I'm new to building PCs and this would be my first build. After doing some research, I put together a parts list and would appreciate a second opinion. Are there any compatibility problems, weak points, or components that are poor value and should be replaced? I mainly want to play demanding modern games and heavily modded games at good performance. The current build costs roughly $2,170 and includes a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Radeon RX 9070 XT, 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, a 2TB NVMe SSD, an 850W power supply, and an air cooler.
3 Answers
The bigger concern is value rather than compatibility. Several components seem heavily overpriced, especially the memory and storage. Check current prices from multiple retailers and compare similar DDR5-6000 CL30 kits and 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSDs before buying. The CPU, graphics card, cooler, and power supply can also be compared against competing models for better pricing.
There don’t appear to be any major compatibility problems, but the ideal parts depend heavily on what games and resolution you’re targeting. For a typical gaming build, this could probably be reduced by several hundred dollars without losing much real-world performance.
That makes sense—my main goal is high-end and heavily modded games, so I’ll update the details and look for ways to revise the budget.
A more balanced version would keep the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Radeon RX 9070 XT, since they’re well suited to demanding gaming, but use a reasonably priced 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30 kit and a mainstream 2TB NVMe drive. A Thermalright Phantom Spirit-class cooler is plenty for the processor, and an 850W Gold-rated unit gives sufficient headroom. Double-check the final memory and SSD prices, because the listed totals make those two parts look unusually expensive.
Are there particular parts you’d replace first, or would it be better to start the list over using different recommendations?