Big Specs Small Package Gaming PC build

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EDIT: Updated Parts List

It’s been a good many years since I last built a new PC, but my old GTX 1080 just died on me and forced my hand. Time to build a new one.

First version Prospective Parts List: 2025 Gaming - AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Radeon RX 9070 XT, Lian Li A3-mATX MicroATX Mini Tower - PCPartPicker

In the past I have been on team Intel and nVidia, but I get the feeling the winds are changing of late. EVGA was my go-to for graphics cards so I was devastated to see they’d left the market. I figure I might as well switch teams and try an AMD build this time. I’ve done my best to outline a build that will be future-proof enough to last a good while. I’ll try to clarify some of my choices but I’m very open to suggestions for alternative approaches.

The PC will be for gaming at 1440p ultrawide at over 100fps and I’m pretty sure I want to go with Linux, if it doesn’t cause too many problems. I’m not a linux newbie, but I’m also not an expert. I’ve lived with only linux machines before, and jumped through many a hoop to game on them, but my skills only go so far. If there’s support and drivers for the hardware I want, it won’t cut my performance in half, and I won’t need a degree to understand how to get it to work, I’d really like to abandon windows entirely.

The PC should be able to handle any of the latest games and at least a few years of future releases. I’m not terribly fussy about max settings so long as it plays smoothly and is solid. Stable frames are more important to me than super-ultra shiny settings. Monster Hunter Wilds is the current game I know I wouldn’t be able to play without this upgrade, but I’m sure there will be others. I also tend to multitask a lot, just have a lot of random things running at once, multiple games even, so I’d like have the breathing room to not have to worry about slowdowns from that.

I’m not opposed to overclocking but it’s been many years since I last tried and I’m not looking for something I need to tinker indefinitely. If it can be dialed in during assembly or in the first few days then temps checked every now and then that sounds great, but I’m not looking for something that takes regular upkeep or tuning.

I want a small form factor, and I have a soft-spot for unusual case layouts. My previous build was in an Apevia X-QPack3, weird little black clam-shell thing but I liked it a lot. So when I saw the Lian Li A3 it caught my attention immediately. I’m a huge fan, especially with the tempered glass side, though the O11 compact nearly won me over. If I were to change to a bigger case I’d almost certainly swap to that one.

The rest of the Lian Li internals just seemed to make sense, I like that the Hydroshift cooler keeps the coolant lines out of the view, and I like the way Lian Li’s fans chain together. I’m not sure if the 3 fans in the bottom will fit under the graphics card, or if that even makes much sense to do. I wanted to match the case back fan to the fans that come on the Hydroshift, but I’m not 100% sure it’s right. There is a fanless version of that cooler if I can’t manage to figure it out so I might go that direction.

I chose a Sapphire graphics card because it seemed like they had a good reputation for quality, and the Nitro+ specifically because I really like the way the power connection is hidden away in the back, having the power cables coming up and around to the front of the graphics card has always bothered me. But, I’ve seen the issues with the new 12VHPWR connector and that does scare me. I like having all the power for the graphics card in one cable, especially if the power supply supports it too, but not if it’s going to burn my house down.

I’m not 100% set on the monitor I have listed in the parts, but that’s in the realm of the type of display I’d like to be gaming on. I’ll probably also plug one of my old 1080p monitors in as an extra display, if it’ll fit on my desk.

The rest of the components were either things i saw in other builds that used similar components to what I wanted, or things that just seemed like they’d work.

Let me know what you think, or if I left anything out! Thanks for taking the time to look over my build!

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It should as there’s no realistic scenario where 12V-2x6 can handle a 9070 XT at what were previously considered normal risk levels. The Nitro+'s return current balance is also quite poor, though if one’s feeling creative it’s possible to argue trying to melt 24-pin or EPS in addition 12V-2x6 is a feature. I’d avoid the Taichi as well.

The supply crunch means 9070 data’s sparse but what I’m aware of suggests more for PowerColor than Sapphire on build quality. You can refer to the 9070 Linux thread for that aspect.

I don’t game but often at least a 2 TB drive is recommended in threads like this. Like any other E26 drive the T705’s essentially guaranteed to have thermal problems if run to a decent fraction of its potential but it doesn’t look like that’s the plan. 32 GB DDR is on the skinny side, suggestions for 64 are also common.

They won’t. 66 + 28 mm > 80 mm. All the recent-ish gen dGPUs’ve worked with can pull their own air fine. The A3’s bottom punching’s pretty decent open area but there’ll be some penalty from the restricted intake if the feet aren’t extended. Given the power density and case picks I take it noise isn’t much of a consideration, so probably not important. Speaking from experience, don’t underestimate making the mobo’s bottom connectors hard to get to, though, particularly with 12+4’s short wear life.

