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New gaming build for my son

great_big_abyss

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Oct 3, 2011
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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.
 

Bond007

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I will have a better think on this latter, but a couple points right away.

1. Keep in mind that new GPUs and CPUs are due Q3 -Q4. This may bring chances to get great deals on now current gen products if he can/is willing to wait.

2. If you do decide to buy now:

CPU - go for the 5600 (non X) minimal difference for usually $50 less.

SSD - as a main drive I have pretty much been recommending SN850 for the last while based on excellent overall performance, warranty support (if required), and reasonable price.

GPU - you are going to get some arguments, but for the last while the RX6600 series has been the best fps/$ that I have seen. At 1080p I believe 6600 should be just below a 3060 for around $100 less, or 6600XT being faster than 3060 for a bit less $.
 
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Shadowmeph

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Aldergrove British Columbia
I went for the 5600x amd 16gb ram and an rx6600 vid card install a 1 tb onboard drive plus a few other HD for files like the game backups and other backups I play 1080p games things like ark which I average around 130fps and cyberpuink2077 which I had to turn off something which I don't remember but the looks are still great and fps average around 80 maybe 90. if I were to move up to higher res like 1680 or above I would change the vid car but this one works great but as it is my system doesn't break a sweat at any otf the games I have played of course some of the games I tried like Eldin ring I dont care for Ithink the controlling io nte game sucks but I was still getting decent fps for the small parts I did play anyway my system when I am gaming I can get lost for many hours at least 6 hours and my system doesn't hiccup at all .
I was talking to a few people about the 5600x and every one of them said that I could have just bought the 5600 and it would still have been the same and I als o would have saved some money.
the only thing I had to do when I first fired it up was set the memory so that it was actually running at the right frequency it tends to run at a lower frequency if you just install the ram and run the system
 

Bond007

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Best PSU deal I see if you are buying right now is EVGA G6 750 from Amazon. Seasonic is the OEM for the G6 models. $120 shipped. Would be fine with a 650w, but this would give headroom for minimal extra $.

 

great_big_abyss

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Winnipeg
Alright, preliminary build:



OR

Somebody has offered me an almost complete PC - it meets the requirements, and has some slightly older, but high end components. After paying for shipping, and adding a graphics card, I'd probably come out at the same price as the all new build.

Intel i9 10900
Hero Maximus XII Hero wi-fi
2x 980 1TB m.2 Samsung
32gb corsair ram 3200mhz
Noctua Chromax HSF w/ white fin stack covers
140mm Noctua grey case fans x3
1000w platinum PSU
Fractal Design Define 7 (white)

Honestly, I'm seriously tempted by the used build - the i9 10900 seems to perform similarly to a Ryzen 5600 in gaming workloads, and all the other components are seriously high end. 2x 1TB SSD's are attractive, as are the Noctua cooling bits.

The biggest downside is I'm the one paying the power bill, and well, the 10900 consumes a fair bit more than a Ryzen 5600. That being said, the chip will probably spend most of its time at idle, so is power consumption that big of a deal after all?
 
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great_big_abyss

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Winnipeg
I will have a better think on this latter, but a couple points right away.

1. Keep in mind that new GPUs and CPUs are due Q3 -Q4. This may bring chances to get great deals on now current gen products if he can/is willing to wait.

2. If you do decide to buy now:

CPU - go for the 5600 (non X) minimal difference for usually $50 less.

SSD - as a main drive I have pretty much been recommending SN850 for the last while based on excellent overall performance, warranty support (if required), and reasonable price.

GPU - you are going to get some arguments, but for the last while the RX6600 series has been the best fps/$ that I have seen. At 1080p I believe 6600 should be just below a 3060 for around $100 less, or 6600XT being faster than 3060 for a bit less $.

New CPU's were 'right around the corner' when I built my 5600X system around Christmas. I don't really play that game anymore - I just focus on what is available at the moment.
 

Valkyrie

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Chilliwack...Gone...Gone...Gone!
As much as I like AMD's new era, I would vote I9 10900 in this case. The big increase in cores and threads and higher boost clocks FTW.

Edit: The Ryzen 5600 and Intel I9-10900 are both spec'd at 65W, but I'm sure the 10900 will outpace the 5600 for power consumption when loaded. As you said, that will probably not be of much concern.
 
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Solace

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Jun 3, 2011
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328
The most value buy at the moment is,
5600 180
XPG blade 2tb (pci 4.0) 300ish
Pick any case, who cares? 50-100$
Patriot viper 32gb (130$) 3600mhz, highest speed/lowest timing value
PSU: Corsair 650/750CX series (should be 50-80$)
X470/b550 board or higher, just buy whatever is cheapest from whatever mfg, your using a 5600, not 5950x. Ensure PCI 4.0 and if needed get a wifi model. (100-200$)
3060 - 3070 ti (500-800)
1800 is a decent budget since prices went down, I built a similar tower for about 800 excluding the gpu, meaning you should have about 800 headroom or more for a decent gpu. I opted for 1tb nvme so minus 150-200 there if you opt for 2tb.
 
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sswilson

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Moncton NB
The most value buy at the moment is,
5600 180
XPG blade 2tb (pci 4.0) 300ish
Pick any case, who cares? 50-100$
Patriot viper 32gb (130$) 3600mhz, highest speed/lowest timing value
PSU: Corsair 650/750CX series (should be 50-80$)
B450 board or higher, just buy whatever is cheapest from whatever mfg, your using a 5600, not 5950x. Ensure PCI 4.0 and if needed get a wifi model. (100-200$)
3060 - 3070 ti (500-800)
1800 is a decent budget since prices went down, I built a similar tower for about 800 excluding the gpu, meaning you should have about 800 headroom or more for a decent gpu. I opted for 1tb nvme so minus 150-200 there if you opt for 2tb.

I don't believe any of the B450 boards are PCIe 4. Pretty sure that's a chipset limitation.
 

great_big_abyss

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Oct 3, 2011
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Winnipeg
Alright, I did up another build, again focused around the 5600 - went with the cheapest mATX wifi board, an ASUS Prime, and a 2TB SN850 SSD.


I went with a smaller case, the Fractal Design Pop Mini Air, so that he can keep it on his desk, and up off the floor. It just so happens to have a tempered glass window and some LED fans, which is fine.

I bumped up the GPU to a 6700XT 12GB, as that's probably going to be the component that needs upgrading the soonest, so why not try to maximise now and delay the upgrade? Comes to $1657.85 + tax, or $1856.79 post tax.
 
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