minervx

Consoles are good if you want raw performance to price, and you don't have a high budget. Convenience, plug and play. PC for customization/mods, high framerate, access to thousands of indie titles, game engines, creative applications, etc.

It seems like GPU's demand more wattage than CPU's nowadays, so does that mean its best to do whatever airflow setup is better for the GPU?

What resolution and refresh rate do you intend to game at?

My current setup works fine for games that are a few years old or less demanding esports. Granted, I have become a snob. I would like to play newer single-player games at 4K/60fps high settings and newer multiplayer games at 1440p/144hz. And at some point, I would like to use unreal5 and create my own levels and worlds, and just sandbox around with it. None of this is urgent. I can wait. And I can play older games on my backlogue until then. Also, hardware has aged better in the past decade. A 2017 fares much better in 2023-2024 than a 2010 build did in 2017. It used to be the case that a PC was really outdated in 5 years. Now, 5 years is more like the middle of a lifespan.

Thanks for commenting that. It comes down to mindset. On my end, it's probably OCD - not wanting to waste resources if my current one works acceptably. Your mindset is not wasting time; living your passions to the fullest. Yours is overall better. I will still take at least a month or 2 to work on some goals, but I would like to build sometime this fall. I'll be less rigid on what I need to do before my next build. And not everything needs to be complete; even if slow progress is made, it's still progress.

I have a 7 year old PC. Affording a new one is no issue. I have a good amount of money saved up, though part of reason why because I'm frugal, and that means if I can get another 6-12 months out of this PC before rebuilding, that would feel efficient. There are also goals I have: Update resume. Apply for better jobs. Research different career options / learn marketable skills. Make various doctors appointments. Have more of a social life, and dating Sell things I don't need. Lots of other errands, phone calls, financial stuff and paperwork to do Travel or go on a roadtrip this year Some non-gaming hobbies Even if I had a great build right now, I probably wouldn't use it much the next few months. And it wouldn't feel special to be gaming a lot, knowing that I have other things looming over me. If I can make meaningful progress in the majority of these goals - let's say 5-6 out of 8 goals in the next few months - then reward myself with a PC, it would feel very special.

Well, maybe 4K on games that are a few years older or less demanding. But you'd still have the 4K for streaming/video content, image quality, more screen real estate in general. Most people would probably say 1440p/144 hz is a better sweetspot for gaming than 4K at a lower framerate, and in general I'd agree, though it depends on your preferences. Either way, don't get 1080p.

With this build, you easily be able to do 1440p at 144-165+ hz. Or 4K. RTINGS has reviews on monitors.

^ I 2nd the above comment. Looks good assuming pricing is normal. What monitor framerate and resolution will you be using?

I don't know your exact needs for editing, but 64 GB RAM is probably overkill. With this build, you could easily run a 1440p monitor. You could afford a monitor with good panel/colors. Why spend so much to have good graphics yet limit yourself with a monitor? (And a large size like 32" would be blurry with 1080p; 1440p at 27" would be a better balance between size and density)

This is my bad. I could've worded my original post in a way that was informative to beginners without being controversial or having biases. Its kinda ruined now

Use the stock cooler for now and save that $50+ toward your next build.

Note: I'm not saying people should prioritize frames/performance over all else. If you value silence or aesthetics over a few extra frames in a video game, that's totally fine. I'm just saying that the people who do seek performance should invest more into the CPU, less into the cooler.

@8tg Thermals and acoustics are factors, but it's also the extent. How many less degrees of temperatures and how many less decibels of sound do you get from the $80-90 cooler compared to the $40 cooler? Most tasks aren't demanding; even a lower-end cooler with a fan curve can run quietly for them. And gaming (the task that does require a higher fan speed), you'll have headphones or speakers playing to where fan noise won't be noticeable unless it's extremely loud. You may not want a loud fan when gaming, but you don't need a silent one either. But for recording sound, I totally get it.

This growth seems to be a normal rate. Populations are growing. Technology is advancing in some countries. Numbers are bound to incrementally go up over time.