~£2K (first) build, advice on parts

[psycho-cookie]

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well.

I have been researching for a couple of months and finally managed to put together a theoretical system to buy.

My current system is a laptop with the following:
Dell G3 3759
intel 8th gen core i-7 8750H (I have undervolted it because it uses intel turbo boost and reaches 95 degrees which was very concerning to me)
Nvidia 1060 with max-Q design
a 256GB SSD (CUK Hynix BC501 256GB) and 1TB HDD


Now this is my first time building a system and I'm all over the place. I would have liked to buy a prebuilt one from Costco (they stock AWD-IT and cyberpower) but I get no customization, no choice of ram/ssd brand and speeds etc. (though the price is pretty good) and that is really annoying to me.

This is my current cart:
b]My basket at OcUK:[/b]

• 2 x WD Black SN850X 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive with Heatsink (WDS200T2XHE) (SKU: HD-594-WD) = £159.95
• 1 x WD 4TB Red Pro 7200rpm HDD 256MB Cache Internal NAS Hard Drive (WD4003FFBX) (SKU: HD-555-WD) = £136.99
• 1 x Arctic 10 Way PWM Fan Hub (SKU: FG-05A-AR) = £6.95
• 1 x Fractal Design North XL Chalk White Tempered Glass Case (SKU: CAS-FTL-02138) = £169.99
• 1 x Asrock B850 Steel Legend WiFi (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASR-03999) = £205.00
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III ARGB White High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 420mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01996) = £89.98
• 1 x Seasonic VERTEX PX-1000 ATX3.0 1000W 80 Plus Platinum Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-08Q-SS) = £230.00
• 1 x G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO RGB 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-GSK-01359) = £229.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £449.99

Total: £1,838.78 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Only extra things would be 3 more fans from amazon and some dust filters (the dust is horrible in my house)

My monitor will be a DELL AW2723DF (found a good deal on it, basically costs me around 350). so basically 1440p res.

MAIN USES/POINTS:
I could care less about RGB, or the color. I went white but again I don't even mind if they are all mismatched. I would make it look like a 1995 brick if I could (actualy that would be fantastic)

I want it to be future proof, HOPEFULLY, 7 years plus.

I do some gaming (never new releases), and just regular web browsing, watch youtube videos, tinkering in desktop environment etc. (I want to transition to linux but I doubt it makes a difference) The things that really matter to me and trigger me, is the speed of windows startup, application startup (say librewolf), me wasting time by going through multiple files and stuff and closing everything again, speed of file moving from one folder to another, etc.
I currently doubt I will do anything computationally heavy in the future, but it could change.

I will use 2 SSDs and 1 HDD, I doubt I'll add more later.

(If I can lower the overall price of the build, thats all the better)

Now my main issues are the following:

CPU: Either 9800X3D vs 9950X3D

So, coming from an intel background (my previous cpu was a i7-3750H) I always thought more cores is faster and better.
As such, I am torn on the above and can't make up my mind. Now I know most of my above points depend on the SSD speed, but is it affected by RAM timings? will the extra CPU cores have any noticeable effect on it?
Any help here is appreciated. (that extra 250 for 9950x3d is kinda damaging, so I want to know if it is worth it for me)

GPU: (It is a **** show)
I can't afford to spend over 600 on a GPU, so I was thinking of going either with a Sapphire Pulse 9070XT (if it is close to msrp) or wait for the 9060 that they are going to release later this month or next month. (hopefully it will be cheap and STAY cheap)


RAM: I wanted to buy this:

G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO RGB 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit

Order G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo EXPO RGB 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

but also saw this is cheaper and has a slightly better timing (the last 2 digits, it think it is tRAS)

Corsair Vengeance EXPO RGB 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit

Order Corsair Vengeance EXPO RGB 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

I don't really like Corsair, so Do those timings matter that much?

Also, I think they will release these shortly (the price is placeholder, right?)

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/g.skill-royal-rgb-expo-64gb-2x32gb-ddr5-c26-6000mhz-dual-channel-kit-si-mem-gsk-04757.html

Should I wait for them because of the CAS 26 timing?

