Help me build a new gaming PC

I built my last gaming/general use PC a decade ago, and I'm still using it, but it's increasingly clear that it's time to upgrade to something with more horsepower. For reference, here's the previous build.

Intel i5 4690K @3.50GHz

MSi z97 PC Mate (MS-7850)

32GB DDR3

EVGA GeForce GTX 1650 Super 4Gb (this was an upgrade a few years ago)

Samsung SSD QVO 1TB (OS drive; there are additional drives for games and storage)

IIRC, I built it for around $1k, and I'd like to stay in that neighborhood. I'm set for a monitor, and I'll transfer some of the drives (SATA) across to the new machine as long as it's not a huge PITA. I'd prefer to stick with Intel for the CPU and nVidia for the GPU. The current machine is in a reasonably large tower case, and that's fine - I prefer more space for future expansion, as I tend to keep these things going for a long time. I know Amazon's Prime Day is closing in, and I can probably save a few bucks if I buy then; if not, there's always Black Friday in a few months.

The real choice is do you go to the most recent generation Intel/AMD or stay one generation behind and put that money in to a better graphics card.   Or go current gen but get a lessor CPU that can be upgraded later. That lets you go to DDR5 memory and again you can put a bit more towards a better graphics card.  
 

Basic building $$$ is put about 40 percent of your budget towards the GPU and the rest towards everything else. 

Another decision I would recommend making is if you want to go mini-tower or smaller. I really like the Mini-ITX based, very compact machine I built a couple of years ago, but smaller tends to be pricier.

Upgradability matters. I'm inclined to go with a motherboard that allows me to bump the CPU later; it looks like LGA 1200 is the current standard, so that's what I'll use. I have no problem going with a CPU that's lower than top-of-the-line, as long as I can change it out later if need be (FWIW, I'm still running the original CPU on my old box, though I had the same thoughts about upgrading when I built it).

As far as case size, I have a space on the side of my desk where the computer lives. The tower case fits there fine, and I really don't gain much by going smaller. I always preferred larger cases for flexibility and heat dissipation. Speaking of which, am I going to need to consider cooling beyond the usual fans? Do modern CPUs want more than that?

For the graphics card, 40% of the purchase price seems to be pointing to the 4060 ti 8GB - any major pluses or minuses to that card?

What games do you intend to play?

I saved a lot by capitalizing on Black Friday/holiday deals for the build I finished earlier this year.

Intel 13700k bundle from microcenter with 32gb ram and mobo was like $450 I think

nvidia 4070 oc 12gb for $529...it was a small difference for better performance over the 4060 for me

i also found a sale on a Samsung 1tb nvme I think was like $60...half off basically. 
 

transferred my old drives like you, and then I splurged on an aio and case, but you can get away with using your current case and a good fan cooler. Look at Gamers Nexus for good cheap fan coolers, you can get a fantastic one for $30-50 but I can't remember the brand 

also if it's in the budget, I would look at maximizing cooling as much as possible. My particular cpu is known to run hot, as are most intel CPU's I think. So the more fans the better. 

Hoppps said:

What games do you intend to play?

It's a good question. Generally speaking, my demands are relatively low, hence my ability to stretch out an old machine. At most, I'd like to have enough juice to run Starfield at decent settings (I don't own it yet, as I doubt my current machine would handle it well at all, so this is a sort of theoretical point), and max out some of the stuff I still play regularly, like RDR2 and Elite:Dangerous. I do not need to max everything all the time - I grew up at a time when the jump from CGA to VGA was looked upon as witchcraft.

In reply to 02Pilot :

I had to google cga lol.

But that information is super helpful. If you're able to wait a little, AMD and Intel should have their next gen CPU release, which would mean better deals on 1-2 gen old parts.

I would also recommend a bundle from a reputable company like micro center or Newegg, just cause it saves you worrying about part compatibility. 
 

Something else to keep in mind is your power supply. You might be able to get by with what you have, but I would plan to upgrade it in the future. New cpus have more power demand, especially intel. AMD tend to run both cooler and consume less power.

my upgrade was similar to yours, went from 3rd gen intel to 13th gen.

Regarding the drive thing, note that modern motherboards all have NVME M2 slots on them, and that interface is MUCH faster than a SATA SSD.  IMHO this is an area where it's worth considering an update.

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

So is this to say that my SATA drives are not going to be compatible with a new motherboard? If so, I'll have to budget a bit more for storage than I anticipated.

02Pilot said:

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

So is this to say that my SATA drives are not going to be compatible with a new motherboard? If so, I'll have to budget a bit more for storage than I anticipated.

They should be fine. Just get a 1tb m.2 drive as your boot drive.  You can go 500gb but would really recommend 1tb.  
 

Something else to consider is a power supply. Don't be cheep here. Good clean power is key. Also go bigger on the PSU. Future proofing a PSU is a good thing.  

