I'm putting together my first PC and the total comes to about $5,500 CAD after taxes. The build has a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, Radeon 9070 XT, 64GB of DDR5 memory, 2TB of internal storage, and several premium cooling, motherboard, power supply, case, and RGB components. I'll mainly use it for gaming, but I also want to do some Blender rendering, After Effects, Photoshop, and general multitasking. Is this price reasonable given current memory prices, or am I spending too much on parts that won't improve performance?
4 Answers
The biggest component choice to reconsider is the GPU. AMD cards can be excellent for gaming, but Blender rendering generally benefits much more from NVIDIA’s CUDA and OptiX support. If Blender is an important part of the workload, an RTX 5070 Ti or RTX 5080 could be a better-balanced choice, even if it means cutting back on decorative parts. The NVIDIA option should also perform better in many GPU-accelerated creative applications.
You don’t need a 1,000W power supply for this kind of system unless you’re planning a much more power-hungry future upgrade. A quality ATX 3.1 unit around 850W may be sufficient, depending on the final graphics card. Also, expensive display-equipped AIO coolers and matching premium fans add a lot of cost without improving frame rates. Put that money toward the GPU, or simply keep it in your pocket. The SSD is another area where a reputable midrange 2TB model can save a substantial amount while still being fast enough for games and editing.
Before buying everything separately, check current Canadian combo deals from major retailers. CPU, motherboard, memory, and SSD bundles can reduce the total by a surprising amount. It may also be worth comparing the cost of a newer Ryzen X3D processor with a reasonably priced board instead of paying a premium for an oversized high-end motherboard.
I’ll definitely compare some bundle deals. Saving even a few hundred dollars would help a lot.
That price is extremely high for the performance you’re getting. A lot of the budget appears to be going toward premium branding, RGB fans, the motherboard, the liquid cooler, and an expensive SSD. A cheaper B650 or B850 board, a more affordable cooler, and a less expensive 2TB NVMe drive would save a lot without meaningfully changing gaming performance. For mostly gaming with editing as a hobby, 32GB of RAM is probably enough; 64GB makes more sense if your Blender or After Effects projects regularly use it.
That makes sense. I was worried 32GB would be too little for visual effects, but since editing will mostly be a hobby, I’m leaning toward 32GB now.
For occasional Blender work, the Radeon card can still be fine, but if rendering speed matters or you plan to use Blender frequently, NVIDIA is the safer choice.