Upgrading desktop recommendation

[jianrong]

My rig is more than 6 years.

old rig :
intel i5 4690
Corsair 16gb ram
msi p55ga mobo
Seasonic psu.
256 gab ssd plus 1tb hdd.

~ upcoming rig to buy eta around April 2022.

1. Intel cpu suggestion?
2. 32gb ram is Corsair still good? Which ddr now?
3. motherboard with bluetooth, wifi more fast usb? Which Msi to recommen? or other brand.
4. Psu still going for seasonic brand. But would like higher wattage a good one.
5. 1TB ssd? Plus 2tb hdd for os and storage
6. coolermaster casing that is short in height enough with side panel?
7. Window 11
8. GPU

my budget could range from $1500 to about $2300.

will play game mostly on 1080p or 1440p. Usually ffxiv or some 3rd person hack slash firing open world games.

thanks for your recommendation !

 

[yusoffb01]

cpu can get 12400 or 12600k
crucial is good budget brand. get 3200mhz or faster
can consider fsp
casing can consider tecware

 

[astones153]

For Intel CPU currently best choice is either i5-12400 for "good enough" gaming, i7-12700k for maximum performance.


HUB video on best budget b660 boards, MSI b660m-A wins best overall, comes with wifi and ddr4 variants


For Z690, Buildzoid more or less recommends MSI PRO z690-A and nothing else if you don't need fancy bios troubleshooting or overclocking features, also comes in wifi/ddr4 variants.

32GB Ram is only if you're going DDR5 (because 16GB kits basically dont exist lol), but imo DDR5 still not worthwhile. You can easily get 2x8GB or 2x16GB ddr4 kits for way cheaper on Amazon mostly, 3200mhz or 3600mhz will do fine. Better brands would be Crucial Ballistix, G.Skill Ripjaws, I'm personally iffy on Corsair Vengeance kits but most people are fine with them.

For your SSD- any pcie gen 3 will still work just fine, honestly pcie gen 4 is kinda pointless unless you manage huge files or something.
For the Hard Drive- check if the drive uses CMR or SMR recording. CMR generally has better performance, SMR is generally lower cost.

GPU-wise for strong 1440p performance your best choice would probably be RTX3070, RTX3060ti also works if prices are still too high in April.

 

[KYZT2021]

if not rush can wait GPU downward trend now

 

[Phen8210]

Get 12400f, 12600k, or 12700f, whichever fits your budget. These are amongst the best value CPUs.

As for the motherboard, get B660 Series for the best value.

MSI PRO B660M-A is the best mid-value board. But do note that the local price mark-up is very excessive at the current price point.

GPU purchase either hold back or save up more to buy a 3070TI @ 1.3K bah.. or wait for it to drop even more.

These components will already put u at 2K mark. Gaming is no longer cheap.

 

[NightRaven49]

if not rush can wait GPU downward trend now

can also wait for next gen of gpus + ryzen 7k.

 

[jianrong]

Get 12400f, 12600k, or 12700f, whichever fits your budget. These are amongst the best value CPUs.

As for the motherboard, get B660 Series.

MSI PRO B660M-A is the best mid-value board. But do note that the local price mark-up is very excessive at the current price point.

GPU purchase either hold back or save up more to buy a 3070TI @ 1.3K bah.. or wait for it to drop even more.

These components will already put u at 2K mark.. Gaming is no longer cheap.

So for psu is also better to get at least 850w gold?

will the mobo plus cpu … able to fit in smaller casing or perhaps mini itx? Also need a better cooler since I be putting the casing with good airflow below the table which is narrow.

 

[Phen8210]

So for psu is also better to get at least 850w gold?

will the mobo plus cpu … able to fit in smaller casing or perhaps mini itx? Also need a better cooler since I be putting the casing with good airflow below the table which is narrow.

750/850 is pretty decent

For mini ITX, you need an ITX mobo, and your GPU size, CPU cooler must measure carefully.

 

[ragnarok95]

Get 12400f, 12600k, or 12700f, whichever fits your budget. These are amongst the best value CPUs.

As for the motherboard, get B660 Series.

MSI PRO B660M-A is the best mid-value board. But do note that the local price mark-up is very excessive at the current price point.

GPU purchase either hold back or save up more to buy a 3070TI @ 1.3K bah.. or wait for it to drop even more.

These components will already put u at 2K mark.. Gaming is no longer cheap.

If you are getting 12600K, get the Z690. Else go for the 12600. But take note 12600 doesn't have E cores.

 

[jianrong]

750/850 is pretty decent

For mini ITX, you need an ITX mobo, and your GPU size, CPU cooler must measure carefully.

So all other components must measure carefully too. Better to get micro atx casing in this case.

or somone can recommend a mini itx build?

b660 doesn’t seem to support Bluetooth and ddr5 ram from msi website. The website didn’t even state wifi.

