New PC Gamer

[colin0225]

Budget (including currency): 2000 US dollars

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Minecraft, Siege, Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Apex Legends.

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 do not have any of the parts yet. I have an LG 32GN650-B Ultra gear Gaming Monitor 32” QHD (2560 x 1440) Display, 165Hz Refresh Rate, 1ms MBR, HDR 10, sRGB 95% Color Gamut, AMD FreeSync – Black. I want to play with the refresh rate that I can withstand the most. I do not know the best resolution. This is all still so confusing to me. 

[colin0225]

2 minutes ago, colin0225 said:

Budget (including currency): 2000 US dollars

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Minecraft, Siege, Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Apex Legends.

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 do not have any of the parts yet. I have an LG 32GN650-B Ultra gear Gaming Monitor 32” QHD (2560 x 1440) Display, 165Hz Refresh Rate, 1ms MBR, HDR 10, sRGB 95% Color Gamut, AMD FreeSync – Black. I want to play with the refresh rate that I can withstand the most. I do not know the best resolution. This is all still so confusing to me. 

 I want a 3060 ti.

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, colin0225 said:

 I want a 3060 ti.

For $2000 you can do a lot better than a 3060 Ti. 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7XfbpH

 

This is realistically the most you'll have to spend for a gaming PC, anything more would be either complete overkill or just for aesthetics (maybe more storage, but that's about it). The 12400F is a solid CPU for just gaming for a good price too, 32GB is more than enough, solid case, motherboard, fans, SSD, PSU, and cooler, and you can get a 3080 with the rest of the money. Spend the rest of the money on better peripherals and games, maybe RGB fans if you want them. 

[colin0225]

Is there a better CPU that I could get and then would a 3060 run the games well for me?

 

[emosun]

Just now, colin0225 said:

Is there a better CPU that I could get and then would a 3060 run the games well for me?

why do you want a 3060 instead of a better gpu?

[colin0225]

1 minute ago, emosun said:

why do you want a 3060 instead of a better gpu?

How different are they?

[emosun]

1 minute ago, colin0225 said:

How different are they?

 

 

[RONOTHAN##]

7 minutes ago, colin0225 said:

Is there a better CPU that I could get and then would a 3060 run the games well for me?

 

Games mostly just care about the GPU. It just matters that you get a CPU with good enough single thread and 4+ cores. The 12400F is a perfectly adequate CPU that should do just fine, and the only real reason to get something more is if you do workstation tasks on your system that benefit from more cores. Just get the 3080 and 12400F. 

 

5 minutes ago, colin0225 said:

How different are they?

A lot. 

[colin0225]

2 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Games mostly just care about the GPU. It just matters that you get a CPU with good enough single thread and 4+ cores. The 12400F is a perfectly adequate CPU that should do just fine, and the only real reason to get something more is if you do workstation tasks on your system that benefit from more cores. Just get the 3080 and 12400F. 

 

A lot. 

And is this motherboard upgrade compatible.

[RONOTHAN##]

6 minutes ago, colin0225 said:

And is this motherboard upgrade compatible.

Everything in the list I linked above is compatible, yes. You could upgrade to a 12700F in the future if you actually need more CPU performance, but given what you say you're gonna do, there is gonna be basically no difference between the 12400F and the 12700F. 

[colin0225]

9 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Everything in the list I linked above is compatible, yes. You could upgrade to a 12700F in the future if you actually need more CPU performance, but given what you say you're gonna do, there is gonna be basically no difference between the 12400F and the 12700F. 

Would I maybe want to upgrade the power supply to platinum for longevity. And an NVME SSD for faster loading times and they are super easy to install. 

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, colin0225 said:

Would I maybe want to upgrade the power supply to platinum for longevity. And an NVME SSD for faster loading times and they are super easy to install. 

Efficiency rating doesn't have anything to do with longevity or quality or anything like that. You can have terrible units that are rated for 80+ titanium and amazing units that are 80+ bronze or lower. The Supernova G6 in that list is a well rated unit, and it does come with a 10 year warranty if you were worried about that. Also, I've done the math before, with a normal amount of usage you aren't gonna make up the difference between a gold and platinum unit on your power bill. 

 

The drive on that system is NVMe (a very good one at that), and also the difference in load times outside of benchmarks is small enough that you won't notice the difference between a SATA and NVMe drive anyway (plus NVMe drives are only easy to install in some instances, there are systems I've had where I specifically avoid them because it's significantly easier to install a SATA drive)

[colin0225]

2 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Efficiency rating doesn't have anything to do with longevity or quality or anything like that. You can have terrible units that are rated for 80+ titanium and amazing units that are 80+ bronze or lower. The Supernova G6 in that list is a well rated unit, and it does come with a 10 year warranty if you were worried about that. Also, I've done the math before, with a normal amount of usage you aren't gonna make up the difference between a gold and platinum unit on your power bill. 

 

The drive on that system is NVMe (a very good one at that), and also the difference in load times outside of benchmarks is small enough that you won't notice the difference between a SATA and NVMe drive anyway (plus NVMe drives are only easy to install in some instances, there are systems I've had where I specifically avoid them because it's significantly easier to install a SATA drive)

Is the cpu good for upgrading as well because of the amount of cores ? And the motherboard is confusing to me. Do all these parts come with the correct cords to assemble?

