Advice on building a high end build that will last me years?

J

JackPRead

Member
Hi,

I am looking to upgrade my PC. When I upgrade I like to try and buy high or top end parts that will last me for years to come. However, I find myself getting completely overwhelmed when I start to look at and compare all the various options. If anyone could offer any advice on this build, any warnings or anything else I should look out for? I have already put a lot of thought into this build and talked with friends about it but I am still no expert at all so I would really appreciate if someone could have a quick glance and tell me what they think.

Thank you! Build pasted below:

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700K (3.6GHz) 25MB Cache
Motherboard
GIGABYTE Z690 UD (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 4800MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 240 Series RGB High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
2.5G ETHERNET PCI-EXPRESS CARD (10/100/1000M/2.5G) (1 x RJ45)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 12 to 14 working days
Price: £3,368.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-ddr5-pc/9FZMpuk2Hp/

*editted to add the configure link
 
Last edited:
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
What's it going to be used for, what are the monitor specs (resolution & refresh rate or make and model), whats the budget and can you please provide the configuration link
 
J

JackPRead

Member
Martinr36 said:
What's it going to be used for, what are the monitor specs (resolution & refresh rate or make and model), whats the budget and can you please provide the configuration link
Click to expand...

The main use is for gaming and streaming. A secondary use would be video editting and music production but I'd say 90% of the time using this computer will be for gaming and streaming.

I currently do not have a suitable monitor for this build and I am looking to order one seperately. I am still researching what I need but what I am looking for at the moment is:
- <=1ms response time
- 144Hz or greater refresh rate
- 2560 x 1440 QHD Resolution
- 27" preferably flat

My budget is £4000

I have edited the original post to contain the configuration link.

Thank you, let me know if you need any more information.
 
Last edited:
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
There are a few things to note, more queries than anything really.

Do you really think you will get the benefit from DDR5? It's not any faster than DDR4 right now, there's not a lot to be had over the compatibility right now. In the future, once the timings come down, it'll take over DDR4 but it will take a while and require upgrading of the RAM to get the benefit. If you're not really one for upgrading I would personally just get the 3600Mhz DDR4. This would save an absolute bundle.

For 1440p 144hz you're looking at the 3060Ti for the ideal card. In order to future proof and get the bells and whistles switched on the 3070Ti is a fair shout and would pair very well. The 3080Ti is an absolute monster of a card and is aimed at 4k 144hz or Super Ultrawide resolutions. If this isn't something you're looking at then I would say the 3070Ti is a better fit and will save you a bundle.

The motherboard selected isn't the best choice if sticking with DDR5.

The Storage selections are pretty strange. You want a super fast primary, but you want to keep it slim n trim and keep it well organised for sustained performance and ease of backup. If you need 4TB of storage I would opt for a 500GB 980 pro for the primary and a 4TB Firecuda 530 for the secondary.

Cooling needs looked at etc as it's massively underperforming for a high end rig.

Case, PSU & CPU are all fine (in fact, excellent choices for your uses and future endeavours).
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Below is an ultra-high end 1440p gaming/streaming rig. It's way past what your average person is going to spend on a 1440p rig but it's complete luxury. It'll happily game at 4k also, if that's something you wanted. You won't need to worry about upgrading anything for many years to come.

The only thing missing, and to consider, is if you wanted a bit of RGB rainbow vomit sprinkled on it :D

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700K (3.6GHz) 25MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3070 Ti - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
4TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7300MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
2.5G ETHERNET PCI-EXPRESS CARD (10/100/1000M/2.5G) (1 x RJ45)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 12 to 14 working days
Price: £3,083.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/QpPNwcQpbH/
 
D

DarTon

Well-known member
On @Scott spec. I would change the 4TB 530 to a 2TB one. That saves £370 and just buy a 2TB PCIe3 M2 SSD for archival storage for £140. Net saving £230. The motherboard has 4 heatsinked M2 slots, so that will still leave one free and it's really easy to fit them.

If you do want to go DDR5 then you need to take the 5600Mhz RAM since the 4800Mhz RAM is slower than 3200MHz DDR4 in many apps (not all but most).

In my opinion spending £4k for to run a 27" 16:9 1440p monitor is completely bonkers. The display is the primary conduit via which you will experience the games. You don't want to cheap out on that. Basically you're spending at least 10x the price of the a decent 27" IPS screen on the PC itself. It's unbalanced. I would either spend less or think about 34" 21:9, 49" 32:9 1440p ultrawide or a 32" 4K monitor.
 
J

JackPRead

Member
Scott said:
There are a few things to note, more queries than anything really.

