Upgrading my motherboard, CPU, and RAM after ~7 years. Please give me your thoughts on my plan so far! Budget around $1500 CAD.

[PopsiclesInMyCellar]

Edit: I did purchase what I was originally planning below!  Thanks for everyone's input, and I am still open to receiving feedback. Let me know if I'm an idiot. 

 

Hi there! I'm deciding to finally upgrade my motherboard, CPU, and RAM after about seven years.

 

My budget is around $1500 CAD for replacing these three components. 

 

Here is my PCPP list for my planned new build of what I think might be good: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/exzizt/saved/yTjvRB

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/RqHdqR

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K 3.4 GHz 20-Core Processor  ($573.95 @ shopRBC) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler  ($139.94 @ Amazon Canada) 
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX Z790-E GAMING WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($569.98 @ Amazon Canada) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory  ($284.97 @ Newegg Canada) 
Storage: Samsung 960 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $599.99) 
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (Purchased For $369.99) 
Video Card: Asus ROG STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB Video Card  (Purchased For $1369.98) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe TG ATX Full Tower Case  (Purchased For $189.99) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 850 P2 850 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $189.69) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Retail - USB 32/64-bit  (Purchased For $187.54) 
Case Fan: Noctua A15 HS-PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan  (Purchased For $33.99) 
Case Fan: Noctua A15 HS-PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan  (Purchased For $33.99) 
Custom: NA-HC4 chromax.Black, Heatsink Cover for NH-D15, NH-D15S & NH-D15 SE-AM4 (Black)  (Purchased For $37.49) 
Total: $4581.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-09 00:34 EST-0500

 

Here is my current build: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/exzizt/saved/#view=YqPvRB

 

Your thoughts and expertise are very much appreciated!

 

Edit: Should I be worried about these warnings?

 

[Shimejii]

Basically you need to bios update before it will even post (although some boards just read them as 13th gen and POST anyway) 

 

fan stuff is all about if it fits in cases and such.

 

NH-D15 Does not natively come with LGA 1700 brackets, you may need to get them from Notcua. Especially if they send you one of the older boxes.

 

Power cables reminder to use seperate PCIE cables instead of pig tailing it. GPU plugs.

 

 

Other then that it looks fine, quite budget going from 1500 CAD in the title to 4500 CAD lol. 

 

Do you actually need 64 GB of ram? You didnt really specify what you are doing with the system in the first place.

[PopsiclesInMyCellar]

Just now, Shimejii said:

Basically you need to bios update before it will even post (although some boards just read them as 13th gen and POST anyway) 

 

fan stuff is all about if it fits in cases and such.

 

NH-D15 Does not natively come with LGA 1700 brackets, you may need to get them from Notcua. Especially if they send you one of the older boxes.

 

Power cables reminder to use seperate PCIE cables instead of pig tailing it. GPU plugs.

 

 

Other then that it looks fine, quite budget going from 1500 CAD in the title to 4500 CAD lol. 

Thanks! Sounds like I can put the bios update on a thumb drive and push a button on the mobo and that might do the trick, too.

 

You're right about the fan because I got it so long ago, I can email them asking for an adapter, apparently, but I'm actually just going to order a brand new NH-D15 chromax.black as well.

 

I don't believe I'm pig tailing any cables at the moment so that shouldn't hopefully change when I hook up my new motherboard?

 

1500 CAD to get these new parts, not for the whole PC.

[RONOTHAN##]

Not a huge fan of that motherboard IMO. ASUS boards have a tendency to be quite expensive compared to their feature set, and that board is no exception. There are half a dozen different boards that do more for less money, including (but not limited to) the Z690 Force/Carbon, Z790 Nova, and Z790 Taichi Lite. There's also the fact that you just don't need all the features of that board, so something like a Z790 Tomahawk or Elite AX would still do perfectly fine. 

