1st time building a gaming PC

[Shockwavedos]

Budget (including currency): ~$1000

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: AAA games and VR

Other details: Current part list includes a Ryzen 5 5600x, 12gb VRAM MSI Ventus RTX 3060, MSI PRO B550 WIFI motherboard, 32gb RAM from TEAM T FORCE Vulcan 2x16, and the WD Blue SN 570 1Tb SSD. I hope to reuse a Corsair 750W PSU but it is probably around 10 years old, so open to suggestions. This is my first time building a pc, but I have done quite a bit of research and am fairly confident in my abilities. That said, I came here seeking the advice of the best. I currently use a 1080p 75hz monitor but hope to upgrade to 4k in the future. Any and all input would be greatly appreciated!

 

Edit: I should also mention I am not in the market for looks and am firmly function over form. 

[RONOTHAN##]

8 minutes ago, Shockwavedos said:

I hope to reuse a Corsair 750W PSU but it is probably around 10 years old, so open to suggestions

It would depend on the specific model for whether or not it's a good idea to reuse, though realistically even the best PSUs after about 10 years start to become a bit on the flaky side, so it's probably a good idea to buy a new one regardless. 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9gdRPX

This is probably what I'd build. The 12600KF is a bit of an odd choice of CPU by my own admission, but at the same time it has gotten rather cheap, B- series boards are pretty cheap as well, so in the grand scheme of things it's probably only about $40 more than a comparably spec'd 5600X machine and the 12600KF is a much faster CPU than the 5600X with still the ability to upgrade to 13th gen in the future if you need a little more gaming performance. Next, the SSD is just faster and cheaper, I see no reason to go for the SN570 over the Crucial P3. The RX 6700 XT is about the same price as a 3060 but much faster in any game that doesn't use ray tracing, and if your hope is to play at 4K at anything above medium details, the 6700 XT is the absolute minimum I'd want for that (though realistically I'd want a 3080 or 6800 XT as a solid baseline if possible). If you do play RT stuff, the 3060 would likely have a bit of an edge, though not enough to give up on the rasterization performance. The case and PSU were picked to fit in the budget, the PSU is probably about as good as you can get for that budget, but there are quite a few number of cheap cases as well that you can feel free to swap to if you would rather (it was mostly picked because it came with 3 front fans and a mesh front, so it should be pretty good at cooling while being cheap, but feel free to swap it to something else if you prefer). 

[Shockwavedos]

2 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

It would depend on the specific model for whether or not it's a good idea to reuse, though realistically even the best PSUs after about 10 years start to become a bit on the flaky side, so it's probably a good idea to buy a new one regardless. 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9gdRPX

This is probably what I'd build. The 12600KF is a bit of an odd choice of CPU by my own admission, but at the same time it has gotten rather cheap, B- series boards are pretty cheap as well, so in the grand scheme of things it's probably only about $40 more than a comparably spec'd 5600X machine and the 12600KF is a much faster CPU than the 5600X with still the ability to upgrade to 13th gen in the future if you need a little more gaming performance. Next, the SSD is just faster and cheaper, I see no reason to go for the SN570 over the Crucial P3. The RX 6700 XT is about the same price as a 3060 but much faster in any game that doesn't use ray tracing, and if your hope is to play at 4K at anything above medium details, the 6700 XT is the absolute minimum I'd want for that (though realistically I'd want a 3080 or 6800 XT as a solid baseline if possible). If you do play RT stuff, the 3060 would likely have a bit of an edge, though not enough to give up on the rasterization performance. The case and PSU were picked to fit in the budget, the PSU is probably about as good as you can get for that budget, but there are quite a few number of cheap cases as well that you can feel free to swap to if you would rather (it was mostly picked because it came with 3 front fans and a mesh front, so it should be pretty good at cooling while being cheap, but feel free to swap it to something else if you prefer). 

Wow! That is so helpful! Thank you for your time and thoughts!

[SteveGrabowski0]

I do think the build @RONOTHAN##posted is pretty close to optimal use of your money. I was initially going to suggest saving money with a 12400F instead of a 12600KF, but if you're playing 1080p75 on a 6700 XT you're probably going to be turning raytracing on in everything but Cyberpunk and the cpu becomes more important when you turn RT on so probably a good idea to spend on the 12600KF here. One thing I would however mention is I would 100% add $25 to your budget so you could get a really nice case to build in like a Corsair 4000D Airflow. 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/bCYQzy/corsair-4000d-airflow-atx-mid-tower-case-cc-9011200-ww

 

Even as someone who has been building my own PCs since 1997 I still really appreciate a well-designed and easy to work in case, and that'll especially be nice for a first time builder.

[Shockwavedos]

8 hours ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

I do think the build @RONOTHAN##posted is pretty close to optimal use of your money. I was initially going to suggest saving money with a 12400F instead of a 12600KF, but if you're playing 1080p75 on a 6700 XT you're probably going to be turning raytracing on in everything but Cyberpunk and the cpu becomes more important when you turn RT on so probably a good idea to spend on the 12600KF here. One thing I would however mention is I would 100% add $25 to your budget so you could get a really nice case to build in like a Corsair 4000D Airflow. 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/bCYQzy/corsair-4000d-airflow-atx-mid-tower-case-cc-9011200-ww

 

Even as someone who has been building my own PCs since 1997 I still really appreciate a well-designed and easy to work in case, and that'll especially be nice for a first time builder.

Thanks!