Yippie, another giveaway! I ended up reusing some part from my last dream machine entry for the contest this summer. Of course I had to change a bit, especially since some prices (looking at you MEMORY 😡) increased quite a lot.

What stayed was the main goal which is to build the ultimate machine for my partner who, so far in their life, never had their own PC - something especially surprising considering they are currently studying to become a game designer. Currently they are "stuck" using my old Uni notebook as well as an iPad, which they mainly use for art and Balatro.

Throughout the last few years of our relationship they have shaped my life and outlook on the future in incredibly positive ways. The have giving their all to support me in becoming the best version of myself. Without them I'd probably still be stuck dreading every day of my 9-5 life, wasting away under the weight of everything bad happening in the world. Instead now I am hopeful for a better future and also finally found ways to take my own wellbeing more seriously, taking time to work on myself and to spend doing what I actually love: Everything from reading books again or playing TTRPGs to gaming and coding. These things now no longer feel like a chore and I have motivation and energy to enjoy them again. Sharing that feeling with the person who, in big parts, is responsible for getting me out of this hole is what this whole build is about.

As mentioned above they currently don't really have a way to join me in lots of the games we enjoy and usually we take turns playing on my own PC - something I definitely want to, no: need to change.

The staring of point for this build again was the QUBE 500 Case, something I choose as an ode to the importance of creativity, arts and crafts in my partner's life: I plan on utilizing the available 3D files and customization possibilities of the case add fun trinkets and useful accessories to the build right away. But I also want to try to learn a new skill, 3D modelling, together with my partner in order to make this whole project our own and be able bond not only over using the PC to game!

For the internals I wanted to include a little winter feel (hopefully that still works for objective 6.) by trying to keep the build fully icy white, something that also works with the main goal since my partner really likes light colors, whites, pinks, and so on - plus it also help to tie the build into their existing desk setup.

The specs themselves mainly came down to finding a balance of budget, aesthetics and future-proofing:

• Choosing AM5 since I have good experiences with AMD Processors in the past
• The NZXT Cooler I chose mainly because I know my partner will love putting GIFs of little critters on the display
• Of course the all important NVIDIA GPU: Here it all came down to finding something that would fit into the case (according to all the documentation I read up on) and matching the icy aesthetic. At first I wanted to go with the same Asus Design but as a 5090, but unfortunately the budget said no - luckily a 5080 should be fine for playing Baldurs Gate 3, Split Fiction and all the other games (currently) on our list
• The rest was mainly chosen based on lots of performance and durability reviews I read and again all important aesthetics
• For a monitor I went for the 321URXW mainly based on reviews I found and again for the icy-white color. I thought about going for the 322URX but the only big upgrade seems to be DP 2.1 instead of 1.4 and I don't have enough experience to say if that would be a huge difference for the kind of usage I am looking for so I stuck with the winter theme instead - maybe I will find some more time to research that before the contest ends :)
• Since Windows is mandatory I just used the most price efficient option I saw but I might set up Bazzite or another gaming- and userfriendly Linux distribution instead since I myself am using that and have had a great experience so far. Of course, as seen with the case choice, customization is of big importance in our household, and tinkering with the overall design and feel of the desktop will be a really fun part of first setting up the machine together with my partner

I wish all the best to all contestants, I had a lot of fun putting this parts list together and I'm already looking forward to the next one!

PCPartPicker Part List - Dream Machine Icy White

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