PC Configuration Help

[themeg]

I'm looking to pretty much future-proof my gaming rig so I won't have to upgrade for years until it absolutely dies.

This is what I went with, but I'm not so good with all the components.

I pretty much only use my pc for gaming, but I do, occasionally, use it for work and therefore multitask, but again, it's usually light stuff, so is there any point in 'upgrading' to the ryzen 9 9950x3d? It's a bit pricier, but I realise I'm willing to spend quite a lot already, but I don't want to spend it if it's pointless, especially since I've heard the 9800x3d is better for gaming.

If anyone could let me know whether the cooling system is sufficient enough, and whether the power supply will be more efficient because I went for 1200W platinum, as opposed to the suggested 1000W gold after hearing platinum is more efficient (hopefully the higher power output also keeps it cooler since it won't need to use it to it's max, not sure if that's right, though)

I also don't know whether to keep the upgraded sound card or just stick with onboard channel (I use logitech g560 speakers and astro a50 headphones), will there be much noticeable difference? Same with the motherboard, is the one I have good enough, or can I downgrade to a slightly cheaper option, or should I upgrade to make it on par with the gpu/cpu? I have no clue when it comes to motherboards.

The monitor I use is the Samsung Odyssey Neo AG95 49" 5120x1440p at 240Hz just been made aware that's closer to 4K than 1440p as I previously mentioned, so yeah, I game at pretty much 4K.

Would anyone suggest swapping from the current case to the corsair frame 4000d rs argb modular - white, or the corsair 3500x argb tempered glass mid-tower - white? I'm not sure if the fans already provided in those cases are better than the ones provided in the PCS one, but then also not sure if the difference in size will help with heat dissipation for the PCS?

Finally, if there's anything anyone notices that I could upgrade to make it more efficient, or downgrade because it's pretty pointless, please let me know!

My absolute max budget is 4.7k, but I'd rather keep it as low as possible whilst retaining the core parts of the build.

Case
PCS LUMIN ARGB MID TOWER CASE (WHITE) (PWM)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core CPU (Up to 5.2GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI 7 (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz CL40 (2 x 32GB) AMD
Graphics Card
32GB PALIT GEFORCE RTX 5090 GAMEROCK - HDMI, 3 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB CRUCIAL T705 GEN 5 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 14,500MB/sR, 12,700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB CRUCIAL T705 GEN 5 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 14,500MB/sR, 12,700MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W HXi SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM V2
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK TITAN 360 RX RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND APPLICATION
LED Lighting
2 x 35cm Corsair LS350 Aurora RGB Light Strips
Extra Case Fans
4 x Corsair RS120 ARGB PWM Fans - WHITE
Sound Card
ASUS Xonar AE 7.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Price: £4,629.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/t7FyAgv9uw/

 

[TonyCarter]

Can you add the config link to the bottom of your post, so that we can go in & tweak it for you.

At first look, you’ve got 2 x 2TB ultra-fast SSD, when you barely need one of them…and that can just be a 1TB model…keep the second (and/or 3rd) as gen 4 2-4TB models for your gaming. You’ll see zero benefit of a gen 5 SSD for gaming.

You also don’t want the Arctic paste if you buy a Corsair AIO, as the Corsair paste is better and more consistently applied at the factory.

A lot of the choice are very high end…but the case and motherboard are not, and there’s no need for an additional sound card as these are now included on the motherboards. If you want a similar looking case, but of much better build, then the Corsair 6500X or the LianLi O11Dynamic Evo is a good swap…and the 6500X doesn’t include any fans so you are free to configure it how you wish (although PCS don’t offer the 140mm fans I’d prefer).

Also, with the current config, you’ve got 3 types of fans (PCS ones in the case, RS ones in the kit, RX ones on the AIO). I’d suggest sticking to a single make/model if possible…even if it means dumping included fans to match them up.

Finally, for now, you need to remove Norton…as you don’t want that malware anywhere near your PC.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The monitor I use is the Samsung Odyssey Neo AG95 49" 5120x1440p at 240Hz (hence the need for a better gpu despite playing 1440p)

Just so you’re aware, this isn’t 1440p, it’s 2 x 1440p, so if you’re looking at 1440p benchmarks you’re going to be quite a way off.

5120 x 1440 is nearer 4k

 

[themeg]

Thanks for the reply

added the config link

Ok, so would you suggest the samsung 1tb 14700 read speed as my os drive, and then, say the samsung 2tb 7450 read speed for secondary gaming? I've swapped to this for now. EDIT: Swapped it to 2tb 7450 read speed for both gaming and os drive as it's mostly just for gaming.

i'm no good at building anything of my own, so it'd have to be available to config here, and i'm not seeing the corsair 6500x, but just swapped to the LianLi you suggested

I had meant to remove Norton, just forgot to do it for this config since I was going back and forth with different ones, but thanks!

Out of curiosity, my current pc has malwarebytes (the free version) should I install that on my new one, never had a problem with it, but I don't know if it eats at my system like with any other processes in task manager, for example, or anything similar.

Ok, so I've swapped my motherboard to the

GIGABYTE X870 EAGLE WIFI7​

just copying and pasting the title so you know which one it is specifically, so I don't mess up when typing it.

