Is the 12700k worth it in 2023 if I dont need a new best thing?

[vortexx21]

I am looking to build my gaming pc for this year. I have the case fans and a rtx 3090 on hand already. I plan to game in 1440p and render, edit, and stream on the side. I also plan to mess around with 3d stuff for fun. I dont want the best thing now and all that because I will be replacing it in a few years (3-5). So i am going for a 12700k and a z690 edge mobo because of the price. The ssd's (i know all you hate Samsung) but I cant go with any other brand due to preference. I will price match them at BestBuy so they will be a bit cheaper. The ram is so i dont have to buy a new kit for the future. I hope 6400mhz cl32 is good, I wanted to go with 7200mhz but I was told about instability issue and Idk if there is a difference between the two speeds. SHOULD I GO WITH THE 7200mhz cl34 KIT AND JUST LOWER THE SPEEDS? I dont mind the difference and tbh i would like the faster kit and I would just lower the speeds to not bsod, and then when i get a 15th gen cpu or amd 9000 series i would raise the speeds.

 

The psu is 1000w for the peace of mind and the headroom for more power hungry parts in the future and the nice 10 year warranty. I will just buy the 3x8 pcie to 12vhpwr cable if I need it. The case is to fit the monster of a aio that is the liquid freezer, i chose it because of the large gap up top, ive tried many other cases in the past with this cooler and they all either couldn't fit or it would squish tf out of the cpu connectors. What do you guys think of all this? I know there are cheaper parts but i like corsair, samsung, and intel since i will be doing a mix of gaming and productivity, and the prices for the cpu and mobo arent bad compared to what they were last year.

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($275.00 @ Amazon) 

CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB 48.8 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($159.99 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: MSI MPG Z690 EDGE WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($229.99 @ Newegg) 

Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($49.99 @ B&H) 

Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($126.34 @ Amazon) 

Case: Antec DF700 FLUX ATX Mid Tower Case  ($93.99 @ Amazon) 

Power Supply: Corsair RM1000x (2021) 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($169.99 @ Amazon) 

[Shimejii]

Most people dont actually need the latest and greatest. But it also comes down to price and such. 280$ for a 12700k is not bad at all. I would only buy 1 Gen 4 NVME drive, and then a good quality but much cheaper gen 3 Drive for mass storage.

 

 

[vortexx21]

1 minute ago, Shimejii said:

Most people dont actually need the latest and greatest. But it also comes down to price and such. 280$ for a 12700k is not bad at all. I would only buy 1 Gen 4 NVME drive, and then a good quality but much cheaper gen 3 Drive for mass storage.

 

 

why not both? any reason? i think the price difference is like not bad so i put 2. is it more stress on the cpu or the pcie lanes if both drives are gen 4?

[RONOTHAN##]

13 minutes ago, vortexx21 said:

The ram is so i dont have to buy a new kit for the future. I hope 6400mhz cl32 is good, I wanted to go with 7200mhz but I was told about instability issue and Idk if there is a difference between the two speeds

6400 isn't reliable to work on the 12700K. The memory controller on those Alder Lake CPUs is terrible, and unless you're on a 2 DIMM board like the Tachyon or Apex you can't get speeds above 6400 to work, and 6400 is hit or miss (on the 6 layer boards like that one it's more miss than hit). 

 

13 minutes ago, vortexx21 said:

SHOULD I GO WITH THE 7200mhz cl34 KIT AND JUST LOWER THE SPEEDS?

No. If you want to go for a high speed kit like that one and are willing to manually enter settings, get this kit instead: https://a.co/d/1ANU3F4

It is guaranteed to be Hynix A die and will do 7200+ CL34 reliably, most people on good boards and CPUs are able to get it to 8400+ at good timings. It will take the same amount of effort as those higher speed kits, so you might as well save the $50 with it or put it towards a better CPU/motherboard. 

