Hello,

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on this PC build since I've just finished this list for my first build:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/VpZ39C

I'm mostly looking to do some 1440p gaming and also have the ability to run some light 3d modeling.

I was also curious if yall think I should buy a 5060 ti, wait for a 9060xt, or go with a used card.

Also wondering what rgb fans yall would recomend, I've been looking at corsair but have read mixed reviews.

Finally, if anyone has any spare 5090's, I would be willing to take one off your hands.

Thanks,
Luke

Congrats Luke!

I don't have any personal experience building a PC from scrap, but my 15 year old son just completed his first build last year. I was an electrical engineer 20 years ago so I did help in a couple areas, but otherwise he did everything himself and hasn't had any issues.

I think he did most of his research watching LOTS of youtube videos. There are lots of great PC building channels out there and he learned because he was passionate about it.

Long story short, my advice after watching my son would be don't rush... enjoy the process and over research the components you want and watch a lot of building tips videos.

No doubt some TexAgs guys will chime in and be a big help as well... good luck!

Thanks!

Nice! I need to build a new rig so I'm looking at all kinds of parts now. A couple of thoughts. You'll want another fan for exhaust out the back and some thermal paste which will go between your CPU and the cooler. Your part list is fine. I might check and if the time you're ready to buy you could look at a 7800X3D if it's close in price. Gaming performance will be better but maybe not the 3D modeling. It'll be fine either way.

Your 1440p (assuming normal screen not ultra or super ultra wide) will be okay with the Ti or the XT. It won't be great and really don't expect much on raytracing either way. Do not get a card with less than 16GB of VRAM if you want to hang onto this rig for multiple years.

You're kind of in a tough spot for GPUs because things are a bit better the next tier up but the price rachets a LOT easily becoming 50% or more of your total build by itself in the budget to mid level sphere.

But either way, grab another fan for exhaust, some thermal paste and grab either GPU and you'll be fine.

Thanks, I'll make sure to grab thermal paste and an extra fan.

I was looking at this micro center bundle:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/5006970/amd-ryzen-7-9700x,-gigabyte-b650-gaming-x-ax-v2,-gskill-flare-x5-series-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

do you think it's worth the price jump for 7800x3d to this bundle:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/5006986/amd-ryzen-7-7800x3d,-asus-b650-e-tuf-gaming,-gskill-flare-x5-series-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

also, do yall think this mobo would be good for future upgrades?

I'm no expert but a couple of lessons learned on my gf and mines last build.
1. Not sure if you have other hard drives that you are reusing, but I got a 1 tb nvme and I was shocked at how quickly it filled up with games. Depends on what you will be playing of course but for ref baulders is 150gig and ark is 200 gig.
If I was doing it again I would get a larger one.

2. It depends on how much rgb stuff you eventually want to get but pay attention to the number of 5 and 12v rgb headers on your motherboard if you think you might want more than just those case fans. My gf ran out of headers on hers and wasn't able to plug in all the rgb stuff she bought. It's been a while and I forget the details of which was used for what, I just remember it was something I was going to pay more attention to during the next build.

First builds are a blast. I think if you go it into with the mindset that you might make a silly mistake or two will help you enjoy it more. If you run into issues, bring your questions here and I'm sure there's plenty of us that can help troubleshoot. I've built multiple rigs over the years and have had plenty of "you've got to be kidding me" moments when I realized what dumb move I made.

I will say that you seem to have done your research and are going about this the right way. PC Part Picker is your best friend on compatibility, everything looks good there. And the Microcenter part bundles like you linked are always solid.

A couple of minor things I'll toss in based on your OP and some responses... I don't know that you need to buy any thermal paste, all processors I've used in recent years have had thermal paste already applied and are ready to go. And do not buy a Windows key for $100+. You may have just thrown that in your pcpartpicker list as a reminder to get it or a compatibility check, but I'm sure a bunch of us here can hook you up with a free key. I will if you need one. If you were going to buy it, don't and use that $100+ to upgrade your GPU you were going to go with.

