PC Sherdog PC Build/Buy Thread, v6: My Power Supply Burned Down My House

[560ti]

lol , what do u guys think of that instead?

Great card for the price. Borderline RTX 2080 level performance but with RTX 2060 level power draw and price.

Really the only complaint is it's kinda of a tweener card (little overkill for 1080p but not quite a true 1440p card, AMD themselves technically advertise it as a 1080p card). It also doesn't like PCI 3.0 for those with older platforms

I'm thinking I might wait until Starfield comes out before I build a new machine then i can get 4000 series?

I wouldn't hold my breath on the 4000 series for two reasons.

1. It's not uncommon for Nvidia to release the xx70 and xx80 first and then wait at least a couple months for the xx50 and xx60. If performance and demand is high that means you might be looking at minimum $550 not including tax just to get it.

2. Word from Nvidia is that they plan on still making the 3000 series along with the 4000 series. If that's the case then they might milk the sub $400 market (EX: Use the 3050, 3060, and 3060 ti as there "sub $400 market" and then make the 4000 series their premier price/bracket)

 

[Luminosity]

Anybody else getting excited for the release of the 4000 gpu series coming out in the near future? I've been holding off building a new pc till the 4090 comes out that will crush 8k video in Premier Pro. Going to build a balls to the wall machine as soon as they get released.

So far I'm looking at getting the following with a 4090 unless some new better parts get released before then

Intel Core i9 12900K
ASUS ProArt Z690-CREATOR WIFI MB
Corsair DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB 64GB (2x32GB)
(x2) Seagate 2TB SSD, FireCuda 530, M.2 2280 NVMe 1.4 PCIe Gen4
Seagate 8TB IronWolf NAS 3.5" Hard Drive, SATA III
Cooler Master Cosmos C700M Black/Grey/Silver Full Tower ATX Case
ASUS ROG Thor 1000W Platinum II Power Supply
Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX Liquid CPU Cooler, 360mm Radiator, 3x ML120 RGB PWM Fans
ASUS ProArt Display PA329CV 32inch IPS Professional Monitor
(x2) Corsair ML120 PRO RGB 120mm Premium Magnetic Levitation PWM Fan, 3-Fan Pack with Lighting Node

 

[Madmick]

Intel Core i9 12900K

If you're going to wait on the 4000 series of GPUs, you should consider waiting to see what Intel & AMD have next for CPUs. The AM5 socket was just announced, so AMD's real answer to Alder Lake with DDR5 RAM support is coming. Also, be aware the 12900KF is the same CPU minus the onboard graphics for $50 less. Normally, it's well worth it to get the version with an iGPU in case you need to troubleshoot a PC down the road. But not for $50.

ASUS ProArt Z690-CREATOR WIFI MB

Seriously overspending. If willing to hit these price points, all you're really after is some of the highest end power delivery and cooling a motherboard can offer. With Asus, anything above the Strix-E is luxury spending where the upcharge is silly. The Strix-F is an even better value as their entry offering of luxury boards.

Corsair DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB 64GB (2x32GB)

The Corsair Dominator line has never been a memory line worth the money. Ridiculous premium. With RAM, unless you are specifically pursuing a certain trait (i.e. b-die, single-sided, etc) then just buy the best bang-for-your-buck sticks based on timings that isn't a Chinese-headquartered brand like OLOy.

(x2) Seagate 2TB SSD, FireCuda 530, M.2 2280 NVMe 1.4 PCIe Gen4

Another component like RAM where you really should just target whatever is offering the best value at the time you buy. Besides, the PCIe 5.0 SSDs are about to hit. ADATA teased their "Project Nighthawk" and "Project Nightbird" prototypes earlier this year, for example.

Seagate 8TB IronWolf NAS 3.5" Hard Drive, SATA III

That's a NAS HDD. Like a server HDD, it's intended to hold up to 24/7 usage. Waste of money. Just get the best bang-for-buck 7200RPM HDD. It's only for storage, after all.

Cooler Master Cosmos C700M Black/Grey/Silver Full Tower ATX Case

I see a theme here. You keep picking what you think are the "best" components in slot. This is a hypothetical dream build.

