Building a new AMD build and have a few questions

[DataFactor]

Budget (including currency): 2250 Euro (MAX)

Country: Ireland 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Beamng, Cyberpunk, GTA, Roblox, Roblox studio, UE5

Other details I have an X870 Tomahawk WiFi motherboard and an RX 9070 OC on the way. I’m upgrading from a system that had a very issue prone motherboard and instead of getting it again I’ve decided to start over (I’m coming from a 3050, don’t judge) I don’t know what the best value is for things, I have storage already, and a power supply, case and fans, just need the rest and not sure what’s best value or compatible with my new motherboard. For example I don’t see anything for an Ethernet capable to link card to go into and I’m curious if it even supports pci WiFi/ethernet cards. I don’t care about color, I have a white case but don’t need to have any colour or leds. I’m going for value but also performance, I’m not looking for the most horrible ddr5 or cooler. Adding onto that, I’m panning on getting an AMD 9950x cpu and my last pc (apparently) did not have a sufficient cooler and therefore its performance was hindered significantly. I really want to have a working pc from the start as I’ve always had issues and need to know all the precautions to take to avoid any long term issues again.

 

[Tetras]

9 minutes ago, DataFactor said:

For example I don’t see anything for an Ethernet capable to link card to go into and I’m curious if it even supports pci WiFi/ethernet cards.

Unless I'm missing what you're asking, the Tomahawk has onboard LAN and WIFI, so there's no need to purchase an additional PCI-E card.

 

9 minutes ago, DataFactor said:

I’m panning on getting an AMD 9950x cpu and my last pc (apparently) did not have a sufficient cooler and therefore its performance was hindered significantly

The 9950X (stock) consumes around 200 watts at fully multithreaded load, which is really on the edge of what is going to be comfortable with an air cooler like the peerless assassin/phantom spirit. If you're rarely going to be running the CPU at 100% load, then that's fine, but if you were planning to run it at 100% load for hours and hours, I'd recommend getting a better cooler.

 

12 minutes ago, DataFactor said:

I’m going for value but also performance, I’m not looking for the most horrible ddr5 or cooler.

Since you're doing UE5 development, I assume you want a minimum of 64GB (2x32), or maybe even 96GB (2x48)? If you plan on using more memory (e.g. 4 sticks, 32x4 or 4x48) then unless things have changed significantly since I last looked, the speed is not worth worrying about because you'll be lucky to get more than 5200 out of it.

[DataFactor]

8 minutes ago, Tetras said:

Unless I'm missing what you're asking, the Tomahawk has onboard LAN and WIFI, so there's no need to purchase an additional PCI-E card.

 

The 9950X (stock) consumes around 200 watts at fully multithreaded load, which is really on the edge of what is going to be comfortable with an air cooler like the peerless assassin/phantom spirit. If you're rarely going to be running the CPU at 100% load, then that's fine, but if you were planning to run it at 100% load for hours and hours, I'd recommend getting a better cooler.

 

Since you're doing UE5 development, I assume you want a minimum of 64GB (2x32), or maybe even 96GB (2x48)? If you plan on using more memory (e.g. 4 sticks, 32x4 or 4x48) then unless things have changed significantly since I last looked, the speed is not worth worrying about because you'll be lucky to get more than 5200 out of it.

That’s fine and answers my questions about the WiFi. 
 

If any I jsut want a cooler I know won’t give me issues (if you know the name a one that is guaranteed to be reliable for a fair price) 

 

the ram can be 2x16gb for now as I’m only going to be doing the back end development of UE5 with some 3d, but if you have knowledge of any good value 2x32gb sets I could get I would gladly do so. Also, I have a weird thing where I have to versions of windows on two separate storage drives (one is hdd, the other is a Samsung 980 ssd and both  are 2tb) and just wanna know what would be the better option, I have a really unorganized storage atm so eitherway it won’t be great but need to know what’s overall better 

[CatTNT]

My brother has a 9950X and Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120SE, a cooler that only cost $35. Using a PBO profile called "Thermal Point 85". Throttles at 85C, gets 43-44K cinebench R23 score (above stock), and stock single thread performance. Dropped his compile/build time for some project down from 45+ mins to 11 mins (5600X -> 9950X). No point buying any cooler other than that. I have a 360mm AiO ($120) with my 14900K (DO NOT BUY THIS CPU), easily hits 99-104C under full load, despite using a contact frame. 

[DataFactor]

3 minutes ago, CatTNT said:

My brother has a 9950X and Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120SE, a cooler that only cost $35. Using a PBO profile called "Thermal Point 85". Throttles at 85C, gets 43-44K cinebench R23 score (above stock), and stock single thread performance. Dropped his compile/build time for some project down from 45+ mins to 11 mins (5600X -> 9950X). No point buying any cooler other than that. I have a 360mm AiO ($120) with my 14900K (DO NOT BUY THIS CPU), easily hits 99-104C under full load, despite using a contact frame. 

