1440p/4K Build help.

[Cemetary Gates]

• Hi there; every few years I pop a post in here as my brother gets ready to upgrade or build a new gaming PC. I have a broad understanding of things but not always the details and how well components mesh for a balanced build. So I always come here for advice and ideas.
• Atm he is gaming at 1080p but thinking its time to go up to 1440p with a possibility of some decent performance at 4k. He tends to play competitive online FPS, particularly looking at the new BF game due for release. Prob high frame rates are the priority.
• Looking at building this up with some future proofing in mind. Being able to upgrade the GPU down the line and have the rest of the setup accept that with little issue is the aim.
• So far looking at the AMD Ryzen 7 9800x3d, 4060ti, 64gb 6000mhz RAM, An 850w PSU, couple of SSDs as needed, Case, DVD drive.
• Choice of cooling tbd, Motherboard trying to decide if x670E is a better option than B650E.
• Only peripheral to think about is a monitor. Might sound dumb; but I don’t know if a 4k monitor can display at 1440p and 1080p if needed. Not sure if the system just detects the type of display and outputs at that resolution or if you can tell the system what resolution you want to use. Not sure what refresh rate is a good balance; currently at 140 or 144hz I think.
• Budget potentially 2K, could maybe be stretched.
• I know it’s a bit vague but if it helps kick off ideas then I’m happy.

 

[Gray2233]

I assume you're happy to self build? It looks like your last build was around 2017?

A 4060ti shouldn't even be a consideration, especially for 4k, it was a crap card when it launched and it's a generation old at this point.

Case wise, there's not a lot on the market that supports DvD drives so that might limit your options if it's a hard requirements, I haven't had an optical drive in my main PC for over a decade.

M-ATX option as that's a personal preference, but you could go with an ATX setup for the same money:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £424.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 C40 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRS-05108) = £169.99
• 1 x MSI B850M Gaming Plus WIFI6E (AMD AM5) B850 DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-05943) = £149.99
• 1 x Crucial T500 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01090) = £131.99
• 1 x Antec CX600M ARGB M-ATX Mini Tower - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-04160) = £54.95
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02517) = £84.95
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GamingPro-S 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PAL-05412) = £668.98
• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Black CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02724) = £29.99

Total: £1,727.82 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

 

[mickyflinn]

9800x3d and 5070ti build with your requirements.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £424.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-02841) = £209.99
• 1 x Gigabyte X870 EAGLE WIFI7 (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-GIG-03322) = £175.00
• 1 x PNY GeForce RTX 5070 Ti OC Triple Fan 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PNY-04063) = £679.99
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 1000W 80PLUS Platinum ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02521) = £128.99
• 1 x UK Mains Plug with 13A Fuse to IEC C13 Socket Lead 10A 2m (SKU: ACC-OCS-01709) = £0.00
• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE Black Dual Tower CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03285) = £34.99
• 1 x WD Black SN7100 2TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-WDC-04135) = £119.99
• 1 x Antec Flux Mid Tower Case - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-03470) = £99.94

Total: £1,885.87 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

 

[Tetras]

Only peripheral to think about is a monitor. Might sound dumb; but I don’t know if a 4k monitor can display at 1440p and 1080p if needed. Not sure if the system just detects the type of display and outputs at that resolution or if you can tell the system what resolution you want to use. Not sure what refresh rate is a good balance; currently at 140 or 144hz I think.

Previously, this is what we'd do. You'd set the monitor to the native resolution and then play the game in whatever resolution you wanted, or just set the desktop resolution to that.

The image quality varied (it used to be tested by monitor reviewers), but honestly: it was rarely good. You'd avoid playing in a resolution other than the native unless you absolutely had to, at least that was my experience of it.

Nowadays, you would just use upscaling instead, which means that you can play at 4K, with the graphics card upscaling from the lower resolution with DLSS or FSR. FSR4 in the latest AMD cards is much better than FSR3 was. Nvidia's DLSS is still the standard.

Choice of cooling tbd, Motherboard trying to decide if x670E is a better option than B650E.

Most likely: neither. These are previous generation boards, unless you see a great deal.

The main benefit of X670E over B650E is more lanes, so you're likely to see more M.2 slots (or at least, more usable M.2 slots).

B850 is the new B650E and it has PCI-E 5.0 graphics on almost every board, but is available a bit cheaper (for the most part).

X870/X870E has USB4 which is a mixed blessing due to lane sharing issues.

 

[Cemetary Gates]

I assume you're happy to self build? It looks like your last build was around 2017?

A 4060ti shouldn't even be a consideration, especially for 2k, it was a crap card when it launched and it's a generation old at this point.

Case wise, there's not a lot on the market that supports DvD drives so that might limit your options if it's a hard requirements, I haven't had an optical drive in my main PC for over a decade.

M-ATX option as that's a personal preference, but you could go with an ATX setup for the same money:

Thanks for the reply. Appreciate the input. DVD is not an issue. If one is wanted an external one will be fine. Point noted on GPU. Thanks for posting.

 

[Cemetary Gates]

Previously, this is what we'd do. You'd set the monitor to the native resolution and then play the game in whatever resolution you wanted, or just set the desktop resolution to that.

The image quality varied (it used to be tested by monitor reviewers), but honestly: it was rarely good. You'd avoid playing in a resolution other than the native unless you absolutely had to, at least that was my experience of it.

Nowadays, you would just use upscaling instead, which means that you can play at 4K, with the graphics card upscaling from the lower resolution with DLSS or FSR. FSR4 in the latest AMD cards is much better than FSR3 was. Nvidia's DLSS is still the standard.


Most likely: neither. These are previous generation boards, unless you see a great deal.

The main benefit of X670E over B650E is more lanes, so you're likely to see more M.2 slots (or at least, more usable M.2 slots).

B850 is the new B650E and it has PCI-E 5.0 graphics on almost every board, but is available a bit cheaper (for the most part).

X870/X870E has USB4 which is a mixed blessing due to lane sharing issues.

Ok this makes sense re. a monitor. As for the motherboard; if future proofing as best as is possible is the goal the a latest gen board makes sense. This build will be 90% for gaming so not sure if USB4 will bring any benefits. Thanks!

 

[nlel1975]

Ok this makes sense re. a monitor. As for the motherboard; if future proofing as best as is possible is the goal the a latest gen board makes sense. This build will be 90% for gaming so not sure if USB4 will bring any benefits. Thanks!

I’ve got an x670 board with USB 4 and when I plugged my USB 4 NVMe enclosure into my motherboard it wasn’t detected. Plugged a USB 3.2 gen 2x2 drive in and that was detected although only ran at 10 Gbps.

It’s got a USB 3.2 gen 2x2 port as well which gets full 20 Gbps speed when I plug the USB 3.2 gen 2x2 drive in. I’m hoping this is fixed on newer motherboards.

Not a problem for me as the USB 4 drive is permanently plugged into my Mac as the boot drive and that gets full 40 Gbps speed.

 

[Tetras]

As for the motherboard; if future proofing as best as is possible is the goal the a latest gen board makes sense.

Oh, there's no benefit I'm aware of, in terms of "future proofing" from the chipset, it is just a price and availability versus features thing. If you saw a nicely priced previous gen board, it wouldn't bother me.