My first ever custom gaming rig!

[Birdseed007]

I've been an Alienware fan for years but sadly my 6 yr old Aurora R6 has just died with suspected CPU or motherboard failure and so I've been forced to upgrade.

I had two viable options at this point: 1. Buy another pre-built from Alienware etc or 2. Salvage the good stuff from the Alienware and build a new custom PC around it. I chose the latter, so in fact this is my first ever custom built gaming rig and I would be grateful if some of you with far more knowledge/expertise could answer a couple of questions and validate my choices! The repair shop who are great and haven't been able to get my Alienware going again have agreed to build it for free for me and they're also allowing me to supply the parts myself rather than ordering through them.

My main use case is FS2020 and XPlane 11 in VR with the HP Reverb G2 with a bit of space sim or driving sim thrown in. I'm an airline pilot so use the incredibly accurate Toliss A319 on X-Plane 11 to practice before my formal sims and to brush up on things.

I'm re-using from the Alienware:
Memory - HyperX Fury 32GB (2x 16GB DDR4 2666MT/S CL16 DIMM
Hard drives - 256GB M.2 PCIe x4 SSD + 2TB 7200 rpm Hard Drive, plus another 1TB Sandisk 3.5 inch SSD.
Graphics - Gigabyte Radeon RX6800XT

For the build I have ordered:
Lian Li Lancool II Mesh RGB-C case
MSI Mag Z790 Tomahawk Wifi DDR4 ATX motherboard
Intel I7 13700K CPU
MSI MAG CoreLiquid 240R V2 AIO ARGB CPU liquid cooler
MSI MPG A850G PCIe5 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular PSU Power Supply with 10 year warranty

Some questions:
1. As I'd like the fans to match I'm wondering if I should have gone with: Lian-Li GALAHAD AIO 240mm High Performance RGB CPU Water Cooler - Black rather than the MSI MAG CoreLiquid 240R V2 ARGB liquid cooler... Views??

2. If I go with any of these coolers will they and the Lian-Li case fans all respond to the MSI motherboard fan control app?​

3. Does this seem like a sensible spec to you?​

4. Will my 32gb of |HyperX Fury 2666MT/S DDR4 slow this modern machine down much in terms of FPS? What about VR? Should I have opted for the DDR5 version of this board and paid for some new sticks of DDR5 memory? I didn't because to be honest I'm pushing the budget already and it's costing around £1000 that I didn't expect to have to spend!​

5. Do I need to buy a copy of Windows 11 Professional? The store doing the rebuild have cautioned against buying a grey market copy for £30/£40 and suggested I obtain a legit Windows 11 copy through them for £100 or so if they can't retrieve my Windows 10 key from the Alienware. If they can do the latter it might mean a free upgrade path to Windows 11.
6. How much FPS improvement might I expect in VR on a HP Reverb G2 running my simulators? I used to get around 30-35fps with highish detail.​

7. The Lian-Li case comes with 3x 120mm fans at the front but nothing at the rear. I'm wondering if I will need more ARGB fans? If so which ones and how many?

I would be hugely grateful for your thoughts/answers as I know there's a wealth of knowledge on here! I'm hugely excited at the prospect of a new custom build rig but am keen to do it right!

Brg,

Birdseed007


​

 

[Tetras]

3. Does this seem like a sensible spec to you?

If you're on a tight budget I'd change it to something like this:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6BD-IN) = £359.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B760 DS3H DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BX-GI) = £144.98

Total: £512.96 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

With this air cooler.

4. Will my 32gb of |HyperX Fury 2666MT/S DDR4 slow this modern machine down much in terms of FPS? What about VR? Should I have opted for the DDR5 version of this board and paid for some new sticks of DDR5 memory? I didn't because to be honest I'm pushing the budget already and it's costing around £1000 that I didn't expect to have to spend!

It will, but it'll be more noticeable at lower resolutions/settings, i.e. whenever there's a CPU bottleneck. Personally, I wouldn't care. Most 2666 memory can easily be overclocked to 3000 or higher, if you find that you need it, or just want to experiment.

5. Do I need to buy a copy of Windows 11 Professional? The store doing the rebuild have cautioned against buying a grey market copy for £30/£40 and suggested I obtain a legit Windows 11 copy through them for £100 or so if they can't retrieve my Windows 10 key from the Alienware. If they can do the latter it might mean a free upgrade path to Windows 11.

Microsoft will usually reactivate it for you, if you suffered a hardware failure, but OEM keys can be more problematic because of how they're tied to/embedded in the hardware.

7. The Lian-Li case comes with 3x 120mm fans at the front but nothing at the rear. I'm wondering if I will need more ARGB fans? If so which ones and how many?

It should be enough, but then again, 1 fan isn't much to buy, in relation to the whole build.

6. How much FPS improvement might I expect in VR on a HP Reverb G2 running my simulators? I used to get around 30-35fps with highish detail.

From what CPU previously?

1. As I'd like the fans to match I'm wondering if I should have gone with: Lian-Li GALAHAD AIO 240mm High Performance RGB CPU Water Cooler - Black rather than the MSI MAG CoreLiquid 240R V2 ARGB liquid cooler... Views??

The eye is not normally drawn to the top of the case and if you have a RGB cooler you'll see the lights more than the shroud.

 

[Birdseed007]

Hi Tetras,

A great reply - thanks so much for your really helpful reply! In relation to the frame rate question my old CPU was I7-7700 no overclock.

Brg,

Birdseed

 

[Tetras]

In relation to the frame rate question my old CPU was I7-7700 no overclock.

6. How much FPS improvement might I expect in VR on a HP Reverb G2 running my simulators? I used to get around 30-35fps with highish detail.

i7-13700 is a big upgrade on a i7-7700, but it really depends on where the bottleneck is (CPU or GPU), so it is hard to say.

 

[BUDFORCE]

Good. No Asus hardware spotted, standing down.

 

[Birdseed007]

Budforce lol!!

Tetras, Yeah I guess that's true - I guess I just have to hope the CPU struggles more than the GPU in VR currently and from memory I think it does. Certainly Flight-simulators are widely regarded as heavily CPU dependent so it will be interesting to see how a 13700 benefits things. On the plus side I guess when I next do upgrade the graphics card the CPU won't be the bottleneck!

 

[OliverQueen]

I can speak for the Lancool II case & say that the included Lian Li fans can indeed be controlled through the motherboard software if they are connected to headers on the board (or use a fan spitter cable to have each cluster of fans running at the same speed off the same header). I don't have the RGB version of the Lian Li fans (my case came with 2 x 140mm at front & a 120mm at rear) but if any RGB Lian Li fans supplied are ARGB, then they can be controlled via Mystic Light (or whatever MSI use nowadays). I replaced the Lian Li fans with Noctua Chromax & Redux fans (personal preference) & you can fit 3 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm at the front, 2 x 120 or 140mm fans on the roof of the case, 1 x 120mm exhaust at rear & 2 x 120mm fans on top of the "PSU basement" in the bottom of the case as well (although these will block the bottom PCIE expansion slot of the case unless you use low profile frame height fans which will give a little more clearance & may also fit underneath in the "PSU basement" if you have a PSU that does not fill up the full height in there.