New PC build

[Psychoclops]

Hi all!

My current PC is now 12 years old, it doesn't support Win11 and the mobo is dying on it anyway (all the back usb ports are dead and some pci-e's are dying/playing up). I have a budget of around £2,000 (I'm UK based) and have come up with the following (it comes in at £1,837 as the monitor is on a seperate budget) Thoughts?:

Case
be quiet! SHADOW BASE 800 FX GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 20-Core Processor i7-14700F (Up to 5.4GHz) 33MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z790-PLUS WIFI (LGA1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)

Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)

Graphics Card
16GB ZOTAC GEFORCE RTX 4060 Ti TWIN EDGE - HDMI, 3 x DP
+Graphics Card Support Bracket

1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)

External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW

Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER

Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Processor Cooling
FrostFlow 200 Series High Performance CPU Cooler

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND

Extra Case Fans
2 x ARGB LED Fan

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Card
ONBOARD LAN PORT

Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)

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

Windows 11 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence

Monitor: MSI 32" CURVED G32CQ4 E2 - 2560 x 1440, 1ms, 170Hz

I did consider liquid cooling but didn't see the point as I'm not going for overclocks, like my current system I go as far as I can afford so it lasts for ages. The only upgrade on my current PC was the graphics from a 580 to a 980. A 4070 is about £80 more than the 4060ti I've chosen. I've seen the Intel Arc A770 graphics card, are they any good?

Cheers

psychoclops

[felter]

I did consider liquid cooling but didn't see the point as I'm not going for overclocks.

Cheers

psychoclops

I just have to say this, you do realize the cooler you say you are thinking of getting is an AIO (All In One) liquid cooler. The other thing about an AIO you have to replace them about every 4 to 5 years and if one thing breaks on them, you have to replace the whole thing. Not a fan of them myself but whatever, The Be Quiet's silent loop AIO is a pretty interesting AIO as you can top up the liquid in that system, which is the main reason why you have to replace an AIO after a few years, but it is a little bit more expensive.

Intel's 14000f's have a really bad reputation of breaking, though Intel have said they have solved the issue, but they have said that before and people still have chips failing on them. Right now if you can get it you are better going after an AMD 9800X3d it is by far currently the best gaming CPU on the market. Also, I would stay clear of ASUS right now, their reputation went down to toilet last year as they have been screwing their customers over. Need more information on the memory as there are literally thousands of different versions of Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz memory. Graphics cards are so hard to recommend right now, especially as the newer cards from all of them are being released over the next couple of months, one thing the A770 is not as good as the newer intel GPU's the B580 is, the card they are all raving about right now, while it looks like the B770 is being delayed, and that was supposed to be as good as a 4080, but a lot cheaper. Can I also say the older GPU's are cheaper to run and just as good the last gen card were, they were so disappointing and lack lustre while being overpriced, as far as I can tell the new 5070 is going to cost the same as the older 4070 and should be released by the end of next month, so expect a price drop from the current gen pretty soon.

[Psychoclops]

I did consider liquid cooling but didn't see the point as I'm not going for overclocks.

Cheers

psychoclops

I just have to say this, you do realize the cooler you say you are thinking of getting is an AIO (All In One) liquid cooler. The other thing about an AIO you have to replace them about every 4 to 5 years and if one thing breaks on them, you have to replace the whole thing. Not a fan of them myself but whatever, The Be Quiet's silent loop AIO is a pretty interesting AIO as you can top up the liquid in that system, which is the main reason why you have to replace an AIO after a few years, but it is a little bit more expensive.

It isn't an AIO, it's a heat pipe air cooler (The FrostFlow 200 is a twin tower cooler and features 7 heat pipes and two 120mm PWM fans (1300RPM and 700-1800RPM). I think you may be thinking of the 240 which is an AIO.

As for the graphics, as I'm not in an immediate rush I could hold off for a bit and see what happens?

I've never been a fan of AMD, but then I've been 'out of the loop' for quite some time lol.

[felter]

I honestly cannot find the cooler, the results I get are always for AIO's. Anyway, I don't know if that cooler (even though I don't know it) would be suitable for a 1400F as they run really, really hot it may be okay, but the chip will probably run at max temps to be honest you would probably better getting the Noctua NH-D15 for air cooling, but they are expensive, the bang for buck best air cooler is the 120 peerless assassin, as Steve from Gamers Nexus puts it, the GOAT of all air coolers.

