…yeah, it’s time. I’ve finally found games I actually want to play that require a half-decent machine, I make all my money on the computer, and I regularly do video editing as well. I always keep my machines for a long time, so they need to be as future-proof as possible and I can’t justify saving up for a PC unless it’s going to be good enough for the foreseeable future. So here’s where my head is at, I’d be grateful for any advice.
tl;dr https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xjP3yF for the general idea, but I’m open to other ideas. It’s going to be a linux machine, and all AMD since I hear the drivers work better/are less fiddly. Aesthetically, I like an all-white motif but looks are secondary to pure power and long life. I would like to be able to emulate PS4, Xbox 360, run S&box so my kid can make games, and render my clip shows at high speed. The budget I’m targeting is about £2k. Will mean saving up for a couple months. Parts I’m considering:
CPU
- Ryzen 9 9950X3D (I’m most excited about having a strong CPU, this one appeals to me even though it’s a bit of a splurge)
- Ryzen 9 7950X3D
- Ryzen 9 7900X3D
GPU
Anything AMD, 16gb preferred but at least 12gb. AMD RX 6800XT or higher perhaps. RX 7800 XT or similar would be great.
Memory
16gb preferred, DDR5, not too fussy about brand. Maybe someday another 16gb if it becomes worthwhile.
Storage
1 or 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD, any really who cares. I don’t need a lot of storage, most of my games are lightweight indies or backed up on my server.
Power Supply
Anything 850-1000w, preferably modular? I dunno.
Cooling
Possibly an AIO liquid cooler. I’m iffy on that, would be happy with a fan if it’s more recommended.
Case
Fractal does a nice white wood effect one (North XL), as does Antec (Flux Pro). Happy with anything that matches, but don’t really love showy RGB, prefer understated and clean looks.
You might also consider a lower tier machine that could be upgraded sooner. And don’t skimp on the power supply, either. Be sure you get something reputable so it doesn’t fry the whole system.
Copy that about the PSU. Maybe it’s just the kid in me, but I can’t get as excited about saving up for a reasonable PC. I make all my money and have more than half of my fun on a computer, I want to treat myself to one I can be proud of. The grownup side of me gets onboard when I think about it staying performant for years longer, if I get the best one I can. When those two are of one mind on something, it’s hard to talk them down.
That’s the fun part of being an adult with adult money. You can save up and spend a little extra because you enjoy it. You’re already saving a significant amount compared to buying pre built. You should also make sure you’re budgeting for a monitor upgrade to really get the most out of the upgrade.
I think I’m happy enough with 1080p. Anything more than that can be visually overstimulating anyway, like those high res soap operas I sometimes see when I find myself in the company of a television, it’s jarring!
I agree that more than 1080p isn’t really necessary, but something that has blur reduction and can do at least 72Hz is a good investment, IMO. 72Hz is what it takes for me to not see flicker without taxing my GPU too hard, and blur reduction means you can even read text when it’s moving across the screen instead of turning into a smear. Got a decent BenQ several years ago, and I haven’t regretted it once.
I’ll keep it in mind if I notice that with my new-ish 60hz monitors, thanks!
I should mention that without blur reduction, you won’t see flicker - but you will see blur!
I built a new PC last year and I decided on the Fractal North XL (mesh) and I absolutely love this case. It looks awesome, the airflow is great, although it did take a little bit of tweaking as my first instinct was to put fans in every place possible, but I realized that some fans were fighting against eachother and the already good temps dropped a bit more after I reworked the fan arrangement.
The other thing that is great about this case is how much space there is inside so it’s easy to get your hands in there when hooking everything up or when making changes after the initial install. The cable management system is pretty good too.
They aren’t exactly cheap but Noctua 120mm fans are worth it in my opinion, I barely hear the fans in the case and I’ve never once had my CPU or GPU thermal throttle even when running a continuous benchmark and my PC is purely air cooled.
One potential downside is that with the mesh version of the case you get a side mounted fan mount that you can pick between putting it above the CPU or GPU. I chose to put over my GPU, but there was barely enough clearance above the GPU’s power connector. Certain power cables might not fit without putting pressure/stress on the power connector which is generally not a good idea as it could cause issues with the power connector like shorting or melting it if the connection isn’t perfectly secure. Not a huge issue for me, but something to be aware of and if anything you can just not put the fan mount above the GPU.
Thanks for the tip about the case, I’m a sucker for the wood effect! I think I’m leaning towards air cooling only too, because the idea of ever having to fiddle with a faulty pump next to prized components is giving me mild anxiety.
I think someone else was also singing the praises of Noctua, I think I’ll take that onboard!
