pc build First build questions & feedback

[homj]

Hey everyone! I'm fresh here and bring my first PC build along.

I'd be glad if someone can help me with my remaining questions and/or validate my build.

Thanks in advance!

 

Budget (including currency): 3.000 € - 3.500 €

Country: Germany

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

I'll use it mainly for gaming and learning 3D modeling, but also for web development.

• Games: Minecraft, Cyberpunk 2077, Halo Infinite, No Man's Sky, Anno 1800
• Programs: Blender, Webstorm, Databases (e.g. PostgreSQL, MongoDB) and corresponding administration tools, Docker, Chrome (with usually tons of tabs), Adobe XD, Adobe Illustrator, Slack, Teams, ...

Other details: 

This is my first PC build and I'm planning to finish buying every part by the end of the month.

I want a fairly quiet and comparably power efficient PC. I don't really care about RGB or anything like that.

 

I also own a few existing peripherals:

• Monitor: LG Ultrawide 34" (34UC98-W) with 60Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440
• Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3
• Webcam: Logitech Brio 300

 

Partlist:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor  (Purchased For €278.00) 
Motherboard: Asus ProArt X670E-CREATOR WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard  (Purchased For €487.89) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (€403.98 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€197.99 @ Mindfactory) 
Video Card: Asus TUF GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB Video Card  (€906.99 @ notebooksbilliger.de) 
Case: Fractal Design North ATX Mid Tower Case  (€159.90 @ Alza) 
Power Supply: Asus ROG-STRIX-850G 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€171.39 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro OEM - DVD 64-bit  (€148.40 @ Galaxus) 
Keyboard: Logitech MX Keys Advanced Wireless Slim Keyboard 
Total: €2754.54
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-02-03 07:46 CET+0100

 

 

Open questions / issues:

• Video Card: I'm still not sure whether to stick with a 4070 Ti (~900€) or buy a low-end PNY 4080 (~1,270 €)
• PSU: besides it supporting 12VHPWR, what else is important with a PSU? Any recommendations for a specific PSU?
• RAM: I'm looking for a 64GB kit with 6.000Mhz since I read that that'd be good for an AMD CPU. Anything else to consider here?
• Storage: I'm not sure whether a 2TB M.2 SSD will be enough. Should I get another SSD or would you recommend a HDD instead?
• Cooling: Since my CPU came with a cooler and the case already has okayish coolers: do I need additional coolers?

[mariushm]

The cooler that comes with the processor is OK, and will allow the processor to run well, but a good aftermarket cooler will keep the processor a bit cooler and will give the processor more room to boost some cores to higher frequencies if needed, and give you better performance. Also, aftermarket coolers will often be less noisy than the cooler that comes with the processor. 

50-70 eur for a very good air cooler is a good investment, considering how much money you're spending on the system it's a good purchase. 

 

Get a 2 TB SSD, you'll see if it's enough ... you can always buy a second one later. it's easy to install into a second m.2 connector.  Mechanical drives only make sense if you go for 4-6 TB or higher, and I'd suggest NAS rated or better, for example WD Red Plus ( Plus means it's a CMR drive, which has much better write speeds compared to cheaper SMR drives)

 

I don't think 6000 Mhz is necessary for Ryzen, in fact probably some AMD processors may not be able to keep the memory running at 6000 and you may need to configure it to run at 5600 Mhz.  It won't be a noticeable performance difference. 

Would be nice if the ram sticks have EXPO which is  AMD's  XMP for DDR5 ... it basically contains presets with timings for the memory, more detailed than what XMP offered. But, it's not a must, system will work with regular sticks that don't support EXPO.

 

I don't think you need Windows 11 Pro - could probably save some money going for a regular / home edition.  

You can probably also save even more money by purchasing a windows 10 key for 20-30$ and just use it to activate Windows 11, it should work.

 

[homj]

2 hours ago, mariushm said:

The cooler that comes with the processor is OK, and will allow the processor to run well, but a good aftermarket cooler will keep the processor a bit cooler and will give the processor more room to boost some cores to higher frequencies if needed, and give you better performance. Also, aftermarket coolers will often be less noisy than the cooler that comes with the processor. 

50-70 eur for a very good air cooler is a good investment, considering how much money you're spending on the system it's a good purchase. 

