I am trying to build a sick gaming PC (my first ever build, have ordered custom before but want to built it myself now).

I am getting very stuck and overwhelmed by the amount of information out there (I am not very tech savvy at all, I can understand the basics and need to research most other things).

So, I currently have 12700k and 3080ti(MSI). I am not going to be over clocking.

Motherboard - was looking at z690s (MSI Carbon in particular) but I am seeing loads of xmp issues and failure to boot issues etc with all brands MSI, Asus, Gigabyte. Have these issues been dealt with recently through bios updates etc or should I be weary and go for another motherboard? Are there any better ones than z690 for the specs I have and with less issues/trouble?

RAM - I wanted ddr5 (Corsair was my intended) but now I am seeing lots of comments saying it’s best to wait for it to mature as it can cause lots of issues (boot looping etc.) Is this correct and should I get ddr4 instead then? Will I still get maximum performance with ddr4?

Cooler - Aio or air? I don’t have a budget so I’m leaning towards Aio. Thinking arctic freezer 360 or kraken z73. Lian Li Galaghad 360 is also an option but got the impression that arctic and z73 are better. Thoughts? Anything you would recommend over this?

Anything else I should consider? Any tips/ recommendations?

I would appreciate any help at all. Especially regarding the motherboard as I am really stuck with this. And if an issue occurs I won’t know where to start (i.e. editing ram voltages whatever that means) so I would really like to avoid that.

Felt that it was time to upgrade from my i7-7700k to the i7-12700k but now I need a new motherboard to pair with it. Was looking at gigabyte z690 gaming x and the MSI pro z690. Don’t do a ton of competitive overclocking so don’t need top of the line. Thoughts on either one of those motherboards? I currently have a MSI z270 Arctic tomahawk and it’s served me well for 5+ years so was leaning towards the MSI mobo

Pretty soon im getting a new CPU with it most likely being the 12700k. Motherboards im really not well knowledgeable on so im just looking at some advice for which one to get? I'm sticking with DDR4 as my 32GB of ram i have now has been totally fine and ddr5 is still way too expensive for the performance. Im not looking to OC but i wouldnt mind having the option to in the future. The one thats caught my attention atm is the MSI PRO Z690-A. Ideally just want a board that does the job without it being expensive for expensive's sake.

Any help is mighty appreciated. Thanks

Hi guys, really love whats going on here. Last week, i was still trying to do an ATX build for my workstation and this week im completely sold that ITX is the way to go. Here is my situation:

I decided to go for an ITX form factor because I need the PC to be able to fit into my luggage and travel with me to different places for work, and it needs to have top thermal performances since the pc will be located in server rooms/back room where the temperature might be abit hotter than your normal interior room in your apt. My work is primarily 3D game engines and 3D rendering/modeling software, and I would like occasionally game on it (cyberpunk). For these needs I have planned out the following:

1. CPU: i7-12700k, 12th Gen Intel

2. GPU: MSI suprim x 3080ti

3. RAM: trident royal z 3600 32GB

4. CPU cooler: nzxt kraken z63

5. PSU: Corsair 850W

6. MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte Aorus Ultra Z690i ddr4 version

7. CASE: Cooler Master NR200P

Here are my questions, would love to know what you guys think:

1. For my use case, what would be the best CPU and why? Should i go intel 12th Gen or AMD? From far as I know, 12th gen 12700k is great performance but comes with thermal issues as well as the whole z690i issue. z690i motherboards might have problems connecting with my nzxt aio and i hear that the ddr4 aorus z690i is particularly bad. Im not well researched in AMD CPU so is this a direction I can go into? By going to AMD, I might inscrease thermal performance as well as solve the motherboard problem of aorus's instability.

2. I see on OptimumTech that the kraken can fit 3 ways on the aorus ultra z690i, tubes to the left, tubes up, tubes to the right mashing the rams. Can someone who has this board and aio tell me if they fit okay and is thermal optimal? I need the nzxt cooler because I can have the cpu + gpu temps displayed and workers will be able to easily tell if the pc is overheating without touching the actual windows interface.

3. RAM, should I go ddr5 or ddr4? This also affects the type of board I will go with. Budget is not a huge issue here and I can get my hands on ddr5 ram pretty easily. For my use case of 3d game engines with heavy graphics VFX and 3d modelling, will the current state of ddr5 give me more reasonable performance? Is there a ddr5 motherboard that is more stable and compatible with kraken than aorus z690i?

4. Motherboard. This is my greatest concern now, Ive researched abit into the aorus z690i ddr4 and it seems that they are both terribly spec-ed out as well as not stable. People have complained about bios and crashes, which I cannot afford to run into when my program is running in production. Another possibility that I am open to is to downgrade to a 660 board, since for my use case in the itx form factor with thermal considerations I dont plan to overclock cpu or gpu at all. On the contrary, Im planning to underclock cpu to get better temps. So maybe 660 ddr4 is the way to go here? Im thinking i wont be missing out that much on performance and features.

I know this is alot of questions, so I wanna say beforehand that I appreciate who tries to tackle this with me in the comments!!!!!!!

EDIT: Updated final (probably) build thx to nickaat:

1. CPU: i7-12700k, 12th Gen Intel, undervolted

2. GPU: MSI suprim x 3080ti

3. RAM: trident royal z 3600 64GB

4. CPU cooler: nzxt kraken z63

5. PSU: Corsair 850W

6. MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte Aorus Pro b660 ddr4 version

7. CASE: Cooler Master NR200P