Question [Build Help] Need a part list check. I'm worried the MOBO I picked isn't ideal. I need verification the motherboard will perform well with my build.

[Futuremotion]

So I've been planning a build, and settled on this part list:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i9-14900KF 3.2 GHz 24-Core Processor	$548.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX 75 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler	$285.00 @ Amazon
Thermal Compound	Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste	$5.99 @ Amazon
Thermal Compound	Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut 1 g Thermal Paste	$6.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z790 AORUS PRO X WIFI7 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard	$299.99 @ Amazon
Memory	Corsair Dominator Titanium 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6600 CL32 Memory	$299.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Samsung 990 Pro 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$299.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Samsung 990 Pro 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$299.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Asus STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB Video Card	$979.00 @ Amazon
Case	Fractal Design Define 7 XL Dark ATX Full Tower Case	$234.99 @ B&H
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000 Platinum 1000 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$385.00 @ Amazon
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Retail - Download 32/64-bit	$0.00
Case Fan	Phanteks PH-F120T30 101 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack	$84.99 @ Newegg
Monitor	LG UltraGear 32GR93U-B 32.0" 3840 x 2160 144 Hz Monitor	$524.99 @ Amazon
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total		$4255.90
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-07-11 18:56 EDT-0400

I already bought the CPU, Cooler, Motherboard, RAM, Case, PSU, Monitor, and both TIM compounds.

The Fractal Design Define 7 XL case is the case I'm already using for my current build. I'm going to re-use it for this new build. The RTX2080 TI is also from my current build and I can't afford to upgrade yet, so I'm going with that. When I get the funds I'll be buying a 4090 or possibly a next gen 5-Series GPU depending on my ability to control my impatience.

I have two requests:

1. Can someone look over the above list and confirm it's a solid build?
2. The motherboard is the cheapest I've ever bought and it's a gaming motherboard. I'm using my PC for content creation (Graphics / 3D / Video / Audio Production). So I'm kind of doubting my choice here. If the motherboard is limiting me in any way, I'm going to return the Gigabyte Z790 AORUS PRO X WIFI7 and buy something a bit more high-end.

Admittedly my doubts about the motherboard are kind of irrational and revolve around price. Seeing that it's only $300 makes me think it might not be up to par with the rest of my components. So I need someone to confirm that my selected MOBO will be fine for this build and reassure my doubts.

And yes, I'm aware that the i9-14900KF runs super hot, even with a water AIO. If my temperatures start skyrocketing, I'm going to delid the CPU and go direct die with a custom loop and external MoRa radiator.

Begging for some help here - I would really appreciate any sort of feedback, suggestions, or advice.

Thanks so much.

 

[In2Photos]

Id be more concerned about the 14900KF than the motherboard.

Intel processors crashing Unreal engine games (and others)

As if we needed any more evidence that these Intel furnace monstrosities are being pushed beyond their limit just to win performance benchmarks. No wonder even 480mm rads or 1.5kg coolers aren't enough for these solar flares. These parts are being redlined because they're horrifically inferior...

forums.anandtech.com

Intel 13/14th gen CPUs are under a lot of scrutiny right now. This thread focuses on gaming but it's happening elsewhere too.

What motherboards have you typically purchased in the past?

 

[Futuremotion]

Id be more concerned about the 14900KF than the motherboard.

Intel processors crashing Unreal engine games (and others)

As if we needed any more evidence that these Intel furnace monstrosities are being pushed beyond their limit just to win performance benchmarks. No wonder even 480mm rads or 1.5kg coolers aren't enough for these solar flares. These parts are being redlined because they're horrifically inferior...

forums.anandtech.com

Intel 13/14th gen CPUs are under a lot of scrutiny right now. This thread focuses on gaming but it's happening elsewhere too.

I just read through that thread, and now you got me worried! I don't game on my PC though. I do a lot of content creation:

1. Audio Engineering, Music Production (Film / Scoring), Electronic Music Production (Bass music of all kinds)
2. Graphic Design / Visual Design / UI+UX Design / GUI Design
3. Branding / Brand Identity / Logomark design
4. 3D Modelling Software: Blender, 3DS Max, Maya, Keyshot, Marmoset Toolbag, Substance Suite
5. 3D Rendering Software: Cycles, V-Ray, Corona, LuxCore, Redshift
6. Development workloads: .NET C#, PowerShell, Full Stack webdev work

If I'm guaranteed to experience crazy instability problems, I'd be more than happy to return the CPU and get something better. I JUST received the CPU today so I'm well within the return window.

