Building a Quieter, Better Performing PC - Aiming for 1440p 120hz max settings (no raytracing)

thespaceman

Hello! I am in the process of upgrading my PC I built back in February 2023. It has been a good system that has served me well for what I could afford at the time, but now I've got some extra cash and I'm finding it's not performing as well as I'd like. I need some help assessing my options and figuring out if the upgrades I want to make are doable for me right now.

Here is my current build: pc part picker link (couldn't load some of my components on Microcenter's builder so I had to use PCpartpicker)

The case, powersupply, and CPU cooler are all newly installed and operational as of last week. I was in an NZXT H1 v2 previously and also wanted to switch out of that case. It is my understand as well that the CPU cooler I bought is overkill, but it was the only thing I could get in a reasonable time-frame that suited my noise preferences and I figure it will last me a long time. However, I am curious if anyone has input about any other air-coolers that I could have gotten instead.

My goals for my upgrades are as following:

-Significantly reduce the volume of my PC fans

-Components have the headroom to support a GPU that can do what I need now and ideally the computer can perform really well at 1440p for at least the next 2-3 years

-Can run most current games at highest settings 1440p 120hz or significantly boost my performance in poorly optimized games such as Stalker 2 (Raytracing doesn't really matter to me)

-I don't have a very specific budget in mind, but a GPU over $900 would be a stretch for me right now. Any GPU $1k+ is certainly not doable for me right now.

My main concern is that my current CPU, motherboard, and RAM pairing will bottleneck say an RX 7900 XT, RX 7900 XTX, or any other high end GPU. I know enough about PCs to get one working if the parts are given to me and I have a pretty good understanding of GPUs. However, I really don't have a good grasp on all of the available CPUs and motherboards, nor where my CPU and motherboard fit in today's market. (I followed a guide to build my original PC if anyone was wondering, so my CPU and motherboard were pre-picked for me. I also needed a smaller PC back then, hence the small motherboard.)

As I hinted at before, I have been considering between the RX 7900 XT and XTX, but I'm looking for some additional opinions here. The current high end 40-series and supposed impending 50-series of Nvidia cards are gonna be out of my budget for a while, and the little testing I got to do with a 16gb 4060 Ti left me with the impression I need something with higher vram than 16gb - especially for the coming years. It is also my understanding AMD will not be updating the 7900 series this next year, so a 7900 series may be a safe buy right now given my budget and lack of interest in raytracing?

The noise level of my PC is also a priority for me and something I'd like to resolve asap, so I'm planning to set aside a couple hundred bucks for some nice Noctua fans. If anyone has some cheaper suggestions for fans that match my case and perform as well as Noctua fans noise-wise I'm all ears.