I'm about to order a new PC and would appreciate a final review before buying. It will mainly be used for 1440p gaming, with a possible move to 4K later, plus structural engineering and CAD applications such as Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis, Revit, AutoCAD, SolidWorks, and Fusion 360. My budget is approximately €2,600, and I'm buying in Europe without access to local bundle deals.
The current parts list is a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 cooler, Asus TUF B650E-E WiFi motherboard, 32GB of DDR5-6000 CL30 memory, a 4TB Lexar NM790 SSD, Asus TUF RX 9070 XT, Fractal Meshify 3 XL case, and a 750W be quiet! Power Zone 2 Platinum PSU. The total is about €2,615 including shipping and taxes.
The CPU, graphics card, and cooler seem like a good combination, so I'm mainly wondering about the other parts. Is DDR5-6000 CL30 worth paying more for than a 5200 CL40 kit? Is this B650E motherboard still a good value, or would a B850 or X870E board offer meaningful benefits? I'd also prefer separate boot and media drives, but current 2TB SSD pricing makes a single 4TB drive look like the better deal. I may shop from neighboring countries if the savings justify it.
2 Answers
The build is already very capable for both 1440p and 4K gaming. I would consider an 850W PSU rather than 750W for additional headroom, but there’s no strong reason to replace that B650E board just because B850 is newer. The selected board has good VRMs and expansion options, and B650E already provides many of the features people want from the newer platform.
There’s room to save roughly €200 without noticeably reducing performance. DDR5-6000 CL30 is ideal, but CL36 is usually only around 1–2% slower, so the cheaper kit may be the better value. Also compare SSD prices carefully; a faster drive such as the WD Black SN850X may cost less depending on local availability. The Asus TUF graphics card appears expensive compared with other RX 9070 XT models, so a cheaper well-reviewed card could free up money. Finally, efficiency ratings alone don’t determine build quality: a good 850W Gold unit can be a better purchase than an overpriced Platinum model.
The SN850X is currently much more expensive locally—around €400 for 2TB and €615 for 4TB—so I’ll check prices from other countries before deciding. I’ll also compare cheaper 9070 XT models and 850W Gold PSUs.
That was my thinking too. The board is technically B650E rather than plain B650, and it seems to offer better VRMs and expansion than several similarly priced B850 models. I’ll compare 850W PSU options as well.