First time building a pc. Need advice on component compatibility and build quality. ASRock Radeon 6800 XT with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X.

[kill3rkell3r]

I am upgrading because I finally have time and money to justify splurging on myself.

Budget: $1,200 after taxes, shipping, rebates, etc. (excluding monitor)

Approximate Purchase Date: End of this weekend for parts that might sell out during Black Friday/Cyber Monday. By Christmas for the rest of the parts.

Use Case: Mostly gaming (Red Dead Redemption games, Horizon Zero Dawn, Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring, Dying Light, Witcher 3, Escape from Tarkov, Elder Scrolls series (incl. E.S. Online), Fallout series, Borderlands series, CS: GO, League of Legends). Some web surfing and maybe light Office functions.

Are you buying a monitor: Yes

Your Monitor Resolution and desired frame rate: hoping to be at 4K resolution with 120 - 144 Hz refresh rate

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Whatever has the cheaper price; I have been compiling a build list using Newegg and PCPartPicker

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/H6yHDq

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($158.97 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING SE-224-XT 76.16 CFM CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE AX V2 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: TEAMGROUP T-Force Cardea Zero Z330 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($63.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX 6800 XT 16G Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB Video Card
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G+ 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($199.99 @ Best Buy)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Gigabyte ‎M28U 28.0" 3840 x 2160 144 Hz Monitor ($449.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1342.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-11-25 03:40 EST-0500

Parts Preferences: Leaning towards AMD at least for the graphics card

Overclocking: Probably not

Additional Comments: I enjoy good sound. Not sure if a sound card is recommended for my build

 

[Why_Me]

It all works together although I'd size up to a 2TB SSD while going for DDR4 3600.

 

[kill3rkell3r]

Should I shoot for a 3600 CL 16 or is CL 18 better for 3600?

I was maybe thinking about paring my SSD with a larger (2TB or bigger) HDD. I know that was popular in the past. Is that strategy a bit antiquated? What about two 1TB SSDs?

 

[Biggly]

Top tip: you can pick a W10 digital license key* up on Ebay and elsewhere for less than £10/$10. You just need to create a W10 installer on a USB or ISO on a DVD (plenty of sites that will show you how to do that, including PCG sister-site, Tomshardware, I believe), then install and then enter the key during intstall or on the activation page on the desktop.

Windows has bound license keys to the motherboard since W8, I think, so they're usually taken off old office PCs or discarded motherboards. It's "grey market" resale but the key is totally legit. And with Black Friday savings, you could spend that 90 bucks or so saving on a beefier SSD instead.

 

[Biggly]

Should I shoot for a 3600 CL 16 or is CL 18 better for 3600?

Lower latency RAM is always better: CL16 > CL18. I think you're splitting hairs in this case though - as long as they're both a decent brand, go with whichever's cheaper.

 

[kill3rkell3r]

Word, Biggly, thanks for the advice!