My anti budget PC

[Vario]

Let's change angle just for fun. Some messages claim I'm hard set on my choices and it's not the case, or I wouldn't be asking here.

Let's say we're all brainstorming a PC and I take in all the recommendations so far. It would look something like this:

CPU: AMD 8800X3D
Video Card: 5090
Motherboard: TBD
Memory: GSkill Z5 Neo 2x32GB
Storage: Crucial T700 4TB
Power Supply: Corsair RM1200x
Cooler: Custom water loop
Case: Lian Li O11 DEXL (no complaint so far)
Case Fans: PHANTEKS T30

1. Does this make more sense than the first build performance wise?

2. I want RGB. How do you go about making this into a Christmas tree? It doesn't seem to me like you can reasonably put leds on fans that don't have them in the first place.

That PC looks good, don't know if you need custom water loop unless you have experience with them. Thats up to you.

Regarding fans, you can put LEDS on them.

Phanteks Innovative Computer Hardware Design

www.phanteks.com

etc

Phanteks Innovative Computer Hardware Design

www.phanteks.com

 

[Onasi]

1. Does this make more sense than the first build performance wise?

Theoretically. It all depends on whether you need a system right now or not. Everyone commenting about upcoming hardware is doing so assuming no. And in any case - CPU you can buy already, the next couple of AMD generations will keep the same socket. Just buy a 7800X3D and a motherboard of your choice and you can always upgrade later if needed. GPU? Just throw in whatever as a temporary solution and wait for new stuff. Buying an overpriced watercooled 4090 NOW is not the play.

2. I want RGB. How do you go about making this into a Christmas tree? It doesn't seem to me like you can reasonably put leds on fans that don't have them in the first place.

I can’t help you if you value pretty lights over objective performance. Only God can take mercy on your soul in such a case, I am afraid.

 

[dgianstefani]

G Skill Trident DDR5 is literally worse than Dominator DDR5 because no PMIC thermal pad.

There's nothing wrong with Corsair PSUs.

Also it's debatable whether Zen 4 is the fastest for gaming. Sure, for single player games if you test Raptor Lake with slow RAM for 1:1 comparison. Besides, RTX 5090, Zen 5 and Arrow Lake are literally out in a couple of months so this is a pointless build.

 

[Monso]

Regarding fans, you can put LEDS on them.

Phanteks Innovative Computer Hardware Design

www.phanteks.com

etc

Phanteks Innovative Computer Hardware Design

www.phanteks.com

Interesting, thanks. I'll look into it.

I can’t help you if you value pretty lights over objective performance. Only God can take mercy on your soul in such a case, I am afraid.

God has forsaken me long ago.

I don't mind that RGB isn't popular on a tech forum. It's logical. I've never had it and if I make a custom high end PC, I'm just thinking: why the heck not?

 

[Noci]

Oke I'll bite, but the title of your post sounds like clickbait to me:
anti budget system.....?

Could you not just go for: advise on ultimate gaming system with a budget cap of $ 5,000 in May 2024 (or other currency, as yor did not specify)?
With the current state of available technology the choices are bound to that budget and many peeps will project their wet dream system if they had that much to spend on a pc (most peeps don't).
It will be an endless discussion why to choose product A over product B because of performance X compared to performance Y with correlation to option Z, as evereybody has different experiences with a certain product.

Yes, you do get valuable info like the CPU in your initial choice clearly not being the best option (for gaming), or choosing the best compatible RAM. But what I want to express, if you did your resarch on beforehand, you would not waste other peeps time with the obvious questions. On the other hand, they don't have to react and give their opinion it's freedom of choice, so that pleads for you.

Unfortunately this is a recurring subject I've seen passing by multiple times over the years. I for sure won't give advise on what to spend on product A or B, but with your budget the journey towards the destination is the most fun . Be wise with filtering advises, double check the facts and make your dream PC.

Good luck.

 

[evernessince]

G Skill Trident DDR5 is literally worse than Dominator DDR5 because no PMIC thermal pad.

The G.Skill kit achieves objectively higher scores in benchmarks. PMIC thermal pad is irrelevant for everyone but extreme overclockers as per ir_cow's comments on a faster G.SKill kit also lacking PMIC pad: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/g-skill-trident-z5-rgb-ddr5-6800-cl34-2x-16-gb.302690/

Hence why context is important. That extra thermal pad does essentially nothing at typical voltages because the amount of heat is low and the effusitivity of the heatsink itself isn't improved by the presence of the pad. You need active cooling on the RAM and higher voltages in order for the PMIC thermal pad to start making a difference and even then the difference will be small. It's not like adding a pad is hard either. Don't think you'll see an extreme overclocker pass on G.Skill becuase they are missing a PMIC pad, that's dead simple to add.