Do you really think you will get the benefit from DDR5? It's not any faster than DDR4 right now, there's not a lot to be had over the compatibility right now. In the future, once the timings come down, it'll take over DDR4 but it will take a while and require upgrading of the RAM to get the benefit. If you're not really one for upgrading I would personally just get the 3600Mhz DDR4. This would save an absolute bundle.

For 1440p 144hz you're looking at the 3060Ti for the ideal card. In order to future proof and get the bells and whistles switched on the 3070Ti is a fair shout and would pair very well. The 3080Ti is an absolute monster of a card and is aimed at 4k 144hz or Super Ultrawide resolutions. If this isn't something you're looking at then I would say the 3070Ti is a better fit and will save you a bundle.

The motherboard selected isn't the best choice if sticking with DDR5.

The Storage selections are pretty strange. You want a super fast primary, but you want to keep it slim n trim and keep it well organised for sustained performance and ease of backup. If you need 4TB of storage I would opt for a 500GB 980 pro for the primary and a 4TB Firecuda 530 for the secondary.

Cooling needs looked at etc as it's massively underperforming for a high end rig.

Case, PSU & CPU are all fine (in fact, excellent choices for your uses and future endeavours).
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot for this response! A lot to think about.

With regards to DDR4 vs DDR5 honestly I don't have a clue. I feel like the general consensus at the moment is DDR4 is better bang for buck currently but in a year or two DDR5 will overtake and be better. The only thing that worries me about going for DDR4 is I was reading you can't mix them so would it be possible for me to upgrade to DDR5 if I started with DDR4? Then again, I might never actually need anything better and I am just overextending!

I think at the moment I am not interested in 4K or ultrawide because they really seem to be a huge step up in price. 1440p seems to be a really nice middle ground. Thank you for the input here.

Storage still confuses me. So in this setup should I have exclusively the OS and any small programs on the 500GGB ssd and then all my games on the 4TB secondary?

I know nothing about cooling so I'll accept any advice given here!

I will have a closer look at the build you proposed when I finish work and see if I can make a more suitable rig for my purposes.
 
J

JackPRead

Member
DarTon said:
On @Scott spec. I would change the 4TB 530 to a 2TB one. That saves £370 and just buy a 2TB PCIe3 M2 SSD for archival storage for £140. Net saving £230. The motherboard has 4 heatsinked M2 slots, so that will still leave one free and it's really easy to fit them.

If you do want to go DDR5 then you need to take the 5600Mhz RAM since the 4800Mhz RAM is slower than 3200MHz DDR4 in many apps (not all but most).

In my opinion spending £4k for to run a 27" 16:9 1440p monitor is completely bonkers. The display is the primary conduit via which you will experience the games. You don't want to cheap out on that. Basically you're spending at least 10x the price of the a decent 27" IPS screen on the PC itself. It's unbalanced. I would either spend less or think about 34" 21:9, 49" 32:9 1440p ultrawide or a 32" 4K monitor.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input. I agree when you put it that way it does sound bonkers. My thinking was that as soon as I start to look at 4K and ultra-wide things start to get expensive very quickly, whereas 1440p seemed like a great quality for what I want at a more affordable price. Then I was thinking that even though the PC itself is overkill that maybe that is a good thing since in a few years I might want to upgrade.

I am starting to think I may be overshooting though and I will take the advice here to drop down the spec of this PC a little. I think I will take Scott's proposed build above using DDR4 and RTX 3070Ti as starting point and re-evaluate from there.
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
JackPRead said:
Storage still confuses me. So in this setup should I have exclusively the OS and any small programs on the 500GGB ssd and then all my games on the 4TB secondary?
Click to expand...
Yeah that about sums it up, what we normally spec is as follows:

1TB HDD for general storage (documents, photos, videos etc)
500 GB really fast M.2 such as the 980 Pro in @Scott 's build
1TB or above slower M.2 for your games drive

JackPRead said:
I am starting to think I may be overshooting though and I will take the advice here to drop down the spec of this PC a little. I think I will take Scott's proposed build above using DDR4 and RTX 3070Ti as starting point and re-evaluate from there.
Click to expand...
I don't think you'd do a lot better than that
 
D

DarTon

Well-known member
@JackPRead.

I really wouldn't buy the 4TB M2 PCIe5 SSD. It costs £163/TB, the 2TB is just £140/TB. So just buy the 2TB version. If you need cheap but slow archival storage right now add a 2TB HDD instead.

When/if you need more SSD storage, buy a new M2 SSD and fit that into one of the 3 remaining slots. Prices only go down. A 1TB 530 was £225 6 months ago, it's now £145. When the PCIe5 drives start coming out, the PCIe4 ones will drop in price. You can get a 1TB PCIe3 M2 SSd for £70 and for many apps it will be as fast as the PCIe4 one.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
@JackPRead I absolutely agree on the 4TB storage, it's an incredibly luxurious splurge and likely wholly unnecessary. The only reason I chose it was that you had 4TB in your system initially.

