On July 3, I was greeted by the following image - reminding me I needed to get new hardware … by October 14, 2025.
Of course it wasn’t a surprise, I knew I needed to replace it for the past year or so but it seems there is never a good time to configure a brand new desktop. Until this month when my project work happened to end mid-month - giving me a couple of weeks between projects … so last week I ordered the parts.
NOTE: Why build a PC and not just buy one? Personal preference - I honestly haven’t even looked at Dell or any other prebuilt PCs this time around, I just like the idea of knowing how the thing is put together and configured (even though I have a history of having to assemble things twice before getting it right).
About the retiring PC (2014 PC)
I built the PC (that won’t run Windows 11) in 2014, it was the first PC I’d ever built from scratch. I did quite a bit of research about assembling a PC and the parts you needed, etc. and had read several blogs like Scott Hanselman’s on Developer PC builds. I did make the mistake of buying two GPUs when I really only needed one to run three monitors.
In fall of 2014 when I shopped for parts, my goal was to get top of the line specs so the machine would last me at least 7 years (like the previous one did).
Things I learned and liked from 2014 PC
I wanted to keep in mind any lessons I learned building the PC and upgrading it over the years.
- Having rollers on the case is super useful (especially when it is as tall as your desk)
- Noise level is important (I replaced the original fans with quieter ones and added foam to help over the years … but the GPUs fans are load)
- Motherboards alone don’t always give you enough places to plug extra features on cases (I had a few dead USB plugs on the front of the case due to this)
- Don’t buy two GPUs if you only need one
- Change is hard but … when was the last time I used that DVD drive?
- Having a motherboard that could handle the new M.2 SSD drives would be nice
About the new PC (2025 PC)
This time I didn’t do much research - not my first time and there are better tools to help you find parts - like Microcenter’s Custom PC Builder. If you don’t want to put it together yourself, Microcenter will assemble it for you too for a couple hundred or so. I also didn’t need to get monitors, keyboard, mouse, camera, etc. since the only reason I need a new machine is the upcoming Windows 10 end of support.
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Parts list
Intel Core i9-14900K Raptor Lake-S Refresh 3.2GHz Twenty Four-Core LGA 1700 Boxed Processor - Heatsink Not Included - I am an Intel fan … not sure if I should be any more but that is the main reason I looked at Intel processors. I did some research and the 24 core processor seemed like it would be a good future proof one to go with.
ASUS Z790 Prime Gaming WIFI7 Intel LGA 1700 ATX - the motherboard on the 2014 PC was ASUS, so I looked at that brand only.
Corsair VENGEANCE RGB 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR5-6000 PC5-48000 CL30 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit CMH64GX5M2M6000Z30 - Gray - I do not have a preference for memory brands. I usually max out the RAM a new machine can have from the start, but this time I figured 128 GB should be enough.
NVIDIA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition Dual Fan 12GB GDDR6X PCIe 4.0 Graphics Card (Refurbished) - I have mostly had NVIDIA graphics cards and GPUs over the years, so I looked at NVIDIA … however the GPU I selected was selected because in my research it was listed as quiet and of course I needed some budget (GPUs can be a huge cost if you let them). I’m not currently training any models … so I only got one with 12 GB.
Crucial T705 2TB Micron 232L TLC NAND PCIe Gen 5 x4 NVMe M.2 Internal SSD - I knew I wanted M.2 SSDs on my next PC build and this seemed to be a reasonable price for its size and if the motherboard supported Gen 5 the speeds would be unbelievably fast. This is one thing I would change - I should have just purchased 2 of the Gen 4 (below) since the motherboard doesn’t seem to support the Gen 5 speeds. I was hoping to be wrong but oh well.
Crucial P3 Plus 2TB 3D NAND Flash PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe M.2 Internal SSD - there are spots on the motherboard for up to 3 M.2 SSDs, so a second one was my choice for the primary data drive. I can buy another one in the near future for a small increase in fast storage.
be quiet Light Base 900 FX Tempered Glass eATX Full Tower Computer Case - Black - this case does not have rollers, but it has good reviews on being a quiet case for noise suppression … that is more important to me at the moment.
MSI MPG A1000G PCIE5 1000 Watt 80 Plus Gold ATX Fully Modular Power Supply - ATX 3.1 Compatible - This seemed like a reasonable price and had enough connectors for the setup I currently have.
Corsair iCUE LINK RGB TITAN 360 RX LCD 360mm All in One Liquid CPU Cooling Kit - White - I selected this liquid cooler mostly because I was happy with the Corsair brand on the 2014 PC and it would mount in the case just fine.
I was not a smart shopper and did not compare prices or try to find the parts cheaper anywhere else - so you most likely can build the same machine cheaper than me. All in the parts cost $2,447.10 in late July 2025.
Perfomance Comparison
In order to get an idea of the performance of the machines to compare, I used the PassMark tool mentioned in Scott’s blog Building the Ultimate Developer PC 3.0 - The Parts List for my new computer, IronHeart.
The 2014 PC currently rates 4697 and the 2025 PC rates 13797:
Old machine
New machine
Full detail links:
- Old machine: https://www.passmark.com/baselines/V11/display.php?id=280387643053
- New machine: https://www.passmark.com/baselines/V11/display.php?id=280390403125
If you have a questions or comments, please message me @haleyjason on twitter/X.