The mesh case looks good, but if I do manage to pick all white parts I might go for the clear side panel. We’ll see!
Another great fan are the Phanteks T30s (120mm), if you have room. They are thicker than normal fans, but are about as quiet as Be Quiet fans, while moving tons of air.
You just need to make sure that your case has clearance for them. They are absolutely cracked on thick radiators and exhaust fans. I use them on custom water-cooling builds, and the loudest sound is coil whine, not fans.
I like the look of that, and I am reading that the fans that come with the Fractal North can be a bit loud. Taking Noctua onboard. It’s a roomy case, how many fans (in+out) would you use?
In my case, I have 3x 120 on the 360mm radiator and 2x120 on top for the 240mm radiator, and one exhaust fan that is also 120.
That said, I think you could easily get away with three to five case fans depending on cooling, fan size, etc.
140mm fans can also move a lot of air, and I used those for years. 120s just fit my current and prior case a bit better.
That’s cool. I’ll probably do something similar to you. I’m sticking with the white+wood aesthetic, but after all this research and advice I’m going with a Lian li A3 MATX instead. It’ll fit everything nicely enough, and I’ll have room for 3x120 bottom, 3 on top, and 1 in rear. I might have the rear one as an intake, ducted into the CPU cooler so it’s always getting ambient air. The GPU will be sucking in air from below so that should be fine too. Also, 4 intake Vs 3 out will ensure positive pressure, minimise dust. 140s would be nicer, but I don’t think they fit this case.
That sounds great!
Funny timing, I just pulled the trigger on my parts orders. In excited. He’s the very final parts list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/rMgyK7
note: the mobo is actually a Sapphire PURE B850M WIFI AM5 DDR5 PCIe 5.0 MicroATX, but pcpp didn’t have that in their lists.
I’m glad I went with building my own. I managed to spend a grand total of £2093 including shipping, which is within kicking distance of my original budget - and a prebuilt of this calibre would cost about double that. At least!
I picked up a Lian Li LANCOOL 217 because I wanted the wood trim and excellent cooling efficiency but it does have a tinted side panel so may not be your thing. It is considered Medium but it is really substantial and surprised me with how much extra space it has inside; the front (2) intake fans are 170mm and it comes with (2) 120mm for cooling the GPU with another 140mm on the back for exhaust. They are all controllable via PWM using a single port on your Mobo so I tuned them for great flow with almost silent fan noise. Can also handle a very tall CPU cooler and massive GPUs mounted vertically or traditionally.
That does look pretty good, and I like that it includes so many fans and dust filters. The CPU heat sinks I’m considering are all pretty big, up to about 160mm. Do you think it’d fit?
According to the vendor’s spec sheet, this case can handle a CPU cooler that is up to 180mm tall. I used an Arctic Freezer 36 which is 159mm tall and it fits really well with a fair bit of room to spare.
My biggest regret is getting a 2 fan GPU (Sapphire RX 9060XT): 1) because it has a lot of coil whine that even capping the frame rate at 120fps can’t completely eliminate and, 2) since I have so much extra space in the case and could have gone with a 3 fan model for even better cooling at lower fan speeds. This case can handle GPUs up to 380mm long (max) and even has a built in, adjustable sag support.
If you don’t mind a behemoth on your desk (or under it), I think this one was a good choice and it even had the seal of approval from Gamer’s Nexus (fwiw). Build quality is excellent and I have zero complaints so far.
Yeah I’m currently only considering 3 fan GPUs, but mostly because now I’m really interested in the XFX 9070 XT Mercury Magnetic Air. If I’ve written all that correctly. It’s the honking great big one that you could serve a pizza on top of.
Looks good! My only advice is that 16G RAM isn’t future proof and DDR 5 does weird things when you have too many sticks
I’ll take a flyer on 32gb, might just save up longer. Cheers!
Ok, so unconventional and not recommended unless you know a lot about PCs, but have you tried looking on your local Craigslist/marketplace equivalent? I’m still seeing a decent amount of options for used PCs (US, so your experience might vary given the economic uncertainty of your local {it ain’t great in the US right now}), so it might be worth it give a look around, and see if you can save on a basic pc and upgrade the GPU or the like.
Another option is to look at amd minisforum boards that have a laptop CPU soldered on, they take laptop ram and I’ve been quite pleased with mine (was ~$300 for the board and CPU for my desktop about a years ago).
Also, AMD is pretty smooth with linux, generally would recommend if using Linux, though Nvidia isn’t the absolute worst so long as you aren’t trying to run on mobile (like a laptop, done that, never again).
