Looking for advice/help with picking main components for my new build

PaoloUK

PaoloUK

PaoloUK

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15 Dec 2007
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126
Just looking for any help with my new build. It’s been 4 years since I built my current system (i9-9900K & KFA2 HOF 2080) so I’m looking to overhaul it.

Gaming will be one of the main uses and I play a mix of games. Cyberpunk, Starfield, Destiny, Division, Cities Skylines, Football Manager are an example of the range of them. Whilst its main use will be gaming I also do design work (Photoshop/Illustrator) with some video editing (Premier/After Effects). My current main monitor is a 27” 1440p 240hz one and I’m more than happy with it.

I’m just looking for help with the main components, case, fans etc will be something I sort myself, but I am aiming to do another white build so that affects some of my choices for the main parts too.

I know AMD have the best pure gaming CPU right now but with the extra stuff I’ll be doing I think Intel is the better choice based on the videos I’ve watched, I just don’t know if I need the i9-13900 or if the i7-13700 would be enough.

For the motherboard I went with something that seemed a good price vs features one. I plan on filling up the M2 slots but I also have a NAS that I’m planning on moving a lot of my stuff over to.

For the GPU there’s not a lot of options in the white category so I just went with what seemed to be the most popular, plus I can’t find the KFA2 ones anywhere (they’ve also gone a bit off the deep end with the HOF design this time, sadly).

My current PSU is 750w so I just picked a 1000w as a site I checked the build on said it needed more than I had.

There isn’t a hard set budget but the below is the ballpark I’m aiming for. If something is worth the performance gain I’d be willing to look into it.

My basket at OcUK:




Total: £3,285.94 (includes delivery: £7.99)​







​
 
PaoloUK said:
I just don’t know if I need the i9-13900 or if the i7-13700 would be enough.
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For games you don't need 16 E-Cores (13700 has 8 E-Cores, both have 8 P-Cores) and for Adobe it's mainly single core/thread oriented, but it does depend exactly what you're doing.

Given what you've described, I would be content with a 13700.

PaoloUK said:
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This is expensive (about £60-£70 too much), 13th gen CPUs don't really need expensive memory, unless you're a competitive gamer at low resolutions. Given your usage and the high-end build, I'd rather have 64GB of memory for this price.

PaoloUK said:
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There's almost always a big white tax, but this is a lot :o

PaoloUK said:
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I don't think this is ATX 3.0 / PCIE5, you may need to buy a cable (it is about £20) to give you a 12/16 pin, or alternatively buy an ATX 3.0 / PCIE5 PSU which includes one. If you ask OCUK, you might find current stock is already bundled with one, though I'd have thought that Corsair would advertise that.

Suggestion for a cheaper sort-of-white DDR4 build:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £2,532.85 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

Suggestion for a cheaper sort-of-white DDR5 build:

- I'm pretty sure you can get white version of dominator or vengeance for similar price to this spec.

- The PSU: this is Corsair's ATX 3.0 PCIE5 PSU, you'd need to check that it fits though, because of the cable orientation.

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £2,727.90 (includes delivery: £7.99)​
​
If you're content with AMD, which might not be a good idea for your design work, there are two white 7900 XTX cards available and they don't have much of a premium (ASRock and PowerColor).
 
Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail
CP-6BD-IN
£350 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Asus Prime Z790-A WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard
MB-6JQ-AS
£260 (incl. VAT)
£230 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Corsair RM1000x Shift ATX 3.0 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (CP-9020253-UK)
CA-27A-CS
£175 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
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I had a feeling the i7-13700 would be more than enough.

I never know how to approach RAM, right now I have 32GB in 4 sticks and I don't think I've ever had a game or program have issues. Is it a case of physically having more is better than having less total that is faster performing?

Like I said with the GPU, not many options in white and I'm planning on having it mounted vertical so it'll be very visible. My 2nd option (again, since KFA2 ones are non existent apparently) would be the Gigabyte Aero which is like £1,800. May look for some videos on it and see how it ranks.

The PSU was literally the last thing and I just threw in the first 1000w one from a company I knew, so thanks for pointing that out. I think that Corsair one would be fine in the case I'm planning but I'll check.
 
PaoloUK said:
I never know how to approach RAM, right now I have 32GB in 4 sticks and I don't think I've ever had a game or program have issues. Is it a case of physically having more is better than having less total that is faster performing?
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If your computer isn't using the memory then it's a waste of money, but with playing open world games and modded games like Skylines and design work with photos and videos, you'll exceed 32GB eventually and I would wager before your new PC reaches EOL.

For £180 I would much rather have 64GB of 5600 C36 than 32GB 6200 C36, because the difference is going to be minimal (a few %), especially at 1440p Ultra. Memory scaling videos you may be interested in, here and here.

You can get 6000 a lot cheaper than what you have quoted, but for some reason OCUK is rather short on white versions of the Corsair and Kingston memory.
 
Tetras said:
If your computer isn't using the memory then it's a waste of money, but with playing open world games and modded games like Skylines and design work with photos and videos, you'll exceed 32GB eventually and I would wager before your new PC reaches EOL.

