Building first PC for gaming

[DJHOWARD1]

Budget (including currency): $1200 USD

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Mostly Gaming (Titanfall 2, Assasins Creed Odyssey, Apex Legends, Sea of Thieves)

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): 

 

These are my four part lists and I'm wondering which is the best and any improvements you would have on them.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RT3NLP

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/sMhv8J

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/sQ4ZBc

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WQ3jj2

This is my first time building a PC so I need help to know what build to use.

Want to play at 1080p with 144 Hz refresh rate or better.

The peripherals I need are a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

Thanks for the help.

 

[RONOTHAN##]

You really should stick to Alder lake for the parts list. for context, the i5 10400 performs about equally to the 12100F in multi core workloads, while being down 2 cores, and beats it in single core workloads by a noticeable amount. 

 

The 4th list looks really good. In order to drop it down to budget, I would try to get a 3050 at MSRP, or if you can't, drop down to the 12100F and you can upgrade to a better CPU eventually. I'd still try to find a cheaper video card, going to a used GTX 1080 from eBay might help. I would probably change the PSU to something better, the EVGA G1+ 650w is the same price and a little bit better, especially if you go for a GTX 1080. 

[DJHOWARD1]

59 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

You really should stick to Alder lake for the parts list. for context, the i5 10400 performs about equally to the 12100F in multi core workloads, while being down 2 cores, and beats it in single core workloads by a noticeable amount. 

 

The 4th list looks really good. In order to drop it down to budget, I would try to get a 3050 at MSRP, or if you can't, drop down to the 12100F and you can upgrade to a better CPU eventually. I'd still try to find a cheaper video card, going to a used GTX 1080 from eBay might help. I would probably change the PSU to something better, the EVGA G1+ 650w is the same price and a little bit better, especially if you go for a GTX 1080. 

If I were to raise my budget to 1400 and changed the PSU would this be good final build?

[RONOTHAN##]

12 minutes ago, DJHOWARD1 said:

If I were to raise my budget to 1400 and changed the PSU would this be good final build?

Yeah, it would be a pretty good build. I'd still try for a 3050 instead, since it should perform about the same for quite a bit less, but if you can't get one, the 6600 would be a good option. Just be warned that the GTX 1080 costs less ($450 on eBay) and perform about the same to a little better than the 6600. You could use that money to get a better case or more storage (500GB runs out really quickly, so you're likely to have to add in a HDD pretty soon)

[DJHOWARD1]

4 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Yeah, it would be a pretty good build. I'd still try for a 3050 instead, since it should perform about the same for quite a bit less, but if you can't get one, the 6600 would be a good option. Just be warned that the GTX 1080 costs less ($450 on eBay) and perform about the same to a little better than the 6600. You could use that money to get a better case or more storage (500GB runs out really quickly, so you're likely to have to add in a HDD pretty soon)

OK thanks I'll work on that. Is there a case you would suggest?

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, DJHOWARD1 said:

OK thanks I'll work on that. Is there a case you would suggest?

The Phanteks P300a is my go-to cheap case. It's very easy to build in, has great airflow, and ~$70. There are better cases than it, but none of them cost any less than it. The only complaint I have when building in it is that it's a little small, but that's only due to the fact I'm used to building in full towers. 

[DJHOWARD1]

4 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

The Phanteks P300a is my go-to cheap case. It's very easy to build in, has great airflow, and ~$70. There are better cases than it, but none of them cost any less than it. The only complaint I have when building in it is that it's a little small, but that's only due to the fact I'm used to building in full towers. 

Gotcha and last question which of those three gpus is the best?

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, DJHOWARD1 said:

Gotcha and last question which of those three gpus is the best?

I saw 4 cards listed in total of this thread (GTX 1650, RX 6600, GTX 1080, RTX 3050), so I'm just gonna compare all of them since I'm not 100% on what 3 GPUs you were talking about.

 

We don't know how the 3050 is going to perform since it releases in about a week and a half, though I'd expect it to be slightly behind the GTX 1080 in performance. The main reason I'd recommend it is because it's supposed to be $250. Whether or not you'll be able to get it for under $400 is a different story, but it would be worth to try to get it for MSRP from Best Buy when it releases on the 27th.

 

The 1650 is out of the running, it gets beaten by the GTX 1060 6GB that can be had on eBay for $250-300.

 

That leaves the 1080 and RX 6600. They're pretty equal, with it more coming down to what game you're trying to run for which one performs better. The RX 6600 does tend to win more than the 1080, but I would personally go for the 1080 if you're going to spend $600+ on the RX 6600, but if you can find an RX 6600 for closer to $500 then the RX 6600 would be the better option. 

[DJHOWARD1]

9 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

I saw 4 cards listed in total of this thread (GTX 1650, RX 6600, GTX 1080, RTX 3050), so I'm just gonna compare all of them since I'm not 100% on what 3 GPUs you were talking about.

 

We don't know how the 3050 is going to perform since it releases in about a week and a half, though I'd expect it to be slightly behind the GTX 1080 in performance. The main reason I'd recommend it is because it's supposed to be $250. Whether or not you'll be able to get it for under $400 is a different story, but it would be worth to try to get it for MSRP from Best Buy when it releases on the 27th.

 

The 1650 is out of the running, it gets beaten by the GTX 1060 6GB that can be had on eBay for $250-300.

 

That leaves the 1080 and RX 6600. They're pretty equal, with it more coming down to what game you're trying to run for which one performs better. The RX 6600 does tend to win more than the 1080, but I would personally go for the 1080 if you're going to spend $600+ on the RX 6600, but if you can find an RX 6600 for closer to $500 then the RX 6600 would be the better option. 

Awesome thanks for all the help

[DJHOWARD1]

18 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

I saw 4 cards listed in total of this thread (GTX 1650, RX 6600, GTX 1080, RTX 3050), so I'm just gonna compare all of them since I'm not 100% on what 3 GPUs you were talking about.

 

We don't know how the 3050 is going to perform since it releases in about a week and a half, though I'd expect it to be slightly behind the GTX 1080 in performance. The main reason I'd recommend it is because it's supposed to be $250. Whether or not you'll be able to get it for under $400 is a different story, but it would be worth to try to get it for MSRP from Best Buy when it releases on the 27th.

 

The 1650 is out of the running, it gets beaten by the GTX 1060 6GB that can be had on eBay for $250-300.

 

That leaves the 1080 and RX 6600. They're pretty equal, with it more coming down to what game you're trying to run for which one performs better. The RX 6600 does tend to win more than the 1080, but I would personally go for the 1080 if you're going to spend $600+ on the RX 6600, but if you can find an RX 6600 for closer to $500 then the RX 6600 would be the better option. 

Sorry I lied I have one more question. Would this build work with a rtx 3060 ti?

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, DJHOWARD1 said:

Sorry I lied I have one more question. Would this build work with a rtx 3060 ti?

If you manage to get your hands on one, yeah. The 3060 Ti is an amazing card, and the 12400F is fast. For reference, it slightly outperforms the 5600X, one of the most popular CPUs to pair a 3060 Ti with. 

[DJHOWARD1]

26 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

If you manage to get your hands on one, yeah. The 3060 Ti is an amazing card, and the 12400F is fast. For reference, it slightly outperforms the 5600X, one of the most popular CPUs to pair a 3060 Ti with. 

OK perfect, thanks again for the help