I agree with spending some time pinpointing the original problem before you bring anything over. That said is there any reason you picked the 3060? That's a lot of money for a two generation old GPU when you could get a 5060Ti or 9060XT for the same price and get much better performance in basically every scenario.
this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2025
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No reason at all, I am open to any suggestions for any parts.
I would just like to keep the original case and probably the power supply since that is only 4 years old.
My only other suggestion beyond the GPU is the ram. 4800 is about as low as you can go with DDR5 and the kit you picked is CL40, so really aiming low with that. 6000ish is generally the sweet spot for the Ryzen CPUs and CAS latency closer to 30 is desirable. This Teamgroup kit is better all around and only a couple dollars difference or you could save a few bucks and go with the Patriot Viper kit which is pretty much the same thing. I'm not big on Patriot's styling usually but they generally have very good prices for similar specs.
Edit: Almost forgot you added you're on Linux now. I'm not well versed on the subject, but generally AMD GPUs are preferred for better stability. May want to look into that before you decide on one.
Double replying. I ended up throwing a new build together. This, as-is, is just over your 1k CAD price point, with the potential to go lower depending on if you can get some of these parts locally. Some are listed as out of stock but the site shows some in stock at some stores. My train of thought with the CPU change is while the 9600X only has a slight performance advantage, more importantly it has a 40% reduction in TDP which will be easier for your H60 to keep cool and prevent any thermal throttling.
Edit: I reconfigured the build a little, which may be better depending on what you play with it. Went back to the 7600X with this one and swapped the 9060XT up to a 16GB model. Lots of people complain about 8GB not being enough these days which really depends on what you're playing. Want to play all the latest and greatest or heavily mod your games with high(er) res textures? Having that extra 8GB is necessary. Focused on older games or don't mind not maxing out your settings? The 8GB would probably suffice (especially while running in a PCIE 5 slot). So that will give you some options to consider. I personally like my eye candy and while I don't spend a lot of time with new games using state of the art graphics, I do quite like my modded games and my 9070XT regularly sees 12-16GB+ of VRAM usage.
You wouldn't be worried about bottlenecking the gpu with that cpu?
I think it would be fine to get started with. The budget is hard to work with since Canadian prices are higher and buying new, so some sacrifices have to be made. There shouldn't be that much of a bottleneck and it will ultimately depend on what is being played. The 9600X would perform a bit better, but I think the 8GB of vram will be noticeable in more situations, especially if you don't want to use FSR/frame gen which is still not nearly as good as Nvidia's offerings.. A B580 GPU would be a decent compromise to pair with the 9600X, but at the end of the day, between the two, I'd rather have the 9060XT 16GB. I also don't know how well Intel GPUs work with Linux so I'm hesitant to recommend that route.
Without having any info on why your current PC is crashing, you run the risk of bringing the issues forward. A failing PSU is absolutely a cause of random and unexplainable issues. Bad cooling (usually dried thermal paste) would also cause it.
I would spend some time on diagnosing the cause first. Memtest and Prime 95 are good and simple starting points.
I did replace the power supply is 2021 from the original Corsair Builder cx600 to the current Corsair RM650.
I have moved to Linux Mint with Windows support soon being discontinued, so I'm also learning how Linux works at the same time as dealing with crashes. I'll look into the themal paste as well since that is an easy thing to replace.
I’ll look into the themal paste as well since that is an easy thing to replace.
Just wanted to mention, because it's often overlooked, check the thermal paste on your GPU as well. My wife's system was crashing constantly in games and it was driving us crazy trying to figure out why. Then, I pulled the GPU cooler and found the thermal paste was more "powder" than "paste". Cleaned the old paste off, applied new paste, and the system ran like a dream for another year or so before she upgraded the GPU.
I’d get a 5700X with DDR4 instead.
The motherboard and memory are way cheaper, and it’s plenty fast, which leaves you more budget for a bigger GPU (the most important part).
The only reason to go with a 7000 series platform is if you wanted to keep the motherboard and get a 9000 CPU later, but… as you can see now, usually you’d replace the motherboard when it’s time to upgrade anyway.
The 5000 X3D CPUs were a great sweet spot, but unfortunately it looks like they’re all OOS in Canada. Maybe there’s one Pcpartpicker isn’t covering though, like on eBay.
I gotta disagree here, the 5700X just isn't worth getting at this point. I wouldn't recommend any non-X3D AM4 chip to someone unless they were on an extreme budget because it really is that much worse and can be a noticeable bottleneck when gaming (exactly why I upgraded to a 5700X3D), but more so because prices are pretty bad. The 5700X is almost the same price as the 7600X (~$20 difference,) while performing worse. 9600Xs were on sale recently in Canada for as cheap as the 5700X, but even at their current regular price I'd say it's easily worth moving up to as it will perform similarly to the 5700X3D while being both cheaper and more power efficient. DDR4 prices have also gone up as companies try to cash in on the people staying on AM4. A good 32GB DDR4 kit is barely cheaper than a good DDR5 kit. Just doesn't make sense to spend $800-900 on a new AM4 build and be maxed out on parts when you could spend $900-1000 and have upgrade options later like going with a 9000X3D or getting a PCIE 5 NVME drive or actually having the headroom for a better GPU. Opening up the GPU budget and then holding it back with a 5700X would be silly.
Fair, perhaps I didn’t look at prices recently either.