7800x3D over the 9700.

Find a cheaper Windows Retail key. quick google search.

if you go with a 5060ti buy the 16GB version.

For the RAM find something with a CAS latency of around 30, which seems to be the sweet spot for AMD.

Thanks! I'll make sure to check fan headers, I was planning on just grabbing a 5-10 windows key. If i go with 5060ti and 9700x, do you think i should go with 1080 or 1440?

LukeT said:

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Thanks! I'll make sure to check fan headers, I was planning on just grabbing a 5-10 windows key. If i go with 5060ti and 9700x, do you think i should go with 1080 or 1440?

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Depends on the game and your settings TBH. If you're going to try and push ray tracing and high frames on Clair Obscur or Cyberpunk... well you probably won't get there in 1440p. You'll be fine without ray tracing probably at 1440. But get the 16GB card. 1080p you'll be great on either.

aezmvp said:

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Nice! I need to build a new rig so I'm looking at all kinds of parts now. A couple of thoughts. You'll want another fan for exhaust out the back and some thermal paste which will go between your CPU and the cooler. Your part list is fine. I might check and if the time you're ready to buy you could look at a 7800X3D if it's close in price. Gaming performance will be better but maybe not the 3D modeling. It'll be fine either way.

Your 1440p (assuming normal screen not ultra or super ultra wide) will be okay with the Ti or the XT. It won't be great and really don't expect much on raytracing either way. Do not get a card with less than 16GB of VRAM if you want to hang onto this rig for multiple years.

You're kind of in a tough spot for GPUs because things are a bit better the next tier up but the price rachets a LOT easily becoming 50% or more of your total build by itself in the budget to mid level sphere.

But either way, grab another fan for exhaust, some thermal paste and grab either GPU and you'll be fine.

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I'd be shocked if a mainstream aftermarket CPU cooler didn't come with either a tube of thermal paste or paste pre-applied. (The Amazon reviews for his cooler suggest it does come with a tube)

But since it's not that expensive, it doesn't hurt to throw it in the cart to be safe.

Yeah most of that is... fine. But I like to know that I got and applied the stuff I trust. Also I know Thermalright is having a moment with some of their reviews being really good vis a vis the Noctua stuff but with their price point so low on their CPU coolers I'd want my stuff. Nitpicky I know but for $7-10 bucks... I'd do it. For extreme budget builds yeah that's fine but for a X3D or the 9800 that he had I'd probably go with the better stuff.

Thank y'all! I was looking at different gpu-cpu combos and realized I could downgrade my cpu to a ryzen 5 9600x and upgrade my gpu to a radeon 7900xt. Do y'all think this would be better than my current idea?

This is the common thought to min-max frame rates and performance and has been since I built my first computer in late 90s to play Everquest.

Down-clutch on the proc and invest in the GPU.

LukeT said:

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Thank y'all! I was looking at different gpu-cpu combos and realized I could downgrade my cpu to a ryzen 5 9600x and upgrade my gpu to a radeon 7900xt. Do y'all think this would be better than my current idea?

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If you do that buy used.

Lower the resolution the more CPU dependent. The way i look at it is that you can get a 7800x3d and use it for this graphics card and the next or you can go with what you propose and upgrade both CPU and GPU in a couple of years. In that time you could probably drop in whatever is the last best CPU for AM5 and get a new GPU and be good for a few more year before replacing the entire system.

at 1440p a 60 series AMD or Nvidia (16gb) card is going to perform extremely well. I've always default to being GPU bound as that is just much easier (if not more expensive part these days) to replace. I would personally go with a 7800x3d but i dont think either option is a bad choice.

Check out Paul's Hardware on youtube. he has a build fix series that has some good suggestions. Daniel Owen, another channel had a recent video as well on the topic of what to choose.

