I’m looking forward to building my first new computer since the i5-2500k and trying water cooling (although not initially). I’m upgrading from a Gigabyte Auros 15G (i7-10870H and 3080) which is always loud and overheating. I’ve already replaced the fans and thermal compound once, and after a few months, it was loud and overheating again. Budget: £3000 - this will be done in three parts: main build + GPU + water cooling Main uses of intended build: YouTube, PowerPoint and my backlog of games: GTA6, Hogwarts, Cyberpunk Parts required: Previous build information: Gigabyte Auros 15G (i7-10870H and 3080) Monitor resolution: 4k Storage requirements: I have a NAS for media storage but I would like support for 3+ M.2 drives Will you be overclocking: probably, depending on the platform Motherboard requirements: 3+ M.2, 2.5GbE, lots of USB. I'm a bit confused regarding which platform I need in order to have full PCIe lanes for the GPU and the ability to populate all the M.2 slots. Extra information: I will be hiring someone to do hardline tubing after the 5080 is available, but do to noise, issues with the network adapter and overheating I want to get the rest of the computer built not that the new AMD and Intel CPUs are out. Main questions: Which O11 case is the most suitable, O11 EVO RGB or O11 EVO XL Which MB should I pair with the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Who currently makes the best link fan system, LianLi uni fans? Components Case: LianLi O11 DYNAMIC EVO RGB or EVO XL (white) CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE WHITE This will be upgraded to either 2/3x 360mm or 2x 420mm + distro plate GPU: RTX 5080 Late January / Early February 2025 RAM: Corsair DDR5-6800 CL32 RGB SL MB: Gigabyte X870E AORUS PRO ICE or ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO Storage: WD Black SN850X 2TB + 4TB PSU: 1000w/1200w - NZXT | C Gold 1200W or 1000w is 1000w enough or should I go with a 1200w? FANS: Lian Li uni fans 120mm or 140mm 3 + 3 reverse UPS: APC BR1500G-CN UPS Reusing Mouse: Logitech Pro Superlight Keyboard: Keychron Q1 pro Monitor: Gigabyte M32Q HDMI 2.0 x2 + Display port 1.4 x1 (capable for HDR) Speaker: Kali LP-UNF
Motherboards have got to a point where they don't really have an impact on performance anymore, why full on reviews for them are a scarcity these days. It's pretty much finding one with the io capacity you want and like the look of. Having a read through the manual for the gigglebutt board, it has a nice block diagram of the Io and where it comes from: It has 4 m.2 slots M2A_CPU has it's own dedicated pcie5 X4 M2B_CPU and M2C_CPU share a pcie5 X4, but this is also shared with the main pcie5 x16, so installing an m.2 in either of those slots with limit the main GPU slot to x8 M2D_MB comes off the chipset So there'd only actually 2 m.2 slots you can use without limiting the pcie5 x16 slot for the GPU to a x8 The NZXT N9 X870E might fit the bill, but it's not released yet so there's no manual to confirm if it you can use 3 m.2 and not limit the pcie5 x16 slot. The ASUS ROG STRIX X870-A GAMING WiFi can have a full pcie5 x16, one pice5 x4 m.2, and 2 pcie4 X4 m.2 drives Edit: SSD, If you meant the Samsung 980, absolutely not, avoid like the plague. They had a habit of dying prematurely. Corsair mp700 for pcie5 or mp600 pro/elite for pcie4 are good, sabrent, WD black, kioxia (who are Toshiba in disguise) all good choices too. RAM: entirely personal choice on what fits your look. Haven't seen a review that uses the 9800x3d with faster ram, always seems to be 6000mt, think der8auer should have something up soon, maybe jay too, might be worth considering. Maybe a speed bump that doesn't have really slack timings to get there. PSU: Even 1000w is overkill. Find one with native pcie 12+4-pin 12vhpwr connectors, the newer version of the connector that allegedly reduces risk of melting.
