Planning for building my first fully self built PC

[Debaka]

Hey there, as stated in the title I am currently looking to move on from my old machine (specs in profile) which I got back when I was 14 and frankensteine'd to live for 7 years. 

 

Budget (including currency): maximum 2500€

Country: Germany

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

Games: Grand strategy (Stellaris, Hoi4,...), mainstream shooters (CS:Go, Valorant, Titanfall 2 (is that still considered mainstream? :P), Digital combat simulator (DCS),  rhythm games (osu!) and some other not really demanding stuff

Other Programs: Virtualization software (VMware mainly), various IDEs (mostly JetBrains stuff), Unity, Blender, a bit of video editing as well.

 

 

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): 

My current parts list:

 

When I am planning to buy:

I am planning to buy the components in late August to early September of 2022 as this fits neatly into my holidays where I will have tons of time to build the system and get it running (especially that part will be time consuming, I have some stuff to transfer from my old system).

 

Resolution and refresh rate:
In shooters and competitive games I am completely fine with 1080p (in fact the SyncMastera450 I have been using up until now as main screen isn't even full HD apparently (?)) in 144Hz. For watching movies or playing more visual oriented games, 1440p 60 Hz is fine but higher refresh rate is still great. For working in Blender, some degree of color accuracy is appreciated but I don't need a full blown studio monitor as that's just a hobby.

 

Reasons for replacing:

It's not like my old system doesn't work anymore, it does so surprisingly well actually, I have played some titles at 30 FPS that my config should *not* have allowed for. However in many games I experience some framedrops nowadays and I would like to be able to play them comfortably. 

Given that my current GPU is a 960, I would probably be completely fine with a middle class Radeon GPU or a 3060 (if it was available at a decent price) and a 12600 or even 12400 but here comes the second reason I want a new system:

I am studying computer science and also do 3d work in Blender as a hobby. By upgrading to a pretty decent GPU and the (in my opinion) strongest reasonable CPU I should be able to cut down on render- and buildtimes significantly.

 

 

Current Setup (not the best pic, sorry):

 

Other stuff:

I feel pretty confident in building this myself - I have changed some stuff in my current system and worked with electronics before (and thanks to tons of LTT videos I think I even know where to put which cable and if not I will just RTFM).

As for reasons why I chose specific parts: DDR4 should be obvious - I am not *that* rich. The 6TB HDD will be the dump for normal files and projects until I get a NAS going (I am thinking of maybe setting up my old system, if it has one thing it's tons of space for drives). New Monitor: This would be my new main monitor - the old Samsung one would be retired (I know someone I can gift it to who would still be happy about it as a second screen) the main reason for buying it is the price honestly and the reviews I found seemed to agree that it's a pretty decent option.

 

If you have any questions or ideas please reply, I would be very happy about some feedback.

 

Also yes, weeb shit, I am sorry.

 

 

[venomtail]

Cheaper and faster AND RGB -

Unless you plan to go OC you don't need a K CPU nor 690 board. 

For boot cheaper M.2's are enough.

Nvidia GPU's have extremely bad value for money right now. AMD gets you far more for the same amount of money especially here at 2k.

Get yourself a cheaper windows key from a reseller.

No idea about the monitor. Monitors are far more subjective for who likes what, I can just throw out a general recommendation by what looks good at a first glance. You'll need to do far more research when it comes to the monitor:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700F 2.1 GHz 12-Core Processor  (€338.90 @ Alza) 
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler  (€71.89 @ Galaxus) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B660 GAMING X DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€159.90 @ Alza) 
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€121.90 @ Alza) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN570 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (€87.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue 6 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€107.90 @ ARLT) 
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB Red Devil OC Video Card  (€807.99 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: be quiet! Pure Base 500 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€74.79 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: Corsair HX1000 Platinum 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€202.88 @ Galaxus) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P14 72.8 CFM 140 mm Fan  (€7.02 @ Aquatuning) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P14 72.8 CFM 140 mm Fan  (€7.02 @ Aquatuning) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  (€5.69 @ Alza) 
Monitor: Xiaomi Mi 34.0" 3440x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (€373.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Custom: windows key (€20.00)
Total: €2387.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-07-04 16:36 CEST+0200

 

[Debaka]

11 minutes ago, venomtail said:

Cheaper and faster AND RGB -

Unless you plan to go OC you don't need a K CPU nor 690 board. 

