Build Advice How's this $2,500 "gaming console" ?

[Regev]

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor
Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler
MB: Asus ROG STRIX B650-A GAMING WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard
RAM: Patriot Viper Venom 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory
SSD: Crucial T700 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
GPU: XFX Speedster MERC 310 Black Edition Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24 GB Video Card
Case: Thermaltake Core P3 TG Pro ATX Mid Tower Case
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 850 GT 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

The plan is to create a Linux-based gaming "console" in the living room, mounted on the wall (see the case), and be able to play any game on it and ditch my Xbox Series X and PS5, As far as I can tell I can play any XBOX / PS / NINTENDO game on it, right?

Will be connected to a 4K TV.

* As for the huge amounts of RAM, it's because this machine will also replace a $180/month machine that I'm currently renting from Vultr, which I use for something we're working on. It currently has 64GBs but could definitely use 128GB.

Anything you'd improve?

* PS - what Gamepads (controllers) can I buy that can sync well with Linux distros like SteamOS / NobaraOS / PikaOS, etc? I want it to work out of the box, have good ergonomics, be reliable, and be able to turn on/off the machine.

 

[logainofhades]

That gen 5 drive is fast, but it really isn't going to do much for you. Money would be better spent on a larger capacity 4.0 drive.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crucial-t700-ssd-review

I cannot find that specific ram. If it is actually two 2x32gb kits, it likely will not work well, if at all. DDR5 and 4 sticks of ram are finicky at best, and often won't run at rated speeds. Your best shot is getting an actual 4x32gb kit. Thankfully x3d chips are not as ram sensitive as non x3d parts.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor ($385.89 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B650E PG RIPTIDE WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR5-5600 CL40 Memory ($429.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Silicon Power UD90 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($214.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: ASRock Phantom Gaming OC Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24 GB Video Card ($919.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake Core P3 TG Pro ATX Mid Tower Case ($137.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $2473.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-08 13:32 EST-0500

 

[turtletarget111]

Looks good for the most part, but I would change the memory and SSD. Ryzen chips prefer lower latency, even if it is at the cost of some speed. The fastest you should go is around 6200, and the CAS latency should be no higher than 30 for maximum performance. I would look into this kit of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 96GB memory. It doesn't have quite as much capacity, but it will play much nicer with Ryzen and will maximize the performance of the chip.

As for the SSD, PCIe Gen 5 SSD's have no real world performance benefit over PCIe Gen 4, so I would grab a different SSD. Emulated games can add up a lot faster than you might think, so two terabytes would be a good investment. Samsung makes some of the best SSDs, and there is really no reason to go with anyone else. The Samsung 990 Pro 2TB will serve you well.

 

[artk2219]

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor
Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler
MB: Asus ROG STRIX B650-A GAMING WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard
RAM: Patriot Viper Venom 128 GB (4 x 32 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory
SSD: Crucial T700 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
GPU: XFX Speedster MERC 310 Black Edition Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24 GB Video Card
Case: Thermaltake Core P3 TG Pro ATX Mid Tower Case
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 850 GT 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

The plan is to create a Linux-based gaming "console" in the living room, mounted on the wall (see the case), and be able to play any game on it and ditch my Xbox Series X and PS5, As far as I can tell I can play any XBOX / PS / NINTENDO game on it, right?

Will be connected to a 4K TV.

* As for the huge amounts of RAM, it's because this machine will also replace a $180/month machine that I'm currently renting from Vultr, which I use for something we're working on. It currently has 64GBs but could definitely use 128GB.

Anything you'd improve?

* PS - what Gamepads (controllers) can I buy that can sync well with Linux distros like SteamOS / NobaraOS / PikaOS, etc? I want it to work out of the box, have good ergonomics, be reliable, and be able to turn on/off the machine.

Pretty much any controller can work, as for waking up, you can map it to wake via usb in the bios, then you can map a key command in linux to shutdown when the key is pressed

https://www.reddit.com/r/sffpc/comments/w10wa0/is_there_actually_no_way_to_have_wake_on/

 

[noiceturtle55]

From what I've seen, xbox controllers have pretty good linux support. xpadneo is a pretty cool project where people have found ways to connect xbox controllers to a linux computer wirelessly. Most controllers will work with linux in wired mode, and there are plenty of generic drivers that should serve you well with most gamepads, but I personally would check that out since the ability to connect wirelessly is very convenient for a lot of people.

I also support other people's decisions when it comes to getting a larger gen 4 ssd, 1tb will fill up incredibly fast with how big games are getting these days, especially if you use this as a console replacement. I also think that getting 96gb of ram would be a good compromise between speed and capacity, that would work pretty well for both gaming and all of the other stuff you have going on.

