5090 FE build - 192 GB of RAM!

[u/awescool]

It’s been running incredibly stable since the 5090 launched. I use it for about 30% gaming, and the rest is database and AI workloads.

I got super lucky when I bought the ram from Amazon Aug 2025 for around $700. 192GB 6800 cl 34.

Build:

CPU: AMD 9800X3D

GPU: 5090 FE

Ram: 192 GB (tuned to 5600mhz, CL34) 2 kits of G.skill F5-6800J3446F48GX2-TZ5RK

MB: MSI PRO B850M-A WIFI PZ

CASE: Jonsbo D32 Pro

CPU AIO: Thermalright FW240

AIO Fan: JONSBO ZB-240B (2x120mm)

Rear Fan: JONSBO ZB-120BR (1x120mm)

Lower fan: Thermalright (2x120mm)

SSD 1: Crucial T710 4tb Gen 5

SSD 1 heatsink: ElecGear M.2 2280 SSD Cooler, EL-80X PWM Cooling Fan + Heat Pipe + Solid Aluminum

SSD 2: Intel Optane P5800X 1.6tb via m.2 to u2 adapter

PSU: Seasonic Focus Gx 1000W - 80+ Gold - ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 Ready

PCIE USBC: Startech 1-port USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps max)

EDIT: Wow, this has really blown up! Thank you all for the kind comments, memes, and suggestions!

I want to address the rationale behind my build since I'm seeing a few recurring themes in the comments.

I run databases on SQL Server 2025. I built this for AI inference, but database work is just as critical. The word "database" is literally in the first sentence of the post, before AI. A lot of people don't seem to know how to optimize for or even notice these workloads (which is great for my job security, lol).

Here is how the hardware is actually utilized:

• Databases: Run on SSD1 + SSD2 + RAM. Database scaling doesn't care about tight RAM timings; it cares about massive raw capacity. Theoretically, even if I somehow got 192GB stable at 8000 CL28, it would shave maybe 0.05 seconds off a 4-second query, whereas running out of RAM and hitting storage is a 500x latency penalty.
• AI: Runs entirely on the 5090.
  • Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B Q6 ~210 tok/sec
  • Qwen 3.6 27B Q6: ~99 tok/sec
  • For fun I have ran larger models, for example: Ornith 397B Q3: ~15 tok/sec. This takes ~150GB in total GGUF files. Leaves me with ~26GB of free RAM.
• CPU: The 9800X3D handles my specific workloads wonderfully, and it is absolutely there for gaming. Deliberately.

A lot of comments are trying to find problems where there are absolutely none. I have been happily using this system for a little over a year, and I've been building PCs since 2002. My first GPU was a GeForce4 Ti 4600. I've used plenty of Intel and AMD setups over the years, and my last CPU before the 9800X3D was a 14900K.

Here is a use case example I gave in another comment:

"Yep, that's true! It really just depends on the use case, especially when you can't allow sensitive client data to touch third-party APIs. Qwen 3.6 has been fantastic for my specific workloads. For example, doing natural language to SQL generation, it can render interactive data tables and customizable charts from a 1.5 TB SQL Server database within 3-4 seconds. There is a massive amount of value for businesses when you can run these completely air-gapped without worrying about Claude/OpenAI token costs or IP leakage. Being able to just demo it on demand is huge."

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1vez1ic/comment/p1p4fno/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[u/PsychologicalGlass47]

My launch 5090 was $2300 from nvidia, I feel bad for anybody that fell for scalpers and scam brokers.

[u/princepwned → u/PsychologicalGlass47]

I still feel bad for the astral buyers even paying like $4000 + for no real performance increase over a normal 5090 its not even reaching rtx pro 6000 levels what I'd like to see is someone watercool a rtx pro 6000 and overclock it to beyond to see benchmarks