White Build (ITX??)

Shiv78 · September 5, 2022

Budget (including currency): Not super strict but ideally under $1300, max $1500

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Valorant, AAA singleplayer games (Jedi Fallen Order, new Spider-Man, etc).

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):

Planning to get a 1440p 144hz+ monitor, probably 27" or maybe a 34" UW. Is a 12600k + RTX 3070 good enough for this? I don't mind lowering settings a bit. What's the rough performance difference between 3060, 3060 ti, 3070, 3070 ti?

It's been a long time since I've kept up with the PC space - it used to be me helping with these threads!!

I really like the LianLi Q58 ITX case, but I think that will prove more expensive (mobo + SFX PSU) and then it is limited to smaller AIOs. I want as much white stuff as possible even if it costs a little more, and yes I do like RGB so at least the RAM, GPU, and CPU cooler should have RGB (and preferably also be white). I'm not quite sure how much I want to actually spend yet but was thinking 12600K plus a RTX 3070, which would be around $800-900, so I think overall ~$1300 might be reasonable?

I need wifi so would prefer a motherboard with onboard wifi.

If ITX is a big price difference I will just get a Phanteks G360a and fill it up with a big white AIO : )

Ryuikko · September 5, 2022

How do you feel about the nr200p? The q58 appears to be only 120mm at most (at least according to pcpartpicker) so I'd probably say a 12600kf would struggle a "bit" with cooling, while the nr200p has up to 280 it seems.

The 3070 is a ~fine gpu. It's not the best in terms of price to perfromance since it gets beaten pretty easily by a 6800xt which goes for the same price or a bit more. Though the only white gpus I know of on amds line is the hellhound, and those are never priced right on pcpartpicker.

I'd say a 3070 is definitely going to be a nice pick into 1440 gaming, I'd expect it to struggle a bit hitting your monitors refresh rate in the newest AAA games, assuming you want to play on the ultra preset.

With that being said

About what id reccommend

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DTb76r

A 12600kf isn't strictly needed if you just plan to be gaming on it, id say a 12400f would do you just fine. plus it saves a bit to allocate to the more pricey componets when building an sfx.

*cough cough (psu)

White aio which as good looking rgb imo

Decent board that would fit your requirements of onboard wifi, and happens to be nicely priced

Ram with rgb and white. 32gb can be put in though it'll be ~110 which is getting a bit close to your hard cap

3070 vision which is afaik is one of the only lineups on nvidias side that is a nicer white and isn't priced horribly

Aforementioned case and a good sfx psu, though the best on the market currently would be the sfx corsair, the coolermaster should suffice

You can definitely save some money by going regular atx, but this list falls into your budget so it's mostly your choice on what to decide there

RONOTHAN## · September 5, 2022

2 minutes ago, Shiv78 said:

What's the rough performance difference between 3060, 3060 ti, 3070, 3070 ti?

3060 Ti is ~25% faster than the 3060, 3070 is ~15% faster than the 3060 Ti, and the 3070 Ti is on average 7% faster than the 3070 but it depends heavily on the game and how it utilizes the memory.

Realistically though none of those cards make a ton of sense (outside the 3070 in a few situations). AMD GPUs exist and right now are a lot better value for the money. A 6750 XT is give or take the same performance as the 3070 but $100 less, the 6800 XT is roughly the same as a 3080 but $600 (effectively the same cost as the 3070 Ti). They struggle a bit in ray tracing, but I'd argue that ray tracing still struggles on Nvidia cards. Unless you need a Nvidia feature I would go for a 6700XT, 6750XT, or 6800XT (the 6800 exists but is currently the same price as the 6800 XT, so it doesn't really make much sense).

If you want to go ITX, I would be recommending you go AMD instead. There just aren't that many ITX boards on LGA 1700, and the ones that exist are stupidly expensive and/or are just kinda terrible (especially if you want to save money by getting DDR4). The 12th gen CPUs are usually the better options, but for SFF AM4 still holds the crown. That said, it's probably a good idea to wait for AM5 to see what happens there, you might be able to score a deal on a 5700X/5800X, but don't expect cheap boards to come out for quite a while.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/sh6CMb

This system should work. The 5800X is the main competitor to the 12600K, the 12600K is a little faster in gaming but in multi core stuff they're about equal, and the motherboard options are a lot better for the 5800X (it's not slower enough that it should matter a ton). The X570SI Aorus Pro seems to be on sale or something, it's not usually a board that makes a ton of sense but right now it's the cheapest board in this form factor I like (usually it's a B550 board), it's a very respectable board for the price. The RAM kit is just some cheap 3200MHz CL16 kit, nothing special but it shouldn't interfere with the cooler (more on that later). The SSD is nothing special, but it's plenty for desktop use. The 6800 XT is a really fast card for this budget, it's not really necessary but it's close enough to within your budget and a lot faster than the 3070, so why not? Managed to squeeze in the case you liked, the Lian Li Q58, and paired it with an SFF PSU. According to the spec page, with an SFF PSU you should be able to use a 280mm AIO. For compatibility sake, stepped that down to a 240mm AIO and while I usually recommend either the Arctic Liquid Freezer II or EK-AIO, the Arctic one uses a slightly thicker than standard radiator and the EK one has a very large pump and I didn't feel like scrounging around online to see if people managed to fit those in and just went with a simple Asetek based unit instead (plus my usual recommendations aren't white). The performance won't be as good when compared to the Artic and EK units, but it should still be fine and it is a fair bit cheaper than those anyway.

It's about on par with what it would cost to go for an ATX system of the same specs (~$50 more, but that's about it), but if you'd rather save the $50 I did make the system with the 12600K as well.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/tLrdJM