[chew-ie]

I recently build a new PC and switched from Intel to AMD. Those damaged CPU stories drove me away TBH. While I never had any particular favourite (just happened to have an intel someday) loosing my rig due to faulty hardware didn't sound appealing.
Also, I finally let go of Windows as OS for my gaming endeavours. (switched to linux in that area as well as my SteamDeck proofed it is very possible for my whole gaming library). I already used a lot of linux on my other rigs & for development and media. But Fedora Core 41 it is now for gaming

My components which work quite nice so far (only the fan is a bit too loud for my taste - I'll probably replace that one)

- AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16x 4.30GHz
- Gigabyte X870E AORUS Master
- 64GB (2x 32GB) Kingston FURY Beast DDR5-6400
- 4TB WD Black SN850X M.2 PCIe NVMe
- be quiet! Pure Base 600 midi tower
- 1000W be quiet! Pure Power 12 M
- be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 5 tower cooler (toyed around with water cooling on that component, but choose this at the end)

I'm using a 4070ti super from my previous rig and it is a beast even in 4K. I read some good stuff about the Intel Arc A770, you should definately have a closer look on that one.

[Psychoclops]

I honestly cannot find the cooler, the results I get are always for AIO's. Anyway, I don't know if that cooler (even though I don't know it) would be suitable for a 1400F as they run really, really hot it may be okay, but the chip will probably run at max temps to be honest you would probably better getting the Noctua NH-D15 for air cooling, but they are expensive, the bang for buck best air cooler is the 120 peerless assassin, as Steve from Gamers Nexus puts it, the GOAT of all air coolers.

It seems to be exclusive to PCS, not much info on it to be honest. My current system has a Titan Fenrir EVO Extreme Heatpipe CPU Cooler in it which has been awesome bolted to my 3930K for the past 12 years, but I'm not sure if it will fit the new processor or even if it's good enough to cool it. PCS don't offer much in the way of coolers.

[felter]

That explains some of the choices, I thought you were building it by yourself. With PCS you do have a limited choice, there are others have a look at CREATE PCs their component choice is way and above, though I don't know what their pricing is like, but they specialize in gaming PC's

[Psychoclops]

That explains some of the choices, I thought you were building it by yourself. With PCS you do have a limited choice, there are others have a look at CREATE PCs their component choice is way and above, though I don't know what their pricing is like, but they specialize in gaming PC's

I used to self build many, many moons ago

I'll certainly take a look at that link, thank you.

I've looked into the intel issues you mentioned, I had thought they were resolved but apparently not! Maybe a switch to AMD is in order!

[burger1]

be quiet! SHADOW BASE 800 FX GAMING CASE - case seems ok. A bit pricey but good quality

Intel® Core™ i7 20-Core Processor i7-14700F (Up to 5.4GHz) 33MB Cache - might suffer from the overvoltage issues. Would need to update the mainboards bios and use the ME (management engine) driver thats paired with that bios. Would also have to use intel defaults when selecting stuff in the bios. Can install hwinfo and see what the max vcore goes up to under load. If it's too high then an issue. Haven't had any issues with my i7-13700k. Amd might be another choice as an alternative. Current issues are when amd switched over to the LGA from PGA the cpu sometimes slides in the socket when closing the cpu clamp. This damages the mainboard pins and socket and also the cpu sometimes.

PL2 performance settings 253 watts

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/proces ... d-current/

16GB ZOTAC GEFORCE RTX 4060 Ti TWIN EDGE - A double fan gpu need a support bracket? New gpus are launching soon. Tariffs might be a concern if you live in US/Canada.

CORSAIR 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET - e series might have louder fans than say a rm750x series. Might be same price as a rm850x anyways. Check pcpartpicker for your region. Can look at the price history graph also.

FrostFlow 200 Series High Performance CPU Cooler - might not cool the cpu under high loads for longer times. Air coolers might also not be able to cool the cpu. Can use tons of power under artificial loads. With intel defaults will get limited PL2 anyways. Can also lower the PL2 to what you want. Will be called different things in different bioses. It's the short term turbo boost power limit.

4070 super might be a better deal than a 4070 currently. Price goes up each tier so it ends up being rather ridiculous.

Check camel camel camel for amazon price history. Might not matter so much due to the potential changes in the world.

Check pcpartpicker for price history, stats and possibly deals. Doesn't always show stuff correctly and misses some deals.

Check amazon ratings for product quality. Choose only the specific model you are buying and look at recent reviews. Products aren't always made the same and can sometimes get flawed parts over time.

Can ask on https://www.reddit.com/r/buildmeapc/ or go through other peoples recommendations.

Need to worry about manufacturers honouring warranties in your region. Some might not based either on country or the seller not being an authorized dealer.

Don't buy intel graphics card. You cpu should work well with the gpu. Currently there's a cpu overhead issue with the current drivers but only effects older/slower cpus. B580 beats the a770. B580 doesn't work well in some games. 4060ti 16gb is more consistent. 8 gb 4060 ti version has too little vram.

