diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index b1bd3610a..2d6c0e18f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -458,9 +458,11 @@ endif()
 
 # Add subdirectories in dependency DAG order (which happens to be semi-alpha:
 # don't be fooled).
-add_subdirectory(third-party)
+add_subdirectory(third-party/sysdeps)
+add_subdirectory(third-party/googletest)  # TODO: decide on if this should be a sysdep or not (both?)
 add_subdirectory(base)
 add_subdirectory(compiler)
+add_subdirectory(third-party)
 add_subdirectory(core)
 # Note that rocprofiler-register is in base and is what higher level clients
 # depend on. The profiler itself is independent.
diff --git a/third-party/CMakeLists.txt b/third-party/CMakeLists.txt
index 36ff6aed4..1cb3e92ab 100644
--- a/third-party/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/third-party/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,11 +1,24 @@
+# Subdirectory load order here is carefully balanced - see usage from the root
+# CMakeLists.txt. Notably this file does *not* include the sysdeps subdirectory,
+# which is expected to be included *first*. This allows for bootstrapping
+# compiler/, so other projects in this directory can use the amd-llvm compiler
+# toolchain if they so wish (most should eventually).
+
 add_custom_target(therock-third-party)
 
+# googletest is currently included explicitly ahead of the rest of this folder
+# by the base CMakeLists.txt since since amdsmi in base/ depends on it and
+# base/ is included before compiler/. To resolve that, we may want to move
+# amdsmi from base/ to core/, after which we can turn googletest back into a
+# typical third-party package.
+# add_subdirectory(googletest)
+add_dependencies(therock-third-party therock-googletest)
+
 # No-dep third party libraries (alphabetical)
 add_subdirectory(boost)
 add_subdirectory(eigen)
 add_subdirectory(flatbuffers)
 add_subdirectory(fmt)
-add_subdirectory(googletest)
 add_subdirectory(libdivide)
 add_subdirectory(msgpack-cxx)
 add_subdirectory(nlohmann-json)
@@ -27,12 +40,3 @@ endif()
 if(THEROCK_ENABLE_HOST_SUITE_SPARSE)
   add_subdirectory(SuiteSparse)
 endif()
-
-# TODO: Relocate non header-only libraries here (i.e. boost, host-blas).
-if(THEROCK_BUNDLE_SYSDEPS)
-  if(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME STREQUAL "Linux")
-    add_subdirectory(sysdeps/linux)
-  elseif(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME STREQUAL "Windows")
-    add_subdirectory(sysdeps/windows)
-  endif()
-endif()
diff --git a/third-party/googletest/CMakeLists.txt b/third-party/googletest/CMakeLists.txt
index 4058c8662..bea8efa52 100644
--- a/third-party/googletest/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/third-party/googletest/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -16,5 +16,3 @@ therock_cmake_subproject_declare(therock-googletest
 )
 therock_cmake_subproject_provide_package(therock-googletest GTest lib/cmake/GTest)
 therock_cmake_subproject_activate(therock-googletest)
-
-add_dependencies(therock-third-party therock-googletest)
diff --git a/third-party/spdlog/CMakeLists.txt b/third-party/spdlog/CMakeLists.txt
index 71978cb26..05d0e2add 100644
--- a/third-party/spdlog/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/third-party/spdlog/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ therock_cmake_subproject_declare(therock-spdlog
   NO_MERGE_COMPILE_COMMANDS
   OUTPUT_ON_FAILURE
   EXTERNAL_SOURCE_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/source"
+  COMPILER_TOOLCHAIN
+    amd-llvm
   BUILD_DEPS
     therock-fmt
   CMAKE_ARGS
diff --git a/third-party/sysdeps/CMakeLists.txt b/third-party/sysdeps/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4076569ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/third-party/sysdeps/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# TODO: Relocate non header-only libraries here (i.e. boost, host-blas).
+if(THEROCK_BUNDLE_SYSDEPS)
+  if(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME STREQUAL "Linux")
+    add_subdirectory(linux)
+  elseif(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME STREQUAL "Windows")
+    add_subdirectory(windows)
+  endif()
+endif()