PSU:
is the seasonic one good? I looked thourgh a lot of tier lists and reviews and they say it is pretty good. Should I worry about the 12VHPWR socket?

MB:
is it okay? I searched a lot but this is the one I decided on.

Sorry for the long rant, and apologies if it is not very well structured. This is my first post here and I don't know how to format stuff properly.

I would appreciate your advice on this matter.

 

[psycho-cookie]

Thank you for your replys everyone.
just a couple points.

I have ditched the iron rust bucket of a hard drive.

I kinda want that for long term storage of media files (family photos, etc) and I might just yank it out and put it a NAS perhaps a year or two down the line

still a little confused as you said you don't care about rgb or colour, then chose white and all rgb aio/ram etc.

Believe it or not, the RGB g.skill RAM has better timings than the pure black one. Makes no sense. and I thought I'll just make things white as possible, makes the room a bit less gloomy.

FYI: this forum is owned and run by overclockers UK, so no competitors are mentioned here.

Sorry I didn't know I can't mention anything, figured only no links. And it doesn't let me edit my post to remove the mentions.


Final two questions,
The PSUs do come with the all the cables, right? I don't have to buy them separately right? (doesn't say anything on most of their product pages)

And for the MB, is Asrock B850 steel legend not good? I don't mind spending the 20 bucks compared to MSI B850 gaming plus, but is the only difference just the number of PCIE and nvme ports (and usb)?
(I need wifi 7 and bluetooth, if it has that LED thingy that shows error codes it would be pretty nice, but I understand that is a premium nowadays)
Also, Do I have to worry about this lane sharing thing they mention?

(Sorry about the quotations, I can't do it properly)

 

[psycho-cookie]

Alternative case which comes with 6 fans.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/antec-flux-pro-full-tower-case-white-cas-atc-03469.html

Thank you, I might swap with that.


Also, Does anyone know whether 9800x3d iGPU can run windows at 60 or 120hz at 1440p?
I can't for some reason find any info on the integrated graphics. (intel Ark has info on their iGPUs and the resolutions and refresh rates they support)
I want to just run it like that until I can buy a GPU maybe later when the prices are better with more supply?

 

[psycho-cookie]

Update:
So I settled on the following after agonizing over it for over a month:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x WD Black SN850X 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive with Heatsink (WDS200T2XHE) (SKU: HD-594-WD) = £136.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £449.99
• 1 x WD 4TB Red Pro 7200rpm HDD 256MB Cache Internal NAS Hard Drive (WD4003FFBX) (SKU: STO-WDC-03888) = £136.99
• 1 x Antec HCG 1000 Pro Platinum 1000W ATX3.1 Full modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-ATC-02746) = £189.95
• 1 x Crucial T500 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01089) = £74.99
• 1 x Arctic Liquid Freezer III High Performance CPU Water Cooler - 360mm (SKU: COO-ARC-01991) = £76.99
• 1 x Fractal Design North XL Charcoal Black Tempered Glass Case (SKU: CAS-FTL-02137) = £170.00
• 2 x DEMCiflex Dust Filter 140mm, Round - Black/White (SKU: CM-005-DF) = £8.00
• 1 x Arctic P14 PWM PST Black Fan - 140mm (SKU: FG-04K-AR) = £6.94
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-02841) = £179.99
• 1 x MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03993) = £218.99
• 1 x Asrock B850 Riptide WiFi (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASR-03998) = £214.99
• 1 x Asus TUF GAMING B850-PLUS WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASU-03844) = £239.98

I will put off the GPU until some weeks/months after 9060 release.
I also would have chosen the mesh version of the case but I have a lot of dust so I am worried about it going inside.

In conclusion, I am quite close to ordering but the MB choice is killing me. (as seen with the 3 in basket)
The whole dead 9800X3Ds with asrock is off putting (I really don't like the headache), there is the ASUS bad customer service history, the whole Excel sheet about the MBs. I am really getting choice burnout. If if it was not for the dead cpu thing, I would just go with Asrock no problem (it checks all the boxes)
So I am stuck with these three choices (or a similar gigabyte), Please help.

