PC Build Reccomendations

[BobTheBuilder99]

Budget (including currency): $3,500-$3,800 USD

Country: United States

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

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

I want intel cpu, nvidia gpu, and ddr5 ram. I just don't know which to go together and also I need suggestions for the other parts. I just want the most capable machine that is future proofed that costs $3500. I can go a little higher but not much.

Thanks!

 

[Bombastinator]

Whole lotta cash for a machine, so it’s 3080 Ti or 6900xt for you.  They still seem to be obnoxiously overpriced though so let’s go with a 3080.I can’t find a ryzen zen 3d chip for sale on pcpartpicker (doesn’t mean they can’t be gotten, but it does mean they’re at least difficult to find) so 12 gen intel seems to be the way to go atm..

 

I can’t really bring myself to spend the whole budget by wasting a quarter of it on dubious improvements, and I can’t remember which Samsung SSD is the preferred one.   Also with the motherboard you need to have an updated bios for the CPU to work so that must be kept in mind.   It’s not THE fastest available atm but it’s pretty fast in both single and multi thread.  If there are peripherals I missed or you also need a monitor There’s not all that far from a grand too play with.  If you need to find more money to get a qoled monitor or something places to look are the cooler and the PSU first.

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3wFtQ6

CPU: Intel Core i9-12900KS 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor  ($734.98 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($189.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($319.99 @ Walmart) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-5133 CL20 Memory  ($269.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($114.46 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($67.98 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 10GB LHR 10 GB GAMING OC Rev 2.0 Video Card  ($759.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case  ($94.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair HX Platinum 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($243.10 @ Amazon) 
Total: $2795.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-06-26 12:50 EDT-0400

Edited June 26, 2022 by Bombastinator

[Somerandomtechyboi]

58 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I can’t really bring myself to spend the whole budget by wasting a quarter of it on dubious improvements

*literally goes for a 12900ks and an overpriced 1000w psu

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/r2cYLs

Literally half your budget is pretty much peak performance for gaming, after this diminishing returns kicks in and youll get less and less performance for your dollar

 

If you wanna go ddr5 then minimum 7000+ speed by overclock otherwise it is not futureproof and you are wasting money on an expensive paperweight, high bin kits are overpriced so look for generic bare pcb/oem sticks as some have the same ics as said overpriced high bin kits and oc the same, theres the z690a pro ddr5 version at 161$

[Bombastinator]

14 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

*literally goes for a 12900ks and an overpriced 1000w psu

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/r2cYLs

Literally half your budget is pretty much peak performance for gaming, after this diminishing returns kicks in and youll get less and less performance for your dollar

 

If you wanna go ddr5 then minimum 7000+ speed by overclock otherwise it is not futureproof and you are wasting money on an expensive paperweight, high bin kits are overpriced so look for generic bare pcb/oem sticks as some have the same ics as said overpriced high bin kits and oc the same, theres the z690a pro ddr5 version at 161$

I agree.  There were diminishing returns that started well before the $2000 mark. It became a case of “which waste of money will net the highest fps” does the 5 frame difference between a 3080ti and a 3080 equal the difference in overclock capacity between a 12900kf and a 12900ks? I thought it would.  If this was a bang/buck build it would have been a B series board and a 12700F. There was only so much I could stomach though. Might be wrong.  You could do both I guess.  There was just so much rgb on the thing that I couldn’t get away from that so I decided “hey, let’s make it a thing” I did mention that there was money to be found in the PSU.  I liked the platinum and the warranty.  There is also cheaper ram around.  I was just so offended by the price difference I couldn’t stomach recommending one.  Burning the entire budget is possible.  There are $1000 motherboards out there. They just don’t make the thing go faster.  Probably the right thing to do with that kind of budget is a custom water loop.  Hard to build one off pcpartpicker though.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

32 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I agree.  There were diminishing returns that started well before the $2000 mark. It became a case of “which waste of money will net the highest fps” does the 5 frame difference between a 3080ti and a 3080 equal the difference in overclock capacity between a 12900kf and a 12900ks? I thought it would.  If this was a bang/buck build it would have been a B series board and a 12700F. There was only so much I could stomach though. Might be wrong.  You could do both I guess.  There was just so much rgb on the thing that I couldn’t get away from that so I decided “hey, let’s make it a thing” I did mention that there was money to be found in the PSU.  I liked the platinum and the warranty.  There is also cheaper ram around.  I was just so offended by the price difference I couldn’t stomach recommending one.  Burning the entire budget is possible.  There are $1000 motherboards out there. They just don’t make the thing go faster.  Probably the right thing to do with that kind of budget is a custom water loop.  Hard to build one off pcpartpicker though.

