HELP AND GUIDANCE NEEDED: Semi-Budget Build Planning for special kid

[Rblack77]

Budget (including currency): $1200 USD or less

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Half Life Alyx and Rust. Other survival games

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’m helping build and financing part of a first gaming PC for my nephew who’s 13. I haven’t built a PC in over 15 years as I don’t PC game, but I’m his only “techie” resource. He’s into survival games and has an Occulus. 
 

I’ve posted on here a few times and been directed toward a i5 12th gen, but I watched Linus’ video today and he mentioned that the best thing going in what is the current budget (note, he probably has $300-400 to contribute and I started out only spending a couple of hundred and now the budget has gone through the roof so to speak) is the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. With an AM4 board and 16Gb of Ram. I’ve already purchased some components in anticipation of the i5 direction, but think I can repurpose if we change course. I’ve bought:

- Phanteks Eclipse P300A Case

- 32 Gb of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200 RAM 

- Noctua NH-U95 Chromax Black 92mm CPU cooler with a mount Kit for LGA1700

- EVGA Supernova 750 P5 80 Plus Platinum 750w PSU

- Seagate Barricuda 2TB internal SATA 3.5” HDD

- Samsung 960 EVO 500 GB M.2 SSD boot drive

- Windows 11 Pro

 

I was planning to let him buy an i5 12400F with an ASUS Prime B660M-A motherboard or an i5 12600K or KF with an ASRROCK  Z690 Extreme motherboard depending on how much birthday money he gets and I was still planning to buy case fans and most importantly the GPU. I was looking at the PowerColor HellHound RX6700XT as I wanted to stay right at or under $400. Now I’m not sure. 
 

Is it a huge jump up in performance and would it be worth it to move the build to the Ryzen 7 5700X3D and if so, what motherboard should he get understanding that I want to have good support for RGB because that’s important to him (lol) and WiFi 6 on board, but since he’ll be spending considerably more on the CPU, I will likely have to buy the motherboard so I want the most bang for the buck and as inexpensive as possible meeting those requirements. Also, is that still a good GPU choice? Is there something better at that $400 mark? And, does anyone know if that CPU cooler will work for the Ryzen 7 5xxx series even if I have to buy a different mounting bracket?

 

His parents don’t have much money and they’re already buying him a monitor so I can’t ask them to kick in more not to mention that they have zero technical skills and can so they have no idea what’s going on here AND my wife is already ready to kill me for spending so much as it is so any help you can give me would be great on planning. He’s a bit underprivileged and really smart taking STEM classes at a charter school in here in Texas. He also is realizing that he’s got an alternative sexuality which is making life in a rural Texas school more difficult. I really want him to be set for awhile and not have to worry about upgrading for several years, but also understand that my original plan was one of Linus’ $500 gaming PC builds so this budget has quickly gotten out of hand. Lol. 
 

TIA from a “techie”, but old school and out of the loop uncle!! This community has been awesome so far and I know I can count on you guys!!

 

[Rblack77]

Please note I was able to find the answer to the CPU cooler compatibility question. 

[filpo]

16 minutes ago, Rblack77 said:

Budget (including currency): $1200 USD or less

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Half Life Alyx and Rust. Other survival games

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’m helping build and financing part of a first gaming PC for my nephew who’s 13. I haven’t built a PC in over 15 years as I don’t PC game, but I’m his only “techie” resource. He’s into survival games and has an Occulus. 
 