Yeah I’m going from the i9 10400 or whatever the hell, thank god I’m changing. And thank you this is really helpful to know and I’m so glad everyone is so knowledgable. I just hope I do everything right this time 

[Tetras]

10 minutes ago, DataFactor said:

Also, I have a weird thing where I have to versions of windows on two separate storage drives (one is hdd, the other is a Samsung 980 ssd and both  are 2tb) and just wanna know what would be the better option, I have a really unorganized storage atm so eitherway it won’t be great but need to know what’s overall better 

I'm not sure I understand the question, what do you mean by better?

 

The SSD is going to be much faster than the HDD, is that what you're asking?

 

11 minutes ago, DataFactor said:

the ram can be 2x16gb for now as I’m only going to be doing the back end development of UE5 with some 3d, but if you have knowledge of any good value 2x32gb sets I could get I would gladly do so

Memory is constantly on offer / off offer, so hard to say really. Any 2x32 kit which is 6000 / C30 (or close to that) would be fine. The kit being on your motherboard's QVL is a bonus, though not required.

[DataFactor]

3 hours ago, Tetras said:

I'm not sure I understand the question, what do you mean by better?

 

The SSD is going to be much faster than the HDD, is that what you're asking?

 

Memory is constantly on offer / off offer, so hard to say really. Any 2x32 kit which is 6000 / C30 (or close to that) would be fine. The kit being on your motherboard's QVL is a bonus, though not required.

What does QVL stand for, or do? I’m really unaware of certain terms, I’m not a newbie just need some directions so I don’t mess up. I asked about boot setups since I accidentally booted on my hdd recently and it went back to an old 2022 version of everything even google, steam etc. and messed me up and this happened after a bios update, just want to avoid that

[Tetras]

13 minutes ago, DataFactor said:

What does QVL stand for, or do?

Qualified Vendor List. Short version: it is a list of stuff that was tested with your motherboard when it released and they just say if it worked or not. Buying memory that is on this list is an extra layer of re-assurance, but it is not required.

 

14 minutes ago, DataFactor said:

I asked about boot setups since I accidentally booted on my hdd recently and it went back to an old 2022 version of everything even google, steam etc. and messed me up and this happened after a bios update, just want to avoid that

This may have happened because after the BIOS update your boot order/priority was changed.

[DataFactor]

2 minutes ago, Tetras said:

Qualified Vendor List. Short version: it is a list of stuff that was tested with your motherboard when it released and they just say if it worked or not. Buying memory that is on this list is an extra layer of re-assurance, but it is not required.

 

This may have happened because after the BIOS update your boot order/priority was changed.

Okay that’s something I’ll defintely look into and yeah I’d assume, I changed it back to ssd and that caused even more issues and then the entire my motherboard had issues anyway and basically was killing itself since the day I got it and was very close to combusting 

[Tetras]

1 hour ago, DataFactor said:

I changed it back to ssd and that caused even more issues and then the entire my motherboard had issues anyway

Hmm, I'm not sure what was going on there.

 

I hope the new system will resolve it, but I don't know what happened before.

 

All I can suggest is making sure you have good backup strategy (maybe an external drive) so that you can restore your OS quickly if something happens.

[DataFactor]

12 hours ago, Tetras said:

Hmm, I'm not sure what was going on there.

 

I hope the new system will resolve it, but I don't know what happened before.

 

All I can suggest is making sure you have good backup strategy (maybe an external drive) so that you can restore your OS quickly if something happens.

alright, I’ll look into that, and related to actually building it, since I’ve had such issues in the past is it better that I get someone to build it for me to avoid any issues

[Tetras]

22 minutes ago, DataFactor said:

 since I’ve had such issues in the past is it better that I get someone to build it for me to avoid any issues

That's not really something I can tell you, because I don't know how competent you are, or how competent the builder would be.

 

I'd just suggest that you take your time (never build in a rush!), plan ahead and have a second PC (or mobile phone) available so that you can watch YouTube videos for any of the tricky parts.

[DataFactor]

5 hours ago, Tetras said:

That's not really something I can tell you, because I don't know how competent you are, or how competent the builder would be.

 

I'd just suggest that you take your time (never build in a rush!), plan ahead and have a second PC (or mobile phone) available so that you can watch YouTube videos for any of the tricky parts.

Sounds simple, another question, is it good to pay the 9950x cpu with the 9070 oc,  just wondering g if there will be any bottle neck 

[Tetras]

11 minutes ago, DataFactor said:

Sounds simple, another question, is it good to pay the 9950x cpu with the 9070 oc,  just wondering g if there will be any bottle neck 

9950X and 9070 would not be a problem, they're a strong pairing.

 

Before you buy, I would suggest checking that performance and driver support is not an issue for AMD graphics in any of the development work you do.

[DataFactor]

14 hours ago, Tetras said:

9950X and 9070 would not be a problem, they're a strong pairing.

 

Before you buy, I would suggest checking that performance and driver support is not an issue for AMD graphics in any of the development work you do.

Alright, that makes sense.