 

[NightRaven49]

b660 doesn’t seem to support Bluetooth and ddr5 ram from msi website. The website didn’t even state wifi.

depends on the specific board u are looking at. cheaper, more budget oriented models tend to have no wifi or ddr5 support, while more premium models have them. bluetooth usually comes together with wifi since it is provided by the wifi card and is chipset agnostic.

u can build a sff ish pc with the tecware fusion, which supports matx mobos and atx psus while still being roughly the same size as a nr200. all parts listed below with local warranty (in years) except those from amazon:
cpu + mobo + cooler: 12400f + msi b660m pro-a wifi + box cooler $500 from sls shops (3y)
ram: crucial ballistix 2x8gb 3600c16 ddr4 $115 shopee/lazada (lifetime)
storage: samsung 980 1tb $140 amazon
psu: super flower legion gx pro 650w $105 tradepac (5y)
case: tecware fusion $85 shopee/lazada (1y but do u really need warranty for case )
total so far $950, can also choose other ram or psu. amazon got 2x16gb 3600mhz ddr4 for 150, and can go for seasonic gx650 (10y) for 140 from sls.

this leaves u with about $500-1300 for ur gpu, based on ur original budget range. u could feasibly buy anything up to a 3070 ti, but for up to 1440p gaming, a 3050 would suffice. though a 3050 would only make sense if u can find one for less than 450, else a 6600 non xt would be far better value which now goes for close to 700 brand new. if u are going for a more powerful gpu, remember to provision a higher wattage psu too.

 

[Phen8210]

If you are getting 12600K, get the Z690. Else go for the 12600. But take note 12600 doesn't have E cores.

Not recommended.

Even without a Z series board to overclock, the value to the performance of the 12600K way surpasses 12600. This means that 12600 has horrible value as the overall performance is much worse for almost the same price. My recommendation skips all the way to 12600K from 12400F, already accounting for the other chips in between.

Anyway, I am not the one getting it. Putting myself on buyer perspective and giving recommendations based on TS budget so he can get the best out of his money.

 

[Phen8210]

Anyway, I would really suggest TS consider a 12600K at minimum.

While the 12400F has the best value and also good IPC like the rest of the lineup, the overall headroom of the chip really is not plenty.

On titles such as New World. In a busy town, you can see where the CPU usage already sitting at 80%. In action-packed areas, it will be gone case for sure. Never seen any other game use this much CPU. It was one of the reasons I decided to upgrade my CPU.

 

[ragnarok95]

Not recommended.

Even without a Z series board to overclock, the value to the performance of the 12600K way surpasses 12600. This means that 12600 has horrible value as the overall performance is much worse for almost the same price. My recommendation skips all the way to 12600K from 12400F, already accounting for the other chips in between.

Anyway, I am not the one getting it. Putting myself on buyer perspective and giving recommendations based on TS budget so he can get the best out of his money.

I would have taken a 12600KF with a Z690 and DDR4.

 

[jianrong]

If get all items from sls it will be way way more expensive right? Consider knowing someone who could assemble the diy rig at sls.

 

[jianrong]

Z690-a

looking at msi website. It have ddr5 support so I can also insert ddr4 ram in too?

 

[NightRaven49]

Z690-a

looking at msi website. It have ddr5 support so I can also insert ddr4 ram in too?

no, while the slot is physically identical the power delivery has shifted from on the motherboard to onto the ram module itself, so ddr4 and ddr5 are incompatible.

 

[jianrong]

Ddr4 ram isn’t furureproof?

 

[jianrong]

Casing is one thing to look at. Since I can’t get bigger one. Must be around same dimension as my old coolermaster case. Since I place it on my lower table rack.

 

[Phen8210]

So all other components must measure carefully too. Better to get micro atx casing in this case.

or somone can recommend a mini itx build?

b660 doesn’t seem to support Bluetooth and ddr5 ram from msi website. The website didn’t even state wifi.

Here it is for the recommended B660 mATX board
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-B660M-A-WIFI-DDR4/Specification
Anyway just to let you know. DDR5 is probably out of your budget and extremely bad value for money, you just wouldn't want that. It doesn't make sense.

I would have taken a 12600KF

Yes, but never a 12600 regardless of mobo. They are completely different in terms of overall performance and 12600 has horrible value. It's not just a matter of lock/unlock anymore.

with a Z690 and DDR4.

If you have a higher budget and willing to sacrifice value for "enthusiast features" why not?



MSI PRO B660M-A costs $245 and is already a very decent midrange board that can extract the max performance of a 12900K with no power limits @ stock of course.

For Z690 we looking at $350+ onwards, and so the value diminishes. Plus there really isn't a point to OC this chip, with the already excellent IPC and overall performance.

For maximum value to performance pick B660.
For "enthusiast", probably Z690. Yeah, of course you would pick this haha.