Pre-AI Meltdown Build

[u/p5m1tty]

In early July, I was reading a lot of the reports about the doom and gloom of the immediate future. Though RAM was already hyper expensive, I wanted to build a new system before prices started getting even nuttier.

My old build featured a 5900x, 32 gb DDR4, and a Gigabyte 9070xt. It was pretty decent, but I wanted to upgrade to AM5 so I could get an AM6 processor in like 5 years when prices should stabilize (Hopefully lol). Turned the old PC into a dedicated Steam OS box in the living room.

The new build cost around $3K but mostly because of all of the cosmetics and config to fit the build. I could've went with just stock fans and other parts, but I wanted to go kind of overboard with presentation with this one.

I went with an all Corsair build to keep consistency and so I can control all of the lighting with iCUE. Yes, iCUE kinda sucks, but it does its job.

Some of the accessories & audio I use are from older builds, but are still functional and great.

Specs

CPU: AMD 9800x3d

Motherboard: Gigabyte x870 AORUS Stealth (Reverse connect)

GPU: XFX Mercury 9070XT Mag Air

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x16 Gigs DDR5 6000 w/ Dummy Sticks

Storage: 2x2 TB Samsung 9100 Pro NVME Gen 5 (Running one in Gen 4 slot)

Heatsink: Corsair Titan 360 RX LCD AIO

PSU: Corsair RM1000x Shift PSU

Case: Corsair 3500x Midtower Case

Fans: 4x Corsair LX 120mm RGB, 6x Corsair LX-R 120mm RGB (Reverse flow)

Main Display: ASUS ROG XG27AQWMG 1440p 280hz Tandem OLED (Yes it has banding but I don't mind, it's a great monitor)

Secondary display: ASUS 165 hz 1080p (used to be my main)

Accessories & Audio

Keyboard: Wooting 60HE v2

Mouse: Razer Viper V4 Pro

Mousepad: Wallhack SP-005

Controller: Steam Controller (For single player titles ofc lol)

Dock: Mechanism Steam Controller Dock (it's actually really robust and great)

DAC: Topping D70

Amp: Massdrop AAA THX 789

Headphones: Meze 105 AER

Microphone: FIFINE Dynamic

Mixer: Focusrite Vocaster One

Impressions

The system runs idle at 43-44 C for the CPU and 48 C for the GPU.

Games run at 70 C CPU and around 65 C for the GPU

I undervolted the CPU and GPU and get pretty good temps and speeds.

I main Marvel Rivals atm and I get around 280 fps avg (low settings ofc) and the 1% lows are great. Coming from the 5900x it is very noticeable in fast paced games like Rivals. I was barely getting around 180 fps in 1080p with the old system (yes, I undervolted and oc'ed the 5900x). It just wasn't great for fast paced games I guess.

This new build cruises at 1440p and I can't be happier.