 

As for the CPU, I'd try to avoid the 12700K if possible. The 13600KF is slightly faster and only an extra $10, with it you get lower temps thanks to its lower thermal density and a better memory controller. As for the motherboard, $230 for that board is pretty high as the Z690 Carbon/Force (same board, different color scheme) is a significantly better motherboard for only $20 more (on Amazon the Force is the same price).

[vortexx21]

3 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

6400 isn't reliable to work on the 12700K. The memory controller on those Alder Lake CPUs is terrible, and unless you're on a 2 DIMM board like the Tachyon or Apex you can't get speeds above 6400 to work, and 6400 is hit or miss (on the 6 layer boards like that one it's more miss than hit). 

 

No. If you want to go for a high speed kit like that one and are willing to manually enter settings, get this kit instead: https://a.co/d/1ANU3F4

It is guaranteed to be Hynix A die and will do 7200+ CL34 reliably, most people on good boards and CPUs are able to get it to 8400+ at good timings. It will take the same amount of effort as those higher speed kits, so you might as well save the $50 with it or put it towards a better CPU/motherboard. 

 

As for the CPU, I'd try to avoid the 12700K if possible. The 13600KF is slightly faster and only an extra $10, with it you get lower temps thanks to its lower thermal density and a better memory controller. As for the motherboard, $230 for that board is pretty high as the Z690 Carbon/Force (same board, different color scheme) is a significantly better motherboard for only $20 more (on Amazon the Force is the same price).

I went ahead and switched out the cpu for the 13600k (not f incase i need ig later on). It does better in gaming and has more e cores.

 

I read your advice on ram but i like the g.skill ram and the rgb. Answer this, if I buy the 7200mhz cl34 kit (2x16) can i just manually step the speed down to 6400 and the timings to cl32? Im asking this because if I can then in a couple of years when I upgrade I would have blazing fast ram for the intel 15th or 16th or 17th gen

[vortexx21]

4 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

6400 isn't reliable to work on the 12700K. The memory controller on those Alder Lake CPUs is terrible, and unless you're on a 2 DIMM board like the Tachyon or Apex you can't get speeds above 6400 to work, and 6400 is hit or miss (on the 6 layer boards like that one it's more miss than hit). 

 

No. If you want to go for a high speed kit like that one and are willing to manually enter settings, get this kit instead: https://a.co/d/1ANU3F4

It is guaranteed to be Hynix A die and will do 7200+ CL34 reliably, most people on good boards and CPUs are able to get it to 8400+ at good timings. It will take the same amount of effort as those higher speed kits, so you might as well save the $50 with it or put it towards a better CPU/motherboard. 

 

As for the CPU, I'd try to avoid the 12700K if possible. The 13600KF is slightly faster and only an extra $10, with it you get lower temps thanks to its lower thermal density and a better memory controller. As for the motherboard, $230 for that board is pretty high as the Z690 Carbon/Force (same board, different color scheme) is a significantly better motherboard for only $20 more (on Amazon the Force is the same price).

Note a couple of months ago i had a strix e gaming or h gaming z790 board with the 13700k and the cl34 7200mhz ram kit i am talking about and was able to play and use xmp with no bsod. I returned it cause i overpaid WAY to much (550) on the cpu alone !!!!

[RONOTHAN##]

6 minutes ago, vortexx21 said:

if I buy the 7200mhz cl34 kit (2x16) can i just manually step the speed down to 6400 and the timings to cl32?

I mean, yeah, but at the same time you can also do the opposite, run the 6400 CL32 kit at 7200 CL34. They're both gonna be Hynix 16Gb A die nowadays if you buy them, and basically every kit of A die will do 7200 CL34-45-45-32 at 1.4V. If you really like the G.Skill RGB look (which BTW, their RGB sticks are terrible with memory temps and run insanely hot with the RGB), then go that route instead and save yourself a bit of money and at least get yourself an XMP that will work reliably in the meantime. 

 

8 minutes ago, vortexx21 said:

Note a couple of months ago i had a strix e gaming or h gaming z790 board with the 13700k and the cl34 7200mhz ram kit i am talking about and was able to play and use xmp with no bsod. I returned it cause i overpaid WAY to much (550) on the cpu alone !!!!