Waste of money. You can get everything a gamer would desire for under $200.

ASUS ROG Thor 1000W Platinum II Power Supply

Why not Titanium? Since this is a PC that will never exist anywhere except on paper. FYI, there are better PSUs with the same wattage for less money.

Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX Liquid CPU Cooler, 360mm Radiator, 3x ML120 RGB PWM Fans

Yeah, sure, and unlike most other parts here, this one actually makes sense in real-world builds seeking the highest-end of AIO performance.

ASUS ProArt Display PA329CV 32inch IPS Professional Monitor

This is a photographer/videographer's display. Terrible for gaming. You want speed, not color.

(x2) Corsair ML120 PRO RGB 120mm Premium Magnetic Levitation PWM Fan, 3-Fan Pack with Lighting Node

Your chosen case comes with 4x120mm fans. You don't need any more fans. You trying to run a wind farm?

 

[Luminosity]

If you're going to wait on the 4000 series of GPUs, you should consider waiting to see what Intel & AMD have next for CPUs. The AM5 socket was just announced, so AMD's real answer to Alder Lake with DDR5 RAM support is coming. Also, be aware the 12900KF is the same CPU minus the onboard graphics for $50 less. Normally, it's well worth it to get the version with an iGPU in case you need to troubleshoot a PC down the road. But not for $50.

Seriously overspending. If willing to hit these price points, all you're really after is some of the highest end power delivery and cooling a motherboard can offer. With Asus, anything above the Strix-E is luxury spending where the upcharge is silly. The Strix-F is an even better value as their entry offering of luxury boards.

The Corsair Dominator line has never been a memory line worth the money. Ridiculous premium. With RAM, unless you are specifically pursuing a certain trait (i.e. b-die, single-sided, etc) then just buy the best bang-for-your-buck sticks based on timings that isn't a Chinese-headquartered brand like OLOy.

Another component like RAM where you really should just target whatever is offering the best value at the time you buy. Besides, the PCIe 5.0 SSDs are about to hit. ADATA teased their "Project Nighthawk" and "Project Nightbird" prototypes earlier this year, for example.

That's a NAS HDD. Like a server HDD, it's intended to hold up to 24/7 usage. Waste of money. Just get the best bang-for-buck 7200RPM HDD. It's only for storage, after all.

I see a theme here. You keep picking what you think are the "best" components in slot. This is a hypothetical dream build.

Waste of money. You can get everything a gamer would desire for under $200.

Why not Titanium? Since this is a PC that will never exist anywhere except on paper. FYI, there are better PSUs with the same wattage for less money.

Yeah, sure, and unlike most other parts here, this one actually makes sense in real-world builds seeking the highest-end of AIO performance.

This is a photographer/videographer's display. Terrible for gaming. You want speed, not color.

Your chosen case comes with 4x120mm fans. You don't need any more fans. You trying to run a wind farm?

I forgot to mention that I am a professional photographer and videographer so some of the choices are aimed at a creatives build. The only game I really play is WOW so not really a gaming machine. The MB is chosen for the connectivity as I am running 1 color printer, 1 B+W printer, scanner, cameras, memory card readers, external hard drives etc.. Things like the flashy case etc are so that my office looks nice and professional. The better gear it appears you have the more money clients are willing to pay. Not really interested in more budget options as I get it all back on tax anyway. Building a dream build. Going to be mainly using it for Photoshop and editing in Premier Pro. The Premier footage is going to be 8k from my canon r5 camera which is a difficult codex for hardware and I want to be able to use it without having to waste time making proxies etc.. I understand it is overkill and not effective for gaming but this is going to be used for a workstation.

 

[Madmick]

I forgot to mention that I am a professional photographer and videographer so some of the choices are aimed at a creatives build. The only game I really play is WOW so not really a gaming machine. The MB is chosen for the connectivity as I am running 1 color printer, 1 B+W printer, scanner, cameras, memory card readers, external hard drives etc. Things like the flashy case etc are so that my office looks nice and professional.

Do you not connect printers and scanners to your computer over the WiFi?

