Planning My First High-End PC: Project Moonlight

[Polaria]

Hello, all.

 

Budget (including currency): Will be approx. $3000 USD

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Insurgency Sandstorm, large Minecraft modpacks + shaders, Assetto Corsa Evo, BeamNG.drive, Arma 3, eSports titles, rhythm games (primarily osu!), 1080p video editing 

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): 

 

I'm about to hopefully get a job soon, and I want to make this happen while I don't have any expenses to worry about. I'll have to save up a couple of months for this build, so probably will purchase around September, maybe October should life not get in the way of me.

 

My old specs are as follows:

MSI Z390-A Pro

Intel Core i3-9350KF 4c-4t @ 5.0 GHz all-core, 1.38V core voltage

Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE

Thermalright TF7 Thermal Paste

24GB (2x8GB + 2x4GB) DDR4 3200 MT/s, CL18 20-20-42 (please don't inquire more this memory setup is CURSED)

XFX RX 580 8 GB GTS Black Edition @ 1421 MHz core, 2100 MHz memory w/ custom timings

WD_Black SN770 1 TB NVMe, Kingston A400 500GB SATA SSD, and another 500GB SSD that i forget the brand of

EVGA 650 Watt PSU (god bless the kings)

Corsair SPEC-OMEGA RGB Black case and cross-threaded glass side panel screws that definitely aren't my own fault

 

Picture of my current (dusty and with a mismatched cooler) PC:

 

 

New specs (Link to parts list):

ASRock X870E Taichi

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 16c-32t @ 4.3 GHz base, 5.7 GHz turbo

Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB

Corsair XTM70 Thermal Paste

TEAMGROUP T-Force Delta RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 6400MT/s CL32

ASRock Phantom Gaming OC RX 7900 XTX 24 GB

Samsung 990 Pro 4TB Gen 4 NVMe + old storage that I will migrate over

Corsair RM1000e PSU

Antec FLUX PRO ATX Full Tower case + some additional Thermalright RGB fans for airflow

 

 

First off - yes, this is overkill. Craaaazy overkill. I don't need a 9950X3D, nor do I need an RX 7900 XTX for what I want to do, especially on a 1080p monitor at 144 Hz. However, seeing 16 cores and 32 threads in Task Manager and being able to run Minecraft at 2000 FPS (plus actually run AC Evo at more than 45 FPS on the lowest possible settings) is probably worth enough giggleshits to last me my whole lifetime. I prefer to go about this not as a dilemma of "dude, why?" but as a choice of "fuck it, why not?"

 

That being said, there's areas I really don't see a need to spend more on. I know modern DDR5 systems don't really like running fully populated DIMMs at high speeds, and I don't really want to spend 2.5x as much on 2x32GB sticks when I'm only likely to use half that. I'm happy with 32 GB, and if I end up unhappy in the future, I can just upgrade and sell my old memory. AMD recommends a 750 watt power supply for the 7900 XTX - considering I'm also running the fastest consumer CPU on the planet, I think a 1000 watt PSU is a nice happy sweet spot with a good amount of legroom. Higher than that and it gets unnecessarily expensive for zero benefit.

 

Funny I say that, considering I'm going with a $450 motherboard. I realize it's more than I realistically should be spending where I could direct that instead to more RAM or a better cooler, but I've always swooned over the EATX motherboards and thought they were cool as hell so I want one. I can envision the Taichi looking pretty slick in the case I picked.

 

Speaking of; the Antec case with the wood trim immediately made my autism brain boil over and me as a whole foam at the mouth the moment I saw it with the wood trim, plus the front mesh panel. I want to do a sensible amount of RGB while keeping a relatively minimalist style, EATX compatibility and great airflow, and this seems to be the piece I'm looking for. If anyone has recommendations though... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Anyway. I'm mostly just sharing this to share it, and hopefully soon I can put it into reality. But if there's anything askew in the build or any advice anyone can give me as this is the first time I will have built a truly high end PC, I'd love to hear it. Particularly I've never actually bought case fans before, so I don't really know what to look for in terms of well-performing, quiet fans that won't break the bank. Also, while Thermalright makes excellent, inexpensive air coolers I'm not certain the Phantom Spirit is fully sufficient for a 9950X3D. I have no experience with water cooling so advice on that would rock too if I need to go for that.

