Gaming Building a gaming PC

Which cpu cooler would be sufficient for the 12900k ?

The internet appears to give contradictory feedback regarding the noctua nh-d15 while people in buildpc at reddit are claiming liquid aio is the way to go since it cannot be air cooled.

I do have a bias towards air coolers, so should i try my luck with the above mentioned noctua or get myself a 360 aio ?

Build is atx, mid tower, 12900k+3080, 32gb ddr5,850w.
 
I was looking at building a PC but is it worth waiting for the new AMD Zen 4 CPUs and GPUs that apparently are coming out later this year? To future proof or if it lowers the price of the previous gen.

I'm not knowledgeable and would game on PS5/Xbox so more focused on basic productivity and multiple screens.
 
ZIDANE said:
I was looking at building a PC but is it worth waiting for the new AMD Zen 4 CPUs and GPUs that apparently are coming out later this year? To future proof or if it lowers the price of the previous gen.

I'm not knowledgeable and would game on PS5/Xbox so more focused on basic productivity and multiple screens.
Click to expand...

There's always something better around the corner and the current Zen 3 and 3xxxx GPU's (and to a lesser extent the AMD equivalents) will last a long while for productivity, so I wouldn't overly worry - there is likely to be a decrease at least in AM4 motherboard prices though.

Having said that, the new motherboard (AM5) is the first new platform from AMD in over 5 years and means if you buy an AM4 motherboard now there will be no upgrade path for better CPU's without changing virtually everything out. AM5 is likely to last a similar amount of time and also comes with new DDR5 memory which again, would need replacing in the future if you went AM4 and DDR4 now.

Basically, if you're looking for something you can upgrade in the future rather than replace, you may want to wait at the moment.
 
Pscholes18 said:
Guys, build me the best gaming PC for $1500 and below. Asking for a friend.
Click to expand...
Their budget is a little bit below your friends'... but the Hardware Unboxed Youtube channel did two videos on this in the last week.



Take your pick on platform and then upgrade where necessary. If they're going to be gaming, GPU is the obvious place to spend a little bit more.
QCGTcKc.jpg

0S4K9Um.png
 
Dante said:
Their budget is a little bit below your friends'... but the Hardware Unboxed Youtube channel did two videos on this in the last week.



Take your pick on platform and then upgrade where necessary. If they're going to be gaming, GPU is the obvious place to spend a little bit more.
QCGTcKc.jpg

0S4K9Um.png
Click to expand...

The 6600 is a shite card, definitely worth spending a bit more to grab a 3060 or even a last gen 2060 super/2070 super which are much better 1440p cards, but obviously harder to get.

The PSU seems overkill at 750w too? Not a bad build otherwise, though.
 
My PC died some time between moving flats and Christmas last year. Had not touched it for ~4 months and then dead just like that; fans spinning, lights shining, but that's all she wrote. Anyways, i just ordered new stuff, including an R7 5800X3D :drool:
 
Massive Spanner said:
The 6600 is a shite card, definitely worth spending a bit more to grab a 3060 or even a last gen 2060 super/2070 super which are much better 1440p cards, but obviously harder to get.

The PSU seems overkill at 750w too? Not a bad build otherwise, though.
Click to expand...
I think you're getting it confused with the 6500.

The 6600 goes toe-to-toe with the 3060.
 
So anyway, IT IS DONE


Some progress pics

jKidSBY.jpg


First function test, everything comes to life nicely

vxwwymw.jpg


Fully assembled with radiator mounted

C2qDOYy.jpg


Some shiny lights

lGHgo4c.jpg




The goofy looking graphics card is my ancient R9 Nano, which I modded with a quiet(er) 92mm fan and a cardboard shroud for airflow. :D
 
Another upgrade came in today:

3f0IP9w.jpeg


That's my setup completed for the time being.

