Custom gaming pc questions

[Bladerider1]

Hi,
I am in the market for a gaming PC. This will be my first gaming PC and I have a few questions.

Budget is 5-6k.

1) The pc will be for gaming, software development (although I have an esxi server with all my dev infrastructure too) and general surfing/music (when I am in the day job the pc will be on and I may use it for surfing etc).

I am looking at a spec with 4090, I9 (the highest model), 64gb ram, etc, so high end build and generally the best of the best components. Won't overclock. I want minimal noise (as I will be using this pc for coding). Given this, is water cooling the best option? (I was under the impression water cooling was for overclocked systems).

2) For music, is there any benefit in putting this on fast storage or can it go on slow disks? I may listen to music while gaming.

3) I have never purchased from OCUK, but I would like to know: a) Can OCUK build me something bespoke? b) and if so, what is the warranty situation? c) Would all components need to come from the OCUK store?

4) Is there any issue with a gaming keyboard/mouse for general use/coding? I also think that one screen works better for gaming but two is better for development (although can split rdp sessions etc on one monitor).

 

[Tetras]

1) Given this, is water cooling the best option? (I was under the impression water cooling was for overclocked systems).

2) For music, is there any benefit in putting this on fast storage or can it go on slow disks? I may listen to music while gaming.

3) I have never purchased from OCUK, but I would like to know: a) Can OCUK build me something bespoke? b) and if so, what is the warranty situation? c) Would all components need to come from the OCUK store?

4) Is there any issue with a gaming keyboard/mouse for general use/coding? I also think that one screen works better for gaming but two is better for development (although can split rdp sessions etc on one monitor).

1) A 13900K at full multi-threaded load can use 300+ watts, so if you're going to do this, only the highest-end air coolers are capable of anything like that without being intolerably noisy. Usually, you would pick a high-end AIO for this CPU. If you're only gaming and briefly compiling (especially if it mainly uses only one or two cores), then a decent air cooler is sufficient, since the gaming load is around 120 watts on average, according to TPU's review.

2) No. You can play music just fine on a slow hard disk, but if you have a big library then a cheap SSD may be helpful.

3a) Yes (link). 3b) I believe it is three year, but best to ask them rather than trust me. 3c) I don't know.

4) Nope.

 

[Craig_d1]

3 section
Yes they can build you bespoke, was about £200 is from memory when was helping someone else..lots of extra fans/rgb etc was about £10 more per fan as can be time consuming
They'll ask you to email the parts you want and will provide you with an invoice for build etc
..yes , you choose parts from ocuk store..they are a pc store after all, so any parts found cheaper elsewhere, too bad
Warranty, is basically the same as if you bought a prebuilt

 

[Bladerider1]

ok thanks, fortunately all the components I am interested in are in the store. I am keen on the ASUS ROG Hyperion case but I elieve this is just released so OCUK will probably get this stock soon.

For technical questions on the build, I would assume OCUK are happy to advise me if/when I contact them?

Rough spec would be as below:

x2 https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...it-black-ff3d532g7600hc36ddc01-my-0bd-tg.html

Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme (LGA 1700) DDR5 EATX Motherboard

Order Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme (LGA 1700) DDR5 EATX Motherboard now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Palit GeForce RTX 4090 GameRock 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card

Order Palit GeForce RTX 4090 GameRock 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Razer Nommo Pro Chroma THX Powered Full Range 2.1 Gaming Speakers for PC (RZ05-02470100-R3W1)

Order Razer Nommo Pro Chroma THX Powered Full Range 2.1 Gaming Speakers for PC (RZ05-02470100-R3W1) now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

asus rog hyperion

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...x4-nvme-1.3c-solid-state-drive-hd-24r-sa.html x2

ASUS 7.1 STRIX RAID DLX PCIe gaming sound card set with an audiophile-grade DAC and 124dB SNR

Order ASUS 7.1 STRIX RAID DLX PCIe gaming sound card set with an audiophile-grade DAC and 124dB SNR now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Asus ROG THOR 1600W 80 Plus Titanium Modular Power Supply

Order Asus ROG THOR 1600W 80 Plus Titanium Modular Power Supply now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

Also, is there any use case in having two graphics cards?I saw some vids of the 4090 in action in games like Hitman 3 and it was running at 99%, maxed out settings. Just thinking (simplistically), have two cards and spread out the load?

I am not quite sure on the cooling side so not added those items to this list.

 

[Tetras]

For technical questions on the build, I would assume OCUK are happy to advise me if/when I contact them?

Yep.

