First time building a PC

Gragon · July 13, 2023

Budget (including currency): ~$2500 CAD

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Primarily for gaming: Satisfactory, Street Fighter 6, Final Fantasy 16, Civilization 6, JRPG's

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): You can see my preliminary part list below at https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/HmsrJM I will be moving into a new house with my partner in just over a month, and plan to make all the purchases for a new PC by the end of August. My existing setup is: i7-8700K, RTX 1060 6GB, 16GB RAM, Gigabyte Z370XP SLI pre-built pc I picked up from Canada Computers in April of 2018. I'm looking to build a PC that will work well into the future at 1440p, 144hz to last for more than 5 years.

I have already purchased the 5800X3D during the Amazon Prime Day sale, as well as a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD on sale (apparently some firmware version was failing in the somewhat recent past, so I'll double check that), I put an SSD with the approximate price into the list. I do have a few questions that I was hoping everyone would be able to help me out with:

1. I was initially looking at getting a 4070, specifically the MSI X Trio after only a quick google search, but someone on this forum pointed out how low the Speedster Merc 319 Radeon RX 6950 XT was, and it looks like a no brainer. I am worried a bit about the heat load into the room now however (as the 6950 is 335W as opposed to the 4070's 200W), as my partner and I will both have a computer in the same room.
2. I know very little about motherboards and power supplies, aside from the recommendation of a B550 or better motherboard (I'll need to plug in a mouse and keyboard, sounds system and potentially a wifi adapter to the back if it doesn't come preinstalled with Wifi) and to look at the recommended wattage from the graphics card specifications. There is also the power supply tier list on here that I somewhat referenced, but I'm very unsure as to what go get for good value.

3. I have no experience actually building a computer, so I'm hoping to get a case that's easy to work with (and can hide my soon to be terrible cable management well). My two preferences based on the looks are the Lian Li Lancool 216 and the Phanteks G500A DRGB. Both of these look like they're quite spacious and easy to work with, but I'm currently leaning towards the 216. I plan to go with the (2 or 3) base case front fan and if the 216, 2 fans at the bottom for intake, and 1 fan + 360 AIO for exhaust. It doesn't look like the G500A has space for bottom intake fans, but I don't know if that will be an issue.

4. From what I've seen, a fan cooler should be able to cool my CPU, and it's been recommended a lot here, but I do very much like the look of the AIO, and I want to go with one. I don't know much about their reliability, and while the tier list is extensive, it doesn't elaborate on why each AIO is in each tier. I'm hoping to get an ARGB AIO without a blatant logo (sorry Corsair, I'm not a fan of the ship logo), if anyone could help me weed out some unreliable AIO's.

For some final info, I don't plan on doing many or any piecewise upgrades to this build in the future, as my partner and I will simply alternate who gets to replace their PC as they age. I plan to have 2 monitors, one 1440p (width not yet decided) and one 1920x1080 for streams/discord. While I'm not a streamer, I do like to stream over discord but I figure that any PC at this price range should have no problems. I'm not particular on ray tracing, but it would be nice to occasionally use. I do want to use ARGB where I can, so I'm hoping to find a setup that can integrate well with each other's pieces without too much hassle (can I control all the ARGB from a single software or sort of chain 1 software to be controlled by another global software). Finally, I don't really want to go over the budget if I can, and I would set a max budget excluding a monitor at $2,400 CAD.

Thanks so much for the help!

weaselfinder · July 13, 2023

You might want a nhd15 or an aio for your cpu, and get at least an 900w psu, at least 80+ gold

Sjaakie · July 13, 2023

1. 6950 xt is great at the moment, usually pretty cheap compared to performance. It will get hotter but that is a totally personal consideration, not really anything most people seem to care about too much.

2. Any half decent B550 is fine, 5800x3d is very low power. Just make sure it has all your requirements (wifi / usb) and is not bottom of the barrel VRM-wise.

3. be quiet pure base 500dx is great. Bigger Fractal Design cases are very high build quality / cable management friendly.

4. Indeed it's just for show in case of 5800x3d. The pump can be noisy. Arctic liquid freezer is highly recommended though pretty ugly and need to double check if it fits your case. Air cooler will be more reliable if you care about that.

Use a normal ATX psu in a normal ATX case. SFX is made for small cases and have shorter cables.

