90K+ First ever PC build, please help me sanity check

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l34sh

Contributor
Hey everyone,

So I finally saved up money from my first job to build my dream PC. I've only ever owned a hand-me-down gaming laptop and a PS5, so I'm very excited (and nervous) to build this :D

I managed to grab an RTX 5080 FE at MSRP which is what prompted this whole build.

I've done a fair bit of research but before I pull the trigger, could you guys help me sanity check if everything looks okay? I wanna be sure that I am not wasting unnecessary money somewhere and I'm willing to spend a little more if it gets me better performance/reliability.

I'm also a bit unsure about the motherboard, these are two other options which are priced similarly:
  1. GIGABYTE B850 Aorus Elite Wifi7 DDR5
  2. Msi Pro B850-P WiFi AM5 ATX
Thank you!

Primary Use Case: Gaming (Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, Black Myth Wukong, Forza Horizon 5 etc.)

Target Resolution and Refresh Rate: 4K @ 120Hz (LG C4 42")

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I feel like this is a very solid build already, I was looking to do a similar build for a friend so i have some opinions:

I would instead go with 2TB x 2 SN770 (or something similar or cheaper) drives instead of the SN850x x 1 simply because games (especially the ones you pointed out) are all 100GB+ games.. and since you are not doing any productivity work, I don't think you will see a difference going with the SN850x.. Could also go 1TB SN850 and 2TB SN570 or 770.

For the motherboard i would go with a x870 at a 24kish budget.. you should be able to buy a X870 Gaming plus from MSI or Asrock boards for that money. However my personal preference would have been to buy the cheapest full atx board with a pciegen 5 x16 slot and 3 m2 slots with wifi.. i believe boards like these should be available under 20kish.

I would have gone with the non-rgb version of the A LF 3 and saved some money there.

I would pick a case which does not require additional fans to cool the gpu better, for eg a Lancool 207 comes with all the fans you need and you just need to add the AIO.. if you are dead set on a 360 AIO and RGB i would instead go with the O11 vision compact + Deepcool LE360 V2 + 2 sets of UNI fans and make it a full on pretty build.. no half assed efforts.. either all black or full prettiness.

If you dont care about looks.. a AG620 cooler and Lancool 207 is cheap and will perform equally good.

You can easily save money by going with the Deepcool PN850M ATX 3.1 supply.. it comes with pre sleeved cables which look nice, its available for 9k and will handle your components just fine.. 1000Watts is quite overkill.

EDIT: also buy everything from 1 store to avoid shipping costs.
 
Great advice on the SSD, I'm definitely considering this.

Yeah so the reason I chose Antec C5 is because it comes pre-installed with 7 ARGB PWM fans which felt like a solid deal at this price. That combined with the ALF3 would give me an all-RGB setup.

I've gotten the advice regarding PSU from multiple people now, so I think I will make that change as well.

Thanks a lot this was really helpful :)
 
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You can easily save money if you don't care about aesthetics much. Still, I have included a fish tank case here:

It is under 1.1L vs 1.3L+ you initially built. Go for 1000W PSU, if you ever see yourself buying a 5090 like power hungry GPU. My rig has 750W PSU FYI.

360mm AIO is not at all required unless you are thinking of overclocking the CPU, which IMO is a waste of power. I have undervolted my 9800X3D with -20 offset, temps stay under 85C even in continuos Cinebench run at under 130W power draw on a measly AK400 cooler. For gaming, power draw is usually between 60-80W (depends on the game) & temps are under 70C (dependent on GPU temps as well).

Similarly, I undervolted my 5080FE to have the same performance as stock at a lower power draw. 5080FE has 360W TDP but actual power draw at stock is like 300-330W in most games because of voltage limit. With 910mV @ 2750MHz (stock is 2800MHz at 1025mV or so), I get stock-like performance at 200-280W power draw. FF VII Rebirth was the only game where GPU power draw was going upto 330W (avg just under 300W), now after UV it goes upto 280W (avg around 240W). Similarly in CoD BO6 MP, power draw went down from ~250W to under 200W while in-game.