The reason you spend more on the ProArt motherboard is for the additional USB front ports (easy temporary access for USB data exchange devices), for the Thunderbolt ports, for the 4 x m.2 slots, and for the second PCIe 5.0 slot-- presuming you intend to use it. Perhaps above all it is for the second RJ45 port for people who work in officers that will exchange huge amounts of data over a hyperfast LAN network between office computers.

I'd suggest you figure out precisely what your needs are because otherwise you might throw away $200+ dollars for features you won't use. I say this because, for example, you justify your case expenditure on aesthetics, when you should be figuring out how to accommodate the capability for 7x USB front ports. Otherwise, the Strix-E & Strix-F are capable of supporting far more total USB ports because they have 12 and 10 in the back, respectively, not just 6. And the easiest way to accommodate so many front port headers is with a USB front port expansion panel which you didn't include on your list. Those typically go in 5.25" ODD bays. However, because you picked a 360mm cooler, you're going to have to remove your ODD bay in that case.

You don't seem to have a coherent build plan.

The better gear it appears you have the more money clients are willing to pay. Not really interested in more budget options as I get it all back on tax anyway. Building a dream build. Going to be mainly using it for Photoshop and editing in Premier Pro. The Premier footage is going to be 8k from my canon r5 camera which is a difficult codex for hardware and I want to be able to use it without having to waste time making proxies etc.. I understand it is overkill and not effective for gaming but this is going to be used for a workstation.

That's a fine reason to go all-out for a 12900K and a high-end GPU. But the Corsair Dominator Platinum won't be any faster than much cheaper RAM, and the SSD you've selected isn't particularly fast. There are more rational decisions you can make.

 

[My Spot]

All the cool kids get Corsair Vengeance with no RGB.

 

[chrisdiaz]

I just got a 12600k I5, 16gbs Of DDR5 4800MHZ Ram, and a RTX3070 with a 165hz 27inch Dell Gaming monitor at work for free. We are taking up half the bandwidth of the office downloading 100gbs of games right now. Its a pretty boss computer.

 

[My Spot]

I just got a 12600k I5, 16gbs Of DDR5 4800MHZ Ram, and a RTX3070 with a 165hz 27inch Dell Gaming monitor at work for free. We are taking up half the bandwidth of the office downloading 100gbs of games right now. Its a pretty boss computer.

What kinda cooler do you have for that unlocked i5?

 

[Blayt7hh]

All the cool kids get Corsair Vengeance with no RGB.

Yeah right if it doesn’t have RGB then that means it’s slow

 

[chrisdiaz]

What kinda cooler do you have for that unlocked i5?

Its a liquid cooler that dell makes. This was a prebuilt XPS they sent us, it wasnt custom built unfortunately. Thats the only way we could slip the 3070's past our supervisor lol.

 

[PEB]

Did not want to start a new thread this is an older interview and it's interesting talk by Jim Keller and he believes there is still decades of improvements left in density of the chip. He said basically it comes down to who will continue to lead in the race to continue the advancement. He talks about EUV machines and about how they were able to see a 10x improvement and that there is still room in Moore's law for improvement with X-Ray lithography. He talks about TSMC, AMD, Samsung and Intel not being the real players in making these advancements as ASML and smaller players are pushing the physics to new levels. Pretty good because it was not long but he allowed Jim to talk and got right to the point.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Lately I;ve been looking at a computer from Xidax. Their website looks a little shoddy though, but I like their options.

I'm hearing though that in addition to 13000 seriess Intel coming out later this year, the next set of motherboard is, the Z790 or whatever the number is. With support for PCI5 nVMEs, though I wonder if that is just a level of speed that doesn't offer anything in practice over the current gen 4 PCI levels which are already absurdly high.

I still have it in my head it's best to wait for the next series of Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs.

 

[Neph]

I'd say PCIe Gen5 is going to be all hype for a good while. I'd not even consider that in your purchasing decision unless for whatever reason you regularly transfer massive amounts of data between SSDs and absolutely cannot wait 5 minutes. If you're going Intel then there's no 'future proofing' anyway since it's roughly every two generations of CPUs that there's a new motherboard and you're overpaying for a feature that does literally nothing for now.

