Grad School/Gaming Computer

[mtjones12]

Hello all, fairly inexperienced builder here. I have built a couple of computers before, but they were 15 or so years ago and a lot has changed since then. 

 

I am returning to grad school, and looking to build a new desktop to replace my existing iMac, since most of the programs required for my Finance program are windows only based. I would also like to be able to do some leisurely gaming with it when time allows (mainly iRacing and games in the Fallout series). I would like it to have the ability to run up to three monitors at a time when analyzing financial data. 

 

Is it possible to build the system itself within a budget of 750-1000 USD? (not including monitors)

 

Also curious what type of CPU/GPU/motherboards would be best suited for this application. 

 

Thanks

[Dongwook23]

Totally! I just made a build that costs about $500 and can run most AAA games at med-high 1080p 60fps gaming! Just make sure to do your research on parts properly, especially motherboards and CPUs. They are proprietary most of the time for a single generation of cpus. Not always; but most of the time.

[mtjones12]

4 minutes ago, Dongwook23 said:

Totally! I just made a build that costs about $500 and can run most AAA games at med-high 1080p 60fps gaming! Just make sure to do your research on parts properly, especially motherboards and CPUs. They are proprietary most of the time for a single generation of cpus. Not always; but most of the time.

What CPU, GPU and motherboard did you use?

[updlester]

 maybe if ur on a budget, u can build a ryzen pc 

[Airdragonz]

A b450 motherboard with a 2600 ryzen cpu and a gtx 1060 or radeon 570 will work out pretty well for that budget. 

[Trulop]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$164.99 @ Amazon
Thermal Compound	Thermal Grizzly - Kryonaut 1g 1 g Thermal Paste	$9.94 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Asus - ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard	$129.00 @ B&H
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$112.99 @ Newegg
Storage	SanDisk - SSD PLUS 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$69.10 @ Amazon
Storage	Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$59.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	Sapphire - Radeon RX 580 8 GB NITRO+ Video Card	$199.99 @ Newegg
Case	NZXT - H500 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case	$71.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA - BQ 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$41.98 @ Newegg
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$119.98 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$999.85
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$979.85
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-22 09:00 EST-0500

 

This would get the job done. CPU will get you into gaming/streaming/recording, GPU can play high end titles (maybe not ultra depending on game and resolution) but most games high 60+ FPS no problemo, You could go with a bit cheaper RAM, i selected LPX as i use that same kit with same CPU and MOBO in one of my RIG's, SSD could drop to a 250GB if you dont need the little bit of extra storage and wanna save a couple bucks, could buy a cheaper case (thats a moderate priced, good looking and decent airflow case, just make sure you get good airflow if anything), And if you could, id upgrade to a bit higher tier power supply for around 20$ more, get a gold certified reputable and you'll be set.

[Brooksie359]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$164.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard	$114.57 @ Newegg
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$114.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Crucial - MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$67.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	Sapphire - Radeon RX 580 8 GB NITRO+ Video Card	$199.99 @ Newegg
Case	NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.99 @ B&H
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$59.99 @ B&H
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$812.41
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$792.41
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-22 09:03 EST-0500

This is what I would do. You can always add a hard drive later if 500gb isn't enough but having the 500gb ssd bootdrive should improve performance quite significantly compared to just using a hard drive.  

[Brooksie359]

1 minute ago, Trulop said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$164.99 @ Amazon
Thermal Compound	Thermal Grizzly - Kryonaut 1g 1 g Thermal Paste	$9.94 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Asus - ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard	$129.00 @ B&H
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$112.99 @ Newegg
Storage	SanDisk - SSD PLUS 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$69.10 @ Amazon
Storage	Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$59.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	Sapphire - Radeon RX 580 8 GB NITRO+ Video Card	$199.99 @ Newegg
Case	NZXT - H500 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case	$71.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	EVGA - BQ 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$41.98 @ Newegg
Operating System	Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$119.98 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$999.85
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$979.85
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-22 09:00 EST-0500

 

This would get the job done. CPU will get you into gaming/streaming/recording, GPU can play high end titles (maybe not ultra depending on game and resolution) but most games high 60+ FPS no problemo, You could go with a bit cheaper RAM, i selected LPX as i use that same kit with same CPU and MOBO in one of my RIG's, SSD could drop to a 250GB if you dont need the little bit of extra storage and wanna save a couple bucks, could buy a cheaper case (thats a moderate priced, good looking and decent airflow case, just make sure you get good airflow if anything), And if you could, id upgrade to a bit higher tier power supply for around 20$ more, get a gold certified reputable and you'll be set.