Full specs:

Radeon 6700 XT
Ryzen 7 5800X3D
MSI 550M Pro-VDH WIFI
Corsair 2 x 32 GB DDR4-3200
Samsung 980 Pro 1TB
Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer II 240mm
BeQuiet Straight Power 10 500W
Fractal Design Meshify C Mini

Happy how it turned out, also it was fun to plan and assemble.
 
looking for some advice..

i do have quite an old rig, but as i rarely play AAA titles it doesnt matter -realistically- --i believe---- :)

The current system is
Core i5 2500K (2011 i think - told ya, ancient) Sandy Bridge, LGA1155
24GB RAM DDR3
i boot from a 256 SATA SSD which is also a couple of years old, Data is on 2 and 4TB HDDs, nothing fancy, some WD Red or so
1060GTX Graphics
WQHD Display 2540x1440

Now, i dont want to spend big bucks, willing to invest a reasonable amount (1000-1300€)
Question is, should i / would i see significant rise in performance?

I guess a current gaming system in that price range would be what, mabye 10-15% faster? If that?
Would upgrading single components make sense?
I suppose bigger newer/faster SSD, and maybe update the Graphics card would be the prime candidates? I dont really want to spend on obsolete or soon to be obsolete things, like RAM of outdated standard etc.
Given the age of board, cpu, cooler, W11 compatibility, the core components will either die or become obsolete in the forseeable future anyway.
I can play Rocket League fine on it, or Subnautica, with full details. FS2020 is maybe the most strain it gets

Any thoughts?
 
Last edited:
Depends on what your target is 1440p 60fps, 120fps, 240 fps.

If you are not bothered about the perks of higher hertz monitor/gameplay and aren't playing many new graphically intense games then a 2000 series card and a better cpu but you may aswell just build a new computer if you are replacing both core components.

GPU would be the first port of call a decent 2000 series card will have you covered for the future of most games at decent settings (presuming you upgrade the rest one day in the future)
 
strongwalker said:
looking for some advice..

i do have quite an old rig, but as i rarely play AAA titles it doesnt matter -realistically- --i believe---- :)

The current system is
Core i5 2500K (2011 i think - told ya, ancient) Sandy Bridge, LGA1155
24GB RAM DDR3
i boot from a 256 SATA SSD which is also a couple of years old, Data is on 2 and 4TB HDDs, nothing fancy, some WD Red or so
1060GTX Graphics
WQHD Display 2540x1440

Now, i dont want to spend big bucks, willing to invest a reasonable amount (1000-1300€)
Question is, should i / would i see significant rise in performance?

I guess a current gaming system in that price range would be what, mabye 10-15% faster? If that?
Would upgrading single components make sense?
I suppose bigger newer/faster SSD, and maybe update the Graphics card would be the prime candidates? I dont really want to spend on obsolete or soon to be obsolete things, like RAM of outdated standard etc.
Given the age of board, cpu, cooler, W11 compatibility, the core components will either die or become obsolete in the forseeable future anyway.
I can play Rocket League fine on it, or Subnautica, with full details. FS2020 is maybe the most strain it gets

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
I spent ~1550€ for Mainboard, CPU (most expensive part actually), RAM, CPU cooler, fast m.2 SSD, and graphics card (saved a bit by going for second hand with receipt and 1,5 years warranty left).
For 1000-1300€ you can certainly get a setup that will double your current performance in many cases, if you reuse what's possible (case, PSU, drives).

I threw together an Intel and an AMD config with similar performance and price - both around 1100€, and definitely much faster than your current system

https://geizhals.de/?cat=WL-2574632

Intel i7 12700, B660 microATX Mainboard with WIFI6, 32GB DDR4-3200, Radeon 6700XT (there's currently a relatively sensible price for the model I selected)

https://geizhals.de/?cat=WL-2574630

Ryzen 9 5900X, B550 microATX Mainboard with WIFI6, same Ram, same graphics card.

