Is This a Good High End PC Build?

[Dewarrior]

I’ll be purchasing and building my first true Gaming PC (All-Black and no RGB Lighting) that I’ll be mainly using for gaming/emulation. I’m not interested in overclocking, I just want a fast, quiet, cool and dust free Gaming PC that’ll last me around 5-6 years (Will be upgrading the GPU every 2-3 years)

I’ll be purchasing everything from Wootware and my budget will be R45K, is this a good balanced build?

https://imgur.com/a/TgBXero

The RTX 3080 here is just a placeholder until an RTX 4000 series equivalent or better releases. I’ll still be using my GTX 1660 Super for now which will be taken from my current PC (which is just a SATA SSD and the most powerful GPU that I could think of installing on an old office PC with a non upgradable 400w PSU)

Are there any necessary changes/improvements that I could make before I make the purchase?

 

[flawzz]

I’ll be purchasing and building my first true Gaming PC (All-Black and no RGB Lighting) that I’ll be mainly using for gaming/emulation. I’m not interested in overclocking, I just want a fast, quiet, cool and dust free Gaming PC that’ll last me around 5-6 years (Will be upgrading the GPU every 2-3 years)

I’ll be purchasing everything from Wootware and my budget will be R45K, is this a good balanced build?

https://imgur.com/a/TgBXero

The RTX 3080 here is just a placeholder until an RTX 4000 series equivalent or better releases. I’ll still be using my GTX 1660 Super for now which will be taken from my current PC (which is just a SATA SSD and the most powerful GPU that I could think of installing on an old office PC with a non upgradable 400w PSU)

Are there any necessary changes/improvements that I could make before I make the purchase?

You could buy some fans with the leftover budget. Will help with the dust free you are going for.

 

[Toy Machine]

This is more mid-range than high-end. but if you waiting for 40 series to come then you best change that PSU out to a 1200-1500w if the rumours on their power draw are true, the GPU will eat that psu during idle xD Still not a bad build. I'd go for XPG D50's though if it isn't much more expensive as they can OC tremendously & get a fair bit more performance.

 

[mujeeb1]

What about waiting for AM5 socket? it'll guarentee longevity for like 3 generations at least

 

[Dewarrior]

like how many extra fans do you think I could add? because I heard that up until a certain number of fans the temp decrease would be marginal, since the case already comes with 3 140mm fans.

 

[umarus]

What about waiting for AM5 socket? it'll guarentee longevity for like 3 generations at least

I do not agree with AMD having better support. For example, AM4 x370 did technically support 3 gen cpus but 3700x on x370 was limited and it was always wiser to buy a newer mobo.
In the same manner, I don't think first gen AM5 mobos will be good for later cpus, especailly for users aiming for high end cpus. In short, upgrade a cpu and mobo at the same time.

 

[Dewarrior]

This is more mid-range than high-end. but if you waiting for 40 series to come then you best change that PSU out to a 1200-1500w if the rumours on their power draw are true, the GPU will eat that psu during idle xD Still not a bad build. I'd go for XPG D50's though if it isn't much more expensive as they can OC tremendously & get a fair bit more performance.

I'm not interested in any overclocking, and the XPG D50's are RGB RAM which I don't really care for.

 

[PaladinLaw]

Why not ddr5

 

[Jacobu]

Why not go second hand, there are a bunch of 12th gen CPU's on Carb for sale and you'll just get way more bang for your buck

 

[Toy Machine]

I'm not interested in any overclocking, and the XPG D50's are RGB RAM which I don't really care for.

I don't care for rgb either, but I love performance & they give good boost with pretty much a plug & play stable OC of 4300mhz CL16.

Also, what everyone else is saying here, wait, ddr5 or go secondhand, quite a few options for getting better value for money.

 

[Dewarrior]

What about waiting for AM5 socket? it'll guarentee longevity for like 3 generations at least

I've waited long enough, i'll be mainly gaming at 4k, or 1440p 60 FPS in less demanding titles, so I don't think a CPU bottleneck would be an issue for quite a while. And AM5 could be using DDR5 only RAM which is overpriced for the current low end models.

 

[Dewarrior]

Why not go second hand, there are a bunch of 12th gen CPU's on Carb for sale and you'll just get way more bang for your buck

I'll check into that but I don't really trust second hand PC components, last time I bought a second hand GPU it died after about two months I powered down my PC always and the next time I booted it up it was dead, just a sudden sudden death. and I barely even got to use it for any gaming I was to busy with work at that time.

 

[Jacobu]

I'll check into that but I don't really trust second hand PC components, last time I bought a second hand GPU it died after about two months I powered down my PC always and the next time I booted it up it was dead, just a sudden sudden death. and I barely even got to use it for any gaming I was to busy with work at that time.

