Budget Prioritization

[Sloopy Slops]

Hi! I'm new here, I want to ask about budget prioritization for a gaming PC build, for example:

Total budget: 100% ($1000)

CPU: 20% of the total budget

GPU: 30%

PSU: 15%

Something like that 

What's the best way to spend my money?

 

 

[xg32]

well you gotta ask what kinda monitor you have, right now i recommend a 1080p 144hz system for around that kinda money, so 200 for the monitor 800bucks for the system ,1k isn't enough to run 144hz on triple-a titles (unless you somehow squeeze in a 1070 ti/rtx 2060) so for 800usd you are looking at something like a 2600x+rx 580 with 16gb ram, you can upgrade the video card in the future.

 

edit: it'd look something like this, the video card is a placeholder, it'll actually cost less than 350usd once the rtx 2060 comes out, so you can probably get everything for around 1100usd if you also buy the monitor, windows 10 keys can be found on ebay for 15usd.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$164.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	ASRock - Fatal1ty B450 GAMING K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$98.99 @ Amazon
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$129.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$129.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB AMP Edition Video Card	$429.99 @ B&H
Case	DIYPC - P48-W ATX Mid Tower Case	$33.96 @ Newegg Business
Power Supply	Corsair - CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$59.89 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1067.70
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$1047.70
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-08 21:11 EST-0500

 

[Cigano]

Buying a used GPU is one of the best ways to save money on a good rig. It's tough because it's not good to cheap out on really anything besides the case and possibly ram. 

[Billaeon]

What kind of games do you plan on playing? What resolution do you like to play at? Anything else you plan on doing with the rig other than gaming?

[Firewrath9]

13 minutes ago, Cigano said:

Buying a used GPU is one of the best ways to save money on a good rig. It's tough because it's not good to cheap out on really anything besides the case and possibly ram. 

cheaping out on an air cooler can be good, have a noctua D14 that i found (without fans but whatever) on ebay for 38$. A steal if you ask me.

If you buy a really high end PSU that used to be in a mining rig (something like a HX1200i/ 1200 P2) or above, it should be fine, as they are overbuilt, and prob only mined on for 2 years at the most, which means they are fine. have seen AX1500is for 180$ etc, 1000 G2s for 100$. etc etc.

CPUs are also fine used, especially if they are locked, Ive seen 6700k + mobo combos go for 200$.

 

[DailyProcrastinator]

Welcome to the forums! 

 

Budget prioritization depends on if you get an AMD or Intel CPU as well, AMD CPU's give you a lot more value for your money, keep that in mind. Used GPU's as already stated are a great way to save money. I will provide an example though. If I had $1k USD to spend right now (no peripherals) this is what I would get:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$164.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	Gigabyte - X470 AORUS ULTRA GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard	$138.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$104.99 @ Newegg
Storage	ADATA - Ultimate SU650 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$57.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$44.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB TURBO Video Card	$359.99 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks - Eclipse P350X (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case	$65.98 @ Newegg Business
Power Supply	Corsair - TXM Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$53.97 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1031.59
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$991.59
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-08 21:16 EST-0500

Effectively bringing budget per components to:

 

CPU: 16.5%

MOBO: 13.9%

RAM: 10.5%

Storage: 10.3%

GPU: 36%

Case: 6.6%

PSU: 5.4%

 

This is a pretty typical well-balanced budget for a system. Usually as your budget increase though you see more of it go towards the motherboard, storage, case, and PSU, plus extras like premium fans.

 

WORTH NOTE, cheaping out on a PSU is not a good idea but in this case, a good quality (Tier 2) PSU can be found on the cheap, so it is okay. Also, things like RGB RAM and fancy RGB Fans, more expensive cases etc, are bad budget utilization if you are taking away from core components like the CPU, GPU, PSU, MOBO etc. With the R5 2600 you also get a decent stock cooler so for a $1000 build it is okay to not get a CPU cooler right away, that can be upgraded later. 

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

3 minutes ago, JM21 said:

Effectively bringing budget per components to:

 

CPU: 16.5%

MOBO: 13.9%

RAM: 10.5%

Storage: 10.3%

GPU: 36%

Case: 6.6%

PSU: 5.4%

yeah something like that, but every people have different view and comfort zone,

the real performance comes from GPU then cpu, all other parts just need to work reliable

eg I would cheap out more on mobo and case in this case. 

[Sloopy Slops]

38 minutes ago, xg32 said:

well you gotta ask what kinda monitor you have, right now i recommend a 1080p 144hz system for around that kinda money, so 200 for the monitor 800bucks for the system ,1k isn't enough to run 144hz on triple-a titles (unless you somehow squeeze in a 1070 ti/rtx 2060) so for 800usd you are looking at something like a 2600x+rx 580 with 16gb ram, you can upgrade the video card in the future.

