A friend asked me to help put together a high-end 1440p gaming PC, and I'd appreciate some feedback before buying the parts. The current list is: Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Thermalright Phantom Spirit EVO cooler, Asus TUF Gaming B850-E WiFi motherboard, 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 CL30 memory, Samsung 990 Pro 1TB NVMe SSD, XFX Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB, Corsair 3200D case, Corsair RM850e 850W power supply, and one additional 120mm case fan. The listed total is €2,472.93 in Italy. The system will be paired with a 1440p 165Hz Huawei monitor. Are there any parts that seem overpriced, unnecessary, or worth replacing?
3 Answers
A similar build should handle current games easily. DDR5-6000 is a good target for AM5, and CL30 is a nice choice, although the real-world difference from slightly higher latency memory is small with an X3D processor. An 850W quality power supply is appropriate, especially if future upgrades are a possibility. I’d prioritize correcting the memory price and increasing storage to 2TB before spending extra on an AIO cooler.
The 9800X3D and RX 9070 XT should be a very strong combination for a 1440p 165Hz display. Just make sure the monitor supports the refresh rate over the appropriate input and that it has adaptive sync enabled. The main thing I’d double-check is the memory price—€532.99 for 32GB of DDR5-6000 CL30 looks extremely high, so it may be a listing or pricing error. Normal pricing should be far lower.
The monitor is a 1440p 165Hz Huawei model, so the graphics card should be a good match. I’ll definitely recheck the RAM listing before ordering.
The overall build is solid for 1440p, but I’d look closely at the pricing. The 9800X3D is excellent, though a 7800X3D could save roughly €150 while still delivering outstanding gaming performance. That money could go toward a 2TB SSD, since 1TB fills up quickly and the 990 Pro is unusually expensive here. A slightly slower PCIe 4.0 drive would probably feel identical in games.
Thanks! I was considering an air cooler because they seem simpler and more reliable over the long term than an AIO. Do you think the Phantom Spirit is enough for this CPU?
The 850W capacity also gives some useful upgrade headroom later. For reliability, an air cooler is perfectly reasonable as long as the case has good airflow and the cooler is mounted correctly.