Heck beefy custom loops can be done for cheap if were using very good chinese alternatives such as barrow or bykski so that may still not blow the budget even with ludicrous rad capacity

 

Though psu wise you can get a 1200w platinum one for the same price

 

 

I think after 12700f/lower end z690 the waste of money/gain becomes from best to worst futureproofed cooler + futureproofed psu -> overkill gpu -> i/o rich board -> 12900k -> high oc capable rams (ex ballistix/high bin djr) -> 12900ks

 

Custom loop is an oddity as if you overclock or want silence itd be somewhere inbetween i/o rich board -12900k but if its just aesthetics then that depends on spending but for a ripoff loop with all overpriced ek or something like that then its pretty much as bad or worse than the 12900ks

[Bombastinator]

16 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Heck beefy custom loops can be done for cheap if were using very good chinese alternatives such as barrow or bykski so that may still not blow the budget even with ludicrous rad capacity

 

Though psu wise you can get a 1200w platinum one for the same price

 

 

I think after 12700f/lower end z690 the waste of money/gain becomes from best to worst futureproofed cooler + futureproofed psu -> overkill gpu -> i/o rich board -> 12900k -> high oc capable rams (ex ballistix/high bin djr) -> 12900ks

 

Custom loop is an oddity as if you overclock or want silence itd be somewhere inbetween i/o rich board -12900k but if its just aesthetics then that depends on spending but for a ripoff loop with all overpriced ek or something like that then its pretty much as bad or worse than the 12900ks

The 1000 is only to cover the spike issue and the extra thirsty i9. There’s an argument not even 800 is needed.

 

 

the 3 fan AIO I had on the thing at first was $80.   It even had the rgb.  I went with the best seller though because longevity is an issue for AIOs.  If it was an AMD system there probably wouldn’t have been any water at all.  If I had that kind of money to throw at a gaming rig I would probably spend nearly half of it on the monitor and get one of those Alienware qoleds, then see how much money was left after I got the cheapest 3070ti or 6800xt I could find and build a bang/buck system out of that. 

Edited June 26, 2022 by Bombastinator

[Bombastinator]

25 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Heck beefy custom loops can be done for cheap if were using very good chinese alternatives such as barrow or bykski so that may still not blow the budget even with ludicrous rad capacity

 

Though psu wise you can get a 1200w platinum one for the same price

 

 

I think after 12700f/lower end z690 the waste of money/gain becomes from best to worst futureproofed cooler + futureproofed psu -> overkill gpu -> i/o rich board -> 12900k -> high oc capable rams (ex ballistix/high bin djr) -> 12900ks

 

Custom loop is an oddity as if you overclock or want silence itd be somewhere inbetween i/o rich board -12900k but if its just aesthetics then that depends on spending but for a ripoff loop with all overpriced ek or something like that then its pretty much as bad or worse than the 12900ks

I didn’t say it couldn’t be done, I just said it can’t be done easily on pcpartpicker.

 

kinda curious about the z series motherboard with the non-k chip though.  I understand there are b series boards that can actually overclock both memory and cpu.  I didn’t look to see if b series has a hard maximum ram speed limit. 

Edited June 26, 2022 by Bombastinator

[Somerandomtechyboi]

9 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

I didn’t say it couldn’t be done, I just said it can’t be done easily on pcpartpicker.

 

kinda curious about the z series motherboard with the non-k chip though.  I understand there are b series boards that can actually overclock both memory and cpu.  I didn’t look to see if b series has a hard maximum ram speed limit. 

B series doesnt have max ram speed limit, just vccsa limit on non k cpus

 

Also the reason i tend to go z series over b series is because 170$ for a z board w flexible bios (incl ram oc on non k cpus) and main benifit of more i/o is a pretty good deal, only thing that beats it would be the 130$ b660 steel legend cause that has a big enough gap to justify going b660 and still basically the same as b660m-a pro