 

Also, the NH-D15 will struggle to cool a 14700K as that chip pulls so much power. It really needs some sort of water cooling to keep cool (a custom loop is ideal, though a well designed AIO should be fine). If you aren't doing something that actually needs the multi core performance of that chip like gaming, the NH-D15 would do fine, but at the same time if that's the case it's really hard to recommend the 14700K over a 7800X3D. If you do need the multi-core performance, spend less on the motherboard and put that towards an AIO to upgrade the NH-D15 with. 

 

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/ft3h9c

 

30 minutes ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

Edit: Should I be worried about these warnings?

The first warning is saying that the motherboard BIOS doesn't support the CPU and you'll need to update it. Unless you're buying a Z790 Refresh board, most Z690/Z790 boards will say this. This isn't that big a deal as any board worth buying should come with BIOS flashback so you can update the BIOS with a flash drive, but it's just worth being aware of. The second note is just saying it doesn't know how the fans will fit in the case, given you already have them that shouldn't really matter. The third warning is saying that you will need to get a mounting bracket for the cooler as the NH-D15 you have won't have the appropriate LGA 1700 mounting hardware (this just requires emailing Noctua to get the appropriate mounting gear). The 4th note says that you need to make sure to use three 6+2 pin cables for the adapter and not the pigtails (not relevant if you already own and are using the GPU). The 5th just says it doesn't check if RAM/CPU coolers are compatible. 

 

1 minute ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

but I'm actually just going to order a brand new NH-D15 chromax.black as well.

Look into different coolers then. There are better options nowadays that are cheaper as well if you really want to stick to air cooling, options like the Deepcool AK620 and Assassin IV. 

[PopsiclesInMyCellar]

4 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Not a huge fan of that motherboard IMO. ASUS boards have a tendency to be quite expensive compared to their feature set, and that board is no exception. There are half a dozen different boards that do more for less money, including (but not limited to) the Z690 Force/Carbon, Z790 Nova, and Z790 Taichi Lite. There's also the fact that you just don't need all the features of that board, so something like a Z790 Tomahawk or Elite AX would still do perfectly fine. 

 

Also, the NH-D15 will struggle to cool a 14700K as that chip pulls so much power. It really needs some sort of water cooling to keep cool (a custom loop is ideal, though a well designed AIO should be fine). If you aren't doing something that actually needs the multi core performance of that chip like gaming, the NH-D15 would do fine, but at the same time if that's the case it's really hard to recommend the 14700K over a 7800X3D. If you do need the multi-core performance, spend less on the motherboard and put that towards an AIO to upgrade the NH-D15 with. 

 

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/ft3h9c

 

The first warning is saying that the motherboard BIOS doesn't support the CPU and you'll need to update it. Unless you're buying a Z790 Refresh board, most Z690/Z790 boards will say this. This isn't that big a deal as any board worth buying should come with BIOS flashback so you can update the BIOS with a flash drive, but it's just worth being aware of. The second note is just saying it doesn't know how the fans will fit in the case, given you already have them that shouldn't really matter. The third warning is saying that you will need to get a mounting bracket for the cooler as the NH-D15 you have won't have the appropriate LGA 1700 mounting hardware (this just requires emailing Noctua to get the appropriate mounting gear). The 4th note says that you need to make sure to use three 6+2 pin cables for the adapter and not the pigtails (not relevant if you already own and are using the GPU). The 5th just says it doesn't check if RAM/CPU coolers are compatible. 

Thank you for your help!

 

I might not need the features of the board now, but I might in the future (?). I do kind of like ASUS as they tend to have higher quality components? Although I have heard they have been having some crappy customer service issues lately.

 

I really don't like the idea of putting water in my computer/using water cooling. It sounds scary to me. The Noctua I've had no issues gaming with since I made this build. I do like to do gaming. The fan is a beast and the best for non-water cooling, no?

 

 

[HorseBattery]

The 14700K can go as high as 280W in multithreaded workloads. It will be very difficult to cool under those conditions.

Techpowerup has a review of the 14700K including a detailed breakdown of power consumption:

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i7-14700k/22.html

[RONOTHAN##]

34 minutes ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

I might not need the features of the board now, but I might in the future (?).

