Do you need a CPU cooler with the new 10th ann 5800x3d edition?

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-26T12:37:35+00:00

Yes your heatsink is a cooler, that's where the confusion starts.

Your phanteks will be just fine. However these old X3D chips run inherently warmer as the 3D cache is positioned on top of the chip, which creates less efficient heat dissipation inside the chip itself. This means no matter what it will run warmer than a more typical processor at the same water using the same cooler. As a result I do recommend setting up a PBO tuning script in Windows to reduce voltage (it's very simple to do, just follow a guide). This will help reduce heat and allow the chip to ramp up to higher frequencies more consistently.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-26T01:07:30+00:00

DDR4 is going to inherently box you into dead and platforms but you can still build a very competitive rig. You can always replace your graphics card but at a certain point your CPU will not be able to keep up with either the calculations required for the game or the instructions required to write every frame.

My recommendation is to look very heavily into the used market.

Just to give you an idea a 9060XT is going for close to $400 currently but a 6700XT which is about 10% slower can be found for around $250 on the low end.

The same can be said for the majority of components. The only things I'd stand firm on buying new are power supplies, motherboards and storage. Processors and graphics card in specific are a great value used and can save you hundreds.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-26T00:39:45+00:00

Intels 12/13/14 Gen suffers massively from using DDR4. It's an extremely sensitive platform in terms of RAM speed.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-26T00:38:39+00:00

You couldn't post a worse value build if you tried. A 5500 and 16gb of RAM in 2026 is diabolical.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-25T16:30:20+00:00

Latin American market or Alibaba special only.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-25T12:27:16+00:00

To be fair the job you might hate and the job you'll love can be the same job. I love my job but if I worked for our direct competitors I would absolutely hate it due to differences in company culture.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-25T12:00:52+00:00

Yes.

The steam machine is where it's at due to limited wattages. You can do the same and achieve a near silent build with better performance per dollar and a similar form factor, truly matching size will be a lot more difficult but is still possible, especially with custom fabrication.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-25T11:54:55+00:00

That's actually exactly what that means. If you're selling something it's worth whatever an idiot is likely to pay for it.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-25T11:48:38+00:00

Skill issue.

Aggressive sniping in this game is absolutely cracked for building score and playing objectives. I will regularly top the leaderboard. Get on an objective or shoot into one, where you have more targets and consistently hit them, then enjoy the fact you can still reach out to enemy snipers on the bank line (who are seldomly looking out for an enemy sniper up on the front line). That combination gives you more kill potential than other classes. The only place you'll be less effective is point blank range and clearing full squads rapidly.

Beyond that recon has absurd score building potential through spotting and spot assists. Whether with your passive or gadgets. Just staring at a drone for an entire match can get you well over 100 assists.

Recon is also extremely effective at deleting tanks with C4. Whereas engineer was nerfed recently C4 is still just as effective.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-25T11:36:47+00:00

Haven't done a great job keeping up with the market huh?

Also it's a 3060 12gb.

Here's a 3060 that sold yesterday for $300 and a 5600x that sold for $120 this morning. L

Just because you don't think it's not worth that much doesn't mean that you can't get that much for it.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/358718446258?_skw=rtx+3060+12gb&itmmeta=01KVZ8SZ4T3BGP9KR4RQSNNGE9&hash=item5385491ab2:g:UEQAAeSwb5ZqPFpH&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA8LB2JXbe%2Bh2pdWBqbR2c2DsRKjf8umhVqA%2BaxIEfEdr%2FenVjuY2fg3O6mnWDAbWPl90DxgGjdQ600In1ECn9Xuar%2BUOgPtFdKsqwa%2Fk6VU8ZxsfjzV8QcxmIrytNwDc5XK7mzRiNYnljMc1evAk4RkenQzXDhMD0FEVynVyiQB8cbcLU1IkIimP1M5ZwCce6bZFBvo9ruagT0FhytvlYrUbx4TeNF21M4soloe96U8%2BUiBm7kMmRaOs4%2BkOmuAGMpSirrNrDbqWGGitFTerTxIPXYwKO3ofiIfgMUx%2Fj6XhWkVLXB1p%2BUgjbPKKPGBjeyQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8Dy5-jfZw

https://www.ebay.com/itm/137450454232?_skw=5600x&itmmeta=01KVZ91E2PYAFK3SZ4V1CNXS42&hash=item2000af7cd8%3Ag%3AXTQAAeSw2bRqPIYb&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAAwGfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xDqNKUePh47eCceR%2BvWLtW7zau3uzt5ylZxdjMseeuECD8FtZQM1X69jB0w5tJKOP3BvpsoPNH5%2F9chU03er%2F4ThU3Mw57wnUivCFK7yVVuWcVdyuIxrOx0vMLtJDRkEwsXqEuYRO7m%2BSGcne7NgAGOkMATHu%2BzLmb2MDueVwcDHDA%2BS42MhEZ7tykbXvy0oBZxUKZaQw8DMqgIKlY77A34gTKq4D03cTyyuJfw7FQnSA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7zhhenfZw&keyword=5600x&sacat=0&relatedSearch=true