I’ve always wanted to be into PCs, but always ended up buying premade just to get things done. Now that I have a bit of breathing room and actual goals, it’s finally time - but beyond escaping Windows and going all-AMD, I don’t know how adventurous I’m willing to be with building my own or buying used kit. I looked on Gumtree but I kind of got sketched out, and (embarrassingly) a bit sad about not having control over the aesthetics.
Nah, I get it. I was the same way, first PCs were prebuilts or laptops, so my latest build was a mostly scratch build (I already had built the case {makerbeam} and reused the PSU, and as mentioned I opted for a minisforum board to save on cost for an overkill CPU). That being said, I keep an eye out on marketplace and occasionally see a PC that is probably being sold because rent is due, and those are often decent deals and you are probably helping someone though a shit moment in their life.
Enjoy the building! Also, as someone who finally committed to getting off windows this past year, you won’t regret it (though I would watch a couple of videos about Linux roughly works, answers on forums are great but it helps to understand the overarching problem).
Thanks!
You don’t need a 1kW PSU for this build at all. 850W is perfectly fine.
That was an early guess, currently I’ve settled on the ADATA XPG Core Reactor II 850 W. Thanks!
I think I mostly agree with the things everyone else is saying here. The only thing I’d change from your PCPartPicker list is to bump the CPU down to a 9800x3d and upgrade the GPU to a 9070xt
I see you have some questions about PSU. Here’s the PSU tier list. For the level of machine you’re aiming for I would only recommend A tier. For wattage, take the expected wattage from PCPartPicker and add a couple hundred. With the changes I suggested that’s a minimum of 750w for you, but I think I wouldn’t go lower than 850w
I agree on the PSU. Nothing is worse than continually buying PSUs because voltage spikes cause the PC to draw too much power. My 3080ti makes my 1,000w seasonic occasionally turn off, which is incredibly annoying.
So, the peak draw of a 3080 should be about 350w. Fudging that up to 500, that should leave you with 500w to play with. What ELSE do you have in there, a bunch of spinning drives?
Two hard drives, a SATA SSD, an nvme SSD, a standard pump, and a ryzen 5800x OCed. That’s it!
According to the random BS I threw the there, you should only need an 800W PSU. 900 - 1000 if you have somehow doubled the voltage to your OC’d CPU.
Your PSU is either not keeping up as advertised, your OC is (likely) unstable, of some component (likely your video card) has an issue and is pulling way too much power.
You should probably drop your OC and see if it goes away.
Type Item Price CPU AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor $228.00 @ Amazon CPU Cooler ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 77 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler $83.99 @ Amazon Motherboard Gigabyte B550M K Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $89.99 @ Amazon Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory $242.99 @ Amazon Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory $242.99 @ Amazon Storage Silicon Power A55 512 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $76.97 @ Silicon Power Storage Kingston NV3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $164.99 @ Amazon Storage Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive $110.00 @ Newegg Storage Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive $110.00 @ Newegg Video Card Asus ROG STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12 GB Video Card - Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total $1349.92 Generated by PCPartPicker 2026-05-25 10:53 EDT-0400 Yeah, I dropped the OC, but it still randomly turns off in Elite Dangerous and in seldom cases, Helldivers 2. Power limiting the GPU to 80% fixes it, annoyingly.
And the CPU OC is actually with an undervolt, and it’s stable so long as the GPU is at 80% of its power envelope. I have no clue what the hell that’s about, haha. It feels like I’m taking crazy pills.
The PSU is a SeaSonic PRIME Platinum 1000 W 80+ Platinum, so I’m really at a loss aside from the 3080Ti pulling massive current for a brief spike.
Well, devices pull more power as they heat up, but that’s a huge increase.
How old is your PSU? As much as you should have plenty of headroom, it’s possible that it is aging and can’t keep up.
https://forum.level1techs.com/t/think-i-have-a-dud-3080ti-you-tell-me/190443/2
Necro post, but I bought it in summer of 2021! It’s not terribly old.
That’s a great site, been going over it. Finally settled on a ADATA XPG Core Reactor II 850W for my updated parts list, trying to take everyone’s advice: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Wmyk9K
(edited this, heard worrisome things about Gigabyte)
I’m kinda confused, 7950x3d is am4, doesn’t that mean DDR4? But I digress….
I have a similar setup already, 7950x3d, 6900xt, 16gb ddr4, modular power supply, probably an 850w but I forget.
It’s pretty nice! I’m running Linux and unless I’m compiling a ton of stuff, haven’t had issues with 16gb of ram, the CPU is great. I don’t play graphically intensive games much, so it’s everything I need and more at the moment.
