New rig; Looking for help

[Sharccc]

This has been solved somewhat! See the bottom of the post for details

 

Hi guys, as this is my first post, sorry if I'm not following the forum's typical etiquette.

Anyways, Christmas is around the corner, and I'm planning to make a new system for myself.

It's going to be the first one I build myself, but I'm looking for some tips to see if my parts list could be improved upon whilst staying in the budget.

 

The list of parts I've proposed are:

 

CPU: Ryzen 3 3100 (Stock cooler, I won't be OCing)

MB: ASRock A520M-HDV Micro ATX (Yes I know it only has 2 ram slots.)

RAM: OLOy 1 x 16 GB 3000 MHZ (If unavailable, I'll try and find a replacement. Yes I know Dual-Channel is faster, but in the event that I want to upgrade to 32 GB, I don't want to have to replace all of my old ram.)

Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB SATA SSD (No HDD, won't need it.)

GPU: Some kind of 1660 Super (Availability is unstable at best for now, so I'm not sure what brand.)

PSU: EVGA SuperNova 450 Watt 80+ Gold (Modular)

Case: DIYPC Zondda ATX Mid tower

 

I'm trying to stay within 800-900$ Canadian (So around 600-700 USD).

Are any of these parts considered bad quality or value? Also, is this case easy to work in for a beginner? Thanks.

 

EDIT: No one comment really solved this, and I'd still love to hear if something IS wrong with it.

Based on some of the (Very helpful, thanks guys!) comments, I've decided to go with

 

CPU: Ryzen 3 3100 (Unless I can find a 5 2600 at a decent price)

MB: B450M Pro4-F mATX 

RAM: Team T-FORCE VULCAN 2 X 8 GB 3200 MHZ (Or if I can find a cheaper kit, I'll go with that.)

Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB (Same as before.)

MSI GeForce 1660 Super 6 GB (Unless I can find a better deal on the same card)

PSU: SeaSonic FOCUS 80+ Gold fully modular 550 Watt

Case: DIYPC Zondda ATX Mid tower (Same as before.)

 

Forgot to include, but this will be a primarily 1080p gaming PC. Video editing, 3D Modelling, as well as video streaming would be nice on top. If it can handle 1440p or VR, that would be nice too, but not needed at the moment.

Edited November 26, 2020 by Sharccc
Updated information.

[dizmo]

• I'd look at the 5600XT instead of the 1660S. Usually performs better IIRC.
• Don't get single channel RAM with Ryzen. It doesn't play well together. If you are worried about RAM upgrades, get a different board.
• I think you can get the Ryzen 5 2600 for not much more.

Wait for Black Friday before making any purchases. You should be able to save a pretty decent amount, check Canada Computers and Memory Express, they usually have the best deals.

 

You missed the most important part: You haven't told us what you use your PC for. Without that information any advice isn't really that helpful as it isn't based on anything.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Sharccc]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

• I'd look at the 5600XT instead of the 1660S. Usually performs better IIRC.
• Don't get single channel RAM with Ryzen. It doesn't play well together. If you are worried about RAM upgrades, get a different board.
• I think you can get the Ryzen 5 2600 for not much more.

Wait for Black Friday before making any purchases. You should be able to save a pretty decent amount, check Canada Computers and Memory Express, they usually have the best deals.

 

You missed the most important part: You haven't told us what you use your PC for. Without that information any advice isn't really that helpful as it isn't based on anything.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

My bad, forgot about that. Primarily it's for desktop gaming at 1080p, how-ever higher resolutions, aswell as video production / streaming would be a great extra. I've looked at the bench marks and it seems like the 3 3100 performs roughly identically as the 5 2600 per core, and don't most games struggle with benefiting from the extra cores? 

[Sharccc]

Also, the 5600 xt is about 90$ more than the 1660 Super. Is it really worth it? I'm on a tight budget as I'm out of a job this year.

[CommanderAlex]

Welcome to the forums!!!

 

Aren't you better off getting a mATX B450 board that has 4 RAM slots? Also, perhaps getting at least a 550W PSU to give you some headroom for a beefier GPU in the future if you plan on upgrading this system, especially higher resolutions. 

[Sharccc]

Just now, CommanderAlex said:

Welcome to the forums!!!

 

Aren't you better off getting a mATX B450 board that has 4 RAM slots? Also, perhaps getting at least a 550W PSU to give you some headroom for a beefier GPU in the future if you plan on upgrading this system, especially higher resolutions. 

I don't think I'd be making a GPU upgrade any time soon, and also, don't some mATX b450 boards have bios incompatibility issues with certain ryzen cpus?

[CommanderAlex]

Just now, Sharccc said:

I don't think I'd be making a GPU upgrade any time soon, and also, don't some mATX b450 boards have bios incompatibility issues with certain ryzen cpus?

The B450 should support 3rd gen Ryzen out of the box. The only BIOS incompatibility issues with Ryzen CPUs right now with B450 and X470 boards is Ryzen 5000 series (Zen 3).