If you go 12th Gen for Intel or 5th gen for AMD the parts should still be under warranty. You can buy second hand under warranty and get the best of both

 

[Dewarrior]

This is more mid-range than high-end. but if you waiting for 40 series to come then you best change that PSU out to a 1200-1500w if the rumours on their power draw are true, the GPU will eat that psu during idle xD Still not a bad build. I'd go for XPG D50's though if it isn't much more expensive as they can OC tremendously & get a fair bit more performance.

And what could make make make it a high end PC without spending additional money on components upgrades I don't need or that would hardly make any difference. because if this is already a mid-range PC I'm afraid what it'll be in only a few years.

 

[ThatGuyJD]

And what could make make make it a high end PC without spending additional money on components upgrades I don't need or that would hardly make any difference. because if this is already a mid-range PC I'm afraid what it'll be in only a few years.

Don't agree that this is a mid-range PC by a long shot. an 80 class GPU has never been midrange even if it is 1 gen old. The thing that might have temped the mid range commentary would be the b660 and i7 non-k part which isn't really midrange either. And that 12700 will be able to push all the frames your GPU can draw easily enough. The ram is the most midrange part and it truly is midrange. There's plenty of data to support the fact that the standard XMP timings will leave performance on the table so if you're not into overclocking get the best XMP spec you can and at DDR5 pricing currently it's not there yet, stick to DDR4 I'd say unless you're going to be dropping bonkers money on ram for DDR5.

 

[goldfritter]

I’ll be purchasing and building my first true Gaming PC (All-Black and no RGB Lighting) that I’ll be mainly using for gaming/emulation. I’m not interested in overclocking, I just want a fast, quiet, cool and dust free Gaming PC that’ll last me around 5-6 years (Will be upgrading the GPU every 2-3 years)

I’ll be purchasing everything from Wootware and my budget will be R45K, is this a good balanced build?

https://imgur.com/a/TgBXero

The RTX 3080 here is just a placeholder until an RTX 4000 series equivalent or better releases. I’ll still be using my GTX 1660 Super for now which will be taken from my current PC (which is just a SATA SSD and the most powerful GPU that I could think of installing on an old office PC with a non upgradable 400w PSU)

Are there any necessary changes/improvements that I could make before I make the purchase?

Overall this is a well-balanced build.

One thing - if you want quiet, the Fuma 2 might be a bit light for a 12700. A 240mm AIO or dual-140mm tower air cooler will probably perform better, and a 360mm AIO should be quite a bit quieter. But at that price point the Fuma is hard to beat.

Another point (especially when looking at AIOs): if you end up with a product that does have RGB, it's usually very easy to just switch it off. Nowadays things are often not more expensive for the RGB version, or only come with an RGB version. So don't necessarily exclude a part that happens to have RGB, as you can switch off the lights and maintain your all-black look.

That said, if you do want non-RGB AIOs, the Arctic Liquid Freezer series are highly-regarded and come in RGB-free variants. Check with @Techfox who is one of the people that has been selling them.

 

[Areola Grande]

If you're wanting to buy now, I'd probably go for something like this.

Or, you could even get a 3080Ti if you drop to a B550 motherboard.

As a note regarding Power supplies, you definitely want something with some headroom. However, Gamers Nexus just reviewed an Alienware pre-built PC which has the worst case known to man. However, they're running a 12900K and 3090 on a 750W Gold PSU. So recent exaggerations regarding PSU requirements aside, 1500W is not the new standard for PSUs. Get yourself an 850W or above so you have some headroom.

 

[AresFaithfull]

Would something like this not work nicely, Just turn the included RGB off in the system

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https://imgur.com/a/EZ5R8kr

 

[ThatGuyJD]

If you're wanting to buy now, I'd probably go for something like this.

Or, you could even get a 3080Ti if you drop to a B550 motherboard.

As a note regarding Power supplies, you definitely want something with some headroom. However, Gamers Nexus just reviewed an Alienware pre-built PC which has the worst case known to man. However, they're running a 12900K and 3090 on a 750W Gold PSU. So recent exaggerations regarding PSU requirements aside, 1500W is not the new standard for PSUs. Get yourself an 850W or above so you have some headroom.

AMD fanboii... trash.

Jk, I don't see anything wrong with either system although you might note that OP wants to drop a 40 series card when they release and not a current series card but yes the B550 would leave him with more cash left over at the end of the day.

Also important to note that the 40 series cards are going to draw significantly more power at the top end, now will that impact the 80-ish class cards? Yeah but not as much as at the top end. Look at some of the 3090tis that came out. They all have the 12+4 pin ATX3.0 connectors which are the new standard and although there's only like one current PSU on the market that has the connector and it's a 2050w unit which is totally unnecessary. But yeah a good 850w would probably be the lowest I'd consider at this point in time for someone considering a upgrade to the 40 series soon because the 3*8 pin to 12 pin is fine for now but will become not good enough pretty soon.

