$800 first build, considering Ryzen 3 3100 with RTX 2060

[Curdflappers]

Budget (including currency): $650-$750 $800 US

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Minecraft (Java, shaders preferable), Forza Horizon 4, Halo MCC, Satisfactory

Other details: Upgrading from non-gaming laptop and Xbox One (first PC build). Already have a keyboard, mouse, and 1440p 60Hz 28" monitor that I plan to keep for a few more months and upgrade separately. Looking for something that will last a few years and play the above games at 1440p 60 FPS at near-max graphic settings (~85-100% of max graphics), at least 1080p 60 FPS at 60% max for the more intensive games (I'm not sure which are which). Also would be nice to have something relatively quiet.

Currently working off the PC Parts Picker Modest Intel Gaming Build, curious what LTT has to say about it. Here's my list (I replaced the case and power supply): PC Part Picker List. Edit: I've just realized I accidentally linked the default list, not my modified one. My list is basically the same aside from a different case and power supply, but parts are still changing at this point. I'll probably open a new post once I understand a bit more and the list is closer to finalized.

 

Let me know if you see any room for savings, but I'd like to go with well-reviewed parts as I'm still figuring this all out. Thank you very much!

Update: Here's my current list, after considering the feedback in this thread: 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 3100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$105.39 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$94.99 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory	$58.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Team MS30 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$48.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB KO GAMING Video Card	$309.99 @ Walmart
Case	Deepcool MATREXX 30 MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$39.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair CV 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$69.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$728.33
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-21 21:12 EDT-0400

Questions

• Is this a good CPU/GPU combo?
• How will the performance of this build compare to a i7-7700K, GTX 1070, 16 GB DDR4-2400 RAM? That's a friend's build that runs FH4 at 1440p60 max settings with ~98% GPU usage. I'm hoping for similar or slightly worse performance.
• Am I correct in assuming that NVMe will have better load times than SATA? I know SSD makes the most difference over HDD, but I'm really looking to minimize load times here. What factors contribute to loading?

 

Thanks in advance for all your feedback!

Edited September 22, 2020 by Curdflappers

[Radium_Angel]

3 minutes ago, Curdflappers said:

Intel Gaming Build

Duck, here come all the AMD fangirls to tell you why you are wrong and should feel bad. 

[Radium_Angel]

But on a serious note, I'd get a better power supply. 400 watts seems to be cutting it mighty fine

[Curdflappers]

Quote

I'd get a better power supply. 400 watts seems to be cutting it mighty fine

Thanks for the advice, I've switched to this one: Thermaltake Smart Series 430 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply

[Kanna]

What shaders do you plan on running do you plan on running RTX shaders with ultra realistic textures at 5 fps?

[gloop]

2 minutes ago, Curdflappers said:

Thanks for the advice, I've switched to this one: Thermaltake Smart Series 430 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply

Seems to be even worse. Look at something like a CX450, System Power 9 or a CV650 (worst of the bunch but on a different platform compared to lower wattage models). 

[Curdflappers]

1 minute ago, Kanna said:

What shaders do you plan on running do you plan on running RTX shaders with ultra realistic textures at 5 fps?

I've never used them, it was just a nice-to-have thought. I know there are many options but I've never looked into them. I wasn't thinking anything extreme, just the more modest shaders. Would that be realistic while also rendering 12 chunk render distance?

[Curdflappers]

1 minute ago, gloop said:

Seems to be even worse. Look at something like a CX450, System Power 9 or a CV650 (worst of the bunch but on a different platform compared to lower wattage models). 

Why is this one worse? What should I be looking for in a power supply aside from efficiency and wattage?

[Curdflappers]

7 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Duck, here come all the AMD fangirls to tell you why you are wrong and should feel bad. 

For reference, I'm definitely not loyal to Intel (or any brand). If someone can find a comparable build for a comparable/better price, I'd gladly look into it

[gloop]

1 minute ago, Curdflappers said:

Why is this one worse? What should I be looking for in a power supply aside from efficiency and wattage?

This is a good reference point for PSUs. Find the psu you are looking at, and use Ctrl+f to search for it on the tier list and find what tier it is in. Tier c is a minimum, with b+ preferred. 

[Curdflappers]

3 minutes ago, gloop said:

This is a good reference point for PSUs. Find the psu you are looking at, and use Ctrl+f to search for it on the tier list and find what tier it is in. Tier c is a minimum, with b+ preferred. 

Oh that's great, thanks!

