On To The Next One.. Advice For My New PC Build

[Zarathuztra]

I'm retiring my current PC (specs in my sig)... time to build something a bit more modern.

I play some games and it would be nice to finally use high settings for once. I only stream on occasion with friends, but not often enough to worry much about it when considering the build.

My budget is around $1800 USD (~£1400). I have not kept up with hardware news in general, so I'll need a helping hand in putting together the build. Side note, I'm not to worried about aesthetics of the tower, since only the front panel will be visible.

Any suggestions for starting point?

 

[Craig_d1]

I'm retiring my current PC (specs in my sig)... time to build something a bit more modern.

I play some games and it would be nice to finally use high settings for once. I only stream on occasion with friends, but not often enough to worry much about it when considering the build.

My budget is around $1800 USD (~£1400). I have not kept up with hardware news in general, so I'll need a helping hand in putting together the build. Side note, I'm not to worried about aesthetics of the tower, since only the front panel will be visible.

Any suggestions for starting point?

ate you in the U.S. or in the UK? as you mentioned dollars and prices are different... below is for export to U.S so no VAT or it'd be £150 over budget by time you add vat and change delivery price..the 4080s will drive a 4k screen if you wish. tbf the 7800x3d a better cpu now getting into more beefier gpu's, but new cpu's for am5 out later this year and from rumours single core performance is up 20-30% which means they'll probable beat current cpu's now, and the 7600 is still a good gaming cpu..the 7600x slightly faster by a few %, and only £11 more I think, but doesn't come with a cooler, so if you want one of those anyway, get the 7600X
your corsair rm850x is a good psu, and reuse case etc

I'm not sure if you want a complete new build, or just change some components, so everthing can be adjusted. mobo is solid mid range that should last and be good enough for future cpu upgrades etc..has one pciegen5 slot for ssd if they drop in price down the line and you want more storage. you can get a more basic board that'll do the job for £140, or go a bit more premium for £210 (b650e-f from asus)

ram is 6000c30, sweet spot for price performance for am5 at mo

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x MSI SPATIUM M480 Pro 2TB SSD PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-MSI-00815) = £104.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6K0-AS) = £141.66
• 1 x TeamGroup Delta RGB 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FF3D532G6000HC30DC01) (SKU: MY-0B8-TG) = £91.66
• 1 x Zotac GeForce RTX 4080 Super Trinity Black 16Gb Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ZTC-01496) = £799.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £157.49

Total: £1,359.78 (includes delivery: £63.99)​

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if gaming at 1440, then 4070/7800XT around the £500 4070 /£480 7800xt mark or 7900GRE £520...up again to 4070Super £580, 4070tisuper £770 /7900XT £750ish..there is an asrock 7900xtx for £870 also​

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Below is review of the 4080super..has most of the other cards in there to so you can see how they compare against each other. i generally look at the 12 game averages fps and then ray tracing averages which come after. Also to note that there no dlss or fsr in these, pure gpu grunt, so the frames can be increase with those. Dlss is better than fsr and can only be used on nvidia, while fsr (amd version) can be used on any gpu, nvida also better at raytracing..upside of amd cards is they generally give better pure raster performance and more vram on the gpu's, downside no access to dlss and fsr not as good, and ray tracing worse​

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if you're in uk and want with case etc, can rejig(others will also), but i generally start with the tuf wifi board, 6000c30 ram and 7600 as basis and go from there.​

also, would be good to know what resolution you plan to game at​

hope that helps​

 

[Zarathuztra]

@Craig_d1
Thanks for the feedback. I'm in the U.S. My current monitor is 1080p, and I expect to stick with it for a few more years at least. Eventually I'll go 4k, but not for a while yet.

I should have included that my goal is to do a complete new build. I plan to use my old PC for other purposes.

 

[Tetras]

I'm in the U.S.

I have to remove the links from PCP's part list because we can only refer to OCUK on this forum, but here's a start:

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor ($250.00)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($33.90)
Motherboard: ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming 4/D5 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($129.99)
Memory: TEAMGROUP Elite 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL46 Memory ($80.98)
Storage: TEAMGROUP MP33 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($105.99)
Video Card: MSI VENTUS 2X OC GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card ($599.99)
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower Case ($94.99)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX-750 ATX 3.0 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99)
Total: $1405.83

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.

I'm assuming the i5-2500K & 1060 6GB are what you're currently using.

 

[Craig_d1]

Went with am5 platform again as upgrade path for future

CPU: 7600X 211.95
Cooler Peerless Assassin SE 33.90
Mobo: Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX 199.99
Ram G.Skill Trident Z5 rgb 32gb ddr5 6000C30 112.99
SSD MSI Spatium M480 pro 2tb 149.99
gpu Zotac twin edge OC 4070 super 589.99
case Lian li 216 94.99
psu RB850e 116.99
price $1510

main diff with @Tetras build is the mobo cost being $70 less, offset by the 7600X being $38 cheaper..suprisingly the 7600x is cheaper than the 7600. also went with a faster ssd which was $45 more..there's a lot of ssd's over there I've not heard of, so just went with a fast quality one I knew. sure you could reduce that. also went with a beefier psu, just upping to 850w for maaybe an upgrade down the line giving you a bit more wiggle room. ram also went with faster 6000C30
Case the same as it's an excellent case and price is good over there
but think we're basically looking along the same lines, with a 4070super build, though if you really want to go 4k in future, I'd really look at something more powerful such as the 4080super I put above, which is a 4k card. 4070 class are really 1440p, with the 4070tisuper being the same AD103 as the 4080 class, though less cores etc, and price is close enough that think the 16% extra performance is worth it over the 4070ti super price

If you go intel route, alternative to the peerless assassin is the arctic A36 freezer, which outperforms the assassin on intel cpu's..you can get all black, or back with 2 rgb fans if you want

 

[Zarathuztra]

I'm assuming the i5-2500K & 1060 6GB are what you're currently using.

