Old OC'r wants to build and learn for gaming.

[deathstar13]

Trust me ill be eating alot of canned soup this month, When i go nutz with spending i do it right!
i almost spent my grocery money on the drive, But remembered i need a GPU still.

This is my idea, This is the fastest Gen5 on the market and at 1TB its perfect for windows and small programs.

Amazon.com

This one is 2x2TB or 1x 4TB which ever i find is better,with Dram Cache for games. at $20 extra per drive ill take the Dram Cache.

Amazon.com

I know you give advice thats good and i seem to not take it but it teaches me at what to look for and make my own decisions.
I watch PC reviews and test all day long as im retired and have the time.
in all my vids ive watched each reviewers say Windows is snappier on this Gen 5 drive and feel its much faster speeds of 13,600/10,200MB/s and random read/writes of up to 1,400K/1,750K IOPS and thats versus other Gen5 drives not just Gen4.

Im one of those old guys who used to take WD Raptors in Raid0 and Sata was hitting the market when i stopped building pc's
I look at the build like i have a fast as hell CPU, fast memory then overclocked and timings tweaked and my HDD's maxed out so i have no bottlenecks except a mid range GPU, That i just buy what will run what i need.

So any GPU suggestions under $400-$500? or is the Radeon 7600 xt 12GB model all i need? i looked at current Nvidea cards and i can buy a used car for what they are going for. I know im looking for 12-16GB onboard ram. so im also looking at the 7700,7800, and 7900 cards. But im thinking of staying with the 7600 XT 12GB and save money for my gaming drives.

My PSU is showing up tomorrow as i swear Amazon sells crack and can have it at your door in 12hours or less.
ill take some pics as i do have to install some blue leds and a UV light both of which will barely like the case as i dislike RGB lighting but it needs a bit of glow. Its a Musetek fishbowl in black and tinted windows and no RGB on anything, Everything is black inside too.

You said you don't game, but do you do tasks that can benefit from cuda cores in an nvidia card? Programs like blender, handbrake, autodesk, etc. If not, then AMD is for you. Newegg currently has an RX 7700 XT for $499 on sale.

https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-gv-r77xtgaming-oc-12gd-amd-radeon-rx-7700-xt-12gb-gddr6/p/N82E16814932654

Edit: You might want to increase your budget to $600 & see if you can get an RX 9070, which releases tomorrow at $550 base price + tax & maybe a tariff add-on. Or wait for the Rx 9060.

But i do game, just not constantly. It tends to get my anxiety up playing FPS games so i am partial too WOW still.
Its going to come down to cash on hand but the 7600 XT will do everything i need but not the best at 4k gaming ill look at the 9070 as i didnt know it was coming out. I think the 7700 XT and 7900 are lofty goals. I have buying off ebay but ill keep my eye on it as i swear Amazon sells new stuff cheaper. and the shipping time takes for ever.
TBH ill be spending months just tweaking this build to its limits and ill be doing that more than gaming. in actuality i should have bought a test bench instead of a case to make things more accessible.

 

[EarthDog]

My advice for a GPU...a 9070...

... return the PSU for something more appropriately sized. You're shooting yourself in the foot in more than one way. Not only is it a waste of money where 850W is plenty AND allows you to add more powerful everything down the road, you're also running it outside of its efficiency most of the time. I'd rather you spend $180 (how much did you pay for that PSU?) on a high quality 850W Platinum/Titanium unit...

...take the $50-$100 you saved and get a better GPU, like a 9070/9070XT. Seriously. If you're gonna burn money, do it where it matters....because..........

...........a 7600XT is worse than 'not the best' at 4K. You won't want that card for any 4K gaming. It averages ~30 FPS across 21 games (Techpowerup)... that's well below the '60 FPS' threshold most shoot for.....by a lot (it's below that at 1440p, too... it's a 1080p card). Why get the fastest this and the fastest that, but you can't even play your games? That makes zero sense to me. Whereas the 9070 averages 69 FPS. Assuming I understood correctly and you're going to game at 4K, lol. If you're at 1080p, you'll be fine.

You can 100% have your cake and eat it too...if you put your money in the right place(s).

 

[deathstar13]

I got the PSU for $150, a good 850W runs that much as to why i went that route.
Did you say the 9070 is just being launched? as i cant fine one anywhere on the net.
In all actuality im fine with 1080p and 4K is rather a dream.
Im not purposly taking your advice, I really did want a budget rig but my eyes got big with the thoughts of speed.

Tell me my best bet at $500 Nvidia or not i dont care at this point.
And yes i know i have unrealistic expectations from my NVMe drive setup, But its worth the extra money to pair speed up with my fast cpu and ram. I cant overclock a M.2 drive so i have to buy ones with high speeds out of the box.
1TB Gen5 for Windows

Amazon.com

2x2TB with Dram cache for games as those two slots are Gen4

Amazon.com

So go with the 7600 XT 12GB card if im going to stay at 1080P?

BTW im 20 miles south of Columbus in Mount Sterling

 

[EarthDog]

Hey neighbor!!!

