great_big_abyss
Well-known member
My son is rocking an old FX8350 processor and an RX570, and seems to have reached the limits of what his computer can run - he plays some triple-A games, and has to lower the settings to low to play even at 1080P. I think eventually, he won't be able to run some new titles. Now that he's had a fulltime job for almost a year, and has saved up some money, I've convinced him to buy himself a new computer.
His budget is approximately $1800 taxes in, so about $1600 pre-tax, although there is some fluidity in that budget. If it goes a little higher, no problem, there is room in the budget, although $1800 is a soft ceiling. If we can come in cheaper, great - nothing wrong with saving a little bit of money.
He'll be using it for gaming and general computing duties (he does a lot of writing and picture art on his PC), web surfing, video/movie watching, etc.
We won't be using any parts from his old computer, although we will be reusing the peripherals - the existing 1080P monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I'd like this build to a middle-of-the-road build that will do him solid for the next 5 years or so without needing any upgrades or work done to it. Low maintenance, hassle-free will be the name of the game. We'll be sticking with stock clocks on everything. I AM open to used parts, but probably on for the graphics card, as I feel it would be possible to score a sweet deal on a gently used GPU.
So, without further ado, the build - looking for recommendations.
CPU/Motherboard/RAM: I'm thinking Ryzen 5 5600X - decent bang for the buck, motherboards are cheap - I don't really care about the platform being EOL, because his next upgrade will probably be to an entirely new platform in 5-6 years anyway. If there is an Intel equivalent that comes in with similar price/performance, then I'm certainly open to it. I'd like to keep power consumption and heat production in check though, and AMD just seems to be king in that department right now. 16GB or 32GB of memory? He definitely needs WIFI capability on the motherboard, as he doesn't have a hardwired network connection in his room. We are currently set up with WIFI6 in the house.
Cooling - we'll probably just stick with the stock cooler, or something relatively cheap and simple, like a hyper212 if no stock cooler is included.
Storage: Would a 2TB NVME SSD fit in the budget? If not, we'll go 1TB NVME SSD for the boot drive, then we can add a second one later down the road if he starts filling it up with game installs. He doesn't do any mass storage, so no need for any spinning platters.
GPU: I"m thinking Nvidia RTX3060? If there is anything equivalent that can be had for a better price (used or new), I'm all ears. I doubt he gives a crap about Ray-Tracing (or even knows what it is) so that's not really a consideration.
Power Supply: I'll probably get a new PS, too. His current on is at least ten years old (a 650W SPI), and it's probably safer to replace. I don't think it needs to be huge - power requirements will be fairly low - 650 - 700W should be plenty. I'm guessing most powersupplies are semi-passive these days? Reliability will be king here.
Case: Here's the thing - He would like it to be a basic, no-frills case that has decent ventilation, and most importantly, excellent dust control - He really sucks at keeping his room clean, and dust is a real issue in there. Computer cleanings will be few and far between, too. I'd like there to be just a few dust filters than he can occasionally remove and vacuum, with minimum dust making it into the actual inside of the computer. He cares nothing about glitz, therefore LED lighting is pointless - heck, he doesn't even need a window panel or anything. He does prefer a white PC case, though.
His budget is approximately $1800 taxes in, so about $1600 pre-tax, although there is some fluidity in that budget. If it goes a little higher, no problem, there is room in the budget, although $1800 is a soft ceiling. If we can come in cheaper, great - nothing wrong with saving a little bit of money.
He'll be using it for gaming and general computing duties (he does a lot of writing and picture art on his PC), web surfing, video/movie watching, etc.
We won't be using any parts from his old computer, although we will be reusing the peripherals - the existing 1080P monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I'd like this build to a middle-of-the-road build that will do him solid for the next 5 years or so without needing any upgrades or work done to it. Low maintenance, hassle-free will be the name of the game. We'll be sticking with stock clocks on everything. I AM open to used parts, but probably on for the graphics card, as I feel it would be possible to score a sweet deal on a gently used GPU.
So, without further ado, the build - looking for recommendations.
CPU/Motherboard/RAM: I'm thinking Ryzen 5 5600X - decent bang for the buck, motherboards are cheap - I don't really care about the platform being EOL, because his next upgrade will probably be to an entirely new platform in 5-6 years anyway. If there is an Intel equivalent that comes in with similar price/performance, then I'm certainly open to it. I'd like to keep power consumption and heat production in check though, and AMD just seems to be king in that department right now. 16GB or 32GB of memory? He definitely needs WIFI capability on the motherboard, as he doesn't have a hardwired network connection in his room. We are currently set up with WIFI6 in the house.
Cooling - we'll probably just stick with the stock cooler, or something relatively cheap and simple, like a hyper212 if no stock cooler is included.
Storage: Would a 2TB NVME SSD fit in the budget? If not, we'll go 1TB NVME SSD for the boot drive, then we can add a second one later down the road if he starts filling it up with game installs. He doesn't do any mass storage, so no need for any spinning platters.
GPU: I"m thinking Nvidia RTX3060? If there is anything equivalent that can be had for a better price (used or new), I'm all ears. I doubt he gives a crap about Ray-Tracing (or even knows what it is) so that's not really a consideration.
Power Supply: I'll probably get a new PS, too. His current on is at least ten years old (a 650W SPI), and it's probably safer to replace. I don't think it needs to be huge - power requirements will be fairly low - 650 - 700W should be plenty. I'm guessing most powersupplies are semi-passive these days? Reliability will be king here.
Case: Here's the thing - He would like it to be a basic, no-frills case that has decent ventilation, and most importantly, excellent dust control - He really sucks at keeping his room clean, and dust is a real issue in there. Computer cleanings will be few and far between, too. I'd like there to be just a few dust filters than he can occasionally remove and vacuum, with minimum dust making it into the actual inside of the computer. He cares nothing about glitz, therefore LED lighting is pointless - heck, he doesn't even need a window panel or anything. He does prefer a white PC case, though.