[Radium_Angel]

5 minutes ago, Curdflappers said:

For reference, I'm definitely not loyal to Intel (or any brand). If someone can find a comparable build for a comparable/better price, I'd gladly look into it

Currently, AMD's Ryzen will give you a better bang for the buck. I *am* an Intel fan, specifically Xeon workstations, but I'm in the minority here, everyone is screaming "AMD! AMD! AMD!" these days, and for the most part, they are not wrong.

[Fatih19]

5 minutes ago, Curdflappers said:

For reference, I'm definitely not loyal to Intel (or any brand). If someone can find a comparable build for a comparable/better price, I'd gladly look into it

Well, seeing that you don't want super high framerate, only 60 FPS. I see no reason why you can't go with a 3300X and a B550. Plus, it's not a dead platform.

[Kanna]

10 minutes ago, Curdflappers said:

I've never used them, it was just a nice-to-have thought. I know there are many options but I've never looked into them. I wasn't thinking anything extreme, just the more modest shaders. Would that be realistic while also rendering 12 chunk render distance?

Also if you will be running shaders don’t except the latest mc version (atleast not when the come out iirc the current one has optifine)

[Curdflappers]

3 minutes ago, DutchGuyTom said:

Is this meant to be a "build once, never touch it again" PC or an ongoing project that you will continue to upgrade over time? If so, it might be best to invest in a good PSU that is at least 650 W so then it is not going to limit your options in the future. Otherwise, getting a lower tiered PSU will be good enough and you should focus your budget on getting the best GPU you can.

 

Either way, this is what I would get if I were in your shoes. I personally think the 3100 is very underrated as it overclocks well.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU:                     AMD Ryzen 3 3100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($114.99 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard:      Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($74.98 @ Amazon) 
Memory:              G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($58.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage:              Kingston A400 120 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($26.71 @ MemoryC) 
Storage:              Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card:         EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB KO GAMING Video Card  ($309.99 @ Walmart) 
Case:                   Deepcool MATREXX 30 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($39.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply:    Corsair CV 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Total:                   $750.63
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-09-20 18:26 EDT-0400

 

Thanks for the recommendations! I definitely want this to be something I upgrade over time, but only as needed. I'll keep the wattage in mind.

How difficult/risky is overclocking? It's something I'm willing to look into, but I'm primarily focused in getting something that works well without risky modifications. As you can tell, I'm still very early in my PC-building career.

Can I ask what the advantage of the SSD is? It's also something I know little about, I've had no trouble on my friend's 3yr old PC using a WD Green 240 GB SSD and playing Forza Horizon 4 max graphics 1440p 60 FPS and Halo MCC runs smoothly as well.

I've noticed you included the RTX 2060, do you think this build will handle the Minecraft with RTX Beta well? (I know that's Bedrock Edition)

Thanks again for the detailed list

[Curdflappers]

16 minutes ago, Fatih19 said:

Well, seeing that you don't want super high framerate, only 60 FPS. I see no reason why you can't go with a 3300X and a B550. Plus, it's not a dead platform.

Good to know. I am reconsidering the build to be a bit future-proof when I get a 120 Hz monitor, do you think the 3300X handles 1080p120 well, or my current chip, or something else? Also, what do you mean when you say it's not a dead platform?

[Fatih19]

4 minutes ago, Curdflappers said:

Good to know. I am reconsidering the build to be a bit future-proof when I get a 120 Hz monitor, do you think the 3300X handles 1080p120 well, or my current chip, or something else? Also, what do you mean when you say it's not a dead platform?

1080p120? Depends on the game. If AAA then probably not in the near future. If it's esports, yes.

Anyway, "future-proofing" your CPU would cost you more than buying enough now, and then upgrading next generation. If you use B550, you could upgrade to the Ryzen 4000 series once you bought a new monitor, which would be announced on the 8th of October.

 

Dead platform means that there is no new CPU release for that platform.

[Curdflappers]

29 minutes ago, DutchGuyTom said:

No worries, I will answer your questions in random order!

 

1. The RTX 2060 is a really good graphics card and will be more powerful than the Xbox One. With a 2060, you will be able to play those heavily modded minecraft modpacks out there, if you're into that at all (can confirm because I am able to do so on a 1060). As for Minecraft RTX Beta, it will run it with decent framerate (~45 fps average according to Gamers Nexus) if you enable DLSS but it won't rock your socks off though. At this budget, this is the best you're going to get.*

45 FPS is fine by me, I'm assuming you're getting that number from the chart at 14:20 in the Gamers Nexus video?

29 minutes ago, DutchGuyTom said:

2. I added a 1 TB hard drive for games storage. It won't effect performance in-game but will increase load times. Then I added a SATA III SSD that will be good to put your operating system on. I did not add the OS to the budget since you can just run Microsoft without activating it. However, you should budget for that as well. You can probably still add a game or two to the SSD (like Minecraft) but be wary of how little space is on there once you've added the operating system.

