Building PCs is our fetish. With the introduction of Intel’s 13th Generation processors and Nvidia’s DLSS 3 courtesy the RTX 4000 graphic cards, building a 4K PC has become just so much more within reach than it ever was. Nvidia’s introduces new connectors for its GPUs? No problem, we now even have power supply that natively support the new connectors. The Z790 platform supports DDR5 RAM, which no longer cost an arm and a leg. Nvme SSDs have pretty much become the default when it comes to storage, so their prices are no longer astronomical.
So we set out to build an ultimate 4K machine. We thank our supporters, Nvidia, Intel, Gigabyte, ASUS and Kingston for providing us the necessary hardware to complete our 4K build.
Building a PC the iLL way has numerous benefits. Read our guide about the benefits of building your own PC. Built with the right specifications, a well built PC can last you a minimum of 5 years without you ever feeling the need to upgrade. We have also seen numerous examples of builds going strong after 8 years of inception. Our own audio editing machine was built in 2015 with an i7-7700K. It can boot Windows almost as fast as the latest gen CPUs and it can still game at 1440p comfortably. Well built machines are even passed down generations.
This particular build is made keeping in mind its future expandability, durability and ease of swapping out components.
Now with the pleasantries out of the way, let’s get to it. We will list the components chosen and the reason why they’re chosen.
CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K
Why did we choose the i9-13900K when we could have easily gone with the i7-13700K which costs a significant ₹10,000 lesser? Two words: future proofing. The thing, when building a PC, the CPU is the single biggest factor for deciding the platform and the components around it. With the 13900K, the extra cores and threads means that you will not only be ripping apart any game at 4K, but you will also get the benefit of top-notch 4K video editing performance. Sure, the processor is power hungry and generates a lot of heat, but you can’t beat the performance gains of the behemoth that is the 13900K.
Graphics Card: ASUS Tuf GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
The reason we chose the RTX 4070 Ti and not the RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 is because of two factors. First, we are counting big on Nvidia’s DLSS 3 technology. We have seen that it works considerably well with supported games, and the list of supported games is increasing by the day. Second, the 4080 and 4090 are considerably more expensive than the 4070 Ti, and have limited availability. For video editing, the 4070 Ti has enough memory bandwidth to perform strongly for 4K editing. Plus, the 4080 and 4090 require much more power and would require us to upgrade our power supply. The GPU is one component we can alwasy upgrade after a handful of years, so we feel that the 4070 Ti is the best option here.
Motherboard: AORUS Z790 ELITE AX
The AORUS Z790 ELITE AX is one of the cheapest motherboard that supports DDR5, and since we wanted a DDR5 platform for future proofing, this one’s a no brainer. This motherboard has just right amount of expansion slots to complete your build without compromising on performance and expandability. You get WiFi 6E support, 4 M.2 slots with heat sink, USB 3.2 Gen 2 slot. Sure, you miss on certain luxuries like multiple USB C ports, extra RGB lighting, a few ATX expandable ports, but we recommend forgoing those luxuries because the amount saved with the Z790 ELITE AX is significant.
RAM: Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5 RAM 16GBx2 @6400MT/s
Kingston has been making solid RAM modules since back in the day, and were the first ones to jump on the DDR5 wagon. The Kingston FURY DDR5 sticks support upto 6400MT/s via XMP profiles, and you can always knock it down a notch or two to match with your overclocks. This RAM is one of the fastest you can get, at a good price. Kingston’s software for RGB lighting actually works, and when synced, the lighting looks breathtaking. Check out our full review of the Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5.
Power Supply Unit: DeepCool PX1000G
DeepCool’s PC1000G is the company’s latest series of Gen 5 complaint power supply units. That means that you get a dedicated 12VHPWR port with support upto 600W which will do covers with the cable management of your system. The PSU comes with a switch that enables hybrid semi-fanless operation. Apart from that, the PSU features a slew of Japanese internal components making it long lasting and surge proof. Having a good PSU is underrated. The life of your PC’s components is single handedly dependent on the quality of power your system receives. A good PSU ensures long lasting components.