 

[psycho-cookie]

Can you restate what features you need from the board again please?

I am mainly concerned with the quality of the board (Like good VRM and phase, PCB layers, etc. I'm sorry, my knowledge in electronics is not very high so I can only understand 14 phase better than 12 and 80A better than 50A) and perhaps a good customer service in case it goes dud, especially with all the stuff going on right now.

I just need 2 (ideally 3) Nvme slots without messing with the main pcie16 lane.

Minimum 2 SATA ports/cables.

I removed almost all of the RGB, so I don't really need anything related to that.

USBs don't really matter. (I will use 3/4 at most, which all boards seem to have on the minimum)

WIFI 7 is nice but not essential.

 

[psycho-cookie]

msi b850 tomahawk max is where my vote goes (obviously)

do you need the mish-mash of nvme ssds? i would've thought a single 4tb main drive would be a more sensible choice

you could save £30 with the phanteks platinum gh, for £160 this is 1200w as well, the only downside is that the warranty period is 8 years vs 10 on the antec. both are "A" rated on the PSU tier list, so power output/price/warranty is the determining factor

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-amp-gh-1200w-80-plus-platinum-atx-3.1-pcie-5.1-fully-modular-bla-pow-phk-04741.html

Any particular reason for going with MSI?

for the ssd mix, I will put the OS on the 1 tb one. It will be linux mint and since I am new to it, I just prefer that separation from my main ssd until I get more comfortable with it. (They will be partitioned ofc)

Would 1200W have any benefit, as in the efficiency curve thingy were it is most efficient at around 60% load?(is that still a thing?) (According to ************, my load will be around 670W with a 9070xt)

 

[psycho-cookie]

Hey Everyone,

First off, I wanted to thank everyone who helped me choose and refine parts, both in this thread and others, you are all truly wonderful.
So I thought to post an update on the build, which is now finished and functional.
(humble brag: I got it to post first time , after obviously realizing that I had to stick the hdmi into GPU and not MB (it has auto graphic card detection))

This is what I ended up buying and their cost:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor (Purchased For £449.99)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III Pro 360 77 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (Purchased For £83.94)
Motherboard: MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard (Purchased For £218.99)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (Purchased For £179.99)
Storage: Crucial T500 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (Purchased For £74.99)
Storage: Western Digital WD_Black SN850X w/Heatsink 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (Purchased For £136.99)
Storage: Western Digital Red Pro 4 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For £136.99)
Video Card: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 9070 16 GB Video Card (Purchased For £569.99)
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 217 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For £109.99)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer PRO ATX3.1 1200 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £209.99)
Monitor: Dell AW2723DF 27.0" 2560 x 1440 240 Hz Monitor (Purchased For £345.00)
Total: £2516.85


I went straight to linux mint and no windows, had a bit of pain since it didn't support the wifi/ethernet stuff until a kernel update. The only things that I really miss in windows, and is annoying to me is that most bench marking and temperature monitor softwares are not available on linux; I only found unigine, gave 74 for gpu under load (4K optimized, game mode). Can't stress test though (it is not free)

In this warm whether with ambient around 25-27 in my room, the cpu temp sits at around 46-49, while case temp is around 35.

I wanted to post pics but can't upload directly.

So I need help with two more things please:

One is the WD HDD red pro, when it is mounted in linux, it makes a clicking/scratching sound every couple of seconds, when it is unmounted, it does it every minute or so. Is this normal for NAS HDDs? This thing was brand new. I only had 2.5" HDDs and they made no such noise. I bought it from OCUK, Should I get it replaced?

And the other thing is the fans, I have the 360mm AIO + 2x 120mm fans at the bottom and a 140mm at the back, all are exhaust. only intake is two 170mm at front. So should I change the 2x 120mm to intake for positive pressure?

Edit: I forgot to say I did fan optimizations as well, running on near silent.