Which Motherboard / Case works best for this build? Any other things I could change

mikabo1 · May 7, 2023

Hey guys, I'm planning to finally upgrade my rig, after many years. Here are the details.

Budget: max ˜3000€ (preferably as little as possible though, since I plan on upgrading again in a few years when GTA 6 comes out for PC)

Country: Germany

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: GTA 5 (and 6 when it finally comes out :C), Overwatch 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, pretty much everything else, any new AAA games coming out, Software Engineering Stuff (including basic AI/Machine Learning work in the future maybe), Basic video editing (but i mostly edit on my work laptop anyway so not that often), Maybe streaming too??

Other details:

Upgrading from Prebuilt PC (from Hyrican):
Motherboard: Gigabyte H110M-S2HP (can't even update BIOS because of Hyrican proprietary software)
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 xD
RAM: 16GB RAM DDR4
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 CPU 3.40 GHz (8CPUs)
OS: Windows 10 Home 64 Bit (can't upgrade to Windows 11 bcs CPU is too old - but I also probably can't reuse this license for the new PC so it doesn't matter i think)

Planning to Upgrade to (see screenshots):
Motherboard: MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI
GPU: Asus TUF GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB (I wasn't sure which company I should buy this from, or how big the difference between ASUS and MSI is, for instance)
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory
CPU: Intel Core i7-13700K 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler
Storage:    Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
Case:    Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply:    Corsair RM1000x (2021) 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Case Fans: 5x Noctua Ax25 chromax 60.09 CFM 120 mm Fan
Total Cost right now: around 2500 euros

I am playing on a 1080p MSI Monitor with 360Hz Refresh Rate and GSync. I will buy a secondary Monitor that is either 1440p or 4k, for media consumption and games that look pretty instead of shooters where i need faster refresh rate.
I am planning to buy the build at the beginning of June, or today if I can find a way to finance the graphics card and CPU with monthly installments (and also add 2 more years of extra warranty on top of the EU legal minimum).

I went with the i7 instead of the i9 after comparing them on UserBenchmark and noticing that the i9 is 200 euros more and only gives around 5% more performance on avg. Similar thing for the GPU - The 4070Ti comes 4th in performance and costs half of the price of the 1st (4090). I don't need THAT much power right now, since I am planning to upgrade to the absolute best whenever GTA 6 comes out, so I can play everything on absolute Ultra and get the most FPS then.
I was really unsure which Case and Motherboard to go with after this. For motherboard, I care about the basics being as new as possible. The latest PCIe Generation, DDR5 Memory, stuff like that. I don't care about Wifi, Bluetooth and all the extra stuff - I won't use it. But I'm not sure if I even NEED the latest basics I mentioned with this build. (I do want DDR5 RAM though)

I don't give a crap about case looks, I just need airflow and function. Which is why I thought this one is good, since I watched a Linus Video on it. But I need a USB adapter for this (see warnings in Screenshot), but I probably won't use USB Type C anyway so...

At the end I thought it was kind of weird that I cut slight corners for the GPU and CPU but went overboard with Power Supply, Memory, Motherboard, CPU Fan... Do you guys think it makes sense, since I want to upgrade in the near future again? Can i reuse any components from this build then (say I'll just upgrade the GPU and CPU when GTA 6 comes out, keep the motherboard and everything else. will that work with this build?)

IMPORTANT QUESTION: IIRC, there was an issue with NVIDIA's 4000 series where the cables were melting. I saw lots of articles about it then. Something about the cables being wobbly??? Has that been fixed, is it something I need to worry about with my graphics card? How can I check?

Given this info, do you guys have any recommendations and tips?

Why_Me · May 7, 2023

This gives you a case with 2x140mm front intake fans + 1x120mm rear exhaust fan and a power supply with PCIe 5.0. There's five different models of that case including RGB .. I posted the least expensive model.

https://geizhals.eu/fractal-design-focus-2-schwarz-fd-c-foc2a-07-a2792899.html

Fractal Design Focus 2 ATX Mid Tower Case €66,97

Rear exhaust fan for that Fractal case.

https://geizhals.eu/arctic-p12-pwm-schwarz-acfan00119a-a1920124.html

Arctic P12 PWM 120mm 4-Pin Case Fan €4,25

https://geizhals.eu/msi-mpg-a850g-pcie5-850w-atx-3-0-a2815870.html

MSI MPG A850GF 850 W80+ Gold Modular ATX Power Supply €132,91

https://geizhals.eu/msi-b760-tomahawk-wifi-7d96-003r-a2872229.html

MSI MAG B760 Tomahawk WIFI €195,02

https://geizhals.eu/intel-core-i7-13700f-bx8071513700f-a2871123.html

Intel Core i7-13700F €380,39

https://geizhals.eu/deepcool-ak620-r-ak620-bknnmt-g-a2601827.html