Help me build a fast PC for general long term use

[SpyderTracks]

After submitting my order I was notified that the Asus Z-790-p motherboard is not in stock with no confirmed delivery date.

Comparing online and the Gigabyte Z790 Gaming x ax motherboard is quite a lot more feature rich. Some for sale listings indicate this motherboard comes with WiFi and BT5, although others don't mention it.

Does anyone know if it does have integrated WiFi and Bluetooth?

If it does I could swap the Asus for it and delete the WiFi card meaning it only works out a few pounds more to have a seemingly higher spec board with a fair amount of extra connectivity options.

Not sure what to do as I definitely need WiFi 6 and Bluetooth connectivity but upgrading the board and keeping the WiFi card would make the change more than I can spend.

Thanks in advance.

Yep, you're right, the AX in the name denotes the wifi version which is WiFi 6E by another name, so yes, you can ditch the additional wifi card

If you click on the ? button to the right of the component it brings up more details on each model available

 

[RS2OOO]

Yep, you're right, the AX in the name denotes the wifi version which is WiFi 6E by another name, so yes, you can ditch the additional wifi card

If you click on the ? button to the right of the component it brings up more details on each model available

View attachment 35571

Ah thanks for that, much appreciated.

I forgot about the ? Button - it doesn't show up when viewing the configurator from my mobile phone, but now I remember it does when on the PC

Never previously owned any boards that aren't Asus and have never had one fail, but this gigabyte board has so much more connectivity and by ditching the WiFi card it will only cost about £15 extra. Guessing it's quite a new board as I can't find any YouTube reviews on it.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ah thanks for that, much appreciated.

I forgot about the ? Button - it doesn't show up when viewing the configurator from my mobile phone, but now I remember it does when on the PC

Never previously owned any boards that aren't Asus and have never had one fail, but this gigabyte board has so much more connectivity and by ditching the WiFi card it will only cost about £15 extra. Guessing it's quite a new board as I can't find any YouTube reviews on it.

It's quite a reasonably priced board certainly, there are a couple of drawbacks, there's a decent summary here:

Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Elite AX Review – A Reasonably Priced DDR5 Board! - GeekaWhat

In today's review we're taking a look at one of Gigabyte's cheapest DDR5 motherboards on the new Intel 13th-Gen CPU range, the Z790 AORUS Elite AX.

geekawhat.com

Be aware, generally with Gigabytes, they tend to have doubled up beep codes, so troubleshooting can be challenging as they often give the wrong beep codes. On Z590, they had an issue on some boards where there was a problem with posting and it could take perhaps 2 minutes to post.

On DDR 5 boards, the first boot, it will normally take several minutes to successfully post as it kind of goes through a stability test with the RAM to test best voltages and clocks for most stable operation, then after that it should be fast boot as normal, but just be aware of this if you ever have to reset the CMOS, or reset BIOS settings, or add new RAM, as it will reset to having to retest the RAM modules again.

 

[RS2OOO]

Thanks @SpyderTracks your post inspired me to do a little digging.

When searching online for Gigabyte Z790 problems and Asus Z790 problems there are no results on the Asus search, but lots of posts on various forums about various issues with the Gigabyte boards. Most commonly with beeps relating to GPU issues or POST problems depending on monitor connectivity and configuration.

As much as I want my new PC sooner rather than later, I have a strange gut feeling that I really need to stick with the ASUS board, even though the Gigabyte has slightly more features/connectivity overall.

So I shall wait a bit longer. 5 days after first ordering I was 43 in the queue for this component, and most recent update puts me at 31. After that I will then go to the back of the actual build queue by the looks of it.

I did a live chat in the hope of getting a better idea on timescales but the guy was simply saying because I selected a "greyed out" component he couldn't help me with timescales, yet I was unable to get the message across to him that this MB is not greyed out at all.

I don't recall where I read it but the "pre-order" status of the Z790-p states pre-orders are in advance of 31st October, so I actually assumed the pre-order status simply hadn't been updated on the configurator following the official release of the board. There's nowhere during the order process that says it is out of stock.

