Building a PC for the first time in 4 years

[NinjaBoy]

Budget (including currency): $2000

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Not really a gamer, but I do some video and photo editing with Adobe. I used to play Cities Skylines and Anno 1800 though so I may want to continue playing those. 

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 want all new parts. I sold off most of my old PC parts and have been using a MacBook Pro as my primary computer for the past year or so.

 

Hi guys! In 2018 I built a Ryzen PC with a 2600X a Radeon Pro 570X. I used it for about three years but basically stopped using PCs after a certain point. I've always been a Mac user, but I've also always had a PC as an alternate. I liked that PC but I didn't really know what I was doing when I built it (I was only 14 when I started building it anyway) and no real planning went into it. I just picked random parts on Newegg and at Fry's (alas no more) and made sure they were compatible. I also didn't have much of a budget since my parents were paying for it. 

 

But now things have changed. I'm in college, I have money of my own, and I miss having a PC. A Mac laptop can't be only my computer. 

 

Here's what I'm thinking of:

-I did Ryzen last time and this time I think I want to try Intel. I'm probably going to wait for 13th gen. That's just a personal thing. I think both are good, this is just something new to make this more interesting. But because of that I probably won't begin this build until next year. I still want to plan it out now though.

-Graphics card is not a huge priority because like I said, I'm not really a gamer. But I'd like a capable one that could at least theoretically support gaming at 4K. I'm thinking NVIDIA 30 series or AMD 6000 series. Probably won't care about new gen.

-I want a 4K monitor with good color reproduction, preferably 27" as 32" is just too big. My previous monitor was a BenQ 27" 4K with 100% sRGB and it was beautiful.

 

Last time I had a random mix of parts from Corsair, Thermaltake, Noctua, and Logitech. This time I want to focus more on a single brand for aesthetic reasons. I don't know which one, though. 

 

Again, I currently have no parts; I am starting from scratch. Any help is appreciated! I'm a bit confused about chipsets and RAM clocks and things like that. Otherwise I do know how to build a PC. It's just been a while. 

 

 

 

 

 

[brob]

Sticking with a single brand drastically reduces choices. The system will  cost more than necessary and / or compromise performance. 

[NinjaBoy]

Thanks. I may not actually do that. It was just an idea. But I at least would like to keep the fans consistent and maybe have them go with the case and cooler. 

 

A question about chipsets: Is Z790 going to be required for 13th gen Intel? Will I have to get DDR5 memory as well? 

[NinjaBoy]

Another question: I'm assuming the newer Intel chipsets have PCIe Gen 4 lanes? Is the most recent generation of graphics cards PCI Gen 4 compatible? Will I have to look for PCI Gen 4 M2 drives as well? It's this compatibility stuff that I'm a little confused about.

 

Any help is appreciated. 

[brob]

One generally does not have to worry about mixing PCIe generations. Devices will operate at the highest common speed. E.G. an NVMe PCIe 3.0 m.2 drive in a 4.0 socket will work at 3.0 speeds.

 

[Queen Chrysalis]

On 9/25/2022 at 9:33 AM, NinjaBoy said:

Thanks. I may not actually do that. It was just an idea. But I at least would like to keep the fans consistent and maybe have them go with the case and cooler. 

 

A question about chipsets: Is Z790 going to be required for 13th gen Intel? Will I have to get DDR5 memory as well? 

When the PC is assembled you can't see the labels on the fans at all.  Arctic P12s and P14s are the standard.  They are quiet, move a lot of air, and come in 5 packs for way less than any other good fans.  The labels on them are also just black and don;t look like anything.

 

There's also nothing interesting about a particular brand of CPU.  It goes in and that's it.  For your use case the the ryzen 5 5600 is easily the best pick, it's a lot cheaper than the 12400f and has equivvalent motherboards for less.  You should care way more about getting a good monitor and GPU.

 

Do you still have your old PC?  If so, what areas is it struggling in?

[NinjaBoy]

I no longer have the old one. I think its weakest point was its graphics card but I can’t say for sure. If I still had it today I don’t think I’d think it was struggling. Like, it performed well after three years, at least.