Really the only ones that the Z790-E has over something like a Z790 Elite are an extra 2 PCB layers (this admittedly is pretty nice as with the 14700K/14900K/13900K the PCB can get quite warm with just 2 PCB layers if there's no socket airflow, plus in theory it offers better memory overclocking support), a POST code (also genuinely useful if you're troubleshooting your system), and a PCIe Gen 5 M.2 slot (not useful as you have to steal 8 lanes from your GPU to get it). The other high end boards I mentioned also have the same features, but are significantly cheaper than the Z790-E Strix. The Z690 Force/Carbon I mentioned (same board, different color scheme) has the same 8 layer PCB (admittedly the memory topology is worse, but unless you're going for DDR5 7600+ that's not likely to matter), same POST code, but rather than the Gen 5 M.2 slot you get a second PCIe x8 slot that you can use any expansion card in, including dual Gen 5 M.2s (the Taichi Lite also does this, though admittedly also has the Gen 5 M.2 slot), all for half the price. 

 

34 minutes ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

I do kind of like ASUS as they tend to have higher quality components? Although I have heard they have been having some crappy customer service issues lately.

Yeah, they've had some major quality control and customer service issues. Back in the DDR3 days they really were the kings (with a few exceptions if I'm buying a vintage DDR3 board, it's going to be ASUS), though since about Coffee Lake they have been kinda coasting on that reputation and everyone else has caught up quality wise and are fairly comparable with customer service, just without the prevalence of QC issues. Off the top of my head, there was the Z690 Hero where they soldered a capacitor on backwards with half the motherboards they released, the Z690 Apex that had many units with a crippled memory channel that made the board useless for the sole purpose it was designed for, the Z790 Apex that had a rather high DOA rate and most units showing up quite bent, and all their AM5 boards having a tendency to kill CPUs with early BIOS revisions (though admittedly this is more AMD's fault for conveying wrong safe voltage information and ASUS boards weren't the only ones to do this, ASUS still handled it quite badly from a PR/consumer relations standpoint). 

 

To be clear, I wouldn't necessarily avoid them at all costs, they do still have some genuinely good motherboard options, but they aren't worth looking at exclusively. Also they just source their PCB components from the same people everyone else does, and they're usually on the same level off "good" as the other boards in the price range (usually they're slightly worse per dollar, though this isn't always the case and you do really need to look at specific offerings). 

 

34 minutes ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

I really don't like the idea of putting water in my computer/using water cooling. It sounds scary to me.

Fair enough, though AIO leaks are pretty rare and so unless you're constantly stabbing your computer with screw drivers I wouldn't really worry about it (and if you are doing that you've probably got bigger problems to worry about). I still avoid recommending them for systems that require 99.99999% uptime as they are still more likely to fail because of the pump, but while leaks can happen they aren't really that common, and if they do happen they're not guaranteed to actually kill anything (most of the time they land on the GPU, as since most high end GPUs have grounded backplates covering their electronics you won't actually notice anything. 

 

34 minutes ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

I do like to do gaming

Then look at the 7800X3D, it's objectively the better gaming CPU for less money and while being significantly easier to cool. Even if you do some productivity work, it's still a significant improvement from your 8700K and will be leaps ahead in games. It isn't as fast at things like video rendering as the 14700K is, but given you haven't said what you do that actually needs the extra multicore horsepower, I'd assume it isn't actually necessary. 

 

34 minutes ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

The fan is a beast and the best for non-water cooling, no?

It's up there, but as I said in my first post (I did a ninja edit, so you probably didn't see it. Whoops) there are better options out there nowadays. If you're going to reuse it, it's not worth upgrading, but if you're buying a new one like you eluded to before there are better options on the market now (not much better, but still better). 

[PopsiclesInMyCellar]

7 minutes ago, HorseBattery said:

The 14700K can go as high as 280W in multithreaded workloads. It will be very difficult to cool under those conditions.

