High End PC Build

[CostinR]

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/M4WnBj

CPU: Intel Core i7-13700K 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor ($421.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black 60.09 CFM CPU Cooler ($119.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI PRO Z790-A WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($298.94 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL36 Memory ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($129.99 @ Adorama) x2
Video Card: MSI GAMING X TRIO GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB Video Card ($1324.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT H7 Elite ATX Mid Tower Case ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power 12 1000 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($279.89 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan ($26.95 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan ($26.95 @ Amazon)
Mouse: SteelSeries Sensei 310 Wired Optical Mouse ($92.00 @ Amazon)
Headphones: SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC Headset ($183.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $3374.62

Thinking about options if I were to build a PC from scratch. My goal is to have a PC capable of running virtually any game at 1440p/60 FPS+ with Ray Tracing maxed out. Also a system that if I bought it it would, for the most part, last me half a decade or so and still be really good.

Looking for feedback on what I should change.

[CostinR]

TBH $120 for a Noctua NH-U12A seems kind of strange, you should be able to get an NH-D15 for that price, being a far more capable air cooler for the 13700k.
https://www.newegg.com/noctua-nh-d15...13C-0005-001M2
I'm old school, so newegg shopping carts is how I part things together, but I'd recommend checking that cooler out instead. That MSI motherboard spaces the first full CPU PCIe 16x slot one so that cooler should 100% fit.

I admit the cooler size was what put me off from the NH-D15, but thanks.

To toggle RT on anything even at 1440p, I'd consider the RTX 4090 (if you can get one) otherwise the 6900/6950xt/3090/ti/7900xt will be better value. $1300 for the RTX 4080 which is functionally upsold silicon at a price hike just isn't worth it unless you're willing to pay for it. the 16GB buffer will be plenty for 1440p for your 5 year time frame, but keep in mind it won't be for 4K.

The price is absolutely ridiculous but current performance benchmarks showcase that the 4080 can handle almost every game at 1440k with DLSS and RT at max. My current 2080 super is absolutely struggling atm.

I think 4K is just not worth it at the moment: Too many sacrifices, too much cost.

If you also have nothing against AMD, the Ryzen R7 7800x3D that's supposed to launch next month will annihilate any CPU for a little bit more, probably $450-500 USD (price unreleased as of right now).

Nothing against AMD on the CPU side ( GPU different story ), just from what I've seen Intel is the better choice atm, thanks for letting me know about the 7800x3D however.

I'd recommend a Fractal Torrent over the NZXT H7. Just a superior air cooling case and isn't much bigger. Comes with 2x 180mm front and 3x 140mm bottom that will do a far better job at taming the hardware.
https://www.newegg.com/black-fractal...quicklink=true

One thing to consider is if PC part picker lets you select a 12VHPWR capable Power supply. A 1000-1300W ATX 3.0 PCIE .50 Power supply like the Seasonic Vertex, Silverstone HERA, MSI MPG, etc.
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=12vhpwr+power+supply

Good to know especially with the PSU

[Kagthul]

I admit the cooler size was what put me off from the NH-D15, but thanks.

Also consider the BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 or the Deepcool AK620. Both perform in the same realm as the Noctua and have different looks. Also, people (especially Agall) WAY overstate how hard 13th gen is to cool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFg...ardwareCanucks

The price is absolutely ridiculous but current performance benchmarks showcase that the 4080 can handle almost every game at 1440k with DLSS and RT at max. My current 2080 super is absolutely struggling atm.

Eh, you have to take Agall with a semi truck full of salt. He believes that a 3080 simply cannot do RT in any game at playable framerates at anything above 1080p. He's also a hard AMD shill.

I think 4K is just not worth it at the moment: Too many sacrifices, too much cost.

Agreed. And its also not the visual upgrade over 1440p that 1440p is over 1080p. Because as long as you dont get a fuckhuge 1440p monitor, you're usually already at what Apple calls "retina" PPI on a 1440p display - you cant see the pixels, whereas you usually CAN on a 1080p display unless it is QUITE small. Going to 4k... yeah, its visually sharper, but you were already at "cant see the pixels" with 1440p.

The 4080 can do RT at high framerates at 1440p just fine. Hell, i get above 60fps even in Cyberpunk (w/DLSS at quality) on a 3080, and the 4080 is substantially faster at both RT and DLSS (not even getting into CUDA cores and clock speeds) so i cant imagine it would be an issue.

Nothing against AMD on the CPU side ( GPU different story ), just from what I've seen Intel is the better choice atm, thanks for letting me know about the 7800x3D however.

Yes and no at the same time.

With the current lineup, right this second, yes, Intel is better. At every price point, Intel is faster, and in a lot of cases, faster AND cheaper.

However

AMD just released the non-X versions of Ryzen 7000, and they are quite a bit cheaper, and are barely 5% slower than the X versions. So, they change the equation some. The 7600 non-X, at 229$, is now an extremely reasonable alternative to the 13600K. Yeah, its slower and has less cores.. but its also a LOT cheaper... and we're not talking 20% slower here. Whereas the 7600X was almost exactly the same price (and more expensive when you factored in platform costs) and performed worse, making the 13600K a no-brainer... the non-X being nearly 100$ cheaper makes up for a lot of that.