The AMD system has no more upgrades coming, AM4 has run its run. The Intel one will get one more CPU generation after the current Alder Lake but quite certainly no groundbreaking performance gains either. microATX mainboards come with everything you need unless you have loads of PCI-cards... but who does nowadays. You can also go for no wifi and save a few more €. 32GB Ram of adequate speed, the capacity should also be good for a few years yet. The Powercolor 6700XT Fighter is the best priced fast-ish card of the current Nvidia/AMD lineup, on par with a 3060Ti (unless you play a lot of Raytracing games, which didn't sound like it).
All under the assumption you can/want to keep your case, PSU (it would have to be at the very least 500W and good quality), SSD and HDDs.
 
Last edited:
Bosws87 said:
Depends on what your target is 1440p 60fps, 120fps, 240 fps.

If you are not bothered about the perks of higher hertz monitor/gameplay and aren't playing many new graphically intense games then a 2000 series card and a better cpu but you may aswell just build a new computer if you are replacing both core components.

GPU would be the first port of call a decent 2000 series card will have you covered for the future of most games at decent settings (presuming you upgrade the rest one day in the future)
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with this. The 1060 is still pretty capable at 1440, certainly when compared with the level of the 2500k.
 
Flying high said:
I have to disagree with this. The 1060 is still pretty capable at 1440, certainly when compared with the level of the 2500k.
Click to expand...

Depends on once again what performance he desires.

I'd personally go with a whole new setup within the budget stated, following the advice of Ghastly.
 
strongwalker said:
looking for some advice..

i do have quite an old rig, but as i rarely play AAA titles it doesnt matter -realistically- --i believe---- :)

The current system is
Core i5 2500K (2011 i think - told ya, ancient) Sandy Bridge, LGA1155
24GB RAM DDR3
i boot from a 256 SATA SSD which is also a couple of years old, Data is on 2 and 4TB HDDs, nothing fancy, some WD Red or so
1060GTX Graphics
WQHD Display 2540x1440

Now, i dont want to spend big bucks, willing to invest a reasonable amount (1000-1300€)
Question is, should i / would i see significant rise in performance?

I guess a current gaming system in that price range would be what, mabye 10-15% faster? If that?
Would upgrading single components make sense?
I suppose bigger newer/faster SSD, and maybe update the Graphics card would be the prime candidates? I dont really want to spend on obsolete or soon to be obsolete things, like RAM of outdated standard etc.
Given the age of board, cpu, cooler, W11 compatibility, the core components will either die or become obsolete in the forseeable future anyway.
I can play Rocket League fine on it, or Subnautica, with full details. FS2020 is maybe the most strain it gets

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I was in a fairly similar situation to you around Black Friday last year, and ended up getting a prebuilt system and upgrading it marginally for around £1200.

The issue I had (and you've got) is that with the LGA1155 pin, you're limited to a pretty old CPU, so you can't just throw a shiny new CPU at it.

A quick Google shows you can get an i5-10400, 3060, 16gb RAM system with a 1tb m.2 for around £1050, which would serve you better than upgrading one or two bits.
 
thanks for all the input and advice, highly appreciated!

I guess my problem is that the i5 2500 is still too good :) according to https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-2500K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-10400/619vs4073 an i5 10400 would only be 15% better. bit embarrassing for intel if you ask me, i would expect a new cpu in the 200-250€ range to outperform one that is 10 years old by a bit more... and i still could overclock which i havent done yet. given the limited effect of cpu performance in most games, im reluctant to throw out components that still work perfectly well, especially with prices still on the higher end atm

I may actually just get a 3060 and see what effect that has to overall performance. if it doesnt pan out i still could use it in a new build.. would do the same for the SSD but since the board cant do NVMe..
 
strongwalker said:
thanks for all the input and advice, highly appreciated!

I guess my problem is that the i5 2500 is still too good :) according to https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-2500K-vs-Intel-Core-i5-10400/619vs4073 an i5 10400 would only be 15% better. bit embarrassing for intel if you ask me, i would expect a new cpu in the 200-250€ range to outperform one that is 10 years old by a bit more... and i still could overclock which i havent done yet. given the limited effect of cpu performance in most games, im reluctant to throw out components that still work perfectly well, especially with prices still on the higher end atm

I may actually just get a 3060 and see what effect that has to overall performance. if it doesnt pan out i still could use it in a new build.. would do the same for the SSD but since the board cant do NVMe..
Click to expand...

