My first PC build

[Fool of a Took]

This is my first PC build; I know very little about building PCs. Is the below computer overkill for a Plex Server? Or is an M1 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM a better option? 

 

Budget (including currency): 1,100 CND 

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 

• Plex Server (streams)
  • 4K: 0 - 3
  • <1080P: 0 - 6  

Current Plex Server:

• Mac Mini (Late 2014)
  • Processor: 1.4 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 
  • RAM: 4GB 1600MHz DDR3

PC build:

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor ($166.99 @ B&H) 

• I'm thinking about buying this CPU for two main reasons;
  • I'm planning on buying an Intel GPU, and I know some 12th-generation "black magic" is required to allow Intel GPUs to work. 
  • Intel has integrated GPU capabilities.

 

CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler ($64.98 @ Amazon) 

• I need a CPU cooler.......... so why not this one?  

Motherboard: Gigabyte B660M DS3H DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Amazon)

• it was cheap.   

 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($94.99 @ Amazon) 

• I am trying to remember why I went with this one. 

Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($89.99 @ Amazon) 

 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon) 

• start small and expand as required.

 

Video Card: Intel Limited Edition Arc A770 16 GB Video Card ($349.99 @ Newegg) 

• Intel CPU and GPU what could go wrong?

 

Case: Azza Cast 808W ATX Mid Tower Case 

• This case looks beginner friendly. 

 

Power Supply: Corsair RM750x (2021) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.99 @ Amazon) 

• It covers what I need and gives me plenty of room to expand.

 

Total: $1046.91

[tkitch]

Board:  MSI Pro B660M  (DS3H is really bad)

 

Get some G.Skill, Geil, or other brand.  Vengance isn't great RAM.

 

I mean, you're building a solid mid-ranged gaming box.  Yes, this is absurdly overkill for plex, lolol.

[Ultraforce]

23 minutes ago, Fool of a Took said:

This is my first PC build; I know very little about building PCs. Is the below computer overkill for a Plex Server? Or is an M1 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM a better option? 

 

Budget (including currency): 1,100 CND 

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 

• Plex Server (streams)
  • 4K: 0 - 3
  • <1080P: 0 - 6  

PC build:

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor ($166.99 @ B&H) 

• I'm thinking about buying this CPU for two main reasons;
  • I'm planning on buying an Intel GPU, and I know some 12th-generation "black magic" is required to allow Intel GPUs to work. 
  • Intel has integrated GPU capabilities.

CPU Cooler: Deepcool AK620 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler ($64.98 @ Amazon) 

• I need a CPU cooler.......... so why not this one?  

Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon) 

• start small and expand as required.

Video Card: Intel Limited Edition Arc A770 16 GB Video Card ($349.99 @ Newegg) 

• Intel CPU and GPU what could go wrong?

Case: Azza Cast 808W ATX Mid Tower Case 

• This case looks beginner friendly. 

Usually it is recommended to create a PC Part Picker list to easily be reviewed by others. Here is PC Part Picker's website showing Canadian prices for all the choices you made.

I only recently built my first computer so I can't give great advice on what you should choose but I can give some feedback on things that probably need to be changed.

The CPU you chose actually doesn't have an integrated GPU as the Intel CPUs that say F specifically are missing integrated GPU capabilities.

The Computer Case you chose might be beginner-friendly but I'm uncertain and does not allow you to expand your storage as there is only room for one 3.5" drive.

One thing to note is Intel's GPUs are new and have some problems working reliably so that could definitely go wrong.

Last and least important is that because you have stated you are mostly interested in making a plex server I'd recommend choosing a CPU that comes with an Intel Stock cooler as that will save you money that can be put towards other things.

[SteveGrabowski0]

Don't buy DDR4-3600 to use with an i5-12400F. It's a nice cpu but the memory controller sucks and you're only guaranteed to get DDR4-3200 speeds in Gear 1. My i5-12400F when running a 2x8GB DDR4-3600 kit using its XMP profile in Gear 1 caused hard crashes when encoding 4GB to 8GB 7zip files when I was stress testing the system after building, but the memory controller was alright at DDR4-3200 speeds in Gear 1. Or DDR4-3600 in Gear 2, though that's a terrible option to use since Gear 2 cuts the clock speed of the memory controller in half. But given how much encoding you'll be doing with a PLEX server I'd say go 12600k if DDR4-3600+ is important to you so you can give the memory controller some more voltage to handle the higher speeds (it's locked on the locked 12th gen Intel cpus).

[Ultraforce]

This should be close to your budget if you ignore the A770 but I don't know enough to know what some of the right choices are to be changing to see if it can be meeting the $1,100 budget. Though boxing day sales coming up soon might help.