High pH AMD build, any big bloopers?

[brukar]

Budget (including currency): Approximately the current total

Country: Norway

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Will run Linux Mint, gaming and various hobby level "productivity" (cad, photo, maybe music/video)

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): 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Hddjh7

 

Notes on list: Case, PSU, audio card and cpu cooler will be transferred over from old machine. For cpu cooler will get mounting adapter and offset bracket from the Austrians. PSU is older blue label model of the one in the part picker list, approx. 14 years old, has probably never seen more than 500w load (I overbought back then), is single rail 12v with 5v and 3.3v on dc-dc circuits. Case is listed as not having room for the length of gpu, but removing the hdd cage and maybe giving the floppy drive holder a cuddle with the dremel should sort that out. The two SSDs are somewhat placeholders, if anyone have any gripes or praise with either, or other suggestions in the same price range, inputs are welcome here. I am a little bit on the fence about 32 vs 27 inch display, but the model comes in both flavors and was recommended to me. Price is quite nice at the moment.

 

Will probably also add a newer m.2 wifi/BT card for wireless headphones and keyboard/mouse. Will probably make separate threads in appropriate categories for the peripherals

 

As I haven't played modern high demanding games for at least five years, I don't have much of a reference frame for what performance I am trying to accomplish. My main hope is to have a system that is serviceable for a long time. Getting the same ~15 years out of it as I got from my current system is probably optimistic, but I'd hope for at least 5-7. I intend to purchase in the coming couple of weeks or so.

 

In case of curiosity, here is the existing rig in the same case:

Spoiler

Intel i7 920 2.6 GHz 4core, 12GB triple channel ddr3 ram, Sapphire Radeon HD5870 Vapor-x 1GB, MSI x-58 pro-e motherboard. Sound card, PSU and CPU cooler as above. Various hdd and ssd, including one m.2 nvme drive on pcie adapter card (not bootable). According to those online performance comparisons I should expect a 10x to 15x increase in raw performance at not much more power cost.

 

[Madii]

With a build that old I don't see the point in carrying over any of the old parts. Those old parts are just going to be e-wasted on their own, but all together could make a nice NAS/ tinker machine? Things like sound cards will just add to the idle power and aren't going to give you anything your MB IO wont give you unless you're running something REALLY exotic. A PSU that old is certainly out of warranty and there's no need to roll the dice with new parts on an old PSU. Case's are also pretty cheap (especially proportionally to the total build cost) and gives you the chance to avoid creating new sharp edges. But again, circling back into the initial point: why part out the old machine when the scraps will just get e-wasted?

 

Imo you're overspending on just about everything. If I were you I would save some money and go mid-tier on everything.

CPU: You wont notice the difference in 10 years between a 9600X and a 9900X, but it'll save you a couple hundred bucks. And if you find yourself wishing for more cores in a year or two you can grab a used R9 for cheaper than new and it's an easy slot-in upgrade.

Cooler: i love free! If it makes sense (per the e-waste discussion in the paragraph above) then I love that for you. But the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE   has some killer performance for the price.

MB: you could upgrade to an X670 or X870 for your "future proof-ness" with extra M.2 slots and PCIe lanes. Maybe even Gen 5 lanes.

RAM: good job with 64Gb. AM5 doesn't like quad channel RAM, so sticking to 2 sticks will probably behave better.

SSD's: I also have an OS drive and a storage drive, but there's no need to balance their sizes. You can save on your OS drive by going 1TB, and I'm a fan of 4TB+ for my storage drive. But again, you can grab those later down the line as storage gets cheaper and cheaper by the year. not really a wrong answer, but there's no hard fast rule like in the old days with splitting between a small SSD and large HDD. Whatever saves you money and has enough room Also no need to buy different drives, you can just get 2 of the same if they are the best deal.

GPU: envy. have so much fun

Fans: knock it off. There's no world where a home user should ever spend $150 on case fans. You can grab a mid tier case that comes with fans and you're going to be just fine. And if you really insist on buying case fans, grab a 3 pack from beQuiet or something. Don't get cult-y with brands.

 

I know some other people will respond with completed PCPartpicker lists with Eu prices and really help you out. But this is my thought process on how to tweak the build It might be worth checking PC Builder Jason and his vids on YT, he's an awesome resource!

[brob]

Consider a B850 motherboard with WiFi.

 

I find the NVMe storage choices confusing. I would use a single 4 TB drive instead.

 

It's hard to judge from marketing photos but I suspect you may have to cut back the floppy and bottom optical bay to accommodate the GPU.

 

If the fans are to be a new purchase, don't do it. Instead buy a new case. A decent case with fans can be had for the same cost and would resolve the issue of GPU fit.

 

[brukar]

Thank you for your inputs.

 

The fans are intended to replace the ones both on the case and on the cpu cooler. The fans cost less than a new cooler, and currently the noisiest component is the fan on the cooler (which is fair after 15 years of use, imo). I just checked the length clearance for the GPU, at worst I'll need to file off a couple of millimetres on the external bays, which is much cheaper than a new case.

 

I see that the storage was confusing, I was unclear there. I intend to just buy one 2TB drive, but it is unclear to me which metrics to look for, and which don't really matter.

 

B850 or "higher" motherboards are generally significantly more expensive here, my logic was I'd rather go for the "higher" (although still fairly middle of the price range) end B650 than lowest end B850 (which would be asrock B850M-X), for build quality reasons. Perhaps this is not as relevant these days? The cheapest non-asrock B850 is ~80€ more expensive.

 

I'll probably try to peddle off the existing parts I don't want to keep using to an enthusiast for a pittance and two pieces of bubblegum, I have no need for them.

[brob]

Consider a new case and B850 motherboard that offer several advantages. It includes WiFi and Bluetooth so an additional card will not be needed. Uses an M-ATX case that easily accommodates the GPU and offers better airflow and front panel USB-C.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($559.89 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P SE2 54.36 CFM CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Thermal Compound: ARCTIC MX-6 4 g Thermal Paste  ($7.79 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B850M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Flare X5 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($184.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($169.99 @ Abt) 
Video Card: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card  ($892.98 @ Newegg) 
Case: Lian Li A3-mATX MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair HX850 850 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case Fan: Noctua P12 redux-1300 PWM 54.32 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($16.95 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: Noctua P12 redux-1300 PWM 54.32 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($16.95 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 PWM PST 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($9.99 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 PWM PST 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($9.99 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 PWM PST 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($9.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $2119.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-04-24 16:42 EDT-0400

[brukar]

Thank you again for your time.

 

As far as I can see, that motherboard is objectively a worse choice. It is more expensive than the b650 one and a latest gen intel wifi m.2 board combined, has fewer pcie slots, and the one x4 slot gets disabled if the 3rd m.2 slot is populated. Sure, the x16 is gen5, but it's not like any modern gpu is saturating a gen4 x16 anyway so the uplift is irrelevant.

 

I will need to look into those arctics, thanks.