Around 20 days ago I bought another computer for my relative. This computer is supposed to be used for game design and light rendering.  As usual, I bought this computer in parts, and below is the name and link to Amazon.

CPU: AMD Ryzen™ 9 9900X

Motherboard: GIGABYTE B650 AORUS Elite AX

Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO

Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance DDR5 RAM 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MHz CL30-36-36-76

Case: Antec Performance Series P20C ARGB

SSD: SAMSUNG 990 PRO SSD NVMe M.2

Power supply: ANTEC GSK850 ATX3.1, 850W Full Modular PSU, 80 Plus Gold

Video card: ASUS ProArt GeForce RTX™ 4060 Ti 16GB OC Edition

Extra fans: Thermalright TL-C12C-S X3 CPU Fan 120mm ARGB Case Cooler Fan

Parts

CPU

This is an AMD-based computer for the simple reason that the Intel platform is not stable now and nobody can tell when it will be stable.

But even if it was stable it would be still AMD because I know that this platform will have a long life and I can upgrade the CPU to the next generation. The Intel platform does not support the next generation.

But the key factor is power consumption. The Intel platform is extremely power-hungry and electricity is not cheap here. And I’m not only talking about power consumption of the system but air conditioning as well because an Intel-based system can quickly heat a room. Electricity here is quite expensive.

Motherboard

Why would I use this motherboard? Well, it supports PCEe 5.0 for M2 storage and it has very decent power VRM. And because I will use AMD 9900X decent VRM is quite important. PCIe 5.0 is not that important now but nice to have for future upgrades.

The B650 chipset is totally fine for that CPU and I don’t want to buy a very expensive motherboard because I simply don’t see any point in this. The Wi-Fi performance is also quite ok. The board cost less than $200 which is quite ok. I used this video for decision-making.

I got v1.2 of my motherboard. You need to pay attention to make sure you downloading the correct version of BIOS. Plus for that motherboard, they have slightly different hardware for Wifi for each version. If you want a specific hardware then you need to pay close attention to its version.

My motherboard had BIOS from May 2024 and it already supported Ryzen 9xxx out of the box which was nice. But just in case I prepared everything to update BIOS without CPU. I recommend finding a video for that and preparing a USB flash drive with BIOS while you are waiting for parts.

The motherboard has something that looks like a power button but it is actually a reset button and it can be reprogrammed in the BIOS settings. I decided to keep it as a reset button because it was quite useful when I tried to figure out why the computer froze when I tried to run MemTest64+.

The BIOS for that motherboard is kind of strange. It is hard to explain why but everything looks strange and non-intuitive.

My SSD was 80mm in length and was a bit tricky to install because it is toolless. You need to open the plastic cap with your nail on a standoff that is in the place where the screw supposes to go. Then you place M.2 SSD and then you close the cap and it will be locked.

Cooler

I found a lot of good reviews about 120 EVO and decided to go with it. The default TDP for AMD 9900X is 120W and it needs decent cooler performance and as far as I see it delivered it.

The cooler has some booklet that is supposed to explain how to assemble it but this booklet is absolutely useless. Find a video and follow it up. Pay attention to its position because it is not symmetrical. Make sure that you orient it so more metal is towards the top of the case and not towards the video card.

If you use a different case, make sure that there is enough space and there is enough space for the case to close. Typically any decent case will provide max height of the CPU cooler. Double-check it to avoid nasty surprises.

A second point is that the cooler will be at least partially over memory slots. So make sure you don’t have very tall memory sticks or you will have trouble placing a cooler on top of them. I suggest avoiding risk and buying modules without RGB or massive heat spreaders.

The motherboard has 2 CPU fan connectors. One is marked as CPU_FAN and the second is marked as CPU_OPT. I connected the power cables to these and the RGB connectors I connected into the case controller.

Memory

Memory is the typical sweet spot for an AMD platform. As I wrote above the CPU cooler is quite big and can overlap memory, so I was looking for memory without anything on top like RBG or a tall heatsink.

Case

My relative wants RGB so that is why I went with P20C ARGB. It is a decent case with a lot of meshes that are easy to clean. It is pretty modular and it is possible to remove the cage for 3.5 drives. It also has a full metal version without a glass window. This case has a special controller that fans and RGB are connected to.

The case was nice but a bit of tight space on the back for cables. This case has RGB and needs a SATA power connector. I attached it at the back of the box but other SATA connectors on that cable were on the way and it was hard to close the back lid. As a result, I have to move to the compartment where the power supply is.

This case has no reset button. Or more precisely, it has a button that can control RGB or reset function. But as I wrote above, the motherboard has a reset button. But I would prefer to have 2 buttons and it's sad to see that they decided to save a dollar or two this.

Also, this case has only 3 fans, and all of them are on the front. The CPU cooler has 2 fans and I decided to add one of the back. I suggest plugging it into the motherboard instead of the case controller because the new cooler has higher RPMs and looks like the controller most of the time puts too much power and as a result, the fan works at the highest RPM and is a bit loud. But I plugged the RGB cable of that fan into that controller so colors will be in sync.

This case has soft material on the glass window to reduce noise and vibrations and it is a really nice touch.

SSD

As for SSD, I like Samsung and I have some loyalty to this brand, so I decided to take it. 2 TB is quite affordable and I decided to go with it as 1 TB could be limiting in the future. I hit that limit on 2 of my systems and I think 2 TB is more future-proof.

Power supply

I also have some brand loyalty for Antec power supplies. I’ve been using them for quite some time and some of them still work for more than 12 years. I had one power supply that failed in the past that worked in a quite moist environment but none of the other components failed after the power supply failed.

I prefer the Platinum one but all of these were more than 1000 watts and it was clearly overkill. Also, this power supply has a hybrid button on the back. It is slightly annoying because sometimes instead of powering my PC down I just switched this mode off. Hybrid mode means that it will start the fan only when it is needed.

This is a modular power supply and it means that I can connect only the cables I need. I suggest plugging cables that connect further from you on the power supply so later it would be easier to add new ones.

Video card

As for the video card, I took the first one that got 3 fans and from a top-tier brand. I also got a 16 Gb version as 8 Gb was already not enough in some games and 16 Gb is more future-proof.

Extra cooler

Lastly, I decided to add one more cooler and I found a cooler from the same company that made a CPU cooler. Plus it can be delivered same day on Amazon because it was a late addition.

As I wrote above, the case has intake 3 fans and exhaust 2 fans on the CPU cooler. I think it is not enough because these 2 fans have quite high resistance because they need to blow air through the heatsink. As a result, I think that 3 intake fans will create increased pressure and most air will leave through the top of the case and will not cool components around the CPU (MOSFETs, SSD, etc.).

The next part is here.