Also it's debatable whether Zen 4 is the fastest for gaming. Sure, for single player games if you test Raptor Lake with slow RAM for 1:1 comparison.

Every major publication has Zen 4 with the gaming crown. It's not a big win but it is a win. There have been articles published showing that Intel with DDR5 7200 (the frequency most Intel CPUs can achieve) vs AMD with tuned DDR5 6000 still comes up with AMD on top. The performance gain by going with higher frequency RAM on Intel is about the same as tuning the subtimings on DDR5 6000 on AMD. It's a wash and that means at the end of the day AMD is still faster.

The X3D chips of which do so while consuming drastically less power.

Besides, RTX 5090, Zen 5 and Arrow Lake are literally out in a couple of months so this is a pointless build.

Yep, exciting time to wait but definitely not to buy into the high end.

 

[Monso]

Could you not just go for: advise on ultimate gaming system with a budget cap of $ 5,000 in May 2024 (or other currency, as yor did not specify)?

Sure, could have been a better title. I wouldn't necessarily call it "ultimate" because you can find $10,000 builds.

I saw another post with "budget pc" in the title. I wrote "anti budget" as a joke, just to clarify that I'd rather talk about technical questions than cost. It doesn't mean I have an unlimited budget like some have interpreted. Just that I know my picks aren't financially savvy.

Like it's fine to not want RGB. Anyone who thinks it's money down the drain is absolutely right. But if I want RGB and take responsibility for flushing down my money, what are the options to make a good performing rig with it? That's the kind of discussion I'd have liked to have with this title.

if you did your resarch on beforehand, you would not waste other peeps time with the obvious questions.

I researched a lot but I can only go so far by reading up on my own without hands on experience with the products. Some questions may seem obvious but I appreciate that knowledgeable peeps are answering them. I certainly hope nobody is wasting their time.

 

[Caring1]

I might have missed it, but what is the intended use case for this PC?

 

[Monso]

Mainly gaming. I've done some programmation, video editing, etc but not enough to warrant an expensive PC. The performance would be mainly for gaming.

 

[#22]

I don't mind that RGB isn't popular on a tech forum. It's logical. I've never had it and if I make a custom high end PC, I'm just thinking: why the heck not?

Imo in practice RGB gets irritating the moment when you stop looking at it and try to focus on monitor. Then lights flashing and changing patterns get intrusive, feeling trying to steal your attention all damn time. Even if you set them to constant mode, it feels like something being here, but it would be better if it wasn't. I've built many pcs for others with this shit, so know it from experience and recommend somehow getting some before building own unit around such "attraction". I don't even count that you admiring beauty of RGB is likely to end after two weeks - like we all get used to this type of aesthetic things and then they stop giving us that initial fun. My type of pc is around reliability, silence and low maintenance - RGB and tempered glass don't go well with it and in comparison are rather garbage.

 

[dgianstefani]

Interesting, thanks. I'll look into it.


God has forsaken me long ago.

I don't mind that RGB isn't popular on a tech forum. It's logical. I've never had it and if I make a custom high end PC, I'm just thinking: why the heck not?

It's not about popular or not. RGB fans perform worse compared to non RGB fans of even the same model.

 

[Monso]

Imo in practice RGB gets irritating the moment when you stop looking at it and try to focus on monitor. Then lights flashing and changing patterns get intrusive, feeling trying to steal your attention all damn time. Even if you set them to constant mode, it feels like something being here, but it would be better if it wasn't. I've built many pcs for others with this shit, so know it from experience and recommend somehow getting some before building own unit around such "attraction". I don't even count that you admiring beauty of RGB is likely to end after two weeks - like we all get used to this type of aesthetic things and then they stop giving us that initial fun. My type of pc is around reliability, silence and low maintenance - RGB and tempered glass don't go well with it and in comparison are rather garbage.

The RGB case getting annoying is a valid concern after you've experienced it, which I haven't. Can't know before trying.

I have 2 RGB keyboards, a cooling pad and a mouse constantly on when I play. It doesn't wow me nor does it annoy me, it just feels normal.

I don't know, form and function is something we often want from the products we buy. Social media is full of pictures of beautiful PCs that their owners have obviously spent a good amount of time to make appealing. Do you see those and automatically assume their performance is garbage? It doesn't seem that way most of the time.

If I didn't care to make my custom build pretty I would feel like it's missing something.

 

[#22]

The RGB case getting annoying is a valid concern after you've experienced it, which I haven't. Can't know before trying.

I have 2 RGB keyboards, a cooling pad and a mouse constantly on when I play. It doesn't wow me nor does it annoy me, it just feels normal.