I swapped to that one because it let me then swap my corsair rs fans to the rx ones, as you said to keep the fan makes the same.

The only issue is, the LianLi case you suggested uses different fans, but I have swapped the previous rs to rx, will it be an issue that the LianLi case fans are different to the rest?

I assume you can use the link to see my changes, but I've never done this before so I'm not entirely sure.

I'm not seeing any cases that have the same corsair fans, maybe, as you said, better to look for a case without pre-installed fans.

How is it looking in terms of keeping it cool, as that's my main concern, would you say the AIO is sufficient enough?

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[themeg]

Just so you’re aware, this isn’t 1440p, it’s 2 x 1440p, so if you’re looking at 1440p benchmarks you’re going to be quite a way off.

5120 x 1440 is nearer 4k

I had no idea, I knew it was more powerful than 1440p since I didn't quite get as high fps as 1440p benchmarks did, but I wasn't aware thanks!

 

[themeg]

Can you add the config link to the bottom of your post, so that we can go in & tweak it for you.

At first look, you’ve got 2 x 2TB ultra-fast SSD, when you barely need one of them…and that can just be a 1TB model…keep the second (and/or 3rd) as gen 4 2-4TB models for your gaming. You’ll see zero benefit of a gen 5 SSD for gaming.

You also don’t want the Arctic paste if you buy a Corsair AIO, as the Corsair paste is better and more consistently applied at the factory.

A lot of the choice are very high end…but the case and motherboard are not, and there’s no need for an additional sound card as these are now included on the motherboards. If you want a similar looking case, but of much better build, then the Corsair 6500X or the LianLi O11Dynamic Evo is a good swap…and the 6500X doesn’t include any fans so you are free to configure it how you wish (although PCS don’t offer the 140mm fans I’d prefer).

Also, with the current config, you’ve got 3 types of fans (PCS ones in the case, RS ones in the kit, RX ones on the AIO). I’d suggest sticking to a single make/model if possible…even if it means dumping included fans to match them up.

Finally, for now, you need to remove Norton…as you don’t want that malware anywhere near your PC.

Sorry, meant to reply to you, please can you check my comment about the changes I've made, thank you!!

 

[TonyCarter]

If you wanted a white build (as I just realised you'd picked a white case and fans in your original config) then we'll have to start again with the Luna configurator...where all the white GPUs, motherboards, RAM, etc. are.

Here you go with a black build.

Case
LIAN LI O11DYNAMIC EVO RGB GAMING CASE - much better quality case (the 6500X comes in and out of stock all the time)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core CPU (Up to 5.2GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5) - no change
Motherboard
GIGABYTE X870E AORUS ELITE WIFI7 (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7) - at this level of build I'd want all the bells & whistles of the latest motherboard platform, and this is the next step up to the X670 Eagle
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz CL40 (2 x 32GB) AMD - left this as it is, but except in exceptional circumstances 32GB would be more than enough
Graphics Card
32GB PALIT GEFORCE RTX 5090 GAMEROCK - HDMI, 3 x DP - no change
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB CRUCIAL T705 GEN 5 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 14,500MB/sR, 12,700MB/sW) - smaller, but very fast primary SSD for Windows, apps and games launchers - this is probably overkill, and you could even go for a 1TB Corsair Elite or 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro (we'd advise against Samsungs as we've not gained much confidence in them since their failures from a few years back)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
4TB CORSAIR CORE XT MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 5000 MB/R, 4400 MB/W) - very reliable secondary drive for the huge game installs...best to keep games away from the primary drive for safety in case the OS drive fails (it's usually the primary drive that tends to be the one to fail...assuming it does of course) - no need for high speeds here as you'll see no benefit of it in gaming...and it's probably more sensible to spend the extra cash on more capacity than more speed
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W HXi SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM V2 - no change, excellent PSU
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core) - no change
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK TITAN 360 RX RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER - no change
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING - removed as the machine-applied Corsair AIO paste is better/more consistent
LED Lighting
2 x 35cm Corsair LS350 Aurora RGB Light Strips - no change
Extra Case Fans
4 x Corsair ICUE LINK RX120 RGB PWM Fan + Controller Kit - changed to the RX kit to match the AIO
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) - no change
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT - no change
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT) - no change
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS - no change
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence - no change
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language - no change
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account - no change
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required) - no change - no change
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE - removed as the built-in Microsoft Security suite is better
Browser
Google Chrome™ - no change
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) - no change
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI) - no change
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Price: £4,602.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/6PQzgNR0kZ/

 

[themeg]

If you wanted a white build (as I just realised you'd picked a white case and fans in your original config) then we'll have to start again with the Luna configurator...where all the white GPUs, motherboards, RAM, etc. are.

Here you go with a black build.

