I'm replacing an older PC and this will be my first custom build. I'd like feedback on compatibility, value, and whether any parts should be changed. My main workloads are video editing, CAD, programming involving machine learning and game development, plus gaming—especially large Minecraft modpacks.
The proposed build is:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
- CPU cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB
- Motherboard: MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk Max WiFi
- Memory: 32 GB DDR5-6000 CL30
- Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
- Graphics card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 12 GB
- Case: Lian Li Lancool 207
- Power supply: Corsair RM750e 750 W
The listed total is about $2,330. Is this a sensible combination for my workloads, or would I get better results by reallocating money between the processor, graphics card, memory, and storage?
2 Answers
The Ryzen 9 9900X is a strong processor, but paired with an RTX 5070 the build may be CPU-heavy for gaming. If gaming is a major priority, putting some of the CPU budget toward a faster graphics card would usually improve performance more. On the other hand, the extra cores can make sense for video work, compiling, development, and other heavily threaded tasks, so it is not automatically a bad choice.
There are several places where the budget could be used more efficiently. A less expensive motherboard with similar features should perform the same; PCIe 5.0 support for the graphics slot generally provides no meaningful gaming benefit right now. The memory and SSD prices also look unusually high, so equivalent DDR5-6000 CL30 memory and a good NVMe drive with onboard DRAM could save a lot. Consider 64 GB of RAM if your video editing, CAD, machine-learning, or development projects use large datasets. For gaming, a Radeon RX 9070 XT-class card may offer better value, while an NVIDIA card remains useful if you depend on CUDA or NVIDIA-specific machine-learning software. A quality 850 W power supply would also provide more headroom than the 750 W model.
Would a Ryzen 7 9800X3D be a better compromise for gaming, or would giving up the 9900X’s additional cores hurt programming and development workloads too much?