For £180 I would much rather have 64GB of 5600 C36 than 32GB 6200 C36, because the difference is going to be minimal (a few %), especially at 1440p Ultra. Memory scaling videos you may be interested in, here and here.

You can get 6000 a lot cheaper than what you have quoted, but for some reason OCUK is rather short on white versions of the Corsair and Kingston memory.
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Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. Now you mentioned modded Skylines I do remember that was something that pushed it when I was playing it. Can only imagine the new one will do the same.

Yea I've already accepted I'll need to shop around to get everything I want in white, had to last time too. Honestly thought there would be more selection and more availability this time around but apparently not.

Thanks for your help, I always try and watch a fair amount of videos on everything before putting any part list together but it's always been helpful to post it here for the once over with the ability to talk it over too.
 
It's up to you but an extra £600 for a white card!? I'd get the Zotac for £1500.

13700 will be fine too.
 
If you decide to not go for the corsair rm1000x shift(got it myself), just make sure you go for an atx3.0 compliant psu that doesnt have the native 12.4 socket natively on the psu itself(the shift doesn't, has 2 8 pin and cable that ends in a 12.4 to connect to gpu). The 12.4 socket is being replaced and the socket wont be forward compatible, but those that use 8pin on the psu will be.
If going Intel then get the k variant. The codec in the GPU on the k cpu's are meant to be very good and work well with the codecs on your dedicated gpu. I can link a vid about it later if you want. Technotice is a youtuber that only looks at PC's for creatives and worth watching..think his 7900x v 13700k showed Intel winning by 5% in photoshop and one other photo editor, but losing by 5% in davinci resolve...said much of a muchness, but the Intel uses more power, so really depends how much workflow you do and which actual software you use...only saying as your future upgrade ability will be hampered with Intel, whereas AMD should get another couple of CPU upgrades.
 
Tetras said:
If your computer isn't using the memory then it's a waste of money, but with playing open world games and modded games like Skylines and design work with photos and videos, you'll exceed 32GB eventually and I would wager before your new PC reaches EOL.

For £180 I would much rather have 64GB of 5600 C36 than 32GB 6200 C36, because the difference is going to be minimal (a few %), especially at 1440p Ultra. Memory scaling videos you may be interested in, here and here.

You can get 6000 a lot cheaper than what you have quoted, but for some reason OCUK is rather short on white versions of the Corsair and Kingston memory.
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Thought I'd come back to this rather than start a new topic on it.

So I've bought the i9-13900 and the 4090 and now I'm finalising my motherboard and RAM and fell down several rabbit holes and read so many articles and threads that I'm more confused now. I suppose what I want to know is which to go with in DDR4 vs DDR5? It seems there's a lot of things to take into account with DDR5, like it struggling to run at it's advertised speed with 4 sticks so to just use 2. So I'm just wondering if the pros outweigh the cons for it right now or would DDR4 be better for the time being?
 
PaoloUK said:
So I've bought the i9-13900 and the 4090 and now I'm finalising my motherboard and RAM and fell down several rabbit holes and read so many articles and threads that I'm more confused now. I suppose what I want to know is which to go with in DDR4 vs DDR5? It seems there's a lot of things to take into account with DDR5, like it struggling to run at it's advertised speed with 4 sticks so to just use 2. So I'm just wondering if the pros outweigh the cons for it right now or would DDR4 be better for the time being?
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I'd just get an affordable 64GB (32GB x 2) DDR5 kit, or if you really want the extra memory, then you could consider a 96GB (48GB x2) kit, but a board with flashback is advisable if you do this.
 
Tetras said:
I'd just get an affordable 64GB (32GB x 2) DDR5 kit, or if you really want the extra memory, then you could consider a 96GB (48GB x2) kit, but a board with flashback is advisable if you do this.
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Cheers, that was my original plan and then I spent 2 days reading up on it and started to question everything!
 
PaoloUK said:
1 x Asus GeForce RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC White Edition 24GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-48Z-AS) = £2,099.99
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The Zotac Trinity 4090 works well in my white case.

I notice you haven't put in a CPU cooler; are you re-using your current one?

PaoloUK said:
I never know how to approach RAM, right now I have 32GB in 4 sticks and I don't think I've ever had a game or program have issues.
Click to expand...

High speed DDR5 seems to have problems with more than two sticks right now.

Tetras said:
I'd just get an affordable 64GB (32GB x 2) DDR5 kit,
Click to expand...

I agree.
 
Quartz said:
The Zotac Trinity 4090 works well in my white case.

I notice you haven't put in a CPU cooler; are you re-using your current one?



High speed DDR5 seems to have problems with more than two sticks right now.



I agree.
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Yea I don't mind the Zotac one, I just preferred the Gigabyte Aero and ASUS Strix ones. My waiting paid off, got the Strix for £1,500 so more than happy.

CPU Cooler is something I need but I find them and fans to be very subjective items that people have vastly different opinions on so I'm happy making my own choice on them. I watched a few videos on both that basically confirmed that most will be fine, some are better than others in one way but worse in others etc. For fans I'm basically down to Lian Li vs Corsair and for AIO the same two but you also have the likes of NZXT/ROG also making options.
 
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