I'd take those direct comparison sites with a pinch of salt. They can be OK for very high level stuff, but that one definitely isn't taking into account architecture changes and improvements on the 10400 and benchmarks are the only thing that is going to show the real-life difference. @GhastlyHun posted a couple of links to benchmarks and the real-world difference is higher than that 15%.

Reddit can be a decent website for this sort of thing as you can find what people who have done your upgrade before. For example, this person went from between 15 to 35fps on the 2500k to 100fps on the 10400 in Battlefield. That's a game that will use the cores on the 10400 though.

Review: i5-2500k to i5-10400 : buildapc (reddit.com)

Your idea is a good one still though. Getting a 3060 will bottleneck the CPU completely, but you can take a look at your FPS afterwards and you know what needs upgrading next time.
 
Just a heads-up: you were right I was wrong, the 3060 in the old system didn't do diddly. So I pulled the trigger on a 12400F+ ASRock Z690 Pro RS + 2x16Gb ddr4 + be quiet pure rock + Samsung 980 pro.
Boss-Man spit out last year's bonus, and the old system minus the case goes to my dad who loves to go on Feindfahrt in silent hunter II
...hopefully, this will last the next 10 years :D
 
strongwalker said:
Just a heads-up: you were right I was wrong, the 3060 in the old system didn't do diddly. So I pulled the trigger on a 12400F+ ASRock Z690 Pro RS + 2x16Gb ddr4 + be quiet pure rock + Samsung 980 pro.
Boss-Man spit out last year's bonus, and the old system minus the case goes to my dad who loves to go on Feindfahrt in silent hunter II
...hopefully, this will last the next 10 years :D
Click to expand...
Solid choices, only the Z690-board seems twice as expensive as necessary here. ^^
What did you pay for all stuff combined?

May it serve you long and well ;)
 
GhastlyHun said:
Solid choices, only the Z690-board seems twice as expensive as necessary here. ^^
What did you pay for all stuff combined?

May it serve you long and well ;)
Click to expand...
its not as bad, The Z board is ~200€, the cheapest options would have been maybe 50 less, but i like the idea of having plenty of SATA options ( i have a ton of HDDs here...) also more than one m.2 seems nice to have for future upgrades
The whole order is about 650€, plus the 400 for the 3060 thats sitting nice within my budget range
 
Ah, then of course the board makes sense if it comes with features you specifically need for your planned usage.
 
AMD launch event chips go on sale Sept. 27 if anyone was waiting
https://uk.pcmag.com/processors/142...sktop-cpus-detailed-heres-what-we-know-so-far

AMD Ryzen 9 7950XAMD Ryzen 9 7900XAMD Ryzen 7 7700XAMD Ryzen 5 7600X
Cores161286
Threads32241612
Base Clock4.5GHz4.7GHz4.5GHz4.7GHz
Maximum Boost Clock5.7GHz5.6GHz5.4GHz5.3GHz
Cache80MB (L2+L3)76MB (L2+L3)40MB (L2+L3)38MB (L2+L3)
Onboard GraphicsRDNA 2-BasedRDNA 2-BasedRDNA 2-BasedRDNA 2-Based
TDP170W170W105W105W
Process Technology5nm5nm5nm5nm
SocketAM5AM5AM5AM5
CPU PCIe Lanes24242424
Pricing$699$549$399$299
 
Pulled the trigger because my gorgeous GTX 670 has started to flicker every now and then when playing games. You've genuinely been a loyal steward for nine long years, old man Gigabyte.

I know I'm still getting scammed to feck but I found an RTX 2060 12GB on eBuyer for £270 and thought "That'll do I guess." But then I obviously had to replace my old i5-3570k as well to avoid bottlenecks. It's a shame because that CPU has also been amazing for me since 2013.