Water cooling is neat, I did hard lines and showy for a bit, now I have a rack mount case and soft tubes. The soft is much more pleasant to build with, I suppose. Overall I dunno if I would recommend it. More expensive, for sure, and more fiddly if you want to change modify upgrade whatever.
The 7950x3d is AM5. I would double check all your system specs if I were you
Maybe I have the 5800x3d, though it’s kinda pointless for me to check, in happy with it, and if I upgrade I would have to move to am5 or whatever is next probably anyway. But you are correct. Maybe I was dreaming of getting the am5 x3ds, idk. 🤷♀️
For OP: verify your components all work together, if you come up with a list in sure you can find someone that would review it for you if you aren’t sure.
I’m the one confused probably, I don’t know PC parts that well and I’ve just dumped my random notes on you hoping for clarity. Thanks for the note about DDR4.
I also mostly play indie games that aren’t memory hogs, but I’ve decided I want to get into S&box so my kid and I can create games, and I had to return it due to none of my computers being up to the task. Part of my goal with this build is for that not to happen for another ten years or more, if possible.
I almost want to avoid watercooling because the whole prospect makes me nervous, but I’ve heard the all-in-one units with bendy tubes are pretty self-contained but… I’m sure there are horror stories. The main thing I crave from any heat sink is to be blissfully unconcerned for the life of the device, ideally. Is there something like that on the market?
Yeah, aio coolers are… pretty easy, but do add a small amount of extra complexity and concern for failure. I haven’t been following PC parts for a while, but there are loads of air coolers that will do plenty for any of those processors. Just make sure what you pick fits the case you want too! Some of them can get quite large. I suppose follow your heart on this, either will be totally fine.
For 10 years plus, maybe going with 32 gb would be better, I’m not sure. I’ve considered more, but then again with the current prices and I’ve been happy with 16 for a long time. Hard to say, maybe you’ll find a great deal and swing the 32? That said, if you are planning windows I would lean for more, the OS eats a decent amount.
32gb RAM instead of 16 has been the biggest surprise takeaway from this thread, and I appreciate it despite it being a hard pill to swallow at a time like this. The thing I should have considered is that my laptop has 16gb of DDR4 and it frequently pisses me off (while running windows mind you). 32 might be just the thing.
I have a very different philosophy: spend everything on the CPU/GPU/RAM, and go SFF, to make it easy to move and mimimize power.
Hence I got everything is stuffed into a Node 202: no case fans, fits in carry on, but (even with a 420W GPU) it’s whisper quiet and cool since the CPU and GPU are ducted with a few bucks worth of weather sealing foam, and suck in ambient air:
Hence, I think you should:
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Go with a nice, but cheap micro ATX motherboard
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Go with a “box” MicroATX case that will let you duct the CPU/GPU.
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Big tower heatsink, whatever orientation lets you duct it.
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No case fans.
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Go 750W for the PSU.
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Use the money you save to get 24GB or 32GB of RAM.
I think the last point is essential, unfortunately… I know it’s painful, but 16GB is going to slow down a 16C CPU. I watch 16GB cripple work laptops with much lesser specs, every day, and the need for RAM rises in workstation-type loads when you start spawning more threads.
AMD 6000/7000 are good buys though. They’re aging well.
I have been swayed by people who advised 32gb minimum, so I’ve elected to save up a little longer for that. For the SFF angle, that’s a more challenging take. I’m drawn to a larger form factor because I’m still inexperienced with building PCs; the extra room so I don’t have to fret about things fitting, and the spread-out look so I can admire my handiwork. I’m not entirely immune to practical concerns, but since this will technically be my first ever ground-up PC build intended to sit with me for about a decade, I want it to be at least something of a centrepiece.
That was my thought when I built my first PC, but in hindsight I wish I had gone SFF from the start, and spent more everywhere else.
Moving big towers is such a pain, especially when you move. ATX boards are more expensive than Micro ATX for basically no reason. Small towers fit nicer in rooms, and are (ironically) much quieter and cooler than a bunch of fans in a big tower.
And it’s not that hard to configure. Its note really any harder to replace components. My case is extreme, but box SFF cases have tons of room for a big GPU and a CPU tower.
The only caveat (IMO) would be if you want to go dual GPU in the future (very niche these days), if you plan to use a high end desktop (eg CPUs with 4+ channels of RAM, that generally require an ATX mobo), or if you just can’t find an SFF case you like (which is quite reasonable; cases are to taste).
After something like ten years with a 27" iMac in my life, practically no PC case on the market could help but feel less awkward and painful to move with! can’t wait to turn this big bastard into a headless file server stashed away somewhere. But yeah, looking around at smaller cases I’m not seeing much that grabs me the same way.