In my opinion if you are going midrange and can get things at MSRP, get it now. If you are going for higher end and can afford to wait then there's new AMD and Intel CPUs coming soon along with a refreshed GPU line up. Even if you aren't keen on the new line up they may push older components downwards.

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Been wanting to build a gaming PC for a while and finally decided to pull the trigger on parts now that GPU's have come down considerably.

Started with the GPU, since they've been the hardest to get, and picked up this when at like 31% off:

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Vision OC 12G Graphics Card, 3X WINDFORCE Fans, 12GB 384-bit GDDR6X, GV-N308TVISION OC-12GD Video Card

Went over to PC Part Picker to start trying to put a build together, but I have no idea what I should be looking for since I'm a PC ignoramous. After a little bit of reading it seems that the Intel CPU's are better this gen than the Ryzen counterparts, so decided on picking up:

Intel Core i9-12900K Desktop Processor 16 (8P+8E) Cores up to 5.2 GHz Unlocked LGA1700 600 Series Chipset 125W

Seemed like a bit of overkill, but while I'm already dropping some coin on the build I thought I would throw some parts that would have some longevity.

What other components would pair well with these? Trying to sift through RAM and coolers, etc I'm scratching my head on what will work. I had a budget 2 years ago when I start thinking about this and have been saving since, so I'm willing to good components into it.

 

[Neph]

Go nuts on the CPU if you want to but the $ you'll spend there are not going to be reflected in any appreciable gameplay difference. Those top end CPUs are great for workstations if you are compiling/encoding/video editing, but for games they do so close to nothing that it might as well be nothing.

A good reference video with benchmarks:



TLDR - unless you want to waste money go for a 12600 or 12700 and use DDR4 memory. DDR5 is grossly expensive and its current format makes no sense since it makes next to no improvements. The 12600 or 12700 won't require as expensive a cooler on it either.

Lastly I'd keep looking around at 3080ti's, this is the current pricing on PC Part Picker and you can get better than $1329 USD:

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c0=di_pcie.x16&A=1&c=505

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Go nuts on the CPU if you want to but the $ you'll spend there are not going to be reflected in any appreciable gameplay difference. Those top end CPUs are great for workstations if you are compiling/encoding/video editing, but for games they do so close to nothing that it might as well be nothing.

A good reference video with benchmarks:



TLDR - unless you want to waste money go for a 12600 or 12700 and use DDR4 memory. DDR5 is grossly expensive and its current format makes no sense since it makes next to no improvements. The 12600 or 12700 won't require as expensive a cooler on it either.

Lastly I'd keep looking around at 3080ti's, this is the current pricing on PC Part Picker and you can get better than $1329 USD:

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c0=di_pcie.x16&A=1&c=505

I got the GPU for the price that part picker has at 1099. I just used the same Amazon link and the price has gone up since I bought it.

I was torn on the CPU, but since the wife does video editing I decided to go all in so she can use it as well.

 

[Neph]

I got the GPU for the price that part picker has at 1099. I just used the same Amazon link and the price has gone up since I bought it.

I was torn on the CPU, but since the wife does video editing I decided to go all in so she can use it as well.

It's going to be a real monster then! You'll love it.

Make sure you get a good case for thermals and either a truly top end (Noctua) tower cooler or a good quality AIO (probably 360mm). You'll need it for that build with the amount of heat it will produce. I'm sorry I can't really recommend the ideal parts in this field, hopefully someone else can step in for you here.

 

[Madmick]

Been wanting to build a gaming PC for a while and finally decided to pull the trigger on parts now that GPU's have come down considerably.

Started with the GPU, since they've been the hardest to get, and picked up this when at like 31% off:

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Vision OC 12G Graphics Card, 3X WINDFORCE Fans, 12GB 384-bit GDDR6X, GV-N308TVISION OC-12GD Video Card

Went over to PC Part Picker to start trying to put a build together, but I have no idea what I should be looking for since I'm a PC ignoramous. After a little bit of reading it seems that the Intel CPU's are better this gen than the Ryzen counterparts, so decided on picking up:

Intel Core i9-12900K Desktop Processor 16 (8P+8E) Cores up to 5.2 GHz Unlocked LGA1700 600 Series Chipset 125W

Seemed like a bit of overkill, but while I'm already dropping some coin on the build I thought I would throw some parts that would have some longevity.