The 7700 non-X provides a similar conundrum with the 13700K. Yeah, its less cores (8 cores/16 threads vs 16 cores/24 threads), but for gaming thats largely not relevant, and again, while the 13700K is faster... we're not talking 20% or anything and its 100$+ cheaper than the 13700K.

Unlike Agall, im not orgasming over the Ryzen 7000 X3D chips. They dont seem to provide as much uplift over the base 7000 series as the 5800X3D did over the 5800X. AMD itself is claiming an average 20% uplift over the 5800X3D, with 30% cropping up in ... DOTA2 (well known for being a punishing title... amirite?) ... at 1080p.

Thats not a 20% uplift they are claiming over their own 7000 non-X3D chips... or above Intel's chips...

And thats telling. That means the numbers werent big enough vs those chips to put on a slide and get people excited about. The reason for this is that both Intel and AMD pushed up the cache (Intel went +50% or higher from 12th to 13th gen) on their 'regular' chips, which ate into the edge that extra vCache can give (because its not as big of an increase as it was in the previous generation).

Which is not to say they will be bad... i simply dont think they are going to be as big of a deal as the 5800X3D could have been if it had launched earlier than it did. Theyre going to provide a modest to moderate performance uplift at low resolutions that few people paying that kind of money for a CPU play at over cheaper non-X3D chips or Intel chips....

But at best, at the VERY best, all it will ever be is pointless stat padding for 99% of people. Ok.. sot he 7800X3D gets 20fps more than a 13900K (which isnt a gaming CPU anyway, but whatever..) or 13700K. Alright. When you're already getting over 120fps 1% lows and averaging up into the 150s+...

who cares.

Its not ever going to make the difference between "this game is playable" and "this game is not playable", its almost never going to make the difference between "this is super smooth" and "this is only really smooth". At best you're looking at the difference between "this is super super duper smooth" and "this is only super smooth".

And as you climb the resolution ladder, CPU bottlenecking and performance becomes less and less relevant. And especially for the OPs needs, where he is concerned about RT performance - that is never going to be limited by the CPU. That will ALWAYS be a GPU limitation.

And im not sure the tradeoffs - the X3D chips are not going to be as competitive if you do anything else with your rig other than gaming due to lower clocks and less threads at most SKUs - are worth it depending on what you do outside of gaming. Well have to wait for the benchmarks and see.

However, any CPU from the 7600 (non-X) on up will be a fine gaming CPU even for high refresh high res gaming. None of them are going to bottleneck you realistically in the expected lifetime of the machine (at least, as long as you're just counting gaming. A 7600/X might show its age if you do a lot of multitasking in 5+ years but even then.. doubt it).

The build looks fine, though im wondering about the 2x 1TB SSDs. Some reason not to just get one 2TB drive? If you want to split OS from Storage for ease of reformatting... id get a 500GB/2TB split (cost you a little more, sure, but not a ton) and go PCIe 3.0 for one of them to save coin. Real-world, you will never see a speed difference loading games or your OS between PCIe 3 and PCIe 4.

Might want to consider going for https://pcpartpicker.com/product/36b...38f16gx2-rs5k; unless you are in love with the look of the Corsair RAM; its both faster (6000mhz vs 5600) and lower latency (CL 32 vs CL 36). For only 20$ more, might as well.

Also, where are you putting those two Noctua Chromax fans? Not sure they're really needed.

- - - Updated - - -

My suggested changes (ill go over why):

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/VXqs78

CPU: Intel Core i7-13700K 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor ($421.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($231.18 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL32 Memory ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Acer Predator GM7000 512 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($64.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial P3 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($122.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: MSI GAMING X TRIO GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB Video Card ($1324.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT H7 Elite ATX Mid Tower Case ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($212.78 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan ($26.95 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan ($26.95 @ Amazon)
Mouse: SteelSeries Sensei 310 Wired Optical Mouse ($91.00 @ Amazon)
Headphones: SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC Headset ($183.50 @ Amazon)
Total: $3157.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-10 00:12 EST-0500

Swapped the Dark Rock Pro 4 in for that overpriced Noctua (it shouldn't have cost that much for that model); the NH-D15 or Deepcool AK620 are also good here. I just like the BeQuiet!'s looks a bit better (its a bit more low profile/squat) and it seems to match the blacked out look youre going for (not sure if thats on purpose).

Swapped the MoBo for the Asus TUF; features seem comparable, and i have a personal preference for ASUS - always had better luck there. If you like the MSI, its not a bad board or anything, but the TUF is a fair bit cheaper for the same performance. Also keeps to the mostly black look.

Swapped the RAM for the faster, lower latency kit i suggested.

