Building my first PC

[Aethalis]

Budget (including currency): ~$2000 AUD ± 100

Country: Australia

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Mainly wanted to game with some friends (1080/1440p 60Hz), but also for general use, and there is a non-zero chance of light 3D or modelling work.

Edit: Also, I've been getting a little into neural networks these days.

 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): I have nothing but a cheap wireless mouse, and a cheap keyboard. Literally never had a desktop in my life.

 

 

 

So far, I've just chosen semi-random things and come up with this. Is it good (Obviously not, GPUs are extremely overpriced, but ignoring that obvious caveat)? Is it bad (very possible)? Any recommendations? Have I made a terrible choice? 

 

And this is another build that a friend of mine came up with after modifying the above. No idea if it's better, although the PSU apparently may or may not have a tendency to explode. 

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Aethalis
Forgot to add workload.

[cjschoe]

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/Cjschoe/saved/wK67RB

 

 

This should save you a little money and get you a cheaper machine.

[GeorgeMKane]

I went off your original list, and made some modifications there.

 

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/mdQTXb

 

Do you have a separate budget for a monitor, or do you plan on connecting this to your TV? If you're planning on connecting this to your TV, that might be okay, but what you do will 100% look better on a monitor.

 

I made a separate list, in case you need a monitor. It includes a cheaper motherboard and cheaper gpu.

 

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/sVK67X

[Aethalis]

45 minutes ago, cjschoe said:

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/Cjschoe/saved/wK67RB

 

 

This should save you a little money and get you a cheaper machine.

Ah, thanks, but I completely forgot that I'm doing some neural network stuff these days, and supposedly the specific one I'm working with doesn't play nice with AMD GPUs.

44 minutes ago, GeorgeMKane said:

I went off your original list, and made some modifications there.

 

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/mdQTXb

CPU: Intel Core i5-10400F 2.9 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($225.00 @ Umart) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black CPU Cooler  ($69.00 @ Mwave Australia) 
Motherboard: MSI MAG B560 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX LGA1200 Motherboard  ($188.00 @ Centre Com) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($89.00 @ PC Byte) 
Storage: Crucial P2 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($73.50 @ Amazon Australia) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($68.00 @ BPC Technology) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB XC GAMING Video Card  ($1019.00 @ BPC Technology) 
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case  ($125.40 @ Zotim) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM (2021) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($159.00 @ Amazon Australia) 
$2015.90

 

Do you have a separate budget for a monitor, or do you plan on connecting this to your TV? If you're planning on connecting this to your TV, that might be okay, but what you do will 100% look better on a monitor.

Interestingly enough, I was planning to go for that exact graphics card before. Unfortunately, I've heard a few too many horror stories from BPCTech (the company selling the card and still has it in stock). And no, I'm not planning on connecting the PC to a TV, and I assure you that on the TV that I have, there is a very noticeable amount of latency. As such, I'm just planning on buying a relatively cheap monitor. Hopefully a Black Friday deal. 

 

Thanks for your suggestions

[Jonathan Lee]

I would say to go with a 1TB NVME drive with dram to start with. The 1TB are actually a little bit faster than their 500GB counterparts. You can easily expand storage later. Some you can go with:

Corsair MP400

Crucial P5

Western Digital SN750

[GeorgeMKane]

8 hours ago, Aethalis said:

Ah, thanks, but I completely forgot that I'm doing some neural network stuff these days, and supposedly the specific one I'm working with doesn't play nice with AMD GPUs.

Interestingly enough, I was planning to go for that exact graphics card before. Unfortunately, I've heard a few too many horror stories from BPCTech (the company selling the card and still has it in stock). And no, I'm not planning on connecting the PC to a TV, and I assure you that on the TV that I have, there is a very noticeable amount of latency. As such, I'm just planning on buying a relatively cheap monitor. Hopefully a Black Friday deal. 

 

Thanks for your suggestions

You can get this MSI gpu instead then. https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/graphics-cards/nvidia/88417-geforce-rtx-3060-gaming-x-12g

 

The 2TB HDD is available from other AUS retailers as well, for not that much more.

 

Here is a revised list. https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/Hz7cdD and one with an 11th gen i5 cpu and a RTX 2060. https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/Xrr2t8