Overview / Usage

Welcome to my final submission for the Intel Student PC Build Challenge, featuring my brand new dream computer!

I do a lot of different activities on my computer, such as gaming, streaming, music production, school, work, movie watching, internet browsing, and more. I have done these for years on a variety of different computer configurations, and I thought I had finally settled when I pieced together my old computer years ago (Ryzen 7 3800X and a 1080 Ti). But holy cow, was that system far from perfect. After seeing the insane performance and capabilities of Intel's 12th gen Core i9-12900K processor, as well as the great performance uplift from the RTX 3070 graphics card, I realize just how much I was missing. On this new system, games run at higher settings and framerates (and can have ray tracing!), streaming works flawlessly without dropping any frames, my massive FL Studio files load in a heartbeat, my school and work programs load so much quicker and perform so much better, and my mind can rest knowing how reliable this system is especially paired with a UPS. This computer has the type of performance that I only could've dreamed of, and seeing it perform in person is truly a dream come true.

I created a video series for this final submission, which I believe truly encompassed my thought processes, ideas, opinions, and more. They should be available to view in the included media (although they seem to be out of order in the actual post..), but just in case they aren't, here are the links:

1. Introduction

2. PC Build Time Lapse

3. Setup Overview

4. Benchmarks

5. Conclusion

Drive with Videos and Photos

Also included is my original submission in PDF form. A lot of my thought processes and reasoning remain the same, but I think it is redundant to post that information here. If the videos don't address a specific choice or reasoning, the original post sure will.

Methodology / Approach

My intention for this system was to make it high performance, high quality, and high potential. And I didn't just reach my goals here, I easily surpassed them. The star of the show in this computer is the 12900K, and it runs circles around my old processor and almost everything else on the market. Paired with a high end Z690 motherboard, 32GB of RAM, an RTX 3070, and a PCIe 4 M.2 SSD, my new computer is in a class of its own when it comes to performance. Regarding quality, this is by far the highest quality system I have ever built. It is silent as a whistle most of the time, and when I do load the GPU and CPU, I have the fan curves set to keep the system relatively quiet while also keeping temperatures down. The motherboard has all the features I want, along with great power delivery and build quality. The power supply is very well built and from a very reputable company. All the drives are very high quality, and I now have the storage to have backups both on my PC and on my NAS. The case is absolutely amazing, and is by far the nicest and highest quality case I have ever seen. Looking at each of these individually shows that the system should be high quality, but when I combined them all together, I really did create perfection. Lastly is high potential. This system has massive amounts of expandability thanks to the case and the motherboard. My main concern down the line is more local storage, and I have plenty of SATA ports left and drive cage bays to achieve that goal. Overall, this system has become more than I could have ever dreamed of, and I am confident it will last many, many years to come.

Technologies Used

Final PC Build:

Intel Core i9-12900K 16-Core (8P + 8E) Processor

MSI MEG CoreLiquid S360 360mm AIO, with Noctua NT-H2 Thermal Paste and 3 x Phanteks T30 fans as exhaust

MSI Z690 Tomahawk WIFI DDR4

32GB (2x16GB) G.Skill TridentZ RGB DDR4 RAM @ 3200MHz 16-18-18-38

MSI RTX 3070 Ventus 3X Graphics Card, repasted with Noctua NT-H2 Thermal Paste

SeaSonic Focus GX-850 850W Power Supply with white and black CableMod cables and cable combs

1TB WD Black SN850 PCIe 4 M.2 SSD

500GB WD Black SN850 PCIe 4 M.2 SSD

512GB Samsung 970 Pro PCIe 3 M.2 SSD

2TB WD Blue 2.5" SATA SSD

2TB WD Green 3.5" SATA HDD with 16GB Intel Optane Memory

be quiet! Silent Base 802 White (Airflow configuration)

3 x Noctua NF-A12x25s as intake at the front of the case

1 x be quiet! Shadow Wings 2 140mm fan + Phanteks Halo LUX Digital RGB frame + custom MSI dragon grille

1 x be quiet! Silent Wings 3 140mm fan as intake

2 x Phanteks RGB LED light strips

Windows 10 Pro (I will be upgrading to Windows 11 Pro soon once more bugs get fixed and certain features added)

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Final Setup:

Acer Predator X34 34" Ultrawide G-Sync Monitor at 3440x1440 100Hz (main display)

Dell 24" G-Sync Monitor at 1440p 165Hz

Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 Rapidfire (MX Silver Speed) with white and black keycaps and internal foam

Glorious Model O- Mouse in white

BenQ Zowie P-SR Mousepad

Drop + THX Panda Headphones

Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen Audio Interface

MXL-990 Condensor Microphone

CyberPower CP1000AVRLCD UPS

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It has been a massive honor to be a part of this challenge. I hope you found my on-camera performance to be entertaining and informative. From the bottom of my heart, thank you Intel, and good luck to the rest of the finalists!

Documents and Presentations