I'm putting together a gaming PC in Canada with a Ryzen 5 8400F, an ASRock B850M WiFi motherboard, 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and a 750W Gold-rated power supply. The case and storage are already purchased, and the listed total is about $2,075 CAD. Are there any compatibility problems, poor-value parts, or beginner mistakes I should fix before buying the remaining components?
4 Answers
The biggest problem is the graphics card pricing. Nearly $1,000 CAD for an RTX 5060 Ti is extremely poor value when an RX 9070 XT can be found for roughly the same money and offers performance closer to a much faster tier. I’d redirect more of the budget toward the 9070 XT, assuming your games and monitor work well with its features.
The micro-ATX motherboard will work in your ATX mid-tower case, but it may look undersized and provide fewer expansion options. I’d compare similarly priced ATX boards from other manufacturers as well. Some builders are cautious about certain ASRock AM5 boards because of past reports involving high-end processors, so checking current BIOS support and reviews for the exact model is worthwhile.
Double-check the memory price before ordering. The listing shows 32GB of DDR5-6000 CL36 at about $600 CAD, which is almost certainly a pricing or listing error. A 32GB DDR5-6000 kit, preferably around CL30 or CL32, should normally cost dramatically less. The 750W power supply should be enough for a 9070 XT-class card if it is a reputable model and has the proper modern GPU power connector.
The Ryzen 5 8400F is also a weak choice at this price. It has less cache than chips such as the Ryzen 5 7600X and is designed around a cut-down platform, so it offers fewer PCIe lanes. Since you’re already buying a discrete graphics card, paying a little more for a 7600X or a similar mainstream AM5 CPU would make more sense. Remember to include an aftermarket cooler with the 7600X because it does not come with one.

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