I'm putting together a new PC mainly for 1440p gaming, with some coding and light Blender work. My current system has a GTX 1050 Ti and an i5-6500, so this would be a major upgrade. I chose a fairly powerful 360 mm AIO because I may upgrade later, but I'm concerned about radiator or fan clearance around the motherboard heatsinks and memory. Could you check the compatibility and point out anything you would change?
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
CPU cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III Pro A-RGB 360
Motherboard: MSI MAG X870 TOMAHAWK WIFI
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
Graphics card: PNY OC GeForce RTX 5070 12 GB
Case: Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini V2
Power supply: MSI MAG A750GL PCIe 5, 750 W, 80+ Gold, fully modular
Additional fans: Three ARCTIC P12 Pro A-RGB fans and three ARCTIC P12 Pro Reverse A-RGB fans
4 Answers
If the X870 board is significantly more expensive, a good B850 board could save money without affecting gaming performance. The X870 is still perfectly reasonable if you found it at a good price or specifically want its extra connectivity and expansion features.
The Lexar NM790 is a solid alternative to the Samsung 990 Pro. In everyday use, game loading, and most coding workloads, the difference between them is usually difficult to notice. The 990 Pro has stronger sustained performance and a more established high-end reputation, but the NM790 can be the better value if it costs substantially less.
For 1440p, an RX 9070 XT is another strong option and may offer excellent rasterized gaming performance. That said, sticking with the RTX 5070 makes sense if you use Blender and prefer NVIDIA’s CUDA, rendering, and AI-related features.
The 360 mm AIO isn’t really excessive for this build, and it should be a capable cooler. The main thing to verify is the case’s supported radiator placement and clearance with the motherboard heatsinks and RAM. I’d also consider an 850 W power supply if you want more upgrade headroom later. The 990 Pro is excellent, but a less expensive 2 TB drive would probably feel just as fast in gaming and normal use.
That’s why I’m leaning toward NVIDIA. I use Blender and really like the NVIDIA-specific features, so raw gaming performance isn’t the only factor for me.