Benchmarking Current Pre-Built PC's

[Neon Ignition]

I'm not planning to get a new PC anytime soon but I'm also acutely aware that aspects of my current machine are starting to creak. I've had my PC for 8 years now and it's had a few upgrades over time to its ram and GPU and still easily walks through the stuf I use it for. That being said, it is ultimately aging. It's CPU is still the one it started with, the fans are getting noisier, windows is developing... quirks, the C drive only has so long till Windows eats the space away and other little tidbits so in the next 2 or so years I'll be facing a Trevor's Broom situation where so much will need upgrading or replacing that it wouldn't really qualify as being the same machine anymore.

So, whilst on the horizon, I've still had my mind turn more toward where things are at in the PC market and for giggles put in a High-Low filter on a site of pre-built towers to see what it came back with. Here's what it broke down as and my associated questions:

Case - Cases are largely the same as years back, though I've seen some with GPU bays that currently house things like RTX3080's in them snuggly.
Would I be right in thinking this kind of thing should be avoided due to limits it imposes in future or are RTX's physical dimensions the biggest and most universal GPU build you'd face fitting in?

Processor - Seeing quite a few with processors around the i9-11900K mark. I know that for gaming performance it doesn't necessarily work as a higher I model is the best choice.
Is this typical of what should be bough these days or is this a less appealing CPU being used to shift stock over a better choice?

GPU - Very variable but most commonly it seems to be either RTX3080, RTX3090 or RTX3080ti.
If we're looking at another 2 years or so on the current machine (assuming it lasts) would I be best riding things out till RTX50XX lands?

Cooling - It's either standard open design or chambered. There are various fan options within what you'd expect but also liquid cooling options.
Is liquid CPU cooling worth it or an unnecessary added expense?

Motherboard - Z590 came up several times, there are plenty that also seem to try and look fancy but at this point the motherboard is one of the key components that is limiting how far I can upgrade by current PC.
Is something like the Z590 what should be aimed for (currently) or is it better to go for something that really maxes your options if looking to upgrade other components in the coming 10 years?

RAM - 16GB seems the most common but I've seen one or two options with upward of 128GB 3200Mhz DDR4.
I know 16GB isn't enough, I know people say it is but when your looking forward it won't be just as I was right not to get 8GB originally. But 128GB seems obscene. The main thing though here is a lot of options rest on DDR4, it's better to secure DDR5 right?

Power - 750W seems the most common
1000W is best I guess given the rising GPU needs?


Then high storage SSD's after that?

[Neon Ignition]

I've been trying to do more looking into this and it seems like for the most part you need to go down the custom built route to get the newest stuff in there. There are few ways of getting a decent DDR5 based i7/i9 12 series CPU based machine without having it built for you or doing it yourself. Likewise for hard drives where we're now looking more at NVMe drives.

Standard SSD's with i7 10 CPU's and DDR4 are much more common in pre-builts and this is where I get a lot less certain of things as the price quickly escalates for what seems to be little performance gain in general however the thing I'm mindful of is that in coming years PC's are going to be running games designed for PS5/XSX generation hardware rather than PS4/XBO as is currently the case so those faster threads, RAM and hard drive speeds will be more important.

That being said, my i7 4770K has never shown signs of missing a beat so I'm not sure how important the CPU is these days to need to go so top end. Therefore it seems like hard drive speed, DDR5 and GPU are the three key considerations, presumably in the wake of RTX40XX releasing

[MartyG]

The i7 4770K will be bottlenecked by a 40XX series card, as will the 30XX cards. If you're running higher resolutions, you're actually putting less work on the CPU as it has less work do. GPU will be by far the biggest cost, but you don't need the bleeding edge to get a good gaming experience.

A Ryzen 5 or Intel i5 on the new architectures are the best price/performance for gaming - paying that massive premium for a R9 or i9 only gives a small increase in performance for price.

If you want a rig that's going to last a few years, I'd look at R5 5600X B550 or X570 mobo / i5 12600K Z690 mobo, 16-32GB RAM in 2x8 or 2x16, NVME for boot, SATA SSD for mass storage, RTX 3070 or RX6700XT GPU, 750-850W gold rated PSU strix/supanova/RM and good airflow case. If you plan on getting a 40XX GPU or a 3080/Ti/90 then a 1000W PSU might be worthwhile and expect to be paying around £1200-1400 for it.

I wouldn't worry too much about DDR4/DDR5 at this point as it won't have a big impact on performance, just go whichever is most available for a reasonable price and compatible with the mobo you go with.

[charlesr]

If the fans are getting noisy, they are probably a) dusty, b) spinning faster because heat sink is dusty.
Also, you could try some new cpu paste.

