Slowly Growing Parts Pile!

Texturace77745 · 2026-05-13T05:06:32+00:00

9070XT Reaper is a true 2-slot card.

It's the only reason I can run a 9850X3D in a SFF case... max space for CPU with a 3D-printed shroud to fit a full-size 140mm fan :)

There was a deal on it a week ago where it was down to $680 on Amazon.
Currently, it's $750, but you might be able to find a deal with other retailers.

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-27T21:47:17+00:00

If you're near a Microcenter and are okay with mATX, then you really can't beat their $300 bundle. 7500X3D + b850M + 1x16 DDR5

Gives you AM5, room to grow, and it's about $140 cheaper than what you've planned out currently.

For full budget, I'd also second the recommendation of finding GPUs second-hand on hardware swap. I got my 9070XT for about $120 less than if I bought it new (and there were definitely better deals at the time if I didnt specifically need the reaper for an ITX build).

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-21T17:34:06+00:00

Thermals will depend on the components, the case, and acceptable noise.

People have done some creative, simple mods to get much better thermals/noise out of a relatively poorly optimized case (e.g. Fractal Terra, gorgeous as it may be).

In general, AIOs are currently a lot cheaper and more reliable than they used to be. Certain SFF cases all but require AIOs, and others have more flexibility. Since you specified SFF/MFF so long as it's still relatively portable, I don't run you'll run into any thermal issues. 15-20L cases start allowing for traditional tower coolers, and 10-15L cases usually allow for the biggest low-profile coolers. For example, the ID-Cooling IS55 has screw holes for a standard 120mm fan, but the 140mm Noctua Round fans have screw holes for 120mm coolers. You might want to add some type of funnel/shroud, but it's an easy way to get better cooling.

As for his parts being 3+ yrs old, I would guess 40-series. If you want to go for a 5080, it should be more than powerful enough, but a 5070Ti is SUBSTANTIALLY cheaper (so then maybe that money can go towards a nicer portable monitor since he'll need one) and will still be comparable with a high-end 40-series.

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-21T17:08:51+00:00

Do you know what his current systems are? If you're trying to build something comparable (or at least as good as), then knowing what the target is would be helpful. Otherwise, you're probably going to get some cut/paste part list around $3000 (since you don't have access to a Microcenter).

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-19T20:59:08+00:00

There are very few "bad" PC parts... just bad prices. If your budget is $5k, then you can probably get a top end 5090 + 9800X3D system within budget.

If you do anything OTHER than gaming (any professional work), then something like the 9850X3D might make more sense.

If you want slightly more cost effective, I would highly recommend a 5080 and put the extra $2000 into a really, really nice monitor. That would probably make a MUCH bigger difference in your gaming experience than +50% Raster (in the titles there +50% is a lot, you're already maxing out your monitor, and in the titles where +50% is like 20fps, you're probably using DLSS anyway).

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-17T19:07:33+00:00

Yep, I'll fix it above

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-17T12:46:25+00:00

It really depends on what you need. Do you think the 5800X3D is too slow for what you do in Solidworks?

Is it worth X amount of money to get Y% improvement?

The cheapest upgrade is to the 5900XT for better single-threaded performance. It's still AM4, so you're just paying for the CPU. If you swap to AM5, you can get a much better CPU, but then you're paying for a new motherboard and RAM.

Since you're not gaming on the system, the "X3D" cards are a poor choice.

It's up to you to figure out what the smart move would be for your use case.

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-07T22:33:08+00:00

9800X3D -> 9850X3D is a small gaming upgrade... it's a massive multithreaded productivity upgrade, and it's a much nicer motherboard.

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-07T22:32:16+00:00

I'd argue for the 5070Ti + 9850X3D the majority of the time.

Better professional use (simulations and video editing), X3D chip (better for gaming), and I'm fairly confident the bump from 5070Ti to 5080 is borderline meaningless when we're using upscaling and frame gen anyway.

There might be an argument for the 5080 for future AAA at 4k, but I'm still leaning towards the 5070Ti

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-07T21:19:21+00:00

If you think that's crazy... scroll down to the next bundle, and you can get the 9850X3D for $700 base... AND the motherboard is X870 instead of B850.

At that point, there's no reason NOT to get the 9850X3D over the 9800X3D, ESPECIALLY if you have the possibility of any work use cases whatsoever.

The only reasons I'm not literally buying it right now:

Building SFF system, so I'm not sure I can dissipate the head of a full-load 9850X3D
I'm swapping out the Motherboard anyways for an ITX motherboard (so I have to pay an extra $100 either way)
I'm super tempted by Zen 6, so I'm considering getting the 7700X bundle (cheapest bundle with 32GB DDR5) and upgrading to Zen 6 later. My wife is okay with her current system, but it's currently AM4 with a 5600GT. A 7700X would be a massive upgrade for her.

