I'm looking for a final sanity check before purchasing this 1440p gaming PC. The planned parts are a Montech XR Black case, Ryzen 7 7700, B650 Eagle motherboard, DeepCool AG500 cooler, 16GB of Patriot Viper Venom DDR5-6000 CL30 memory with the idea of upgrading later, a 500GB Kingston NV3 SSD, and a Montech Century II 850W power supply. For the graphics card, I'll buy used and choose whichever offers the best deal among the RTX 4070, 4070 Ti, or 4070 Ti Super. I'm mainly interested in compatibility, upgrade flexibility, and whether there are any parts worth changing before I buy.
2 Answers
The biggest thing I’d change is the memory plan. A single 16GB stick will run in single-channel mode, which can reduce gaming performance, and buying a matching stick months later isn’t guaranteed because memory kits can use different chips or revisions. Ideally, buy a tested 2x16GB DDR5-6000 CL30 kit now. If that’s outside the budget, using one 16GB stick temporarily is workable, but replacing it with a complete 32GB kit later is safer than adding a random second module. The 500GB SSD is fine for the operating system and a few games, though you’ll probably want more storage eventually. An 850W power supply is more than enough for the listed graphics cards if it’s a reliable, modern unit.
The Ryzen 7 7700 is still a solid choice, especially if you’ll also do productivity work because its extra cores can help. If this is strictly for gaming, compare its price with the newer Ryzen 5 9600X—the 9600X can offer similar or better gaming performance depending on the game and may be the better value.
That makes sense. After comparing prices, I’m leaning toward the 9600X instead.
I can’t quite afford 32GB right now, so I’ll probably use 16GB temporarily and sell it when I’m ready to buy a full 32GB kit. I’m also sticking with an Nvidia card because I want features like DLSS, even though other cards may be similarly priced where I live.