 

edit: it'd look something like this, the video card is a placeholder, it'll actually cost less than 350usd once the rtx 2060 comes out, so you can probably get everything for around 1100usd if you also buy the monitor, windows 10 keys can be found on ebay for 15usd.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$164.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	ASRock - Fatal1ty B450 GAMING K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$98.99 @ Amazon
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$129.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$129.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB AMP Edition Video Card	$429.99 @ B&H
Case	DIYPC - P48-W ATX Mid Tower Case	$33.96 @ Newegg Business
Power Supply	Corsair - CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$59.89 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1067.70
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$1047.70
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-08 21:11 EST-0500

 

Well actually, I habe spent my $250 on Acer KG251QF so I only have $750 left right now  Thanks fot the recommendation tho!

[Sloopy Slops]

1 hour ago, Billaeon said:

What kind of games do you plan on playing? What resolution do you like to play at? Anything else you plan on doing with the rig other than gaming?

I play E-Sport games (LoL, CS:GO, PUBG, etc.) at 1080p 144Hz and I edit videos

[BYOGamingPC]

19 minutes ago, JM21 said:

Welcome to the forums! 

 

Budget prioritization depends on if you get an AMD or Intel CPU as well, AMD CPU's give you a lot more value for your money, keep that in mind. Used GPU's as already stated are a great way to save money. I will provide an example though. If I had $1k USD to spend right now (no peripherals) this is what I would get:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$164.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	Gigabyte - X470 AORUS ULTRA GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard	$138.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$104.99 @ Newegg
Storage	ADATA - Ultimate SU650 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$57.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$44.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB TURBO Video Card	$359.99 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks - Eclipse P350X (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case	$65.98 @ Newegg Business
Power Supply	Corsair - TXM Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$53.97 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1031.59
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$991.59
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-08 21:16 EST-0500

Effectively bringing budget per components to:

 

CPU: 16.5%

MOBO: 13.9%

RAM: 10.5%

Storage: 10.3%

GPU: 36%

Case: 6.6%

PSU: 5.4%

 

This is a pretty typical well-balanced budget for a system. Usually as your budget increase though you see more of it go towards the motherboard, storage, case, and PSU, plus extras like premium fans.

 

WORTH NOTE, cheaping out on a PSU is not a good idea but in this case, a good quality (Tier 2) PSU can be found on the cheap, so it is okay. Also, things like RGB RAM and fancy RGB Fans, more expensive cases etc, are bad budget utilization if you are taking away from core components like the CPU, GPU, PSU, MOBO etc. With the R5 2600 you also get a decent stock cooler so for a $1000 build it is okay to not get a CPU cooler right away, that can be upgraded later. 

This is a pretty solid rig. +1 I'd also recommend hunting for a used GPU. GTX 1070's can be found cheap right now.

[Sloopy Slops]

35 minutes ago, JM21 said:

Welcome to the forums! 

 

Budget prioritization depends on if you get an AMD or Intel CPU as well, AMD CPU's give you a lot more value for your money, keep that in mind. Used GPU's as already stated are a great way to save money. I will provide an example though. If I had $1k USD to spend right now (no peripherals) this is what I would get:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$164.89 @ OutletPC
Motherboard	Gigabyte - X470 AORUS ULTRA GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard	$138.89 @ OutletPC
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$104.99 @ Newegg
Storage	ADATA - Ultimate SU650 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$57.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$44.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB TURBO Video Card	$359.99 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks - Eclipse P350X (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case	$65.98 @ Newegg Business
Power Supply	Corsair - TXM Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$53.97 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1031.59
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$991.59
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-08 21:16 EST-0500

Effectively bringing budget per components to:

 

CPU: 16.5%

MOBO: 13.9%

RAM: 10.5%

Storage: 10.3%

GPU: 36%

Case: 6.6%

PSU: 5.4%

 

This is a pretty typical well-balanced budget for a system. Usually as your budget increase though you see more of it go towards the motherboard, storage, case, and PSU, plus extras like premium fans.

 

WORTH NOTE, cheaping out on a PSU is not a good idea but in this case, a good quality (Tier 2) PSU can be found on the cheap, so it is okay. Also, things like RGB RAM and fancy RGB Fans, more expensive cases etc, are bad budget utilization if you are taking away from core components like the CPU, GPU, PSU, MOBO etc. With the R5 2600 you also get a decent stock cooler so for a $1000 build it is okay to not get a CPU cooler right away, that can be upgraded later. 

Thanks! Btw that's very similar to the build I'm planning to build, but unfortunately Amazon, Newegg, eBay, etc. are unavailable in South Africa (I work here hehe) so I can't use PC PartPicker as an accurate price reference.

