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PC for game development

Budget (including currency): $900 (possibly not including GPU)

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Level design, probably light 3D modeling, coding/compiling, occasional gaming on a range of titles.  To be blunt I'm not sure what programs he used in his courses, but Maya/3dsMax for examples.

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): Possible we can get a slight discount on CPU through friends.  GPU could be provided separately. I am curious if it would be possible to get something mid-high range with space to grow for $900 with 32GB RAM and a decent GPU (though I'm laughing just thinking about the prices of GPUs with the upcoming 4k series cards).  Honestly haven't even factored the monitor into the price, but a decent monitor is usually not insane unless you need full G-Sync, etc.

 

Background if interested: We have a friend that is a recent grad with a B.S. in CS on an education track/program that focused in game design.  He is still facing issues finding entry-level employment with a reliable company in the gaming space, a fair number of applications falling through, but he's still trying rather hard.  Originally this was meant to be a congratulations gift (i.e. hooray, you got a job) but now it's more of an encouragement and something to keep his university training fresh, maybe brush up a portfolio of works to present to potential employers and/or develop his own indie game. He's expressed interest in building a desktop himself as his personal computers have always been laptops but he needs more power than a budget laptop for development, which is another reason we thought it'd be nice to try and toss some funds together for the purpose of a BIY desktop PC.

 

Figure that a decent laptop would work, but if we're aiming for letting him build the system himself with $900 (what we've got so far), something like this minus the GPU.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/y4btH2

 

Maybe I'd surprise him with a $500 3070 or 6700XT afterwards. I'm somewhat against a 2k series (1st gen of new tech is usually lackluster, and the ray-tracing/DLSS of the 2k series vs. 3k series shows). An iGPU might be enough for a low-end indie title, but I'd feel like I'd done him a disservice, especially as a gamer.

 

We could shave down things like M.2 SSD to SATA 2.5", X570 -> B550, things like that, but I want to make certain he has enough to grow into (and also, he's a gamer, so something better than a potato).

 

I'm looking for opinions, alternative builds, etc.  A little bit over's fine too.  If worst comes to worst, we'll give him the funds via gift card and provide all these suggestions directly.

 

Also, hey, any entry-level/new-grad game design job leads would also be appreciated.

 

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Just now, VirusDumb said:

Ummm actually for Maya a igpu won't cut it, the 5600x doesn't even have a igpu. Maya has an entire list of GPU that supports it, maybe you should pick up one of these from here used.

HardwareCertification_Maya_Arnold_MotionBuilder_Mudbox2023_v03.pdf 213.61 kB · 1 download

Yes, I understand.  I mentioned the iGPU in passing that we COULD go that way with the limited budget, but I refused the very idea just based on the fact that the man wants to game too :P.  I fully admit I didn't factor Maya in there, but my 3070 surprise after the fact would work then.

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1 hour ago, PineyCreek said:

Yes, I understand.  I mentioned the iGPU in passing that we COULD go that way with the limited budget, but I refused the very idea just based on the fact that the man wants to game too :P.  I fully admit I didn't factor Maya in there, but my 3070 surprise after the fact would work then.

But how is your friend going to use the PC without a GPU until you got a 3070?

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Just pick better value parts with a 6650xt.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($159.00 @ Best Buy)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($19.89 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($92.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN570 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($79.70 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card  ($284.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone FARA H1M MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Phanteks AMP 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($8.59 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($8.59 @ Amazon)
Total: $906.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-10-06 04:11 EDT-0400

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6 minutes ago, VirusDumb said:

But how is your friend going to use the PC without a GPU until you got a 3070?

We had already planned to give the money to him via gift card as we weren't certain if he wanted a laptop or the desktop.  As of now, we still don't know.  It's idle fancy because he doesn't know we plan on helping him out.  If he goes desktop, I'm thinking I'll buy the card outright or ask him what he wants to do at that point.  He may have already made decisions on what he would want if he had the money; once he finds out he suddenly has the means he may ask for something more specific.  More than likely though I would just add more funds on top for the GPU.

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8 minutes ago, Jeppes said:

Just pick better value parts with a 6650xt.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($159.00 @ Best Buy)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($19.89 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($92.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN570 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($79.70 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card  ($284.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone FARA H1M MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Phanteks AMP 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($8.59 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($8.59 @ Amazon)
Total: $906.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-10-06 04:11 EDT-0400

I admit I've never built in a micro ATX case.  Will a standard ATX PSU fit in that case?

 

Edit: did a bit of research, answered my own question.  Thanks for the build idea!

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