Case
LIAN LI O11DYNAMIC EVO RGB GAMING CASE - much better quality case (the 6500X comes in and out of stock all the time)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core CPU (Up to 5.2GHz/104MB w/3D V-CACHE/AM5) - no change
Motherboard
GIGABYTE X870E AORUS ELITE WIFI7 (AM5, DDR5, M.2 PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 7) - at this level of build I'd want all the bells & whistles of the latest motherboard platform, and this is the next step up to the X670 Eagle
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz CL40 (2 x 32GB) AMD - left this as it is, but except in exceptional circumstances 32GB would be more than enough
Graphics Card
32GB PALIT GEFORCE RTX 5090 GAMEROCK - HDMI, 3 x DP - no change
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB CRUCIAL T705 GEN 5 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 14,500MB/sR, 12,700MB/sW) - smaller, but very fast primary SSD for Windows, apps and games launchers - this is probably overkill, and you could even go for a 1TB Corsair Elite or 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro (we'd advise against Samsungs as we've not gained much confidence in them since their failures from a few years back)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
4TB CORSAIR CORE XT MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 5000 MB/R, 4400 MB/W) - very reliable secondary drive for the huge game installs...best to keep games away from the primary drive for safety in case the OS drive fails (it's usually the primary drive that tends to be the one to fail...assuming it does of course) - no need for high speeds here as you'll see no benefit of it in gaming...and it's probably more sensible to spend the extra cash on more capacity than more speed
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W HXi SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM V2 - no change, excellent PSU
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core) - no change
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK TITAN 360 RX RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER - no change
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING - removed as the machine-applied Corsair AIO paste is better/more consistent
LED Lighting
2 x 35cm Corsair LS350 Aurora RGB Light Strips - no change
Extra Case Fans
4 x Corsair ICUE LINK RX120 RGB PWM Fan + Controller Kit - changed to the RX kit to match the AIO
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) - no change
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT - no change
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT) - no change
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS - no change
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence - no change
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language - no change
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account - no change
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required) - no change - no change
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE - removed as the built-in Microsoft Security suite is better
Browser
Google Chrome™ - no change
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) - no change
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI) - no change
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Price: £4,602.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/6PQzgNR0kZ/

Thanks so much for your help! In all honesty, I'm not bothered about the colour scheme since it just goes on the floor beneath my desk anyway (not in a cupboard or anything, it's open space), I was just looking at a combo of black and white to switch it up, but again, it's not my main concern, the rest of my setup is black anyway (besides the monitor backplate but when using it, that's not noticeable)

I've kept most of your changes, except the storage and have downgraded to the 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro as you suggested the previous Crucial drive was likely overkill for someone who primarily games.

Another question, if you don't mind, I know 64GB RAM is likely overkill, but I'm trying to future-proof, however, would you advise the 32gb ram at 7200mhz as opposed to 64gb at 6000mhz. I'm unsure with this as I've heard anything over 6400mhz becomes unstable (is this the case?), so if this is a no, would the additional 400mhz between the 64gb 6000mhz and the 32gb 6400mhz make any noticeable difference?

EDIT: found a few people talking about this and am therefore deciding 64GB 6000mhz as apparently 6400 will make very little noticeable difference, and if I have more ram, hopefully I won't need to upgrade it any time soon, and I'm just not touching the 7200 as people say it requires some more fine tuning, which I know I won't be able to do.

It shouldn't matter too much that the case fans for the Lian Li are different to Corsair's RX, should it? From my understanding, it's just a matter of different software, e.g. corsair's icue, and honestly, no idea what software is used for the uni fans in the Lian Li case, but I don't tend to mess with any of that anyway, I don't change their stock speeds or anything like that, just allow it to do whatever it needs to.

I've tried doing as much of my own research as possible, but honestly, some of it I just don't understand at all and what difference they'd make, so thank you for your help!

Is this going to be enough cooling power do you reckon with the fans in the case, the fans on the AIO and the additional fans chosen? I'm hoping it should be sufficient.

Again, thank you!!

 

[TonyCarter]

Unless you're overclocking, you won't see any benefit of RAM faster than 6400MHz (and that is only a tiny % faster than 6000MHz in most cases).

The AM5 motherboards share memory controllers, so 2 x nGB is faster than 4 x nGB - but if you don't have any games (MSFS or some of the simulation 'games') / rendering tasks that can use 64GB then it's a waste of money.

The case fans and the AIO would probably be plenty of cooling by themselves - no really need for the extra RX fans except for filling the glass aquarium with more RGB and possibly allowing all the intake fans to be run at slower/quieter speeds.

 

[themeg]

Unless you're overclocking, you won't see any benefit of RAM faster than 6400MHz (and that is only a tiny % faster than 6000MHz in most cases).

The AM5 motherboards share memory controllers, so 2 x nGB is faster than 4 x nGB - but if you don't have any games (MSFS or some of the simulation 'games') / rendering tasks that can use 64GB then it's a waste of money.

The case fans and the AIO would probably be plenty of cooling by themselves - no really need for the extra RX fans except for filling the glass aquarium with more RGB and possibly allowing all the intake fans to be run at slower/quieter speeds.

Okay, thank you, I will then go for the 32gb 6000mhz and in the future, if need be, I can always add more.

It's not massively pricey to add more of the corsair rx fans compared to the rest of my budget, so I'll stick with the amount I have just so I have a bit of peace of mind that it'll run as cool and quiet as possible

Huge thank you for this!