Is this startup load times or all load times? For example, if I want to fast travel (i.e. teleport) across the map in FH4, will that take longer on an HDD? I know it depends on whether the map is loaded into memory or just stuck in storage, so I guess it's something that depends on the game. I imagine this will mostly affect loading new levels of games. I think a 1 TB SSD should be enough for me, and I found one at a comparable price. Do you think it will have better load times (e.g. comparable to the WD Green 240 GB SATA): Team MS30 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive

29 minutes ago, DutchGuyTom said:

3. Overclocking is not nearly as risky as it sounds but it will take some research on your behalf to figure out how to do it. I would recommend using Ryzen Master to start out with. Thermals is also often a limitation on overclocking capability so I would upgrade the stock CPU cooler that comes with the system at some point.

Alright, it's definitely something I'll look into eventually then! For now, I'd like a build that works without overclocking.

29 minutes ago, DutchGuyTom said:

4. This PSU will give you enough flexibility to upgrade in the future.

Great! Thanks for the confirmation

29 minutes ago, DutchGuyTom said:

*I would recommend checking the second-hand market and seeing if you're able to grab better parts there. But you have to be comfortable buying second hand. If you have no experience buying second hand, I would not recommend it when you're also a first timer PC builder.

Yeah, I'll stick with buying new for now, I want to be sure my PC works and I understand it before I mess around with secondhand options. Thanks for the info, though

29 minutes ago, DutchGuyTom said:

I agree with Faith19 that the B550 is a better platform than the B450, but these motherboards are more expensive and you will have to downgrade other parts to fit it into your budget. That is always the tough part with building a computer in a budget.

I'm willing to up the budget if it's necessary to get the games working. I am currently using a friend's PC on a trial basis, he's willing to sell for $800 but I think it's greatly overpriced (i7-7700K, RTX 1070) and building my own would be fun. So I guess my "budget" is $900 if needed, but preferably just enough to play the games I described with room for upgrades later.

29 minutes ago, DutchGuyTom said:

I did not see any listings on PCPartPicker for the 3300x but the 3100 is also compatible with B550 motherboards.

Noted, thanks!

29 minutes ago, DutchGuyTom said:

If you're near a MicroCenter, I heard they offer good prices in the US and they may be more competitive than Amazon and other retailers. If you could get a B550 board with a 3300x while still getting an SSD and a 2060, you would have a solid system for your budget.

Noted, I'll check their web store at least.


Thanks once again for your detailed responses!

[Curdflappers]

On 9/20/2020 at 5:20 PM, DutchGuyTom said:

There are SATA and NVMe SSDs that use the m.2 interface. The latter are faster and most modern motherboards only support the latter via m.2. You also have to check what specific interface is used (for example, the DS3H uses M-key, which I think is standard for NVMe SSDs). I hope that helps!

Is there any performance difference between SATA and NVMe? I'm seeing near-triple read/write speed diffs, should NVMe help further reduce load times?

On 9/20/2020 at 5:20 PM, DutchGuyTom said:

Of course. With either b450 and b550 boards, you'll be good with a 3100, 3300x, and 3600 (in order of preference). For most games, when you put the settings high enough, you become GPU bound so spending money on the GPU is usually better for gaming performance. But to see the difference in performance between GPUs or CPUs, you can look up "[x] vs [y]" in google and you will find lots of informative videos that show you the difference in fps. For example, searching "3100 vs 3600" led me to this video: link. Notice how at higher settings, the difference in framerate becomes smaller? That's because you become GPU bound and the GPU becomes the determining factor.

This has been a great tip, I've done lots of research with this!

On 9/20/2020 at 5:20 PM, DutchGuyTom said:

If you can increase your budget, I would invest in at least a 2060 so you can play Minecraft with raytracing. DLSS (an RTX feature) is also going to become more common so it will give your card some added performance in select games (e.g. Cyberpunk 2077). A 3100 on a B550 is a great place to start as you will have lots of options to upgrade your CPU to in the future. There is a B550 DS3H version out there but MSI makes great B550 motherboards too. Look for a micro-atx board specifically as they will be more affordable and still offer you enough functionality for gaming. It also means you can get smaller and therefore more affordable cases. 

 

Best of luck!

You sold me on both the 2060 and the B550, I definitely want to be able to upgrade this build in the future.

Thanks for all the advice!