I'm building my first custom PC and would appreciate advice on the CPU and motherboard. My current parts include an RTX 5070 Ti, a 2TB Samsung 9100 PCIe 5.0 SSD, six Lian Li intake fans, two exhaust fans, and a Lian Li O11 Vision Compact case. I'm aiming for a white-themed build.
For the main components, I'm considering an ASUS ROG Strix B850-A Gaming WiFi motherboard with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D. I'm upgrading from an older prebuilt with a GTX 1660 Super, so I'm not completely sure whether this combination makes sense. I'm also looking at an 850W 80+ Gold Cybenetics-rated power supply and 32GB of white TeamGroup T-Force CL30 memory, although I'm waiting for the RAM to become available.
My biggest concern is whether the motherboard and CPU are a good match. I'll be gaming, but I also use applications such as Adobe After Effects and Clip Studio Paint, and I'd like the system to stay useful for several years. Is the 9800X3D worthwhile for this use, or would another AM5 processor be a better choice?
3 Answers
The PCIe 5.0 SSD is compatible, but it may be unnecessary unless you regularly work with large video files or other demanding workloads. Games and everyday applications usually won’t feel much faster than they would on a good PCIe 4.0 drive. Since you use After Effects, keeping the fast drive is reasonable, but make sure the motherboard has adequate M.2 cooling and that the SSD has a heatsink.
The B850 motherboard should support the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and an 850W quality power supply is a sensible match for that CPU and an RTX 5070 Ti. The main question is whether you need that particular processor. For mostly gaming, a Ryzen 7 7800X3D or 9800X3D will perform very well, but the 9800X3D may be more than you need depending on your monitor and games. If you do serious editing or other heavily threaded work, a higher-core Ryzen 9 chip could be faster than an X3D gaming-focused processor.
For your first build, the motherboard choice looks appropriate as long as it has the features you want, such as Wi-Fi, enough USB ports, and the right number of M.2 slots. Just verify the memory is an AM5-compatible DDR5 kit, ideally around 6000 MT/s with low timings. Also check the cooler requirements for the 9800X3D, since it should be paired with a capable tower cooler or liquid cooler rather than a basic stock-style solution.
I’ll also be using After Effects and Clip Studio Paint alongside gaming. I’m still new to choosing parts, but I was thinking the 9800X3D might be a good long-term option even if it’s somewhat overkill.