Hi so my gaming laptop just died ( water damage ). Usualy i would be looking for a universal laptop but finally i finished university so i likely wont need laptop any more . So right now im looking to dab into proper PC finally. And im looking for help to build a pc. Im mostly decided on the cpu front 7800x3d most likely and im looking for somewhat decent gpu for 1080p ,maybe 1440p gaming( if you are wondering why such a strong mismatch between gpu and cpu dosent bither me , i mostly play Europa universalis 4 , stellaris and other strategy games so extremly fast cpu is a priority , and apparently eu4 benefits quite a lot from 3d vcache . GPU meanwhile, if it can play total war warhammer 3 on max details its good enough ) . It can be either radeon or nvidia( i like to dabble as a hobby in ai models so nvidia would be cool ,but on the other hand i ran linux and nvidia is a pain in the ass on linux ,also i can manage without cuda cores somehow). Frankly speaking im just looking for the most decent price to performance indicator. Also what should i know about motherboards are there any important things or should i just look out for the chepeast possible one for that cpu .
Other than that cables. Do i need any additional cables or would they come with cpu power supply etc…?
Take a look at the Builder on https://pcpartpicker.com for picking out parts, it will help you to find compatible pieces. With your choice of CPU (7800X3D is an awesome pick) I’d say look at the B650 Chipset (B650E for more future-proof) motherboards unless you really need a lot of PCIe lanes and probably look at the $200 price point if you want an inexpensive but not cheap motherboard (Asrock is my brand of choice).
As for video card, it’ll depend on your budget. For those titles at 1080p you could probably do a Nvidia 3060 12GB or AMD 6600XT, but if you want 1440p and have a bit more budget room you could look at the Nvidia 4070 or AMD 7800XT.
And don’t forgot a CPU cooler! Noctua NH-D15 is a great pick for the 7800X3D.
Dosent cpu come with cooler?
Often yeah, if it’s called “boxed” it’s with a cooler, “tray” is without.
But the stock cooler runs hot and loud so I second the recommendation to replace it. NH-D15 is what I have but still wouldn’t recommend it for you because it’s expensive and a Cooler Master Hyper 212 / Arctic Freezer 34 is good enough for gaming and much cheaper. Really any tower cooler of decent size is decent enough so price is the most important aspect imo.
AMD’s coolers aren’t that bad. I would recommend giving it a shot before deciding to get a 3rd party cooler. 3rd party coolers are better, don’t get me wrong, but your CPU will decidedly not be hot (as the below comment suggests) if you stick with just the stock cooler.
If you’re looking for price to performance, then using the stock cooler seems like a pretty easy way to shave off 50 dollars. Besides, you can always buy a cooler later if the stock cooler ends up bothering you
Agree on the GPU lineups just want to add that for gaming I’d recommend the AMD and for everything else go with Nvidia. AMD gives more FPS / $ and it doesn’t sound like Ray tracing is something that’s relevant for the games you play.
It seems like you generally know what to look out for. I’d like to just pitch in and say that you shouldn’t skimp out on a power supply. I remember there was a list floating around the internet (perhaps you can find it if you search for it) that lists different power supply models and their reliability. If you can find it, I’d recommend giving that a look before deciding on your power supply.
Also, make sure that whichever power supply you get is rated to handle the sum total of energy usage from the rest of your PC. I find that PCPartPicker has an accurate wattage calculator, so I would recommend plugging your build into there. My general recommendation is to try to pick a power supply where your estimated wattage is around 40-70% of the rated wattage of the power supply. (i.e., 0.4 <= estimated wattage / power supply wattage <= 0.7) Around 50% is the sweet spot of energy efficiency, and you definitely want to leave yourself some extra wattage for margin of error, in case of energy spikes or something of that nature. If you think you might upgrade to a higher-energy CPU or GPU in the future, I would recommend going for a higher rated wattage for your power supply (ie, nearer to 40% estimated wattage)
As for cables, you should be given cables from the motherboard and the power supply. Unless you have an excessive amount of fans or drives, you shouldn’t need to worry about missing a cable.
As for the GPU, Nvidia basically always falls short in terms of price to performance. You’ll have to consider whether you want ray tracing or CUDA, since Nvidia got those on lockdown. If you don’t particularly care about those, then AMD is by far your best bet for price to performance. As for which specific model to get, I think a 7800XT might be a good start.
There’s been a bit of a “crisis” recently about how much VRAM a GPU should have. Basically, in terms of raw power, I think a 7700XT would probably be fine for your needs, but it’s only got 12 GB VRAM. Nobody can predict the future, so take this with a grain of salt. But my concern is that 12 GB might not be enough in the next few years. So I would suggest a 7800XT.
You can also take a look at AMD’s previous generation, the 6000 series. The 6000 series nowadays can often be found for crazy-good prices, so if you’re OK with some older technology, you can definitely take a look at the 6800 or the 6800XT.
My info is somewhat out of date, but I can say that a 3060ti/6700XT will be able to do 1080p @ 144fps+ on max settings without breaking a sweat. I have a 3060ti, and I can even do ≈240fps on many titles on max.
Supposedly, the 3060ti and 6700XT can both do 1440p, but you may struggle to achieve the same fps at the same settings. 3070 or better is usually considered the minimum for 1440p gaming.
Like I said, my info is a bit out of date, so maybe somebody else can provide the newer equivalents for 3060ti/6700XT or better.
ETA: a new PSU should come with all the cables you need. Don’t buy third party cables, unless it’s just a port extension, because you will run the risk of burning out a part due to incorrect wiring. The only other cables you’d need are monitor cables, such as HDMI or DisplayPort.
Realtek audio on a motherboard won’t work well with Linux. Try to get Intel based Ethernet for Linux compatibility too
You can go pretty cheap on a mobo if your trying to save money, at the cost of less connectivity. (Less usb, less pcie, etc.)
And a power supply should always come with the cables to wire up power.
amd graphics card do support generative ai as of recently. especially with higher vram models, and especially on Linux. goggle rocm and pytorch to start researching
Don’t you need the proprietary driver for AI stuff?
If you care about future CPU releases in several years, spend as much money as you can on an X670 board. I’m not convinced that the best B650 board can support in 4 years a 16 core processor with future designs, cooling requirements, and provide enough power.
Seeing that Ryzen 8000 is laptop, so the next one will be 9000, if you want a Ryzen 9 10000 or 11000, get something like the most expensive Gigabyte X670 you can buy for future CPU designs.
Buying Radeon 7000 is fine, you can upgrade that in a couple of years and it’s only a 10 minute job to change GPU and run DDU in safe mode.