For boot cheaper M.2's are enough.

Nvidia GPU's have extremely bad value for money right now. AMD gets you far more for the same amount of money especially here at 2k.

Get yourself a cheaper windows key from a reseller.

No idea about the monitor. Monitors are far more subjective for who likes what, I can just throw out a general recommendation by what looks good at a first glance. You'll need to do far more research when it comes to the monitor:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700F 2.1 GHz 12-Core Processor  (€338.90 @ Alza) 
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler  (€71.89 @ Galaxus) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B660 GAMING X DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€159.90 @ Alza) 
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€121.90 @ Alza) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN570 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (€87.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue 6 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€107.90 @ ARLT) 
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB Red Devil OC Video Card  (€807.99 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: be quiet! Pure Base 500 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€74.79 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: Corsair HX1000 Platinum 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€202.88 @ Galaxus) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P14 72.8 CFM 140 mm Fan  (€7.02 @ Aquatuning) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P14 72.8 CFM 140 mm Fan  (€7.02 @ Aquatuning) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  (€5.69 @ Alza) 
Monitor: Xiaomi Mi 34.0" 3440x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (€373.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Custom: windows key (€20.00)
Total: €2387.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-07-04 16:36 CEST+0200

 

Thanks for the reply - I will take a look at these options. I think I forgot to explain my choice of GPU: The reason why I want to go for an NVIDIA GPU is the OptiX renderer for blender which dramatically improves RTX accelerated rendering. As far as I know there is nothing compareable for AMD GPUs at the moment.

 

The windows key is just in there so I don't forget it, I won't pay 100€ + for a windows license, don't worry
 

The reason why I chose a 12700k was the higher boost clock - on another forum it was mentioned that this would probably be worth it for most users, I assume you disagree? I also plan to try to undervolt the CPU, mainly to reduce heat output, is that possible with a non K processor?

 

EDIT: The M.2 is not just supposed to be boot, I will put a decent amount of programs and possibly some games on there as well.

 

Thanks a lot for the recommendations!

Edited July 4, 2022 by Debaka

[PDifolco]

17 minutes ago, venomtail said:

Cheaper and faster AND RGB -

Unless you plan to go OC you don't need a K CPU nor 690 board. 

For boot cheaper M.2's are enough.

Nvidia GPU's have extremely bad value for money right now. AMD gets you far more for the same amount of money especially here at 2k.

Get yourself a cheaper windows key from a reseller.

No idea about the monitor. Monitors are far more subjective for who likes what, I can just throw out a general recommendation by what looks good at a first glance. You'll need to do far more research when it comes to the monitor:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700F 2.1 GHz 12-Core Processor  (€338.90 @ Alza) 
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler  (€71.89 @ Galaxus) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B660 GAMING X DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€159.90 @ Alza) 
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€121.90 @ Alza) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN570 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (€87.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue 6 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€107.90 @ ARLT) 
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB Red Devil OC Video Card  (€807.99 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: be quiet! Pure Base 500 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€74.79 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: Corsair HX1000 Platinum 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€202.88 @ Galaxus) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P14 72.8 CFM 140 mm Fan  (€7.02 @ Aquatuning) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P14 72.8 CFM 140 mm Fan  (€7.02 @ Aquatuning) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  (€5.69 @ Alza) 
Monitor: Xiaomi Mi 34.0" 3440x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (€373.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Custom: windows key (€20.00)
Total: €2387.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-07-04 16:36 CEST+0200

 

Good list but I won't recommend a PureBase 500, it's pretty plasticly and has bad airflow

The 500DX is better, but a 2500 bucks build needs something nice, say a Corsair 4000, Phanteks P500, Lian Li Lancool II...

[venomtail]

14 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

Good list but I won't recommend a PureBase 500, it's pretty plasticly and has bad airflow

The 500DX is better, but a 2500 bucks build needs something nice, say a Corsair 4000, Phanteks P500, Lian Li Lancool II...

Probably. OP has plenty of money to get the 4000D airflow they wanted in the first place or something even more expensive.

