Newbie advice for PC build.

[Clarence Boddicker]

Hi all, I bought a pc last year for the first time. Its a cheap mini pc that I bought to capture many camcorder, dv and vhs tapes that I have. It works perfectly fine for capturing, but when I bought it I didnt take into account all of the restoration work and conversion that I would need to be doing, and its nowhere near good enough.

Ive decided that I would would like to build the pc myself but I just dont have the hardware knowledge to pick the right parts.

Im using avisynth/vapoursynth filters on these videos and x264 encoding, but my mini pc is just too slow, upscaling to 1080 takes forever.

Im an xbox gamer so im not fussed about the gaming side of it but I suppose it would be nice for it to be upgradeable to more of a gaming pc at some point.

Tbh, I havent really got a budget in mind at the moment, I was thinking up to £2000 but if its less, great, if it has to be more then so be it.

Any advice would be really appreciated, thanks.

 

[Tetras]

Im using avisynth/vapoursynth filters on these videos and x264 encoding, but my mini pc is just too slow, upscaling to 1080 takes forever.

Can you confirm if this work mainly uses the CPU, or the GPU? Your budget is very healthy, but I'm not sure if I should be prioritising the CPU or the GPU.

 

[DavieJG]

Budget just for the base unit? No peripheral or monitor upgrades required?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Can you confirm if this work mainly uses the CPU, or the GPU? Your budget is very healthy, but I'm not sure if I should be prioritising the CPU or the GPU.

Ive just googled and apparently there are only a few avisynth filters that make use of the gpu. I think that the encoding is cpu as well.

Budget just for the base unit? No peripheral or monitor upgrades required?

No im not fussed about a new monitor at the moment. Im using a 26 inch samsung tv and its fine for what im doing tbh

 

[Tetras]

Ive just googled and apparently there are only a few avisynth filters that make use of the gpu. I think that the encoding is cpu as well.

Intel/DDR5:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-14700K (Raptor Lake-S) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-INT-00800) = £399.95
• 1 x Gigabyte B760 GAMING X AX (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BU-GI) = £174.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-41600C40 5200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5200C40 (SKU: MY-4DC-CS) = £170.00
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 3060 Dual LHR 12GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-060-PL) = £269.98
• 1 x Crucial P5 Plus 1TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 3D NAND NVMe Solid State Drive with Heatsink (SKU: HD-07M-CR) = £71.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN580 2TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-WDC-00541) = £109.99
• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Nucleus AIO CR360 Dark All In One CPU Water Cooler - 360mm (SKU: HS-016-EK) = £110.00
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 216 Mid-tower PC case - Black (SKU: CA-7BG-LL) = £89.98
• 1 x Phanteks AMP 650W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-09Q-PT) = £89.99

Total: £1,498.86 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Intel/DDR5:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i7-14700K (Raptor Lake-S) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-INT-00800) = £399.95
• 1 x Gigabyte B760 GAMING X AX (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BU-GI) = £174.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-41600C40 5200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMK64GX5M2B5200C40 (SKU: MY-4DC-CS) = £170.00
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 3060 Dual LHR 12GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-060-PL) = £269.98
• 1 x Crucial P5 Plus 1TB M.2 2280 PCI-e 4.0 x4 3D NAND NVMe Solid State Drive with Heatsink (SKU: HD-07M-CR) = £71.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN580 2TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-WDC-00541) = £109.99
• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Nucleus AIO CR360 Dark All In One CPU Water Cooler - 360mm (SKU: HS-016-EK) = £110.00
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 216 Mid-tower PC case - Black (SKU: CA-7BG-LL) = £89.98
• 1 x Phanteks AMP 650W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-09Q-PT) = £89.99

Total: £1,498.86 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

Thanks Tetras, this is just what I needed. I have a couple of questions though.

I was hoping to go with fan over water cooling for the cpu, is there one that you would reccomend?

Of the two ssd’s, which one should I install the os on?

I know that I’m not going for a gaming build but how good would this pc be compared to the xbox say? Is there potential to make it better for gaming with upgrades?

 

[Tetras]

I was hoping to go with fan over water cooling for the cpu, is there one that you would reccomend?

@Rroff might be able to advise you better with the implications of that.

Of the two ssd’s, which one should I install the os on?

The small one.

I know that I’m not going for a gaming build but how good would this pc be compared to the xbox say? Is there potential to make it better for gaming with upgrades?

Afaik, the GPU is around a 6700 XT or 6800 non-XT and the CPU a Ryzen 3700X, so the CPU is quite a bit faster, but the graphics card is slower. The 3060 12GB is a popular choice for creators, that's why I chose it, but if you actually want to game, you can fit a 4070 Super in your budget and that'll beat the Xbox series X and play modern games pretty well at 1080p/1440p.

 

[nlel1975]

I was hoping to go with fan over water cooling for the cpu, is there one that you would reccomend?

I’m building a Ryzen 7950X3D system and am using a Noctua D15S Air cooler. It’s apparently one of the best. You can also get the Noctua D15 which comes with an extra fan and will knock a further 1C to 3C off the temps. Only £10 difference between them.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Noctua NH-D15S Dual Radiator Quiet CPU Cooler (SKU: HS-031-NC) = £89.99
• 1 x Noctua NH-D15 Dual Radiator Quiet CPU Cooler with two NH-A15 Fans (SKU: HS-026-NC) = £99.95

Total: £193.93 (includes delivery: £3.99)​

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ok thanks gents, I think Ill go with this build, Ill just have to have a think about whether to get the better graphics card or not.

The only other thing is the cooler for the cpu. I read somewhere that air is better for a first timer as its easier to install and maintain. Is this correct or do you think Ill be fine with the water?

