I'm putting together a gaming and editing PC with a budget of about $1,650. It will mainly be used for 1440p gaming, with some 4K gaming, plus Lightroom and occasional After Effects work. I'm able to get several parts through Micro Center and Facebook Marketplace, so my actual prices are lower than the prices shown in the list. The build includes a Ryzen 7 9700X, Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB, 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, a 1TB NVMe SSD, an 850W Gold-rated power supply, and a B650 motherboard. I also already have separate 1440p and 4K monitors. Are there any parts I should change, or does this look balanced for my use case?
4 Answers
Your listed total is much higher than your stated budget, so update the individual prices to reflect what you’re actually paying. Some of the prices look unusual too: 32GB of DDR5 and a 1TB NVMe drive normally shouldn’t cost anywhere near those amounts. If those are just placeholder prices, the real build total matters more than the automatically generated total.
The performance should be fine for your target resolutions, and having both a 1440p and 4K monitor gives you flexibility. For After Effects, 32GB is usable, but 64GB would be a worthwhile future upgrade if you work with larger projects or multitask heavily. I’d also consider adding another SSD later because 1TB can fill up quickly with games and media files.
The core parts look well suited for 1440p gaming and should handle 4K reasonably well, especially with the RX 9070 XT’s 16GB of VRAM. The 9700X is also a solid all-around CPU for Lightroom and lighter After Effects work. Just make sure the cooler has proper AM5 mounting support and that the case has good airflow.
If Micro Center has a 7800X3D bundle and it’s only slightly more expensive, it could be worth considering for gaming. You may also find a cheaper RX 9070 XT model, which could free up money for a larger SSD or 64GB of RAM. However, since your budget is already tight and you’re doing editing, keeping the newer 9700X is perfectly reasonable.
I’m getting the graphics card for about $650, so the listed price isn’t accurate. The 7800X3D option would also cost about $50 more, which would push me past my limit.
I do have separate 1440p and 4K monitors; I just forgot the model numbers because they’re currently packed away.