Hey all , my computer guy in town is a big fan of MSI MB and says he prefers intel processors for gaming .
I’m not touching ASUS MB’s after their quality issues , so I’m going to stay away from that brand .

I don’t want an $8K cutting edge computer, but not a cheap one either , something in the middle that can play games at a decent frame rate .
Can anyone recommend what they’d do with a budget around 4-5K ? This is Canadian dollars .

Im basically getting a computer for a photo editing work station , but I’d like to get back into gaming .
I’m going to be using dual 1080 24” monitors which I already have,but I may upgrade to a single oled monitor with a higher resolution like 1440 or 4K , so it would be nice of the gpu could be a little future proof

I recommend just building your own. Prebuilts are almost always trash.

I have an asus x570 that bad been good, but yeah with their x670 issues I would avoid, at least on the AMD platform.

Might want to wait for the new GPUs this year.

4-5k should get you pretty much anything you need honestly.

14900k and 4090 build would run you about 4.

if photoshop/lightroom type stuff, and you're looking for top of the line performance in those apps, then the best performance will be from an intel 14900k or 13900k cpu. get at least 32-64 gigs of ram, nvme storage drive, and some nvidia gpu (4070 ti or better), or some 7900 or better amd gpu. get a 800w or better power supply as well, and an aio cooler for the processor.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/has a bunch of articles where they compare all kinds of chips for content creation, and have system recommendations as well.

I’ve built them in the past and probably would get a much better bang for the buck if I did again .
Our guy in town doesn’t have prebuilts , as he assembles them himself and charges you labour . My concern is he’s charging me a premium for parts , it’s like having a middle man .
Ideally I should just drive to Calgary and go to a computer store like I did back in the day .
Thanks for the info

if your budget is 4-5k then definately upgrade the monitor.

the cpu/gpu rapidly depreciates but people usually keep their monitor, keyboard, speakers ect for a long time, dont cheap out on those items, the ones your senses actually interact with the computer. you wont notice a 5% chance in speed that you paid 100 dollars for but you will notice better keyboard/mouse/speakers ect.

The ideal amount of ram needed always amazes me , probably need 32gig just to run windows efficiently. I was definitely going to go with an aio, as it kept my last computer much quieter .
Thanks

This, 5k Canadian is $3700 USD. you can build basically anything with that. i would also recommend building your own, partly because it's fun and to save money, but also because you can build it exactly how you want and if something goes wrong you can troubleshoot it yourself.

I do want to mention one thing though. I had some issues with my 7800X3D, which is a newer processor and is running on the AM5 chipset from AMD. During setup, the latest BIOS was unstable, so I had to rollback a month old version. Another thing is that AM5 has memory training, which is where the DDR controller on the motherboard finds the optimal clock speed and voltages for the RAM based on your system.

This takes ~5-10 seconds to do every time you bootup your computer. There is a setting in the BIOS where you can run it once and that training is "saved", which allows you to skip it the next time you boot up your computer. However turning this on for me also led to crashes if I enabled AMD Expo (memory overclock), where I would see random blue screens ~10-30 min into gaming or anything else, so I had to disable it. I'm pretty sure this is a BIOS issue, so when I finally do update the BIOS I can re-enable it.

After getting past those issues, the system has been perfect in the 4 months since I've built it, but I did want to mention it. If you do build your own, I would do research into motherboards (I am currently using a MSI board who I've used in the past), or buy an Intel proc like Optimus mentioned since it shouldn't have these issues.

For monitors I would highly recommend not getting 1080p, there is just no point these days. 1440p or above, depending on which GPU you buy.

Great info thx. I already have 3 11 year old dell monitors . They’ve only been used for a few hours when I was just testing them, but should probably go in the recycling bin as I hate the pixel density.
Plus new monitors have really come down in price , and I’d really like an Oled . I can’t do QD Oled because of all the blue light emissions, so I’ll stick with LG assuming that it’s WOled .
I’ may stay with 27” , as I find that’s almost too big .
I was debating to tough it out with my dell monitors till spring 2025 , and see what’s on the horizon . Maybe they’ll Jane a bunch of oleds with 2880 res.
I actually like Apples studio monitor, as you can’t see any pixels with 5K . But I’m not paying 2K for one monitor with old tech

How is that apple studio display old tech? It's pretty much top of the line.