 

[mickyflinn]

Ok thanks gents, I think Ill go with this build, Ill just have to have a think about whether to get the better graphics card or not.

The only other thing is the cooler for the cpu. I read somewhere that air is better for a first timer as its easier to install and maintain. Is this correct or do you think Ill be fine with the water?

It is slightly easier to install and maintain an air cooler but water cooling gives you a clean look and isnt that much more to maintain.

 

[Tetras]

The only other thing is the cooler for the cpu. I read somewhere that air is better for a first timer as its easier to install and maintain. Is this correct or do you think Ill be fine with the water?

Hopefully Rroff will chip in about the cooler because he owns and air cools the 14700K, but while air cooling can be simpler (depending on the complexity of the mount and the size and weight of the cooler), with high power draw CPUs like the 14700K, you do have to configure and manage it more than you would with an AIO, because they're not really meant to be air cooled at this kind of power level.

It does depend on the workload, since it is usually heavy multithreading that exposes the limitations, but I wouldn't buy an air cooler for a modern high-end CPU and anticipate that you won't have to do anything. We see it a lot on hardware forums now, posts like: "I just got a 14900K and it hits 100 degrees instantly on my Freezer Duo!".

 

[Rroff]

If you are determined to air cool it, I can't really advise any different to the commonly given advice here - Noctua NH-D15 and Thermalright Peerless Assassin (or Phantom Spirit) are generally the better options. Personally went with the Be Quiet! offerings because with my current setup low noise is better (especially as I'm more often active at night when others are sleeping).

As above for the Intel 14th gen air coolers only just hang on, they'll manage the 14700K OK though potentially at the expense of fan noise but with the 14900K most will struggle.

EDIT: I can quite understand not going with an AIO, I'm not in a hurry personally after previous experiences, but they simply do cope with the Intel 14th gen better - if you are going to be maxing out a lot of the cores doing productivity tasks you'll almost certainly see better results from an AIO.

 

[nlel1975]

On the product details page of the Noctua NH-D15S on a certain website it says "deluxe choice for Intel Core i9, i7, i5, i3 (e.g. 14900K, 14700K, 14600K) and AMD Ryzen (e.g. 7950X3D, 7900X3D, 7800X3D, 7700)"

So its definitely capable of cooling a 14700K and that's the NH-D15S the NH-D15 will run a further 1C to 3C cooler.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ok Ive decided to stick with the suggested 3060 graphics card, I can always upgrade at a later date if I decide I want to use it more for gaming.

Its just the cooler that Im unsure about now. Less noise is is definitely a plus and is making me think to stick with the water.

What are the main difficulties with installing and maintaining a water cooler?

 

[Tetras]

Its just the cooler that Im unsure about now. Less noise is is definitely a plus and is making me think to stick with the water.

Just to be clear about why I make a fuss about cooling with these CPUs.

I suspect that part of the reason there's a lot of concerned or disappointed people air cooling them is because they have upgraded from older CPUs (e.g. 4th - 6th gen) and the problem is, modern Intel CPUs are just not something you can compare to the old quad cores.

For example: the 14700K has 20 cores, the 14900K has 24 cores (some of which can boost to nearly 6 Ghz), so the difference between pootling around on the desktop and running at 100% load 24/7 is massive. With the old quad core CPUs, the delta was like... 40-50 watts, maybe 70-80 watts for the VERY power hungry ones. With 14th gen CPUs, the delta for the midrange CPUs is around 100 watts and for the high-end CPUs 150-250 watts

Since the delta between low and high load is so big, the cooling requirements are very much dependent on:

1. What kind of load they will have (e.g. gaming is generally fine, even on a fairly cheap air cooler).
2. How they are power managed.

If you look at articles where the CPUs have been power managed, it reveals that they're ridiculously overvolted/overclocked "out of the box" and it is common that if you cut the power limit from say... 250 watts, to 125 watts, in most workloads the performance loss is so marginal, that it is rarely worth bothering to use the higher power limit. The difference for your cooler though, that is huge, because a high-end air cooler can handle 125 watts without being excessively noisy, while 250+ is going to be problematic.

The other issue that maybe carries over from the older CPUs, is that someone would buy a new CPU and then immediately start benching it with programs like Cinebench and with many motherboards just letting these CPUs run rampant, they insta-hit 100 degrees and start throttling.

What are the main difficulties with installing and maintaining a water cooler?

AIOs shouldn't really need any maintenance, but it is sensible to keep an eye on them.

They can be awkward to install because you're installing the radiator and the pump, but it's not more complicated in principle than just an air cooler that comes with case fans.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Ok Im going to go with the water cooler. Ive just watched an install on youtube and I think I can handle it.

Just wondering if theres anything else I need to order for the build? I take it that cables, mounts etc are included with the parts?

 

[nlel1975]

They don’t recommend using Prime95 in small fft mode to test CPU temperatures as it puts an abnormal load on the CPU. My brother has a 13900K on decent water cooling and even he can’t run Prime95 in small fft mode as the temps get abnormally high.

 

[Tetras]

Just wondering if theres anything else I need to order for the build? I take it that cables, mounts etc are included with the parts?

Nope, should be good.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Thanks very much for the help and advice. Keep your eyes peeled over the next couple of weeks for a “Help, my first pc build wont turn on” thread

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Just wanted to check something before I place an order.

The description for the motherboard says that its intel 12th and 13th gen compatible. No mention of 14th though, will it be ok with the cpu that im getting?

Also I just watched an install video and it said to check if the ram slots were dual channel so that not to install them both in the same channel. I can see that it has 4 slots but cant see that it says dual channel anywhere?