Up front, I know I’m spoiled. Good hardware is getting harder to come by, so I hope this post works as intended: I just want to share the joy of a build.
This one is a bit of an odd case because I’m starting it about nine months earlier than I normally would. The upside is I get to return to an ALL AMD build!
I did Intel last year, mostly because I had to test incoming hardware for work that they allowed me to reuse for these charity projects—reasons that were no fault of AMD. However, since the 3700X era, I’ve stuck with AMD whenever possible simply because it’s my preference.
This year’s first PC will be based on a Ryzen 9 9900X, 32GB DDR5-6000, dual 1TB PCIe 4 NVMe SSDs, a Corsair 4000D case, A corsair RM850e PSU and a 16GB Radeon 9070.
I’m still choosing peripherals, as the ‘Main Event’ for 2026 will be a complete system giveaway, with runner-up prizes like gaming mice and monitors. I think this system strikes a solid balance for gaming, streaming, and content creation. While this spec list looks final, I have several months before the build goes live for the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in November. If prices drop between now and then, I might even swap in a higher-end Radeon or CPU.
