First build in a number of years Advice welcome

jojocappy

jojocappy

jojocappy

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Joined
15 Feb 2025
Posts
6
Location
UK
I'm not new to pc building but have not built a system in some time so im looking for any advice on parts and happy for you to suggest better parts for my needs.

Reason for upgrade: I recently revamped and gave away my pc to my nephew as his first gaming machine so I'm now in the market for an upgrade to AM5/DDR5 etc.. and all the good new fancy bits

Purpose of build: Mostly gaming, I'm not a AAA title player really, I like games more like Anno, Total War, town builders etc... I will occasionally play things like assassin's creed or the new Monster Hunter but I'm not looking for absolute maximum settings. As long as the game runs smooth and looks good I'm a happy bunny. I don't play anything that you could consider as competative.

Budget: Thats hard to say really as im not in a rush to have it built this month or even the next few months, im buying parts month by month as my budget allows so lets say mid range??

Proposed monitor: Im genuinely thinking of splashing out on a proper monitor for once, Samsung Odyssey G9 OLED 49". Normally I'd just get a half decent 1440p 27" gaming monitor and an additional 1080p office monitor as the secondary monitor but I really do fancy saving up and splashing out on a premium option. Open to other options if you think there is a better option price and performance wise or if you feel it's just to beefy and taxing for my proposed system.

Parts already purchased: (All parts are white)
Lian Li O11 Vision Compact - BEAUTIFUL case!!
Corsair ICue Link H150i AIO - i will be buying the LCD module eventually but that's not necessity to begin with.
6x Corsair Rx120mm ICue link case fans - coming from the mess that was the corsair comander wiring system, this is just awesome!!!
NZXT C1000 ATX 3.1 1000w psu - wanted the 3.1 latest connectors for the newer cards and 1000w feels like enough power but the biggest draw for me was nice looking white cables. Im not risking anything sitting between my PSUs native gpu power lead and the GPU, no extensions, no 90 degree connectors, no RGB leads, nothing. Just straight from PSU into GPU.
ROG STRIX X870-a motherboard. It's white, always used ROG boards and I think I'm gonna need a lot of internal USB headers.
A gifted Gen 4 1TB M.2 to be used as my OS drive, I will also be adding a Gen 5 NVME as my game drive.

Planned next purchases:
Ryzen 7 7700x: I prefer the Ryzen 7 series just purely because its what im used to and i will be working on the machine a bit. 7000 series because that leaves me with a nice upgrade path into the 9000 series in the future without needing a board upgrade.

GPU: on this im open to options but I do have some absolute must haves:
NVIDIA not AMD
Must be White
12GB RAM minimum
Prefer to keep to around the £800 mark

I have looked at a few Asus 4070 and 4070 super options but as this will be the final purchase of the build i do have time for prices to change so feel free to suggest options which may be a bit above the £800 mark as you never know, price may drop by the time I purchase.

 RAM: this is where im open to advice because the board supports EXPO. I did start looking this up and fell down a whole EXPO vs XMP rabbit hole but eventually gave up and found the below corsair sku on the fully qualified vendors list: if anyone is able to correct me here or even confirm this RAM compatability that would be fab as im a little confused and lost on this but the simple fact is, The board arrives tomorrow and I'm not willing to compromise on the board to be honest. I will be doubling up on the ram in the future to fill all 4 slots but for now I'm eyeing up the dud light up modules to fill the slots for now.

CORSAIR DOMINATOR TITANIUM RGB DDR5 RAM 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 6000MHz CL30 Intel XMP iCUE Compatible Computer Memory - White (CMP64GX5M2B6000C30W)​


Game Drive: I dont have an option in mind for this just yet but will be 2 TB, Gen 5 nvme, ill look at price per TB and transfer speeds closer to when i need to putchase it.

Not required aesthetic parts:
Either the LCD module for the AIO or a 8-10" internal screen to act as temp/speed monitor. hence my need for more then the normal amount of internal USB headers (Icue Link hub, AIO or internal screen, front panel)

Possible vertical GPU mount but im nervous using a riser card with an expensive GPU.