Around $500+ I would be AMD 9070 all the way. It releases today. Prices will be wild though out of the gate. You may need to look at 7700xt or something along those lines.

I'd read some reviews on the 7600xt and see if that's the card you want. It's slow. Techpowerup has great gpu reviews and where I go first for stuff like that. I like the 7700xt idea though.

ASUS Radeon RX 9070 TUF OC Review

AMD's new Radeon RX 9070 launches today. It comes at the same $550 price point as NVIDIA's RTX 5070, but offers a 16 GB VRAM size while the 5070 has only 12 GB. The new RX 9070 also managed to catch up with NVIDIA in ray tracing performance and efficiency.

www.techpowerup.com

I got the PSU for $150, a good 850W runs that much as to why i went that route.

More power isn't better (efficiency-wise its worse when you overbuy power like this)...we covered that earlier. But if it makes you feel better (placebo!), enjoy!

 

[Woomack]

This one is 2x2TB or 1x 4TB which ever i find is better,with Dram Cache for games. at $20 extra per drive ill take the Dram Cache.

Amazon.com

I hope my Predator contact doesn't see this, but don't buy a GM7000 SSD. GM7, even without DRAM, is faster in games. I can recommend Crucial T500 as it performs in games like PCIe 5.0 SSDs, but runs cooler and is much cheaper - https://a.co/d/7s9PlpS
RAID 0 gives worse performance than a single NVMe SSD. This is because of how the driver works, so in most cases, low queue 4K random operations are 10-50% slower, and the access time is worse. If you need 4TB storage, buy a single 4TB SSD. If you want additional protection, then buy 2 and set them in RAID1. RAID0 is a mistake with SSDs.

 

[EarthDog]

I think he dropped the R0 idea and just uskng two different drives.. but we'll see, lol.

I'd imagine it's cheaper to buy 2x 2tb than 1x 4tb at the same speeds. but i haven't looked in months.

 

[Woomack]

I think he dropped the R0 idea and just uskng two different drives.. but we'll see, lol.

I'd imagine it's cheaper to buy 2x 2tb than 1x 4tb at the same speeds. but i haven't looked in months.

+/- $20 cheaper looking at Crucial T500. Maybe there is something else at a lower price, but I doubt anything will be much cheaper and still good.

 

[deathstar13]

ill spend some time on Techpowerup and see if anything sounds good.
That RX 9070 sounds great and ver expensive if i can even find one, Something tells me its out of my price range tho. I cant justify more than $500 with how much i game.
I built this to learn the new tech and then have something to play around on and tweak.

I think my old PSU made by PC Power and Cooling was 1200W back in the day and i like the overhead room a 1200W allows since everything will be pushed power and speed wise. I like my peaks to be under the rated PSU wattage specs. Plus for $150 i couldn't pass it up.

Woomack, Yes i threw the Raid0 out the door when i did my research.
my eyes are looking at the Crucial T705 1TB for windows and apps.
and 2x2TB of the predator with Dram for games. But ill do more research on the T500 as a replacement for the Predators. I think 5TB is way more than enough storage.
This part of the build doesnt scare me im making a bad decision as all the drives will be super fast.

My PSU arrives today and i may start hooking it up and taking my time and using the Asus manual as i never experienced a mobo with so many connections. Very intimidating to say the least.
So far the build looks fantastic being Murdered out in all black and ZERO RGB lights. but i will be adding some glow lighting as its so dark in the case you can see anything. I do with i had went with a full tower as the mobo has no room on the top or bottom edges and makes reaching fan headers and such harder.

heading to look at GPU options now.

 

[JLK03F150]

ill spend some time on Techpowerup and see if anything sounds good.
That RX 9070 sounds great and ver expensive if i can even find one, Something tells me its out of my price range tho. I cant justify more than $500 with how much i game.
I built this to learn the new tech and then have something to play around on and tweak.

Release date for the RX 9060 is Q2 2025, if you want to wait. Otherwise keep an eye out for deals on the RX 7700 XT or RX 7800 XT. Their prices might be dropping with the release of the 9000 series. As E-Dawg suggested, read some 7600 XT reviews & see if the performance seems to be there for you or not.

 

[deathstar13]

s at Techpowerup and saw the not so good numbers of the 7600XT, Still have more to read tho.
But i did find for $539 a RX 7800XT which looks too be rather powerful. I cant believe GPU prices are higher than CPU pricing. With this launch it would be great to see the 7800xt drop $100 in price.

 

[JLK03F150]

The 9000 series launch today, so you'll need to give the 7700XT/7800XT some time to drop (if they actually drop). IMHO restock of all cards might be going up thanks to the tariffs.

 

[EarthDog]

i like the overhead room a 1200W allows since everything will be pushed power and speed wise.

Forgive the beating of a dead horse... 850W has allows for plenty of headroom for those things already.

Again, it's your choice, I just want you armed with facts that matter. What you do after that is alllll you.

 

[deathstar13]

The 9000 series launch today, so you'll need to give the 7700XT/7800XT some time to drop (if they actually drop). IMHO restock of all cards might be going up thanks to the tariffs.

Yeh im doubting this launch lowers the price of existing cards except top tier one.

