Looking for people to double-check a build I'm speccing out for a friend, approximately $2500 USD budget
Hi, I'm putting together a gaming PC build for a friend, with a loose $2500 budget (it's alright if I go over somewhat). I'm making it an ATX build, not looking to overclock, sticking with air cooling, and trying to maximize power as well as upgradability.…
Hi, I'm putting together a gaming PC build for a friend, with a loose $2500 budget (it's alright if I go over somewhat). I'm making it an ATX build, not looking to overclock, sticking with air cooling, and trying to maximize power as well as upgradability. I've put together a list which I think is a good option but im curious if its the best I can do or if I've put too much money into one component or another (i.e. is a Ryzen 9 9900X3D and an RTX 5070 Ti a good combo?) Thanks for any help or notes, and feel free to ask questions for more info. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/p4kyxf
Collected discussion
It's for gaming, the only two requirements he gave are that it needs to run Witcher 3 and Baldurs Gate 3, but of course I want it to be as powerful as possible for the budget. Why isn't the 9900X3D the best gaming CPU, and what would be a better option? Also, why is the Phantom Spirit a better CPU cooler?
It is dual tower and cools alot and is quit https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermalright-phantom-spirit-120-review/2 But i dont know if it is enough (it probably is) but that cooler you picked is definitely not enough The case only comes with 2 fans wich is not enough so i would look for an aio 360mm so you have even better cooling and more case fans This seems like a good aio that is good enough for your cpu but better could be nice. Thermalright Aqua Elite ARGB V6 70.84 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Too much brand tax. Needlessly expensive motherboard. CPU cooler choice is "meh". SSD is PCIe5 but kind of a low-end spec and only 1TB. 9900X3D is a "meh" CPU overall. This is cheaper, the storage space is doubled (and likely faster despite being PCIe4), power supply is better made and cheaper, RAM is better value, dual-tower cooler. PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor $414.99 @ Amazon CPU Cooler Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler $34.90 @ Amazon Motherboard MSI PRO B850-V EVO WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard $148.79 @ Amazon Memory Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory $389.97 @ Silicon Power Storage SanDisk Extreme 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $299.00 @ Amazon Video Card MSI SHADOW 3X OC GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB Video Card $979.99 @ Amazon Case Fractal Design North ATX Mid Tower Case $154.97 @ Amazon Power Supply Montech CENTURY II 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $79.90 @ Newegg Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total $2502.51 Generated by PCPartPicker 2026-08-03 12:43 EDT-0400
One thing I realize I forgot to mention is that the build may also be used for Autodesk maya, which I think is better to have an Nvidia GPU for
Thanks! The motherboard option is definitely better than the one I had, and I found a crucial SSD for 20$ cheaper than this one. I also found that the consensus is I should swap the ryzen 9 for the ryzen 7
Thanks! I think the graphics card recommendation is better than the one I had!
O ok then the 5070ti makes perfect sense
What is your friend using this computer for? The 9900X3D isn't the best gaming CPU. The cooler you picked isn't very good. Look at the Thermalright Phantom Spirit.
The 9900X3D is laid out internally as two separate 6-core chiplets called CCDs. Only a single CCD has access to the extra L3 cache of the X3D CPU. So, for gaming, it's essentially a 6 core chip. The 9800X3D is a single 8-core CCD and will be faster in gaming.
Maby lookat the 9070xt it is cheaper for the same preformence
saved you 100$ while having a 2tb ssd PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz 8-Core Processor $414.99 @ Amazon CPU Cooler Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler $35.90 @ Amazon Motherboard MSI B650 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard $129.99 @ MSI Memory Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory $389.97 @ Silicon Power Storage Patriot P400 Lite 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $244.99 @ Newegg Video Card PNY OC GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB Video Card $949.97 @ Amazon Case Fractal Design North ATX Mid Tower Case $154.97 @ Amazon Power Supply Montech CENTURY II 1050 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $89.90 @ Amazon Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total $2410.68 Generated by PCPartPicker 2026-08-03 12:49 EDT-0400