Obviously biased, but Corsair for RAM, Case, PSU and Storage are imo best in class. Case is more of a personal taste thing though. those 011 cases are nice. When it comes to motherboards I'm a massive ASRock fan. When we were bit-tech, they were absolutely rock solid and had cool staff happy to have an engineering conversation with us. This is my upcoming build with the GPU being a 5090 i think CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE LINK TITAN 360 RX LCD Motherboard: ASRock X670E Steel Legend ATX AM5 Motherboard Memory: Corsair Dominator Titanium 48 GB (2 x 24 GB) DDR5-7200 CL36 Storage: Corsair MP700 Elite 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 Video Card: Asus ROG STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB Video Card Case: Corsair 5000D AIRFLOW Power Supply: Corsair HX1500i (2023) 1500W
@The_Crapman The NZXT N9 X870E board looks really nice, any idea about price and release date? Are Asus still good, I remember some people complaining about them before? @MLyons I've used ASRock boards before and I'm not brand loyal, although I almost exclusively use Corsair for memory and storage ... sadly the Samsung 980 pro seems to have some problems. I've used them since the Samsung 830. The Corsair iCUE LINK TITAN 360 RX LCD looks good but I will go with a custom loop after the release of the 5080 so I will go with a cheaper air cooler at first. As for the Corsair Dominator Titanium 48 GB (2 x 24 GB) DDR5-7200 CL36, are the Dominators worth the premium? I didn't think the chips were different but could be wrong. As for the case, I'm waiting for a large enough box so that I can cut out the case shape and see how they will fit on my desk. The 5000D AIRFLOW doesn't seem as suitable for a dual radiator loop. Also, isn't a 1500w PSU a bit overkill?
I'm honestly not 100% sure. I just go based on the motherboard QVL as I've been burnt by not doing that too many times. That case is a placeholder to be honest, but I can't say much more than that. Yeah probably. But when you get an employee discount it helps. The HX1000i is probably better suited. Once the cards are released we'll be sharing messaging around what PSUs we recommend based on CPU and GPU
Asus bpards are still decent, just pricey in comparison, but not many white boards about this gen. NZXT board is "q1 2025" so bit of a big window, could be end of march, who knows? Corsair 5000x airflow could do a triple 360 loop, the 7000x could do 2 480 and a 360. Or they do an O11 esque dual chamber one the 6500x which would do 3x 360. (Should be noted Corsair were doing dual chamber before the o11 turned up though!) Mr Lyons makes me think they might have something imminent that would be a consideration. An icue-link case with that all plumbed in ready would be nice.
Asus has been getting some negative press in recent times due to poor support, but honestly... thats pretty much industry standard practice, so it doesn't make too much of a difference. The Samsung 980 Pro had issues with a faulty firmware killing the controller, I've had to RMA mine (luckily Scan played nice)... they've since fixed the issue a firmware update, but they've also released the newer 990 Pro which runs cooler regardless, so if you want to go Samsung then get the 990 Pro instead of the 980 Pro. If you wanted the absolute cream of the crop then the Crucial T705 would be the one... but the price is crazy and the performance difference between various high end SSDs ain't particularly big. If you are looking for a cheap but good aircooler, the Thermalright lineup can't really be beaten. I wouldn't touch Corsair Dominator ram with a 15 ft pole, while they work just fine the regular Corsair Vengeance RAM is cheaper and works just as well. You can easily fit 2x 360 rads in the Corsair 5000D, so no worries about putting two loops in there. 1500W is definitely overkill and while the 5090 will certainly be power hungry there is no chance it'll need a 1500W psu.
