Hello. I'm thinking of having the PC below built for Ableton as mine is struggling but I'm not especially computer savvy. I use a mix of hardware and samples (which is why current PC is struggling). How does this build look? Any suggestions/advice around changes would be gratefully accepted. Thanks, Rob.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D RTX 5090 Workstation
Configuration:

Case:
Jonsbo D400 Mid Tower Black

CPU:
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 4.4GHz 12 Core CPU - 5.6GHz Turbo

Motherboard:
Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX Motherboard

Graphics Card:
NVidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GDDR7 GPU

Memory:
64GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5600MHz CL40 (2x32GB)

Primary SSD Drive:
1TB NVMe M.2 SSD (up to 6000MB/R, 4000MB/W)

Secondary Storage Drive:
1TB NVMe M.2 SSD (up to 6000MB/R, 4000MB/W)

Third Storage Drive:
1TB NVMe M.2 SSD (up to 6000MB/R, 4000MB/W)

Fourth Storage Drive:
4TB Seagate BarraCuda 3.5" Hard Drive

CPU Cooling:
Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 260w CPU Cooler

PSU:
Contour 850W ATX 3.1 High Efficiency PSU

WiFi:
Built in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Sound Card:
Built in 5.1 Sound Card

Operating System:
Microsoft Windows® 11 Professional

Additional Chassis Cooling Fans:
1 x Be Quiet! PureWings 2 - Black 140mm Case Fan

 

Puh. Looks more than good for me
Also AMD is a good choice.
Get the CPU with the highest clock rate per core.
But the AMD X CPUs are perfect.

One thing I would take care of would be the cooling. Try to get the most silent one.

I always buy the Arctic AIO III 360 when it fits into the case.
Watercooled is the best

Edit: my latest build was with the Bequiet Silent Base 802. I looove it.
It's very big and heavy. But airflow counts for me.
More than enough space for all parts.

 

1. Fractal Design Define 7 Compact Black TG Midi-Tower - Tempered Glass, Insulated, Black - 124,90 €

Compact midi-tower in black with clear tempered glass, for motherboards up to ATX, with sound insulation and dust filters, high air and water cooling support, including one 120 mm and one 140 mm fan, Order 2 x 120 mm fan with it: Keep in mind that 4.4 GHz to 5.4 GHz generate a lot of heat. The colder your PC is inside, the slower the CPU cooler needs to rotate.

www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/define/define-7-compact/Black%20TG%20Dark%20Tint

2. be quit - STRAIGHT POWER 12 - 750W
Buy a higher quality power supply - 750 watts is enough, trust this company:
www.bequiet.com/en/powersupply/4111

Have fun with your new PC!!!

 

Last edited: Sep 23, 2025

Why? Just for data storage and backup? There are 3x NVMe M.2 SSD with each 1 TB for work and 64 GB RAM. But if money is not an issue...

 

i recommend the faster gen 5 nvme for the primary drive . so is it 9900x or 9950x3d? hdd? in this system? no point. consider the thermalright royal pretor 130. great build nevertheless

 

I now have two SSDs instead of one and one HDD. Everything flows smoothly, it boots up faster, and it's quieter too.
SSD instead of HDD - HDD as external storage. I completely agree with @ArticStorm. If you can afford it.

 

Ok, that's some really helpful suggestions, thanks. Yes, 4TB is for storage so can be external.

 

I have that housing, not the mini but rather the full size and it's great but for one thing...the power button broke after the warrenty expired...the good news is that Fractal Design sent me out a new one at no charge. I hope that they fixed the issue as I'm not alone with that exact problem. Good on them with fine customer service though!

 

Even if it is not part of the OS?

 

The power button is very annoying.

I recently bought a second Define; the first one had a defective USB 3.0 port on the front, and I also received a new cable to install myself. Unfortunately, you always have such a bad feeling when you buy something.

When you consider how many cars are recalled every year because the brakes don't work, or the airbag suddenly pops up while driving to your loved one at 140 km/h on the highway, and your heart rate goes up to 180...

 

if this is solely a music PC I would get an AMD gpu rather than an nvidia as they have better latency

 

oh really? Is that noticable?

I also second ArcticStorm, not to get a internal HDD. The vibrations of a HDD are really disturbing.
Use a external one for Backups if you need.
The Speed of HDD also very low. So the external USB3 have no disadvantage.
You can spin on for Backups.
But Samples, or Librarys on HDD can really slow down the process.

 

"There are 3x NVMe M.2 SSD"

Please check multiple times what motherboard & CPU are you going to buy because in my case (I know by now my PC is not very good)
I have GigaByte B550 Vision DP with Ryzen 5600x I have 2xNVMe m2 installed and because of my motherboard/CPU lanes limitations I can only run 1 nvme SSD gen4 in slower gen3 mode much lower speed what it could do
So make sure if you'll using 3xnvme SSDs be careful check if they will be running at your desired speed
Imagine one of my SSDs could go 6.2 GB/sec read, 5.8GB write just because my limitations it can only do 3GB/sec read and like 2.2 GB/sec write

 

You do not need a discrete GPU, use the onboard iGPU.
https://vi-control.net/community/th...graphics-card-amd-radeon-7950x-system.164334/
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/please-assist-with-upgrade.164520/page-2#post-5766438

I prefer motherboards with 8 PCB layers. This may give an idea why
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1--it1pj9MFonJ7dPysklDQXGnF5yf10FiOL5mESFJJQ/edit?usp=sharing
You can check motherboard details at
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...9O-y_6hv8sPs/edit?gid=454171143#gid=454171143

USA price: (Some models with 8 PCB)

Asus TUF GAMING B650E-PLUS WIFI $179.99
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/6m...tx-am5-motherboard-tuf-gaming-b650e-plus-wifi

ASRock B850 Steel Legend WiFi ATX AM5 Motherboard $189.99
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/vH...fi-atx-am5-motherboard-b850-steel-legend-wifi

ASRock Phantom Gaming X870 Riptide WiFi $219.99
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/QJ...de-wifi-atx-am5-motherboard-x870-riptide-wifi

RAM
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/memory/#Z=65536002&S=6000,8400&L=25,340&sort=price&page=1

PSU
https://hwbusters.com/best_picks/best-atxv3-pcie5-ready-psus-picks-hardware-busters/

Also check
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=621326