[Maheshvara]

PCPartPicker Part List: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/WvYFPV

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 3 3100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($143.50 @ shopRBC) 
Motherboard: *ASRock A520M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($77.11 @ Vuugo) 
Memory: *G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($77.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Storage: *Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($120.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Video Card: *MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB GAMING X Video Card  ($349.99 @ Staples) 
Case: *DIYPC Zondda ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Power Supply: *SeaSonic S12III 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($66.99 @ PC-Canada) 
Total: $886.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-11-25 17:29 EST-0500

 

 

I'm a bit out of practice with PC part picker, so this is probably good, not 100% sure.

 

I chose 2 sticks of 8Gb because let's be real, for anything that needs more than 16gb, 3100 will probably throttle it, so better get that stability with 2 sticks. Mobo is barebones. See if you can get a cheaper 1660S and get a better mobo

 

Like they said, better get 2600 over 3100, so maybe something like this?

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/mc73RT

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($179.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Motherboard: *ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($68.62 @ Vuugo) 
Memory: *G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($77.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Storage: *Crucial MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($59.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Storage: *Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.99 @ Dell) 
Video Card: *MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card  ($329.99 @ Staples) 
Case: *DIYPC Zondda ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Power Supply: *SeaSonic S12III 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($66.99 @ PC-Canada) 
Total: $888.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-11-25 17:27 EST-0500

[Sharccc]

Just now, CommanderAlex said:

The B450 should support 3rd gen Ryzen out of the box. The only BIOS incompatibility issues with Ryzen CPUs right now with B450 and X470 boards is Ryzen 5000 series (Zen 3).

That's reassuring, but I'd really hate spending 80 or so bucks on a MB just to have it not work with my CPU. In the event that it isn't compatible, can I fix the BIOS without an extra piece of hardware, or will i need to flash it with a different AM4 chip?

[CommanderAlex]

Just now, Sharccc said:

That's reassuring, but I'd really hate spending 80 or so bucks on a MB just to have it not work with my CPU. In the event that it isn't compatible, can I fix the BIOS without an extra piece of hardware, or will i need to flash it with a different AM4 chip?

You shouldn't really need to flash a B450M board unless its been sitting in a warehouse for awhile. How about an ASRock B450M Pro4? 

[Sharccc]

1 minute ago, CommanderAlex said:

You shouldn't really need to flash a B450M board unless its been sitting in a warehouse for awhile. How about an ASRock B450M Pro4? 

Ha. Funnily enough, I've got a tab of PCPartPicker open and that's exactly the board I've picked. It flags it as having possible BIOS issues with both the 3 3100 and the 5 2600, but I think that's a general warning not specific to the board. 

So, I replace the a520 with the b450, get 8 X 2, and then so far I've swapped out the EVGA with a SeaSonic 550 Watt FOCUS Plus (Gold). I could've gone with a cheaper SeaSonic, but I'd like the increased efficiency and it's modular. Does this seem good now? (Also, I can't find a decent listing for the 5 2600 anywhere at the moment. They're all like 70$ more than the 3 3100.)

[CommanderAlex]

16 minutes ago, Sharccc said:

Ha. Funnily enough, I've got a tab of PCPartPicker open and that's exactly the board I've picked. It flags it as having possible BIOS issues with both the 3 3100 and the 5 2600, but I think that's a general warning not specific to the board. 

So, I replace the a520 with the b450, get 8 X 2, and then so far I've swapped out the EVGA with a SeaSonic 550 Watt FOCUS Plus (Gold). I could've gone with a cheaper SeaSonic, but I'd like the increased efficiency and it's modular. Does this seem good now? (Also, I can't find a decent listing for the 5 2600 anywhere at the moment. They're all like 70$ more than the 3 3100.)

Yeah that's just a general warning from PCPartPicker about the BIOS incompatibility warning message. That is a pretty decent power supply (Tier A according to PSU Tier List). The most probably cause for the R5 2600 to be more expensive is because hardly any retailers sell 2nd gen Ryzen CPUs as they have pretty much transitioned to 3rd gen and now Ryzen 5000 Series. 

[Sharccc]

1 minute ago, CommanderAlex said:

Yeah that's just a general warning from PCPartPicker about the BIOS incompatibility warning message. That is a pretty decent power supply (Tier A according to PSU Tier List). The most probably cause for the R5 2600 to be more expensive is because hardly any retailers sell 2nd gen Ryzen CPUs as they have pretty much transitioned to 3rd gen and now Ryzen 5000 Series. 

So since it's being really difficult to find a good 5 2600 listing, should I just go for the 3 3100 then?

 

Also, this isn't really a must, but I am curious, with the NEW set-up, would it be VR-Ready for some games? I'm not talking like, 120 fps steady in HL:A, but I am still curious.

[CommanderAlex]

2 minutes ago, Sharccc said:

So since it's being really difficult to find a good 5 2600 listing, should I just go for the 3 3100 then?

 

Also, this isn't really a must, but I am curious, with the NEW set-up, would it be VR-Ready for some games? I'm not talking like, 120 fps steady in HL:A, but I am still curious.

Consider the costs of an 6c/12t vs 4c/8t with only $30-40 CAD extra for those extra two cores. That's up to you. I'd really would try and find a decent price for an R5 2600. 

 

If its older titles, it mayy be able to handle VR, but I wouldn't have high expectations of achieving that as that's scraping over the bare minimum.