Techpowerup has a review of the 14700K including a detailed breakdown of power consumption:

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i7-14700k/22.html

So it will get throttled a little bit. But it shouldn't matter much for gaming? Maybe more if I was trying to render something?

[HorseBattery]

13 minutes ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

But it shouldn't matter much for gaming?

It will probably be fine for gaming despite the low efficiency. Some more games use more cores though, so it may depend which games you are playing.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

4 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Yeah, they've had some major quality control and customer service issues

Burning zen4 cpus with too high vsoc which they put out a beta bios that viods your warranty, garbage z690 apex boards that wont ram oc for shit, z690 heros having backwards capacitors, bent pcbs, the list goes on and on

 

unless you are getting a good deal there are better options available, particularly gigabyte msi and asrock

 

6 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Back in the DDR3 days they really were the kings (with a few exceptions if I'm buying a vintage DDR3 board, it's going to be ASUS), though since about Coffee Lake they have been kinda coasting on that reputation and everyone else has caught up quality wise and are fairly comparable with customer service, just without the prevalence of QC issues

Asrock msi and giga boards used to be kinda crap back in the day depending on which platform and particular model you look at

 

id say giga and asus were almost always neck and neck with boards like the ep45 ud3r/p and their ludicrous fsb capasbilities whilst asus only having the REX (though better for benching), giga h55 boards like the ud2h doing some absurdly high bclk (300+ on hwbot) though p55 seems to be held by asus, x58 where asus has good bclk capabilities but loses to gigabyte by a landslide when it comes to ram oc because stupid forced 1.5:1/2:1 uncore memclk ratio so x58a oc is king in my book but unfortunately very rare, giga still makes good boards but asus is just overpriced, maybe a g1 assassin or x58a ud7 or ex58 ud3r will work as a substitute

 

Msi and asrock were always either falling flat on their faces pre x58 or trailing behind before haswell but haswell onwards they started catching up and now they make some pretty good boards

 

 

Now that everyone has caught up and asus has been slacking in terms of qc and still being overpriced their boards just arent very interesting at all unless you get a good deal

[PopsiclesInMyCellar]

@Shimejii @HorseBattery @Somerandomtechyboi @RONOTHAN##

 

I appreciate everyone's input very much! I did purchase all 4 of the items I was initially thinking of. I just don't want to fuss and obsess about it too much, ya know... as long as everything is compatible.

 

I updated my PCPP list (here's a screenshot of what I purchased):

 

Tell me now if I'm an idiot and I should start a return on something.  Seems like the motherboard caused the most contention.

 

 

[191x7]

10 minutes ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

@Shimejii @HorseBattery @Somerandomtechyboi @RONOTHAN##

 

I appreciate everyone's input very much! I did purchase all 4 of the items I was initially thinking of. I just don't want to fuss and obsess about it too much, ya know... as long as everything is compatible.

 

I updated my PCPP list (here's a screenshot of what I purchased):

 

Tell me now if I'm an idiot and I should start a return on something.  Seems like the motherboard caused the most contention.

 

 

Everything is fine. I'd recommend obtaining an s1700 CPU contact frame. Those help a lot with the temps.

[KaitouX]

1 hour ago, Shimejii said:

Basically you need to bios update before it will even post (although some boards just read them as 13th gen and POST anyway)

The 14900K and 14600K do work, but the 14700K doesn't, as it isn't a rebrand of an existing 13th gen CPU. But considering 14th gen compatible BIOS started coming out over a month ago, it might already come with it.

If the you can't keep the temperatures in check you can easily power limit it a little bit to make it manageable.

Spoiler

On the 14900K a 66W power consumption decrease reduces performance by ~5% or less in heavy applications. The 13700K had similar scaling, so I expect the 14700K to also be similar. In games the difference is naturally even smaller.

[PopsiclesInMyCellar]

11 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Everything is fine. I'd recommend obtaining an s1700 CPU contact frame. Those help a lot with the temps.

Do you have a contact frame you recommend? I've never heard of those. The NH-D15 I just picked up won't come with anything? Pretty sure it has an adapter for the LGA 1700.