What motherboards have you typically purchased in the past?

Right now I'm on a GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS ULTRA-CF (Intel Z390 Cannon Lake-H)
I was going to buy the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero (WiFi 7) motherboard for this build, but settled on the GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS PRO X WIFI7 LGA 1700 because it was cheaper and it allowed me to get some extra parts.

Any thoughts?

 

[In2Photos]

Well the AMD platform is rather strong these days and the 9000 series CPUs are due to come out later this month. So there's always that option.

For the motherboard simply find the one that meets your needs. Number of M.2 slots and their speed is where I typically start unless you have some very specific requirements. From there make sure it has all the connectivity you require on both the back panel (USB, BIOS flashback, and audio) and internally (USB, fan, RGB, etc ). Most of the Z790 and X670 boards are going to have good VRMs for the CPU. I'm a fan of MSI boards but around here that's the minority. Most like ASUS, but I've seen too many issues with their boards and RMA service over the last few years to trust them. ASRock gets a lot of praise lately as well. Gigabyte seems to have good value and you have experience with them. I've had some quirks with my daughter's Gigabyte B650 board, but we've resolved them and it has been fine.

 

[Futuremotion]

Well the AMD platform is rather strong these days and the 9000 series CPUs are due to come out later this month. So there's always that option.

Man, I just went deep down the rabbit-hole on that thread you linked here. Now I'm terrified my CPU is going to be horribly unstable and possibly fail completely. Here's a particularly alarming post from the thread:

The fact that 13900K/F/S and 14900K/F/S chips are initially passing all tests and then sporadically failing after just months of use in a hosted environment suggests the problem is likely to be fundamentally physical. I am skeptical it is possible to be fixed with microcode or BIOS updates.

1) These aren't consumer boards - they are using W680 class workstation boards with ECC RAM (3 separate datacenter type operations, per GN interview with Wendell)
2) They have overkill cooling in a datacenter environment - Wendell mentioning he sees peak hotspot temps in high 60s to low 70s.
3) #2 supports the presumption they likely never exceeded Intel specs unlike some consumer boards/chips - operating conditions most likely didn't exceed the recently released Intel "baseline" profile given the very cool temps

Bonus: It's not a consistent failure mode. Sometimes a P-core or two drop. Sometimes an E-core drops. Sometimes it's a memory error. They were resorting to downclocking to a max of 5.3GHz and DDR5-4200 (not a typo) to try to obtain stability and sometimes even that doesn't work.

Some more bad omens:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1776605992735674652

Downclocking to 5.3GHz and running my new RAM rated at 6600MHz at 4200MHz is absolutely ridiculous and completely defeats the purpose of going Intel and buying the i9-14900KF. The whole reason I got the chip was for the juicy frequency boosts. There's also more speculation on these forums that the silicon just can't handle the high frequencies Intel is pushing in their chips, causing significant degradation of the CPU itself within 2-5 years (Possibly much sooner if you push the limits too hard)

Ugh. I feel sick after buying all these parts.

So now I've been doing research on AMD after being an Intel fanboy ever since I touched a PC, I'm now seriously considering returning the i9-14900KF and the GIGABYTE Z790 for a Ryzen 9 7950X3D. Or waiting for the Ryzen 9000 series to release.

---

Semi-Edit: While typing this comment I actually stumbled upon a large Reddit post claiming to fix the various errors / BSODs / game crashes / general instability.
Here it is:

https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/comments/1axepvu/optimizing_stability_for_intel_13900k_and_14900k

My quest for stability finally led me to a revelation. The Holy Grail: "13th Generation Intel® Core™ and Intel® Core™ 14th Generation Processors Datasheet, Volume 1 of 2". 219 pages of technical glory.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...ation-processors-datasheet-volume-1-of-2.html

Page 98, Table 17, Row 3: Reveals the stock turbo power limits for the 13900K and 14900K CPUs are 253W, not the 4,000+ my motherboard defaulted to. Page 184, Table 77, Row 6: Lists the maximum current limit at 307A, far below my motherboard's default of 500+A.

I decided to implement this right away. I reset my BIOS to default settings, turned off multicore enhancement, enabled xmp, and input the settings from the datasheet. Ta-Da! All of my issues were solved by a simple 2 minute process. All my games worked, there are no random lags, and nothing ever crashes. I can run any stability test as long as I want and it all works fine. Problem solved.

Turns out, all I needed to do was spend 2 minutes setting up the stock settings in my BIOS.

Has anyone here with an i9-14900K/KF tried these BIOS modifications? Specifically lowering the turbo power limits and maximum current limit?