Feedback on game-development build

[Frizzil]

Budget: Around $1500 ideally

 

Country:  USA

 

Workloads:

IntelliJ (Kotlin/Java builds), Visual Studio (C++ builds), Ableton Live, Blender (3D modeling and texturing), Photoshop, voxel games (I'm currently developing one), latest AAA titles (mostly for reference, but I enjoy Nier Automata, Dark Souls and Monster Hunter), indie games, retro emulation and modding, video capture for YouTube, countless Chrome tabs. I'm a graphics programmer and will probably bring my GPU to its knees (perhaps unwittingly.)

 

Main Concerns:

1. Did I allocate cash appropriately to respective components? E.g. CPU isn't "wasted" given mobo?
2. Is everything compatible?
3. Enough wattage headroom?
4. Will CPU "F" be a PITA if graphics card or driver fails?
5. Anything I can/should save on? Currently over ideal budget, so I may wait on GPU to diffuse cost.
6. Do I go Win10 or Win11?
7. Any other issues?

Other details:

• I'm migrating from a PC I've built and upgraded since 2012, lol. I'm fine just disconnecting it and reusing existing peripherals. I may occasionally test my game on the old PC for various reasons.
• I already own mouse, keyboard, and audio preamp.
• I have several displays, one 4K and two 1080p. One 1080p is HDMI, the 4k is DisplayPort, and the other 1080p can be either. I may upgrade to high refresh rate in future.
• I plan to do a basic overclocking, just the CPU base clock/freq and power draw, assuming that's how it all still works. (If there's "Power Limit Throttling" on this desktop CPU so help me...)
• I'm considering waiting on the GPU and reusing a GTX 1080 until the next series becomes affordable. I have a laptop 3060 I can rely on in the meantime to test new features (such as mesh shaders.)
• This PC will probably be travelling with me to a few gaming conventions.

Parts I've picked out:

• CPU:   $404, Intel i7-13700KF (gotta reduce those compile times, keep IDEs snappy. Want to develop for new Intel architecture. Good cache for badly optimized games doesn't hurt either.)

• Cooler:  $36, Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE (quiet here is better for music making, if possible. This one includes thermal paste.)

• GPU:   $510, RTX 3070 8GB PCIe4 (latest gen, basically, at pre-COVID price point)

• Mobo:  $240, ASUS Prime Z790-P WiFi D4 (WiFi and Bluetooth saves me USB ports. My last ASUS lasted literally a decade, but I think was a nicer model.)

• RAM:     $85, G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 2x16GB (Ableton + IntelliJ + 30 Chrome tabs + my voxel game running + Windows)

• PSU:    $110, CORSAIR RM850 Gold

• SSD:    $140, WD Black SN850X 1TB (OS drive)

• HDD:      $50, WD Blue 2TB Desktop HDD, 7200 RPM, SATA 6Gb/s, 256 MB Cache (mostly a temporary drive until data can be transferred to external)

• Case:    $190, Fractal Design ATX Mid-tower (need plenty of front-facing USB ports, especially USB-3 and at least one USB-C. Would love to have even more!)

Total:           $1765

 

Thank you!

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 hour ago, Frizzil said:

1. Did I allocate cash appropriately to respective components? E.g. CPU isn't "wasted" given mobo?
2. Is everything compatible?
3. Enough wattage headroom?
4. Will CPU "F" be a PITA if graphics card or driver fails?
5. Anything I can/should save on? Currently over ideal budget, so I may wait on GPU to diffuse cost.
6. Do I go Win10 or Win11?
7. Any other issues?

1. Looks solid. Depending on what you need to load, it may be useful to have another SSD, but that's your call. If noise is a concern, I'd lean more towards a decent AIO liquid cooler personally.

2. Yeah.

3. 850W should be fine. I'm a weirdo who only buys 1000W or higher.

4. It just means you'll need to have a backup GPU on standby. Think of this as a reason to keep your GTX 1080.

5. If you're able to visit a Micro Center, they have a killer deal on motherboard + CPU combos for Intel right now. I don't believe it extends to 13th gen, but you could get a 12700K and nearly the same motherboard for a pretty good price.

6. I'd stick with Windows 10 until it goes EOL, honestly. My rule is to never adopt operating systems early, just to give it time to mature and iron out some bugs.

7. You would get less noise if you buy the Steel Panel version of your case, as that will have more soundproofing material than the window.

 

Excellent case choice by the way, I have the Define 7 XL(basically the same but bigger) and it's fantastic.

[Frizzil]

@Crunchy Dragon Awesome! Glad to know I'm not completely off base. (It's been a while, lol.)

 

I'll look into AIO cooler - steel case is a tough call, as I really like the glass look, so I'll have to think about it more. Ultimately the best solution for recording will probably be using a separate room, not sure I could get it quiet enough anyhow.

 

I think I'm fine going without iGPU then, will just be more hassle once it's time for debugging. "iGPU Multi-monitor" not needed.

 

Unfortunately I don't live near a Micro Center, nearest one is in Atlanta. (It's like a tech desert here in Alabama.)

 

I think I agree on Win10, I got burned back in the day upgrading OS right after buying audio preamp, driver was immediately busted and never fixed 

 

On the case - I actually realized that I already own the black version, lol, probably went through the exact same decision process. You're right, it is an amazing case!

[brob]

For optimal core scheduling Windows 11 should be used for Alder Lake and Raptor Lake CPU.

 

[Crunchy Dragon]

7 hours ago, brob said:

For optimal core scheduling Windows 11 should be used for Alder Lake and Raptor Lake CPU.

 

Oh shoot, that's a really good point.

 

I completely forgot about that bit.

[Frizzil]

I added a CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive and pulled the trigger. Thank you!