SorryBella · July 14, 2023

2 hours ago, Gragon said:

I have already purchased the 5800X3D during the Amazon Prime Day sale, as well as a Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD on sale (apparently some firmware version was failing in the somewhat recent past, so I'll double check that)

Included in the budget?

Gragon · July 14, 2023

2 hours ago, Sjaakie said:

1. 6950 xt is great at the moment, usually pretty cheap compared to performance. It will get hotter but that is a totally personal consideration, not really anything most people seem to care about too much.

2. Any half decent B550 is fine, 5800x3d is very low power. Just make sure it has all your requirements (wifi / usb) and is not bottom of the barrel VRM-wise.

3. be quiet pure base 500dx is great. Bigger Fractal Design cases are very high build quality / cable management friendly.

4. Indeed it's just for show in case of 5800x3d. The pump can be noisy. Arctic liquid freezer is highly recommended though pretty ugly and need to double check if it fits your case. Air cooler will be more reliable if you care about that.

Use a normal ATX psu in a normal ATX case. SFX is made for small cases and have shorter cables.

1. Yeah, the 6950 xt is about $70 more than the 4070, which i believe is worth the investment
2. Any recommendations? I'm not familiar with what makes a motherboard half decent aside from the I/O. I have little understanding of what makes a VRM good, maybe that it has many different voltages it can step down to?
3. I'll take a look at those, for sure.
4. Yeah, I figure the air cooler is more reliable, but I feel like the AIO is something that I kinda just want to have. I didn't initially like the look of the arctic freezer, but it's somewhat starting to grow on me, but it is quite large. I'll have to double check afterwards that it fits.

I'll definitely use an ATX PSU, didn't realize the SF referred to a small form factor case.

10 minutes ago, SorryBella said:

Included in the budget?

Yes, assume that $375 is spent on the 5800X3D and $135 for the SSD

SorryBella · July 14, 2023

3 minutes ago, Gragon said:

Yes, assume that $375 is spent on the 5800X3D and $135 for the SSD

Got it. Also, you don't need that much cooling at all, I agreed on just getting air cooler. With that we can get a better monitor in terms of visual clarity, and also a sneaky GPU upgrade.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor ($375.00)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AG620 BK ARGB 67.88 CFM CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Canada Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.14 @ Vuugo)
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($78.99 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($135.00)
Video Card: XFX Speedster MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB Video Card ($1142.42 @ Amazon Canada)
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 215 ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.50 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: Deepcool PM850D 850 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($106.99 @ PC-Canada)
Monitor: Gigabyte G27Q 27.0" 2560 x 1440 144 Hz Monitor ($351.62 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $2468.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-13 23:02 EDT-0400

If we stick to the same monitor we can go up to 7900XTX. Youre basically looking at the all AMD 1440p gaming flagship.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor ($375.00)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AG620 BK ARGB 67.88 CFM CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Canada Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.14 @ Vuugo)
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($78.99 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($135.00)
Video Card: MSI GAMING TRIO CLASSIC Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24 GB Video Card ($1299.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 215 ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.50 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: Deepcool PM850D 850 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($106.99 @ PC-Canada)
Monitor: Acer XV322QU KVbmiiphzx 31.5" 2560 x 1440 144 Hz Monitor ($243.17 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $2517.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-13 23:05 EDT-0400

Gragon · July 14, 2023

Wow, the savings on the air cooling, a better motherboard selection and the power supply really allowed for a a 7900 XT. I think spending the extra $100 (40% of the cost) on a better monitor will play out better at 1440p than spending that on the 7900 XTX, but I'll have to give it some thought (and potentially wait for a sale, like how the xtx is no longer on sale for $1,299). I did have a few follow up questions, if you don't mind.

1. I don't see an I/O shield installed on the motherboard you recommended, I assume it is included with the motherboard and I'll have to install it myself.
2. I was planning on installing fans on top of the power supply shroud (if I was going with the 216) to help cool the GPU, is that still useful on the 215? He calls it out as a potential flaw in the video. With an AIO, I was going for a front + 2 bottom intake and 3 top + 1 back exhaust airflow setup. how should that change with an air cooler?
3. I have a little bit of play in my budget, what would you recommend upgrading a bit first, if you for example had an extra $200?

Thanks so much for the help!