Corsair ram slot Light modules to match my ram just because 4 slots used looks better than just 2 in my opinion.


Right I think that's all the info and parts covered Sorry it's a long info dump but wanted to give you enough info in case you had questions. Im honestly open to suggestions on parts or criticisms of my plans. I have not built a system in quite some time so there may be things I'm misunderstanding here or just not taking into account. Thanks for any advice
 
jojocappy said:
 RAM: this is where im open to advice because the board supports EXPO. I did start looking this up and fell down a whole EXPO vs XMP rabbit hole but eventually gave up and found the below corsair sku on the fully qualified vendors list: if anyone is able to correct me here or even confirm this RAM compatability that would be fab as im a little confused and lost on this but the simple fact is, The board arrives tomorrow and I'm not willing to compromise on the board to be honest. I will be doubling up on the ram in the future to fill all 4 slots but for now I'm eyeing up the dud light up modules to fill the slots for now.

CORSAIR DOMINATOR TITANIUM RGB DDR5 RAM 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 6000MHz CL30 Intel XMP iCUE Compatible Computer Memory - White (CMP64GX5M2B6000C30W)​

Click to expand...
Since the memory slots are black on your board I'd dump the white requirement and just get something cheap like this:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £183.98 (includes delivery: £3.99)​

EXPO/XMP should both be possible on the majority of motherboards, but they're both strictly overclocking so you're never 100% guaranteed it will work even if the memory is on the QVL.

In regards to filling all 4 slots, I would suggest you do not, because this is still highly problematic with DDR5 systems. AMD officially only rates their CPUs to 3600 (!!) with 4 dual rank sticks (32GB and 48GB are almost certainly dual rank). The best you're likely to achieve is around 5200 if running 4, so it doesn't really make sense unless you NEED the memory capacity.

If you're certain that you will need the memory, I'd shortcut the upgrade and buy a 96GB kit (2x48) now.

jojocappy said:
Planned next purchases:
Ryzen 7 7700x: I prefer the Ryzen 7 series just purely because its what im used to and i will be working on the machine a bit. 7000 series because that leaves me with a nice upgrade path into the 9000 series in the future without needing a board upgrade.
Click to expand...
Tricky one because the price is all over the place on these with some large discounts when on offer and huge discounts abroad, but at OCUK's current retail price this CPU really makes no sense, because the 9700X is £5 cheaper and the 7900 is just £15 more.

The 7700 non-X which includes a cooler (the 7700X does not) is also £40 cheaper!

jojocappy said:
I have looked at a few Asus 4070 and 4070 super options but as this will be the final purchase of the build i do have time for prices to change so feel free to suggest options which may be a bit above the £800 mark as you never know, price may drop by the time I purchase.
Click to expand...
To clarify: what resolution is the monitor you're planning on buying? Is it 4K? If you're planning to play at 4K you really want to max out your budget because a 4070 won't have much legs at 4K for long.

Not a great time to buy right now with the AMD cards due in a few weeks and nvidia releasing the 5070/5070 Ti with the whole 5000 series and most of the 4000 series having terrible availability.
 
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Tetras said:
Since the memory slots are black on your board I'd dump the white requirement and just get something cheap like this:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £183.98 (includes delivery: £3.99)​

EXPO/XMP should both be possible on the majority of motherboards, but they're both strictly overclocking so you're never 100% guaranteed it will work even if the memory is on the QVL.

In regards to filling all 4 slots, I would suggest you do not, because this is still highly problematic with DDR5 systems. AMD officially only rates their CPUs to 3600 (!!) with 4 dual rank sticks (32GB and 48GB are almost certainly dual rank). The best you're likely to achieve is around 5200 if running 4, so it doesn't really make sense unless you NEED the memory capacity.

If you're certain that you will need the memory, I'd shortcut the upgrade and buy a 96GB kit (2x48) now.


Tricky one because the price is all over the price on these with some large discounts when on offer and huge discounts abroad, but at OCUK's current retail price this CPU really makes no sense, because the 9700X is £5 cheaper and the 7900 is just £15 more.

