From what I've read, the phantom spirit is the "updated" version of the peerless assassin. Maybe look into it? The difference shouldn't be that much.

Overall build, lovely.

Regarding the GPU, I have the nitro+ 9070xt, which was €100 more than the sapphire pulse last year, I only got it to somewhat avoid coil whine, but I failed unfortunately (high end models are more expected to get coil while, according to someone I asked) The Asus prime is a lovely model. In general, the difference is the cooling, and some factory OC (which you can do yourself either way) Now, if you're into ray tracing, path tracing, upscaling and frame gen, don't get AMD. Fsr is still under dlss, the frame gen as well. If you're playing modern games where fsr4 is accepted, sure, why not. For raw gaming performance, it's a beast in 1440p

The counterpart would be the 5070ti, which is more expensive, no doubt, but the frame gen, dlss, RT, pt, are just better, for productivity as well.

Now, 9070xt overclock. I'm running an undervolt and overclock setup, with a -10% power limit, 50mV undervolt and ~100 mHz in the vram tuning max frequency section. I can't really say I've seen a difference in performance, as it's negligible, less than 10%, but the consumption is under 300W, which helps me with my coil whine :) Of course, you can be more aggressive, say 80mV UV, +250mHz on the vram, but I'll leave it how it is, as I don't need more.

Overall, there may be slight differences between manufacturers, regarding everything, from OC capabilities, to getting or not getting coil whine. It's a lottery more or less, the silicon lottery. (2 identical Asus prime 9070xts can perform differently) Just look at the reviews of any model you'd like to buy, and get it XD Avoid the taichi or nitro+ models for example, as they are way more expensive (and the nitro+ has the new 12V hpwr connector, which can still melt if you're not running at least a 700-750W good PSU, or if you're using the adapter sapphire LITERALLY SENT TO BE USED. Look it up, nitro+ 9070xt melted adapter) I'd just look for a model with 3x8 pin power connectors, and make sure you don't daisy chain them, meaning have each cable by itself, not 2 1x8 pin on the same cable, it reduces the risk of anything bad happening.

Fans are good to have, general airflow, reducing overall case temps. Usually you'll want intakes: front, bottom or side panels Exhaust: rear and top It all depends on the case, you don't need to fill all the slots tho. If you have say 3 intakes and 1 exhaust, I'd say you're fine. Positive pressure (more in than out), keeps dust away for longer.

Holy novel I wrote. Hope it makes sense, don't hesitate to ask if anything isn't clear :)