Storage: Kingston NV2 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD
The AORUS motherboard comes with its own heatsinks for the M.2 drives, thus we save some cost here and go for an SSD without a heatsink. This makes us reach top-notch transfer speeds. Kingston’s NV2 is a very aggressively priced M.2 SSD, and performs good, if its heat is allowed to dissipate. Kingston offers a lifetime warranty on their SSDs and RAM sticks, that just shows the confidence the company has on their products. Thus, for the OS installation, we recommend Kingston because of its durability. If you want higher speeds, you can always expand with a faster performing M.2 like the WD_Black SN850 or the Kingston FURY Renegade SSD that will also match your RAM.
Cabinet: Thermaltake 71 RGB Full Tower 4 Sided Tempered Glass
This is a full tower case with 4 sided tempered glass. We actually dropped one glass piece from our building table, but nothing happened to it. Not even a scratch. This means durable, which is a quality we are looking for in this build. Why a full tower? The i9-13900K performs best with a 360mm AIO and a full tower is needed to fit a 360mm cooler. The Thermaltake 71 supports custom loops, has a very convenient open and close mechanism. It is bigger than most full towers and that is another reason why we chose it. Through years of experience in building PCs, one thing we are certain about is that having a big cabinet certainly helps in maintaining longevity, and making installations easier. This is a top notch case, hands down.
Cooler: AORUS Waterforce X360 RGB AIO
The AORUS Waterforce X360 has a nifty LCD display that shows information like clock speeds, CPU temperature, radiator RPM and CPU load. You can also have some fun with the display by adding your own custom image, text or video. Cooling wise, the performance is more than enough for the i9-13900K, however you will need to undervolt the CPU because the number of times it will hit 100 degrees Celsius is alarming. You can get this cooler for around ₹15,000 in the market, which is really good value for this product.
Monitor: Gigabyte M28U
The M28U is the more feature loaded 4K monitor at a nifty 28-inch size for under ₹50,000. This monitor offers features using in displays that cost above ₹1,00,000. The biggest offering in our opinion is an IPS panel that supports 144Hz refresh rate. Along with that, you get FreeSync Premium Pro support and Gigabyte’s KVM feature which we have talked about here.
Performance
This 4K build of ours features the cutting edge of latest technology in 2023. This PC can handle any game you throw at it. With DLSS3 enabled, we are getting frame rates of 120+ in games like Dota 2, DOOM: Eternal, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077. Even for games not natively supporting DLSS 3, the performance was commendable. Street Figher V and Baldur’s Gate 3 never went below 120 frames per second.
Our CPU temperatures were concerning initially but a little undervolting and the problem was solved. This is the nature of the 13900K CPU, it is extremely power hungry when pushed and generates a lot of heat. 4K video editing in Da Vinci Resolve was smooth as butter. Adding FX effect is really CPU hungry so with effects enabled we did experience some stuttering but that was only when seeking through our editing timeline. Noise levels on this builds were incredibly low, that to the water cooled AIO and the silent PSU. The RTX 4070 Ti doesn’t even switch on its fans when performing tasks like browsing the internet or word processing. Pushing the system to its limits makes the fans spin faster, so that is the only time when you have to deal with noise.
Conclusion
Building a PC sounds like a Herculean task but really, it is not. If one follows a methodical process, PC building can be very easy and actually even meditative and therapeutical. This build of ours is meant to be an integral part of a workspace for years to come. It can easily handle upgrading the graphics card, RAM, SSDs, or adding more PCI components. If you want to upgrade the CPU and motherboard to a new platform, the cabinet is future proofed enough to ensure you support for the long term. The toughened glass in the cabinet means falls from 4 feet height won’t cause any scratches, let alone breakage. This PC has the potential to be a main work machine, a gaming beast, a central machine to all your other smaller devices, in other words, the mother system.
Stay tuned to iLLGaming for more exciting builds.