Look at an equivalent monitor in a store? Curved isn't for everyone. 1440p 170 mhz might be a challenge to max out the 170 frame rate? Can probably change the refresh rate anyways, etc... Will very likely have to mess around with the monitors brightness, contrast, etc... to get a good screen experience. Defaults usually aren't very good. You can ~ calibrate it using youtube videos, webpages etc... Windows has a build in calibration tool I think.

[Gavrushka]

Lord, all I wanted to say is you get a lot more for your money than 4 years ago! I paid £500 more for half that spec. Progress... Mind, a lump of that was the £700 a 3070 cost back then. I also went for a 850 watt PSU, so there was plenty of headroom for upgrading. (Oh, and a multi USB card, which I am so pleased I did.)

I did go for liquid cooling, and a maxed out fan case, including two internal ones blasting down onto the PSU. Never regretted that (marginal) additional expenditure.

[CBJ]

Don't buy intel graphics card. You cpu should work well with the gpu. Currently there's a cpu overhead issue with the current drivers but only effects older/slower cpus. B580 beats the a770. B580 doesn't work well in some games. 4060ti 16gb is more consistent. 8 gb 4060 ti version has too little vram.

I'm not sure whether the OP is planning to play X4 on this rig, but just in case: we have been seeing a lot of reports that X4 doesn't work with Intel graphics hardware. Whether this is a hardware limitation or a driver issue, we're not yet sure. Intel's history of driver support for gaming is patchy to put it mildly, and while I'd like to think that their commitment to the newer cards might lead to an improvement to that record, there's not a lot of evidence of that happening so far.

[Psychoclops]

Don't buy intel graphics card. You cpu should work well with the gpu. Currently there's a cpu overhead issue with the current drivers but only effects older/slower cpus. B580 beats the a770. B580 doesn't work well in some games. 4060ti 16gb is more consistent. 8 gb 4060 ti version has too little vram.

I'm not sure whether the OP is planning to play X4 on this rig, but just in case: we have been seeing a lot of reports that X4 doesn't work with Intel graphics hardware. Whether this is a hardware limitation or a driver issue, we're not yet sure. Intel's history of driver support for gaming is patchy to put it mildly, and while I'd like to think that their commitment to the newer cards might lead to an improvement to that record, there's not a lot of evidence of that happening so far.

I've done a bit of research into the Intel cards, great if you want to cost save but they do have a few issues with certain games. I think I'll stick to Nvidea for this PC. It does look like I'll have to go with a liquid cooler, apparently they're much more reliable now than when I last looked a very long time ago.

[jlehtone]

One more note:

Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z790-PLUS WIFI (LGA1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)

Network Card
ONBOARD LAN PORT

That board has Intel 2.5 Gbps LAN port. Like gen 13/14 CPU's, those Intel 2.5 Gbps NICs have had some bad rep. Not sure whether it was/is driver or what. The 1 Gbps Intel NICs are very reliable, AFAIK.

[Terre]

At this moment in time, I would not build an Intel based system, or consider an AIO, I'm increasingly seeing reports of mould clogging in heat exchangers.

[felter]

At this moment in time, I would not build an Intel based system, or consider an AIO, I'm increasingly seeing reports of mould clogging in heat exchangers.

That clogging makes sense of some comments I have read, where some were complaining that their AIO had well clogged up with some kind of white gunk, I'm wondering if they are using something less toxic than they used to use and that's causing the issue, what with them being a throwaway item using a toxic substance could cause a serious issue.

By the way, I just learned tonight Intel currently only now have 30% of the CPU market with AMD at 60%, that's a major turn around from just a few years back, just shows how quickly things can easily go pear shaped.

[Oldman]

Hi All

I honestly cannot find the cooler, the results I get are always for AIO's. Anyway, I don't know if that cooler (even though I don't know it) would be suitable for a 1400F as they run really, really hot it may be okay, but the chip will probably run at max temps to be honest you would probably better getting the Noctua NH-D15 for air cooling, but they are expensive, the bang for buck best air cooler is the 120 peerless assassin, as Steve from Gamers Nexus puts it, the GOAT of all air coolers.

It seems to be exclusive to PCS, not much info on it to be honest. My current system has a Titan Fenrir EVO Extreme Heatpipe CPU Cooler in it which has been awesome bolted to my 3930K for the past 12 years, but I'm not sure if it will fit the new processor or even if it's good enough to cool it. PCS don't offer much in the way of coolers.

I'm fairly sure this is the Cooler in question, or very much like it and re-branded.
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/id-c ... -xt-black/

And this is the computer case you quote (Either in black or white?).
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/be-quie ... tx-matx-at
It's a well known brand and should be high quality, plus it comes with 4? fans as standard. There are cheaper offerings out there with the same high quality, and better features I think personally.

