Developer Desktop Build 2023
- Intel i5-13600K - £297
- MSI PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard - £180
- Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO 64GB (2x32GB) DDR4 3600 - £174
- Samsung 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD (MZ-V8P2T0BW), 2 TB, PCIe 4.0 - £156
- DeepCool AK620 CPU Air Cooler - £60
- Corsair 4000D Airflow Tempered Glass Mid-Tower ATX Case - £95
- Corsair RM850x 80 PLUS Gold Fully Modular ATX 850 Watt Power Supply - £153
PCPartPicker - Dave Dev Rig April 2023
Super quiet, 64GB RAM, 2TB rig.
Total: £1115
All parts bought from Amazon UK
The Build
Lets do a bench build to test components
First step is to seat the CPU - the trick was to get the arrows lined up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC1f5_cWFNU CPU install - lining up arrows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmknmmSpUA4 AK 620 cooler install
Notice above I should have put in the m.2, but I could get it in afterwards. Also the memory was in the incorrect slot, but I was testing the clearances
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-Z690-A-DDR4/support memory in DIMMA2 and DIMMB2
https://download.msi.com/archive/mnu_exe/mb/PROZ690-AWIFIDDR4_PROZ690-ADDR4100x150.pdf
It is alive! I powered on the mobo by shorting the two power pins (see manual)
checking temps are not rising crazily (which would indicate problems with the thermal cooling paste).
xmp profile 1 - running at full speed RAM ie 3600 MHz (in first picture DDR is at 2133 MHz)
cooling profile - in Advanced, OC, CPU Cooling Tuning, Water cooling 4096W (ie full power)
226W max draw on cinebench. Thermal throttle, but I believe this is okay.
22412 on cinebench which is fine.
Windows
windows 10 pro user: setup
MSI Driver Utility Installer - comes up once only. Otherwise have to install drivers via MSI Center.
had to use USB external CD ROM drive to read Ethernet Adapter driver (and wifi)
Do all updates in Windows
Download MSI Center - to get all devices on the mobo working (ie in device maanger on windows) download driver all except Norton Also in advanced I went from BIOS V1.A0 to V1.B0 - 24/03/2023 (so 5 days old)
Samsung Magician (to get and chec updated firmware on ssd). ScottH likes to Overprovision by 10% . I’ve not. Perf test gave: Sequential Reads: 6874 MB/s Sequential Writes: 5116 MB/s Random Reads: 1.06 million iOPS Random Writes: 1.06 million iOPS
Install HW Info 64 Sensors Only CPU Package CPI Package Power
Cinebench r23 from MS Store I got a 24,042 which looks good results
Get Intel Extreme Tuning from Intel turned on automatic overclocking which gave me 24,316 above
Case
It is alive!
Why a new PC
Why change? I’ve run out of disk space on the current machine (which has 256GB SSD) and maxing out memory (16GB), and have a smart caution on one of my 4TB spinning HDD drives. Crystal DiskInfo to get stats
I’m going for a fairly average power build with high storage and high memory, and it’s my first every build from parts, so just having fun!
Interestingly Damien Edwards has built around 12 machines over the last 3 years Video Here so this may be a fun start of building as a hobby! at 29 minutes in he starts the build with tips eg how tight to tighten screws.
PCPartPicker summary of this build
LTT sister build - z690, 3060ti
Buying Kit
Inspect boxes when you receive them for damage!
Where to buy stuff in the UK?
-Amazon. Good as can cross ship if have got a problem. support bot try and get. -scan.co.uk -overclockers.co.uk
CPU
Team Blue (Intel).. team Red (AMD)
Intel (13th gen - Raptor Lake) - £313
-Core i5-13600K or KF (KF = no onboard graphics). Prefer to get integrated graphics so easier to test on boot up.
LGA-1700 socket
cpu mark 38,400
I went for this as very good price for performance - this processor is still great value for the power (was in Jan 23 and now Apr 23)
Interestinly the xxxx is only $90 more..
Motherboard (MOBO)
We’re going for LGA-1700 as there are 1,700 pins on 12th and 13th gen of CPU’s
Want at least 2 * m.2 slots
MSI PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard £200
Also Asus are a good brand
B660M - no. can be slower
z690 - yes. Good for overclocking if need it
z790 - don’t need yet
I’m going with DDR4 RAM currently
ATX, Micro ATX and Mini-ITX. (Mini is smaller than Micro)
2 types of headers with different pins aRBB - addressable rgb RBG
Wifi
Useful to have as things like mirrorcast or wideeye need wifi. Even if you’re using wired ethernet.
CPU Contact Frame
To stop the scissor mechanism from bending the CPU, thus causing issues for cooling.
RAM
You want to buy a paired memory kit, so the DIMM (Dual Inline Memory Module)’s are matched
They don’t have 64HB DIMMs yet (DDR5)
64GB of DDR4
Corsair LPX amazon
3200 DDR4 (only need 3600 if overclock)
will the mobo support XMP to this RAM type that I’m going to buy?