 

[Ryuikko]

8 minutes ago, colin0225 said:

Is the cpu good for upgrading as well because of the amount of cores ? And the motherboard is confusing to me. Do all these parts come with the correct cords to assemble?

Yes the psu will come with all of the necessary cords to power your system. The cpu is good for upgrading because it uses the same socket as the newer chip that's coming out later 

[RONOTHAN##]

4 minutes ago, colin0225 said:

Is the cpu good for upgrading as well because of the amount of cores ?

So with a budget this big, you want to get a CPU that you won't need to have to upgrade. For gaming, 6 cores is plenty, and all that really matters is that the cores are fast enough (which they are on the 12400). It should be fine for a while. 

 

Upgradeability is determined by the motherboard, not the CPU. The motherboard is Socket LGA 1700, which will likely get 2 generations of CPUs (12th and 13th), and since we're currently on 12th gen, if you want to upgrade in the future you will be able to upgrade to a 13th gen CPU. It is only on DDR4, but with how mediocre the Alder Lake DDR5 memory controller is, there isn't much benefit to DDR5 anyway. 

 

9 minutes ago, colin0225 said:

And the motherboard is confusing to me.

What about the motherboard is confusing? 

 

There are a few different things that matter about a motherboard, and your goal is to pick the cheapest option that satisfies these conditions.

1. Does it support the CPU?
   1. This board does
2. Does it have an adequate VRM?
   1. This board has an adequate VRM for most Alder Lake CPUs.
3. Does it have all the necessary connectors for you (USB ports, PCIe slots, M.2 slots, SATA ports, etc.)
   1. This board has 6 USB ports, 2 PCIe x16 slots (1 wired at full x16, this is used for the GPU), 2 M.2 slots, and 4 SATA ports. For most people this should be plenty
4. Does it have any known issues?
   1. This board does not. 

 

13 minutes ago, colin0225 said:

Do all these parts come with the correct cords to assemble?

Yes, they should. 

[colin0225]

2 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

So with a budget this big, you want to get a CPU that you won't need to have to upgrade. For gaming, 6 cores is plenty, and all that really matters is that the cores are fast enough (which they are on the 12400). It should be fine for a while. 

 

Upgradeability is determined by the motherboard, not the CPU. The motherboard is Socket LGA 1700, which will likely get 2 generations of CPUs (12th and 13th), and since we're currently on 12th gen, if you want to upgrade in the future you will be able to upgrade to a 13th gen CPU. It is only on DDR4, but with how mediocre the Alder Lake DDR5 memory controller is, there isn't much benefit to DDR5 anyway. 

 

What about the motherboard is confusing? 

 

There are a few different things that matter about a motherboard, and your goal is to pick the cheapest option that satisfies these conditions.

1. Does it support the CPU?
   1. This board does
2. Does it have an adequate VRM?
   1. This board has an adequate VRM for most Alder Lake CPUs.
3. Does it have all the necessary connectors for you (USB ports, PCIe slots, M.2 slots, SATA ports, etc.)
   1. This board has 6 USB ports, 2 PCIe x16 slots (1 wired at full x16, this is used for the GPU), 2 M.2 slots, and 4 SATA ports. For most people this should be plenty
4. Does it have any known issues?
   1. This board does not. 

 

Yes, they should. 

Thank you so I would be able to play the games I want at decent frames and decent graphics. Will I be able to play modded games or will that be too rough of my PC. I am just trying to figure out if that is a good PC that will last a bit of time and be able to do the things I want it to do. 

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, colin0225 said:

Thank you so I would be able to play the games I want at decent frames and decent graphics. Will I be able to play modded games or will that be too rough of my PC. I am just trying to figure out if that is a good PC that will last a bit of time and be able to do the things I want it to do. 

To answer your questions in order

1. It's basically the fastest system that's practical. Yes you can get an extra 5-10% faster, but that would mean you'd be spending an extra $2000 to get that. There is basically nothing that system can't play at 1440P at Ultra settings at at least 60FPS, usually closer to 100+. 
2. Modded games should be no problem. Games that are popular to mod (Minecraft, Skyrim, etc.) tend to be very single threaded, and the 12400F should be great for this. It will depend on exactly how hard you mod it though, you might struggle with 1000 mods in Minecraft (but granted, basically everything will struggle with that many mods)
3. It should last you a quite a while. Again, it's up there with some of the fastest PCs money can buy. 

[colin0225]

How would I build all of this?

[colin0225]

1 minute ago, colin0225 said:

How would I build all of this?

And what about the OS system

 

[Ryuikko]

2 minutes ago, colin0225 said:

How would I build all of this?

If you are not comfortable with putting you parts together blindly there are some excellent guides on YouTube, most notably the one from ltt linked here:https://youtu.be/BL4DCEp7blY

As per the os you can find a win 10 key online for as low as 12 dollars to avoid the watermark on your screen

[colin0225]

11 minutes ago, Ryuikko said:

If you are not comfortable with putting you parts together blindly there are some excellent guides on YouTube, most notably the one from ltt linked here:https://youtu.be/BL4DCEp7blY

As per the os you can find a win 10 key online for as low as 12 dollars to avoid the watermark on your screen

do i have to buy an OS?

[Ryuikko]

2 minutes ago, colin0225 said:

do i have to buy an OS?

You don't technically have to buy an os as your computer will run without it but you can buy a key to it from many places from about 15 dollars or you can directly download it from Microsoft seen here.  https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download