The 7700 non-X which includes a cooler (the 7700X does not) is also £40 cheaper!


To clarify: what resolution is the monitor you're planning on buying? Is it 4K? If you're planning to play at 4K you really want to max out your budget because a 4070 won't have much legs at 4K for long.

Not a great time to buy right now with the AMD cards due in a few weeks and nvidia releasing the 5070/5070 Ti with the whole 5000 series and most of the 4000 series having terrible availability.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks for the advice on the RAM I'll look to stick to Dual chanel with light mods to fill the other 2 ram banks. I just hope I get lucky and hit the right ram 1st time as I have herd of some people needing to go through a few SKUs until they find the right one.

I will look into the other Ram options but I'm not 100% sure as this one is all about the white asthetics. But again I thank you for the advice.

Processor wise that certainly does look like the better option price wise, I had not spotted that they were so close in price. As the CPU is likely to be the next purchase that may be the one if prices stay where they are RN. I know it's difficult to suggest esp when I have given a vague budget and not ordering right away.

MONITOR SPECS:
1440p (5120 x 1440)
49" ultrawide, 32:9
HDMI 2.1 for the Xbox series X
Claims to have 0.3ms response but reviews say that's only under absolute best case scenario but it it achieving good response times for non competative gaming.
 
Tetras said:
Since the memory slots are black on your board I'd dump the white requirement and just get something cheap like this:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £183.98 (includes delivery: £3.99)​

EXPO/XMP should both be possible on the majority of motherboards, but they're both strictly overclocking so you're never 100% guaranteed it will work even if the memory is on the QVL.

In regards to filling all 4 slots, I would suggest you do not, because this is still highly problematic with DDR5 systems. AMD officially only rates their CPUs to 3600 (!!) with 4 dual rank sticks (32GB and 48GB are almost certainly dual rank). The best you're likely to achieve is around 5200 if running 4, so it doesn't really make sense unless you NEED the memory capacity.

If you're certain that you will need the memory, I'd shortcut the upgrade and buy a 96GB kit (2x48) now.


Tricky one because the price is all over the place on these with some large discounts when on offer and huge discounts abroad, but at OCUK's current retail price this CPU really makes no sense, because the 9700X is £5 cheaper and the 7900 is just £15 more.

The 7700 non-X which includes a cooler (the 7700X does not) is also £40 cheaper!


To clarify: what resolution is the monitor you're planning on buying? Is it 4K? If you're planning to play at 4K you really want to max out your budget because a 4070 won't have much legs at 4K for long.

Not a great time to buy right now with the AMD cards due in a few weeks and nvidia releasing the 5070/5070 Ti with the whole 5000 series and most of the 4000 series having terrible availability.
Click to expand...
I'm honestly not looking at GPU right now in terms of buying any time soon. My car has decided that we are about to take an unscheduled pause in buying pc parts so it's likely that the GPU is being purchased around late summer.

As I said I'm in no rush to have this finished any time soon, this is More of an over time sort of build with an asthetic. I do know that my choice in white is going to mean spending wayyy more than I need but I'm hopefully going to be looking at this thing for quite a few years yet before I upgrade again so I have to be happy with how she looks on my desk.

Again thank you for taking time to respond and advise
 
jojocappy said:
MONITOR SPECS:
1440p (5120 x 1440)
Click to expand...
Not 4K then, but still a very demanding resolution, so I'd definitely recommend you buy something better than a card on the level of a 4070!

jojocappy said:
My car has decided that we are about to take an unscheduled pause in buying pc parts so it's likely that the GPU is being purchased around late summer.
Click to expand...
Ahh, alright, well hopefully the prices and availability will make a lot more sense by then and we can make you a decent recommendation.

jojocappy said:
Processor wise that certainly does look like the better option price wise, I had not spotted that they were so close in price. As the CPU is likely to be the next purchase that may be the one if prices stay where they are RN. I know it's difficult to suggest esp when I have given a vague budget and not ordering right away.
Click to expand...
FYI: note that the 8 core CPUs like the 7700/7700X and 9700X tend to perform a little better in games than the 12 core equivalents like the 7900 due to their config (8x0 versus 6x6) and boosting, but with the types of games that you play I'm not sure if that rule still applies. I'd recommend looking into that further before you decide.

jojocappy said:
I will look into the other Ram options but I'm not 100% sure as this one is all about the white asthetics. But again I thank you for the advice.
Click to expand...
There are other options, Team group, Kingston and a few others do white sticks, so I'm sure you can find some. The titaniums are just particularly OTT from what I can see, at around £100 higher than the lowest price kits.
 
