
(yes, i do have the money)
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Thanks for the input. I am in the situation that like yourself , i could afford to do it and be alright. I didn't used to question spending it but this time around i am really thinking that the prices are getting out of hand. I really can't decide will i regret the compromise either in performance short term or if not , a year down the road.
 
Titchy said:
I really can't decide will i regret the compromise either in performance short term or if not , a year down the road.
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definitely any high-end components will last, performance-wise, in the short term (1-2 years) i wouldn't worry about it
probably even 3-5 if you're willing to lower the settings a tad in the future
 
Titchy said:
Hey all , so...i have always bought the "must have components" when i build my new systems, have done since years. I am fancying building a new system in the next month i reckon. My current PC is an i7 7700k which i overclocked and at the time was the cpu in demand and it is running 2x overclocked Nvidia 1080 gfx cards. 32 gb of ram and watercoling etc.

I am fancying a change and currently pricing up components. It is apparent now that if i buy the 4090 and the i9 13900k cpu along with a good mobo the price of a new PC is now staggering. I get that it is probably overkill ( as were my other PCs at the time ) but i always liked building from the current top end.
For the first time ever i am on two minds as to whether i really should go all in and ought to throttle back on the level of components i buy.
What are folks opinions on coming down a rung on the gaming PC ladder from the absolute top ? Those of you with 4090s and 13900 processors etc , are you delighted with your PCs ?

I look forward to any opinions !
Click to expand...
Nothings changed. Same reason really as before
 
Its probably one of those only you can answer, but a couple of thoughts. Do you care if you can't run a game maxed out, will it bug you if you have to make compromises? Personally apart from my most recent build I usually go mid range and am more than happy to dial down the settings to run the game well (tbh I don't even tend to mess around with them much most of the time and just stick with the defaults), and find that most games still look great like this. I guess the other thing is how much time do you spend gaming, if its loads then I think its easier to justify, but if you find you don't game as much these days then maybe its not worth splashing out.
 
Titchy said:
What are folks opinions on coming down a rung on the gaming PC ladder from the absolute top ? Those of you with 4090s and 13900 processors etc , are you delighted with your PCs ?
Click to expand...

For me it depends on your resolution, if you're playing at 4K then a 4090 gives you a legit better experience than any other card and with ray tracing still borderline in playability, that's something I'd take into consideration. On the other hand, if you're happy with something like 4K/60 (or mainly play older games) then a 6800 XT or 4070 is a decent stop gap for a few years.

CPU: I would say that you're best off just buying the fastest, cheapest CPU that can power a 4090 and accept that with the way things are going, you'll likely need an upgrade next time around. At higher resolutions there's not really much difference between a 13600K/KF, 13700(xx) and a 13900(xx) and there's nothing meaningful between a 7800X3D and 7900X3D or 7950X3D. AM5 has the advantage that hopefully you'll be able to pick up a decent CPU upgrade in a few years, so I'd get the 7800X3D.

Motherboard: from what I've seen, the motherboards are primarily upselling you based on PCI-E 5.0 graphics and Thunderbolt/USB4, if you're willing to accept PCI-E 4.0 and USB 3 then you can save a bundle. With AM5, you can get a PCI-E 5.0 SSD even on many of the more affordable boards (like TUF B650-PLUS), so it's only the graphics you sacrifice. From looking at PCI-E scaling articles with a 4090 (TPU has one), it only loses a few percent in a PCI-E 3.0 board, so I don't think a 5090 is going to drop much either.

Memory: at higher resolutions and especially if you have an X3D, I'd just buy a half-decent 5600/6000 32GB kit. If future CPUs need something better than you can dump it for a faster and hopefully (by that point) cheaper 64GB kit.