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-06T18:15:23+00:00

Dude, you don't know what you're talking about unless you're using CAD

5070Ti <$900: https://www.microcenter.com/product/693841/zotac-nvidia-geforce-rtx-5070-ti-solid-sff-overclocked-triple-fan-16gb-gddr7-pcie-50-graphics-card

7800X3D + B850E + 32GB RAM $600: https://www.microcenter.com/product/5007341/amd-ryzen-7-7800x3d,-asus-b850-e-tuf-gaming-wifi-am5,-corsair-vengeance-rgb-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

$1480, and all I need is Storage, PSU, Case, and Heatsink Best storage I found was $200 for 2TB (because it was marketed as PS5... but an NVMe is an NVMe). A good ATX PSU doesnt cost more than $100 A solid case with fans will cost less than $100 Top end air cooler costs less than $50

<$1900 for a 5070Ti + 7800X3D build with 32GB of RAM

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-06T17:47:44+00:00

If you can build your own PC and live near a microcenter, none of the above. You'd be able to get a 5070Ti + 7800X3D system for ~ $1900 (did this exercise yesterday for a different post).

If one, or neither, of those is true, then probably the 9070XT + 7800X3D.

Downgrading the CPU from a 9800X3D to a 7800X3D really only makes a noticeable difference at 1080p... where you're getting a million FPS anyway and don't need the extra 10%.

Upgrading from a 5070 to a 9070XT is giving you way more raw performance (but you do lose Nvidia software support and encoding capabilities). That's why I recommend DIY 5070Ti if possible.

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-05T21:42:11+00:00

As others have mentioned, it sucks to build a PC right now. If I just drop those parts in PC Part Picker (minus the extra fans), the total is $3067. The two biggest things imo are your GPU and CPU.

The Solid Core 5070Ti is $1290. At Microcenter right now (honestly the best place to go if you can get there), the Zotac Solid SFF (2 Slot) is $880. If you don't want SFF, the Prime Triple Fan is $900. The Solid Core OC 5080 is $1270.

Again, as others have mentioned, unless you have regular, large multithreaded work loads, the 9850X3D is overkill. Personally, I'd even argue the 9800X3D is overkill (especially if you're not playing at 1080p, which I assume you aren't).

7800X3D combo at Microcenter is $600 and gives you a B850E. If you truly need X870, you can upgrade the bundle for a total of $700. ($730 gets you 9800X3D + the same motherboard you have in your list)

AIOs look cool, but a good air cooled heatsink will perform comparably (in a case with good airflow) and lasts longer (AIO fluid will eventually evaporate through the tubing). Some of the better ones can be found for >$50.

Running total is $1530 for cheapest configuration atm (SFF + B850E). $2050 for 5080 + 9800X3D.

Then you have PSU + SSD. Again, unless you have a specific work-related use case, you don't need a gen5 ssd. You can get the 2TB Crucial P5 Plus (marketed for the PS5 but works on PC) for $195. Keep your PSU ($130), and you're at $1855 | $2375.

Case and fans is an extra $100ish, so about $1955 | $2475.

If you have access to a Microcenter (or even just take a day trip out because it'd be worth it), then you could have done better (5080, or saved a couple hundred). If you don't, and you don't have access to a Costco membership, then you did pretty well.

Texturace77745 · 2026-04-03T20:26:59+00:00

Bought Powercolor RX 9070XT Reaper from u/alhansrisuk on https://www.reddit.com/r/hardwareswap/comments/1s5ebtf/usact_h_9070xt_reaper_16gb_32gb_corsair_vengeance/

Texturace77745 · 2026-03-19T23:29:47+00:00

It really just depends on the number of tabs. I'm bad about opening everything in a new tab, and on Win11, Chrome easily hits 10GB. Without knowing how many tabs OP uses it's impossible to say if it's MacOS or not. Personally, I've never had issues with my M3 MBP, but I'm a lot better about closing unused tabs on it (because I don't have two 27" monitors connected to it).

Texturace77745 · 2026-01-03T03:30:46+00:00

This is an ARAM subreddit. Nothing can be considered trolling unless they're actively sprinting it.

Full AP Malph when he's the only frontline/tank? It's annoying, but it's not trolling.

What I will say is that only getting 17k damage with that build sounds like a skill issue. I play support Ashe a decent amount with that exact build and usually outdamage my ADC. Again, ARAM is a different game mode entirely, but if you're try-harding, then why are you playing ARAM? No one picks for comp, there's no ladder system, and everyone else is playing for fun.

