Build Advice Requesting Help with a PC Build: 128GB RAM, Optical Drive, Legacy HDD Support – Budget $3500

[Nibana]

Hi!
About a year ago, I tried to build a PC but it didn’t work out. Now I’m ready for round two.
I’d appreciate help putting together a desktop PC with:

• an optical drive,
• 96 GB (2×48 GB) or 128 GB of RAM,
• and support for old hard drives (SATA).
  My budget is up to $3500.

This PC will be used for:

• Video editing (Adobe Premiere Pro, Descript);
• OCR and book scanning (CZUR ET16 + FineReader) for creating massive searchable PDFs from old newspapers — up to 100,000 pages in one file. That’s why I need 96 GB or 128 GB of RAM — memory fills up quickly.

What matters most:

• SSD speed + RAM cache during rendering;
• No lag when scrolling through 20 GB+ PDFs;
• OCR with simultaneous TIFF writing and source reading.

I plan to order from:

• https://hotline.ua
• https://hard.rozetka.com.ua

Here’s what I’ve selected or am considering:

1. Intel Core Ultra 7 265K 3.9GHz / 30MB (BX80768265K) s1851 BOX​

🔗 https://hard.rozetka.com.ua/ua/intel-bx80768265k/p454463807/
💰 17,592 UAH (~$422)

2. No idea yet. Budget is around $1000 — suggestions are welcome!​

3. MSI MAG Z890 Tomahawk Wi-Fi (s1851, Intel Z890, PCI-Ex16)​

🔗 https://hard.rozetka.com.ua/ua/msi-mag-z890-tomahawk-wifi/p456194809/
💰 15,299 UAH (~$367)
Has 4 SATA ports, but one will be taken up by the Blu-ray drive.
Is there a SATA splitter or controller card to expand this?

4. Kingston KC3000 4TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0 x4 3D TLC NAND (SKC3000D/4096G)​

🔗 https://hard.rozetka.com.ua/kingston-skc3000s-4096g/p323284093/
💰 16,379 UAH (~$409)

5. ✅ Already purchased: Fractal Design Define 7 XL Black (FD-C-DEF7X-01) — perfect for mounting many old SATA HDDs and one optical drive.​

6. MSI MPG A850G PCIE5 850W​

7. Looking for 2×48 GB (96 GB) or 4×32 GB (128 GB) — I’m unsure what’s more reasonable. Please suggest a reliable model.​

8. Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 (ACFRE00068B)​

🔗 https://hard.rozetka.com.ua/ua/arctic-acfre00068b/p239553705/
💰 4,449 UAH (~$111)
But maybe I should choose version III, since it was released around the launch of socket LGA1851? Not 100% sure though.


If you can recommend parts (especially GPU and RAM) that fit well with the setup and budget, I’d really appreciate it.


Thanks in advance!

 

[Misgar]

Video editing (Adobe Premiere Pro, Descript);

Premiere Prp and other video editing apps benefit from the most powerful GPU you can afford. NVidia cards tend to more popular than AMD or Intel, but price may dictate your choice.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/soluti...be-premiere-pro/hardware-recommendations/#gpu

I'd suggest looking for a GPU with at least 8GB VRAM for Premiere Pro if you're working at high resolutions (4K and above). I upgraded in 2024 from an RTX3060 12GB to an RTX4070 12GB on Black Friday.

Sequence Resolution	1080p	4K	6K	8K+
Minimum VRAM capacity	4GB	8GB	12GB	16GB+

96 GB (2×48 GB) or 128 GB of RAM

Video apps don't always benefit hugely from fast XMP settings especially on AMD CPUs, but there's a worthwhile gain on Intel CPUs at 6000MT/s. Important. See note below about 4 DIMM XMP speeds.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...023-update/#Video_Editing_and_Motion_Graphics

4 DIMMs will often require slower XMP speeds for stability and some mobo BIOS reduce DDR5 speeds down below 4800MT/s when you fit 4 DIMMs. The result is you might waste money on really fast DDR5 if you fit 4 DIMMs. 2 DIMMs usually clock faster than 4 DIMMs.

It's better to buy all 4 DIMMs as a single matched kit of 4 DIMMs. If you buy two pairs of DIMMs, there's no way of telling if they're from the same batch, even if they have the same part number. Different batches may have subtly different memory timings and with mis-matched kits, you may be less successful with really high XMP settings. The two kits might even have different memory chips.