WOAH!!!

Mobo just arrived (https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...t-am5-ddr5-atx-motherboard-mot-asu-03087.html)

Just how hot are these Gen 5 NVME drives getting??? The heat sink for the top NVME on this board is that big and heavy it feels like it should be classed as some form of offensive weapon lol. It's an inch thick!!

Is this necessary cooling or the manufacturer just beefing up the specs sheet by listing it as some form "advanced nvme cooling" that isn't really that necessary at all?
 
jojocappy said:
WOAH!!!

Mobo just arrived (https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...t-am5-ddr5-atx-motherboard-mot-asu-03087.html)

Just how hot are these Gen 5 NVME drives getting??? The heat sink for the top NVME on this board is that big and heavy it feels like it should be classed as some form of offensive weapon lol. It's an inch thick!!

Is this necessary cooling or the manufacturer just beefing up the specs sheet by listing it as some form "advanced nvme cooling" that isn't really that necessary at all?
Click to expand...
Some gen 5 drives do get very hot, though it depends on what you're doing with it.
 
Regarding the monitor/GPU combo.

Do you think an RTX 4070 super would be beefy enough to daily drive a 32" ultrawide (3440 x 1440) given that I'm not looking for max settings on AAA titles?

Maybe the 49" ultrawide is a tad big for my needs (seen a 49" in a retail store and it's quite a bit bigger than I thought)
 
jojocappy said:
I'm honestly not looking at GPU right now in terms of buying any time soon. My car has decided that we are about to take an unscheduled pause in buying pc parts so it's likely that the GPU is being purchased around late summer.

As I said I'm in no rush to have this finished any time soon, this is More of an over time sort of build with an asthetic. I do know that my choice in white is going to mean spending wayyy more than I need but I'm hopefully going to be looking at this thing for quite a few years yet before I upgrade again so I have to be happy with how she looks on my desk.

Again thank you for taking time to respond and advise
Click to expand...
You say you want to do a white build and I noticed you are a bit of a Corsair fan. So honestly Corsair memory is not that great. Terrible binning and the quality of Corsair is not there any more. However I do have the Corsair titanium’s first editions that I bought for an intel setup. I have also in the past used the dominator platinums and not gonna lie they look the business but from my perspective not very robust.

As for the white gpu’s I have used the msi gaming trio slim and mainly Ventus. And the ASU’s tuf and strix these are mainly the 4070ti and 4070ti super editions. My fave was the ASU’s tuf. Quiet, cool running although tends to be pricier that the others. The strix is even better but costs even more.

The problem with white builds are the extra tax like ASU’s tax and Corsair tax for white builds. And sometimes if you are after a particular component in white you might have to wait a while.

Another point to consider is that getting psu’s in white is a PIAT.

Don’t get me wrong as I have been doing white builds for years and it my fave look but sometimes I wish I liked doing black builds as it would save a lot of hassle. But this is down to OCD. Then you have to get desktop speaker in white and then the stands for it in white etc…it’s tiring.
 
jojocappy said:
WOAH!!!

Mobo just arrived (https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...t-am5-ddr5-atx-motherboard-mot-asu-03087.html)

Just how hot are these Gen 5 NVME drives getting??? The heat sink for the top NVME on this board is that big and heavy it feels like it should be classed as some form of offensive weapon lol. It's an inch thick!!

Is this necessary cooling or the manufacturer just beefing up the specs sheet by listing it as some form "advanced nvme cooling" that isn't really that necessary at all?
Click to expand...

Don't buy Gen 5 NVME, Simples.
 
