New 3090 PC Build - Intel or Ryzen?

[Frank5981]

Budget (including currency): 32 000 Rand

Country: South Africa

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Mostly online FPS games plus more graphic intensive games every now and then, programming, occasional video editing, 3d modelling for engineering purposes

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'm trying to put together my first PC build, starting off with a second hand rtx 3090 (R15 000). 

The goal is to go as cheap as possible without bottlenecking the 3090. 

Deciding between an Intel or Ryzen build. 

I probably won't be needing to upgrade for the next 3-5 years. 

Starting from scratch. 

 

Option 1: Intel

CPU: i5 13600 = R6500

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690M AORUS ELITE AX DDR4 LGA1700 Micro-ATX = R4000

Total cost of this combo = R10500

Notes:

- DDR4

- PCIe 5 slot for GPU, and only PCIe3 for SSD

- Audio apparently not great? (optical input)

Next upgrade after 3-5 years would probably be a new motherboard, RAM, and SSD, for DDR5 and PCIe 4 or 5. CPU might also not be compatible anymore due to 2 year cycle??

 

Option 2: Ryzen

CPU: Ryzen 5 7600X = R5400

Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B650M-Plus WiFi AM5 Micro-ATX = R4500

Total cost of this combo = R9900

Notes:

- DDR5

- 3 x PCIe 4 x 16 slots (1 will probably be covered by the GPU)

- AM5 platform support for future CPU upgrade

- Audio is better? (no optical input)

Next upgrade after 3-5 years would probably be only a new CPU and RAM. Motherboard and SSD should still be ok. 

 

Other:

- Memory: 1Tb SSD - PCIe 3 or 4, depending on the motherboard. 

- RAM: 2x16Gb 3200 Cl16 MHz Corsair (could upgrade if going with the Ryzen build)

- CPU Cooler: DeepCool R-AK500 -> is this good enough for the 13600??

- PSU: Antec HGC-750 Gold

- Case: Free ATX case for now, hoping to get a mATX in the future

 

Any tips on this build? Thanks!

 

 

[Origami Cactus]

AMD one is definitely better.

Keep in mind that the 13600k is the last of the 2 year cycle, so absolutely no upgrades possible for that motherboard.

While the 13600k is better for productivity, the 7600x is actually better for gaming.

I don't understand why no optical would be better for audio, but generally yeah asus has better built in sound than gigabyte.

 

But your current ram won't work with the AM5 system, so you need to also budget that into your cost.

[PDifolco]

You should add RAM cost to "platform cost", as DDR4 is cheaper

On the short term the 13600K is better, same gaming perf with comparable 6 PCores, better productivity due to the 8 ecores to 0 on Ryzen, and cheaper overall (CPU+board+RAM)

On the longer term you'll have to upgrade Intel mobo and switch to DDR5 in a couple years, so Ryzen "additional" costs will be recouped partly

I do think however that the 7600X isn't a great chip on the long run, only 6 cores, and would get a 7700X or 7900X (but then it's even more expensive..)

[Frank5981]

1 hour ago, Origami Cactus said:

AMD one is definitely better.

Keep in mind that the 13600k is the last of the 2 year cycle, so absolutely no upgrades possible for that motherboard.

While the 13600k is better for productivity, the 7600x is actually better for gaming.

I don't understand why no optical would be better for audio, but generally yeah asus has better built in sound than gigabyte.

 

But your current ram won't work with the AM5 system, so you need to also budget that into your cost.

Thanks for the input @Origami Cactus!

 

Realised after I posted that the AM5 system needs DDR5 RAM so the costs would probably be similar, with the ryzen having some room for a potential CPU upgrade on the same mobo. 

 

Regarding the audio, I meant to say the ryzen mobo seemed to have better audio based on what I read, although I wasn't sure exactly what the difference was. And then the "(no optical input)" part was meant to be read as, 'audio is apparently better, but there is no optical input. 

 

Realistically I'll probably stretch the build long enough that I'd only upgrade even after the ryzen cycle renews (5 years I believe?), meaning that either way, I'll upgrade the whole mobo, ram, ssd, cpu combo in one go anyway.. but perhaps   not. I'll see. 

Thanks for the input

[Frank5981]

33 minutes ago, PDifolco said:

You should add RAM cost to "platform cost", as DDR4 is cheaper

On the short term the 13600K is better, same gaming perf with comparable 6 PCores, better productivity due to the 8 ecores to 0 on Ryzen, and cheaper overall (CPU+board+RAM)

On the longer term you'll have to upgrade Intel mobo and switch to DDR5 in a couple years, so Ryzen "additional" costs will be recouped partly

I do think however that the 7600X isn't a great chip on the long run, only 6 cores, and would get a 7700X or 7900X (but then it's even more expensive..)

Thanks @PDifolco!

 

I'll have a look at the 7700X.. seems to be about R2000 more than the 7600X. And the DDR5 adds about R1000 extra for RAM. 

So the Ryzen option would go from R600 cheaper, to R400 more (7600X), or R2400 more (7700X)... 

 

R2400 extra for a ryzen 7700X system, but then I'd already have DDR5, PCIe4, and an option to upgrade the CPU in maybe 3-4 years without changing anything else.. or even go with 7600X now and upgrade only that in 3 years.