Definitely get a cheap Windows 11 key instead and put the difference towards a strong GPU

I've never bought a used GPU, but according to other posts on TA and other sites, you don't want one that has been used for mining.

I've been building PCs for ever, my latest one has been a rolling upgrade for the last decade or more. I'm getting close to another upgrade cycle but the MOBO, CPU and GPU were the most recent upgrades about 3 years ago:

- AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6-core, 12-Thread
- MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6
- AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6-core, 12-Thread


It also has NVMe, SSDs, 32G RAM, etc...

It runs every game including Cyberpunk at ultra settings at 1080P, without any performance issues.

After doing some more research, I updated my list to this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Lukeythepuke/saved/fVvQGX

Any advice on these changes?

It's telling me the list is private

boy09 said:

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It's telling me the list is private

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What he said.

public list: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Lukeythepuke/saved/fVvQGX

I'm looking to build in a few days, would one of yall be able to "find" me a windows 11 key?

Still private.

SFTKey is one. Can also use any one of the grey market gaming sites as well. Just look for retail keys. Always download windows directly from MS. You could also run a debloat once installed script if you want, plenty of youtube videos on that.

Edit looks like groupon is also selling keys.

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Lukeythepuke/saved/Cf944D

**CPU** | [AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/WfqPxr/amd-ryzen-7-7700x-45-ghz-8-core-processor-100-100000591wof) | $239.99 @ Amazon
**CPU Cooler** | [Thermalright Phantom Spirit EVO 69 CFM CPU Cooler](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/BRMMnQ/thermalright-phantom-spirit-evo-69-cfm-cpu-cooler-phantom-spirit-120-evo) | $64.90 @ Amazon
**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte B650 GAMING X AX V2 ATX AM5 Motherboard](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/cPNYcf/gigabyte-b650-gaming-x-ax-v2-atx-am5-motherboard-b650-gaming-x-ax-v2) | $169.99 @ Amazon
**Memory** | [Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kTJp99/corsair-vengeance-rgb-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr5-6000-cl36-memory-cmh32gx5m2e6000c36) | $91.99 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Crucial P3 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/chzhP6/crucial-p3-plus-1-tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-ct1000p3pssd8) | $56.95 @ iBUYPOWER
**Video Card** | [Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC SFF GeForce RTX 5070 12 GB Video Card](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/PxG2FT/gigabyte-windforce-oc-sff-geforce-rtx-5070-12-gb-video-card-gv-n5070wf3oc-12gd) | $609.99 @ Amazon
**Case** | [Corsair FRAME 4000D RS ARGB ATX Mid Tower Case](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Mjy8TW/corsair-frame-4000d-rs-argb-atx-mid-tower-case-cc-9011296-ww) | $109.99 @ Amazon
**Power Supply** | [Corsair RM750x SHIFT 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular Side Interface ATX Power Supply](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/bGJp99/corsair-rm750x-shift-750-w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-side-interface-atx-power-supply-cp-9020251-na) | $89.99 @ Newegg

I'll just do this idk how to make it public

For cooler i'd either pay 30 less for the Thermalwright peerless assassin or go with an AIO. The artic liquid freezer should be right around 70 or so.

save 50 bucks on the graphic card and find one closer to msrp.

you mentioned Microcenter. for the same price they have a 7800x3d bundle with mobo and ram. with the $80 savings above you can damn near get the 9800x3d bundle for the same money.

for PS i'd get one with a native 12vhpw plug so you don't have to use adapters. should be able to find something for a few dollars more.

i got the cooler your talking about, must have put the wrong one in the list
also i got the cpu, mobo and ram in a micro center bundle for 360

You have no idea how helpful this thread has been, had my eye on the same Microcenter bundle and in a similar position with a potential 1st build.

Any particular reason you chose to go with the 5070 instead of a ASRock AMD RX 9070?

Although looking at #s now it appears yours can be found for $60 cheaper than the linked price.