10 hours ago, KaitouX said:

The 14900K and 14600K do work, but the 14700K doesn't, as it isn't a rebrand of an existing 13th gen CPU. But considering 14th gen compatible BIOS started coming out over a month ago, it might already come with it.

If the you can't keep the temperatures in check you can easily power limit it a little bit to make it manageable.

  Reveal hidden contents

On the 14900K a 66W power consumption decrease reduces performance by ~5% or less in heavy applications. The 13700K had similar scaling, so I expect the 14700K to also be similar. In games the difference is naturally even smaller.

Noted, thanks!

[191x7]

3 hours ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

Do you have a contact frame you recommend? I've never heard of those. The NH-D15 I just picked up won't come with anything? Pretty sure it has an adapter for the LGA 1700.

Noted, thanks!

The contact frame isn't mounting hardware for the cooler.

 

 

 

Get the cheapest one, not worth more than $15 I'd say.

[PopsiclesInMyCellar]

1 minute ago, 191x7 said:

The contact frame isn't mounting hardware for the cooler.

 

 

 

Get the cheapest one, not worth more than $15 I'd say.

Are they really necessary? Why don't mobos just have this built in? Or CPUs ship with them?

[191x7]

3 minutes ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

Are they really necessary? Why don't mobos just have this built in? Or CPUs ship with them?

How about you watch the videos?

 

Almost 5°C difference with the Noctua NH-D15. And 5°C on a 13900K is not a small difference, for example, from 95°C to 90°C. In a worse airflow PC case, that difference might be the difference between thermal throttling and not throttling. 

[PopsiclesInMyCellar]

2 hours ago, 191x7 said:

How about you watch the videos?

 

Almost 5°C difference with the Noctua NH-D15. And 5°C on a 13900K is not a small difference, for example, from 95°C to 90°C. In a worse airflow PC case, that difference might be the difference between thermal throttling and not throttling. 

Thank you, I'll do that.

 

Do you have a recommendation on the best slots to plug my two SSDs into on my motherboard?

[PopsiclesInMyCellar]

4 hours ago, 191x7 said:

The contact frame isn't mounting hardware for the cooler.

 

 

 

Get the cheapest one, not worth more than $15 I'd say.

If I do get one, looks like it'll have to be the Thermalight one. Thermal Grizzly doesn't work with the screws for this mobo and ordering new screws sounds like a hassle.

 

Edit: sounds like I need a torque driver too to make sure I don't screw it in too hard? Sounds like a hassle.

 

 

 

[191x7]

7 hours ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

Thank you, I'll do that.

 

Do you have a recommendation on the best slots to plug my two SSDs into on my motherboard?

Doesn't really matter. Maybe some slots that won't be covered by the GPU?

[PopsiclesInMyCellar]

11 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Doesn't really matter. Maybe some slots that won't be covered by the GPU?

Looks like it does matter, actually (from the mobo webpage): ** When M.2_1 is occupied with SSD device, PCIEX16(G5) will run x8 only.

So I won't be using that slot for anything, I want my GPU to run at its max potential.

 

Edit: I also heard that contact frames for CPUs aren't necessary for fans, just for AIOs.

[191x7]

1 hour ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

Looks like it does matter, actually (from the mobo webpage): ** When M.2_1 is occupied with SSD device, PCIEX16(G5) will run x8 only.

So I won't be using that slot for anything, I want my GPU to run at its max potential.

 

Edit: I also heard that contact frames for CPUs aren't necessary for fans, just for AIOs.

And you did not watch the video(s), your comment prooves it. I rest my case, enjoy your whatever.

[PopsiclesInMyCellar]

18 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

And you did not watch the video(s), your comment prooves it. I rest my case, enjoy your whatever.

I did watch the videos. I also read other information in other research that indicated otherwise.

[191x7]

29 minutes ago, PopsiclesInMyCellar said:

I did watch the videos. I also read other information in other research that indicated otherwise.

So 5C lower for 5$ is not something you'd want? That costs less than some mediocre thermal paste...