New PC spec check

[chrismox]

I’m treating myself to a new PC.

It’ll be used exclusively for gaming, a mixture of VR and on a 4K TV.

I’d like to use Bazzite for the OS as I have no interest in Windows these days, although I might have to dual-boot and use Windows for VR until Linux copes better with VR.

The plan is for the build to be as physically small as possible. The case I’ve picked appears to be capable of fitting the items I’ve chosen with little space to spare.

Any thoughts welcome. Thanks in advance.


My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Sapphire Pulse B850M WiFi (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-SPR-05692) = £129.95
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £399.95
• 1 x Lian Li A3 mATX Black (SKU: CAS-LIA-02350) = £59.95
• 1 x Crucial Pro OC 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-02219) = £128.99
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 850W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02519) = £104.98
• 1 x Crucial P510 2TB M.2 2280 PCIe 5.0 NVMe Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-04746) = £149.99
• 1 x Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT Gaming 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-SPR-03983) = £559.99
• 2 x Arctic P12 Silent Black Fan - 120mm (SKU: FG-04L-AR) = £5.00
• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02665) = £29.98

Total: £1,573.78 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Tetras]

1 x Sapphire Pulse B850M WiFi (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-SPR-05692) = £129.95

I'd pay the extra tenner for the Nitro, it has a PCI-E 5.0 primary slot (only 4.0 on the Pulse), a USB Type-C port on the rear (6x of Pulse USB on the rear are USB 2.0) and a stronger VRM.

 

[chrismox]

Thanks.

Excuse my ignorance, but how does the VRM change things?

 

[Tetras]

Thanks.

Excuse my ignorance, but how does the VRM change things?

It shouldn't matter with the 9800X3D, since that can run on modest VRMs, but if you upgrade to a CPU with a bigger core count in the future then it'd be nice to have the headroom.

 

[chrismox]

I’ll google VRM and educate myself…

 

[chrismox]

PCIe 5.0 necessary for the drive or would PCIe 4.0 suffice?

 

[trentlad]

Gen 5 for the m.2 drive - it's a waste paying for Gen 5 when you can buy 4TB Gen 4 for a fraction of the price
PCI-E 5.0 for the GPU - currently isn't the only benefit on a 5090 just a 2% increase in gaming performance over 4.0

It's probably more effective future proofing a motherboard when you're going AMD, since you can upgrade to the next CPU as long as it stays AM5. For me on Intel, it's always been a complete waste, by the time I'm ready to upgrade components I've never obtained much of a bump or worse I've been needlessly causing a bottle neck.

 

[Tetras]

PCIe 5.0 necessary for the drive or would PCIe 4.0 suffice?

Not necessary to have, no, but £150 is a relatively small premium. I can't say if that drive performs much (any?) better than high-end 4.0 drives.

I’ll google VRM and educate myself…

Short version: bigger VRM = less chance of throttling.

PCI-E 5.0 for the GPU - currently isn't the only benefit on a 5090 just a 2% increase in gaming performance over 4.0

Yeah, for high-end cards it doesn't offer anything, but with cards that have limited PCI-E lanes and possible VRAM issues then it does. For £10 in this case (Pulse vs Nitro) I think the insurance is worth it.

 

[tamzzy]

1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02665) = £29.98

i would swap this for the ARGB version:
1) it's the same price right now
2) if you don't want the vomit lights, you don't have to plug in the RGB connectors and will function exactly the same
3) if you do want lights in the future, you don't have to change out the fans - more flexibility
4) if you do come to sell it in the future, having the ARGB version guarantees higher resale value

 

[chrismox]

i would swap this for the ARGB version:
1) it's the same price right now
2) if you don't want the vomit lights, you don't have to plug in the RGB connectors and will function exactly the same
3) if you do want lights in the future, you don't have to change out the fans - more flexibility
4) if you do come to sell it in the future, having the ARGB version guarantees higher resale value

Thanks. I’m strictly anti-vomit lights, but point 4 is valid.

 

[chrismox]

Not necessary to have, no, but £150 is a relatively small premium. I can't say if that drive performs much (any?) better than high-end 4.0 drives.


Short version: bigger VRM = less chance of throttling.


Yeah, for high-end cards it doesn't offer anything, but with cards that have limited PCI-E lanes and possible VRAM issues then it does. For £10 in this case (Pulse vs Nitro) I think the insurance is worth it.

Thanks. I’m happy with the idea of the Nitro motherboard, just wondered whether I needed a gen 4 or gen 5 m2 drive, it seems gen 4 will do the job.

 

[tamzzy]

Thanks. I’m strictly anti-vomit lights, but point 4 is valid.

see point (2)

 

[Tetras]

just wondered whether I needed a gen 4 or gen 5 m2 drive, it seems gen 4 will do the job.

I haven't looked into the benchmarks with that particular drive, so it is hard to say what improvement (if any) it offers over a high-end PCI-E 4.0 drive.

The headline read/write speeds are only relevant in a small number of tasks and if the controller/flash aren't any better at everything else, there's limited benefit to having one.