4k 120hz ray traced gaming

Limenote · 2025-01-18T11:06:37+0000

Hi friends, I’ll be picking up a 5090 end of the month and want to build a new system for it. I only use it for gaming so high frames and quality is the aim.

Given the following requirements, which parts would you choose?

Budget not a huge concern, but standard bang for buck applies (e.g. No need to spend over the odds for a ~2% type of benefit)
Air cooling

I’ll have:

RTX 5090 FE (hopefully)

I need:

Case (ATX, good ventilation)
Mobo (bluetooth and wifi required, does spending more here net much gaming benefit?)
CPU (and cooler)
RAM (32gb is fine, but would 64gb make much difference to games?)
NVMe (1TB is fine)
PSU

Not into RGB, all black would be preferred.

I've been out of the loop for several years and so your guidance would be really appreciated, thank you!

Limenote · 2025-01-18T11:43:02+0000

Thanks @mickyflinn , edited my post with more details.

> Would you prefer a Value for money build or higher end spending a bit more on motherboars

I'm fine to spend more if the benefits are worth it (e.g. i'm going to net 5 - 10 more frames for several hundred more)

Limenote · 2025-01-18T15:30:03+0000

If you play DCS or (maybe) Cities Skyline 2 then go for 64 GB.

I play with controller on my tv in the living room, mostly standard blockbuster fare (God of War, Silent Hill 2, Cyberpunk, Alan Wake 2). Does it make sense to go for 64gb just to be future safe over the next 5 years?

@mickyflinn thanks for putting this together, that's a huge help.

2 nvme drives to choose from the m2 drives one without dram and the Kingston with

I am going to research this, but in your opinion, what's the benefit to an NVMe with dram vs without? and how relevant are read / write speeds in gaming these days?

Limenote · 2025-01-18T16:00:31+0000

I personally would be tempted to buy watercooler and put in the top of the case giving your build a cleaner look as that 5090 gonna look big in there .

What would you recommend? that case looks lovely! I've never built a water cooled system but i'd be up for giving it a go. My current rig was built in 2020 so I'm hoping this upgrade does the next 4-5 years as well.