[Why_Me]

Best to start these threads no sooner than 7 - 10 days before you plan on purchasing due to new tech releases, constant changes in inventory / availability and prices. Modded Minecraft and video editing says 64GB of RAM. Anything less than 64GB with a $3,000 budget and you're doing it wrong.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($472.02 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: *Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($37.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *MSI MAG X870E TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($329.99 @ Best Buy) 
Memory: *G.Skill Flare X5 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($187.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: *Samsung 990 Pro 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($299.99 @ Abt) 
Video Card: *Asus PRIME OC GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB Video Card  ($939.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: *Antec FLUX ATX Mid Tower Case  ($104.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: *Montech CENTURY II 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.90 @ Newegg) 
Case Fan: *ARCTIC P12 PST A-RGB 0dB 48.8 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack  ($52.99 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: *MSI G272QPF E2 27.0" 2560 x 1440 180 Hz Monitor  ($189.99 @ MSI) 
Total: $2705.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-06-16 06:26 EDT-0400

 

A better look at those components.

 

https://www.msi.com/Monitor/G272QPF-E2 

 

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-X870E-TOMAHAWK-WIFI/ 

 

Review of the non ARGB version of that cpu cooler.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermalright-phantom-spirit-120-review

 

https://www.montechpc.com/century-ii-850w 

 

https://www.antec.com/product/case/flux 

 

https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards-components/graphics-cards/prime/prime-rtx5070ti-o16g/ 

 

 

 

 

[venomtail]

9800X3D will be faster than the 9950X3D in games on Windows due to Window's own struggle with 3D cached core scheduling. I've kept you eATX desires. Since you talk about longterm, it's a guessing point but at 1080p and feature additions such as FSR 4 and so on, 9070XT might age better. 32GB is plenty and you can always add more, CL28 to chase those 1% lows at 1080p:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($472.02 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 5 93.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($79.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock X870E Taichi Lite EATX AM5 Motherboard  ($349.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL28 Memory  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Patriot P400 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($64.98 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Patriot P400 Lite 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($206.99 @ B&H) 
Video Card: PowerColor Reaper Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card  ($799.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Antec FLUX ATX Mid Tower Case  ($104.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 12 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($144.78 @ Newegg) 
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 3 57.4 CFM 140 mm Fan  ($12.90 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 3 57.4 CFM 140 mm Fan  ($12.90 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 3 57.4 CFM 140 mm Fan  ($12.90 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 3 57.4 CFM 140 mm Fan  ($12.90 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 3 57.4 CFM 140 mm Fan  ($12.90 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 3 57.4 CFM 140 mm Fan  ($12.90 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 3 57.4 CFM 140 mm Fan  ($12.90 @ Amazon) 
Case Fan: be quiet! Pure Wings 3 57.4 CFM 140 mm Fan  ($12.90 @ Amazon) 
Fan Controller: ARCTIC Case Fan Hub Fan Controller  ($9.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $2436.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-06-16 05:56 EDT-0400

[Polaria]

1 hour ago, venomtail said:

9800X3D will be faster than the 9950X3D in games on Windows due to Window's own struggle with 3D cached core scheduling. I've kept you eATX desires. Since you talk about longterm, it's a guessing point but at 1080p and feature additions such as FSR 4 and so on, 9070XT might age better. 32GB is plenty and you can always add more, CL28 to chase those 1% lows at 1080p

A benchmark I've looked up recently is telling me that they're within the same few % of each other, almost margin of error with recent microcode updates etc. Practically you're probably right. I might end up going with the 9950X3D anyway if I'm willing to save for that long just because, but either way coming from a 9th gen i3 it's gonna be a night and day difference for me.
 

I do like the CL28 memory idea and the Taichi Lite is also a very appealing choice. Antec FLUX non-pro I understand too, that's another $70 saved over what's basically the same case. I didn't realize the mid tower version also fit EATX. I do really like the TEAMGROUP T-Force style though so I'll just go with one of their CL28-6000 sets.

