u/Broke_CollegeStud3nt

Please help

^(Bit of backstory,) ^(if you don’t care skip to TL;DR near the link.)

My PC recently stopped working after about 6 years and I decided it was time to get a new one.

I’ve never bought myself a PC before since my previous one had been a birthday present, and now that I have adult money I thought I’d buy one myself.

I asked my family where they bought my old computer from, and they sent me a link to a website with AI generated pictures of PCs. Obviously I’m not going to buy from here, so I looked into where to buy the best pre-builts.

After doing some research I found that buying a pre-built is risky, and they often cut corners, and that its better to build your own PC if you’re serious about getting a reliable good one.

I thought, why not try it, that way I can fix my own problem in the future if something goes wrong, and I can make sure I’m not getting corner cut or scammed.

I started researching parts and prices and found the PC part picker website. Eventually I scrapped together my first PC build using the website.

Skip to here if you don’t care about the above story.

TL;DR: Im building my first PC, Please help. I don't want to brick it on accident and waste a ton of money.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D 4.4 GHz 12-Core Processor	$707.99 @ Amazon Canada
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-D15 G2 91.58 CFM CPU Cooler	$209.95 @ Amazon Canada
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard	$212.99 @ PC-Canada
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory	$1559.00 @ Amazon Canada
Storage	Samsung 9100 PRO 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$569.97 @ Newegg Canada
Video Card	Asus ROG Astral OC GeForce RTX 5080 16 GB Video Card	$2509.99 @ ASUS
Case	Corsair 7000D AIRFLOW ATX Full Tower Case	$299.95 @ Amazon Canada
Power Supply	MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 1300 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$489.99 @ PC-Canada
Case Fan	Noctua A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fan	$34.95 @ Amazon Canada
Case Fan	Noctua A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fan	$34.95 @ Amazon Canada
Case Fan	Noctua A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fan	$34.95 @ Amazon Canada
Case Fan	Noctua A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fan	$34.95 @ Amazon Canada
Case Fan	Noctua A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fan	$34.95 @ Amazon Canada
Case Fan	Noctua A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fan	$34.95 @ Amazon Canada
Webcam	Logitech C920s HD Pro Webcam	$79.99 @ Lenovo
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total	$6849.52
Generated by PCPartPicker 2026-06-15 23:50 EDT-0400

QUESTIONS:

Did I do this right? Is this a good build?

Im entering college soon and I need to be able to do creative work on this computer (blender, photoshop, etc.), but I still want to play games with heavy graphics on it. Would this build suffice? If not, what should I change or replace? ^((The college recommends a 4090, 5080, or 5090, with a minimum requirement of a 4070.))

What parts could I swap out to save Money, but still keep the same level of performance?

I will admit, 6.8k is very pricey, and I would really like to cut that down to about 5k or 6k.

Not necessary but would seriously save chunk of my college fund.

Is anything being bottle necked?

Are any of the parts, at all, being bottle necked or hindered by other parts?

Will outlet be strong enough to handle my PC?

My house is over/around 100 years old, and I believe I remember something about the outlets in the room that I want to put my PC in having less power. Is there any way to make sure that my outlet is strong enough so I don’t fry or break anything?

Do I need to buy the wires separately?

Do I need to specifically buy wires for anything in this set up, or do all the components come with their respective wires?

Where do I put my fans?

I’m going to have six fans (“Noctua A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fans”) inside of a

“Corsair 7000D AIRFLOW ATX Full Tower” Case, as well as the 3 stock fans it comes with.

It would be helpful to know where to optimally place my fans. I don’t think the room I’m in has the best ventilation, and I’m most likely planning on putting it in a corner.

Where do I put Thermal paste?

Do I only put it on the CPU, Or should I put it in other places too?

How exactly do I put my PC together?

I know there isn’t a tutorial for every single specific build, since all builds are different. How would I know what to install first and where, and which wires plug into what?

What is a Flash-Bios and do I need to do it with my build?

A few posts said that when buying a specific motherboard, I need to update it manually by doing “Flash-Bios”, and that it can very easily go wrong and brick my motherboard..

If I do need to do this, how do I do it safely?

Is XMP/EXPO/DOCP safe and should I do it?

Is there really no downside to doing this? Also how?

Any tips / Is there anything else, at all, that you think I should know?

Please tell me anything that you think could help me, I really, Really don‘t want to mess this up, its so expensive, and It would be a massive disappointment to brick my first build and waste 6k. Also I wouldn’t be able to go to college.

Edit: I got the college requirements wrong, they just recommend a 5080 and up.

Why wont my script type a forwards dash? /

Building my first ever PC, how do I make sure I don’t brick or ruin anything during this + I have some noob/tech questions.