1080p 144hz Gaming Build

[aeroencychris]

Budget (including currency): Under $900 (parts only)

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Not for me, but the person I'm building for supposedly plays primarily Fortnite. They're looking to push to 144hz as well as some more demanding games down the line so I've tried to account for that with the CPU + GPU combo.

 

It's been a while since I've been active in the PC building space so I'm very unfamiliar with the current lineups, especially with CPUs (I last built with an Intel Skylake chip if that gives some context). This list is heavily based on a premade build from the PCP site so feel free to change anything as you guys see fit.

 

The biggest area I'm worried about is the R5 3600 - PCP is complaining saying that the board might need a BIOS update to work with it. Are there any boards that are guaranteed to work out of the box since I won't have a donor CPU to update the BIOS with? If it's too much of a hassle I'm happy to downgrade to a 2600 or whatever else is compatible.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vh9pYH

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($167.00 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($72.99 @ Best Buy) 
Memory: *Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Inland 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($36.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.99 @ Adorama) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING Video Card  ($299.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Antec Dark Phantom DP301M MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($81.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: *SeaSonic FOCUS Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ B&H) 
Total: $863.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-29 21:52 EDT-0400

 

Thanks!

 

[PenguinMaster]

The only things I would change are the memory, its faster, the storage this 2TB HDD will give you more wiggle room, and I witched the SSD out for an M.2 NVMe Drive for ease of use and its pretty much the same price. Other than that, your build is pretty solid.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/K84hNq

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($167.00 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($72.99 @ Best Buy) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  ($66.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Silicon Power A60 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($37.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING Video Card  ($299.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Antec Dark Phantom DP301M MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($81.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: *SeaSonic FOCUS Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ B&H) 
Total: $881.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-29 22:02 EDT-0400

[dabossboy]

Yeah. Just downgrade to a Ryzen 5 2600. Well, that aint worth it because R5 2600 prices are up right now, so it's a better value for the R5 3600 cause the R5 2600 costs 150 right now. If you're willing to, then spend a little more money to get a 3rd gen motherboard, because i think you can spend like 20 more bucks and get a decent 3rd gen motherboard. Other than that, your build is pretty good.

[aeroencychris]

26 minutes ago, Hugo Lloris said:

Yeah. Just downgrade to a Ryzen 5 2600. Well, that aint worth it because R5 2600 prices are up right now, so it's a better value for the R5 3600 cause the R5 2600 costs 150 right now. If you're willing to, then spend a little more money to get a 3rd gen motherboard, because i think you can spend like 20 more bucks and get a decent 3rd gen motherboard. Other than that, your build is pretty good.

Are 3rd gen boards guaranteed to be compatible?

[VEXICUS]

46 minutes ago, Hugo Lloris said:

Yeah. Just downgrade to a Ryzen 5 2600. Well, that aint worth it because R5 2600 prices are up right now, so it's a better value for the R5 3600 cause the R5 2600 costs 150 right now. If you're willing to, then spend a little more money to get a 3rd gen motherboard, because i think you can spend like 20 more bucks and get a decent 3rd gen motherboard. Other than that, your build is pretty good.

B550 boards aren't out yet

[VEXICUS]

This is comparitively a much much better build...

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($167.00 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($74.98 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Silicon Power A55 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($92.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 5700 8 GB MECH OC Video Card  ($303.98 @ Newegg) 
Case: Deepcool MATREXX 30 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($42.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Best Buy) 
Total: $841.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-29 22:56 EDT-0400

 

Things that I will change if u are now planning to buy right away.

• Swap the mobo with a decent b550 board.
• Swap the 5700 with a 5700xt. Right now, because of the ongoing crisis, prices of tech is all over the place. Mostly cheapest 5700xts go for around $350.
• Swap the case.

 

[aeroencychris]

30 minutes ago, VEXICUS said:

This is comparitively a much much better build...

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($167.00 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($74.98 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Silicon Power A55 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($92.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 5700 8 GB MECH OC Video Card  ($303.98 @ Newegg) 
Case: Deepcool MATREXX 30 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($42.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Best Buy) 
Total: $841.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-29 22:56 EDT-0400

 

Things that I will change if u are now planning to buy right away.

• Swap the mobo with a decent b550 board.
• Swap the 5700 with a 5700xt. Right now, because of the ongoing crisis, prices of tech is all over the place. Mostly cheapest 5700xts go for around $350.
• Swap the case.

 

Will there be any compatibility issues with the 3600 and that board? Again, trying to avoid any BIOS updates that would require a donor CPU.

[VEXICUS]

21 hours ago, aeroencychris said:

Will there be any compatibility issues with the 3600 and that board? Again, trying to avoid any BIOS updates that would require a donor CPU.

By now, almost all mobos come with updated BIOS. So no need to worry.

[aeroencychris]

2 hours ago, VEXICUS said:

By now, almost all mobos come with updated BIOS. So no need to worry.

In general, or with that chipset?

[VEXICUS]

5 minutes ago, aeroencychris said:

In general, or with that chipset?

Most of them come with updated BIOS. If you wanna be fully sure, then go with MSI max series boards. They support zen2 CPUs out of the box.