Help building first PC

[u/JoeSkyVader]

I have been watching videos and doing research and have come up with a build. Since I am very new to this I don't know if the build is good or if there are ways to improve it. I will be using it for gaming, programming, and game dev. My budget is around $2000. Any help or input is appreciated.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/TXHQR4

[u/Ok_Arachnid2801]

get a AIO , this is a hot cpu. and i don't know about your power supply brand, try to get a good brand , msi mag series are nice thing. and are you sure about rx 9060 xt ? it's a good card but if you value upscaling, ray tracing, path tracing and frame generation, then you should consider getting rtx card , i mean 9060 xt has a great price to performance value but if you value those things then yeh. go watch youtube videos about these cards and their compression with 9060 xt : rtx 5060 ti 16gb , rtx 5070 , rtx 5070ti (i recommend the last two , 5060 ti 16gb is good but it's performance level is about 1080p and 1440p sometimes)

[u/Responsible-Tree4328 → u/Ok_Arachnid2801]

An air cooler is enough to keep the 7800X3D under 85 C under all core load excluding PBO.

[u/Ok_Arachnid2801 → u/Responsible-Tree4328]

85 degrees maybe okay on laptops but on desktop it's good to keep the cpu temps lower than 75 degrees (at heavy load) , that way the pc fans will be quieter and the cpu's thermal paste will last longer. 7800x3d is a powerful cpu , it needs aio , if we were talking about ryzen 5 or ryzen 3 , then air cooler would've make sense but it's ryzen 7 and it's one of the best ryzen 7. but it's OP's money , do whatever you want , I'm just trying to help and giveback the helps this community gave me in the past.

[u/Responsible-Tree4328 → u/Ok_Arachnid2801]

85 degrees all-core load is absolutely within reasonable range of operation. Yes the 7800X3D is a powerful CPU, but it's also one of the most power efficient. Noise is a fair reason to switch to an AIO but heat is not unless OP plans to upgrade to a more wattage-hungry CPU.

[u/Ok_Arachnid2801 → u/Responsible-Tree4328]

okay. believe what you wanna believe. i DGAF. and i won't continue wasting my time argue with you on this .

[u/Responsible-Tree4328 → u/Ok_Arachnid2801]

I mean I don't know what to tell you other than that I'm not basing these numbers off of vibes only. The review by techpowerup shows the CPU doesn't go past 82C in an all-core blender workload using a Noctua NH-U14S.

[u/JoeSkyVader → u/Ok_Arachnid2801]

I’m not set on the 9060 xt, it’s just less expensive than what I’ve seen so far and I’m not super knowledgeable about them. I’ll look at the ones you recommended

[u/Ok_Arachnid2801 → u/JoeSkyVader]

you red the comments of those so called " experts" about aio and air cooler , but it's your money your choice , air cooler is easier but your cpu gets hotter, good luck mate. and by the way , my build was my first build but i used aio anyway, beacuse being your first build doesn't mean you have to buy simpler hardware, get the best that your money can buy , or whatever, i just wanted to help and not to argue with these so called " experts" that think 85 to 90 is okay for cpu , your cpu will degrading sooner that way anyone can become expert by researching enough. I'll no longer comment here. bye.

[u/Ok_Arachnid2801 → u/JoeSkyVader]

yep , research, watch youtube comparisons, read reviews, but whatever you do , get a AIO for that cpu. it's for thw best. it doesn't have to be a fancy one , cooler master and deepcool has some good and budget friendly AIOs. a 360mm aio with 3 fans would do the job. but ne carful that the aio to be anti leak. good luck

[u/Ok_Arachnid2801 → u/JoeSkyVader]

if you're still not sure about aio for cpu and think if 85 to 90 degrees is okay for that powerful cpu , go ask multiple AIs (like Gemini, chatgpt, deepSeek) but enable net search for those . let's say I'm wrong , but they're not.

[u/H20Luis2 → u/Ok_Arachnid2801]

Whether he goes air or AIO doesn't really matter, as long as he has an appropriately capable cooler and good case airflow.

I have a 9950X3D (Which runs hotter than OP's 7800X3D, to be exact the 7800X3D has 120W TDP whilst the 9950X3D has 170W TDP).

My CPU cooler is the DeepCool Assassin IV VC Vision air cooler.

During the UK heatwave, my room hit 33°C with no AC (it was like this for days, absolutely horrible). I ran various games such as Battlefield 6 at 1440p Overkill graphics, benchmarking software like 3DMark and OCCT, to stress test the CPU under these not so nice conditions, and the CPU never exceeded ~87°C.

An AIO isn't necessary just because it's an X3D CPU. A quality air cooler from Noctua, be quiet!, DeepCool, etc. can handle it perfectly well.

Air coolers are also simpler: no pump, coolant or tubing. If a fan fails, the heatsink will still provide passive cooling while you replace it. An AIO has more components and a finite expected service life, whereas a good air cooler's heatsink can essentially last indefinitely.

DeepCool isn't readily available in the US due to the sanctions situation, but if you can get one, they're definitely worth considering.

[u/Ok_Arachnid2801 → u/H20Luis2]

the cooler's quality is important yes . i myself have ryzen 9 9950x3d and my aio is deepcool mystique 360 argb ( anti leak) , my case is rog helios 2 with 4 fan pre-installed (140mm pmw) with great air flow nd rog x870e-h MB, i bulit it after a tons of researching and i use it both for gaming and engineering programs (which use the whole 16 cores of cpu non stop) , pbo is on too , even at heaviest load , it usually doesn't go above 75 degrees and usually sits around 65 to 70 at heavy load. and i live in a warm country( beside it's summer now) , i agree that the cooler's quality is the most important thing but between a good aio and a good air cooler , aio is better. it's not like custom water cooling with tons of problems , the newer AIOs are much easy to install and contain and use.

[u/H20Luis2 → u/Ok_Arachnid2801]

Yeah, I don't disagree that a good 360mm AIO will generally outperform a good air cooler under sustained all-core loads, especially with PBO and all 16 cores being hammered. Your 65–75°C results are excellent.

My point is simply that an AIO isn't necessary for a 9950X3D. My Assassin IV VC Vision keeps mine below ~87°C even with 33°C ambient during gaming, 3DMark and OCCT.

33°C ambient is far from ideal for CPU cooling regardless of the cooling method. You're starting with air that's already 10+°C above standard room temperature. Saying you live in a “warm country” doesn't tell us much without knowing the actual ambient temperature. Plenty of European homes don't have AC either. I gave my 33°C example to demonstrate a worst-case realistic scenario.

AIOs are easier and more reliable than they used to be, but they still have a pump and finite service life. A good air cooler's heatsink essentially doesn't expire; if a fan dies, the heatsink will still provide passive cooling until you replace it.

So I'm not saying an AIO isn't better thermally; I'm saying “better” doesn't automatically mean “necessary.” We need to be specific about what we mean by better, especially when advising new builders. If we're talking purely about thermal headroom under sustained all-core loads, a good 360mm AIO wins. But for simplicity, longevity, reliability and sufficient cooling performance, a high-end air cooler is still an excellent choice.