Hello all,
I was at my local Micro Center where I was able to pick up a 9800X3D. I figured I may as well take the opportunity since it was in stock and I’ve been considering putting something new together. Whenever the 9950X3D rolls around that could be a consideration to swap to.
Part of my consideration for this build is connectivity to home lab stuff. I see things like the ProArt board having 10GbE and all the USB connectivity. USB4, probably plenty of interesting stuff I could get for that. My homelab stuff is mostly 100Gb and 25Gb.
I have some components (mostly storage) that I was hoping would help to drive some suggestions for the rest of this build or peripherals. Let me go through General Guidelines information first:
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Budget - Unlimited, but looking for what makes sense. Willing to spend more on things if it’s worth it or matches a good use case.
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Where do you live? Currency? - USA. USD.
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Is there a retailer you prefer? - No
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Do you need or already have peripherals? - Considering new options. I am considering a 4K OLED monitor like the AW3225QF or ASUS PG32UCDP. I’ve hesitated on this because going from 38" down to 32" feels sad but probably worth getting over it. I’m also thinking it’s time to ditch ultrawide in favor of 16:9/3840×2160. Current main display is a AW3821DW. Not sure what all the 4K OLED high refresh options are today.
Thinking of a new keyboard as well. My current Ducky ONE has weird issues where it doesn’t register keystrokes sometimes. Annoyingly gone through the firmware updates for it with “mixed” success. It seems to come and go as an issue so I’ve just sort of put up with it haha. -
What will you be using your Glorious computer for? - Gaming and if possible some “workstation” things related to GenAI and HPC. Just for learning/experimentation with what I have at my disposal.
I am currently working in this space in a non-technical role but would like to work on that in my free time to make myself more valuable in my current role and potentially future ones (slapping GenAI on my LinkedIn has gotten me lots of fun offers). Previous roles were all technical. Enterprise storage focused. -
Do you overclock or want to get into overclocking? - I have done so in the past but it’s not all that important to me. It would be on interest to invest in cooling options to make this something I can pursue in the future.
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Do you plan on going for custom water-cooling now, or in the future? - Nah not that far though, not custom. Air cooling or an AIO would be more my speed.
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Operating System. Do you need a new one? - I want to force myself to use Linux. At worst dual boot.
Gaming Questions:
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What kind of settings do you like or what FPS do you want to play at? - Highest settings while attempting to maintain 144 fps / Hz. If I have difficulty getting that (hello Cyberpunk on release) I favor fps/refresh rate.
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What resolution will you be playing at? //or would like to play at. - 4K if I get a high refresh rate OLED monitor. The AW3821DW is 3840x1600. I also have two other displays. An AW3418DW and a Dell 4K monitor that I put into portrait. Obviously gaming is only on the single 38" display. I am thinking of overhauling this display setup.
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What kind of games do you like to play? - Everything. From indie to Quad AAAA games or whatever they want to call themselves these days. Been doing a lot less gaming these days though.
Ok so here’s some components I already have and can use:
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GPU - RTX 3080 TI while I wait to see value prop of RTX 5000 cards.
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Storage - Have a lot of stuff here.
1x Optane 905P 1.5TB
8x Optane P1600X 118GB
12x Samsung 990 Pro 2TB
a few PM1725 1.6TB HHHL cards
A boatload of U.2 NVMe drives both Gen3 and Gen4.
A few mechanical drives with decent capacity (20TB+). Probably use externally.
Have a few ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Gen5 Cards I can use. Seems like out of the motherboard options available these would probably go unused. -
Networking
I have a CX4 25Gb and 100Gb cards which I could potentially use. -
Audio
I have a Schiit Stack
I am thinking out of the storage I have available the 905P could be used as an OS drive. I’d be interested in picking up a few T705s. The P5800X is of interest as an option but eh I suppose I’d just use the 905P.
Ok that’s a lot of info. Sorry. Let’s keep going.
Here’s components I am considering for this. This is where I’d love suggestions based on what I have and what I may acquire for this build.
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CPU Cooler
Not sure. Suggestions please! -
Case Options
Fractal North XL
ProArt PA602 -
Motherboard Options
ProArt X870E
STRIX X870E-E
Aorus X870E Xtreme AI TOP (what a name)
AsRock X870E Taichi -
Memory
Not sure. Going by @wendell sweet spot recommendations- going 2x 48GB @ 6000? ECC would be nice. Not sure who to go with to get to that recommendation. Kingston? -
PSU
Not sure. Modular. 1000w? SilverStone?
Going with all ProArt stuff (AIO, case, motherboard) is definitely an interesting consideration. Wonder if there’s some sort of combo deal for doing that other than a double thumbs up from ASUS.
Well anyhow I’m sure this is all way too much info. Appreciate anyone taking the time to read and offer suggestions. Thanks!