I live in Australia and have already bought an RX 9070 XT, Ryzen 7 7700X, and Okinos AQUA UNO Micro-ATX case for roughly $1,500–$1,600 AUD. I have about $3,000 AUD available in total and still need to purchase the CPU cooler, motherboard, RAM, storage, power supply, and monitor.
My current parts list is:
- Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE CPU cooler
- ASRock B850M Pro-A WiFi Micro-ATX AM5 motherboard
- Patriot Viper Venom 16GB DDR5-6000 CL30, currently a single 16GB stick
- Kingston NV3 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
- MSI MAG A750GL 750W 80+ Gold fully modular power supply
- AOC Q27G42ZE 27-inch 1440p 260Hz IPS monitor
This is my first desktop build, and I mainly want to play at 1440p with high settings and fewer stutters. My main games are War Thunder and Minecraft, although I expect to install more games once I have additional storage. My current laptop has a GTX 1650, i5-10500H, 8GB of RAM, and only a 256GB drive, so this should be a major upgrade.
Does this parts list look balanced, or should I change anything before buying? I am especially interested in whether the RAM, storage, power supply, or monitor should be adjusted. Suggestions for reliable, inexpensive Australian retailers are also welcome.
2 Answers
I would make the RAM upgrade before spending on extras. A 2x16GB kit will give you much better headroom than a single 16GB module, and 32GB is a sensible target for a new gaming system. You can compare current Australian pricing with local PC-part price comparison tools, but the main thing is not to compromise on the matched memory kit just to save a small amount.
The biggest issue is the single 16GB RAM stick. DDR5 should ideally be installed as a matched 2-stick kit, such as 2x16GB DDR5-6000 CL30. One stick runs in single-channel mode, which can noticeably reduce performance and cause more stuttering, especially in games that are sensitive to memory bandwidth. It is worth prioritizing dual-channel 32GB RAM even if that pushes the total slightly over budget.
I can probably stretch the budget to 32GB if I save elsewhere this week. That may bring the total close to $3,100 AUD, but I agree it is probably the next priority.