Anyway, it's not much but it'll do me for 1080p gaming;

MSI RTX 2060 12GB OC
i5-11400
MSI B560 Mobo
Corsair LPX 3600 DDR4 (2x 8GB)
Crucial 2TB 2.5 SSD

All in for about £700. Existing boot SSD and PSU are only a year old. After the new year if I'm not swimming in debt I'll splurge on an M.2 drive. Still feels shit having to basically throw out what was still a wonderful PC build from 2013, but one of the kids will have fun playing Sims on it when I find a cheap GPU for it.
 
Last edited:
Catastrophic problems. The kit arrived today so I rushed back home from work in excitement. Ripped out the old mobo and shite, threw the new stuff in. Recent boot SSD won't work. Dead. Not to worry, still have my old one with Windows 10 on it so I'll use that, get the thing started up, install Windows 10 on my super new 2TB SSD and take it from there.

Missing an eight pin PCIe for the new GPU, and the new mobo needs an extra six-pin. Not to worry, my old GPU used a six pin so that takes care of that. I can play around with the machine for an evening without the new GPU and just installed all the guff for my mobo and CPU, right? Maybe download some new games on the new SSD in prep. This'll be fun!

Old boot drive won't work, just punts me to BIOS. Try again. Same thing. Scratch head. Remember everything is on cnuting UEFI mode now and my old boot SSD will be in whatever fecking mode old people used to use in the 1920s or something. So I'm currently fecked because I need to put all of the old kit back in, create a bootable USB with Windows 10, put the new stuff back in again, hope it works. If not; walk around outside naked howling at the moon in anguish.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
Catastrophic problems. The kit arrived today so I rushed back home from work in excitement. Ripped out the old mobo and shite, threw the new stuff in. Recent boot SSD won't work. Dead. Not to worry, still have my old one with Windows 10 on it so I'll use that, get the thing started up, install Windows 10 on my super new 2TB SSD and take it from there.

Missing an eight pin PCIe for the new GPU, and the new mobo needs an extra six-pin. Not to worry, my old GPU used a six pin so that takes care of that. I can play around with the machine for an evening without the new GPU and just installed all the guff for my mobo and CPU, right? Maybe download some new games on the new SSD in prep. This'll be fun!

Old boot drive won't work, just punts me to BIOS. Try again. Same thing. Scratch head. Remember everything is on cnuting UEFI mode now and my old boot SSD will be in whatever fecking mode old people used to use in the 1920s or something. So I'm currently fecked because I need to put all of the old kit back in, create a bootable USB with Windows 10, put the new stuff back in again, hope it works. If not; walk around outside naked howling at the moon in anguish.
Click to expand...

Do you have a laptop, even work laptop, that could create the boot USB?
 
mitChley said:
Do you have a laptop, even work laptop, that could create the boot USB?
Click to expand...
I've given up for tonight because I tried one last attempt at Legacy moding my old SSD and it just turned the PC off. So I'm going to ignorantly leave it until tomorrow because I secretly fear something else is fecked :(

It's fine because my office is where all of my USB drives are anyway. I've got one here and it's 2GB. Who the feck keeps a 2GB pen drive nowadays? This dickhead right here.
 
Earlier this year I did the following build:

i9 12900k - 16 cores @ 5.2ghz overclocked to 5.4
RTX 3090 Founders Edition
Asus ROG Maximus z690 hero
Dominator Platinum DDR5 RAM - 64gb
Asus ROG Ryujin 360 AIO liquid cooler
1500w PSU - Platinum
12tb SSD storage
Cooler Master Cosmos c700M case

It was frighteningly expensive but a huge chunk of it was sponsored by my job. I’ve been putting it through its paces ever since and this thing just fecking blows me away. I had a great 6 core i9 9900k, 2080ti system before, but it feels ancient in comparison.
 
simonhch said:
Earlier this year I did the following build:

i9 12900k - 16 cores @ 5.2ghz overclocked to 5.4
RTX 3090 Founders Edition
Asus ROG Maximus z690 hero
Dominator Platinum DDR5 RAM - 64gb
Asus ROG Ryujin 360 AIO liquid cooler
1500w PSU - Platinum
12tb SSD storage
Cooler Master Cosmos c700M case

It was frighteningly expensive but a huge chunk of it was sponsored by my job. I’ve been putting it through its paces ever since and this thing just fecking blows me away. I had a great 6 core i9 9900k, 2080ti system before, but it feels ancient in comparison.
Click to expand...
Yeah, well... My cock is bigger than yours.

