Budget 21-30k Gaming + Workstation PC

Fenix

Fenix

Radhey Krishan
Skilled
I have finally sold the PC and now it is time to upgrade. Have narrowed only one Motherboard so far and it will be paired with 14700KF (those 4 extra cores are what got me and also the price).

ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-H Gaming supports these or provides these features

(WiFi 6E) LGA 1700(Intel14th &13th&12th Gen)
ATX gaming Motherboard
DDR5 up to 7800 MT/s
PCIe 5.0 x16 SafeSlot with Q-Release
4xPCIe 4.0 M.2 slots
USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C with front-panel connector

Any other suggestions in this price range, it is selling for 32k to 33k across various shops (Online and Offline).
 
Nice launch price indeed, very surprising!

You've mentioned PCIe 5.0 slot as a interesting feature. Know that no PCIe 5.0 GPUs even exist and even a 4090 can't saturate a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot.
Unless you plan on installing four PCIe 5.0 x4 SSDs there, you're throwing money away
Wouldn't you rather get a 14900k with a ~23k ish mobo for the same total price?
Cooling these beasts is a headache, so overclocking like we used to is practically out of the question

Side note: On any Asus board remember to disable Armoury Crate in BIOS if you don't want the rootkit to automatically & silently install it
 
n1r0 said:
Nice launch price indeed, very surprising!

You've mentioned PCIe 5.0 slot as a interesting feature. Know that no PCIe 5.0 GPUs even exist and even a 4090 can't saturate a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot.
Unless you plan on installing four PCIe 5.0 x4 SSDs there, you're throwing money away
Wouldn't you rather get a 14900k with a ~23k ish mobo for the same total price?
Cooling these beasts is a headache, so overclocking like we used to is practically out of the question

Side note: On any Asus board remember to disable Armoury Crate in BIOS if you don't want the rootkit to automatically & silently install it
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Its a bit of a quandary for me, 14900K is pricey and I feel 137xx and 147xx offer better value. Probably move to TUF motherboard without the WiFi. That's going for 24k with DDR4 RAM.
 
Consider the total price, not just the CPU
14700k + Strix = 40 + 33 = 73k
14900k + cheaper DDR5 mobo = 53 + 24 = 77k

For 3k you're getting a huge bump in performance.

Also 14900k with DDR4 will perform better than 14700k with the fastest DDR5 you can find. No need to worry about upgrading since 14th gen will almost certainly be the last to use the current socket
 
n1r0 said:
Consider the total price, not just the CPU
14700k + Strix = 40 + 33 = 73k
14900k + cheaper DDR5 mobo = 53 + 24 = 77k

For 3k you're getting a huge bump in performance.

Also 14900k with DDR4 will perform better than 14700k with the fastest DDR5 you can find. No need to worry about upgrading since 14th gen will almost certainly be the last to use the current socket
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Yeah, I was using a 2600k for a very long time.
 
Post your total budget with usage.

IMO i7 14700K + mobo + cooler will cost same as 7950X + mobo + cooler as you can save on mobo & cooler cost with AMD & in long run also save electricity costs even w/o UV. With UV & say a 10% performance hit on 7950X, you can reduce power draw a lot while performing similar to a full power draw 14700K.

1697950843422.png
 
OMEGA44-XT said:
Post your total budget with usage.

IMO i7 14700K + mobo + cooler will cost same as 7950X + mobo + cooler as you can save on mobo & cooler cost with AMD & in long run also save electricity costs even w/o UV. With UV & say a 10% performance hit on 7950X, you can reduce power draw a lot while performing similar to a full power draw 14700K.

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Somehow VMware Workstation has performance issues with AMD CPUs.
And that will be my primary usage.
 
Fenix said:
Somehow VMware Workstation has performance issues with AMD CPUs.
And that will be my primary usage.
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Then it's fine to get Intel. But I will recommend getting a good Z790, like TUF or Tomahawk, esp for i7 14700K as its power draw should be more than 12900K with power limits removed. Also, India is hotter in general vs US & EU.

Z790 TUF & Tomahawk will cost 28-30k. I find ROG to be overpriced as TUF performs similar for a bit cheaper. Get DDR5 with WiFi IMO. Use 2x32GB RAM as I heard there are some instability with XMP at higher frequencies like 6000MHz with 4 sticks of RAM.

Lian Li Galahad 360mm is a good AIO, check Gamers Nexus for cooler reviews. Do undervolt the Intel chip after purchase. Get a good big case like Lancool 216 at least, and mount AIO at the top.

Mobo VRM budget Z690.png
 
Fenix said:
Somehow VMware Workstation has performance issues with AMD CPUs.
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Don't know about this issue but heard of VMware workstation having issue with p and e core ultization the last time I checked. I have personally use linux but do look into this if it's resolved in the newer versions. Thats why I would prefer ryzen 7950x or 5950x if it's at a very low price. Other than that factor in the number of VMs (CPU core requirement) and the memory/storage for these VMs before you splurge.
 