[briareos_kerensky]

Cases - they might appear the same as the older models, but you have to consider USB3 A and C ports, and if you use them, different connectors for headphones/mics. Modern cases are also better equipped for accept large fans and radiators for loquid cooling.

GPU - I'd get a 30XX right now. There are rumors that the 40XX series will be very power-hungry. Powerful yes, but I really doubt that I'll buy a 450w+ GPU. Keep in mind that powerful GPUs also need powerful CPUs to feed them data, otherwise the GPU will stand there doing nothing or even worse asking the system for things to do and lowering overall performance.

CPU/mobo - currently I'll go for AMD, especially with the recent announcement of them slicing prices on some of their processors. You'll miss Thunderbolt if you don't go for the most niche mobos from the likes of Asrock, but I feel AMD has the best price/performance ratio right now.

Cooling - I still have to try my have at water cooling, be either a closed or custom loop, but a good air cooler can be as silent (or even more silent) and less maintenance-intensive than water cooling. Noctua, Be Quiet!, Cooler Master, and Scythe (if you find them) all have excellent-to-good products.

RAM - minimum 32GB. As for DDR4 and 5...depends on what the mobo supports. DDR5 doesn't blow DDR4 out of the water, it's the natural progression of bus speed. If your workload involve a lot of memory operations DDR5 will be great, but for gaming and general use the price of a good DDR5 kit might not be worth it.

PSU - get a 750w or 850w, it'll be plenty for pretty much any config (unless you want to run a multi-GPU mining rig). A good brand will last you for years. ATX 3.0 specs have just been published, but unless you plan to go for a RTX 40XX, I'd get a new PSU when new GPUs are out and you know for sure how much power they'll require.

[Neon Ignition]

Thanks all, I'm definitely getting mindful of the age some of the current parts are headed toward. It'd be nice to hit that balance again between getting one where the CPU, RAM etc don't really need anything doing to them over the life of the machine so it's a GPU matter more than anything.

NMVe seems a part to put under consideration, well, having at least one drive in there anyway

[charlesr]

If you are currently on spinning disk, get an nvme immediately and put windows on it. It will transform your machine every time you use it.

[Neon Ignition]

I've got Windows running on an SSD atm but it's now around 30GB away from running out of space. Weirdly W10 has stopped accepting updates as well so I'm permanently stuck on the version I'm on

[MartyG]

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/delete-old-windows-update-files/

[Neon Ignition]

Thanks, done that, just seems the drive is getting too small for it if it continues to get bigger

[Neon Ignition]

Here's some common high end combinations I've seen:


Ryzen 9 5900X, RTX3080ti, 1TB M.2 SSD, 32GB DDR4 3200 RAM, 3TB HDD, Z490 Mobo

i9 11900K, RTX3080, 2TB PCIE SSD, 128GB DDR4 3200 RAM, 3TB HDD, Z590 Mobo

i7 11700K, RTX3080, 2TB PCIE SSD, 64GB DDR4 3200 RAM, 2TB HDD, Z590 Mobo

Ryzen 9 5950X, RTX3080 ti, 1TB NVMe SSD, 16GB DDR4 3200 RAM, 2TB HDD, X570 Mobo

i9 11900K, RTX3080ti, 1TB NVMe SSD, 32GB DDR4 3200 RAM

i9 10900K, RTX3090, 1TB NVMe SSD, 32GB DDR4 3200 RAM

i7 11700, RTX3080ti, 1TB NVMe SSD, 16GB DDR4 3200 RAM

Ryzen 7 5800X, RTX3080ti, 1TB NVMe SSD, 16GB DDR4 3200RAM, 3TB HDD, Z490 Mobo


Everything in terms of prebuilts seems to currently circle these options with further set ups being a sliding scale of moving down through the Ryzen 5, i5/i7 generations, RTX3070 and below etc. PSU's all seem to circle 750W as well so presumably that would need upgrading in time.

Do any of these circle the right forward thinking combination or is it just a case of pre-builts are too much of a compromise and custom is the only real option?

[MartyG]

I wouldn't get the Ryzen 7 5800X with the Z490 mobo because the CPU won't fit in it. Are you only wanting this for gaming? If so you don't need an i9 or R9.

A 11XXX and 10XXX Intel chips are 1 and 2 gens old. And providing those with only a 750W PSU with a 3080+, you're asking for power spikes to reset your PC when the GPU tries to pull power temporarily (as the 3080+ do).

Need to see the actual builds & prices, but from what's listed I wouldn't be keen on them.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, it'd be for gaming. Some seem to have 850w psu's

[MartyG]

A 12th Gen I5 or 4th Gen R5 are plenty for gaming leaving more budget for GPU - unless you're also streaming from the same machine or wanting to do media creation, you don't need more, it's not worth the additional outlay unless you have the spare cash to splash.