🔥 1440p Gaming + Creative | Upgrading my personal rig after 3,234 days of service

[Maudima]

Intro

Budget: High end price/performance sweetspot €2K

Country: Netherlands

Used for: AAA Gaming 1440p, digital art, Adobe suite (light), programming and general use

 

I'm pretty flexible on all the parts but I researched the CPU extensively, choosing a motherboard is my weak spot. The GPU upgrade will probably come at the end of the year and doesn't have to be considered in the budget. The build should have quality parts, be powerful and be relatively silent to function as my personal rig for gaming and creative projects. It should last me a long time. I don't mind paying a bit more now for longevity but it should still make some sense from a value perspective. Prices in the PCPartPicker include tax and shipping. 

 

PCPartPicker

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700F 2.1 GHz 12-Core Processor  (€353.45) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler  (€79.90) 
Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z690-P ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€214.90) 
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR5-5200 CL40 Memory  (€149.00)  (pcpartpicker doesn't have 2x8 in database but that's what I'm purchasing)

Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€99.90) 

Total: €897.15

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-04-13 14:15 CEST+0200

 

Parts I already own or/and plan on reusing:

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB Video Card  
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 ATX Mid Tower Case  
Monitor: LG 27GL850-B 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  
Storage: Samsung 980 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive 

Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive   +  2x2TB 3.5" HDD

 

Decision making process

 

CPU: I decided on the 12700F over the 12700k because the K is literally €80 more expensive for minimal gaming benefits and as far as I've seen overclocking makes it guzzle power and raises temps (I've also read about the warping issues). I really don't care about integrated graphics. I also considered the 5900X for €400 because it has 12 full cores but apparently even without E-cores it performs worse in games and would still be more expensive. 

⚠CPU Cooler: I decided on the Dark Rock Pro 4 because it's cheaper and apparently more silent than the Noctua NH-D15. I'd love to know if it comes with mounting hardware for Alder Lake and if it doesn't how long that would take them to ship? Deepcool ak620 is also a cooler I would consider. 

⚠Motherboard: I'm blindly following online recommendations. This is the biggest gap in my knowledge. I really don't know what to choose here so I just watched and read some roundups and reviews and went from there. I'd want for it to handle the CPU and not cook the VRMs, support for slotting in another M.2 SSD with PCIe 4.0 support in the future (DirectStorage) and DDR5 support. Audio chipset is not very important because I use an external Amp + DAC. Keep in mind that pricing for motherboards can be very different per region.  

⚠Memory: 16GB DDR5 is around the same cost to me as 32GB DDR4. I think DDR5 is the smart choice if I plan on using this rig for 5 years+. Here the decision was 4,800 CL38 vs 5,200 CL40. I have no idea what the difference would be and they're only €3 apart. 

PSU: Good reviews, seems like it should have enough juice for this system + a decent Nvidia GPU at the end of the year. I'd consider upgrading to 1000W but that seems overkill? 

Storage: I already own an m.2 Samsung 850 1TB and plan on using that as my OS drive for the foreseeable future. I'd like to be able to slot in a faster PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD for games when DirectStorage becomes a thing.

_{*⚠= main concerns}

 

[ExpiredPancake]

You can swap the Z series motherboard for a less expensive B660 or H670 motherboard since you cannot overclock with your F series CPU. I like This one from ASUS or this one from gigabyte but it honestly doesn't make too much difference, as long as it has the IO you're looking for. Also not worth it going after DDR5 memory since as gamers nexus shows it does not make much difference. DDR4 will do you fine and it's much more affordable. Be sure to get 2 sticks at least so you can operate your memory in dual channel. 

 

I'm not sure if Be quiet includes the mounting hardware for 12th gen. I'd be surprised if they didn't by now, but if they don't, you can get it for free here if you already ordered the Dark Rock Pro 4.

 

Are you planning on upgrading the 1070 sometime down the line? because the 12700F seems like overkill for it. You would probably be just as well off with something like the 12400F. 

[1sascha]

850 Watts seem a bit excessive for the kind of CPU/GPU combo you posted - unless you're planning a substantial GPU upgrade. I'd say even with a 3070 you should be more than ok with 750W - perhaps you could even get away with 650.

 

Plus I'll have to ask: Do you really need DDR5? From everything I read and hear, there's currently not much of a performance gap between 4 and 5 (unless you do nothing but compressing or decompressing archive-files?). DDR4 is still way easier to find from all sorts of manufacturers and in all sorts of differently sized kits, whereas the DDR5-market still looks rather empty in comparison. Plus you'd save a bit of cash on both the RAM itself and on the mobo.

 

S.

[Maudima]

 

On 4/13/2022 at 4:04 PM, ExpiredPancake said:

You can swap the Z series motherboard for a less expensive B660 or H670 motherboard since you cannot overclock with your F series CPU. I like This one from ASUS or this one from gigabyte but it honestly doesn't make too much difference, as long as it has the IO you're looking for. Also not worth it going after DDR5 memory since as gamers nexus shows it does not make much difference. DDR4 will do you fine and it's much more affordable. Be sure to get 2 sticks at least so you can operate your memory in dual channel. 

 

Are you planning on upgrading the 1070 sometime down the line? because the 12700F seems like overkill for it. You would probably be just as well off with something like the 12400F. 

I looked at it some more and I'm going with the MSI B660M-A Wifi (best price/quality in my region) and DDR4, the benchmarks and price difference are pretty convincing. Has everything I need and saves me some money! Thanks!

On 4/13/2022 at 4:13 PM, 1sascha said:

850 Watts seem a bit excessive for the kind of CPU/GPU combo you posted - unless you're planning a substantial GPU upgrade. I'd say even with a 3070 you should be more than ok with 750W - perhaps you could even get away with 650.

 

Plus I'll have to ask: Do you really need DDR5? From everything I read and hear, there's currently not much of a performance gap between 4 and 5 (unless you do nothing but compressing or decompressing archive-files?). DDR4 is still way easier to find from all sorts of manufacturers and in all sorts of differently sized kits, whereas the DDR5-market still looks rather empty in comparison. Plus you'd save a bit of cash on both the RAM itself and on the mobo.

 

S.

Good catch! Yeah I'm planning on a big upgrade if I can get my hands on an RTX 40 series card. Your and Pancake's comment convinced me to go DDR4. I looked at the benchmarks and was misinformed because I assumed budget DDR5 wouldn't be too different from expensive DDR5 and boy was I wrong. Budget DDR5 is very similar to DDR4 and much more expensive. Thanks!

[Hybris5112]

2 minutes ago, Maudima said:

Good catch! Yeah I'm planning on a big upgrade if I can get my hands on an RTX 40 series card. Your and Pancake's comment convinced me to go DDR4. I looked at the benchmarks and was misinformed because I assumed budget DDR5 wouldn't be too different from expensive DDR5 and boy was I wrong. Budget DDR5 is very similar to DDR4 and much more expensive. Thanks!

I suggest with the savings in memory that you go ahead and put that towards getting more memory. 16GB is bare minimum while 32GB is a considerable quality of life improvement. Of course if you see the chance to max out the board then you won't likely ever see a situation in which your system bogs down from lack of free memory.