Yup, been running those a long time. BTW, if it's USD my budget is ~$1800.

@Craig_d1
I think that I'll build for my current 1080p setup, and when the time comes to go 4k, I'll probably upgrade the card at that time (probably a few years from now).

 

[Craig_d1]

Yup, been running those a long time. BTW, if it's USD my budget is ~$1800.

@Craig_d1
I think that I'll build for my current 1080p setup, and when the time comes to go 4k, I'll probably upgrade the card at that time (probably a few years from now).

I'd either keep the same, or if using your 1080 monitor, just drop to the 4070 or amd 7700xt, 7800xt or 7900gre rather than super (money saved put to new gpu down the line, and if selling your gpu in couple years maybe go amd as extra vram might be more usefull in few years),

or if you want to max out spending, i'd swap the 7600x for the 7800X3d ($356), and the gpu to the amd 7900XT saphire pulse at 699.99 total cost is then $1764
now at 1080p standard raster, 15 game av for the 7900xt is 179fps, ahead of the 4070tisuper at 174.9. the 4070super is 157. At 1440p you'll get 139.9 versus 4070tisuper at 135.8and 118.4 for the 4070super. At 4k you'll get 81fps(4070tisuper 79.7 and 4070super67.2). Raytracing wont be as good though hardware unboxed in small 6 game av gave it 87 fps compared to 83 on the 4070super. techpower up had it just behind the 4070super. either way, it's capable of giving you a fairly ok raytracig experience. downside is no dlss so becomes your choice for gpu

 

[Tetras]

Yup, been running those a long time. BTW, if it's USD my budget is ~$1800.

If it was me, I don't think I'd change my $1400 build, I'd just put the remainder into a nice 1440p monitor, since 4K is still expensive for the graphics card.

 

[Zarathuztra]

Thank you both for the feedback. A friend mentioned that there was a good deal on a 7900 GRE

ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 ATX Video Card RX7900GRE CL 16GO ($453 after the promo code which puts it ~$150 under the 4070 Super)

How does that card stack up against the 4070 Super? Would I be losing a lot of performance?

 

[Craig_d1]

Thank you both for the feedback. A friend mentioned that there was a good deal on a 7900 GRE

ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 ATX Video Card RX7900GRE CL 16GO ($453 after the promo code which puts it ~$150 under the 4070 Super)

How does that card stack up against the 4070 Super? Would I be losing a lot of performance?

In rasta performance they're neck and neck. you also get 16gb vram rather than 12gb on the nvidia card which is nice. Downside is that you loose dlss, which is exclusive to nvidia and better than fsr, and also raytracing performance is poor. so for comparison with some other cards. From reviews, fsr is a lot worse than dlss at 1080p, though dlss isnt the best either, as they take a lower resolutiuon and upscale it to give a performance boost.

So as you say you going to be gaming at 1080, listed the cards below that are all more than capable of giving you good 1080 gameplay, and also included 1440p if you decide to upgrade your monitor. remember below is pure performance, you can then boost that with fsr/dlss. the 7800xt and 7900gre have 16gb vram, rest 12gb

brackets will be the 1% lows, then RT for ray tracing. this is 12 game av from HU and they didn't do rt at 1080
1080P
7700xt 115(99),
7800xt 137(116),
7900gre 145(123),

4070 127fps (105),
4070S 146(123),

1440P
7700xt 83(70) RT 37(29)
7800xt 99(85) RT 50(40)
7900gre 105(89) RT 55(44)

4070 91(76) RT 66(54)
4070S 108(92) RT 76(64)

4k
7700xt 47(39)
7800XT 57(47)
7900gre 60(50)

4070 50(42)
4070S 60(50)

Spo if it's just pure performance you want at 1080, then the amd is a no brainer is you save $150. does that discount apply to the other amd cards also? then the 7800xt s/b in the running also as cheaper and only 5% slower.
over here the 4070 non super is on offer putting it below the gre price and in line with the 7800XT in price, which I'd consider as you'll get passable raytracing, which is becoming more relevant as cards getter better and implementation increases, though rt requires more vram

So really, a lot depends on price at the time where you go, but for me, if I was buying, I'd have the amd cards and $150 in my pocket


Below also a good vid to watch of the 7800xt, as they test 33 games and compare to the 4070 also, so you can see also depending on the game, nvidia wins or amd. then use the HU to reference the 7900gre to 4070s

 

[Zarathuztra]

So I have one last bit that I didn't consider...
I've typically run a smaller SSD with my OS on it and would store my stuff different drives. Is that still a worthwhile approach? (The thought behind it was that my stuff wouldn't be impacted if I had issues with my OS and I could reformat and install new OS without worries of impacting anything but the OS.)

 

[Manbatius]

So I have one last bit that I didn't consider...
I've typically run a smaller SSD with my OS on it and would store my stuff different drives. Is that still a worthwhile approach? (The thought behind it was that my stuff wouldn't be impacted if I had issues with my OS and I could reformat and install new OS without worries of impacting anything but the OS.)

I have done this for years. I am two builds away from your sandy bridge (I was Ivy bridge)
Only consideration this way is how many M.2 slots your motherboard has.

But I have:
Main OS pcie 4 ssd
Game SSD
Back up conventional hard drive if space runs out on the above.

I am full space wise m.2 though.

I still find it easier this way. The argument against would be, well you can just re-download games,some larger SSDs are quicker than smaller sized ones, but everything is so quick now, may not notice it.