...yeah, it's time. I've finally found games I actually want to play that require a half-decent machine, I make all my money on the computer, and I regularly do video editing as well. I always keep my machines for a long time, so they need to be as future-proof as possible and I can't justify saving up for a PC unless it's going to be good enough for the foreseeable future. So here's where my head is at, I'd be grateful for any advice.
tl;dr https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xjP3yF for the general idea, but I'm open to other ideas. It's going to be a linux machine, and all AMD since I hear the drivers work better/are less fiddly. Aesthetically, I like an all-white motif but looks are secondary to pure power and long life. I would like to be able to emulate PS4, Xbox 360, run S&box so my kid can make games, and render my clip shows at high speed. The budget I'm targeting is about £2k. Will mean saving up for a couple months. Parts I'm considering:
CPU
- Ryzen 9 9950X3D (I'm most excited about having a strong CPU, this one appeals to me even though it's a bit of a splurge)
- Ryzen 9 7950X3D
- Ryzen 9 7900X3D
GPU
Anything AMD, 16gb preferred but at least 12gb. AMD RX 6800XT or higher perhaps. RX 7800 XT or similar would be great.
Memory
16gb preferred, DDR5, not too fussy about brand. Maybe someday another 16gb if it becomes worthwhile.
Storage
1 or 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD, any really who cares. I don't need a lot of storage, most of my games are lightweight indies or backed up on my server.
Power Supply
Anything 850-1000w, preferably modular? I dunno.
Cooling
Possibly an AIO liquid cooler. I'm iffy on that, would be happy with a fan if it's more recommended.
Case
Fractal does a nice white wood effect one (North XL), as does Antec (Flux Pro). Happy with anything that matches, but don't really love showy RGB, prefer understated and clean looks.
That sounds okay for what you're aiming for, maybe a bit overpowered on the CPU front but it does sound like you want this build to last a while. If you need to save some money on the build you could maybe step down on the CPU side of things but I totally get it if you want to stick to something higher end.. in 5+ years you'll probably be happy you went with the better CPU, IMO.
DDR5 RAM is going to be the pain point in terms of cost right now but 16 GB is okay starting out.
If the system case you get can handle an AIO liquid cooler then I'd go with that for sure. CPU fans are okay but they tend to be a tad bit noisier than a liquid cooler in my own experience.
Not sure if you care about fan noise but I've been using the quieter Noctua fans for my own builds, they're great and well worth it if you're doing a build and care about that sort of thing.
Thanks for the courage, one other person is saying a multi-CCD CPU might be a downside for gaming. Is that a serious concern? I've read elsewhere you can disable the extra CCD if you need to. If it's the kind of thing I'd want seven years down the road but leave one of the CCDs disabled for several years, it might still be worth it for me to just have it ready to unleash when the time comes - is that stupid? I don't even know, it sounds too hilarious to be clever.