 

[Dewarrior]

Overall this is a well-balanced build.

One thing - if you want quiet, the Fuma 2 might be a bit light for a 12700. A 240mm AIO or dual-140mm tower air cooler will probably perform better, and a 360mm AIO should be quite a bit quieter. But at that price point the Fuma is hard to beat.

Another point (especially when looking at AIOs): if you end up with a product that does have RGB, it's usually very easy to just switch it off. Nowadays things are often not more expensive for the RGB version, or only come with an RGB version. So don't necessarily exclude a part that happens to have RGB, as you can switch off the lights and maintain your all-black look.

That said, if you do want non-RGB AIOs, the Arctic Liquid Freezer series are highly-regarded and come in RGB-free variants. Check with @Techfox who is one of the people that has been selling them.

I initially went for a good 280mm AIO but I figured I didn't really need it since I won't be able to any overclocking nor be stressing the cpu out since I'll just be gaming at 60-72fps my monitor's max refresh rate or so it'll just be mostly underutilised.

I'll be saving myself about 2k just by going with an air cooler instead which would hopefully have the benefit of lasting longer and be less prone to failure.

I would've went for the 140mm Noctua NH-D15 Chromax Black for fan size consistency with the included 140mm case fans but unfortunately wootware doesn't have anything like that available so I'll just take the best I can get.

So maybe I could just buy 2-3 extra 140mm fans and replace the stock fuma 2 fans then test if it would make a worthwhile difference in a noise/temp levels in my typical use case, if not I'll just put them back and use them as case fans instead for a cooler overall case temperature.

 

[ThatGuyJD]

I initially went for a good 280mm AIO but I figured I didn't really need it since I won't be able to any overclocking nor be stressing the cpu out since I'll just be gaming at 60-72fps my monitor's max refresh rate or so it'll just be mostly underutilised.

I'll be saving myself about 2k just by going with an air cooler instead which would hopefully have the benefit of lasting longer and be less prone to failure.

I would've went for the 140mm Noctua NH-D15 Chromax Black for fan size consistency with the included 140mm case fans but unfortunately wootware doesn't have anything like that available so I'll just take the best I can get.

So maybe I could just buy 2-3 extra 140mm fans and replace the stock fuma 2 fans then test if it would make a worthwhile difference in a noise/temp levels in my typical use case, if not I'll just put them back and use them as case fans instead for a cooler overall case temperature.

Unless you have them building it for you as well you should be plenty able to just get it from one of the people who actually carry Noctua in SA. i.e @Oj0 if he bothered to keep them in stock... or RebelTech

 

[Dewarrior]

Unless you have them building it for you as well you should be plenty able to just get it from one of the people who actually carry Noctua in SA. i.e @Hobbit if he bothered to keep them in stock... or RebelTech

I'll be building the PC myself as a learning experience, and for when buying any equipment I prefer to get everything from one place which I trust.

 

[goldfritter]

I initially went for a good 280mm AIO but I figured I didn't really need it since I won't be able to any overclocking nor be stressing the cpu out since I'll just be gaming at 60-72fps my monitor's max refresh rate or so it'll just be mostly underutilised.

I'll be saving myself about 2k just by going with an air cooler instead which would hopefully have the benefit of lasting longer and be less prone to failure.

Sure, it should keep it cool enough. It just might be a bit noisy. But then if it bugs you, you can sell it on here later on and get an AIO.

I would've went for the 140mm Noctua NH-D15 Chromax Black for fan size consistency with the included 140mm case fans but unfortunately wootware doesn't have anything like that available so I'll just take the best I can get.

Wootware used to stock the Phanteks PH-TC14PE, which would perform around 95% the same as the Noctua - maybe email them and check if they are planning to re-stock it soon? They are usually pretty quick with emails.

So maybe I could just buy 2-3 extra 140mm fans and replace the stock fuma 2 fans then test if it would make a worthwhile difference in a noise/temp levels in my typical use case, if not I'll just put them back and use them as case fans instead for a cooler overall case temperature.

I'm pretty sure you won't be able to fit 140mm fans on the Fuma. It's a 120mm tower. Plus it probably wouldn't actually help the cooling performance as the surface area for heat exchange is still the same. If you want to experiment, you can try using the 140mm ones you're already getting and see if they make any difference - could be an interesting side-project.

But all of this said, my overall feeling is that you won't be disappointed with the Fuma. You can probably even undervolt the CPU a bit for better temps and negligible performance loss, if you need to.