Alucard1729 said:
Don't know about this issue but heard of VMware workstation having issue with p and e core ultization the last time I checked. I have personally use linux but do look into this if it's resolved in the newer versions. Thats why I would prefer ryzen 7950x or 5950x if it's at a very low price. Other than that factor in the number of VMs (CPU core requirement) and the memory/storage for these VMs before you splurge.
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With WS 17,they fixed it.
 
n1r0 said:
Consider the total price, not just the CPU
14700k + Strix = 40 + 33 = 73k
14900k + cheaper DDR5 mobo = 53 + 24 = 77k

For 3k you're getting a huge bump in performance.

Also 14900k with DDR4 will perform better than 14700k with the fastest DDR5 you can find. No need to worry about upgrading since 14th gen will almost certainly be the last to use the current socket
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+1 on this.

I'd get the 14900k even if I don't want to overclock, it is suppose to hit 6GHz (although for a brief time but still), also has slightly higher cache, probably will be binned better than the 14700k cause both are the same chips, 14700k became 14700k cause it couldn't pass to be a 14900k, if that makes any sense.

Also if you don't want to upgrade for the next 10 years 14900k seems better, I certainly wouldn't if I get that.
 
Heisen said:
+1 on this.

I'd get the 14900k even if I don't want to overclock, it is suppose to hit 6GHz (although for a brief time but still), also has slightly higher cache, probably will be binned better than the 14700k cause both are the same chips, 14700k became 14700k cause it couldn't pass to be a 14900k, if that makes any sense.

Also if you don't want to upgrade for the next 10 years 14900k seems better, I certainly wouldn't if I get that.
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I doubt someone who is able to buy an i9 14900K will stretch it for 10 years because it will be weak by then. For instance i7 4790K was released in early 2014 & is weaker than i3 12100 released last year. Heck even i3 10100 might be a bit faster.

Just putting things in perspective, that's all. Technology changes very fast.
 
I went through hardware unboxed video showing power usage of 14th Gen across each game and it consumes 15 to 20 percent more power than a 7950x or 79xx X3d CPUs. I guess if I go with the blue team, I may need to under volt it. 1.4v is a lot. Maybe running it at 1.25 should be fine with power and temperature.
 
Fenix said:
I went through hardware unboxed video showing power usage of 14th Gen across each game and it consumes 15 to 20 percent more power than a 7950x or 79xx X3d CPUs. I guess if I go with the blue team, I may need to under volt it. 1.4v is a lot. Maybe running it at 1.25 should be fine with power and temperature.
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It is trial & error. You might get a rough idea on forums, but it is up to you to find the lowest possible stable UV for your chip. Sometimes you might think CPU UV is stable & get BSOD on very random occasions.
 
OMEGA44-XT said:
It is trial & error. You might get a rough idea on forums, but it is up to you to find the lowest possible stable UV for your chip. Sometimes you might think CPU UV is stable & get BSOD on very random occasions.
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Yeah, you are right. But there is one more aspect, this now has me thinking of AM5 like the 7900x or 3d but the x670 motherboards are very expensive.
 
Fenix said:
Yeah, you are right. But there is one more aspect, this now has me thinking of AM5 like the 7900x or 3d but the x670 motherboards are very expensive.
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You can get away with a cheaper air cooler, so that's 10k saved right there. x3D don't need low latency RAM either, but that difference is only like 1k, so might as well get it
 
Fenix said:
Yeah, you are right. But there is one more aspect, this now has me thinking of AM5 like the 7900x or 3d but the x670 motherboards are very expensive.
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A good B650 mobo can handle even R9 7950X.

IMO VRMs under 70C are great. Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX is like 18k & has been a popular choice.

Also, R9 7950X with UV & some power limit (105W ECO mode) consumes more like 125W & even a single tower air cooler like AK400 will be enough for it. You will see a 10% performance hit vs its max possible performance, but save a good chunk of money. A 10% underperforming 7950X is still more powerful than a 14700K, so I will recommend that over i7 any day, unless there are productivity tasks which benefit Intel vastly or runs poorly on AMD.

IMO 7950X3D is not a great chip as all games still don't get scheduled properly into CCD with X3D cache. So for gamers, 7800X3D it is & for productivity, 7950X. 3D cache generates more heat as well, so another con against 7950X3D.

1698062020992.png
 
OMEGA44-XT said:
A good B650 mobo can handle even R9 7950X.

IMO VRMs under 70C are great. Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX is like 18k & has been a popular choice.

Also, R9 7950X with UV & some power limit (105W ECO mode) consumes more like 125W & even a single tower air cooler like AK400 will be enough for it. You will see a 10% performance hit vs its max possible performance, but save a good chunk of money. A 10% underperforming 7950X is still more powerful than a 14700K, so I will recommend that over i7 any day, unless there are productivity tasks which benefit Intel vastly or runs poorly on AMD.

IMO 7950X3D is not a great chip as all games still don't get scheduled properly into CCD with X3D cache. So for gamers, 7800X3D it is & for productivity, 7950X. 3D cache generates more heat as well, so another con against 7950X3D.

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I had the same thought after going through hardware unboxed.
 
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