I'm in Australia and have already purchased an RX 9070 XT, Ryzen 7 7700X, and Okinos AQUA UNO Micro-ATX case for roughly $1,500–1,600 AUD combined. I'm now choosing the remaining parts: memory, storage, power supply, motherboard, CPU cooler, and monitor. My overall budget is around $3,000 AUD, preferably less if I can find good retail prices.
The current parts list is a Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE cooler, ASRock B850M Pro-A WiFi Micro-ATX motherboard, a Patriot Viper Venom 16GB DDR5-6000 CL30 stick, Kingston NV3 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, MSI MAG A750GL 750W Gold fully modular PSU, and an AOC Q27G42ZE 27-inch 1440p 260Hz IPS monitor.
This is my first desktop build, and I mainly want smooth 1440p gaming at high settings with fewer stutters. I'll be playing games such as War Thunder, Minecraft, and other titles once I have more storage. My current laptop has a GTX 1650, i5-10500H, 8GB RAM, and a 256GB drive, so I want this upgrade to feel substantial and last for a while.
Are there any parts I should change before buying, especially the single 16GB RAM stick? I'd also appreciate suggestions for affordable Australian retailers or better-value alternatives.
3 Answers
The biggest issue is the single 16GB DDR5 stick. That runs in single-channel mode and can noticeably hurt performance and cause more stuttering, especially in games that use a lot of memory. Try to get a matched 32GB kit, ideally 2x16GB DDR5-6000 CL30 or CL36. It’s worth prioritising even if it pushes the total slightly over budget.
I’d definitely buy two RAM sticks rather than settling for one. Memory prices may not drop soon, and upgrading later can be less convenient than starting with a proper matched kit. The rest of the component list looks broadly suited to a high-refresh 1440p gaming system.
It’s worth comparing Australian prices through a local PC-part price aggregator before ordering. Check the complete build rather than choosing the cheapest individual item from an unfamiliar seller, since shipping and warranty support can change the final value. The 750W Gold PSU and 1TB NVMe drive are reasonable starting points, although a larger SSD could be useful if you plan to install several modern games.
I can probably stretch the budget to 32GB if I save on some of the other parts. It may bring the total close to $3,100 AUD, but I agree that dual-channel memory should be the next priority.