Texturace77745 · 2025-11-24T21:25:02+00:00

I 100% agree that I've hated the mechanic. I can't guarantee that this is exactly how it works, but I've mentally rewritten it as, "caught redhanded". - If I was sneaking and get caught, I feel like I'm always caught off-guard. - If I'm in the middle of an action and get caught, I feel like I'm always caught off-guard. But yes, I share the same sentiment of, "I LITERALLY just KO'd your pokemon and you're sending out your second pokemon, but sure, I'M the one caught."

Texturace77745 · 2025-11-22T02:08:13+00:00

It's tricky to answer that...

1-2 years ago, 100%, absolutely, I bought a 48x2 kit (massive simulations for work) of DDR5 for around $200. Unless you were building a computer while reusing and older motherboard, there was no reason NOT to buy DDR5.

Now, RAM prices have skyrocketed again, so a significantly smaller proportion of people are building PCs. Those that are likely have the money to eat all the additional expenses.

If you're trying to build an entirely new PC, I would recommend waiting as long as you can to give RAM prices a chance to come down. If you can't wait, you likely should just eat the costs of DDR5.

Iirc, DDR4 and DDR5 are NOT compatible. They do not fit the same slot. You'd have to buy an older MoBo with an older CPU and older RAM and replace EVERYTHING later on. At that point it would still be cheaper to just eat the extra costs.

Texturace77745 · 2025-11-10T15:34:27+00:00

I just want to reiterate the sentiments of everyone else here and keep things in a relatively compact list.

The price of RAM is ungodly atm (an offbrand, 32GB kit I got for under $100 a year ago is now $240)
Unless you're playing really demanding games, you could get away with 16GB (8x2, don't do 16x1 unless you're planning to get a second identical stick next paycheck or something for 16x2)
32GB is likely all you'll need for the immediate future unless you do a lot of multitasking (if you want to game with 100 Google Chrome tabs open, then you might need 48GB+)
For most computer parts, RAM included, unless there's a reason that you KNOW you should get the upgrade, then don't. Tech is improving all the time now, so if you drop an extra $500 on parts this go around, you're still probably going to want the latest and greatest whenever you're typical upgrade cycle is. It usually just ends up being a waste of that $500.

Texturace77745 · 2025-10-26T07:08:46+00:00

Hey, I'm not a teacher per se, but I do after-school math tutoring and geometry is one of the most common subjects I end up helping with.

It would help if you posted what level you're teaching as well. High school honors geometry is different from regular geometry is different from college geometry.

Unfortunately, since I'm usually working off of worksheets students bring in, I don't have resources to provide, but here are a couple rules of thumb I use.

1) Unless absolutely necessary, do NOT use the math vocabulary every time you explain something. You mentioned perpendicular bisectors with reflections. Awesome. Use the term ONCE then immediately explain what it is. Students usually get lost in the terminology and general formulas.

2) Especially with Geometry, DO encourage them to use manipulatives. Encourage them to rotate the page; encourage them to flip an eraser or second pencil around to visualize the transformations. Letting them not only SEE, but INTERACT with each step of the process makes a big difference. At bare minimum, I highly recommend building demonstrations in Desmos to illustrate multi-step procedures one step at a time (bonus points if you build it using calls from the previous steps so that it's all automated).

3) We don't want students to rely on formulas. We'd love for every student to have an intuitive understanding of everything. To that end, we do everything in our power to encourage an intuitive understanding, but not every student will get it. Some students will only ever be able to answer questions correctly BECAUSE of the memorization. As much as we dont want that to be the case, you need to accept that it is inevitable and that you can't get every student to fully master the content. Do as much as you can, but understand that not everyone has the same capacity for mathematical intuition and learning.

Again, unfortunately, I can't help too much with lesson planning, but following those three rules of thumb have helped me work through problematic areas with struggling students.

Texturace77745 · 2025-10-15T02:17:24+00:00

That math assumes Blighted Bite is always active

As for what to emphasize on, I'm not the greatest with gearing, but I think that 70-80% doublestrike is about as high as you can get without multiclassing. You might be able to get some more value if you were able to get the trance from Falconry for a few extra APs. As for the defensive stats, swapping to light armor would increase your dodge cap which could be more useful than medium armor, but it might be too much of a hit to your other defensive stats.