I would suggest something like the following for a ROG-themed build:

Intel Core i9-13900K (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail - £589.99
Asus ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WIFI - Intel Z690 LGA 1700 DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £359.99
Corsair Vengeance RGB 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C36 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMH64GX5M2B5600C36) - £329.98

Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 Trinity 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card - £1,700.00

WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) - £149.98
WD Black SN850X 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T2X0E) - £209.99

ASUS ROG THOR 1000W Platinum II Modular Power Supply - £314.99
ASUS ROG Ryuo III 360 Performance AIO CPU Liquid Cooler with OLED Display - 360mm - £299.99

(unchanged) Asus ROG Hyperion GR701 Full Tower Case - Black - £399.95
(unchanged) ASUS 7.1 STRIX RAID DLX PCIe gaming sound card set with an audiophile-grade DAC and 124dB SNR - £161.99
(unchanged) Razer Nommo Pro Chroma THX Powered Full Range 2.1 Gaming Speakers for PC - £449.99

Grand Total: £4,966.84

Rationale:
PSU: You can't use SLI, so 1600 watts aren't needed.
Cooler: The Ryuo III seems to review very well, including with a 13900K, but the Strix LC might also be fine, I'm not sure on the difference between them (apart from -£100).
SSD: I've chosen one high-end SSD and one midrange, I think that's sufficient for most builds and recent DirectStorage benches show minimal benefit between even high-end and low-end M.2 drives. The 990 has had recent problems, so I'm not inclined to trust them right now.
GPU: The Zotac has a 5 year warranty.
Memory: these benches (Guru3d, TPU) are not with a 4090, but they seem to show little benefit for faster memory and where they do, I'd expect that gap to close significantly when playing at 4K.
Motherboard: the audio of the Extreme doesn't mean anything to you because of the sound card. It has 1 extra M.2 (and 1 is PCI-E 5.0), but it takes 8 lanes from the GPU to do this and 4 PCI-E 4.0 seems like plenty to me. Do you need the 10G lan and Thunderbolt on the rear I/O?

Changes I would personally make (changed to a TUF theme, but a lot cheaper and similar gaming performance at 4K):

AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail - £338.98
Asus TUF Gaming X670E-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard - £349.99
Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMH32GX5M2B6000Z30) - £200.00

Zotac GeForce RTX 4090 Trinity 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card - £1,699.99

2 X WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) - £149.99

ASUS TUF Gaming GT501 Midi-Tower Case - Black Tempered Glass - £159.95
be quiet! Dark Power 13 1000W 80 PLUS Titanium Power Supply - £264.94
ASUS ROG Ryuo 240 Performance AIO CPU Liquid Cooler with OLED Display - 240mm - £140.00

(unchanged) ASUS 7.1 STRIX RAID DLX PCIe gaming sound card set with an audiophile-grade DAC and 124dB SNR - £161.99
(unchanged) Razer Nommo Pro Chroma THX Powered Full Range 2.1 Gaming Speakers for PC - £449.99

Grand Total: £4,081.80

 

[Bladerider1]

Ah I was looking at one of the overclocked 4090s and it needed a PSU of 1200W or so, so I overspecced on that. Otherwise yea, a 1000w or 1200w PSU is fine.

I guess the question I have is whether the fx card should be OC'd or not. Is there any future proofing to gain from an OC card?

 

[Tetras]

Ah I was looking at one of the overclocked 4090s and it needed a PSU of 1200W or so, so I overspecced on that.

I guess the question I have is whether the fx card should be OC'd or not. Is there any future proofing to gain from an OC card?

Future proofing is a really subjective question, but my opinion is that a few % factory OC is not worth worrying about, whereas I'd happily take a 5 year warranty on a £1700 item. When the card is EOL in 5 years time, I don't think the OC is going to make anyone more likely to hold onto it, because it'll be smashed by a 6090, 7090, or whatever is out by then either way.

 

[Frenzy]

Tetras made good suggestions

To cool a 13900K I would go with the arctic freezer ii 420mm (non rgb version has slightly higher CFM), unfortunately not a lot of cases are able to accommodate this radiator at the top. The one I went for is the Lian li lancool iii. Ocuk are great for some prices but not for others, so call them up and try to get a price match.

I would not get an internal soundcard, if sound is important to you then I would go for an external solution, otherwise the onboard would probably be sufficient. The reason for that is, any internal sound card will experience electromagnetic interference from system components, some better than others. I've been using a creative zxr for years and not really had many issues. From my recent reading external is just better all around.

As you have quite a large budget I would spend £100 more and get the msi suprim x 4090 over the zotac, I've seen zotacs have build quality issues, though the majority of them are fine. I believe the vrms are better on the MSI too, this won't matter much unless you are overclocking though. There's the watercooled version that should be quieter but also a lot more expensive, ensure you have the case space as it comes with a 240mm rad.

If you're going for Asus on the motherboard and you want it to be more "future proof" I would go for at least the STRIX-E as that supports nvme gen 5, the STRIX-F does not (Think Tetras pointed this out). I went for the HERO because I want to overclock.

In my opinion that ASUS psu is overpriced, I guess you are paying for brand and aesthetics. I would get the HX1500i and their separate 12vhpwr cable which comes to roughly the same price. At 1000W it's only 30db, pretty decent review of the hx1500i here https://hwbusters.com/psus/corsair-hx1500i-review/ fan noise curve from techpowerup https://www.techpowerup.com/review/corsair-hxi-series-1500-w/6.html

Saying that, as you aren't overclocking it is probably overkill. Definitely go for a platinum PSU whatever you decide.