Has 4 SATA ports, but one will be taken up by the Blu-ray drive.
Is there a SATA splitter or controller card to expand this?

Fit an LSI SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) HBA (Host Bus Adapter) card, flashed with IT (Initiator Target) firmware - not IR (RAID) firmware.
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...and-hba-complete-listing-plus-oem-models.599/

LSI cards are equally happy with SATA hard disks, but you can't mix SAS and SATA. The number at the end defines how many drives you can hang off the card, e.g. -4i = 4 drives, -8i = 8 drive, but you can fit more on some cards, -12i, -16i -20i.

I use old SAS2 (6Gbps) 9211-8i controllers, but you could get a faster SAS3 (12Gbps) LSI 9300-8i.
https://www.amazon.com/SXTAIGOOD-9211-8i-6Gbps-HBA-LSI/dp/B0BWY1VH3V

N.B. the '-i' at the end of the part number indicates IT firmware. I suggest avoiding LSI cards ending with '-e' indicated IR firmware. I buy used ex-server pulls, but eBay and Aliexpress abound with cheap LSI clones.

You'll need an SFF-8087 forward breakout cable for each set of four hard disks.

I recommend fitting a second M.2 NVMe drive exclusively used for the Adobe Premiere Pro scratch files. I have a third 1TB M.2 NVMe drive for video work-in-progress files, before copying back to 5 hard disks.

 

[Why_Me]

Hi!
About a year ago, I tried to build a PC but it didn’t work out. Now I’m ready for round two.
I’d appreciate help putting together a desktop PC with:

• an optical drive,
• 96 GB (2×48 GB) or 128 GB of RAM,
• and support for old hard drives (SATA).
  My budget is up to $3500.

This PC will be used for:

• Video editing (Adobe Premiere Pro, Descript);
• OCR and book scanning (CZUR ET16 + FineReader) for creating massive searchable PDFs from old newspapers — up to 100,000 pages in one file. That’s why I need 96 GB or 128 GB of RAM — memory fills up quickly.

What matters most:

• SSD speed + RAM cache during rendering;
• No lag when scrolling through 20 GB+ PDFs;
• OCR with simultaneous TIFF writing and source reading.

I plan to order from:

• https://hotline.ua
• https://hard.rozetka.com.ua

Here’s what I’ve selected or am considering:

1. Intel Core Ultra 7 265K 3.9GHz / 30MB (BX80768265K) s1851 BOX​

🔗 https://hard.rozetka.com.ua/ua/intel-bx80768265k/p454463807/
💰 17,592 UAH (~$422)

2. No idea yet. Budget is around $1000 — suggestions are welcome!​

3. MSI MAG Z890 Tomahawk Wi-Fi (s1851, Intel Z890, PCI-Ex16)​

🔗 https://hard.rozetka.com.ua/ua/msi-mag-z890-tomahawk-wifi/p456194809/
💰 15,299 UAH (~$367)
Has 4 SATA ports, but one will be taken up by the Blu-ray drive.
Is there a SATA splitter or controller card to expand this?

4. Kingston KC3000 4TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0 x4 3D TLC NAND (SKC3000D/4096G)​

🔗 https://hard.rozetka.com.ua/kingston-skc3000s-4096g/p323284093/
💰 16,379 UAH (~$409)

5. ✅ Already purchased: Fractal Design Define 7 XL Black (FD-C-DEF7X-01) — perfect for mounting many old SATA HDDs and one optical drive.​

6. MSI MPG A850G PCIE5 850W​

7. Looking for 2×48 GB (96 GB) or 4×32 GB (128 GB) — I’m unsure what’s more reasonable. Please suggest a reliable model.​

8. Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 (ACFRE00068B)​

🔗 https://hard.rozetka.com.ua/ua/arctic-acfre00068b/p239553705/
💰 4,449 UAH (~$111)
But maybe I should choose version III, since it was released around the launch of socket LGA1851? Not 100% sure though.


If you can recommend parts (especially GPU and RAM) that fit well with the setup and budget, I’d really appreciate it.


Thanks in advance!

Look at a RTX 5070 Ti 16GB.
https://rozetka.com.ua/ua/search/?text=rtx 5070 ti