GoRedwings19 said:
You say you want to do a white build and I noticed you are a bit of a Corsair fan. So honestly Corsair memory is not that great. Terrible binning and the quality of Corsair is not there any more. However I do have the Corsair titanium’s first editions that I bought for an intel setup. I have also in the past used the dominator platinums and not gonna lie they look the business but from my perspective not very robust.

As for the white gpu’s I have used the msi gaming trio slim and mainly Ventus. And the ASU’s tuf and strix these are mainly the 4070ti and 4070ti super editions. My fave was the ASU’s tuf. Quiet, cool running although tends to be pricier that the others. The strix is even better but costs even more.

The problem with white builds are the extra tax like ASU’s tax and Corsair tax for white builds. And sometimes if you are after a particular component in white you might have to wait a while.

Another point to consider is that getting psu’s in white is a PIAT.

Don’t get me wrong as I have been doing white builds for years and it my fave look but sometimes I wish I liked doing black builds as it would save a lot of hassle. But this is down to OCD. Then you have to get desktop speaker in white and then the stands for it in white etc…it’s tiring.
Click to expand...
I'm not that precious about corsair RAM wise to be totally honest with you, yes Dom Titanium looks incredible but when i compare the prices it is deffo overpriced. After the nice advice on this post from yourself and others, I have started looking into other brands which offer white sticks like Crucial etc..

Fans wise, yes I'm 100% a Corsair fangirl, especially after wiring up the Icue link AIO and fans yesterday. The cabling just looks clean as heck in the back compared to the spaghetti junction that was my corsair commander.

GPU wise: my car decided that we have to take a minor break in buying parts at the moment so im looking at a GPU in late summer I think. I'm hoping that prices may stabilise by then and I can have a better idea of what fits within my planned GPU budget, how much Vram games in 2025 expect consumers to have. I did come across a nice looking white Zotak 4070 super earlier on but much research to be done on this subject in the coming weeks I think.

A Strix card would be the dream card if I'm totally honest as I have always loved their look but never had the available funds to justify overpaying for the GPU just for it's looks. This time things are different as I don't have a solid budget and not looking to have the parts ASAP so saving up for the better looking card may be easier to swallow with this build.

My theory behind getting the white PSU was simply that I don't want to place any form of coloured extensions or anything between the GPU and the PSU itself so the native cabling of the PSU had to be White and nice looking. Im not really a fan of the whole flat cable or the individually sleeved 24 cable look, never have been. The PSU i chose has the whole cable bundled up in nice round sleeving tubes, no more 24 individually sleeved cables, just a single white sleve for the 24 pin. I'm just to nervous to have possibly lower quality extensions connected to these newer cards with the new connectors. Plus the PSU i chose doesn't seem to have that white tax, both black and white versions were the same price so it seemed the obvious choice.

But this does remind me that I do need to check the pin depths on the psu connectors as I have seen some info that it COULD be causing the heat/melting issue if 1 pin isn't seated all the way into the GPU.
 
Thanks for you reply. I use to build all white systems and they mainly use to be corsair products. I even have a spare white LCD screen upgrade.I use to be really into corsair products and even my case is a corsair. But for my latest builds I have using alternatives. Like I use for my old 12900k build a Asus white strix 850w psu. Now all it cables are white and I even consider using the new version of the strix power for my latest build but never got round to it and generally that is more expensive than the black version.

graphics cards in general this time round is more expensive overall but funnily enough your car needing repairs and delaying your GPU purchase is a blessing in disguise. It allows pricing on gpu's to stabilise. This might allow you to have a better budget and better pricing on the GPU you need.
 
jojocappy said:
Regarding the monitor/GPU combo.

Do you think an RTX 4070 super would be beefy enough to daily drive a 32" ultrawide (3440 x 1440) given that I'm not looking for max settings on AAA titles?

Maybe the 49" ultrawide is a tad big for my needs (seen a 49" in a retail store and it's quite a bit bigger than I thought)
Click to expand...
It should be fine at that resolution (you can check TPU's reviews for 1440p performance generally, or have a look on YouTube for your favourite game(s)), though as mentioned, I'd wait for the newer cards if possible.
 
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