Looking at a new build.

[CDN_Merlin]

Hey, so as I'm waiting for my back pay after signing a new contract, I'm wanting to upgrade my current PC.
Below is what I'm thinking. This ends up costing $3000+taxes but not sure if I should change anything.

I've attached the specs. I want to stay with Intel and upping to I9 from my current I7.

Thoughts?

[Krom]

Get the 13900k instead, it is exactly the same CPU.

Also the cooler is not enough for those Intel CPUs, I'll check what is recommended after work...

[CDN_Merlin]

the 13900 is actually more expensive

[Krom]

Must be a Canada thing then, because usually the 13900K is a fair amount cheaper.

The recommendations for cooling one that I see floating around are "Use a 240MM AIO.", which would be plenty effective if you go that way.

Other popular coolers are the Thermalright Peerless Assasin 120 SE
or the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
And the venerable Noctua NH-D15S or NH-D15 (if you can fit one in your case).

But obviously the best price/performance ratio is the Thermalright which usually runs for around $40 USD and should be able to just barely keep a 14900K from melting down. Just keep in mind the 14900K can draw as much as 258w regularly and can spike to like 400w or some insane number. If all you are doing is gaming, consider a AMD Ryzen 7800X3D system instead, it is faster, draws less than half the power, and is nearly half the price.

[Krom]

Also consider dropping to just 32 GB of RAM, and or dropping from a 14900K to a 14700K or even 14600K (Or the KF variants if you are not going to use the iGPU). Depending on how you spin it, perhaps you could swing more towards a 4080 super instead of the 4070 ti super (what a name). A faster GPU would be a benefit now, a faster CPU could potentially be a benefit if you plan to upgrade your GPU ~3 years down the line or so, but that is assuming 3D cache CPUs don't completely flip the table by then.

[CDN_Merlin]

So I was not able to find the first 2 coolers at my PC shop but the Noctua was there.

I prefer staying with 64 Gigs RAM and upping to a 4080 is to much more money.

I switched to the lower CPU though.

The current config comes to $2931 plus taxes.

[Krom]

That should be sufficient.

If you need a windows key, you can grab one for $15-20 USD here: https://lodgenorth.com/ ( https://forums.somethingawful.com/showt ... id=3898368 )

Also you can download the windows 10/11 installer images directly from microsoft, but if you go with windows 11, use rufus to write it to a memory key and it will give you a couple checkbox options that let you easily disable the microsoft account requirement and set up a local user account instead (you will still have to install windows with the PC disconnected from the internet).

[CDN_Merlin]

Question. I've seen very often people using sites like the one you posted for cheap Windows keys. How are they able to do this? Is it really legit?

[Nosferatu]

Don't get one from a site like AliExpress. They ARE selling bogus volume license keys.

However there are sellers of legitimate keys out there...




I got a Windows 10 PRO 64 key this way for the computer I just built.

By the way, the first vid is Greg Salazar. Very well known youtuber about computer hardware and he still has scdkeys as a sponsor, 5 years later.

[Krom]

Short answer: Microsoft does not sell windows/office for the same price everywhere, these keys are legitimate, but officially meant for "developing countries" where $120 USD is like 6 months pay for the average worker.

[CDN_Merlin]

yeah, I've seen people buying games even on these sites.

[Krom]

And also, Microsoft has a market cap of over 3 trillion dollars making it the most valuable company on earth. So, yeah, don't pay full price for windows. In fact; ★■◆● those guys.

See: https://companiesmarketcap.com/

I have personally used lodgenorth for a copy of windows and a couple copies of office with no problems at all, and their thread in the something awful forums is also full of other happy customers so I'm okay with recommending them.

[CDN_Merlin]

Thanks again for all the help

[CDN_Merlin]

So I've been updated this off and on.

[Nosferatu]

That looks like it will be a sweet system.

I don't think I personally would ever need something that new and powerful.

[CDN_Merlin]

I'm a gamer at heart. And this is all coming from back pay so I take advantage of it since I can't upgrade parts along the way.

[Krom]

Note that officially the 13900F is a 65w CPU (with a 220w turbo) where the 13900KF is the exact same CPU but 125w (with a 253w turbo). However, odds are your motherboard is set to enable turbo forever (or can be configured as such), so they are pretty much the same in practice.

[CDN_Merlin]

Krom, are you recomnmending the KF instead? I don't need a built in GPU and don't need to overclock. I simply use it at it's default speed.

[Krom]

The F is the part that means it has no iGPU, the K is if it is overclockable or not, but the K also has a higher power limit so it is a little faster.

[CDN_Merlin]

Ok, I swithced it to a 13900KF. It's 130$ more but oh well. You only live once.

EDIT: Krom, would you recommend just dropping to an I7 instead of an I9?

I7 is almost 300 cheaper

[Krom]

I would, for gaming performance the i7 is going to be really close.

Or really, I would recommend an Ryzen 7800X3D, because it is better at gaming than all of them. (Very happy with mine.)

[CDN_Merlin]

So I finally got my new PC Wednesday night.

I decided to but Win 11 CD from my local PC store.

Tried to install this using the CD and I couldn't get past the "network" screen.

Googled the issue, bypassed the issue. Finally got into Win 11 and tried installing the drivers from ASUS but they didn't want to work.

Downloaded the MS took to create a bootable USB and decided to install again this way as the image from MS was newer than my CD.

It was able to access my wifi. Then I got to the acocunt part which I could't bypass. Had to login using my hotmail (which I don't want).

Googled some more and re-instlaled again and finally was able to bypass the forced acocunt login.

What a nightmare installing Windows has become now.

I will be porting over my 6 TB HD into my new system tonight and continue to install programs/games that I need and transfer my current system to my TV for my hockey streaming.

[Nosferatu]

I really hate that MS is doing that with WIN11.

At least for now, the "oobe\bypassnro" trick still works.

[Krom]

Yeah, in my recent build I was already aware of MS making it extremely difficult to set up a local account so I used Rufus to download and create the install media with a local account already configured (you just have to avoid connecting to the internet during install). Basically reduces all the annoying oobe\bypssnro thing into a couple check boxes and not connecting to your wifi. I also used a portable SSD as my install media which makes the whole process go extremely fast.

[TigerRaptor]

I don't like what Windows has turned into. Thankfully O&O ShutUp10 along with Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility makes Windows 11 more usable for my taste.

[CDN_Merlin]

I bookmarked Rufus for future Thanks