I'm planning to move my current gaming PC into a small-form-factor build, most likely using a Dan A4-H2O case, and would appreciate a sanity check on the parts plan. My current system has a Core i9-12900F, ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3070 Gaming OC, 32GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR5, a ROG STRIX LC 360 AIO, an ASUS ROG STRIX B660-F Gaming WiFi motherboard, a Thermaltake Core P3 case, and an ASUS ROG Strix 850W Gold power supply.
I'm considering selling some of the existing parts and buying the components from my proposed replacement build. I'm based in the UK and would consider used parts from places such as Facebook Marketplace. After selling the parts I no longer need, I'd like to keep my additional spending to roughly £250.
One suggestion was to keep the 12900F, switch to a DDR4-compatible motherboard, and sell the DDR5 kit to reduce the cost. I understand the savings, but I'd prefer to keep DDR5 for better future upgrade options. My rough estimate is that I could get about £420 for the parts I would sell. Does keeping DDR5 make sense here, or would this be an unnecessarily expensive approach for an SFF rebuild?
1 Answer
If the main goal is to keep the rebuild affordable, the biggest saving would probably come from reusing the 12900F and moving to a DDR4 motherboard. You could sell the DDR5 kit and put that money toward the case, compact cooling, and any other SFF-specific parts. Since the 12900F is already a strong CPU, you would not be giving up much performance by choosing DDR4.
That makes sense from a cost perspective, but I’m hesitant to give up the DDR5 because it leaves me with less flexibility for a future upgrade. Based on my estimates, I might raise around £420 from the parts I’m replacing, so I’m trying to decide whether keeping the DDR5 is worth the extra cost.