Swapped to a 512GB/2TB SSD configuration. PCIe 4.0 for the OS, 3.0 for the 2TB mass storage. Ended up cheaper, too.

Swapped the PSU to a Seasonic Gold rated PSU. Paying all that extra cash for Titanium would never have paid for itself, and the Bronze/Gold/etc rating is not an indicator of quality. Which is not to say the BeQuiet! unit you had selected wasnt a great PSU - it was just overspend, IMO, that would never pay for itself. And Seasonic has a better warranty.

Left the Chromax fans because im not sure where you intend to use them. If you're going to use them as additional exhaust (case comes configured with 3 intake/1 outflow), drop them to 120mm to maintain positive air pressure.

You could save 100$ on the GPU going with the PNY or Zotac models, but im not sure theyd match your aesthetic. Performance isn't going to be different though.

FWIW, im actually going to agree with Agall here and recommend.... look man, if you're already dropping 3300$ on this thing...

You might want to spend out the extra 500$ and get the 4090. Cut elsewhere if you have to (i could shave another 200$ off that build without affecting performance one whit, it just might not look as pretty). It is 55% faster at RT than the 4080, roughly. Since RT seems to be a priority for you, thats a big push. If we were talking about a bigger price gap, i wouldn't make that recommendation, but... as most of the review sites will agree, the 4080 is just a hard sell with the 4090 being so much faster and not hugely more expensive.

Just a thought.

The ASUS TUF OC model is available for 1799$ direct from ASUS. (As of time of posting).

[rogoth]

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/M4WnBj

CPU: Intel Core i7-13700K 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor ($421.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12A chromax.black 60.09 CFM CPU Cooler ($119.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI PRO Z790-A WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($298.94 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL36 Memory ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($129.99 @ Adorama) x2
Video Card: MSI GAMING X TRIO GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB Video Card ($1324.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT H7 Elite ATX Mid Tower Case ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power 12 1000 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($279.89 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan ($26.95 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan ($26.95 @ Amazon)
Mouse: SteelSeries Sensei 310 Wired Optical Mouse ($92.00 @ Amazon)
Headphones: SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC Headset ($183.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $3374.62

Thinking about options if I were to build a PC from scratch. My goal is to have a PC capable of running virtually any game at 1440p/60 FPS+ with Ray Tracing maxed out. Also a system that if I bought it it would, for the most part, last me half a decade or so and still be really good.

Looking for feedback on what I should change.

so here's my feedback for you, if you're wanting a high end gaming PC that runs DDR5 RAM, wait for the third party reviews for the new AMD Ryzen 7000X3D chips coming out shortly, because simply put assuming similar performance deltas compared with what the 5800X3D provides currently, then there is literally nothing from Intel that will compete in gaming either now, or in the next few years, so waiting to see just how big of a bloodbath it turns out to be might be worth waiting if you can (if you need the system right now for other things then that's something you will have to factor in on your own).

another reason to wait on the upcoming Ryzen chips is that all B660 boards should be getting a price decrease, and if you are looking at getting one of the premium X670e boards, they are still cheaper than an equivalent Z790 chipset, and usually the AMD board will have better features and greater forwards facing compatibility.

as far as memory is concerned, most 'standard' kits these days for DDR5 are 6000 speed or higher, although as mentioned in the thread i made about the Ryzen 7000 and X3D chips, in the 7600 linus tech tips video it's mentioned that Ryzen prefers tighter timings on the RAM so it can interact better with the infinity fabric of the cpu and it's no longer a speed demon like it used to be when looking at DDR4.

if you're going with gen4 M.2 storage, i would highly recommend a sabrent rocket drive instead of the samsung 980 pro, not only because there's no performance difference between them, but you will also save some money, which can then be used to buy the next item on the list.>

GPU, do not buy the 4080, if you're shelling out for a PC that has this sort of hardware in play, you can save a bit of money here and there and put it towards a 4090, however as mentioned if your requirements are purely 1440p/60fps with RT enabled, then you can easily manage that with a 3090/3090TI which will last you more than enough time for whatever comes out between now and like 2030, and depending on how AMD matures their new chiplet GPU architecture, the 7900 XTX is an extremely good buy right now, so good in fact that they are struggling to keep stock up to replace the few damaged ones when people have sent them in for RMA due to the faulty vapour chamber debacle recently, so that's also a great option which is also cheaper.

as for the rest, you will need a 1200 watt PSU with such a high end GPU and high power CPU as the newest Nvidia cards are so ridiculous with power draw they can easily trip OCP on high end system under load on a 1000W PSU, so give yourself some head room with that and don't skimp on the PSU, it's more important than most of the other component pieces.

case is personal preference, i am currently using a Corsair 5000D Airflow after it won case of the year from GN in 2021, and i can't recommend it enough it's a phenomenal case for the price point and well worth it if you can get it on sale or something, but just make sure whatever cases you look at have the physical dimensions you need as well as the features you would like to make sure the build works for you.

[CostinR]

Thanks everyone for input, it has been quite valuable and given me a better understanding of what I should look for.