I've been building and repairing PCs since 2003 and have always tried to outdo my previous build when it comes to my own gaming rig. With the release of AMD's new Ryzen 9 3900X CPU, it only made sense to put together a new monster. Here's everything I used.
Ryzen Beast
The performance offered by AMD's new Ryzen 9 3900X is quite simply ridiculous. Granted, it's not better than the Intel Core i9 9900K on single-core tasks, but it holds its own and bests Intel in multi-tasking by a mile.
Full Tower Case
I'm still a little undecided for the chassis, but the Dark Base Pro 900 from be quiet! is a contender for sure. Not only does it have ample space for my planned custom water-cooling loop, but also keeps everything silent.
X470 Motherboard
It may not be the latest motherboard from ASUS for AMD CPUs, but this is one you should consider. It supports Ryzen 3000 CPUs, dual-channel DDR4 RAM, has a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot for the GPU, and there are two M.2 slots for speedy SSDs alongside SATA connections for bulk storage.
Speedy RAM
Corsair's Vengeance LPX 3200 MHz DDR4 RAM comes in various kits and will fit the ASUS X470-F Gaming motherboard without interfering with any other parts. Each stick is covered in an aluminum heat spreader for better dissipation, and it's black to match the rest of the hardware. If you're going 32GB, I recommend two 16GB sticks.
NAVI GPU
It's still early days for AMD's new NAVI architecture, but already we're seeing promising results. The new Radeon RX 5700 XT can easily take on the new NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super, which in itself is a fantastic GPU. It's a stunning performer all-round.
Lightning Fast M.2 SSD
Seagate made an exceptional solid-state drive (SSD). The FireCuda 510 is everything a PC owner needs with amazing read and write speeds, solid reliability, and high levels of endurance — all at an aggressively low price.
Game Storage SSD
You don't want to install all your games on the same SSD your OS is installed on so we're rocking a 1TB Western Digital Blue SATA SSD, which offers enough performance for all the latest PC titles.
Seasonic Power
I know what you're thinking, "$125 for a PSU?!" But hear me out. You shouldn't cut corners when it comes to delivering electricity to your PC and the NZXT E 500 (made by legendary power supply maker Seasonic) is a superb PSU.
What's next for this gaming PC?
I plan to do a full custom water-cooling loop to better handle the heat output of the Ryzen 9 3900X (not that the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 doesn't do a good job on its own), lower system noise, and make everything look that much more aesthetically pleasing.
It's all a little boring to look at right now, but fear not as we have NZXT's excellent HUE kit to play with to create quite the lightshow. Keep your eyes glued to Windows Central if you're intrigued to see more on this sleek PC build with water-cooling thrown into the mix.
