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My first gaming PC (under $1000)

bugbitch
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Hello! New member here, and I need some help from those more tech savvy than myself. 
 

I’m looking into building my own PC. I have very little experience with any under the hood technology stuff, but I’m committed to learning and doing the damn thing. I’ve recently had a lot of big changes in my life and I’m looking to get back into what I’m passionate about, in which gaming is a huge part. I used to love PC gaming when I was younger (and had a machine to do it on...), but with money troubles, kids, and life in general, I’ve gotten out of the groove. 
 

I wanna dive headfirst back into it. My budget would be around $1000 with a little wiggle room, maybe $100-$200 more but if it can be avoided I’d prefer that. I’d be playing mainly RPGs like Skyrim, ESO, WOW, Dragon Age etc etc, along with some video editing. I’m going to have a laptop for daily tasks and school work so this PC will solely be for graphically intensive tasks, & I’m sure some corners can be cut in that respect.
 

I’d need the full setup, moniter, keyboard, mouse & all. I definitely want a case with a glass window so I can admire my handiwork for years to come, along with having some aesthetic RGB decor. When I say I have nothing, I mean it. I’m gonna be buying not just the parts for my build, but the tools as well.. so recommendations for all that is definitely necessary. I’ve been consuming tons of build guides and other media on PC building, so I have a basic idea of the task ahead, but I’m still trying to get a better understanding on the parts I’ll need to buy and what will fit my specific use case the best. I don’t want to overpay for a prebuilt machine, and I’m willing to put the work in to get my machine exactly how I want it. In the future I’ll definitely want to get a VR headset (Oculus Rift S or Quest, haven’t decided which yet), so I’d need my PC to be able to handle that. 
 

Alright, I think that’s about it. I’m all ears (or rather, eyes) and willing and ready for all help/input/advice. This is gonna be a long journey, and I’ll probably make some mistakes along the way, so y’all will be seeing my name around here a lot. Thanks guys, let me know what y’all think!! 

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No corners to cut for office style stuff.  Anything that will do office style stuff will game.  The reverse however is not true.  “Occasional editing” limits stuff further in that it adds workstation tasks to gaming.  So do you want a really low end workstation capable of some gaming or a lower end gaming computer capable of running some workstation stuff?

 

As for building a rig the only user information required is nation of origin as pc parts prices change by country.

Not a pro, not even very good.  I’m just old and have time currently.  Assuming I know a lot about computers can be a mistake.

 

Life is like a bowl of chocolates: there are all these little crinkly paper cups everywhere.

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2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

No corners to cut for office style stuff.  Anything that will do office style stuff will game.  The reverse however is not true.  “Occasional editing” limits stuff further in that it adds workstation tasks to gaming.  So do you want a really low end workstation capable of some gaming or a lower end gaming computer capable of running some workstation stuff?

Low end workstation! I’d prefer to move the editing (it will be minimal, max 1080 and not too long) over to a laptop and focus the desktop on gaming. 

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Just now, Aeyesi said:

"AMD Athlon 3000G"

Systems can be built on that in the $300 range.

Not a pro, not even very good.  I’m just old and have time currently.  Assuming I know a lot about computers can be a mistake.

 

Life is like a bowl of chocolates: there are all these little crinkly paper cups everywhere.

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2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Systems can be built on that in the $300 range.

I’ve definitely got loftier goals than $300 lol, I want the best that I can get while still in the mid(ish) range territory. 
 

ETA I’m in the US, North Texas specifically if that matters. 

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Just now, bugbitch said:

Low end workstation! I’d prefer to move the editing (it will be minimal, max 1080 and not too long) over to a laptop and focus the desktop on gaming. 

So you want workstation over gaming but then say you want the desktop for gaming not workstation.  This is confusing.  The requirements are related but different.  A workstation (generally) prioritizes thread count over single core speed, memory amount over memory speed, and has limitations on graphics card type.   Gaming machines like thread count but need single core speed, need a decent but somewhat limited amount of memory, and can save money by using graphics card that do not meet the requirements of workstations. 

Not a pro, not even very good.  I’m just old and have time currently.  Assuming I know a lot about computers can be a mistake.

 

Life is like a bowl of chocolates: there are all these little crinkly paper cups everywhere.

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3 minutes ago, bugbitch said:

I’ve definitely got loftier goals than $300 lol, I want the best that I can get while still in the mid(ish) range territory. 
 

ETA I’m in the US, North Texas specifically if that matters. 

Just the USA bit.  There are occasional advantages if you happen to live close to a computer parts store that also sells online.  The only one that seems to be left is microcenter though and there aren’t many of them left, so it’s unlikely to matter.

Not a pro, not even very good.  I’m just old and have time currently.  Assuming I know a lot about computers can be a mistake.

 

Life is like a bowl of chocolates: there are all these little crinkly paper cups everywhere.

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If you can fit a Ryzen 5 3600 into your budget without sacrificing other parts, I'd highly recommend that. It's an absolute beast for the price.

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Just now, Bombastinator said:

So you want workstation over gaming but then say you want the desktop for gaming not workstation.  This is confusing.  The requirements are related but different.  A workstation (generally) prioritizes thread count over single core speed, memory amount over memory speed, and has limitations on graphics card type.   Gaming machines like thread count but need single core speed, need a decent but somewhat limited amount of memory, and can save money by using graphics card that do not meet the requirements of workstations. 

Maybe I worded it oddly, I will have a laptop for school/work stuff so I don’t need any workstation capabilities on my desktop. I want it to be purely a gaming machine. The editing thing can easily be done on my laptop if I up the specs a bit so that’s a completely separate thing. 