E.g. as a comparison between these two, you're unlikely to notice the difference at 4K and the second one costs 50% more:

13700F/4090 build

Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail - £359.99
Gigabyte B760 GAMING X AX (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £199.99
Kingston FURY Beast 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C40 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - £134.99
WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) - £136.99
Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 Trinity 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card - £1,699.99
Nvidia Unleash Your Ultimate - Overwatch 2 Ultimate Battlepass - £0.00

Phanteks Eclipse P600S Silent Midi Tower Case - Black - £139.99
Phanteks Glacier One 280MP All In One CPU Water Cooler D-RGB Black - 280mm - £129.95
Phanteks M25 140mm PWM High-Airflow Chassis Fan - Black - £9.95

Grand Total: £2,823.83

13900K/4090 build
Intel Core i9-13900K (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail - £569.99
Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £689.99
TeamGroup Delta RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-60800C36 7600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FF3D532G7600HC36DDC01) - £289.99
Samsung 990 Pro 2TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3c Solid State Drive - £229.99
Asus GeForce RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card - £1,999.99
Nvidia Unleash Your Ultimate - Overwatch 2 Ultimate Battlepass - £0.00

Phanteks Eclipse P600S Silent Midi Tower Case - Black - £139.99
Phanteks Glacier One 360T30 GEN 2 Premium All In One CPU Water Cooler D-RGB Black - 360mm - £249.95
Phanteks M25 140mm PWM High-Airflow Chassis Fan - Black - £9.95

Grand Total: £4,191.83
 
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I’m the same as yourself. When I build a pc I go for the highest end.

For me it’s my only vice so I can justify it. Some people spend hundreds a week on nights out. I spent 5 grand and had hours of enjoyment.

Could I have ran the games I play with similar performance on cheaper hardware? Yes.

I know I overpaid on a few things, going for an apex board when I barely overclock, going for a 13900KS when the overclock I’m running was possible on a normal K, spending £30 a pop on 8 Noctua fans when I could have spent half that on fans that do a similar job etc

But I like having high end hardware!

It’s not all wasted though, things like a 1600w psu future proofs me, and runs quiet due to not going anywhere near full load.

The biggest thing for me to stomach was spending 2 grand on a graphics card.

I paid 2100 for a 3090 last year, so spending 1800 for a 4090 felt like a bargain lol.
 
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mark43 said:
Its probably one of those only you can answer, but a couple of thoughts. Do you care if you can't run a game maxed out, will it bug you if you have to make compromises? Personally apart from my most recent build I usually go mid range and am more than happy to dial down the settings to run the game well (tbh I don't even tend to mess around with them much most of the time and just stick with the defaults), and find that most games still look great like this. I guess the other thing is how much time do you spend gaming, if its loads then I think its easier to justify, but if you find you don't game as much these days then maybe its not worth splashing out.
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This is the thing , i enjoy buying whatever game there is and running it on max without any compromise what so ever. I feel like i don't want to cut corners but at near 2k for a gfx card alone is getting harder to swallow.
Which is actually silly as i used to always run SLI cards which meant i bought two but this time round i am only planning buying one!
 
ChocAndGray said:
I’m the same as yourself. When I build a pc I go for the highest end.

For me it’s my only vice so I can justify it. Some people spend hundreds a week on nights out. I spent 5 grand and had hours of enjoyment.

Could I have ran the games I play with similar performance on cheaper hardware? Yes.

I know I overpaid on a few things, going for an apex board when I barely overclock, going for a 13900KS when the overclock I’m running was possible on a normal K, spending £30 a pop on 8 Noctua fans when I could have spent half that on fans that do a similar job etc

But I like having high end hardware!

It’s not all wasted though, things like a 1600w psu future proofs me, and runs quiet due to not going anywhere near full load.

The biggest thing for me to stomach was spending 2 grand on a graphics card.

I paid 2100 for a 3090 last year, so spending 1800 for a 4090 felt like a bargain lol.
Click to expand...
This sounds just like me , i rarely go out drinking , do not smoke etc. Nice coffees and gaming makes me happy hahaha. Maybe nothing has changed price wise but i am finally looking at a new PC and thinking do i really need to spend this much. I don't know. Not sure i want a new PC if it won't run everything max'd out at 4k on a good monitor. Ah the dilemas haha.
 
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