Question Looking for advice for build concept

SpaceFrontier

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Jan 10, 2015
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After waiting to see what Intel/AMD/Nvidia would release this year, I've decided to build a list on PCpartpicker so I can track prices and eventually buy a full new PC build. If I had to guess, prices will be more stable in 3+ months time which is likely when I'll pull the trigger.
Current PC is an i7 9700k, 2070, 32gb DDR3 RAM.
UK market.

Use case will mostly be for games but also large/high quality video file size editing/rendering and photo editing suites. The aim is having as quiet a PC as possible as I am tired of hearing my old EVGA 2070 fans while it draws its final breaths.

Due to what the GPU market is like at the moment, my goal was to build an extremely powerful PC with reasonable "future proofing" (which I'm aware is a bit of a buzzword) by having a really strong build with a mid range GPU I can look to upgrade in the future, and get a bit more life out of this build without too many other component upgrades outside of maybe CPU. I'm going for an AM5 socket build as I believe it will be supported until at least 2027 so there should be room to upgrade with future releases, would like to hear opinions on this too.

Since I'm looking to get a full AMD build I am also thinking of having my main OS be Linux, and dual booting W11 for the handful of programs that will require it. Most of what I use can be ran on Linux.
Budget: £2000-£3000 however I have a feeling this build will go down in price over the next 3 months anyway.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/8639yW

CPU: 9800X3D
Seems like a no brainer, 9950X3D doesn't seem worth it for my use case and in some situations has worse performance for more power use/heat.
Cooling: Noctua NH-D15 Chromax.black
Personal preference, I really like a quiet PC and I like the Chromax.black range from Noctua. I personally dislike water cooling.
Motherboard: Gigabyte X870 AORUS ELITE
This one I'm not sure on, it seems like a good motherboard and was a recommendation but I'd like to hear opinions on this. I currently have to use a WiFi connection but this may change in the future after a house move. The built in WiFi is great but I do have an Asus wireless receiver already that works fine so it's not a requirement.
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 64gb DDR5-6000 CL30
Ideally looking for something around 6000mhz at CL30 to match my CPU choice. Not fully sold on Corsair just yet but it seems to be a good choice for the rest of my build, 64gb because I work with large files and sometimes I do have a little bit of slowdown on my current 32gb. RAM is surprisingly cheap here at the moment so 64gb vs 32gb isn't going to set me back that much more. Unsure if anything more than 6000mhz will be worthwhile but would consider if it would give a performance increase.
Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X
I was looking at the Samsung 990 Pro however it seems to have a few issues including excess heat, decided the SN850X will be more than enough. For reference, my current PC has a Samsung 970 which wasn't fast enough for saving large video files, I had to get a secondary 980 NVMe which worked well enough and fixed all issues I was facing so I do need fast drive speed outside of just regular OS/game use.
GPU: Sapphire NITRO+ 9070 XT 16gb
Seems like the best 9070 available at the moment with fantastic thermals, I'm after a quiet PC so the build quality is just as important as base clock speeds. I'd like a full AMD build for Linux in mind, and I'm not too impressed with Nvidia's recent releases. Maybe in the future I will switch back to Nvidia but for now I'd like to get a 9070 XT. I was also looking at the 9700 XTX 24gb for the nice boost in VRAM but this doesn't seem to be the better choice after all? A newer card might be better for future drivers/features.
Case: Antec FLUX PRO ATX Full Tower Case
Open to advice for "quiet" cases with great thermals. This comes highly rated as a case with a high thermal rating which in turn would mean a quieter PC. Had a look at the Be Quiet! range but Antec seems to have them beat?
PSU: Be Quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000 W 80+ Gold
Went back and forth between this and the Corsair HX1000i. Want good wattage overhead for future upgrades so decided on 850w-1000w but open to advice on this.

Any advice or suggested changes for a build like this? I believe I'll also need to get an AM5 frame for my Noctua cooler which I'll make sure to do before I start building.
 
The entire build looks good though I'd add a small capacity SSD for your OS if you're not migrating anything from your older build. I would also add a mechancial drive to house all your productions. Countless stories of people losing their work due to unforeseeable circumstance and data recovery was near impossible(and/or costly). If you have gaming and production in mind, then add another 4TB SSD that will be for video scrubbing.

Besides the above stated, your build is good to go!
 