 

24 minutes ago, Debaka said:

Thanks for the reply - I will take a look at these options. I think I forgot to explain my choice of GPU: The reason why I want to go for an NVIDIA GPU is the OptiX renderer for blender which dramatically improves RTX accelerated rendering. As far as I know there is nothing compareable for AMD GPUs at the moment.

 

The windows key is just in there so I don't forget it, I won't pay 100€ + for a windows license, don't worry
 

The reason why I chose a 12700k was the higher boost clock - on another forum it was mentioned that this would probably be worth it for most users, I assume you disagree? I also plan to try to undervolt the CPU, mainly to reduce heat output, is that possible with a non K processor?

 

EDIT: The M.2 is not just supposed to be boot, I will put a decent amount of programs and possibly some games on there as well.

 

Thanks a lot for the recommendations!

Then get a small 500GB~ m.2 for boot and a sata SSD for the rest of your stuff. Just use an HDD only for large file dumps, don't use it for programs or games. I did and shame I'll never get all those weeks back I spent waiting on loading screens...

 

K might be worth it if it's the same price as an F as it is in some markets, depends on who you are luckily/sadly the K in Germany costs a 100euro more than standard or F. You'd see far more gains putting the 100eur towards a new GPU, Monitor or anything else before you see gains of similar significance if you spent it on the few extra GHz.

 

If you need the NVIDIA cores then sure there's not much of a choice then. Just general use case gaming, AMD's come swinging wildly.

[Debaka]

2 minutes ago, venomtail said:

Probably. OP has plenty of money to get the 4000D airflow they wanted in the first place or something even more expensive.

 

Then get a small 500GB~ m.2 for boot and a sata SSD for the rest of your stuff. Just use an HDD only for large file dumps, don't use it for programs or games. I did and shame I'll never get all those weeks back I spent waiting on loading screens...

 

K might be worth it if it's the same price as an F as it is in some markets, depends on who you are luckily/sadly the K in Germany costs a 100euro more than standard or F. You'd see far more gains putting the 100eur towards a new GPU, Monitor or anything else before you see gains of similar significance if you spent it on the few extra GHz.

 

If you need the NVIDIA cores then sure there's not much of a choice then. Just general use case gaming, AMD's come swinging wildly.

Thanks, I will probably go with that for the storage solution - can always add more later if I want to. 

[OddOod]

45 minutes ago, venomtail said:

Nvidia GPU's have extremely bad value for money right now. AMD gets you far more for the same amount of money especially here at 2k.

 

Unless OP wants to use all of the amazing NV features like RTX voice and the NVENC encoder. 

[brob]

29 minutes ago, Debaka said:

The reason why I chose a 12700k was the higher boost clock - on another forum it was mentioned that this would probably be worth it for most users, I assume you disagree? I also plan to try to undervolt the CPU, mainly to reduce heat output, is that possible with a non K processor?

 

See https://www.techspot.com/review/2391-intel-core-i7-12700/ for some hard data. As you will see, with good cooling and power settings the i7-12700(F) can come close to the i7-12700K(F).

 

1 hour ago, Debaka said:

 

When I am planning to buy:

I am planning to buy the components in late August to early September of 2022 as this fits neatly into my holidays where I will have tons of time to build the system and get it running (especially that part will be time consuming, I have some stuff to transfer from my old system).

 

Fourth quarter 2022, possibly a little earlier both AMD and Intel are expected to release new desktop CPU. You may want to consider waiting.

 

But if you were buying this month I would suggest you consider a number of changes to your build.

 

As mentioned above, a locked i7-12700 has performance close to its unlocked sibling. The advantage of taking the small cpu performance hit is it frees up budget to improver performance elsewhere. In particular, it allows for an all NVMe storage solution.

 

The 4000D Airflow has three stock fans, there shouldn't be a need to add more. If the concern is noise, get the Bequiet 500DX. It comes with 3x140mm Pure Wings 2 fans and is a few € less expensive.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700F 2.1 GHz 12-Core Processor  (€338.90 @ Alza) 
CPU Cooler: Scythe Fuma 2 Rev.B 39.44 CFM CPU Cooler  (€62.90 @ Galaxus) 
Motherboard: MSI PRO B660-A DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€160.90 @ Alza) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  (€99.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: ADATA Swordfish 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (€92.89 @ Alternate) 
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 4 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (€443.86 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Video Card: PNY GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8 GB XLR8 Gaming REVEL EPIC-X RGB Video Card  (€714.90 @ Alza) 
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case  (€107.78 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€112.56 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Monitor: Acer XV272U Pbmiiprzx 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (€257.90 @ Alza) 
Total: €2392.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-07-04 17:41 CEST+0200

[Debaka]

13 minutes ago, brob said:

 

See https://www.techspot.com/review/2391-intel-core-i7-12700/ for some hard data. As you will see, with good cooling and power settings the i7-12700(F) can come close to the i7-12700K(F).

