Hi all, after 10 years - I have decided to upgrade my main rig.

What I currently have: i7 4790k (first one fried, bought a used one somewhere in 2021) + Asus Z97A, 4x4GB CORSAIR 1600MHz DDR3, 500GB Samsung 870 EVO SATA3 (upgraded from 840 Evo in 2021), Gigabyte 970 GTX (Upgraded a year after I built the PC) and it's been serving me well until I struggle to edit 4K videos on Premiere Pro starting in 2018 or playback H.265 videos and only up till recently, it started to BSOD on a daily basis. I'm guessing it's either the RAM, MOBO or processor.

Now, I don't have a budget, I just want to have a reasonably fast high-end PC without going too deep into the point of diminishing returns.

[Budget] N/A

[Purpose] Video editing, Lightroom, Stable Diffusion, Casual browsing, Python Coding, very very occasional gaming

[Hardwares that will be re-use] My 2x8TB HDDs

[Monitor resolution] 1080p

[Games & softwares that use frequently] Lightroom, DxOMark, Davinci, Premiere Pro, Handbrake, Stable Diffusion, Visual Studio Code, Selenium

[Personal preferences] Prefer something that can still be relevant for close to a decade, Noctua CPU cooler, Be Quiet or Corsair cases that are not flashy (absolutely no RGB please). I'm comparing against i7 12700k (to avoid the 13th/14th gen fiasco, let me know if i'm being too paranoid) vs Ryzen7 9800x/3d

[Location]: JB/KL/SG

Many thanks!

Thanks Tristan, how's MSI motherboards fairing these days? I've had bad experience with MSI boards more than a decade ago, i'm usually on Asus and Gigabyte's camp

8bit H.264 4k is doable but needs a bit of patience haha. After spending sometime getting myself up to speed on the current processor market, I am more inclined towards the red camp. AMD with their 4nm architecture is leaps ahead. Plus, I've heard that after the X3D chips unveil on the 7th of Nov, 3 days from the time of writing - the non-X3D chips will see a price drop, making it even more lucrative.

How's MSI mobo fairing these days? Tristan (see quote below) mentioned that Asus and Gigabyte has more issues lately.

I source my Noctua parts from China, effectively bypassing IAT and saving up to 50%

Hi all, is my build optimum? i.e. any jarring bottlenecks?

I don't really game (may try gaming with this rig), mainly for casual use and the occasional video editing/LR Classic

Add: Need recco for casing, no RGB, prefer easy to maintain (dust management) and good airflow

This post has been edited by ((Xa))0102: Nov 11 2025, 01:54 PM

After being on Intel for many many decades, I have decided to try the red camp. I'm aware of the drawbacks, I figured that I might be able to live with it.

Have already paid and bought via Shopee - no shops involved, I will be installing the parts myself.

Yup yup, that is what I have in mind too, thanks for the advice

Casing wise, I ended up going with the Asus ProArt PA401

Anything below 30fps is pretty unplayable, 60-100fps is the sweetspot for actions games. Not sure how demanding the game is, but given the form factor of the NUC-like PC; I suspect the processor is thermal throttling

Yup love the wood design haha, the only downside is it can't fit GPUs larger than 315mm, and only can support 240mm AIO radiator.

Which is fine, I don't foresee myself upgrading the GPU and neither am I fan of AIO coolers