A more typical offering, even for high end, would be 500GB & 2TB (1TB is the standard choice). I would recommend keeping the speed while you have the cash though as direct drive access will be coming into play soon. When it does, the faster the better for your game drive.

With regards to the RAM, you need to make the reasoned decision yourself unfortunately. If I was building a system right now I would consider DDR5 as I know that when the speed increased or the timings came down I would upgrade to new RAM. If you just want to buy a system and forget about it, DDR4 is the no-brainer. You are correct that you cannot upgrade to DDR5 from DDR4, but if you aren't planning on upgrading the speed/timings of the DDR5 down the line then there's no point in going for it now.

Now back to the fun stuff. If you handed me £4k for a PC and a monitor, with no plans to upgrade, below is what I would likely buy.

Monitor £999 (deep breath, it's expensive but with good reason) It's as jaw dropping and mind blowing as it gets and it's totally warranted.


Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700K (3.6GHz) 25MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7300MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
2.5G ETHERNET PCI-EXPRESS CARD (10/100/1000M/2.5G) (1 x RJ45)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £2,797.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/rd75bErvje/
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Above is £200 over inside budget and is the ultimate in gaming both in performance and visually. It's a dream setup. A few members have the monitor and speak very highly of it. @SpyderTracks gives his a cuddle every night and checks on it before he goes to bed.

If you can't accommodate the G9 I would lower the GPU to the 3080 and opt for a 4k 144hz screen. Look to spend around 600.

When you have this sort of budget I genuinely wouldn't middle.

Edit: The 3080ti just isn't worth it. Even for the G9. If you want to skip the queue then it's fine but I'm lowering my recommendation to the 3080 as I can't justify the Ti.... even when it's not my money :D
 
D

DarTon

Well-known member
That build by @Scott is the ticket is you want an 1440p ultrawide or 4k experience and it doesn't even cost £3k. It's a no compromise build.

If you want to stay with a 27" 1440p, I'd have a think whether you really want to spend this much. You can get a very solid 1440p system with a 3060 Ti for £2,100. The saved money pays for the GPU upgrade in 2 years or whenever at which point the 3060 Ti get replaced by a 5080 or something else that can probably heat your house at the same time.

I'd also point out that these new Z690 DDR5 boards aren't completely future proofed. The ROG Strix Z690-F doesn't actually support RAM beyond 6400MHz. May seem fine now but given a few years we may well see DDR5 commonly at above those frequencies. I'd also note the F boards only support PCIe5 on the GPU, not on the SSDs which are limited to PCIe4. You would need the Strix Z690-E to get PCIe5 SSD capability. In that sense the Z690 DDR4 boards are not radically inferior. It really is just the RAM.
 
Martinr36

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Scott said:
@JackPRead I absolutely agree on the 4TB storage, it's an incredibly luxurious splurge and likely wholly unnecessary. The only reason I chose it was that you had 4TB in your system initially.

A more typical offering, even for high end, would be 500GB & 2TB (1TB is the standard choice). I would recommend keeping the speed while you have the cash though as direct drive access will be coming into play soon. When it does, the faster the better for your game drive.

With regards to the RAM, you need to make the reasoned decision yourself unfortunately. If I was building a system right now I would consider DDR5 as I know that when the speed increased or the timings came down I would upgrade to new RAM. If you just want to buy a system and forget about it, DDR4 is the no-brainer. You are correct that you cannot upgrade to DDR5 from DDR4, but if you aren't planning on upgrading the speed/timings of the DDR5 down the line then there's no point in going for it now.

Now back to the fun stuff. If you handed me £4k for a PC and a monitor, with no plans to upgrade, below is what I would likely buy.

Monitor £999 (deep breath, it's expensive but with good reason) It's as jaw dropping and mind blowing as it gets and it's totally warranted.


Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 12-Core Processor i7-12700K (3.6GHz) 25MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SEAGATE FIRECUDA 530 GEN 4 PCIe NVMe (up to 7300MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
2.5G ETHERNET PCI-EXPRESS CARD (10/100/1000M/2.5G) (1 x RJ45)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £2,797.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/rd75bErvje/
Click to expand...
@Scott , only the 1000W RMx................the 1200W HX is only another £68 ;)
 
J

JackPRead

Member
Thank you everyone for all of your replies and for being so welcoming! It has really helped me.

I have ordered the "ultra-high end 1440p gaming/streaming rig" build that @Scott suggested above. I will put the savings towards something else. Excited!
 
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