 

 

Fourth quarter 2022, possibly a little earlier both AMD and Intel are expected to release new desktop CPU. You may want to consider waiting.

 

But if you were buying this month I would suggest you consider a number of changes to your build.

 

As mentioned above, a locked i7-12700 has performance close to its unlocked sibling. The advantage of taking the small cpu performance hit is it frees up budget to improver performance elsewhere. In particular, it allows for an all NVMe storage solution.

 

The 4000D Airflow has three stock fans, there shouldn't be a need to add more. If the concern is noise, get the Bequiet 500DX. It comes with 3x140mm Pure Wings 2 fans and is a few € less expensive.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700F 2.1 GHz 12-Core Processor  (€338.90 @ Alza) 
CPU Cooler: Scythe Fuma 2 Rev.B 39.44 CFM CPU Cooler  (€62.90 @ Galaxus) 
Motherboard: MSI PRO B660-A DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€160.90 @ Alza) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  (€99.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: ADATA Swordfish 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (€92.89 @ Alternate) 
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 4 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (€443.86 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Video Card: PNY GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8 GB XLR8 Gaming REVEL EPIC-X RGB Video Card  (€714.90 @ Alza) 
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case  (€107.78 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€112.56 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Monitor: Acer XV272U Pbmiiprzx 27.0" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  (€257.90 @ Alza) 
Total: €2392.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-07-04 17:41 CEST+0200

Hey, first of all thank you very much for the suggestions! Full NVME sure sounds interesting.

As to the fans - if I can see it correctly, the 4000D comes with 2 120mm. I was planning to use one as exhaust at the back and the other either as intake or exhaust at the top while the three Kazes go into the front. The idea would be to not mix fans at the front intake. 3 fans for that is probably overkill though, 2 may be more appropriate.

 

Getting the B660 and a non K 12700 sounds like a nice alternative (and also one that everyone else has recommended so I guess the random guy on the other forum was wrong :D).

 

Oh, also my idea is to wait for the new generations of CPUs and RTX GPUs to hopefully drop the price of the ones in my build somewhat. I hope that that will somewhat fall into my timeframe since I don't want to build the PC while the new semester is already going and I will have my hands full tutoring new students.

[brob]

3 minutes ago, Debaka said:

As to the fans - if I can see it correctly, the 4000D comes with 2 120mm. I was planning to use one as exhaust at the back and the other either as intake or exhaust at the top while the three Kazes go into the front. The idea would be to not mix fans at the front intake. 3 fans for that is probably overkill though, 2 may be more appropriate.

 

 

The two stock 4000D Airflow fans are mounted in the front as intake. With the two Scythe Fuma fans pulling air through the vanes and directly out the rear it's not likely that more fans are needed.

 

Fans are easily added. I would also caution that the goal of case fans is to establish a consistent flow of air through the case. Incorrectly placed fans can disturb air movement through the case.

[Debaka]

1 minute ago, brob said:

 

The two stock 4000D Airflow fans are mounted in the front as intake. With the two Scythe Fuma fans pulling air through the vanes and directly out the rear it's not likely that more fans are needed.

 

Fans are easily added. I would also caution that the goal of case fans is to establish a consistent flow of air through the case. Incorrectly placed fans can disturb air movement through the case.

Valid point. I'll try without the additional fans and if I see a need to add them, I can still do so later.

[PDifolco]

15 minutes ago, Debaka said:

Valid point. I'll try without the additional fans and if I see a need to add them, I can still do so later.

The Corsair 4000 is a good airflow case, don't overthink or overspend on useless fans

With a good aircooler, the 2 stock front intake fanss + 1 exhaust will certainly give good temps already, then you can add 1 front (a Corsair RGB to be consistent) and 2 top (exhaust) if ever needed