New PC time

[GrahamT]

Hi, I’m thinking it’s time to upgrade my old PC. it’s an old i7 with 16GB ddr3 which still works fine and I can’t upgrade to Win 11 and its age is a concern for future reliability. My main usage at the moment is recording music using Cubase Pro 13 with a USB 3 interface, although in future I may do some video too on DaVinci Resolve, although nowhere near as much as the music. I also do quite a lot of photo editing using Affinity Photo. Other than this it’s just general office stuff in Office (mostly Access) which I know doesn’t need a lot to run. I originally had a max budget of about £1200 but this seems to keep moving up. The spec I’m looking at now is below and is probably overkill considering my current PC is coping fine but I wanted to get as much as I could now so that it lasts as long as poss. I also have some SATA drives with Cubase projects on and sample library’s I would like to know if I can put these into this spec machine too. I currently have a GTX 1060 ti 4gb graphics card in my machine ( upgraded from the original) and wonder if I’d be better to put a cheaper graphic card in and swap this over too ? … sorry for lots of questions all at once. Finally I have noticed lots of people saying go for Ryzen, this could be a sensible idea but for reasons I can’t really explain, other than I’ve been so pleased with my i7 I think I’d prefer to stay intel…. Any thought greatly appreciated

Case
CORSAIR 3000D AIRFLOW MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 16-Core Processor i9-12900F (Up to 5.1GHz) 30MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z790-PLUS WIFI (LGA1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 5200MHz (1 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1650 - HDMI
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3500 MB/R, 3200 MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3500 MB/R, 3200 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CX SERIES™ CX-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 ARGB V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler (INTEL)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK270 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Price: £1,385.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z790-ddr5-pc/PwcKQFgqzn/

 

[Scott]

We would all recommend AMD, Intel just isn't in a good place right now and won't be until at least the next generation.

I certainly wouldn't spec the build as you have above, there are areas crying out to me.

It would be good for you to have a read over the below. Specifically the desktop building guide to give reason for my thoughts:

Please read before posting:- Collaboration of Helpful Hints

NB: These forums are not an official support channel. None of us work for PCS, we're all either customers or techies who just like to help out where possible. For any official support, you need to contact PCS directly either through your PCS account, or via the contact details on the main...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

3000D - Small case, not ideal for hot components. I probably wouldn't go down this route unless footprint was paramount.
12900F - 2 generations old (we are on the 14xxx Intel now) and a real toaster oven. Opting for the F means no on-board GPU.
1x32GB 5200Mhz - Single stick is a big no-no for performance, 5200 is the bottom of the barrel for performance too. For low latency audio work you'll get nothing but hassle here.
1650 GPU - You're not getting much for your money here. Given you already have a GPU I would opt for a CPU with onboard graphics and simply use your current one.
PCS Drives - I wouldn't trust these with the OS or anything important. The write endurance is unknown and the performance is very low end for modern standards. Fine for a secondary drive but you want a trusted drive at least for the primary.
Low power CX PSU - This is very much an office grade PSU. Corsair are great, but they have levels. I wouldn't build, nor recommend, any system without at least an RM PSU in there. The efficiency goes up as well. In your use case I would opt for 750w.
Frostflow 100 Cooler - The 12900 is one of the hottest processors available. It would take at least a 360mm AIO to keep it in check at full chat, and in most cases they thermal throttle even then. They are seriously hot and that cooler would be like throwing a deckchair off the titanic. You would be thermal throttling almost constantly, especially in the little hot box selected. I can't imagine this being good for latency performance or consistency.
Win Pro - Do you need this? I know it's not a lot of extra outlay but just curious if you know the benefits/uses of the Pro license?
Norton 360 - Ditch it, horrendous complications with most 3rd party AV nowadays. Windows Defender (built in) is ideal and works great.


I do like the keyboard & mouse though. Have it myself in the office and it has served me well

 

[Scott]

The build I would recommend below. You have all the issues I mentioned above covered along with having enough budget left over (from the build price above) to cover a H115i cooler, which will make the rig super silent.

I would try the build without the GPU in at all, that way it will genuinely be whisper quiet even under utilisation, but if you need the GPU you're free to add it.

Your drives can all be added too, in fact if you let PCS know that you are looking to add the drives they can route the SATA cables for you prior to shipping.

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-5.3GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X670E-A GAMING WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR iCUE H115i ELITE CAPELLIX XT RGB High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Price: £1,296.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/2REQjg2nDT/

 

[GrahamT]

Thank you Scott, certainly a lot of things I didn't know about, I just picked stuff I thought Id need ( Norton was already there I didnt add it) and if it didn't tell me there was a problem I assumed it would be OK but clearly there's a lot more to it than that ! ..As for the GPU I did forget to mention I use two monitors and did think it would help with Davinci for video so went that route deliberately but will look at the " onboard" option. I will go off now and read the post you suggested . Thanks again for your time and effort!