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Posted (edited)
PCPartPicker Part List
Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor $174.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard ASRock B450M/AC Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $84.99 @ Amazon
Memory GeIL EVO POTENZA 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory $55.99 @ Newegg
Storage TCSunBow X3 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $51.99 @ Amazon
Video Card Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB OC Video Card $299.99 @ Newegg
Case Cougar MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case $44.00 @ B&H
Power Supply EVGA GD (2019) 500 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply $51.98 @ Newegg
Monitor Acer KG271 Cbmidpx 27.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor $174.99 @ Amazon
Keyboard Corsair K55 RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard $42.35 @ Walmart
Mouse Corsair Harpoon RGB Wired Optical Mouse $16.84 @ Amazon
  Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts  
  Total (before mail-in rebates) $1033.11
  Mail-in rebates -$35.00
  Total $998.11
  Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-08 14:08 EST-0500  

 

You'll have enough leftover for a decent screwdriver kit, and that's all you'd need for the build process.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/7JnG3C/corsair-hd120-rgb-544-cfm-120mm-fan-co-9050065-ww

feel free to throw in some RGB fans but I personally prefer fans of a single color because then you don't have to worry about crappy RGB software.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/JTvRsY/corsair-case-fan-co9050019ww

Edited by Fasauceome
lol forgot storage, added an SSD

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I need? ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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For workstation stuff slower 8 core is preferred over 6 core and lots of memory is preferred over enough memory for gaming which effectively makes the memory slower.  Nvidia CUDA cores are useful for editing but not for gaming and can put a really major cost bump in a video card.  At this particular price level a machine optimized for video is going to be a lot slower at gaming that a machine optimized for gaming and visa versa.  If the budget was higher it would make less difference, but at this level it does.

Not a pro, not even very good.  I’m just old and have time currently.  Assuming I know a lot about computers can be a mistake.

 

Life is like a bowl of chocolates: there are all these little crinkly paper cups everywhere.

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3 minutes ago, Grabhanem said:

If you can fit a Ryzen 5 3600 into your budget without sacrificing other parts, I'd highly recommend that. It's an absolute beast for the price.

This one?

4479AD73-B816-404E-A469-06DDD6DFBE28.png

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Just now, bugbitch said:

This one?

4479AD73-B816-404E-A469-06DDD6DFBE28.png

That's the one. That's a really good price on it as well.

 

Just make sure your motherboard is Ryzen 3000 ready or you might have to update the BIOS.

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1 minute ago, bugbitch said:

This one?

4479AD73-B816-404E-A469-06DDD6DFBE28.png

This was a major consideration. A workstation machine might benefit more from a 2700, which would cost more but be slower at gaming.

Not a pro, not even very good.  I’m just old and have time currently.  Assuming I know a lot about computers can be a mistake.

 

Life is like a bowl of chocolates: there are all these little crinkly paper cups everywhere.

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btw here are some good video guides for building, since you said you wanted to learn how.

 

you don't have to worry about the BIOS update with the motherboard I linked earlier, it's guaranteed to be ready to go with Ryzen 3000 out of the box.

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I need? ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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4 minutes ago, Grabhanem said:

That's the one. That's a really good price on it as well.

 

Just make sure your motherboard is Ryzen 3000 ready or you might have to update the BIOS.

Awesome. Someone above included this in his parts list so its definitely on my shopping list now

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26 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:
PCPartPicker Part List
Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor $174.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard ASRock B450M/AC Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $84.99 @ Amazon
Memory GeIL EVO POTENZA 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory $55.99 @ Newegg
Storage TCSunBow X3 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $51.99 @ Amazon
Video Card Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB OC Video Card $299.99 @ Newegg
Case Cougar MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case $44.00 @ B&H
Power Supply EVGA GD (2019) 500 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply $51.98 @ Newegg
Monitor Acer KG271 Cbmidpx 27.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor $174.99 @ Amazon
Keyboard Corsair K55 RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard $42.35 @ Walmart
Mouse Corsair Harpoon RGB Wired Optical Mouse $16.84 @ Amazon
  Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts  
  Total (before mail-in rebates) $1033.11
  Mail-in rebates -$35.00
  Total $998.11
  Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-08 14:08 EST-0500  

 

You'll have enough leftover for a decent screwdriver kit, and that's all you'd need for the build process.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/7JnG3C/corsair-hd120-rgb-544-cfm-120mm-fan-co-9050065-ww

feel free to throw in some RGB fans but I personally prefer fans of a single color because then you don't have to worry about crappy RGB software.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/JTvRsY/corsair-case-fan-co9050019ww

Would I be able to use this case? I prefer a white exterior 

E289E75E-5357-4DD5-9A00-6CF9C8BF50C0.png

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16 minutes ago, bugbitch said:

Would I be able to use this case? I prefer a white exterior 

E289E75E-5357-4DD5-9A00-6CF9C8BF50C0.png

Yes, that would work fine

I WILL find your ITX build thread, and I WILL recommend the SIlverstone Sugo SG13B

 

Primary PC:

i7 8086k - EVGA Z370 Classified K - G.Skill Trident Z RGB - WD SN750 - Jedi Order Titan Xp - Hyper 212 Black (with RGB Riing flair) - EVGA G3 650W - dual booting Windows 10 and Linux - Black and green theme, Razer brainwashed me.

Draws 400 watts under max load, for reference.

 

How many watts do I need? ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 spec, PSU misconceptions, protections explained, group reg is bad

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I vaguely remember something odd about the sunbow drives.  They’re not the same in every every country or something and are crippled in a few.

Not a pro, not even very good.  I’m just old and have time currently.  Assuming I know a lot about computers can be a mistake.

 

Life is like a bowl of chocolates: there are all these little crinkly paper cups everywhere.

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