Coming in here with your big ass rig and showing the rest of us poor cnuts up so we log off and cry ourselves to sleep ffs...
 
Mr Pigeon said:
Yeah, well... My cock is bigger than yours.

Coming in here with your big ass rig and showing the rest of us poor cnuts up so we log off and cry ourselves to sleep ffs...
Click to expand...

I thought it’d be a treat for you peasants to live vicariously through me. But I guess this is the thanks you get when you try and connect with the proles.

Either that, or I’m still giddy with excitement that I have such a rig and I have no one in my life who appreciates such things.

Whichever offends your sensibilities more.
 
simonhch said:
Earlier this year I did the following build:

i9 12900k - 16 cores @ 5.2ghz overclocked to 5.4
RTX 3090 Founders Edition
Asus ROG Maximus z690 hero
Dominator Platinum DDR5 RAM - 64gb
Asus ROG Ryujin 360 AIO liquid cooler
1500w PSU - Platinum
12tb SSD storage
Cooler Master Cosmos c700M case

It was frighteningly expensive but a huge chunk of it was sponsored by my job. I’ve been putting it through its paces ever since and this thing just fecking blows me away. I had a great 6 core i9 9900k, 2080ti system before, but it feels ancient in comparison.
Click to expand...

What kind of job do you have that would sponsor a build like that? Must be north of £3k. I'm very jealous.

I've been slowly improving the prebuilt I got during the pandemic, the only things left of the original build now are the motherboard and an m.2 SSD. Oh and the case. Should keep me going for a while now.

My specs, old and new:
i5-10400fi7-10700kf
Stock coolerCorsair H100i Elite LCD
Asus DUAL 3060 tiAsus TUF RTX 3080
Asus PRIME B460M-A-
Crucial 16gb 2666MHzCorsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32gb 3200MHz
Corsair CV650Corsair RM850 (and some individually sleeved cables)
1tb m.2 SSDAdditional 2tb m.2 SSD
Cooler Master MB320LUnchanged, but replaced all fans with Corsair ML120 RGB Elite
 
My video card is pretty out of date now still using Evga 2080ti. But I will likely wait until the Nvidia 4080/90ti series are out to upgrade at this point. I am glad I already had more power supply than I needed 1200W Corsair HX1200i. Won't have to upgrade that for awhile.
 
The Hilton said:
What kind of job do you have that would sponsor a build like that? Must be north of £3k. I'm very jealous.

I've been slowly improving the prebuilt I got during the pandemic, the only things left of the original build now are the motherboard and an m.2 SSD. Oh and the case. Should keep me going for a while now.

My specs, old and new:
i5-10400fi7-10700kf
Stock coolerCorsair H100i Elite LCD
Asus DUAL 3060 tiAsus TUF RTX 3080
Asus PRIME B460M-A-
Crucial 16gb 2666MHzCorsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32gb 3200MHz
Corsair CV650Corsair RM850 (and some individually sleeved cables)
1tb m.2 SSDAdditional 2tb m.2 SSD
Cooler Master MB320LUnchanged, but replaced all fans with Corsair ML120 RGB Elite
Click to expand...

That’s a really nice build.

Im a sports and entertainment CEO. At the time of the build it was about $7k. The GPU alone was $2700. The motherboard was $1300. The 64Gb of DDR5 was exorbitant. The CPU was about $950 if I remember rightly. That’s $6k+ right there. The psu was about $500, the liquid cooler was $400ish. Then all the high capacity SSDs and the case. Yeah $7k+. More like 8. Can’t say I’m mad. I’ve been doing a whole bunch of AI consulting this last year so the GPU has been really helpful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.