What other components would pair well with these? Trying to sift through RAM and coolers, etc I'm scratching my head on what will work. I had a budget 2 years ago when I start thinking about this and have been saving since, so I'm willing to good components into it.

Something like this:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/C4rDk9

Notes:

< Cooler >
EVGA CLC 360 is an absolute steal at that price. That's why it has surged to #53 on Amazon 24-hour bestseller list in the "Heatsinks" category (almost none of these are actual coolers). Doubt it lasts long. The caveats with this cooler are, first, that it has an awful installation manual, but fortunately @MusterX figured this out for you when he got the 280mm, IIRC, you can find those posts; second, it is also incredibly thick, like Gamers Nexus's current champion of noise-normalized thermals, the Arctic Freezer II, but this isn't an issue with my recommended build because the Corsair 5000D Airflow supports side mounting for the cooler, and this happens to be the best way to install any 360mm AIO for overall air flow strategy; third, it will be too loud at max RPM, which is why it's #2 on GN's all-time absolute cooling performance, but you can adjust this using software. Noise-normalized performance is what matters, and it is excellent. Since your wife does video editing, the 12900K can get incredibly hot drawing on all cores, so this is why I suggest such a powerful cooler.

<Motherboard>
For the motherboard, I think the B660 MSI Tomahawk is more than enough because I doubt you intend to manually overclock the CPU, and it has a killer feature set. The big decision is going DDR4 or DDR5, but DDR5 is still seriously overpriced, and in fact, even has drawbacks currently such as severe 1% low framerate drops due to the high timings that would seem to counter its minor overall framerate average advantage over much, much cheaper DDR4 RAM.

<RAM>
If you're someone who googles, ignore the bad review for this Patriot RAM from Tom's Hardware. Reviews like that are aimed at RAM overclocking monkeys. That was at double the price it is here ($195 MSRP for two sticks instead of $100), and as you can see from the review, it performs exactly as expected when the XMP profile is enabled for a 4000MHz CL20 kit. You don't care about overclocking headroom because you won't manually overclock it. You'll select XMP in the BIOS, and voila, you're done. Besides, video editing can benefit from more RAM. It would be much better for your wife to buy 4x of these sticks for 64GB than to spend $150 for just 32GB of the next step up in RAM performance (4400MHZ CL19 kit).

<SSD>
ADATA S70 Blade is easily the cheapest high-end NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD out there. You can opt for the 1TB version for half the price, but since you're spending pretty big on this unit, I'd suggest the 2TB. No premium.

<PSU>
850W ought to be ample. As thrifty as can be for a top-tier unit.

<Case & Fans>
As mentioned above, I chose the Corsair 5000D Airflow because it supports side mounting for the 360mm AIO. This is ideal because you don't have to put it the front and suck hot air into the case, and you don't have to put it on top, where you might end up with uncomfortable clearance with the motherboard and its components. The case comes with 2x120mm fans: one in the front, and one in the back. You'll take the one from the front, and move it to the rearmost mount on the top of the case, oriented for exhaust. The two Arctic F14 fans (140mm) I suggest for purchase separately will be mounted to the front for intake. So it's traditional front-to-back airflow. Overall, it will be negative pressure, because the AIO will exhaust the CPU's hot air through those 3x120mm fans from the EVGA CLC cooler, so it's 2x140mm intake vs. 5x120mm exhaust in total, but that's okay.

<OS>
Windows 11 despite that it sucks because you want the full DX12 feature set.

