New Gaming Desktop / configuration help

EvoEvo

Hi Guys

After 8 years my old laptop gaming is dead. Now I have the opportunity to buy a new desktop gaming this time.

Budget 1500/2000 max, I hope to buy something that lasts several years. I'm not in a rush, probably I`ll buy it in January/February.

I tried this specification on PC specialist and I have some silly questions. I'm not very updated on this matter.

Case

LIAN LI LANCOOL 205 MESH C GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700K (Up to 5.0GHz) 25MB Cache

Motherboard

ASUS® TUF GAMING Z790-PLUS WIFI D4 (LGA1700, DDR4, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6)

Memory (RAM)

32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)

Graphics Card

16GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4060 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR

1st M.2 SSD Drive

1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)

1st Storage Drive

2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE

Power Supply

CORSAIR 650W CV SERIES™ CV-650 POWER SUPPLY

Power Cable

1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Processor Cooling

PCS FrostFlow 100 ARGB V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (INTEL)

Thermal Paste

STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card

Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy Rx

Network Card

ONBOARD LAN PORT

USB/Thunderbolt Options

MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

€1,906.00inc VAT and Delivery

My questions 

1) it is worthed the Motherboard

ASUS® TUF GAMING Z790-PLUS WIFI D4 instead of 760? 50 E difference.

2) is buying an SSD for Windows and a normal Storage Drive still okay like in the description? or it's better to have 2 SSD?

3) about Sound Card

Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy Rx, do you think is worth 71 E extra instead of the standard Onboard 6 channel 51 high-def audio? 

4) pc specialist is ok? I have read good reviews about it.

Please let me know if something is not right or where I may save some money.😄

Thank you

minitrue

1) It's probably worth getting a Z790 over a B760 when you are going with a recent Intel K processor though probably doesn't matter with that cpu cooler unless you plan to overclock in which case you probably wouldn't be asking? I have to admit I'm too lazy right now to dig into the exact boards they offer.

2) At this budget I detest the idea of having a spinning drive and would always go all ssd and just one is generally fine (and certainly easier for future upgrades).

3) I really doubt it's worth it, if the onboard isn't good enough for you then you probably want a nice external DAC, it could depend a bit what headphones/speakers you plan to hook up just what the best option is for you.

4) No idea really, about the only good-ish thing I can personally say about them is at least they use standard parts. They are charging you about €200 to build it Vs buying those exact same parts including a retail copy of Windows so make that more like €330 if you bought a cheap key. You can just get it from them without windows to save €142 and then either just run windows with it's watermark and trivial limits or buy a cheap key.

From that build I like the case choice and the graphics card is probably ok (note they don't say what model it is though so presume it's the cheapest thing they can find) but just about everything else is pretty questionable: 12700K Vs 13600K if Intel or 7600/7800X3D if AMD, DDR4 AND "only" 3200MHz, Corsair CV 650W power supply, cheap ssd, already mentioned the hard drive, who knows what garbage of a cpu cooler (madness with a 12700K). So for all they aren't necessarily making an absolute fortune compared to buying the exact same things, you could buy a lot smarter to either save more money or get better stuff.

What sort of monitor are you planning to use (resolution and refresh rate)? What sort of games do you care about? Even if you are just hoping someone might suggest what options to pick from pcspecialist the answers to those questions will help a lot!

Are you game to build your own or do you really want a prebuilt?

To give you an idea, roughly the same sort of price, maxing out your budget could get you the following building yourself:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor (€369.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)

CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler (€38.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Motherboard: ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2 Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard (€139.88 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (€127.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Storage: Kingston NV2 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€207.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Video Card: Zotac GAMING Trinity GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB Video Card (€855.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case (€84.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Power Supply: Corsair RM850e (2023) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€109.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)

Total: €1934.55

That's the best gaming cpu (or at least a good debate Vs the €600 Intel power hungry options), very good air cooler, solid basic board, best sane ram to pair with it, 4TB cheap but not stupid ssd, 2 steps up on the gpu (about 50% faster), maybe not quite as good a case but a very solid choice and a much better power supply.

Or if you don't overly care about ray-tracing and nvidia exclusive stuff (the DLSS family) but wanted to stick with 16GB (or more) for the long term security you could get a 7800xt for about €550, 6950xt for about €680 or a 7900xtx for €950 (a 7900xt should be maybe €50 cheaper than the 4070ti but right now it's €50 more for one from Amazon and the 7900xtx is at a bargain price). If you hadn't picked an nvidia card I'd have dropped back to 2TB on the ssd and stuck in that 7900xtx.

Or drop to a Ryzen 7600, 16GB 4060ti (or 7700xt) and 2TB ssd and it's more like €1300 and I'd still much prefer it personally for gaming to the build you posted. That would leave you a lot of money for monitor, DAC, headphones, webcam, keyboard, mouse, powerline adapters/wifi, desk, chair or whatever you fancy including just keeping it in your wallet ;) Or if your games and monitor choices warranted it (e.g. 4K60 and not cpu heavy games) you could swap in a 7900xtx right now and land broadly in the middle of your range.

Prices are always moving about a bit so come Jan/Feb things aren't likely to line up perfectly with the above but really only the €950 7900xtx is an unusual price and case availability from Amazon direct is always fun so that's also slightly nice to have there right now.

EvoEvo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121496294#Comment_121496294

Thank you for replying.

Yes, I prefer a prebuilt to be honest, that's why I have checked with pcspecialist.

Thank you for your feedback .😀

Homelander

Strikes me as dreadful value to be honest. 2k for a machine with 4060ti and DDR4? I get you want pre-built, but there are way better deals than that.

EvoEvo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121499785#Comment_121499785

got it, I`ll check the DDr5 and a better graphic card.

cnocbui

Seems like poor value to me.

I just built a system for a bit over that at €2140

Which got me:

Asus micro ATX case

32GB Corsair DDR5 RAM

2TB Western Digital SSD

AMD 7600X processor

Asrock B650M pro RS WIFI board

Noctua NHD12L air cooler

A 1000w EVGA power supply (was supposed to be an 850w Seasonic)

AMD Saphire Nitro 7900 XTX

I also got a 'free' copy of Avatar Frontiers of Pandora via AMD Rewards. Arch Linux for free.

Homelander

Also what monitor do you have. Big difference in how a machine will last over a few years if it's 1080p60hz vs 1440p165hz for example.

But there's no point spending 2K on a PC to use brute force to last 5 years if it's the former, when an €800-1k PC now, and a minor upgrade in 2 or 3 years would cost far less and offer much better value.