First Time PC Build - $1200USD

[dange]

Hi All!

 

After gaming on consoles since middle school, I have decided its time to look into building my own PC! I have been looking at sample builds across various websites and such, but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the sheer amount of options available and not knowing what would be best for my specific needs. I would appreciate any and all help in this endeavor!

 

Following the format, here goes:

 

1. Budget & Location

Total Budget: $1200 Location: Southern California

 

2. Aim

I will be doing gaming and photography editing(Lightroom and Photoshop editing). In terms of gaming, I enjoy FPSs like Call of Duty, DOOM, Overwatch, Wolfenstein, Star Wars Battlefront, etc. I am also interested in more open-world type games like Cyberpunk, Witcher, Dying Light, etc. 

 

3. Monitors

I want to start off with one monitor, but would like to have a second at some point. I think the 1080p 144hz monitors seem solid for my needs.

 

4. Peripherals

I am also looking to include the Monitor, Keyboard, and Mouse in my total budget. Doesn't have to be RGB, but I wouldn't mind! I am planning on doing Windows 10 Education for free through my school email. 

 

I am not sure if there is enough information to go off of here, but I am open to any recommendations, whether it be AMD, Intel, ASUS, etc. Just looking for a good starter build with everything included at that price point with room to further invest/upgrade in as time goes on.

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT: Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I have solid frameworks to build my first PC. Definitely will take into account monitor suggestions as well. 

Edited March 25, 2020 by dange

[Ulol60]

Monitor: I highly recommend AOC 24" Gamingscreen G2460PF or AOC 32" Curved gamingscreen C32G1 I got both of them and never had any problem. Just plugin and use very simple no need to install anything. 
As you work with Photo editing get a 8 core processor+ 

I would go for Ryzen 7 3700X

ASUS ROG strix b450-F gaming socket-AM4

Corsair Vengeance RGB pro DDR4 2x8GB ram

650W Power supply Corsair
1TB HDD drive

500GB SSD
Fractal design case midi tower

RTX 2060,2070 etc 

(not sure if this is inside of the 1200$ budget but, its a pretty good computer and will run all if not most games with max settings and 60 FPS. 
 

[SpookyCitrus]

You could go for something like this. If you wanted a beefier processor you could switch from the 2070 Super to a 5700XT and have enough to go 3700X. But for gaming and photo editing this rig can do both with ease. However it does not include monitor and peripherals.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$114.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$83.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$109.99 @ B&H
Storage	Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$54.98 @ Newegg
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB BLACK GAMING Video Card	$484.98 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case	$59.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	EVGA GD (2019) 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply	$67.97 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1191.88
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$1151.88
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-25 14:53 EDT-0400

 

[SpookyCitrus]

1 minute ago, Ulol60 said:

Monitor: I highly recommend AOC 24" Gamingscreen G2460PF or AOC 32" Curved gamingscreen C32G1 I got both of them and never had any problem. Just plugin and use very simple no need to install anything. 
As you work with Photo editing get a 8 core processor+ 

I would go for Ryzen 7 3700X

ASUS ROG strix b450-F gaming socket-AM4

Corsair Vengeance RGB pro DDR4 2x8GB ram

650W Power supply Corsair
1TB HDD drive

500GB SSD
Fractal design case midi tower

RTX 2060,2070 etc 

(not sure if this is inside of the 1200$ budget but, its a pretty good computer and will run all if not most games with max settings and 60 FPS. 
 

He would need a slightly less powerful system to fit a monitor and peripherals within his budget.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Ulol60 said:

Monitor: I highly recommend AOC 24" Gamingscreen G2460PF or AOC 32" Curved gamingscreen C32G1 I got both of them and never had any problem. Just plugin and use very simple no need to install anything. 
As you work with Photo editing get a 8 core processor+ 

I would go for Ryzen 7 3700X

ASUS ROG strix b450-F gaming socket-AM4

Corsair Vengeance RGB pro DDR4 2x8GB ram

650W Power supply Corsair
1TB HDD drive

500GB SSD
Fractal design case midi tower

RTX 2060,2070 etc 

(not sure if this is inside of the 1200$ budget but, its a pretty good computer and will run all if not most games with max settings and 60 FPS. 
 

Not that Motherboard though. The B450 Tomahawk MAX above is better.

[LankyBastard]

@dange since you do photo and video editing, I'm surprised no one has asked you whether monitor color accuracy and gamut are important.  Is that something you are looking for as well?