Speakers wise? No idea, I use my headphones or my TV.

SN850X is a great choice of nvme. I agree, I don't have much confidence in the 990pro though the degradation seems to have been fixed with a firmware upgrade. But for the supposed speed increase and price difference of the WD, it isn't worth it imo.

I think keyboard and mouse is personal preference. Really depends on what your priorities are, do you need hotkeys, do you want it mechanical, do you want TKL or full size or TKL+separate numpad, wireless? Mice are hard too because they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, whats amazing for one person is trash to another. Remember, hand size and mouse grip is different for each person.

edit, forgot to add that the seagate firecuda 530s have the highest drive endurance

 

[Craig_d1]

I quite enjoyed the below vid if you want to go into detail on the vrm's etc on 4090 to see which is best...conclusion, 4090 strix best built card

if you like the strix brand, could also look at the b650e gaming e or gaming f boards. They both have pice5 gpu and nvme slots, but loose some extra loanes compared to the x670e boards. the gasming e has beefier vrms, 4 nvme slots and a digital debug on it. gaming f looses a nvme, and debug display..it was reduced but back up in price again

meant to be a deal starting monday for 4 days, see below

AMD Offers $125 in Ryzen 7000 Discounts With Board and DDR5 Bundle, Free Game

Big discounts for AM5 systems.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[Bladerider1]

Thanks guys. I am kinda looking at no expense spared components, I guess on the mobo you guys are recommending the cheapest possible compatible option.

I was looking at this: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...lga-1700-ddr5-eatx-motherboard-mb-6jf-as.html

Also note my budget (which could go over) needs to include a monitor.

Also I should add I have some rare songs (they are Punjabi so not the most mainstream music) which I would struggle to find again (Remixes etc) as proven when my current pc died (PSU issue and an old Dell) so I'd probably do some sort of RAID for the drive with songs. Also, do gaming pcs share a drive for the OS and games?

 

[Frenzy]

I mean, if money isn't a consideration for you then just go for the extreme. It doesn't represent value but then that's not the point of those boards. I think it's probably overkill if you don't overclock. It does come with a 10GB ethernet port which is nice, it will be more futureproof than other boards I guess.

I have a lot of music that I've gathered from specific vinyls or cds etc which took me a ridiculous time to accumulate so I get where you are coming from, punjabi music is annoying to find in high quality, especially the older stuff. My solution personally is to have my collection on the PC as usual but also have a separate external backup drive. On top of that I've got the music on my phone and various microsds in different devices, all FLAC.

You choose which drive games are installed to during the installation process. The OS drive is always your C: drive unless you change the letter for some reason. I like to have 1 OS drive, 1 Gaming/work/scratch drive (because I'm not rich), 1 very large drive for large files and static data.

 

[Tetras]

Thanks guys. I am kinda looking at no expense spared components, I guess on the mobo you guys are recommending the cheapest possible compatible option.

On the two systems I suggested, the first motherboard was the cheapest ROG-themed board (for a ROG-themed build) I could find and in the second system, it is a midrange TUF-themed board (for a TUF-themed build) that includes PCI-E 5.0 graphics. For a gamer, either board would be perfectly fine and for me even £350 is too much to pay, because I just don't need or care for the extra features. £1000 is an outrageous price for a motherboard, but I just assumed you're aware, so tried to offer alternatives that followed a similar theme (as I thought that was your preference). 3K5 is enough for a high-end gaming system (excluding speakers), £5-£6K is way more than you need to spend.

 

[Bladerider1]

Thanks Tetras.

 

[Craig_d1]

well reviews are out for the 7950X3d cpu from amd. Beats the intel in gaming, while using half the power too. Interesting vlog from 'Moore's Law is dead', where he says that the games that intel wins on are older game engines where becomes less relevant anyway(one game intel was 840 fps compared to amd 820fps)...where amd wins is on new games, and this should only improve as game developers utilise the extra cache..also, like with alderlake launch, will take a bit of time to fully dial in the cpu with scheduler etc, so should see improvementsd there.... for pure gaming 7800X3d think is the way to go, but as you want to use for music etc, the 7950X3d fagship might work just fine.. Could pare with the X670E-E hero board if you want the high end stuff too, and then pay up and get the 6000C30 dominator ram if you want the looks, but you pay for it so to speak.
2tb sn850x drives on offer down to £179 atm, or was last night when I checked. the Firecuda 530's are £209, but music files aren't nearly same size as video files for editing, so not sure really need the extreme durability of the firecuda's, or could get the wd for os, and gam drive, and a firecuda for your music..new mobo's can support 4 nvme's so might as well use them, the ghero supports 5..of course the rog extreme extreme supports 5 with a slot for 2 more so 7 though the extreme is £915, while hero is £659, or rog strix gaming e for £559