I think that I described it the way it's easy to imagine and kinda see for yourself. On the other hand if you don't mind RGB peripherals you already use, you should be fine with RGB computer. Or at least one hitting with RGB with similar manner.

I don't know, form and function is something we often want from the products we buy. Social media is full of pictures of beautiful PCs that their owners have obviously spent a good amount of time to make appealing. Do you see those and automatically assume their performance is garbage? It doesn't seem that way most of the time.

And I choose function, because I feel like it. I don't care what other people in social media show and like, because I simply like what I like. E.g. I like Microsoft's ergonomic keyboards, so I happened to be total hipster here and I prefer it over mechanic or RGB ones majority likes. With builds being about RGB I just see them focused on something negligible to me. They feel like missed opportunity to get what I like instead and what's useful on daily basis. E.g. I would prefer sound-proofed pc case. Works best non-windowed and makes computer sounding less intrusive and tiring or really well hides coilwhine. Case well filtered and making maintenance easier. Or GPU with better cooler than prettier one - I find Gainward Phantoms the prettiest, but choose TUF instead due to being better card (and btw imo ugly). Or air cooler, because I don't like AiOs with their noises. These are simply my preferences.

If I didn't care to make my custom build pretty I would feel like it's missing something.

I have my custom build in non-windowed case and I don't feel missing anything. This thing is here to do it's job reliably, quietly and be low maintenance. Additionally something like RGB, so leds, is far from what I find pretty, so once again preferences

 

[A Computer Guy]

The RGB case getting annoying is a valid concern after you've experienced it, which I haven't. Can't know before trying.

I have 2 RGB keyboards, a cooling pad and a mouse constantly on when I play. It doesn't wow me nor does it annoy me, it just feels normal.

I don't know, form and function is something we often want from the products we buy. Social media is full of pictures of beautiful PCs that their owners have obviously spent a good amount of time to make appealing. Do you see those and automatically assume their performance is garbage? It doesn't seem that way most of the time.

If I didn't care to make my custom build pretty I would feel like it's missing something.

I run Corsair RGB LL 120 fans on my custom loop with 2 x 360 radiators and it does ok. Not the best fans but it's worked good enough to allow quiet operation while stressing the CPU for 1hr if I didn't want the fans to ramp up. The LL series in particular don't provide a full square surface with the rad so backpressure forces air out the holes where there is no contact with the radiator. From what I recall more expensive Corsair RGB fans after the LL series (QL and QX) mostly seemed to go downhill in terms of radiator performance which is both surprising and sad.

(in the picture I tried to use a rubber gasket to close the gaps but the soft gasket would deform when mounting making gaps and thus became useless)

The ML series was better and came by default on AIO's for awhile and it seemed to take forever for RGB ML series to be released and of course for a pretty premium. I was able to snag 2 boxed sets of RGB ML's for half price (I think they are not produced anymore) but I'm not looking forward now having to take my PC apart just to swap out the LL's. If you have the choice and want to stick with Corsair RGB fans I'd go for the ML's over the QL's for radiators but ML's at full speed are pretty noisy. You also have to consider which fan/RGB controller to use since Corsair has newer production out now.

 

[Monso]

From what I recall more expensive Corsair RGB fans after the LL series (QL and QX) mostly seemed to go downhill in terms of radiator performance which is both surprising and sad.

Sad indeed. I hope they (or a competitor) get their stuff together and make better performing RGB kits in the future. Because it's natural to want all of the things.

 

[Vario]

I run Corsair RGB LL 120 fans on my custom loop with 2 x 360 radiators and it does ok. Not the best fans but it's worked good enough to allow quiet operation while stressing the CPU for 1hr if I didn't want the fans to ramp up. The LL series in particular don't provide a full square surface with the rad so backpressure forces air out the holes where there is no contact with the radiator. From what I recall more expensive Corsair RGB fans after the LL series (QL and QX) mostly seemed to go downhill in terms of radiator performance which is both surprising and sad.

(in the picture I tried to use a rubber gasket to close the gaps but the soft gasket would deform when mounting making gaps and thus became useless)

View attachment 348249

The ML series was better and came by default on AIO's for awhile and it seemed to take forever for RGB ML series to be released and of course for a pretty premium. I was able to snag 2 boxed sets of RGB ML's for half price (I think they are not produced anymore) but I'm not looking forward now having to take my PC apart just to swap out the LL's. If you have the choice and want to stick with Corsair RGB fans I'd go for the ML's over the QL's for radiators but ML's at full speed are pretty noisy. You also have to consider which fan/RGB controller to use since Corsair has newer production out now.

You can probably use a thin strip of aluminum flashing, hardware store sells that type of thing.