 

[MusterX]

EVGA CLC 360 is an absolute steal at that price. That's why it has surged to #53 on Amazon 24-hour bestseller list in the "Heatsinks" category (almost none of these are actual coolers). Doubt it lasts long. The caveats with this cooler are, first, that it has an awful installation manual, but fortunately @MusterX figured this out for you when he got the 280mm, IIRC, you can find those posts; second, it is also incredibly thick

Yea I got the 360 X 120mm. Its not the thick but its incredibly long. If you have a small case it wouldn't fit. I've been using the computer itself now about 3 years so I've had the EVGA 360 for maybe 2.5 years. I will say it still running strong and cools my CPU like a champ. Even under full load my CPU never goes above about 50 or 60 Celsius. Usually my problem with water coolers is the pump at some point goes bad but so far this one has been going strong. And yes, the manual it came with was dogshit in terms of actually showing the connections. You get more of just a verbal, hey, connect that shit to the motherboard somewhere type of text instruction and you are on your own. Maybe they changed it by now.

For the price, I think I got mine on sale for $119 or something like that, its been damn good. The $89.99 price @Madmick found is incredible for that cooler. Cools great, has lasted going on 3 years so far.

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

Something like this:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/C4rDk9

Notes:

< Cooler >
EVGA CLC 360 is an absolute steal at that price. That's why it has surged to #53 on Amazon 24-hour bestseller list in the "Heatsinks" category (almost none of these are actual coolers). Doubt it lasts long. The caveats with this cooler are, first, that it has an awful installation manual, but fortunately @MusterX figured this out for you when he got the 280mm, IIRC, you can find those posts; second, it is also incredibly thick, like Gamers Nexus's current champion of noise-normalized thermals, the Arctic Freezer II, but this isn't an issue with my recommended build because the Corsair 5000D Airflow supports side mounting for the cooler, and this happens to be the best way to install any 360mm AIO for overall air flow strategy; third, it will be too loud at max RPM, which is why it's #2 on GN's all-time absolute cooling performance, but you can adjust this using software. Noise-normalized performance is what matters, and it is excellent. Since your wife does video editing, the 12900K can get incredibly hot drawing on all cores, so this is why I suggest such a powerful cooler.

<Motherboard>
For the motherboard, I think the B660 MSI Tomahawk is more than enough because I doubt you intend to manually overclock the CPU, and it has a killer feature set. The big decision is going DDR4 or DDR5, but DDR5 is still seriously overpriced, and in fact, even has drawbacks currently such as severe 1% low framerate drops due to the high timings that would seem to counter its minor overall framerate average advantage over much, much cheaper DDR4 RAM.

<RAM>
If you're someone who googles, ignore the bad review for the Patriot RAM from Tom's Hardware. Reviews like that are aimed at RAM overclocking monkeys. That was at double the price it is here ($195 MSRP for two sticks instead of $100), and as you can see from the review, it performs exactly as expected when the XMP profile is enabled for a 4000MHz CL20 kit. You don't care about overclocking headroom because you won't manually overclock it. You'll select XMP in the BIOS, and voila, you're done. Besides, video editing can benefit from more RAM. It would be much better for your wife to buy 4x of these sticks for 64GB than to spend $150 for just 32GB of the next step up in RAM performance (4400MHZ CL19 kit).

<SSD>
ADATA S70 Blade is easily the cheapest high-end NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD out there. You can opt for the 1TB version for half the price, but since you're spending pretty big on this unit, I'd suggest the 2TB. No premium.

<PSU>
850W ought to be ample. As thrifty as can be for a top-tier unit.

<Case & Fans>
As mentioned above, I chose the Corsair 5000D Airflow because it supports side mounting for the 360mm AIO. This is ideal because you don't have to put it the front and suck hot air into the case, and you don't have to put it on top, where you might end up with uncomfortable clearance with the motherboard and its components. The case comes with 2x120mm fans: one in the front, and one in the back. You'll take the one from the front, and move it to the rearmost mount on the top of the case, oriented for exhaust. The two Arctic F14 fans (140mm) I suggest for purchase separately will be mounted to the front for intake. So it's traditional front-to-back airflow. Overall, it will be negative pressure, because the AIO will exhaust the CPU's hot air through those 3x120mm fans from the EVGA CLC cooler, so it's 2x140mm intake vs. 5x120mm exhaust in total, but that's okay.

<OS>
Windows 11 despite that it sucks because you want the full DX12 feature set.

Awesome, thanks for this detailed post!