I built this machine myself in October last year, right before RAM prices started climbing again. Anyone watching the Indian PC market knows that window when everything is relatively stable doesn’t last long. I wasn’t going to wait around.

This is the full story of the build, the decisions behind it, and what I’ve learned from actually using it daily for work and gaming.

The Full Build

• CPU: Ryzen 9 9900X
• Motherboard: Gigabyte B850M AORUS ELITE WIFI6E ICE
• RAM: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z5
• GPU: RTX 5080
• Storage: WD Black SN7100 2TB (main) + WD Black SN770 1TB (secondary)
• Case: Lian Li Dan A3-mATX
• OS: CachyOS (Arch-based, performance-optimized kernel)

That’s the short version. Here’s the thinking behind each of those choices.

Why I Chose the Ryzen 9 9900X Over Intel

This was the first big decision and the one people ask about most. At the time I was shopping, the Ryzen 9 9900X made more sense for my situation, for a few reasons.

The value was obvious. For the kind of work I do, which is a mix of programming and gaming, I didn’t need to go all the way to the 9950X and I definitely wasn’t paying the premium Intel was asking for comparable performance. But honestly the bigger factor was heat.

I live somewhere where the ambient temperature is genuinely hot most of the year. This isn’t a minor thing when you’re building a PC. It changes your entire approach to cooling. Zen 5 runs noticeably cooler than what Intel had at the same performance tier, and when your room is already warm, a cooler-running CPU means less noise, less stress on the cooling system, and less time worrying about thermals. I wasn’t interested in fighting my environment on top of everything else.

The other thing is that Zen 5 was a brand new architecture. When you’re putting serious money into a platform, being on the latest architecture gives you a longer runway before the system starts to feel dated. That mattered to me.

Why I Chose the Lian Li Dan A3 micro-ATX Case

I wanted something compact but I wasn’t ready to go full ITX. ITX is its own challenge and I didn’t want to deal with it. The Dan A3 sits in a good spot: genuinely small footprint, decent airflow for its size, looks great on a desk.

The build process was honestly fun. Getting everything to fit, routing cables in a tighter space, seeing it come together. I enjoyed it. The case is well-designed and nothing felt like a fight.

The one honest friction point was cable management. In a compact case like this you’re working with less room and the routing options are limited. I spent more time on it than I expected and it still isn’t pretty behind the panel. It doesn’t matter though. Temps are fine, airflow is fine, nothing is impeding anything. Cable management in a closed case is just something you do so you can close the panel and move on.

NVMe Storage: WD Black SN7100 and SN770

Two WD Black NVMe drives. The SN7100 2TB is the main drive and it’s fast, runs cool, handles everything I throw at it. The SN770 1TB is the secondary and it’s an older generation but still plenty fast for what it’s doing. Having 3TB total means I’m not doing storage math before installing something, which is exactly where I want to be.

Running the RTX 5080 on Linux

This is the part most people are curious about because it sounds like it would be painful. It’s not as bad as you’d expect.

I’m on CachyOS, which is Arch-based and ships with a kernel that’s already tuned for performance. I’d tried Debian before this and the NVIDIA driver situation for the RTX 5080 was a headache. CachyOS just handled it. Getting up and running was straightforward and I felt at home with it much faster than I expected. The driver situation on Linux has improved a lot over the past couple of years. Gaming through Steam and Proton covers most of what I play without issues. There are games with aggressive anti-cheat that still won’t run on Linux and that’s a known ecosystem problem, not something specific to this GPU or this distro.

If you’re thinking about going this route, it’s viable. Just do your research on the specific games you care about before committing.

RTX 5080 + Ryzen 9 9900X for Dev Work and 1440p Gaming

Both work and gaming, genuinely. On the development side: writing code, running local servers, occasionally running models locally. The 9900X with 32GB handles all of it without ever feeling like a bottleneck. Compile times are fast and I can have a lot running at once without things slowing down.

On the gaming side, the RTX 5080 is more than enough for 1440p gaming on my BenQ PD2500Q. It’s technically overkill for that resolution but that’s fine. It means the machine has years before the GPU becomes a limiting factor.

The One Thing I’d Change: More RAM

32GB works fine. It’s not a bottleneck for anything I’m doing right now. But I built right before prices went up and I made the classic mistake of optimizing for today instead of two years from now. What felt like saving money at the time is going to cost more when I eventually need the headroom. I wish I’d just gone 64GB from the start.

Is the Ryzen 9 9900X + RTX 5080 mATX Build Worth It?

Yes. I’d build it again with one change. The machine is compact without being annoying to work with, it runs cool, it’s quiet, it handles everything I use it for without complaint, and it looks good sitting on the desk.

The Lian Li Dan A3 is a genuinely good case. The WD Black drives have been solid. The Ryzen 9 9900X was the right call for my environment and my workload. CachyOS on this hardware runs better than any Windows install I’ve used.

The only regret is the RAM. I’ll sort it eventually.