 

[Regev]

Thanks, folks

Additonal follow-on questions:

1. That 96GB DDR5 4-stick kit, it says Intel HUE or something. Does it mean it's not optimized for AMD or what? Some sticks say AMD, but they're 64GBs as far as I could find.

2. What about the 8BitDo Ultimate 2.4G Controllers ?

8BitDo Ultimate 2.4G Controller | 8BitDo

Brand new Purple edition. All upgraded to Hall Effect joysticks. Compatible with Windows, Apple, and Android devices.

www.8bitdo.com

3. Any other recommended Radeon? I don't have that one where I live. We have:

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7900 XTX Gaming OC
PowerColor Hellhound AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
PowerColor Red Devil AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX OC Edition
XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900 XTX

4. Is this motherboard you linked to the best bang for the buck?
ASRock B650E PG RIPTIDE WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Newegg)

 

[35below0]

Briefly:

Stick to 2 RAM sticks to avoid gotchas. Filling all four slots is not automatically better.

1 Tb NVMe is fine if you want to run the OS on it. For games either get a larger NVMe, or add another drive to your build. 2Tb at least.

 

[noiceturtle55]

Thanks, folks

My questions:

1. That 96GB DDR5 4-stick kit, it says Intel HUE or something. Does it mean it's not optimized for AMD or what? Some sticks say AMD, but they're 64GBs as far as I could find.

2. What about the 8BitDo Ultimate 2.4G Controllers ?

8BitDo Ultimate 2.4G Controller | 8BitDo

Brand new Purple edition. All upgraded to Hall Effect joysticks. Compatible with Windows, Apple, and Android devices.

www.8bitdo.com

3. Any other recommended Radeon? I don't have that one where I live. We have:

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7900 XTX Gaming OC
PowerColor Hellhound AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
PowerColor Red Devil AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX OC Edition
XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900 XTX

4. Is this motherboard you linked to the best bang for the buck?
ASRock B650E PG RIPTIDE WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Newegg)

The ram will work perfectly regardless of the platform you use it on, it's more of a marketing gimmick than anything else and intel putting their sticker on the box won't affect the performance of the ram on an amd platform.

While I personally have never tried the 8bitdo ultimate controllers, I have heard a lot of good things about them, and there should be plenty of linux drivers available for it because it uses a pretty standard setup. The only thing I'm not sure about is the paddles on the back. It's not a deal breaker, but I thought that you would want to know about that because third party drivers might not support the paddles right away.

Realistically, any of those gpus would work just fine. These are top of the line radeon cards so the manufacturers aren't going to cheap out. It's not like how it is with lower end gpus where the manufacturers will put a dinky cooler on the cards just to save a few bucks - I can't think of a single 7900 xtx (from any major brands, at least) that isn't built very well.

The Asrock board and the Rog board would both work fine here, there aren't a whole lot of differences between them but for a cpu like the 7800x3d, both would work perfectly fine. They aren't crappy boards but aren't exorbitantly expensive either - which is exactly what most people are looking for on a bang for buck motherboard.

 

[logainofhades]

Briefly:

Stick to 2 RAM sticks to avoid gotchas. Filling all four slots is not automatically better.

1 Tb NVMe is fine if you want to run the OS on it. For games either get a larger NVMe, or add another drive to your build. 2Tb at least.

4 sticks should work, if it is a matched 4 stick kit. It's the combining 2x two stick kits that can be problematic.

 

[35below0]

Yes, but motherboards can be finnicky about data rates when populating RAM slots, esp. if overclocking is involved. If the user is not aware of limitations, it can lead to dissapointment or problems.

This is one of those things like CPU cooler size or RAM clearance where it pays to read the fine print.

Of course, if maximum RAM is a requirement, then 4 slots have to be used but it's advisable to triple check that the 4x RAM kit in question *will* work at it's stated Mhz and will not be throttled.

 

[Regev]

Hey guys,
I thought about trying to fit the 7900XTX and 7800x3D in the smallest form factor I can, make it some kind of a "console" looking next to the TV in the living room. I do have the Silverstone ALTA G1M, small footprint, but quite tall. I'd prefer something more "XBOX-SERIES-X" in size or so. Which case would do the job best?

A quick Google brought up these options:

Fractal Design Ridge
LIAN LI A4-H2O
NZXT H1 V2
Phanteks Evolv Shift XT
HYTE Revolt 3

Any advice? Any other product perhaps? If possible, as small as it could be. I like vertical designs like the Series-X