This is my build:

R5 2600 $190

Asus Prime B450 Plus $125

Sapphire Nitro+ RX 580 4GB $115

Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB 3200MHz $75

Samsung 860 Evo 250GB $50

Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 550W $80

Phanteks P350X $95

Total: $730

Note: I've bought Acer KG251QF for $250, so I only have $750 left 

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

5 minutes ago, Sloopy Slops said:

Thanks! Btw that's very similar to the build I'm planning to build, but unfortunately Amazon, Newegg, eBay, etc. are unavailable in South Africa (I work here hehe) so I can't use PC PartPicker as an accurate price reference.

are you really planning to build now ? new amd cpu is announcing today!

presume 3600 & B550

in case you are unaware of,  you included some premium brands like Asus , Samsung & Seasonic, try to get "second best" for same perfmorance but much cheaper

[Sloopy Slops]

12 minutes ago, dgsddfgdfhgs said:

are you really planning to build now ? new amd cpu is announcing today!

presume 3600 & B550

in case you are unaware of,  you included some premium brands like Asus , Samsung & Seasonic, try to get "second best" for same perfmorance but much cheaper

No, I'm not gonna build it right now, I'm still searching for deals. Yeah I've heard that AMD will announce the 3000 series at CES, but they will announce tho, not releasing it  But I hope they will release it in a month or week.

Yes, I'm aware that I included premium brands in my build, I think R5 2600 & RX 580 is enough for me, it will last for 4-5 years before I need to upgrade. So I think why don't I invest in a good hardware 

[Sloopy Slops]

I like to invest in PSU & Case, so I don't have to upgrade it in 10 years or so, that's why the PSU & Case took quite a lot of my budget 

[DailyProcrastinator]

1 hour ago, BYOGamingPC said:

This is a pretty solid rig. +1 I'd also recommend hunting for a used GPU. GTX 1070's can be found cheap right now.

Yeah, I totally agree, used GPU's are good to get, especially since the largest individual purchase of a gaming system is the GPU.

 

1 hour ago, Sloopy Slops said:

Thanks! Btw that's very similar to the build I'm planning to build, but unfortunately Amazon, Newegg, eBay, etc. are unavailable in South Africa (I work here hehe) so I can't use PC PartPicker as an accurate price reference.

This is my build:

R5 2600 $190

Asus Prime B450 Plus $125

Sapphire Nitro+ RX 580 4GB $115

Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB 3200MHz $75

Samsung 860 Evo 250GB $50

Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 550W $80

Phanteks P350X $95

Total: $730

Note: I've bought Acer KG251QF for $250, so I only have $750 left 

That will be a solid build! And that is okay I just used PCPartPicker as an example of a $1k budget system.

 

I would try and get an RX 580 8GB instead if you can. Also, I chose the P350x because in the US it is as cheap at the P300, but I would look at the P300 as it tends to be cheaper and functionally is the same case. Otherwise solid choices for the motherboard, and PSU, two important parts of your system. 

 

1 hour ago, dgsddfgdfhgs said:

yeah something like that, but every people have different view and comfort zone,

the real performance comes from GPU then cpu, all other parts just need to work reliable

eg I would cheap out more on mobo and case in this case. 

2

Too each their own, I just used that as an example of what I would buy if I had $1k USD to spend on a build. But for an AMD system, it tends to require less spent on the CPU. My only problem with cheap motherboards is the bad VRM cooling that is not suitable for overclocking, and there are advantages to dual channel fast RAM for Ryzen systems. OP is looking at an Asus B450 Prime Plus board though so it should be okay while being more budget friendly. 

[DailyProcrastinator]

1 hour ago, dgsddfgdfhgs said:

are you really planning to build now ? new amd cpu is announcing today!

presume 3600 & B550

in case you are unaware of,  you included some premium brands like Asus , Samsung & Seasonic, try to get "second best" for same perfmorance but much cheaper

The Asus motherboard doesn't cost too much anyways, I agree with skipping on the Samsung SSD, but that PSU is cheap enough and is not worth getting a 'worse' unit.

[Sloopy Slops]

30 minutes ago, JM21 said:

The Asus motherboard doesn't cost too much anyways, I agree with skipping on the Samsung SSD, but that PSU is cheap enough and is not worth getting a 'worse' unit.

I found another deal for PSU,

Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 550W $80 (My current pick) 

Corsair TX850M $80

Corsair CX650M $50

EVGA 550 GD $50

EVGA Supernova G3 850W $30 (This one is a little bit tricky, it has been used for mining, no box, no warranty,  that's why he sells it very cheap, but the seller said there are no problem with this unit)

 

If you have to choose, which one would you pick?

[DailyProcrastinator]

@Sloopy Slops

I'd get the Focus Gold 550W unit as well, the CX650M is an okay choice if you wanna save some money just make sure you get the grey label unit instead of the green one.

[Sloopy Slops]

2 hours ago, JM21 said:

@Sloopy Slops

I'd get the Focus Gold 550W unit as well, the CX650M is an okay choice if you wanna save some money just make sure you get the grey label unit instead of the green one.

Okay, I'll consider that. Thanks