I have FINALLY caved and bought parts for a new build after eight years...
It's a simple one, but I'm excited. I was going to keep the same case, but decided to treat myself.
I love my current Jonsbo W2. I think those guys build such cool cases. I wanted something more compact, but couldn't justify committing to the 'ITX tax', so the newish D32 Pro fit my needs well. I normally take forever deciding, but it pretty much was perfect... minus one thing...
- Power Supply - Corsair SF750
...I didn't want to spend extra on a new PSU as my old AX760 is still going strong, but it's a big PSU and wouldn't fit well in the D32. I could have gone for a smaller ATX power supply, but I thought, if I'm going to buy a new unit, why not get something perfectly suited. That said, I'm expecting the cables to be short, in which case I'll pick up some extensions from Etsy.
It's a huge jump from a 1600X, but I was sad that after eight years, six cores were still at this price point. I thought about waiting until Zen 6 for 8c CPUs being the price of a 6c, but with Windows 10 being outed and the current woes as a result of the AI boom, I just had to jump in, just in case. I couldn't justify a 7700X. The IPC improvements from Zen 1 to Zen 5 is more than enough performance.
- Motherboard - Asrock B650M-HDV/M.2
It has everything I need and nothing I don't. I have splurged on motherboards in the past but still had issues and regrets. So I decided to buy the best budget board there is. If I run out of USB ports or need WiFi in the future, I can add it.
- Graphics - Sapphire Pulse 9060XT 16GB
This and the 9070 were the first graphics cards in a long time that I thought, 'Yep, I like these. They have no glaring weaknesses.' I don't need three fans or big heatsinks.
- RAM - Crucial Pro 32GB 6000Mhz CL36
This was an annoying compromise. Three months ago, the €150 I paid for this basic kit would have gotten me CL30 and nice RGB headspreaders. This is another reason I decided to start the build now; I didn't want the situation to get worse.
- SSD - Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB
Most people recommended against this SSD at first, but the price has come down a lot and it's now a good buy. It lacks NAND, but I don't need it. What I needed was to pick something up before prices went up. 2TB will be enough for me.
- CPU Cooler - Thermalright Phantom Spirit SE 120
My current cooler is a beast (Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT), but I wanted to try something new and this was affordable.
I'll check back in when I start the process...
€150 was the cheapest kit I could find. Everything else was €200-300.