If I get a chance I will play around at pc parts picker and see what I can build for 1k.

Oh do you need a new copy of windows?

In reply to dean1484 :

That's a good resource, thanks. I will need a new copy of Windows; the last one I bought was 7, then upgraded it to 10 while it was free to do so.

02Pilot said:

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

So is this to say that my SATA drives are not going to be compatible with a new motherboard? If so, I'll have to budget a bit more for storage than I anticipated.

No, they will work fine.  NVME is just about 8 times faster than SATA, and IMHO that's a performance improvement that's worth exploring.

Hopefully more computer savvy people will chime in, but here's something I threw together to kinda give you a rough idea for your budget. 

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder-intel.aspx?load=5cb2edf3-4fae-45fa-bf25-1b6e36f93345

Pair that with a Thermalright Peerless Assassin CPU Cooler and thermal paste for $40

i also have 5 be quiet pure wings 3 fans ($10 each) that do a great job and aren't terribly loud.

That seems to be a good solid system.  Looks to be a really good bundle deal.  If you had a little extra scratch I would consider going up to a 4070 series card but absolutely not needed. 

Regarding fans. More is better as you can run them slower with less noise.  Same for bigger is better for the same reason. 

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't have a Micro Center near me; chances are, merely for convenience, I'll be ordering everything from Amazon in one shot. I'll have to see what deals emerge on Prime Day and see if I can make it work.

02Pilot said:

In reply to dean1484 :

That's a good resource, thanks. I will need a new copy of Windows; the last one I bought was 7, then upgraded it to 10 while it was free to do so.

You should be able to upgrade that to 11 for free. May need a call to MS to move your license to the new hardware, but you shouldn't need it.

With that said...Linux gaming has made some impressive strides thanks to the Steam Deck - if your game library is in Steam, I'd consider giving it a whirl.

I've dabbled with Linux, but never on the gaming side. I have an old box around here that I could experiment with, but I don't think I'll be going that way for a primary machine. I do have some non-Steam stuff that sees some use.

Unrelated, after partially melting my brain with searching for components, I decided to peruse complete machines. It's a little more than I was looking to spend, but if it drops on Prime Day this one might be a candidate, unless someone sees a fatal flaw I've overlooked in my ignorance.

Having bought exactly nothing PC-related since I started this thread, I'm once again looking at my upgrade options. I've concluded that I just don't have the time and inclination to build from scratch, so I'm going to buy something pre-built. What do we think about this system? For those who don't want to click, it's an iBUYPOWER Trace Mesh with I7 14700F, RTX 4060Ti 8GB, 32GB DDR5 5600 RGB 16x2, 1TB NVMe SSD for $1299. I know nothing about the brand, but I've seen their stuff mentioned in a few "best pre-built gaming PCs" lists, if that means anything.

Edit: Also interested in opinions on this one, a Cooler Master HAF 5 Pro High Performance Gaming PC - Intel i7 12700F - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070-16GB DDR4 3200MHz - 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD on sale at $1399.

Piggybacking here. 

My desktop is about a decade old and I could use an upgrade for some of the more resource-intensive things I do (looking at you, Fusion 360). I have a bunch of hard drives I'll want to transfer over -- I think 6 or 7? -- so would need capacity for those.

Outside of that, 02Pilot, possibly something to keep an eye out for when Black Friday hits? It's a month away and prices should be attractive, yeah?

In reply to brandonsmash :

Yeah, I really should wait for Black Friday, but I've put this off for so long that I'm not sure I'll manage to resist doing something rash and impetuous. At least the second one I linked to is $300 off at the moment.

On a related note, I'm reading some things about issues with the 13th and 14th generation Intel processors. How serious are these issues, if they matter at all? Should I be avoiding the latest and greatest processors in favor of something older that works?

In reply to 02Pilot :

There's a degradation issue with the 13th and 14th gen processors due to a problem with the microcode. GamersNexus did a deep dive on the issue but it boils down to the processors were over-volting themselves. Intel released a microcode update for the processors to fix the issue but their response to warranty and recall questions was.... let's just say E36 M3 the bed might be understating what happened.

In theory, the issue was fixed, but you can't rely on any benchmarks because no one really knows how much performance was lost with the update until every 13th and 14th gen processor is rebenchmarked.

Here are the two references:

I didn't get the impression that the oxidation issue was widespread, it appears that there was an issue during production but it was caught or limited to very early production processors. There's not much info on it either way.

In reply to The0retical :

So the obvious follow-up question is: Is there a significant performance drop going back to the 12th-gen processors? I realize this is sort of an unknown, given your statement about benchmark validity, but I've been completely out of the loop on processor developments in recent years. I'm not looking for bleeding-edge, but I don't want to buy something that's already obsolete.