 

To be honest I'm not really sure about the Patriot P400's. I do already have a 1 TB SSD that I can use as a boot drive, and from what I can gather from research the P400 lite 4 TB is DRAM cache-less, hence why it's nearly $100 cheaper than the 990 pro. I guess if I'm doing mass-storage on that drive, it won't matter too much - it'll still be "pretty fast" and that's good enough. 

The 9070 XT is what I almost picked originally. I'm not really a fan of Powercolor, I don't really like how they style their cards, but the performance (and price) is undeniable. The 7900 XTX does have a bit more raw "horsepower" (and VRAM) though and that's very appealing to me. Guess I'll pick whatever I think is best when it comes time to buy, depends on price & availability. A little bit of my choices are aesthetics - I like the deep blacks of the RGB Taichi and the Asrock Phantom Gaming card a lot.

 

I also think that I will probably end up getting a nicer monitor in the future, to be honest. I realize now that at this price point, not getting a better monitor is kind of a waste of potential. 

 

Never used bequiet!'s stuff before, but it looks good.

 

(P.S. also thank you for the recommendations & help!!)

[Polaria]

1 hour ago, Why_Me said:

Best to start these threads no sooner than 7- 10 days before you plan on purchasing due to new tech releases, constant changes in inventory / availability and prices.

Fair enough. I figure it's at least good to plan early, and if I need to change parts of the build I can down the line.

 

I do think you might be onto something with the 850 watt PSU. That's a pretty big savings for a still pretty high quality fully modular unit that will probably meet my power needs. The monitor's also probably a good investment for the price point, like I deliberated to venomtail. To be honest I don't really want to go Nvidia for the GPU but the numbers of the 5070 Ti are pretty enticing.

 

Thank you for the help

[Why_Me]

2 minutes ago, Polaria said:

Fair enough. I figure it's at least good to plan early, and if I need to change parts of the build I can down the line.

 

I do think you might be onto something with the 850 watt PSU. That's a pretty big savings for a still pretty high quality fully modular unit that will probably meet my power needs. The monitor's also probably a good investment for the price point, like I deliberated to venomtail. To be honest I don't really want to go Nvidia for the GPU but the numbers of the 5070 Ti are pretty enticing.

 

Thank you for the help

850W for that build is more than sufficient. Nvidia gpu's are the way to go in regards to productivity. You want to go w/64GB of RAM now seeing how four sticks of RAM stress the memory controller.

[Polaria]

19 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

850W for that build is more than sufficient. Nvidia gpu's are the way to go in regards to productivity. You want to go w/64GB of RAM now seeing how four sticks of RAM stress the memory controller.

True, that to all of those points. Are there low CL 2x32gb kits out there (like, 28-32?) Or am I stuck with CL36 being the lowest I can find? I know it doesn't really matter that much but it'd be a nice to have. I tried looking and at least for the T-force delta kits there are none below 36.

 

(Edit: I will probably end up OCing the memory anyway, so it might end up being a moot point. Still)

[Why_Me]

1 minute ago, Polaria said:

True, that to all of those points. Are there low CL 2x32gb kits out there (like, 28-32?) Or am I stuck with CL36 being the lowest I can find? I know it doesn't really matter that much but it'd be a nice to have. I tried looking and at least for the T-force delta kits there are none below 36.

You want DDR5-6000 CL30. Preferably a set of 2x32GB. Look for a set with low profile heatsinks so that you don't impede that dual tower cpu cooler.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#b=ddr5&Z=65536002&S=6000&L=300

 

[Polaria]

5 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

You want DDR5-6000 CL30. Preferably a set of 2x32GB. Look for a set with low profile heatsinks so that you don't impede that dual tower cpu cooler.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#b=ddr5&Z=65536002&S=6000&L=300

 

Thanks. Settling on a pair of G.Skill Flare 32GB modules totaling 64 GB for now. I really appreciate the help from both of you, so far I've already hit a point where I'm saving ~$130 and getting more out of the build than what I originally envisioned while still maintaining the aesthetic I want.