 

[RS2OOO]

The i7-13700 was released and added to the configurator today. (Non K version).

Due to the lower price compared to the K version, coupled with the fact my PC is still within pre-production, it is within my budget to change from the i5-13600k to the i7-13700 non K.

I don't know with my limited knowlegde whether this is actually an upgrade or not in view of the lower clock speeds. I guess single core performance is priority for at least 50% of my work, and my more intensive CPU work running intensive programs will be about 20% of the time.

Could someone with a little more knowledge please advise?

 

[RS2OOO]

Too late to change now as PC went from "processing" to "pre-production" to "in-building" to "in-testing" all between 10pm last night and 1pm today! At least I know everything must have fitted ok in the case I supplied.

Would still be interested to know the probable answer if anyone could shed light?

 

[MrWilson]

Haven’t had third party reviews for the non K chips yet, so wouldn’t be able to shed much info. In the 12th gen Intel we did have quite a performance drop from the 12700 and 12700k. The 13600k is a very solid all round CPU anyway, so you won’t be missing out much by sticking with it.
Looking forward to seeing some pictures when the build arrives!

 

[B4zookaw]

I was going to make the same point about lack of benchmarks yet. I guess it might depend on the use. Would the application benefit from the higher core/thread count over base clock and vice versa. I doubt there's a significant gap either way.

 

[B4zookaw]

Looking forward to seeing some pictures when the build arrives!

They never post pictures......

 

[RS2OOO]

I was going to make the same point about lack of benchmarks yet. I guess it might depend on the use. Would the application benefit from the higher core/thread count over base clock and vice versa. I doubt there's a significant gap either way.

Tbh I really don't know.
The main work application I use (and I have no knowledge of the programming behind it) runs what we call a "clash check", basically each time you add a new "job" it checks through 5000+ jobs planned in for that date and ensures they are all compatible. It takes 40 minutes to run through this check when I'm in the office, and about 15 minutes when I'm at home on my i7-3770. 5 minutes or less would be amazing.

 

[RS2OOO]

They never post pictures......

I beg your pardon.....

Desktop PC Photos and Full Review

To Be Continued......

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[B4zookaw]

Tbh I really don't know.
The main work application I use (and I have no knowledge of the programming behind it) runs what we call a "clash check", basically each time you add a new "job" it checks through 5000+ jobs planned in for that date and ensures they are all compatible. It takes 40 minutes to run through this check when I'm in the office, and about 15 minutes when I'm at home on my i7-3770. 5 minutes or less would be amazing.

Next time you run this job, have HWMonitor or HWInfo running and see if the application is loading all cores, or just single cores. That will help determine if it's better to have lots of cores/threads versus a single core that can boost higher

 

[RS2OOO]

Must be some serious overtime going on at PCS.

Nearly midnight and my machine has just come out of QC and ready for dispatch. This time 24 hours ago it was still showing as order Processing which was updated to pre-production and then to in-building at 07:58 this morning.

Obviously didn't overheat and explode during testing despite the heavily insulated Silencio case!

 

[RS2OOO]

Must be some serious overtime going on at PCS.

Nearly midnight and my machine has just come out of QC and ready for dispatch. This time 24 hours ago it was still showing as order Processing which was updated to pre-production and then to in-building at 07:58 this morning.

Obviously didn't overheat and explode during testing despite the heavily insulated Silencio case!

Everything appears to have stopped at Awaiting dispatch stage. Day 2 of awaiting dispatch and no further updates. Had fingers crossed it would go out yesterday for delivery today.

Can't take the delivery on Tuesday so still hoping it goes out today for Monday delivery.

 

[RS2OOO]

Strangely my PC build status is now on day 5 of "Awaiting Dispatch" yet I've just received a call from PCS to say the build team have flagged a problem and they wanted to know how I'd like to proceed.

Seems strange as it was showing as both Tested and QC'd on 4th Jan.

Also was surprised the phone call came from Madrid and not Wakefield!