 

Get a 2 TB SSD, you'll see if it's enough ... you can always buy a second one later. it's easy to install into a second m.2 connector.  Mechanical drives only make sense if you go for 4-6 TB or higher, and I'd suggest NAS rated or better, for example WD Red Plus ( Plus means it's a CMR drive, which has much better write speeds compared to cheaper SMR drives)

 

I don't think 6000 Mhz is necessary for Ryzen, in fact probably some AMD processors may not be able to keep the memory running at 6000 and you may need to configure it to run at 5600 Mhz.  It won't be a noticeable performance difference. 

Would be nice if the ram sticks have EXPO which is  AMD's  XMP for DDR5 ... it basically contains presets with timings for the memory, more detailed than what XMP offered. But, it's not a must, system will work with regular sticks that don't support EXPO.

 

I don't think you need Windows 11 Pro - could probably save some money going for a regular / home edition.  

You can probably also save even more money by purchasing a windows 10 key for 20-30$ and just use it to activate Windows 11, it should work.

 

Thanks for your detailed input!
Is a CPU cooler swap later on complicated? I think I'll give the included cooler a go and see how it performs before buying a aftermarket cooler.

 

Regarding 6000 Mhz RAM. I've heard from multiple sources (among them one of LTT's videos) that that's the sweet spot for AM5. I'm aware of EXPO, yes. But thanks for pointing that out too  

 

Regarding Windows 11 Pro: I need Hyper-V for Docker, so the Home edition is not an option for me. How does that Windows 10 trick work? aren't those keys you can buy online somewhat shady / greyzone?

 

Also, what's your opinion on the GPU: do I need a 4080 for the games & programs I'll use, or is a 4070 Ti enough? I sadly don't have any experience with these GPUs at all and don't know what potential bottlenecks I have to look out for

[mariushm]

Ok, stick to Windows 11 Pro then.

Yeah, those 20-30$ licenses are somewhat greyzone, and I can't guarantee they'll upgrade to Windows 11 Pro. Didn't do any research on that so I can't say with absolute certainty..  

 

As for cooler... it's fairly easy. 

Depending on the cooler design, you may have to remove the motherboard to place a backplate instead of the original backplate the motherboard comes with. 

But a lot of coolers use the original / standard backplate the motherboards come with, as the  AMD design is fairly good, with big screws that go into that backplate, unlike the Intel solutions. 

So best case scenario, just remove stock cooler, clean the thermal paste off the cpu, put the air cooler  and mount it.  Some are harder to mount due to lack of space around it, so you may still have to unscrew the motherboard and take off the video card and disconnect the cables going to motherboard so that you can put the board on desk and install the cooler while the board is easy to move around and it's easy to screw the cooler in place.

 

For 4K native you'd probably want to get a  4080... 4070 is more like 2560x1440 or something like that, especially if you want 90+ fps 

 

[homj]

23 hours ago, mariushm said:

Ok, stick to Windows 11 Pro then.

Yeah, those 20-30$ licenses are somewhat greyzone, and I can't guarantee they'll upgrade to Windows 11 Pro. Didn't do any research on that so I can't say with absolute certainty..  

 

As for cooler... it's fairly easy. 

Depending on the cooler design, you may have to remove the motherboard to place a backplate instead of the original backplate the motherboard comes with. 

But a lot of coolers use the original / standard backplate the motherboards come with, as the  AMD design is fairly good, with big screws that go into that backplate, unlike the Intel solutions. 

So best case scenario, just remove stock cooler, clean the thermal paste off the cpu, put the air cooler  and mount it.  Some are harder to mount due to lack of space around it, so you may still have to unscrew the motherboard and take off the video card and disconnect the cables going to motherboard so that you can put the board on desk and install the cooler while the board is easy to move around and it's easy to screw the cooler in place.

 

For 4K native you'd probably want to get a  4080... 4070 is more like 2560x1440 or something like that, especially if you want 90+ fps 

 

alright, thanks once again!

 

I'll stick with the 4070 Ti for now.. more than 300 € price difference to get a low-end 4080 is not worth it at the moment.

 

Good that you mentioned thermal paste. Since i never built a PC, is the thermal paste included somewhere or do I have to buy once on my own? And if so, which one would you recommend?