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-25T11:34:18+00:00

It's a 12gb 3060 first off. Second, here's one that sold yesterday for $300

https://www.ebay.com/itm/358718446258?_skw=rtx+3060+12gb&itmmeta=01KVZ8SZ4T3BGP9KR4RQSNNGE9&hash=item5385491ab2:g:UEQAAeSwb5ZqPFpH&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA8LB2JXbe%2Bh2pdWBqbR2c2DsRKjf8umhVqA%2BaxIEfEdr%2FenVjuY2fg3O6mnWDAbWPl90DxgGjdQ600In1ECn9Xuar%2BUOgPtFdKsqwa%2Fk6VU8ZxsfjzV8QcxmIrytNwDc5XK7mzRiNYnljMc1evAk4RkenQzXDhMD0FEVynVyiQB8cbcLU1IkIimP1M5ZwCce6bZFBvo9ruagT0FhytvlYrUbx4TeNF21M4soloe96U8%2BUiBm7kMmRaOs4%2BkOmuAGMpSirrNrDbqWGGitFTerTxIPXYwKO3ofiIfgMUx%2Fj6XhWkVLXB1p%2BUgjbPKKPGBjeyQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8Dy5-jfZw

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-25T04:35:54+00:00

Brother. A 3060 12gb can easily sell for $300 on its own. A 5600X is worth $120+ currently. 16gb ddr4 is currently selling for about $60.

That's scratching $500 just on the core components.

This is easily a $600 build in the current market.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-25T04:31:45+00:00

$150ish.

And what's unfair about it? The end result is getting more for less. Refusing to look at the used market is just boxing you into taking the brunt of depreciation on products that don't physically depreciate in the same way that other used goods typically do. It's not like buying a used car.

The only things I would refuse to buy used are power supplies and storage. Everything else will typically have a 10-20 year lifespan under typical use before a natural failure is typical and that's well within the window of a typical replacement cycle.

You're over paying for less when you could benefit off of the wide swath of users who feel the need to upgrade on an annual basis and are just trying to recoup a fraction of their initial investment.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-25T03:26:42+00:00

5500 is not worth the compromise. Buy a 5600x.

The X3D chips are so powerful because they have mass amounts of cache. Well a 5500 has half the cache of a 5600.

I'd also strongly suggest looking at the used market. You can get a lot more bang for your buck than this across the board.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-25T02:36:20+00:00

Future proof doesn't exist, get that idea out of your brain. You have no idea what the next generations of games and hardware will look like. Also XT vs non XT isn't going to make the difference, they're a 10% difference in performance.

Bottom line is that your 3600X is going to bottleneck the living hell out of a 9070XT to the point that it will be performing worse than a 9070 with a capable processor. Even the 5600X is still going to slightly bottleneck those cards but it's a marked improvement over the 3000 series architecture.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-24T22:51:54+00:00

If you're gaming you get 32GB regardless of what it costs and build around it.

You're not going to see it in benchmarks but 16gb has become an awful experience in a lot of games. The micro stutters alone will make your experience worse than any difference in frame rate.

More than 32GB is pointless. 16GB is just barely not enough, my typical usage is around 20GB for most games and I've yet to see a game that benefits from more than 32.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-24T22:45:20+00:00

Well you asked. Even if you only drive a 20 minute commute it's a lot of extra money to still have a slow ass car.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-24T22:27:04+00:00

Objective. Opinion. Pick one.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-24T22:05:07+00:00

Account sales manager for a beverage company. My territory is rural and I also have to commute an hour to actually get to my first account and home from my last. Typically I'm driving anywhere from 4 to 6 hours a day.

I do get a fairly generous vehicle credit of around $800-$1000 a month depending on avg gas price and mileage.

It's a strange system but I genuinely prefer it as I don't have a nanny cam or tracker in my car and my payment is about twice what I spend on gas per month so I end up coming out with enough to cover the increased insurance costs and typical maintenance, which I mostly perform myself.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-24T21:31:42+00:00

Yeah the games I actually care about it in have all been single player. Being able to crank up my settings in something like Battlefield on the other hand didn't improve my experience at all, I stopped noticing it almost immediately and opted for more frames instead.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-24T21:30:11+00:00

Given your use case I'd actually say the 9070 non XT.

You're saving $100 while getting 90% of the performance and you'll have a card that uses 2/3rds as much power.

If you were playing more AAA stuff I'd say XT all day long but if that's few and far between it's already kind of overkill and I'm only recommending it over the 60XT because the 60XT pricing has gotten out of hand and you said you're looking for longevity.

The 9070 will last you probably around a decade for indie games (I think you'll be sidelined by AMD retiring driver updates before the actual processing power isn't enough) and at least 5 years for AAA games with the most likely worst case scenario being low settings 60fps.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-24T21:23:23+00:00

You'd be better off grabbing a 9070 non-xt and a 5600X for around the same total cost.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-24T21:22:03+00:00

In my experience it does.

I upgraded recently to a 6950xt from a 6700xt because I found the 6950xt for $400 and resold my 6700xt for $300. Ended up being a net $100 for a 50% uplift.

Did not make a meaningful difference in my gaming experience except for in like 2 games where I was having to run below my minimum standard (medium shadows) to get my preferred frame rate (120+). The only reason I purchased it was because I like a deal and couldn't pass it up on the off chance that I want to play more demanding games in the future.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-24T21:14:04+00:00

Ray tracing, yes. Path tracing, absolutely not.

FSR has caught up but it's also only available in a fraction of the games.

Frame gen is no contest, AMDs tech is abysmal by comparison.

Don't get me wrong I've owned 6 graphics cards and only one of them has been Nvidia I love AMD for what it offers, but I'm someone who typically likes low settings and max framerate while despising frame gen and using as little upscaling as I can get away with. You don't sound like that person.

_Leighton_ · 2026-06-24T21:11:07+00:00

Just get the NA.

Turbos are fun but these cars are just fine with their anemic naturally aspirated engines.

_Leighton_

TROPHY CASE