Opinions on this PC build

[LucShep]

22 hours ago, CL30 said:

So, would dropping PCIEx16 down to x8 speed for the GPU be that big of a deal? I’m leaning towards three m.2 nVME drives.
 

M2A and M2D won’t take away from the GPU, but populating M2B or M2C will drop the speed, according to the manual.
 

I’d like to have a 2TB for OS, etc., a 4TB for DCS, and then some other one for other games, pics, etc. However, I could just do two 4TB drives I suppose.

What motherboard is this?
I suppose it's an AM5 B850 or X870 model, and on these I believe only two NVMe slots can be used without impacting the GPU (which ones to use depends on motherboard).

The ideal setup for NVMe drives in your case would be two, to maintain PCIe 5.0 x16 for the GPU.
As you describe, one main NVMe drive for OS and etc (in M2A), the other one for games and etc (you mention it's in M2D ?).

As you say, if you use the other two slots it will slow your GPU slot down to PCIe 5.0 x8.
However, testing with the "almighty" RTX 5090 has shown that it only loses 1%~3% performance by losing half of its bandwidth, basically unnoticeable (see it HERE and HERE).

That said, even if the difference is insignificant, and since you're building this system from the ground up, for the long term and wanting the large storage, I'd certainly consider going for two good 4TB NVMe Gen4 drives.  
 

Edited Wednesday at 02:57 PM by LucShep

[CL30]

Thanks, LucShep!

Yeah, you’re right. I decided to go back up to an X870 from the 850s. It might be silly, but I like having the digital debug code visible on the MoBo. My current Aorus Master has it, and has proved helpful to me over the years. As I’m not as in-tune with this stuff as you all are, I thought I’d spend $50 more for that option vs having LEDs to decipher. It’s the Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Ice I’m looking at. 

Also, I decided to put an AIO back in vs the air cooler purely for aesthetics. I’m going to try to make this a really pretty build to look at (currently looking for nice colored, sleeved PSU cables), and I like the AIO look.

I won’t say “money is no issue,” because it is (like, not gonna do a 5090/4090), but I’m blessed with a good job that making a chunk extra is pretty easy, so I’m splurging on some things….as silly as some may be, lol.

 

ETA: and yeah, I think doing dual 4TBs is probably the better option as you said, thanks!

Edited Tuesday at 06:33 PM by CL30

[pegasus1]

On 6/9/2025 at 12:05 AM, BitMaster said:

Not sure if the CPU/IMC likes 6400MT/s. You could try and find 6000MT/s with maybe lower Latency. That's what I would do.

The rest looks ok to me

Running 6000 at 1:1 can be faster, certainly in benchmarks but in games then faster RAM can prove a bit faster. To be honest other than set the correct rations i dont spend to much time optimising my RAM (96GB C32 6600 Corsair). Just put it in the MOBO and set whatever Expo is the most stable.

On 6/17/2025 at 7:39 PM, LucShep said:

What motherboard is this?
I suppose it's an AM5 B850 or X870 model, and on these I believe only two NVMe slots can be used without impacting the GPU (which ones to use depends on motherboard).

The ideal setup for NVMe drives in your case would be two, to maintain PCIe 5.0 x16 for the GPU.
As you describe, one main NVMe drive for OS and etc (in M2A), the other one for games and etc (you mention it's in M2D ?).

As you say, if you use the other two slots it will slow your GPU slot down to PCIe 5.0 x8.
However, testing with the "almighty" RTX 5090 has shown that it only loses 1%~3% performance by losing half of its bandwidth, basically unnoticeable (see it HERE and HERE).

That said, even if the difference is insignificant, and since you're building this system from the ground up, for the long term and wanting the large storage, I'd certainly consider going for two good 4TB NVMe Gen4 drives.  
 

Not always true, it depends how many NVMe slots the MOBO has and what ones are used.

The ROG STRIX X870E-E GAMING WIFI has 5 x M2 slots with 3 x being PCIe 5 and the remainder PCIe 4, i use the PCIe 5 slot for my Gen 5 OS drive and the 2 x Gen 4 slots for my DCS drive and Steam drive, in that configuration there is zero impact on performance as the 2 x remaining gen 5 slots are not occupied.