I'm planning my first-ever PC build for gaming and general use. My current parts list includes a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE cooler, MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk Max WiFi motherboard, 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, a 2TB WD Black SN850X SSD, a Sapphire Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB, a Lian Li Lancool 216 case, and an 850W be quiet! Pure Power 12 M power supply. I also included Windows 11 Home. Everything appears compatible, but I'd appreciate advice before buying the parts separately. I'm in the US with a total budget of around $2,200–$2,500, excluding peripherals and furniture. I'll mainly play at 1440p. Would this be a sensible build, or would I be better off buying a prebuilt from a major retailer?
2 Answers
With that budget, you should be able to step up to an RX 9070 XT rather than the RX 9060 XT. The 9800X3D is already an excellent gaming CPU, so the graphics card is the part most worth upgrading for 1440p. A 9070 XT should provide a substantial performance increase and make better use of your budget.
You can get considerably more gaming performance without increasing the budget much. Keep the 9800X3D and use a less expensive but capable B850 motherboard, DDR5-6000 CL30 memory, and a cheaper SSD with similar real-world gaming performance. Put the savings toward an RX 9070 XT, which is a much stronger 1440p card than the 9060 XT. A more affordable airflow-focused case and quality 850W ATX 3.x power supply would also be fine. If you’re purchasing Windows, choose a retail license instead of an OEM license because it’s easier to transfer to a future PC.
Would the performance difference really be noticeable enough to justify paying more? I’m targeting 1440p for now, although I may upgrade further down the road.