Question Advice on mATX PC parts

[IntrovertedPotato]

Hi, I'm looking for constructive criticism and advice on my PC build. I'm not seeking specific purchase offers, I just need help deciding on the components.

Format: mATX or mid tower
Budget for PC: Around 6000–7500 PLN (maybe more if necessary). Translates to around 1400–1800 USD, or more (hard to convert exactly due to cross-border price differences).
CPU and GPU: A good setup at a lower price. Later this year I want to upgrade to RTX 5070 Ti + AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (buying some better AIO now with this upgrade in mind).
Country: Poland

Purpose:
- Games: Rasterized, light ray tracing (maybe). Recording gameplay.
- Creative work: Definitely Photoshop. Additionally, maybe learning modeling in ZBrush and Blender (simple projects). I might try some AI video upscaling in Topaz or DaVinci Resolve.

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A. Micro ATX:

- Case: Lian Li A3-mATX wood (370 PLN)
- CPU ooling: ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO (200 PLN)
- One rear exhaust fan: Arctic P12 PWM PST (26 PLN). No obstructions – priority is low noise level and decent airflow.
- Bottom slim fans: SilverStone Air Slimmer 120 (200 PLN za 3 sztuki). It has higher static pressure than other slim options, which helps push air through the mesh. It's a bit louder, but I can accept that trade-off.
- Power supply: Corsair RM850e 850 W (530 PLN)
- SSD: Crucial T500 1TB (380 PLN). Avoid picking up an SSD with a heatsink from the factory as removing that may void warranty. Motherboard comes with heat spreaders for M.2 SSD's
- Motherboard with USB4: ASUS ROG Strix X870-I Gaming WiFi (1650-1900 PLN)|
^ USB4/Thunderbolt is added because I want a port that allows video/touch/power transmission via a single cable. I use Wacom Movink 13 with stylus and another portable OLED.
- GPU: ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 5070 OC (2800-3000 PLN) or MSI GeForce RTX 5070 12G Gaming Trio OC (2800-3000 PLN)
- RAM: Corsair Vengeance 6000MHz CL30 (504 PLN)
- AMD Ryzen 7 7700 OEM (830 PLN) - 830 PLN
^ Out of the box, the Ryzen 7 7700 trails the 7700X by roughly 3–7% in multi-threaded tests, but enabling Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) auto closes nearly all of that gap, bringing performance within 1–3% of the 7700X. Applying a –30 mV offset via the Curve Optimizer can yield an additional ~3–4% improvement in multi-threaded workloads while cutting peak temperatures by up to 15 °C, making the non-X model a cost-effective alternative to the 7700X.

Total = ~7490 PLN

Future upgrades (later this year):
- Cooling: Be Quiet! Light Loop 360 (572 PLN). Generally has to be strong enough to sustain things like Blender rendering (sustained high average, and very high peaks).
- GPU: RTX 5070 Ti, something stronger from AMD or maybe RTX 5080 (last one probably unlikely).
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X


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B. Mid Tower sized:

- Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 207 (423 PLN)
- CPU cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO (200 PLN) or Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE (190 PLN). Arctic has much better warranty.
- Top fans: 2 × Arctic P14 PWM PST (64 PLN for 2)
- Rear fan: 1 × Arctic P12 PWM PST (26 PLN)
- Power supply: Corsair RM850e 850 W (530 PLN)
- SSD: Crucial T500 1TB (380 PLN). Avoid picking up an SSD with a heatsink from the factory as removing that may void warranty. Motherboard comes with heat spreaders for M.2 SSD's
- GPU: ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 5070 OC (2800-3000 PLN) or MSI GeForce RTX 5070 12G Gaming Trio OC (2800-3000 PLN)
- RAM: Corsair Vengeance 6000MHz CL30 (504 PLN)
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 OEM (830 PLN)
^ Out of the box, the Ryzen 7 7700 trails the 7700X by roughly 3–7% in multi-threaded tests, but enabling Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) auto closes nearly all of that gap, bringing performance within 1–3% of the 7700X. Applying a –30 mV offset via the Curve Optimizer can yield an additional ~3–4% improvement in multi-threaded workloads while cutting peak temperatures by up to 15 °C, making the non-X model a cost-effective alternative to the 7700X.
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix B850-E Gaming WiFi (1471 PLN) or Gigabyte X870E AORUS PRO ICE (1500 PLN).
^ B850-E is more recent and has some AI fireworks. Both have USB4 ports 40 Gbps (Asus has 1, Gigabyte has 2).
^ USB4/Thunderbolt is added because I want a port that allows video/touch/power transmission via a single cable. I use Wacom Movink 13 with stylus and another portable OLED.

Totals = ~7228 PLN

Future upgrades (later this year):
- Cooling: Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360mm (430 PLN). Generally has to be strong enough to sustain things like Blender rendering (sustained high average, and very high peaks).
- GPU: RTX 5070 Ti, something stronger from AMD or maybe RTX 5080 (last one probably unlikely).
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

 

[GregGreen]

You've probably already built since I'm kind of necroing this thread, but I came up with an option for you if you're still thinking about it: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/xMc3xg

I used Germany on PCPartPicker since I'm pretty sure most of those places ship to Poland? (I"m not sure since I'm in the US, but I thought I had read that before) This specific build comes out to right around 7481.96 PLN right now. And I wasn't really sure what "USB4/Thunderbolt is added" meant. Without looking at all the tech specs on that mobo, I'm guessing it has USB4/TB4 built in so didn't even try to switch out the mobo since it's pretty hard to find AMD mobos that have that.

The things I changed from your mATX build:

- Went from a 7700 to a 9700x. It's faster, more current, and honestly, probably enough of a processor that you won't even think about moving to a 9950x this year. Maybe it'll hold you off until a 10950x or 11950x
- Thermalright Phantom Spirit instead of ARCTIC Freezer. It's 1/3 the cost in the US and 1/2 the cost in the EU. And it performs better. I honestly don't think you will want to bother to upgrade to a 360 AIO -- it's a nice, quiet cooler.
- Went Western Digital SN850X over the Crucial T500. I haven't looked up benchmarks, but you aren't going to notice a difference in day-to-day usage. And the WD SSD is half the price.
- Went with a Radeon RX 9070 because of 1. more VRAM and 2. slightly better performance. It's a little bit more money, but 10ish % better performance for most things. I also think that can hold you over until the 6-series Nvidia and 10-series AMD come out. Depending on pricing and if you want to cut some corners elsewhere,, you might be able to go to a 9070 XT -- they're only about 50 USD more than a 9070 and have performance roughly on par with the 5070 Ti.

EDIT: And if you wanted to shave some more money off, I 'd go 9600x or 7600x. For most things you mentioned doing/wanting to do, they will be faster than a 7700. You can shave 90 to 95 euros off by going to a 7600x.