AI-Assisted Build - How'd I Do?

Posted by SaxxySeal@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 10 comments

I recently used ChatGPT to help me diagnose a boot issue with my 2018 rig and ultimately pronounce the beast dead. My GTX 1080 has finally failed (and/or possibly my PSU); and even if I did get it to run, my i5 8600k is the definition of a bottleneck. Thankfully I've been looking into upgrading or replacing my rig for some time, but an idea struck me - could our future AI overlords realistically guide me through determining the best course of action and part configurations? Or would it fail miserably and help me build a $1,600 paperweight? (Specs below after some brief contextual yapping)

After some questioning and ultimately giving it my complete specs, it informed me that my case - a Fractal Design Meshify C that I actually quite like - and my CPU fan - a respectably chonky beQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 - are both theoretically reusable. The entire rest of the innards, though...not so much (at least, not without wasting money and kicking the can down the road). I gave it my desired outcome - a machine that can handle high-performance and high-fidelity 1080p gaming and not much more, as I don't care to upgrade my monitors, at least not in terms of size and resolution. I just want to enjoy Triple-A games at ultra or close-to settings as I come across them while running casual games and older modded games with positively stellar performance.

Throughout comparing pieces, triple- and quadruple-checking compatibility, and doing most of the pricing work on my own (CGPT proved utterly useless as it refused to accept that it's own existence has skyrocketed the cost of RAM and SSD's), some clever bundling, and consulting with Google and the AI led me to arrive at what I hope to be a beefy enough build to tear through 1080p gaming past, present, and somewhat future and actually possibly withstand a move to 1440p if I get brave enough for that in the next couple of years. Better yet, all of the parts are available at my local Micro Center, save for a couple RGB elements on Amazon.

Okay, so not ENTIRELY designed by AI - I micromanaged the hell out of it, challenged it at several points, and really still don't trust it. At any rate, after all of my finagling, asking an absurd number of questions, and comparing numerous options at various junctions, this is the build I have arrived at:

CASE: Fractal Design Meshify C ****REUSING****

PSU: Corsair RM750e (750W)

Motherboard: Gigabyte X870 Gaming Wifi6 (AM5)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (bundled with Motherboard and RAM)

RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB 32GB DDR5-6000 kit (CMH32GX5M2M6000Z36)

GPU: Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 9060 xt

CPU Cooling: beQuiet! TDP Dark Rock Pro 4 ****REUSING****

Case Cooling: 2x beQuiet! Light Wings 140mm PWM ARGB Fans for the front of the case, 1x 120mm of the same for the rear.

Storage (primary): Two 1TB Crucial P310's (NAND Flash PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe M.2), for primary drive and an extra game storage drive that I might upgrade the capacity of later

Storage (secondary, tertiary, etc.): Reusing a 0.5TB XPG SX6000 for downloads, scratch file storage, etc., as well as two 2TB Seagate BarraCuda internal HDD's that haven't died yet and a 4TB Seagate STGX4000400 external HDD that also hasn't died yet.

Monitors & Peripherals: Continued use of a pair of generic AOC 24G15N's that I bought last year (1080p, 180hz), my original Corsair keyboard, an LG Mouse, a PreSonus audio interface, etc. etc.

I'll admit I'm new to the (modern) AMD ecosystem. I initially had settled on a Ryzen 7600 and Radeon 7600, but when I discovered a bundle that included a a better motherboard, CPU, and RGB RAM for less, the difference equated to just bout the cost of bumping the GPU up along with it to the 9060 xt. I don't know if I'll ever realistically move up from 1080p, but I figured a little extra future-proofing couldn't hurt.

Did I pester it enough to get a decently solid build? Does anything stick out as a "bold" (read: stupid) choice? I thoroughly harassed the AI to triple check compatibility specs, form factors and clearances, and it seems to have done a decent job but I honestly don't know if I'm knowledgeable enough to catch any glaring errors. I have a good feeling about the build, but that may just be because Chat GPT spent all day patting itself and I on the back at every decision.

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Cer_Visia@reddit

The primary drive should not use QLC flash, and any NVMe drive will be able to handle the OS and games at the same time. And a single, good 2 TB drive like the Biwin Black Opal NV7400 would be cheaper.

9okm@reddit

So long as the 9060 XT is the 16GB variant, this looks fine.

AceLamina@reddit

I'm already surprised when people use AI for things like this

SaxxySeal@reddit (OP)

It was a surprisingly pain-free process, and the AI condensed a lot of searching and cross-referencing that probably would have taken me ages to do and keep straight. The only point at which I thought "Wow. This thing is clueless." was when I let it try to help with pricing things out and checking vender availability.

It wasn't very good at catching things that simply aren't widely available anymore, so I had to steer it away from a few options that were just unobtainable - i.e. it REALLY wanted me to go with an RTX 40-series, but failed to understand that those aren't really easy to come by anymore due to Nvidia's shenanigans pushing the 50-series. As far as pricing, it similarly seemed behind the times. It kept insisting that RAM and SSD options I ran through it had their prices inflated and "they should cost _____" and it slowly came to understand "yep. That's the point and the problem, buddy."

I ended up using it more to verify options I stumbled upon and check compatibility specs, which it seemed fairly good at as that doesn't need it to account for market volatility on price and availability.

vlhube71@reddit

You can train your model in future to reference PCPartsPicker and other sites during the prompt process. You can also ask it to scrape Reddit for you to use as part of it’s research.

No_Spare1827@reddit

well my personal opinions about AI aside the build is ok, not sure what microcenter u are at as that bundle isnt available near me but its fine I personally wouldn't get that motherboard as its just a bad value in general. just check current prices as ChatGPT is known to use out of date information even with the premium subscriptions

Hmmm71-8@reddit

The CPU cooler won't be reusable unless you get the new mounting hardware for the AM5 socket. BeQuiet might sell it, if not you will need a new cooler.

,where is the specific bundle coming from?

The bundle is from Micro Center.
Re: The cooler - thankfully it came with AM4 mounting brackets (alongside the Intel brackets that I used) when I bought it, so it seems that I got lucky and already have what I need there.

ok so you have that mounting hardware, but not the newest, which is AM5.

how much is this microcenter bundle going for

The AM5 board spec seems to be compatible with the AM4 mounting brackets from what I've been able to tell.

The bundle was about $630, which was about $150 cheaper than separately purchasing Ryzen 7600 (6 cores instead of 8) with a different, MSI motherboard and a Crucial 32GB DDR5 Ram kit of the same speed.