I'm most confused about the Motherboard - X870E (44/23) vs X670E (44/23) vs X870 (36/24) The X870E boards are going for £350+ while X670E and X870 are going for around £190-£260 Is there any reason I shouldn't be going with an X670E? Based on the above advice: Corsair MP600 Pro NH 2TB £110 Corsair MP600 Pro NH 4TB £230 WD Black SN850X 2TB £98 WD Black SN850X 4TB £202 From what I can tell, these perform the same. Is there any benefit for PCIe 5.0 for an OS drive? I know they kick out a lot more heat.
Unless you have some very specific needs/wants such as PCIe 5 or a ton of IO, a B650(e) is plenty. You can also wait for B850 (if that becomes a thing).
Thanks, I'll stick with PCIe gen4 in the case. I don't want to wait, I'm laptop has issues, noisy fans (already replaced once), overheating, and the network adaptor frequently needing to be reset. I will go with either X670E or X870E, depending on bundle prices. I've seen some comments that the X870 is more stable and has a better bios for the 9800x3d so that would be ideal depending on price of course. Is there a difference in the number of PCIe lanes used between Gen4 and Gen5 m.2 drives ie. will a PCIe gen4 use 2x PCIe gen5 lanes?
It's one of those things that you'd know if you needed it. Even our 3D render team don't see the need for PCIe 5.0 drives. DirectStorage is the only potential gaming reason for it and the support for it is pretty slim.
You just need to be careful that you can fit 3 m.2 drives without knocking the main pcie5 x16 for the GPU to x8. If there's an x670e board with the Io you want in white, shouldn't be much of a problem, just make sure it has a bios flash facility, as will likely need updating before you can put the 9800x3d in
Not 100% sure, but I think one of the requirements for AM5 motherboards imposed by AMD is bios flashback. EDIT: it's not, but pretty much all motherboards except some A620 have it.
DirectStorage works just fine with gen 4 drives as any half decent one is faster than the super cheapo ones in the consoles.
I mean if the game is using DirectStorage there's a slim change the extra speed going from gen 4 to gen 5 might be worth it but I highly doubt it.
I'm very close to pulling the plug. I'm just waiting for the CPU to come back in stock at retail. I have a few more questions ... for now. Motherboards: Is the AORUS PRO ICE the better board? Not many options for boards in white. Gigabyte X870E AORUS PRO ICE – £280 - 2000+ sold ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO - £290 - less than 100 sold PSU: That list is based on the Cultists Network – Tier A • High-end ( ATX 3.0 compatible ). I didn't check the units in the ( multi/single-rail switchable ), ( multi-rail only ) or ( single-rail ). I assume the top category is better? I don't know much about PSUs. This is assuming a 1000w will be enough. I can go with a 1200w. Should I be looking for an ATX 3.1 PSU? Corsair | RMe 1000W – £111 RMx SHIFT - £149 NZXT | C Gold 1200W - £130 MSI | MEG Ai-P - £170 Silverstone | HELA-R [HA-R] 1200W - £186 Super Flower | Leadex VII Gold 1000w- £92 Thermaltake | Toughpower : GF3 <=1200W & 1350W - 1000w - £ 89 Parts list for reference: Case: LianLi O11 DYNAMIC EVO RGB or EVO XL (white) CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE WHITE - upgrading to a custom loop later GPU: RTX 5080 Late January / Early February 2025 RAM: Corsair DDR5-6800 CL32 RGB SL Storage: WD Black SN850X 2TB + 4TB MB: Gigabyte X870E AORUS PRO ICE or ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO PSU: Super Flower Leadex VII Gold 1000w
Basically the main difference between ATX 3.0 and 3.1 is that they changed the connectors slightly to reduce the chance of a GPU power cable not being fully plugged in (and potentially starting a fire as a result). Does that mean you need an ATX 3.1 PSU? No, you just need to be careful to make sure the gpu power cable is properly plugged in to basically turn a 3.0 psu into a 3.1 psu. As for the motherboard, the Gigabyte X870E AORUS PRO ICE is perfectly fine. The Rog Hero would be good as well... but the price is a joke. It offers nowhere near enough extra to justify the cost.