I've got a six pipe fan cooler for my cpu (Ryzen 7800x3D) and it's quite adequate, with temperatures rarely going above 60 C in high end games and low to mid 30's in ordinary 'idle' mode. I'm gaming now and also posting on this forum...cpu is reading 57.5 degrees C.
If I was building a computer now it would be an AMD based build, and a good mid to high range motherboard, but that would be mainly for gaming.
For more mainstream work Intel might be better, but with the new AMD boards and the newer AMD cpu's I'd still go the AMD route.

There's not a lot of difference from reviews I've seen between the RTX 4060ti 8GB and the 4060ti 16 GB in current games. A Radeon RX 7700 XT or the slightly more expensive RX 7800 XT would be a bit more future proof for gaming. (see tomshardware's GPU & CPU benchmarks).
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gp ... ,4388.html

Hope this helps,
Oldman

[Psychoclops]

A little update, I went ahead a few months ago with this setup:

Case
be quiet! SHADOW BASE 800 FX GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 20-Core Processor i7-14700F (Up to 5.4GHz) 33MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z790-P (LGA1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0)

Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz CL36 (2 x 16GB)

Graphics Card
12GB ZOTAC GEFORCE RTX 4070 SUPER Twin Edge - HDMI, 3 x DP

Graphics Card Support Bracket
PCS ARGB GRAPHICS CARD SUPPORT BRACKET

1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB CORSAIR CORE XT MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 5000 MB/R, 4400 MB/W)

Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK TITAN 280 RX RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER

Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND APPLICATION

Extra Case Fans
3 x PCS ARGB LED Fan + Controller Kit

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Wireless Network Card
ASUS PCE-AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 (1201Mbps/5GHz, 574Mbps/2.4GHz + Bluetooth 5.2)

Operating System
Windows 11 Professional 64 Bit

Monitor
MSI 32" CURVED G32CQ4 E2 - 2560 x 1440, 1ms, 170Hz

It was a mix of budget and available components (not the mobo I wanted but close enough, just had to add the separate wireless/bluetooth card). I know there were points raised about the cpu etc but I did a lot of digging and it would seem the issues were resolved last year, don't want to curse myself but at least it's so far so good! Was able to upgrade to the 4070 Super by waiting for the new cards to come out and get the 4070 Super at a cheaper price

This thing is absolutely silent! Even under load it's a whisper! Very pleased so far! And thanks for all points and opinions raised, it's appreciated. Only thing I was nervous about was the curved monitor, but now I have it, I like it!

[Oldman]

Hi

Pleased to see you finally got your new computer
I find it's always a bit of a headache deciding what hardware to use and buy for a new computer. It's certainly difficult to arrive at a spec. and keeping to a certain budget, and it's generally a case of 'If I spent just a little bit more I could get that slightly higher end component!'

Anyway, congratulations, and I hope you have a good experience with your computer and future gaming!

Oldman

[burger1]

Update the bios and use intel defaults. Use the latest management engine (me) driver from the mainboards website. Update chipset drivers there too. Windows has probably already updated the drivers. Can turn off asus's extra enhanced turbo if you want also. Not sure what it's called.

Version 1820
11.06 MB
2025/05/21
SHA-256 ：493D40A2351EED41FCF60E51346B9065880E87F986C1FD1FB1A3008E8C68DA26

"Update the Intel microcode to version 0x12F to further improve system conditions that may contribute to Vmin Shift instability in Intel 13th and 14th Gen desktop-powered systems.
Updating this BIOS will simultaneously update the corresponding Intel ME to version 16.1.32.2473v3. Please note after you update this BIOS, the ME version remains the updated one even if you roll back to an older BIOS later. "

Turn off any auto update software in the bios to control bios updates, software etc... Msi has the setting not sure about asus. Don't update the bios through windows do the old usb stick way.

Asus seems to get lots of overvoltage usb things. If you get the overvoltage warning/error might be a usb port that needs to be disconnected.

Should be stable. Nvidia app is a bit quirky but needed for dlss override and stuff for games that support it. The default optimized settings seem to be bad. Disable the overlay since it might cause stuttering.

Win 11 has lots of spyware and extras. Can probably uninstall copilot. If you installed the os as a fake EU user then you can remove more stuff from windows.

Win 11 optimization (settings) guide. Ignore the power settings and the intel/amd control panel settings. Skips a few things that are in his win 10 video. Things are a bit more hidden. Some things got changed in updates also vs 2 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlX1vB7ItJc

[Terre]

In Win11, there is the Game Assist app. which quietly runs a minimised copy of Edge in the background, you can uninstall it. I found the copy of Edge in task manager first, and thought what started that, and how do I kill it, Microsoft being helpful, get rid of Game Assist and restart.