Personally I don’t find lighting worth the hassle and security vulnerabilities but if you’ve considered all that with the lack of L-Connect Linux support and are wanting to pay the high prices anyway, cool.

I’d use a front intake Hydro Pro Ti 1000, HX1000i, Cybercore II 1000, or similar rather than ask an 850 gold to handle ~600 W intaking GPU passthrough.

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If you want a 9070 XT that fits what you want to do, check out the PowerColor Reaper. 42mm width is a good thing.

Lighting and USB4 are the same connector and if the motherboard supports 40 Gbit the two should be able to be used interchangeably.

The storage is just overpriced and 1TB is still really cramped. Buy a 2TB Kingston Renegade or Western Digital SN850X for the same money, or step up to a 4TB drive for below $300.

The 9800X3D is a good CPU… But the 9900X offer more cores at 70-75% the cost and only 5%-10% reduction in performance. Better value IMO, especially as you can upgrade to the Zen 6 family in mid 2026 or early 2027.

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I second the 4TB drive dependent on price. The Nitro cards usually have dual bios which is neat. I’m biased towards Sapphire, it is a premium brand imo.

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Also… I would probably go with one of these three motherboards instead of the one you picked, all are objectively better and come with built in m.2 heatsinks and WiFi / Bluetooth. Of the three, Asus has the best quality features with 8 layer PCB and slightly better VRM setup, but the difference isn’t huge.

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Thank you all for your feedback! I’ve made some of the suggested changes and I have another handful of questions. Updated parts list is in the first post.

I had not thought about this at all but of course that’s going to be an issue. I don’t mind ditching the LCD screen on the AIO, but the other feature of the Hydroshift that I really liked is how it routs the tubes. Having them come up along the side of the radiator and then attach with right angled fittings is really attractive to me aesthetically, and seems like it would be great in a tight case. I don’t see any other AIO units doing that however, the ones I’ve seen have their tubes going straight in which pretty much ensures the tubes will have to hang down and through the middle of the case. I switched the parts list to an EK AIO that seems nice, but does anyone have suggestions for other coolers that could route their tubes the way the Lian Li Hydroshift does?

Yeah, especially for future proofing that makes a ton of sense.

Another very good catch about the intake direction. Shame the Lian Li one doesn’t have it’s on the other side. I’m a bit surprised you’d recommend going up to a 1000w unit when the PCPartPicker estimate is at 600w, I know you want some headroom but that’s nearly double. Is that common?

I think I half understood the first part but the ‘40 Gbit’ makes me think maybe not. Could you clarify what you mean here?

I had picked that SSD because it’s PCIe 5.0, though you’re right they are a lot more expensive. From what I was able to understand that offers a considerable max speed increase. I know that’s not really necessary but it seemed nice. You have me reconsidering though, perhaps it makes more sense to wait for the PCIe 5 drives to mature a bit and come down in price and add one then.

I like that Asus board for sure. Some of those features look very nice, like that quick release lever for the PCIe slots? Oh man that’s gonna be nice. One issue is that PCPartPicker is warning me about the graphics card. The slot for it is in the ‘second’ position on that motherboard, meaning the 4-ish slot wide card might not fit. It will mount properly, only needs 3 slots for that, and I think because of the A3 Case layout there’s just nothing down there to interfere with it if I don’t mount any fans down there. So I think it should be fine, but if anyone knows for sure one way or other or just has experience building in the A3 please let me know.

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~60% is if you care about PSU thermals and noise levels. Also efficiency to some degree, though recent gen supplies get pretty flat on 230 V mains. Since the PSU exhausts into the chassis in the A3 upping supply efficiency also helps more directly with other components’ thermals than when the exhaust is just contributing the local hotspot around the case or getting recirculated.

I don’t look at games particularly but the benches I’m aware of that do generally show minor differences and a PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 intermix. So it likely depends more on drive-workload interaction details than link potential.

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Sorry, I misread something. I was thinking of Thunderbolt vs USB4 and Apples lightning cable but the post I was referring to was complaining about (RGB) lighting. My bad :slight_smile:

PCIe 5.0 drives are not worth it currently, 4.0 drives are already fast enough. 5.0 is like buying a Ferrari for a road trip - what’s the point of a car that goes 150 mph when the max highway speed is 80 mph, except for the 1% of the journey that sets the max highway speed to 100 mph. Sure you can but you could’ve had a 3% less comfortable journey for half the money in, say, an electric Ford Mustang.

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i would replicate gearseekers lian li A3 build.

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You may want to look into using a quest 3 as your gaming monitor. There is a steam link app to let you use that eco system.