This is what I would do with a quiet build in mind:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor (£473.18 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Elite CPU Cooler (£103.93 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X870 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ATX AM5 Motherboard (£274.95 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL26 Memory (£333.30 @ Newegg UK)
Storage: Crucial T705 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£127.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial T500 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£237.95 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card (£800.00)
Case: Antec FLUX PRO ATX Full Tower Case (£168.94 @ NeoComputers)
Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power 13 850 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£198.80 @ MoreCoCo)
Total: £2719.04
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-03-18 16:44 GMT+0000


Review for the Dark rock Elite cooler (low noise 38.9 DB)
Review for the Dark Power 13 PSU 850w Ti

Super fast boot drive with a DRAM cache and a very fast 4TB secondary games library drive is ideal. Fastest first word latency memory available because its within budget.
 
Here is a second version as something to contemplate for small form factor in a white theme. The antec case is 71L, this one is 31L. It should still be relatively quiet as well.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor (£474.18 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Grand Vision ARGB 69 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£115.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X870I AORUS PRO ICE Mini ITX AM5 Motherboard (£301.99 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL26 Memory (£333.30 @ Newegg UK)
Storage: Crucial T705 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£127.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial T500 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£237.95 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire PURE Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card (£799.99)
Case: Jonsbo D31 MESH MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£65.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Power Supply: SeaSonic Focus GX V4 ATX 3 (2024) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£149.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Total: £2604.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-03-18 17:20 GMT+0000
 
@SpaceFrontier

I think that trying to forecast the prices is more of a concern.

The prices might go down but likely there will be trade-offs not in your favor. Higher shipping, "included" changed to "ordered separately" etc..

Or increased prices anyway along with higher shipping, etc..

Very good that you are thinking ahead.

Just think more about your budget and set a buy now value.

And/or an Option 2 build.

Prices could go either way. (Overall, I think up is more likely - pessimism conceded.)

In any case, consider the risks from your viewpoint and have contingency plans.
 
@SpaceFrontier

I think that trying to forecast the prices is more of a concern.

The prices might go down but likely there will be trade-offs not in your favor. Higher shipping, "included" changed to "ordered separately" etc..

Or increased prices anyway along with higher shipping, etc..

Very good that you are thinking ahead.

Just think more about your budget and set a buy now value.

And/or an Option 2 build.

Prices could go either way. (Overall, I think up is more likely - pessimism conceded.)

In any case, consider the risks from your viewpoint and have contingency plans.
I have read reports that RAM is likely to go up or is already in the process.
 
Thank you everyone for your responses, I will consider the alternate parts and what order to buy things in. As for additional storage I should've mentioned I'll carry over the Samsung 980 from my old build as it's the newest component in there but I may also consider a larger HDD as a backup, perhaps even an external one I'll think on it.
 
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PCPartPicker Part List

CPU Cooler: *be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 5 CPU Cooler (£77.95 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: *Patriot Venom 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (£160.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£249.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: *Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Power Supply: *MSI A1000G PCIE5 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£155.98 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £733.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-03-19 16:32 GMT+0000


https://www.bequiet.com/en/cpucooler/4466

https://www.msi.com/Power-Supply/MPG-A1000G-PCIE5


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykbhuv6yLBc
 
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PCPartPicker Part List

CPU Cooler: *be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 5 CPU Cooler (£77.95 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: *Patriot Venom 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (£160.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£249.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: *Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.00 @ Computer Orbit)
Power Supply: *MSI A1000G PCIE5 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£155.98 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £733.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-03-19 16:32 GMT+0000


https://www.bequiet.com/en/cpucooler/4466

https://www.msi.com/Power-Supply/MPG-A1000G-PCIE5


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykbhuv6yLBc
I don't trust those AG MSI PSUs anymore. I have seen them fail a couple of their protections.
 
I would argue in favor of the 9950x3d, as it is superior for your non gaming workloads. In some rendering tests, it was close to double the performance. If your software doesn't take advantage of that many cores/threads, then the 9800x3d does make more sense, just wanted you to be aware.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-9-9950x3d/9.html

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 4.3 GHz 16-Core Processor (£699.95 @ AWD-IT)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler (£105.46 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X870E AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ATX AM5 Motherboard (£274.99 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 96 GB (2 x 48 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (£303.98 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Crucial T500 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£72.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial T500 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (£237.95 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card (£727.98)
Case: Fractal Design Pop XL Air ATX Full Tower Case (£104.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: NZXT C1200 1200 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£135.43 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £2663.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-03-19 17:26 GMT+0000
 
Thanks, I'll take a closer look at that case as it's a great alternative choice from a quick glance. That RAM is also a solid choice I'll consider.

I would argue in favor of the 9950x3d...
Thanks I'll keep it in mind, I had my eye on a Be Quiet! Gold+ 850w PSU however if I do go for the 9950 I'll make sure to go 1000w+.

As suggested previously I'll likely build this PC ahead of time depending on what I end up choosing for components and installing the new GPU later on.
 
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