First ever custom build!

[XeroPhytic]

Hello lovelies! Hope you are all doing well and staying safe! (I've been lurking around the forums for the past month or so, so it's nice to finally register and be active <3)

My order literally just passed to ''awaiting dispatch'' and I am super excited for it!
I just wanted to share it with you all and check what y'all opinions are!

I built it for high end gaming, streaming, coding and some audio/video/photo editing.

Let's engage on the post As I am curious. What would you have changed (added/taken out)?

My budget was £3000~. Initially the total was £2930 but after a couple of modifications along the way I went a bit over budget and it ended up costing around £3200-ish

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 680X RGB GAMING CASE
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 RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12 (I genuinely wanted an RX 6800 XT but they are not available till later in the year )
1st Storage Drive
2TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive
4TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
3rd Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W HX SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
LED Lighting
2x 50cm ARGB LED Strip
Sound Card
Asus Xonar AE 7.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card
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 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 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™

 

[sck451]

Well there's certainly nothing under-specced in that build! There's a bunch of places you could have saved money, and one place you could have improved performance just a little bit, but if you're happy with overkill there's nothing wrong with it at all!

The performance increase would have come with the storage: you could have chosen a second M.2 SSD rather than the two SATA ones, which would have improved the speeds of that drive a lot. It may not be terribly important in day to day use, though, and it's a really easy upgrade if you ever fancy it in the future (if, you know, 7.5TB of storage isn't enough!).

In terms of overkill, the motherboard, power supply and thermal paste are a little excessive (though none of them is bad by any means, just not "value for money"), while the sound card is not going to give you improved performance over the motherboard sound.

But, as I say, while you may have spent just a little more than you could have, there are no red flags here. As ever, we'd love to see pictures when it comes!

 

[Citrus_9]

I would drop arctic thermal paste. Elite Capellix comes with already good quality applied paste. Getting an arctic means literally wasting a good Corsair paste and reapplying the arctic one with a slight risk it to be applied improperly.

 

[sck451]

I would drop arctic thermal paste. Elite Capellix comes with already good quality applied paste. Getting an arctic means literally wasting a good Corsair paste and reapplying the arctic one with a slight risk it to be applied improperly.

It's awaiting dispatch, so it's already been done!

 

[Citrus_9]

It's awaiting dispatch, so it's already been done!

Ah sorry, I don't read long comments, too hot for my brain to cope 😅 You don't loose anything with arctic. The build overall is a quality build. You should be happy with it. I would just not use Chrome every day - it's not good for your data. It sucks all of your browsing history and uses for advertising (money) purposes. Other browsers do that too but not as aggressively as Chrome, especially lately. MS Edge is a wonderful browser.

 

[sck451]

Ah sorry, I don't read long comments, too hot for my brain to cope 😅 You don't loose anything with arctic. The build overall is a quality build. You should be happy with it. I would just not use Chrome every day - it's not good for your data. It sucks all of your browsing history and uses for advertising (money) purposes. Other browsers do that too but not as aggressively as Chrome, especially lately. MS Edge is a wonderful browser.

This but for Firefox, sadly neglected but the best browser around IMO!

 

[XeroPhytic]

(if, you know, 7.5TB of storage isn't enough!).

You can never have too much xD

Yeah I will add a bigger M.2 later one if I'll ever really need it.

As as for the sound board, I just wanted to have the input capability as I plan on doing audio recordings (instruments/voice etc.) And I prefer to have the extra rather than having to run extensions which can be a royal pain in the butt

 

[XeroPhytic]

Ah sorry, I don't read long comments, too hot for my brain to cope 😅 You don't loose anything with arctic. The build overall is a quality build. You should be happy with it. I would just not use Chrome every day - it's not good for your data. It sucks all of your browsing history and uses for advertising (money) purposes. Other browsers do that too but not as aggressively as Chrome, especially lately. MS Edge is a wonderful browser.

I am done with Chrome and Firefox a long time ago. I have been using Opera GX for the past 6 months or more and I can gladly say that it is super good and fast and it has all I need. Only reason I checked Google Chrome was so I don't have to cry while opening Edge to download another browser xD

As for the other recommendations in regards of thermal paste, I appreciate it a lot! It's all great feedback for future builds. I just never had an AiO so I didn't know fully what to expect (even with a lot of research and youtube videos there are certain obscure things which are not 100% clear xD ) So thanks! <3

 

[XeroPhytic]

This but for Firefox, sadly neglected but the best browser around IMO!

Definitely better than Chrome when it comes to kidnapping your RAM. And it's good for developers as it is easy to tweak a lot of things code wise. But as I mentioned in the reply to Citrus_9, I was won over by OperaGx

Especially because I tend to end up with 40+ tabs open at the same time xD

 

[SpyderTracks]

You can never have too much xD

Yeah I will add a bigger M.2 later one if I'll ever really need it.

As as for the sound board, I just wanted to have the input capability as I plan on doing audio recordings (instruments/voice etc.) And I prefer to have the extra rather than having to run extensions which can be a royal pain in the butt

In that case you want a proper audio imterface rather than a soundcard.

Id recommend Andertons, they’re extremely good, have been using them for 20 years.

USB-C Audio Interfaces - Andertons Music Co.

Browse all USB-C Audio Interfaces at Andertons Music Co. Free UK delivery options available plus flexible finance options!

www.andertons.co.uk

Focusrite or MAudio are reliable units

 

[XeroPhytic]

In that case you want a proper audio imterface rather than a soundcard.

Id recommend Andertons, they’re extremely good, have been using them for 20 years.

USB-C Audio Interfaces - Andertons Music Co.

Browse all USB-C Audio Interfaces at Andertons Music Co. Free UK delivery options available plus flexible finance options!

www.andertons.co.uk

Focusrite or MAudio are reliable units

Imagine being a gem. Yes, you xD

I did not really consider getting a proper audio interface. So I will most definitely throw an eyeball into that at some point.

Thank you for the recommendation kind sir!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Imagine being a gem. Yes, you xD

I did not really consider getting a proper audio interface. So I will most definitely throw an eyeball into that at some point.

Thank you for the recommendation kind sir!

I specifically sorted by USB C interfaces as they’re quickly becoming the standard. They do have thunderbolt interfaces as well, but thunderbolt will be integrated with USB C as of next year, so personally I’d stick with USB C ones.

 

[XeroPhytic]

I specifically sorted by USB C interfaces as they’re quickly becoming the standard. They do have thunderbolt interfaces as well, but thunderbolt will be integrated with USB C as of next year, so personally I’d stick with USB C ones.

Sometimes ... The obvious choice is the best one. I don't know why I have not considered that tbh.

Well. Great to know and keep track of going forward. At this point my main focus was to set up the rig, have my area, get back into streaming and I will definitely add things as I go along (because spending money is fun).

On a different but kind of similar note as well. What is your take on spending £400-£500+ on something like GoXLR vs the Elgato Wave free software when it comes to microphone audio?

 

[XeroPhytic]

But, as I say, while you may have spent just a little more than you could have, there are no red flags here. As ever, we'd love to see pictures when it comes!

Thanks <3 I shall share some pics when it gets here!