I hope this helps.
 
Consider motherboard placement of the top M.2 slot.
On some B850 boards (like the Tomahawk), the primary M.2 slot is directly under the GPU, which gets toasty with a 5080 FE. If you're sticking with a single SSD, no issue. But if you're adding a second NVMe later, check clearance and thermal pads or shields.

Another thought: If you're running Windows 11, disable VBS (Virtualization-Based Security) - it's known to reduce fps in CPU-bound scenarios. Easy boost. G C4 is a brilliant choice, but if you haven’t bought it yet, peek at the ASUS PG32UCDM (QD-OLED, 240Hz) - worth a future upgrade note. Lastly do a dry-run assembly outside the case to test POST before routing cables. It saves hours of frustration later.

Everything else looks clean, man. It’s rare to see this much pre-purchase thought. Respect.
 
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Thanks a lot for the feedback!
I will mostly stick with the single SSD but this is awesome advice, I never thought about the impact of pass through cooler on thermals - definitely something I'll keep in mind.

I already got the C4 last year when I saw it was available - High refresh rate OLED HDR has been a dream of mine and I couldn't help myself when I saw it was available lol.

Really appreciate the advice regarding windows - I haven't owned a windows system in a while so I have been trying to get myself up to date on all the shenanigans they have pulled in the last few years. I remember Game Bar used to also have an impact on performance but I've heard it's better now.
 
l34sh said:
Thanks a lot for the feedback!
I will mostly stick with the single SSD but this is awesome advice, I never thought about the impact of pass through cooler on thermals - definitely something I'll keep in mind.

I already got the C4 last year when I saw it was available - High refresh rate OLED HDR has been a dream of mine and I couldn't help myself when I saw it was available lol.

Really appreciate the advice regarding windows - I haven't owned a windows system in a while so I have been trying to get myself up to date on all the shenanigans they have pulled in the last few years. I remember Game Bar used to also have an impact on performance but I've heard it's better now.
Click to expand...

Glad it helped! Sticking with a single SSD definitely simplifies thermals, especially under a chunky GPU. Awesome call on the C4 - OLED + high refresh is a killer combo. And yep, Windows has come a long way, but still worth trimming the bloat (Game Bar, Xbox services, VBS etc.) for smoother performance. Feel free to ping if anything comes up during setup!
 
As I had mentioned, the RTX 5080 is the only part of this build that I already owned when I posted this thread. It's a Founder's Edition - which means I got it far below anything you can find in the market at the moment, including any 4080 or 4080 Super.

Anyway, the build is complete so thanks everyone for your advice :)
Sharing the images of the final setup. Again, thanks a lot everyone. Had a lot of fun building it!

https://imgur.com/nDyBfr5

https://imgur.com/aVuQFdH

https://imgur.com/RgGfoZE
 
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l34sh said:
As I had mentioned, the RTX 5080 is the only part of this build that I already owned when I posted this thread. It's a Founder's Edition - which means I got it far below anything you can find in the market at the moment, including any 4080 or 4080 Super.

Anyway, the build is complete so thanks everyone for your advice :)
Sharing the images of the final setup. Again, thanks a lot everyone. Had a lot of fun building it!

https://imgur.com/nDyBfr5

https://imgur.com/aVuQFdH

https://imgur.com/RgGfoZE
Click to expand...
Specs? Price you paid for each part?
 
Just curious what are your CPU & GPU's idle temps & temps while gaming?

I have 9800X3D + 5080FE as well. Temps are like 65-75C for CPU & GPU depending on the game & idle temps are around 50C (GPU fans are at 0 RPM). But my CPU cooler is a puny AK400 inside Lian Li Lancool II Mesh.
 
Mine idle around the same temps. Thermal stress benchmarks on CPU can make it climb to 87-90C; in regular load it is about the same as yours.
The ambient temps in my room are a bit high though - even AC seems to be ineffective in the brutal summer heat :dead:
 
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