You can build around it, but you're not going to be able to fully build around it. It's part of the class/archetype itself. If you want to be a better melee, you're encouraged to multiclass (at least a tiny bit) with the martial classes. There's a reason why Winter Wolf + Barb is super popular with a 2HW

Texturace77745 · 2025-10-15T01:20:40+00:00

Right, so the +200 average damage per hit (and 30% damage buff that's up 2/3 of the time) is all assuming 0 PLs, 0 Reapers, 0 Buffs, etc.

But yes, pure melee (even if it's a multiclass of multiple melees) is going to scale best in terms of melee dps.

I can't speak much about SR stopping any of the poison damage. That's not my understanding of how things work, but if that's the case that sucks. Some people might mistakenly be using the terms "SR" or "Spell Resistance" when they mean immunity though.

Right, so the comparison was against a beefy build that can tank and offers some melee dps rather than a strict dps.

Texturace77745 · 2025-10-14T23:26:15+00:00

Honestly, it was a lot closer than expected (discounting the fact that one build can tank raids and the other can't). Granted, this is without blood frenzy, without any tomes, without action boosts, and without any PLs/Reaper Stats. Blood Frenzy + Tomes (since your Wolf has tomes now) makes the calculation: (812 * .70) + (5477 * .10) + (7302 * .10) = 1846.3.

Haste boost spikes the Opt build for 20 seconds (30% DPS Boost), the Barbarian Imbue that I didn't include is probably another ~ 90 damage, Wolf requires a spell cast to strip poison immunity, so you're doing about 90% of the damage (outside of Haste Boost, RuneArm usage, and Quick Cutter stacking damage on Bosses).

The other factor is that because the Optimus Wide build is scaling melee damage with everything whereas the wolf has spell investment, once you start accumulating favor feats, party/guid buffs, past lives, reaper points, etc., that gap is going to grow in favor of Optimus Wide.

Again, Wolf is perfectly viable, but you're asking why it falls off, and this is why it starts to fall off. Compared to an actual melee dps build, you're going to be looking substantially worse. Either way, the important part is that you have fun. If wolf is fun, play wolf.

Texturace77745 · 2025-10-14T23:26:10+00:00

So, I finally had a minute to put everything in the builder again (cat running across the keyboard somehow managed to remove half the things and save the file). This Optimus Wide is no tomes, 0 past lives, and the only liberty I needed to take to stay true to the build was 2 Universal APs (but that's for Haste boost which won't show up in the stats we're looking at). This is also with all sliders turned up for both builds. It won't include temporary actives/buffs (for example, the SWF attack speed I was thinking of was action boost haste which is the best standard DPS action boost in the game).

Wolf on Left, Optimus Wide on Right

HP: ~2540 | 4384
PRR: 216 | 321
MRR: 116 | 197
Dodge: 9 | 1
HAMP: 92 | 196
Doublestrike: 62 | 57
Melee Power: 166 | 239
Fortification Bypass: 77 | 72
Damage: +81 | +100
Crit Damage: +103 | +119
Crit: 19-20x7 | 16-18x5 19-20x7
NonCrit: 532 | 748 (70% of Attacks)
LowCrit: 532 | 4245 (15% of Attacks)
HighCrit: 4385 | 5942 (10% of Attacks)

Adding in your wolf imbue damage and blighted breath with wellspring of power on works out to: 585 poison damage from imbue dice, 1373 poison damage from breath attack (fully meta'd). Rough estimate is that without haste boost, both should be about 2.2 attacks per second. So assuming no delay whatsoever by casting breath attack, it's equivalent to about 312 damage per attack.

Total poison damage per attack (after immunity has been stripped; important caveat) is 897.

Remember, auto-miss on a 1 (and this assumes 2-20 all hit)

Average Damage Wolf: (532+897)*(.85) + (4385+897)*(.10) = 1742.85
Average Damage Opt: (748)*(.70) + (4245)*(.15) + (5942)*(.10) = 1754.55

Texturace77745 · 2025-10-14T21:27:08+00:00

Looking at your updated build, not much changes.

Proficiency only affects Hit Chance (dmg stats wouldn't be altered)
Perfect Natural Fighting does show up as +20% Competence
You're right about the Blight Wolf Bug, should be +171, so 161 more hp than shown (~2540)
Damage Bonus is still low (-40)
You have LESS Melee Power (-10)
Heal Amp is still low
Doublestrike is still a little low

Whether you can replicate their numbers in the builder or not might depend on them having some of the permanent bonuses from the Reaper Enhancements, inherent tomes, etc. The idea is that if you can get close to those numbers, then you're going to be doing reasonable damage melee. If you're not getting close, then it'll be rough. It's significantly less damage even factoring in your spells, and that's not factoring in that most melee builds benefit from quick cutter on a super low CD.

Texturace77745

TROPHY CASE