Except the Lian Li A3-mATX Tempered Glass Micro-ATX, that kind of works for me… It’s hard to tell if everything will fit, though. If I ended up getting a 185mm tall heat sink, would that actually fit?
Edit: Seems like it will! Wow. I was going to argue, but the more I look the more it makes sense. Thanks for this!
Oh yeah, that’ll work! That’s a beautiful case, and not outrageously priced nor cramped, but still saves tons of space.
Further suggestions:
- Look up “weather stripping” on Amazon. It’s foam with one sticky side designed for doorways and such, but I stick it on my GPU (or case) to form a “seal” between the GPU and the outside grate, so it uses its own fans to suck in ambient temperature air (instead of recirculating it inside the case). It looks like it’ll work in the Lian Li:
- I’d suggest configuring the CPU tower so it sucks in air from the back, in a similar manner. Or the top, if you rotate it 90 degrees. There are simple ducts you can buy to aid with this.
This all may sound crazy, but you’d be shocked how quiet a PC can be with no (or extremely low RPM) case fans, no grinding pump or anything.
You could go AIO. But I never liked the leak risk of water cooling, nor the expense over excellent tower coolers.
I had thought I’d do the standard thing of intake bottom/front and exhaust top/rear, but I’m not fully visualizing it yet. Does it always make more sense to duct in than out, so to speak? I assume so.
Weather stripping I’ve actually used on doors and windows, I can get that from my evil international conglomerate of choice. A full-on duct would look kind of janky but that I can get behind.
I have misgivings about liquid too. I’m sure it’s great while it’s working, but I’m building towards peace of mind. I would rather just spend more on an overkill CPU rather than overclock.
Does it always make more sense to duct in than out, so to speak?
Always in! You want cool, filtered outside air hitting the heatsinks, instead of hot air swirling in the case. And you want postitive pressure in the case (more fans sucking air in rather than out) to avoid dust buildup.
Here’s an example with that Lian Li you’re looking at, though there are generic 120mm ducts you can buy as well:
https://www.printables.com/model/1235597-lian-li-a3-rear-fan-duct-for-air-intake
Note that I may have been delirous earlier: it’s not trivial to duct a GPU on a MicroATX board, as there is a considerable distance from the GPU surface to the bottom grates. But if it were me, being crazy and all, I’d sure as heck try.
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1724988301/lian-li-fan-shroud-ducts-for-o11d-o11d
This one looks tailor-made for the CPU intake.
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4370532434/pc-fan-heat-deflector-fan-airflow
And this is what I meant about routing the CPU heat towards the upper exhaust. That would hopefully keep all the airflow going from bottom to top, yeah?
Okay so, this looks really good. Maybe it makes the most sense to duct in the heat sink at the rear, have intake fans below, and have the front and top as exhaust so that airflow goes in one direction. The only problem there is that it’ll be blowing hot air forwards, but I can just position it on my left facing away… That would put the window facing guests anyway, which works. Is it possible to face the PSU exhaust forwards or upwards so it all goes in one direction?
I would kind of like to route the heat sink exhaust upwards without crowding the case, but maybe not needed. As long as there’s a general sense to the air flow I’m sure it’s fine, right?
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What are the good MB and GPU card makers? I used to get Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, but that was years ago.
I’m no authority, but I’m finding Gigabyte’s factory overclocked 9070 attractive. I wanted something AMD purely because it’s going to be a Linux machine and I hear no end of complaints about Nvidia from that crowd. Most of my thinking is driven by the CPU choice, and I’ve been warned against anything less than a 9070 for fear of a GPU bottleneck.
I think this about a year and and loved my modular power supply. I’d highly recommend shelling out the extra few dollars for a brand name and modular power supply. Makes cable routing so much easier.
Brand names, you say? leans over with pad of paper
Mine is Corsair and I’ve been very pleased with it.
Second vote for Corsair. I picked up a modular unit and it has all of the modern connectors and really solid price/performance as a Gold rated model.
What does your current machine look like? Can you just reuse some of the components, and maybe upgrade them later?
Rocking a 2015 iMac and a Surface Book 3. Not happy with either situation, when I’m finally doing Outlook and OneDrive from inside Linux (for work), I’ll probably convert the laptop to Linux finally as well and be rid of Windows once and for all. I’ve been meaning to get rid of all my closed OS systems for years, but mistakes kept happening.
Oh, and you’re playing games on these machines?
Not like… not happily. But yeah. I beat BG3 a few times on the SB3, using absolute dogshit-potato settings. Would be fun to see what the game actually looks like, one of these days.
