clshades
Well-known member
I haven't read every post here TL : DR. I don't see the need for an SSD if you have a large enough M.2 nvme drive.
Help with purchase
- Thread starter Newbie72
- Start date
draemn
Well-known member
We like to put our games on a SSD or NVME drive because they load much faster than a cheap traditional HDD. It is optional but really nice splurge. Most of us use the HDD if at all for thinks like movies and photos where it's a lot of big data and you usually don't notice the slower speed.
Bond007
Well-known member
Something like this would be a starting point.
You could price out something similar from somewhere like memory express and have them build it for you. $955+tax,shipping,Windows.
the issue is, for a bit of extra money there are improvements that could be made. But if keeping cost down is a priority, that would work.
Personally I would +$50 for a better motherboard, +$90 for Ryzen 3600, +$50 for a better case, and $20 for some faster ram, and $30 for a 650watt version of the power supply...but that does add up. Potentially a used graphics card to save some money.
Loading…
ca.pcpartpicker.com
You could price out something similar from somewhere like memory express and have them build it for you. $955+tax,shipping,Windows.
the issue is, for a bit of extra money there are improvements that could be made. But if keeping cost down is a priority, that would work.
Personally I would +$50 for a better motherboard, +$90 for Ryzen 3600, +$50 for a better case, and $20 for some faster ram, and $30 for a 650watt version of the power supply...but that does add up. Potentially a used graphics card to save some money.
OK using the recommendations posted on here (from the ones I understand lol), my son and I built the following...
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/TLhZQD
Can you guys please take a look and let me know if I missed anything, or if we should upgrade anything. We do have some room to upgrade.
There is also something listed in NOTE section that I don't understand. Do I need to pick a different motherboard?
draemn
Well-known member
*The motherboard M.2 slot #1 shares bandwidth with SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports. When the M.2 slot is populated, two SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports are disabled.
So this motherobard has 6x SATA ports to plug in additional storage (SSD and HDD), only 4 of them will be available when you populate the m.2 slot. I double checked the m.2 slot supports up to 32Gb/s over PCIe 3.0 x4, so you're all good. Nothing to worry about unless you had been hoping to plug in 5 or 6 drives in addition to the m.2 drive.
One thing to consider, if the 3600x goes back on sale, lately it's been $5 more than the 3600 and is always worth getting if the price difference is < $20.
So this motherobard has 6x SATA ports to plug in additional storage (SSD and HDD), only 4 of them will be available when you populate the m.2 slot. I double checked the m.2 slot supports up to 32Gb/s over PCIe 3.0 x4, so you're all good. Nothing to worry about unless you had been hoping to plug in 5 or 6 drives in addition to the m.2 drive.
One thing to consider, if the 3600x goes back on sale, lately it's been $5 more than the 3600 and is always worth getting if the price difference is < $20.
Thank you for the explanation. I'll keep an eye on the 3600x on Black Friday.
The 1660 video card and motherboard ok?...my son thinks we need to get a "better" one. Keep in mind he's just talking with his friends and getting their opinions. lol
BTW...he is getting a better monitor from his friend. 144hrz - 1ms response time...so he wants to know if this setup will be ok for FPS.
Sorry one more question...since nobody recommended getting a CD/DVD drive...how do I get Windows on there?
Last edited:
Bond007
Well-known member
Nice job so far. A couple points.
1. Memory express does price matching if you buy from them
2. That power supply will absolutely work, but I always recommend not cheang out on it since it keeps everything going. For $20 more, this is the cheapest one I see right now that I would grab:
3. motherboard is a fine choice. B550 based motherboards have a few more features (newer version), and I believe you mentioned wanting wifi. This one is the newer b550 and has wifi built in (for your consideration, not a must):
4. Graphics card - this is almost always the limiting factor in a decent gaming computer. You can literally spend your entire budget on just a graphics card. A 1660 super should get decent fps at good settings at 1080p without issue. Obviously more is always better, but at a cost. You may get lucky on a used rtx2060 /2060 super/or 2070 with people trying to upgrade. Or you can take the extra cost new.
1. Memory express does price matching if you buy from them
2. That power supply will absolutely work, but I always recommend not cheang out on it since it keeps everything going. For $20 more, this is the cheapest one I see right now that I would grab:
Loading…
ca.pcpartpicker.com
3. motherboard is a fine choice. B550 based motherboards have a few more features (newer version), and I believe you mentioned wanting wifi. This one is the newer b550 and has wifi built in (for your consideration, not a must):
Loading…
ca.pcpartpicker.com
4. Graphics card - this is almost always the limiting factor in a decent gaming computer. You can literally spend your entire budget on just a graphics card. A 1660 super should get decent fps at good settings at 1080p without issue. Obviously more is always better, but at a cost. You may get lucky on a used rtx2060 /2060 super/or 2070 with people trying to upgrade. Or you can take the extra cost new.
Thank you...yes we need wifi. Thx for pointing out that the one we chose didnt have it.
We might be able to move the PC to somewhere that has access to an Ethernet cable. If so, rather than the WiFi card mentioned above...should we get a MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard instead? It’s roughly the same price...or is there a better 550 model to recommend?
moocow
Well-known member
Wifi shouldn't dictate which motherboard you get. You can always buy the WifI card separately and plug into a PCI-E x1 slot. As for motherboard chipset, it really depends, see thoughts below:
- B450 and X470 are not suppose to support Ryzen 5xxx CPU until next year so if you buy one now, you can only use it with Ryzen 3xxx CPU
- B450 and X470 are not suppose to support anything beyond 5xxx so if AMD decide to release a Ryzen 3+ architecture chip, you are out of luck
- Buy B450 now with Ryzen 2600 or 3600 and then wait for 5600X to come out later to upgrade as new or wait a bit longer and pick it up as used