EarthDog- I overdo everything, same with my Ram and drives. Heck ill OC the heck out of the GPU if i can fit the right heatsinks. Heck i got the 12 core 9900X cpu as 12 cores is better than 8 cores. I need high core count so i can surf the web faster! lol

$150 would buy a good high quality 850w psu, but getting so much off the price on this RM1200X i couldnt say no. Im guessing but my CPU alone will be around 200W when OC'd and since im now looking at the RX 7800 XT its gonna want more juice when i OC it.
But you are right about 850W is all i need as i tested out two psu calculators and both said 850W is what i need.

Any thoughts or suggestions on the 7800XT? does it OC well? at $539 it hits my sweet spot.

 

[deathstar13]

I got my PSU in today with my light strips and fan for my DDR5. The fan is too big at 80mm so im gonna look for a thin 50mm one if they make it.
The PSU is a beast, larger and heavier than anything ive owned before and looked brand spanking new.
im saving hooking it up and cables managed as its gonna be rough as this ATX mobo goes top too bottom and leaving just slits top and bottom.
As you willl see in the pics i used a power supply thats adjustable to just run the lights till i can get the PSU up and going, Ill leave the boards power input jumped so the board wont see power until its time.

I read up on the RX 7800XT and it looked rather powerful, But id bet money the RX 7600XT would do everything i need. its a $200 price difference in the two cards that could go to my HDD system.
Honestly i surf and watch you tube and stream tv mainly and game 10% of the time. But that will go up as ill want to game more and stretch my systems legs after im done tweaking and OC'ing all my fans.
They did say both are best at 1040P so 4K is a pipe dream as im not dropping +$1k for a gpu.

So what you guys think about the gpu?

here is the case and everything installed except the GPU . I know it looks bright but its perfect in person and shows the shadows.

 

[EarthDog]

For me, as I said earlier, I dont understand the point of building the fastest this and fastest that and not be able to do something, like gaming, well. Even if its 10% of the time... but you also said that will likely increase so.... maybe it's time to spend on a part you'll actually see a difference with.

I wouldn't go less than 7800xt or 4060ti for 1080p gaming.

 

[JLK03F150]

I wouldn't go less than 7800xt or 4060ti for 1080p gaming.

I would include the RX 7700 XT too. It falls between the 7800 XT & 4060 Ti on the TPU performance index.
Also it will be interesting to see the 9060(XT)'s spec & pricing. Hopefully it is a nice low cost leap over the 7600XT.

 

[deathstar13]

For me, as I said earlier, I dont understand the point of building the fastest this and fastest that and not be able to do something, like gaming, well. Even if its 10% of the time... but you also said that will likely increase so.... maybe it's time to spend on a part you'll actually see a difference with.

I wouldn't go less than 7800xt or 4060ti for 1080p gaming.

I very well could have gotten by on a $600 gaming PC from wal-mart, But that wasnt my goal.
My intentions were to learn and build a current PC and one that can game as i just have a laptop with integrated graphics. Ive been buying parts that are one tier under the latest and greatest as if im gonna spend the money im gonna do it right. Ive learned alot so far and being retired has already occupied my time with research and kept me busy.
when you buy one good fast part you cant bottleneck it with the rest of the parts being sub par.
Im a complicated man i know.

Im still aiming at the 7800 XT and the drive gen5/4 setup.
If i recall this is still overclockers.com where its ok to overspend just to play with new parts.
ill give a look see at the 4060 TI but i know it wont be cheap as i swear the second hand market is charging more for used parts than new ones.

 

[EarthDog]

Im still aiming at the 7800 XT

Awesome. Because, you would have been incredibly disappointed with a 7600XT... especially as you gamed more. It's a potato, even at 1080p.

 

[deathstar13]

I was very underwhelmed at Techpowerup at their review of the 7600XT, Its $350 and id feel i wasted my money, Not so with the 7800 XT which will do more than i need but do what i want really well.

Also my drive plans excite me as Windows on a Crucial T705 1TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe
should be very snappy in windows, Its more of a fun thing than a need thing. Then ill add the two Crucial T500 2TB Gen4 NVMe for games. Mainly i want the Gen5 drive to just play with and bench. I know my speed gain will be marginal.

after those two i need a monitor which i dread with so many options. Back in my day LCD's where finally hitting the market and 19" was about as big as it got affordably. ATM im looking at a 32" curved panel which is a bargain in my eyes.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D8GWDNQN/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A62TEZQN1ASPI&th=1

 

[JLK03F150]

@deathstar13 how do you feel about refurbs? I personally don't mind them if they still come with a decent warranty. I know others who would say definitely not no matter what.

Asking because I saw a bunch of newegg refurb 7800XTs starting starting at $389 (only 90 day warranty though). Sold out for now, but you can ask to get notified when they come back in stock if you're a refurb kinda guy. If you're not into refurbs, please ignore.

https://www.newegg.com/powercolor-red-devil-rx7800xt-16g-e-oc-amd-radeon-rx-7800-xt-16gb-gddr6/p/N82E16814131820T

https://www.newegg.com/neweggrefreshed