That being said, you are also paying for it containing an iphone chip in it for some dumb reason.

No micro dimming , still basically an lcd monitor. They do look great in our local Staples , but they only show a screen saver , as they are not connected where you can actually see text or anything.
But this was the monitor I was going to buy originally , as I like the pixel density of 5K . That glass front is awsome too imo , as it seems like every bone head I know touches the screen hen they point something out .

Asus mb were the sh when I was building,not anymore huh , 20 yrs prob

This guy gets it. 14900k and 4090 is the way

Totally came in here expecting you to say everything’s gotta be black . Leaving confused


Regarding their MB though , they make the nicest looking ones imo. I’m going to look at Gigabyte and see what they have to offer

TBH I used to do AIOs for my builds, even hybrid GPUs or before those were a thing get a custom bracket and attach any AIO to my GPU, but with the last build I went with a Noctua cooler, it performs just as good in my usage and is dead silent.

Question , do people still use outboard HD ,as I see you can now connect this small looking solid state HD directly to the MB . Obviously better speed , but are these small solid state ones reliable yet .
My last computer had a Raptor

https://www.phanteks.com/Enthoo-Evolv-X.html

I am liking their cases . Was debating to buy 2 of these , as someday I’d like a separate work station and gaming rig . Gotta buy them while they can be matched .
Any case suggestions?

But who was airflow?

Two fans in the front pull in air threw the front sides and exit the back

Das not it mane.

4 - 5K is a big budget for a gaming PC, with that you could just buy some top-end parts and build one yourself or go with a high-end PC manufacturer and buy one of their pre-built high-end gaming PC's.

Fark , look at these prices for a 4090 . Guess it’s old school 3000 series
https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=4090+graph...s_ts-doa-p_5_5


Recommendations for prebuilt in Canada ?

Well looks like the 4090 is out . No way I’m paying 3k for gpu . The 4070’s aren’t looking to bad though

Just get a 4080 on your budget, should be nearly as good for half the price.

Will check them out , thx

I swear a guy should just go with a 3080 , and wait a year for the 4090 series to come down to realistic prices .
The 4090 series certainly kicks butt for frame rates at 4K

just find local virgin who is building them or selling his "old" rig because it's not running 420x69 10k negative .01 ms display rate

3k? They're around 1500. At first you posted a stupid high budget, then you complain about the GPU price? It's literally THE heart of a gaming PC, don't settle for a 4070 lol. With your budget get a 4090 and a 14900k, period. Then build around it. It will be bulletproof for a few years, going with something like a 4070, or a 3080 (I still have one in one of the rigs) is just holding you back from playing PC games the way they're meant to be played, maxed out, get a console otherwise.

Well I get it srs , I’ll be bottlenecking the entire system . I’ve been watching reviews last night and the 4090 has some killer specs .
Check out these prices in Canada in one of our bigger cities . I was going to do the 5 hour drive to Memory Express .
Fark , pre Covid , it was rare to see a gpu over $800 . Now they claim they’ve dropped in price considerably, and there 3K before taxes


https://www.memoryexpress.com/Search...s?Search=4090+

I'm going to buck the trend and say I got my last PC from iBuyPower. Had it three years now and zero problems. I messed with building my own when I was younger, see no point to it now. The setup on the pre built is way better than I would have done since I wouldn't bother with cable routing or worrying about cooling paths.

I used to enjoy building them ,but now it’s like meh . But at least I’d have the satisfaction of knowing it was done right , although at our local and only computer shop all he does s build computers daily , so I’m not too concerned.
My dream was to take two computer MB’s and not have a case whatsoever. They were going to be mounted on plexi in the rear middle of a custom dual corner desk I wanted to build , and I was going to go with liquid cooling plus some internal fans in the desk for air flow while their retracted .

But the cool part was I was going to raise the MB’s out of the desk with a linear actuator.
I haven’t seen it done b4 and thought it would be pretty cool . But I don’t have the resources any more to spend over 10K on a computer idea , wish like fk I did .
So basically, a normal computer build doesn’t really interest me very much .

This is my old computer room , and basically I was going to use this corner design , but have a mirror of it on the right .
So use one with dual monitors for a work station , and the other side for a gaming rig with an Oled