6900XT build, not too sure what I'm doing any help appreciated

joe.joyce

New member
Hi,

I've put together a build based on some research, but I'm quite clueless in reality. Just for gaming and would like a system that is still useful a few years down the line. Main concerns:

- Colling adequate?
- CPU adequate?
- Motherboard choice? No idea about this
- Case choice? No idea, picked a pretty one
- Is having just an M.2 as my storage ok?
- Power supply is ok?
- Should I get a sound card for gaming or does motherboard have one?
- Sometimes I use wifi, should there be a network card or again is motherboard adequate?


Thank you for any advice.



Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY 2 LIGHT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO WIFI (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6900 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Supplied on USB Drive
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 14 to 17 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
 

DarTon

Well-known member
Hi and welcome.

It would be helpful if you could provide some context so that people on the forum can answer your questions. It would be useful to know what purpose the PC is to be used for: you say gaming but any idea what games and are there any other tasks at all? What monitor/monitors you intend to pair with the new PC? Finally, what the budget is, including for new monitors if you intend to buy those.
 

joe.joyce

New member
Hi Darton,

Thanks for the replay.

As well as gaming I would also use the PC for general purposes that would not likely be too demanding but would mean having good sound quality for listening to music and watching things, and general quickness (load times, multitasking not causing issues etc.) for a better experience would be valued. Not being too noisy would be a benefit, although I'm not sure how doable that is with a powerful PC and that is just a preference not a requirement. I also use at least 6 USB ports and am unsure of how many my build would have.

I play a large variety of games, including FPS games, MMO, old and new games. So generally I'd be hoping to play new releases for the next few years at a reasonable standard (60 FPS high settings @ 1080p) and achieve high FPS in shooter games (Valorant, CS:GO, COD etc.) - I use a 240hz monitor for gaming (BENQ Zowie XL2546).

The PC priced around 3k, I would happily go to 4k if it would improve performance or the lifetime of the computer but probably draw the line at that price. I think it's more helpful just to state that I want to build the PC around 6900XT and fit the requirements to that.
 
Last edited:

Bigfoot

Grand Master
I am not sure on the case. Someone else will advise. With the 5900x you need a Corsair AIO cooler (e.g. H115i Elite Capellix). You don't need anywhere near a 6900XT for a 1080p monitor and the system would be bottlenecked by the monitor. You would just be wasting money. You don't need 32GB RAM for gaming in most instances (FS2020 does need this). Storage would be better split between a 500GB super fast M.2 for OS and applications (Samsung 980 Pro or Firecuda 530) and a larger, but slower M.2 for games (e.g. Intel 670p). This can be supplemented with 7200 rpm HDD (Barracuda) for files that don't need fast storage. Silver warranty is well worth an extra £5.

For your increased budget you could probably afford a monitor that would do justice to a 6900XT or 3080. You would be looking at £800+ for this. If you don't want to do this a 3060Ti will be more than ample.
 

joe.joyce

New member
I am not sure on the case. Someone else will advise. With the 5900x you need a Corsair AIO cooler (e.g. H115i Elite Capellix). You don't need anywhere near a 6900XT for a 1080p monitor and the system would be bottlenecked by the monitor. You would just be wasting money. You don't need 32GB RAM for gaming in most instances (FS2020 does need this). Storage would be better split between a 500GB super fast M.2 for OS and applications (Samsung 980 Pro or Firecuda 530) and a larger, but slower M.2 for games (e.g. Intel 670p). This can be supplemented with 7200 rpm HDD (Barracuda) for files that don't need fast storage. Silver warranty is well worth an extra £5.

For your increased budget you could probably afford a monitor that would do justice to a 6900XT or 3080. You would be looking at £800+ for this. If you don't want to do this a 3060Ti will be more than ample.
Thank you, I will take your advice on the cooler and the warranty. Could you please explain the storage to me as I don't understand - is proposed as a performance benefit or a better use of budget? I'm not likely to get near 2TB of data so my thoughts were to just get the fastest available.

When it comes to budgetting decisions, overspending is not really an issue if it has potential for future value - having extra headroom is nice. The system being bottlenecked by my monitor is absolutely fine, and I would not rule out upgrading monitor in the future but also have an eye on ensuring I could reach high frame rates on FPS games that are released in future.
 

Bigfoot

Grand Master
Thank you, I will take your advice on the cooler and the warranty. Could you please explain the storage to me as I don't understand - is proposed as a performance benefit or a better use of budget? I'm not likely to get near 2TB of data so my thoughts were to just get the fastest available.

When it comes to budgetting decisions, overspending is not really an issue if it has potential for future value - having extra headroom is nice. The system being bottlenecked by my monitor is absolutely fine, and I would not rule out upgrading monitor in the future but also have an eye on ensuring I could reach high frame rates on FPS games that are released in future.
You can’t future proof a GPU. With your current monitor you would be using only a fraction of the power of the 6900XT. You would be better off getting a suitable graphics card for you current monitor and upgrading when you change your monitor in the future. The likelihood is that cheaper, more powerful GPUs will be on the market by the time you would use the extra power. If budget is no problem, why not buy a suitable screen to go with the 6900XT? With your budget 1080p seems like a waste. Going to 1440p 144Hz from 1080p 240Hz will make a massive difference to your gaming experience and that would only require a 3060Ti or 3070. You would really need something like a Samsung G9 or 4K 144Hz to get the benefit of one of the top spec graphics cards.

it is best to have separate drives for OS / main applications and games. This gives better performance due to 2 lanes of data transfer. The OS benefits most from the fastest possible drive and that drive needs to have a lot of free space to maintain its performance. Also, if you need to reinstall Windows you don’t lose all your games.
 
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