Question Audio has started popping and crackling out of nowhere ?

[Aeacus]

depending on the price of the PSU he grabs

Do not let him to choose and buy the PSU for you. Since you can get scammed when he buys low or crap quality PSU. And PSU warranty won't transfer over to you either, since he bought it.

Instead, buy the PSU by yourself and haul both to him, for component replacement.

CPU: Ryzen 7 7800X3D

2nd best gaming CPU. Former king of gaming CPUs. Current king: R7 9800X3D.

Article of the two titans battling out: https://www.techspot.com/review/2917-amd-ryzen-9800x3d-vs-7800x3d/

Btw, for our new builds, i'm going with R7 9800X3D.

CPU Cooler: Thermalright Air Tower w/ LCD Screen

It is one of these;
Royal Knight 120 Digital: https://www.thermalright.com/product/royal-knight-120-digital-black/
Peerless Assassin 140 Digital: https://www.thermalright.com/product/peerless-assassin-140-digital-black/
Peerless Assassin 120 Digital: https://www.thermalright.com/product/peerless-assassin-120-digital-black/
Peerless Assassin 120 Digital ARGB: https://www.thermalright.com/product/peerless-assassin-120-digital-argb-black/
Assassin X 120 R Digital: https://www.thermalright.com/product/assassin-x-120-r-digital-black/
Assassin X 120 R ARGB Digital: https://www.thermalright.com/product/assassin-x-120-r-digital-black-argb/
Burst Assassin 120 Vision: https://www.thermalright.com/product/burst-assassin-120-vision-black/
Assassin Spirit 120 Vision ARGB: https://www.thermalright.com/product/assassin-spirit-120-vision-black-argb/

While i linked the specs of Black ones, all of them have White version as well.

Royal Knight or Peerless Assassin are better suited for R7 7800X3D since those are dual-tower CPU coolers. Others are single-tower and may not be enough cooling wise.
So, if you can, find out exactly which one it is.

Motherboard: ASRock B650M-CX

Cheap MoBo,
specs: https://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/B650M-CX/index.us.asp

While it has 12+2+1 VRM configuration, it's chokes aren't cooled well. Heatsink seems to cover most of the chokes only partly, but there are chokes with no cooling what-so-ever. (Chokes are the small square boxes around CPU socket.)

And it has the notorious Realtek ALC897 audio codec.

GPU: ASRock CHALLENGER RX 9060XT 16GB

Cheaper version of RX 9060 XT from AsRock.
There is review of the more expensive RX 9060 XT from AsRock and with it you could get 78-80 FPS on 1080p,
link: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/asrock-rx-9060-xt-challenger-oc-16-gb.b12665

But that one in the prebuilt is one of the cheapest RX 9060 XT you can get,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=596&sort=price&page=1

SSD: TEAMGROUP MP44L 1TB GEN4

Cheap SSD,
review: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/team-group-mp44l-ssd-review

It does not have DRAM. I advise strongly against getting any SSD that doesn't have DRAM.
Reasons here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybIXsrLCgdM

RAM: TEAMGROUP T-FORCE DELTA 32GB 6000MT/s

Cheap RAM. Not the cheapest but not that good either.
Comes in Black or White.

Here's comparison of the same price RAM,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/Yyqrxr,jcjRsY,dpqrxr,cd3NnQ/

For the price of that T-Force Delta RAM, you could get faster (6000 vs 6400) and more responsive (CL38 vs CL32) RAM, giving you overall better/lower latency (12.667ns vs 10ns).

PSU: GAMDIAS P1-650G

Depending on which P1-G PSU it is, it is either Tier B- (borderline low quality) or Tier B+ (borderline good quality).

You can tell the diff when you can see the PSU fan grille.
Tier B- PSU has thin circular grille.
While Tier B+ PSU has hexagonal in a circular shape grille or oblong grille.

Yeah, I've looked at Starforge but the price difference between them and Andromeda Insights is pretty massive.

With the individual component tear down, do you still think Andromeda Insights prebuilt has that great of a value? 🤔

Since it has expensive CPU (probably the main selling point) but cheap everything else: CPU cooler, MoBo, RAM, GPU, SSD, PSU.

Now, Thermalright CPU coolers are cheap but good ones. So, their price can't be held against their performance. Several reputable reviews have proven Thermalright CPU coolers to be one of the best, if not the best air coolers currently out there.
And GPU price can't be held against it's performance either, because it still is 9060 XT and performs the same as more expensive variant. But what you do give up, is GPU cooling (getting higher temps, more noise) and lacking on aesthetics.

But MoBo, RAM, SSD and PSU are cheap. And when you pay peanuts - you will get monkeys.

 

[Voidcraft]

What mobo replacement do you suggest? I may be able to get them to upgrade that as well.