SSD Storage
Put dev on different drive to the system so I want 2 * m.2
m.2 SSD
PCIe 4.0 is the latest eg Samsung 990 Pro. But expensive. Actually 5.0 is latest!
2280 is the mainstream length of an ssd
Crystal disk info to get smart ie how degraded is ssd and other drives. I’ve got a caution on one of my spinning drives (Uncorrectable sector count of 8). So time to retire that drive for sure. My main SSD an 840 PRO Series 256 has a 75% wear levelling count.
need to make sure to upgrade the firmware of the ssd
CPU Cooler
You can air cool a 13900k but you will be limiting it. Damien recommends large water coolers for modern cpus
On setup if we tell the mobo it has AIO (All in one, so I don’t have to plug in hoses, they are done already) or Watner cooling the cpu can draw as much power as it needs.. 250-350W!
Air cooler
Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler
or
ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 360 A-RGB 48.8 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler - but it costs £180
Use arctix thermal paste mx5
PSU
Modular power supply means none of the cables are attached
Platinum is highly efficient
Corsair are good.
cheaper ones will be nosier and less efficient maybe
BIOS
Simple and Advanced mode
OC - overclocking! Not tiner
CPU cooler tuning - want full power (water)
TPM2.0 built in for Win 11.
XMP 1 - enable that profile.. then reboot switch disabled to this profile then it will do memory training.. black screen
he was on 4000 MHz, then with XMP (Extreme memory profile), can go faster. to 5200 MHz
Windows
Win 11 Pro?
Windows 11 setup without network to get around not being able to do a local install. Shift 10 open terminal, oob slash something, which will reboot back into oob
# search for drivers for network card (wired and wireless)
# there were on a tiny usb key that came with the mobo
pnputil
# beginnings of hack to allow local account
oobe\bypassnro
then usb key that came with motherboard
sign up with personal account
Samsung Magician - to update SSD firmware
MSI Centre to update mobo drivers
HW Info 64 to monitor temps
Cinebench r23 to give load (use MS Store to easily get it)
Here is my old 4790k running cinebench with an air cooler
pulling 100W and maxing around 92 degrees (hit 97 later on 30min run). Didn’t thermal throttle (yet)
I got: 4,712, 4,560.. single runs… then for a 30 min run (Test Stability) 4,702
39,600 is what hanselman got on his 13900k (LTT only got 36,000 with no work) - so good silicon!
Intel XTU - to do overclocking of CPU. But core isolation.
AIDA64 for memory testing
Case
Mid tower
ATX, Micro ATX and Mini-ITX. (Mini is smaller than Micro)
GPU
Team Green (Nvidia) vs Team Red (AMD)
PC Builder GPU Price spreadsheet
do not buy 3060 8gb.. need 12gb
3070 msi model?
I want to go with NVidia purely as can then talk to the gpu
But I’m not gaming at the moment, and prices are falling. Don’t want kids gaming on my PC!
Cables
ATX connector is to the mobo
need 2 CPU cables?
Networking
Am putting in ethernet, but also wifi is super userful
I want a long antenna option
Monitor
I want to game at 144MHz at 1440p. Probably 27inch
- 1080p
- 1440p
- 4k
PC Builder - best gaming monitor 2023
Keyboard
I like Microsoft keyboards and mice.. for development. But letters have worn off current once.
XXXXXXX
Strategy
Read up on background on latest CPUs, MOBO (Motherboards), Memory, GPUS, monitors, keyboards, m.2, SSD, WiFi
- PCPro Magazine
- reddit.com/r/buildapc - 6.2m members, 4.8k online
- Linus Tech Tips
DUMP
w computer fun! uk pc build reddit? quietpc https://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/category/pc-filter/price-1500to1999/ https://www.chillblast.com/learn/intel-or-amd-cpu-a-buyers-guide/ best bang for buck
get a previous gen or 2? compare cpu’s https://www.cpubenchmark.net/ get bang for buck!
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8DKbY9 https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/8DKbY9 UK amazon - £300 monitor - 27” 1ms response 1080
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ voucher code in PRO22
ssd 1tb £86
memory 32GB £84
cpu cooler £105
Windows 11 Pro vs Win 11 Home
- Bitlocker on pro
WSL2 is on home for Win 10 and 11
Pre build ideas
https://buildredux.com/pages/build-your-pc good, better, best
CPU - AMD or Intel?
asdf
virtualisation
Motherboard
asdf
Network card
Would love an extendable aerial for wifi
Graphics - Nvidia or AMD
I want to be able to play latest titles
CUDA?
3070 8GB
3060Ti 8GB - made by MSI GeForce
Screen
I’ve never had a ‘gaming’ screen ie high refresh rate.. would be fun to try
Memory
32 or 64GB probably
Disks
1 or 2TB
New Mechanical disk?