Long term high end build

[Tobbler]

Budget (including currency): 2500€

Country: Germany

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Variety Gaming at 4k Ultrawide, Programming and 3D Modelling mainly

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):Completely new build (exept storage), looking to buy this year. Target refresh rate is 160Hz for competitive games like Rocket League, 60Hz for more demanding/Singleplayer games

 

Hey everyone,

after almost 9 Years with my previous PC, it's finally time to upgrade my setup. Because of the age and the fact it still uses DDR3 RAM, I will be upgrading the whole rig and not only some parts (exept a relatively new SSD). Although I am a pretty tech savvy person, when it comed to planning a new build, I am completely lost, so I would like to have some advice.

The goal is to again have a build that will last me a long amount of time, like 5-7 years. I would rather spend a bit more money now, than have to upgrade again in just a few years, but also not waste unnecessary money.

 

CPU:

I am currently looking at the 13600KF, 13700KF and 7700X, with the main advantage of the 7700X being lower power usage, but on the other hand it would be losing to the 13700KF at the same price point.

What I am now unsure about is, if I need the 13700KF, or if the 13600KF will be enough for my use cases over a longer period of time.

 

RAM:

32GB should be enough for the forseeable future. I am currently going with DDR5, but am unsure if high speed DDR4 would suffice while being considerably cheaper

 

GPU:

I am completely unsure about the GPU. Historically I was more of a NVIDIA guy, but the AMD 7000 Series looks really good. I have to say that I will be able to get both cards for a similar price, as i can get nvidia stuff discounted through work, so I would end up paying about 1200€ for both the 4080 and 7900XTX. Considering this I am leaning a bit more towards the 4080 just because of raytracing and slightly les power draw, but will probably wait buying a GPU until both are out.

 

Storage:

Do not need it

 

Current PCPartPicker Part List: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/hxH4mr (with about 1200€ reserved for a GPU)

CPU: Intel Core i7-13700KF 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor  (€473.90 @ Alza) 
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 240 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (€83.88 @ notebooksbilliger.de) 
Motherboard: ASRock Z790 PG LIGHTNING ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€240.94 @ Computeruniverse) 
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory  (€230.99 @ Alternate) 
Case: Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case  (€91.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (2021) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€139.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Total: €1261.51

[IPD]

Ray Tracing is overinflated on importance.  7900XTX far and away a better value than anything in the 40 series lineup.

 

13600 and virtually anything i5 Raptor Lake will be fine for years.  I'm still running an i5 Coffee Lake and it's more than up to the job.  I can't speak to AMD CPU's, but the same largely holds true.

 

You aren't going to notice a difference in speed from DDR4 to DDR5 in most cases.  That said, I would definitely go DDR5, especially since you plan on keeping this long-term; and DDR4 mobo is going to limit you more.

 

I would opt for a boot drive and a storage drive if possible.  512 is, imho fine for a boot drive and will continue to be sufficient for years--provided you aren't inadvertently saving crap onto it.  2TB for storage.

[Tobbler]

1 hour ago, IPD said:

Ray Tracing is overinflated on importance.  7900XTX far and away a better value than anything in the 40 series lineup.

Would you say them same independent of the price?

1 hour ago, IPD said:

13600 and virtually anything i5 Raptor Lake will be fine for years.  I'm still running an i5 Coffee Lake and it's more than up to the job.  I can't speak to AMD CPU's, but the same largely holds true.

 

You aren't going to notice a difference in speed from DDR4 to DDR5 in most cases.  That said, I would definitely go DDR5, especially since you plan on keeping this long-term; and DDR4 mobo is going to limit you more.

Thanks for the advice, I think the only thing holding me back from choosing the 13600 was that i5 just kind of sounds wrong in this kind of build  But I guess the whole naming scheme thing shifted a bit especially since i9 was introduced

 

1 hour ago, IPD said:

 

I would opt for a boot drive and a storage drive if possible.  512 is, imho fine for a boot drive and will continue to be sufficient for years--provided you aren't inadvertently saving crap onto it.  2TB for storage

I already have a 2tb SSD that should be fine for the foreseeable future and will eventually get replaced by a m.2

But that minimal difference is not worth it to me atm

[IPD]

Well first off, you'd need an ATX 3.0 if you want to properly run a 40 series GPU.  Second, a 7900 XTX is the "almost performs as well as" of a 4090--despite AMD denying that the 4090 is what it is targeted at.  It will beat the stuffing out of a 4080 (imho) and that goes double for the "wannabee 4070" that is the 4080 12GB.

 

i5 has, imho, been "meta" since 8th gen (Coffee Lake)--that's when they migrated to 6 cores.  Raptor lake i5 still has 6 p-cores, but now has e-cores on top of that.  And you don't have to dig far in this forum to find people who went from an i7 "something" to a 13600 and are pleased as punch with it.

 

Keep your SSD.  I'd just advise getting an m.2 boot drive (PCIe Gen 3+, NVMe 1.3+).  Again, you don't need capacity here.  Like the 970 Evo 500GB for $80.  Or this WD Blue for $43.

 

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-blue-sn570-nvme-ssd#WDS500G3B0C

[Tobbler]

12 hours ago, IPD said:

Well first off, you'd need an ATX 3.0 if you want to properly run a 40 series GPU.  Second, a 7900 XTX is the "almost performs as well as" of a 4090--despite AMD denying that the 4090 is what it is targeted at.  It will beat the stuffing out of a 4080 (imho) and that goes double for the "wannabee 4070" that is the 4080 12GB.

 

i5 has, imho, been "meta" since 8th gen (Coffee Lake)--that's when they migrated to 6 cores.  Raptor lake i5 still has 6 p-cores, but now has e-cores on top of that.  And you don't have to dig far in this forum to find people who went from an i7 "something" to a 13600 and are pleased as punch with it.

 

Keep your SSD.  I'd just advise getting an m.2 boot drive (PCIe Gen 3+, NVMe 1.3+).  Again, you don't need capacity here.  Like the 970 Evo 500GB for $80.  Or this WD Blue for $43.

 

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-blue-sn570-nvme-ssd#WDS500G3B0C

Thanks for the advice! I didn’t even think about the power connector, I somehow assumed only the 4090 would have it. 
Inthink I am in the same situation as a lot of people that just felt better with Nvidia, but maybe it’s finally time to switch.

 

Will definitely start getting the parts around Black Friday and just stick with my 980 until the amd gpu's are out.