Did you run an actual stress test like Y-Cruncher VST on it though? I've had three 13th gen chips (two 13600Ks and a 13700K), not one of them is able to run 7200 in stress tests on a Unify-X without putting in about an hours worth of effort tuning it. They all could do 7200 eventually, but they couldn't just enable XMP and be fully stable. It just isn't that common for those kits to actually be stable when rigorously tested. Its not that the IMCs are bad either, the 13700K is able to run DDR5 8000 on that same board after hours of tuning, but to say 7200 is guaranteed stable is not really a thing. 

[vortexx21]

1 minute ago, RONOTHAN## said:

I mean, yeah, but at the same time you can also do the opposite, run the 6400 CL32 kit at 7200 CL34. They're both gonna be Hynix 16Gb A die nowadays if you buy them, and basically every kit of A die will do 7200 CL34-45-45-32 at 1.4V. If you really like the G.Skill RGB look (which BTW, their RGB sticks are terrible with memory temps and run insanely hot with the RGB), then go that route instead and save yourself a bit of money and at least get yourself an XMP that will work reliably in the meantime. 

 

Did you run an actual stress test like Y-Cruncher VST on it though? I've had three 13th gen chips (two 13600Ks and a 13700K), not one of them is able to run 7200 in stress tests on a Unify-X without putting in about an hours worth of effort tuning it. They all could do 7200 eventually, but they couldn't just enable XMP and be fully stable. It just isn't that common for those kits to actually be stable when rigorously tested. Its not that the IMCs are bad either, the 13700K is able to run DDR5 8000 on that same board after hours of tuning, but to say 7200 is guaranteed stable is not really a thing. 

hmm thats fair i guess if i buy the kit I want i will have to do some tuning and stress test them afterwards. For me tbh i set xmp and play my games, im in college rn so i wanted a pc I can enjoy, i would stress and tune the ram sticks when i had more time. But for now i want to enable xmp and use the pc.

 

Why are you against my idea of getting the g.skill kit and stepping the timings down, again i would only step it down if i bsod or crash constantly? Apart from the hot leds and the price any other reasons i should note to stay away from these kits? i have built over 4 pc and they all had g.skill so it like second nature for me to use them since ive have good experience with them

[RONOTHAN##]

26 minutes ago, vortexx21 said:

part from the hot leds and the price any other reasons i should note to stay away from these kits?

Those are the two main reasons, though again, those heat spreaders are terrible (my non-RGB G.Skill kit will get to nearly 80C on open air, the RGB kits will get even hotter, to the point where it actually improves temps by a significant amount to remove the heat spreaders), and it doesn't make sense to spend the price premium for the high XMP spec. I'm not against G.Skill, as I already said I do own and use G.Skill kits because at the time of purchase they were the best value kits I could find (though if it had been the same price I'd have erred for someone else like TeamGroup or Kingston because of how bad these heat spreaders are), I'm just against silly XMPs for a price premium. If the XMP is likely to not work, why pay extra for it? Besides, the lower spec kits are the exact same memory kits, the only difference is the XMP profile programmed onto them (same bin and everything), so if you can get the exact same thing with a usable XMP and the ability to run those faster settings if you want to put the effort in (same amount of effort you'd put in otherwise, including if it just works) for cheaper, why wouldn't you? Getting the 6400 CL32 kit from G.Skill makes a lot more sense than getting the 7200 CL34 kit IMO. 

 

Just for reference, that kit I mentioned that did 8000 (IIRC the timings I had back then were 38-48-48-38, though I've since ditched that config and don't feel like digging up the screenshots) above was on a 6000 CL30 Flare X5 kit, and the primary thing I was fighting with to get there was the motherboard and CPU, not the RAM kit. There just isn't a lot of variance in Hynix A die, you can just copy the XMP of one kit to a different kit and expect it to work exactly like you'd expect that different kit (I.E. entering in 7200MT/s CL34-45-45-128 1.4V as the settings for the 6400 CL32-39-39 kit and expect it to just work).