Work/Gaming PC

James Turner · March 26, 2022

Budget (including currency): $3000

Country: Australia

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for:

Other details

Hi Guys and Girls,

Looking forward to building a hybrid Work/Gaming PC. Going to be doing 70% Gaming on this build and 30% work between my wife and I. Just wanting to get some feedback or comments on this build.

I do play AAA games but it 4K ultra isn't on my radar. I play GTA 5, WOW, Final Fantasy, Elden Ring etc.

My Build will consist of :

CPU : Intel Core i5-12600K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor

GPU : ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 OC LHR 12GB

Cooling : 1 X NZXT Kraken X63 R1 280mm AIO Liquid CPU Cooler

Motherboard : 1 X ASUS Prime Z690-P Wi-Fi D4 Motherboard

RAM : 1 X Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) 3200MHz CL16 DDR4 White

Monitors : 2 X Samsung C24RG50 FHD 144Hz FreeSync Curved 24in Monitor

PSU : Corsair RM850 Gold Modular 850W Power Supply White V2

Case : 1 X NZXT H510 Flow Mid Tower Case White/Black

SSD : 1 X Samsung 980 PRO M.2 PCI-E Gen4 NVMe SSD 500GB

I'm looking at these components as a pretty good build without spending too much. Looking to spend $1800 USD (I'm Australian so its around $3000 over here). I'm hoping to get about 3-4 years of usage out of this build as well.

If you can suggest or critique my potential build in anyway, I'm more than happy to use feedback to improve my build.

Looking forward to hearing any comments of feedback

James Turner.

RONOTHAN## · March 26, 2022

11 minutes ago, James Turner said:

SSD : 1 X Samsung 980 PRO M.2 PCI-E Gen4 NVMe SSD 500GB

Go for a Gen 3 drive instead, like the 970 Evo Plus, Crucial P5, WD SN750, Sabrent Rocket, etc. For an OS drive, the extra 500GB you'd get would be way more useful than the extra bandwidth given to you, gen 3 is more than enough. The workloads that do benefit from Gen 4 also use a ton of capacity as well, so the 500GB drive just doesn't really make sense. If it's the same price, sure, why not, but since the 500GB version is pretty much the price of a good 1TB Gen 3 drive, it doesn't make sense.

17 minutes ago, James Turner said:

Case : 1 X NZXT H510 Flow Mid Tower Case White/Black

If you really like the look of this case, don't read further, but I'd look at other airflow oriented cases. This one isn't necessarily bad, it's just that cases like the P400a Digital are very close in price yet come with more fans and have better airflow. The 4000D Airflow is about the same but has room for more fans and is cheaper for the white version.

21 minutes ago, James Turner said:

Cooling : 1 X NZXT Kraken X63 R1 280mm AIO Liquid CPU Cooler

I'd also look at a different AIO. The Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 will perform a bit better and costs $40 less. You don't really need that for a 12600k though, it's a hot chip but not depths of Tartarus hot like the 12900k, you can cool that chip with a good dual tower cooler like the Scythe Fuma II, Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120, or NH-D15. If you can find any of those for half the price and don't care about the aesthetics of the AIO (personally I like the look of a big air cooler over most AIOs, but that's me) I'd go with it instead, it'll perform plenty well and be more reliable (AIOs are inherently less reliable than air coolers since they have water inside them that can leak and a pump that can fail)

James Turner · March 26, 2022

Hey thanks for checking out my potential build!!

I looked into what you said and you were 100% right. I do have a question about the CPU cooling. Will the 12600k be cool enough with air cooling? Just want to make sure I don’t cook the CPU or anything. I would like the CPU to be kept as cool as possible. Do you have any insight into this?

Once again truly appreciate your feedback and advice.

James