That ssd us pretty crap compared to the mx500 with cost about 5 more dollars. Also the power supply is also pretty bad.  

[Jurrunio]

desktop I suppose?

 

small case route:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$164.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock - B450 GAMING-ITX/AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard	$126.98 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$99.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Crucial - MX500 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$134.89 @ OutletPC
Storage	Seagate - BarraCuda Pro Compute 1 TB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$60.38 @ OutletPC
Video Card	Sapphire - Radeon RX 570 4 GB NITRO+ Video Card	$149.99 @ Newegg Business
Case	Silverstone - RVZ03B Mini ITX Desktop Case	$121.64 @ Newegg
Power Supply	SeaSonic - FOCUS SGX 450 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply	$93.66 @ Newegg
Case Fan	Silverstone - FN123 32.6 CFM 120mm Fan	$8.99 @ Amazon
Case Fan	Fractal Design - X2 GP-12 (Black) 52.3 CFM 120mm Fan	$11.89 @ OutletPC
Case Fan	Noctua - NF-A12x15 FLX 55.44 CFM 120mm Fan	$19.95 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1023.25
	Mail-in rebates	-$30.00
	Total	$993.25
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-22 10:14 EST-0500

 

This case doesnt support 3.5" drives, that's why I included a 2.5" HDD instead. Can skip this if 1TB SSD is already enough space.

 

This graphics card has 2 HDMI and 2 DP, which means either you use monitors that support DP (I guess it's intuitive to get 3 HDMI monitors) or a DP to HDMI cable.

 

SFX PSU isn't necessary (ATX could do), but cable management and installation is much easier with an SFX PSU (much smaller). 

 

The case holds 3 120mm fans, 2 in front of the graphics card which must be less than 23mm thick because of the graphics card being just over 2 slots wide. There's only 25mm or 15mm for thickness of case fans available, so 15mm models (also called slim fans) are needed. The case comes with 2 of these fans, so I assume you will keep those in place.

 

The last fan sits on top of the CPU cooler, and CPU cooler height + fan thickness can be at most 83mm. The stock cooler of the Ryzen 5 2600 is 54mm tall so in theory you can use a 25mm case fan here, but it could hurt cooler upgrades (for example, the 65mm tall Noctua NH-L9x65). I'd leave the choice to you, that's why there's the cheap slim fan FN123 (which is sadly white, I can't find the same black fans that comes with the case), expensive and brown yet best performing Noctua and 25mm thick Fractal GP-12.

[mtjones12]

Thank you all for your help and suggestions. It looks like there is a lot of similar thought for the CPU and GPU setup, which was actually along the lines of what I was thinking. It is nice to get some reassurance. 

[Trulop]

18 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$164.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard	$114.57 @ Newegg
Memory	Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$114.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Crucial - MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$67.89 @ OutletPC
Video Card	Sapphire - Radeon RX 580 8 GB NITRO+ Video Card	$199.99 @ Newegg
Case	NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.99 @ B&H
Power Supply	EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply	$59.99 @ B&H
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$812.41
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$792.41
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-01-22 09:03 EST-0500

This is what I would do. You can always add a hard drive later if 500gb isn't enough but having the 500gb ssd bootdrive should improve performance quite significantly compared to just using a hard drive.  

i would definately go with this build if you were to use one of ours. He's definately right the mx500 is a better SSD, and as i said in my post, having a bit better PSU would be recommended. the 650w he posted gives more than enough power for this system and room to expand, atx is big enough you could do SLI (or MGPU or whatever they call it in the future) if it starts becoming more mainstream and worth the money, and 8GB of Vram will help a ton moving forward. From personal experience, ive ran into many games just on 1080p that can utilize more than 4GB of Vram. 16GB of system RAM will keep you going for a very long time without hitting that cap, and if you do, you have 2 more unused RAM slots for expansion up to 32GB. One thing i could advise, is that later on, maybe upgrade the CPU cooler with something a tad better for some overclocking. One of my rigs uses same cpu on the wraith cooler (comes with CPU) and it does just fine, even with a bit of an OC across all cores, but i cant max out the OC using it as it cant cool it enough after a certain point. Can get better air coolers for 20-40$ and doesnt need to be an immediate thing whatsoever, or if your fine non overclocked, at all