Regarding starforge: the cheapest prebuilt that has the 7800x3d chip is 2400 usd. Compared to upgrading parts on AI, the price difference is huge

It seems like they offer a gigabyte B850, or msi mag b650 tomahawk alongside a asrock b850 in the AI custom builder so I should be able to upgrade to one of those no problem.

 

[Aeacus]

What mobo replacement do you suggest? I may be able to get them to upgrade that as well.

To narrow down things, best to settle with chipset first and then look MoBos within that chipset.

Since you're going with AM5 socket CPU, here is all compatible chipsets listed + their differences,
link: https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/chipsets/am5.html#specs

In a nutshell, you have selection between B650/E, X670/E, B850, X870/E.
I advise against looking A620/A and B840 since those are cheap, bottom end chipsets, with limited features. But good for office builds with weak CPU.

One critical aspect to look for are VRM phases. Namely how many main VRM phases there are. VRM configuration matters little.
E.g 12+2+1 is common, middle of the pack VRM configuration. Meaning 12 VRM phases for CPU power delivery, 2 VRM phases for GPU and 1 VRM phase for the rest of the components.
Do note that cheaper MoBos skimp on VRM phases and can have 4, 6 or 8 main phases. (E.g 8+1 conf.) While fine for Ryzen 3 or Ryzen 5 CPU, but not enough for Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 CPUs.

Here's good Q&A about what VRM is, and why it is important,
link: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/glossary/vrm/

Once you've settled with the chipset, there are chipset specific guides that you can read, to see which MoBos are good and which aren't.
E.g B650, link: https://www.techspot.com/bestof/amd-b650-motherboards/
X870/E, link: https://www.techspot.com/review/2907-amd-x870-motherboards/

Soon (next month), i too am going with new AM5 CPU-MoBo-RAM combo. The CPU i'm going with is R7 9800X3D and i'm going to pair it with MoBo that has 20+2+1 VRM configuration, rated 110A. Since after all, high-end CPU is best paired with high-end MoBo.
Sure, i could go with 24+2+1 VRM configuration, rated 110A MoBo as well, but that would be extra $100 bucks over what i chose. In my opinion, 100 bucks for extra 4 VRM phases, is too much for me. Not to mention different, less appealing looking MoBo.

For you and if you don't want the poor Realtek ALC897 audio codec, then you have to look each MoBo specs page individually, to see which audio codec it has.

It seems like they offer a gigabyte B850, or msi mag b650 tomahawk alongside a asrock b850 in the AI custom builder

Out of the three, i can only identify the MSI Mag B650 Tomahawk Wifi.
Specs: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MAG-B650-TOMAHAWK-WIFI/Specification

It has 14+2+1 VRM configuration and Realtek ALC4080 audio codec.

Other two are way too generic.
For Gigabyte B850, you have selection between 28 MoBos, lineup: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/All-Series?fid=3128
And for AsRock B850, 23 different MoBos, lineup: https://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp

Regarding starforge: the cheapest prebuilt that has the 7800x3d chip is 2400 usd. Compared to upgrading parts on AI, the price difference is huge

Yes for Starforge, but their build also includes RX 9070 XT, which is considerably more expensive GPU. Not to mention AIO and Phanteks PC case (Phanteks PC cases aren't cheap).

And DIY is even cheaper. E.g like so:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor ($366.93 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 Digital ARGB 88.89 CFM CPU Cooler ($45.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B650 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory ($91.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($149.99 @ Abt)
Video Card: XFX Swift OC Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB Video Card ($379.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (2024) 850 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($144.95 @ iBUYPOWER)
Total: $1419.73

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-08-12 13:50 EDT-0400

Compared to the Andromeda build, i included mostly the same components, but with some key upgrades, like;
CPU cooler - confirmed Peerless Assassin 120 Digital ARG Black. If you ditch the digital display and ARGB fans, you can get it even cheaper.
RAM - the same one i included in the RAM comparison earlier. With same price, has faster frequency and lower CAS Latency, with overall faster RAM.
SSD - confirmed SSD with DRAM. Also, 2TB in size. And it being Samsung 990 Pro, it has great performance and solid reliability. Go with 1TB for even cheaper price.
GPU - triple fan RX 9060 XT 16GB. Reputable review of that specific GPU: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/xfx-radeon-rx-9060-xt-swift-oc-16-gb/
PC case - pick the one you like the most. For placeholder, put in good airflow PC case with front mesh.
PSU - Corsair RM850x. Tier A+.

So, if you want most for your money, best is DIY. Either assemble all of it by yourself or pay for someone to do it for you.

 

[Flayed]

That is a lot of CPU to drive a 9060XT. I'm not sure you would see any frame rate benefit over a 7700X

 

[Voidcraft]

Most games i play are CPU driven like Path of exile. To tell ya the truth, graphics aren't a big issue for me anyways. If it can at like medium settings I'm fine with it lmao. I dont new release games very often... last one I think was the new rune factory for PC

 

[alexbirdie]

You might try a sheath current filter for your current outlet. Once we had similar problems in my company, and it helped.