[mariushm]

Yeah, here's a config.

 

144 Hz and photoshop is kinda hard, as those high hz monitors often have crappy gamma and color calibration.

 

You can replace the 5700 with a 2060 as Photoshop and team may have some more plugins and crap optimized for nVidia... and it may leave you 50$ to upgrade to a Ryzen 3600.

 

1 TB SSD is enough for the start, at the next paycheck you can buy a 4TB mechanical drive for under 100$ and you're good.

 

The monitor I suggested is big (31.5") and 2560x1440 which matches well with a card like 5700 or 2060 ... I personally am kinda tired of 1080p, bigger resolution helps with photoshop ... and in reviews it looks like it had decent gamut and color accuracy from the start.

 

Actually, you can save another 30-40$ by going with a good bronze efficiency power supply. put those to cpu and get ryzen 3600

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$119.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.99 @ B&H
Memory	Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$69.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$119.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 5700 8 GB DD Ultra Video Card	$329.99 @ Best Buy
Case	Phanteks P300 ATX Mid Tower Case	$67.93 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair TXM Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$98.98 @ Newegg
Monitor	AOC Q3279VWFD8 31.5" 2560x1440 75 Hz Monitor	$329.99 @ Best Buy
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1236.85
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-25 15:16 EDT-0400

 

[dange]

37 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

You could go for something like this. If you wanted a beefier processor you could switch from the 2070 Super to a 5700XT and have enough to go 3700X. But for gaming and photo editing this rig can do both with ease. However it does not include monitor and peripherals.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.99 @ B&H
Motherboard	MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$114.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$83.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$109.99 @ B&H
Storage	Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$54.98 @ Newegg
Video Card	EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB BLACK GAMING Video Card	$484.98 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case	$59.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	EVGA GD (2019) 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply	$67.97 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1191.88
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$1151.88
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-25 14:53 EDT-0400

 

Thanks! This is really helpful. I may look to see how to shave of a bit just to leave some room for the monitor and KB&M, though.

[dange]

33 minutes ago, LankyBastard said:

@dange since you do photo and video editing, I'm surprised no one has asked you whether monitor color accuracy and gamut are important.  Is that something you are looking for as well?

 

14 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Yeah, here's a config.

 

144 Hz and photoshop is kinda hard, as those high hz monitors often have crappy gamma and color calibration.

 

You can replace the 5700 with a 2060 as Photoshop and team may have some more plugins and crap optimized for nVidia... and it may leave you 50$ to upgrade to a Ryzen 3600.

 

1 TB SSD is enough for the start, at the next paycheck you can buy a 4TB mechanical drive for under 100$ and you're good.

 

The monitor I suggested is big (31.5") and 2560x1440 which matches well with a card like 5700 or 2060 ... I personally am kinda tired of 1080p, bigger resolution helps with photoshop ... and in reviews it looks like it had decent gamut and color accuracy from the start.

 

Actually, you can save another 30-40$ by going with a good bronze efficiency power supply. put those to cpu and get ryzen 3600

 

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$119.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.99 @ B&H
Memory	Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory	$69.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$119.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 5700 8 GB DD Ultra Video Card	$329.99 @ Best Buy
Case	Phanteks P300 ATX Mid Tower Case	$67.93 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair TXM Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$98.98 @ Newegg
Monitor	AOC Q3279VWFD8 31.5" 2560x1440 75 Hz Monitor	$329.99 @ Best Buy
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1236.85
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-25 15:16 EDT-0400

 

Thanks for this! I could definitely do the 75hz if it means I'll have a better time on Photoshop and lightroom. I am having issues with that right now as the photos look different on my devices so it'd be nice to have a monitor that will improve that end of things. I really like this build!

[dange]

48 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

He would need a slightly less powerful system to fit a monitor and peripherals within his budget.

Agreed. At some point down the line when I have the resources Ill go in for the beefier CPU + GPU combos. Just looking for a solid starter build that fits within my budget for now!

[Herman Mcpootis]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($298.99 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: GeIL EVO SPEAR 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($63.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.98 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB VENTUS GP OC Video Card  ($362.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Cougar MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($39.95 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 500 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($69.90 @ B&H) 
Monitor: ViewSonic VX2458-C-MHD 23.6" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor  ($159.99 @ B&H) 
Total: $1210.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-25 22:24 EDT-0400