PC Build for my GF, but I'm a little behind

[Stickbug]

Budget (including currency): around $1,300 USD

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: The classics, namely Skyrim, Gta5, maybe some COD, Overwatch.

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 girlfriend wants to buy a new PC but doesn't want to put in the work to build one herself, so I'm taking the opportunity up and building it for her. Only problem is, I haven't been in the CPU/GPU race for about 2 years, and I'm in a pickle as to what to buy from either team. I can take care of the other components, but CPU specifically is currently a minor struggle. If possible, she'd also like to fit some peripherals in this budget. She doesn't need a monitor.

[brob]

I5-12400F with B660 (MSI B660-A) motherboard or 5600X with B550 motherboard.

 

 

[An0maly_76]

As for GPU, I would greatly consider bang-for-the-buck. 3080 / 3090 are nice but they are still pricey and require monster PSU wattage. RTX3060ti offers a nice balance of price / performance.

[CT854]

I'd agree that a i5-12400F/B660 combo would probably be the best, but maybe hang tight until there are some solid Raptor Lake announcements. Might push Alder Lake prices down a bit and maybe the generation increase would be worth buying into.

 

There are a ton of cheap cards flooding the used market. An RTX 3060 Ti would do quite nicely if she's running a 1080p panel.

[An0maly_76]

1 minute ago, CT854 said:

I'd agree that a i5-12400F/B660 combo would probably be the best, but maybe hang tight until there are some solid Raptor Lake announcements. Might push Alder Lake prices down a bit and maybe the generation increase would be worth buying into.

 

There are a ton of cheap cards flooding the used market. An RTX 3060 Ti would do quite nicely if she's running a 1080p panel.

While used can be a good money-saving measure, I will add to this to be careful in not purchasing cards that were used for mining. They have been run hard for a different purpose than intended and who knows how long it might last.

[brob]

GPU wise RX 6650 XT and RX 6700 (XT) are well priced at the moment and very competitive in gaming.

[fisterkev]

Here's a build based upon a Ryzen 7 5700X and a RX 6700 XT. That'll let her play pretty much anything out today at 60+ FPS and get into some 1440p gaming if she wants.

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/B9LWyK

 

It's well under your $1300 budget, too, so there's plenty of room to play around with things like case, PSU, RAM, CPU cooler. etc.

[Sat1600]

Do you live near microcenter?

[Stickbug]

1 minute ago, Sat1600 said:

Do you live near microcenter?

Nearest one is around 3~ish hours away. So... Kind of?

[Sat1600]

4 minutes ago, Stickbug said:

Nearest one is around 3~ish hours away. So... Kind of?

I wouldn't drive 3 hours. But if you are in the area, they have the best CPU prices plus $20 off of a motherboard when you buy both. The also have great open box deals.

 

An I5 12400 is $180. And there are some $25 coupons floating around online.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 hour ago, An0maly_76 said:

While used can be a good money-saving measure, I will add to this to be careful in not purchasing cards that were used for mining. They have been run hard for a different purpose than intended and who knows how long it might last.

Time and time again hardware degradation is complete bullshit

 

You know what miners do? Sure they load the things up 24/7 but thats usually with cut power limits and undervolting along with being run in a very cool environment so they run them cooler and undervolted at lower power limits + lower volt which will be in far far better circumstances than just gaming especially considering most ppl dont even tune their gpus (even worse some running in pc bake ovens like an h510). Even if this bullshit hardware degradation does have affect on the gpus lifespan its not like you wanna use it for 10 years or something, besides these have prob only been mined on for 1 year at most

 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CKwMmr

¯\_ (ツ) _/¯ 

 

You can buy some used ebay 6800xt <500$

[An0maly_76]

2 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Time and time again hardware degradation is complete bullshit

 

¯\_ (ツ) _/¯

You are aware that HDDs have a MTBF rating, SSDs have a write cycle rating, fans wear out, and chips go bad. You want to tell me that hardware degradation is BS again?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

7 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

You are aware that HDDs have a MTBF rating, SSDs have a write cycle rating, fans wear out, and chips go bad. You want to tell me that hardware degradation is BS again?

Whoops

I meant gpu hardware degradation, should have specified that

 

Storage i obviously dont advise buying used

 

Fans are cheap like <1$ cheap used, cases come with fans anyways so why bother, ive only had experience buying server fans cause i dont bother buying normie pc fans cause i need that freaking airflow damnit, though server fans are expected to be more reliable than normal pc fans

 

Chips do go bad on theyre own but usually after a decade assuming non oced, and the ones that go bad before that usually over 5 years old or just straight up defective (oc is a possibility but you gotta be cranking the volts real hard to do that which isnt possible on a gpu aside from voltmod, not like pathetic 1.5v but more like 1.7v+)

[An0maly_76]

5 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Whoops

I meant gpu hardware degradation, should have specified that

 

Storage i obviously dont advise buying used

 

Fans are cheap like <1$ cheap used, cases come with fans anyways so why bother, ive only had experience buying server fans cause i dont bother buying normie pc fans cause i need that freaking airflow damnit, though server fans are expected to be more reliable than normal pc fans

 

Chips do go bad on theyre own but usually after a decade assuming non oced, and the ones that go bad before that usually over 5 years old or just straight up defective (oc is a possibility but you gotta be cranking the volts real hard to do that which isnt possible on a gpu aside from voltmod, not like pathetic 1.5v but more like 1.7v+)

The point is, you're acknowledging that chips do go bad, and fans do wear out. And there are thousands and thousands of ICs, transistors, resistors, and the like that can fail as well. To expand on this...

 

With much of my work history being driving jobs, I'm familiar with a great many types of vehicles, mechanicals, etc., including commercial trucks. In particular, I bought retired police vehicles for taxi use, as most do. Until I had one that bit me with the reality of it. 131,000 miles, "runs good, was turned in for new vehicle." I made the mistake of bidding on it sight unseen based on the listing info, and it turned out to have a bad knock that made a drum solo by Megadeth's Nick Menza sound like a Cadillac.

 

After eleven years of eight-to-twelve-hour police shifts, five to six days a week (seven if rotated), presumably idling 85-90% of the time, engine idle revolutions worked out to the equivalent of 500,000 - 540,000 highway miles. But by your logic, the inner-city status of a 5,000-mile cream puff that was "only driven to the grocery store and church" should be perfectly okay. Not true. And buying used electronics carries no less risk than buying a used car. At least you can get some idea of a used car's run time and condition.

 

More simply, my point is, everything wears out, and not everything is obvious.