With my Mother and my brother's birthdays coming up I want to plan to build/buy 2 good 1080P@120hz PC's - (doesn't have to be exactly the same parts)

MisterQuacker · January 29, 2022

Budget (including currency): 750-1000 each PC. (lower the better as usual <3)

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: General web browsing/netflix/youtube - FPS shooters (Apex/Battlefield), Minecraft, emulation.

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):

My brother's PC just died (Power supply most likely, maybe mobo too). His birthday is later on this month and I'd love to surprise him with a good new PC that's great but nothing EXTREME. (Ryzen AM4, probably 3000 series sounds great).
My Mom just started a new job that she's super excited for and needs a PC for web browsing and mainly a big monitor. (27in probably fine) She also needs a good desk swivel arm thing for it (that does not have to fit into the budget mentioned but plz link one's you would suggest )

Small form factor would be better. My brother lives with a very large doggo and his room is dusty and hairy most of the time. So I'm thinking of cases that are pretty sealed up yet still give decent air flow. Sorry for the oxymoron. Most of the time the PC's will be idle/web browsing (especially my Mom's, except for the times she'll game with us bless her sweet heart <3). My brother does game with friends pretty often though and definitely needs 1080p@120hz minimum.

16GB or Ram is probably fine too..

Thank you for any help and suggestions you can provide. Also pre-build's are totally fine as long as they are cost effective. I've built several computers before but personally never have tried to stick to a strict budget.. I've been a no compromises kind of guy over the years XD Buying the GREAT/EXTREME hardware that exists now is nonsensical for their application use. My brother would be stoked to experience 1080p@120hz. My Mother doesn't care to worry about the understanding of resolution or frame rates haha.. She just wants to game with her kiddos I Love my Mom =)

New parts are what I'm looking to purchase but if you think in order to fit my budget I'll have to buy some parts second hand that is totally fine

Again, thank you so much for your help and time I really hope to get my family all connected again!

RONOTHAN## · January 29, 2022

Your mom's PC is pretty easy to decide, the i3 12100 is an amazing deal, and you can get a really good really good performance with it. If you want it to be able to game, a GTX 1060 6GB would be a good option and you can drop the CPU down to the 12100F instead. The 12100 has an iGPU, Intel's drivers are just terrible so gaming with it is a bad experience.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/MnPkcb

Your brother's PC is a bit more complicated. Still go Alder Lake, but since games are starting to use more than 4 cores 8 threads, it would be a decent idea to get the i5 instead. The i5 12400F is a really good deal, $180 for marginally better performance than the 5600X. Improving the motherboard, the PSU and case, it comes out to be about $600 for the system without a GPU.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Q4HFfv

for the GPU, the 3050 would be the absolute best, but getting a 3050 for MSRP isn't exactly easy. If you want to go for a scalped GPU, a used GTX 1070 is probably the best option. It's about $400 and it would put you right at the budget. I would prioritize airflow for the case, you will have to clean it, but you don't want the parts to overheat. Just tell your brother to clean his computer once a month.