I’ve posted on here a few times and been directed toward a i5 12th gen, but I watched Linus’ video today and he mentioned that the best thing going in what is the current budget (note, he probably has $300-400 to contribute and I started out only spending a couple of hundred and now the budget has gone through the roof so to speak) is the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. With an AM4 board and 16Gb of Ram. I’ve already purchased some components in anticipation of the i5 direction, but think I can repurpose if we change course. I’ve bought:

- Phanteks Eclipse P300A Case

- 32 Gb of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200 RAM 

- Noctua NH-U95 Chromax Black 92mm CPU cooler with a mount Kit for LGA1700

- EVGA Supernova 750 P5 80 Plus Platinum 750w PSU

- Seagate Barricuda 2TB internal SATA 3.5” HDD

- Samsung 960 EVO 500 GB M.2 SSD boot drive

- Windows 11 Pro

 

I was planning to let him buy an i5 12400F with an ASUS Prime B660M-A motherboard or an i5 12600K or KF with an ASRROCK  Z690 Extreme motherboard depending on how much birthday money he gets and I was still planning to buy case fans and most importantly the GPU. I was looking at the PowerColor HellHound RX6700XT as I wanted to stay right at or under $400. Now I’m not sure. 
 

Is it a huge jump up in performance and would it be worth it to move the build to the Ryzen 7 5700X3D and if so, what motherboard should he get understanding that I want to have good support for RGB because that’s important to him (lol) and WiFi 6 on board, but since he’ll be spending considerably more on the CPU, I will likely have to buy the motherboard so I want the most bang for the buck and as inexpensive as possible meeting those requirements. Also, is that still a good GPU choice? Is there something better at that $400 mark? And, does anyone know if that CPU cooler will work for the Ryzen 7 5xxx series even if I have to buy a different mounting bracket?

 

His parents don’t have much money and they’re already buying him a monitor so I can’t ask them to kick in more not to mention that they have zero technical skills and can so they have no idea what’s going on here AND my wife is already ready to kill me for spending so much as it is so any help you can give me would be great on planning. He’s a bit underprivileged and really smart taking STEM classes at a charter school in here in Texas. He also is realizing that he’s got an alternative sexuality which is making life in a rural Texas school more difficult. I really want him to be set for awhile and not have to worry about upgrading for several years, but also understand that my original plan was one of Linus’ $500 gaming PC builds so this budget has quickly gotten out of hand. Lol. 
 

TIA from a “techie”, but old school and out of the loop uncle!! This community has been awesome so far and I know I can count on you guys!!

 

just a small bump on price but its a very good 1440p gaming machine: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2R9hbK

Also a slightly cheaper one with amd: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JK2GC6

[Rblack77]

51 minutes ago, filpo said:

just a small bump on price but its a very good 1440p gaming machine: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2R9hbK

Also a slightly cheaper one with amd: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JK2GC6

I just can’t pull that off for a GPU. I’m thinking that bumping down to a 5600x and maybe the RX6700XT might be a better choice as the my match up better. I think the 5800X3D is just too

much CPU for the level of GPU I can afford to get for him. Thoughts?

[filpo]

6 minutes ago, Rblack77 said:

I just can’t pull that off for a GPU. I’m thinking that bumping down to a 5600x and maybe the RX6700XT might be a better choice as the my match up better. I think the 5800X3D is just too

much CPU for the level of GPU I can afford to get for him. Thoughts?

go for the 5600 non x then. The same performance for 40 bucks less. Other than that you could get the 6750 xt if you want for a at least 40mhz factory oc

[SorryBella]

6 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

I’ve already purchased some components in anticipation of the i5 direction, but think I can repurpose if we change course. I’ve bought:

- Phanteks Eclipse P300A Case

- 32 Gb of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200 RAM 

- Noctua NH-U95 Chromax Black 92mm CPU cooler with a mount Kit for LGA1700

- EVGA Supernova 750 P5 80 Plus Platinum 750w PSU

- Seagate Barricuda 2TB internal SATA 3.5” HDD

- Samsung 960 EVO 500 GB M.2 SSD boot drive

- Windows 11 Pro

Thats A LOT to go around with 1200$. Do you also need some peripherals like keyboard and mouse? We can definitely use most if not all of these.

[Rblack77]

28 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

Thats A LOT to go around with 1200$. Do you also need some peripherals like keyboard and mouse? We can definitely use most if not all of these.

Hey Claire! You’ve been so helpful in my past posts, I should have guessed you would show up on this one. He actually has an RGB gaming keyboard that he bought for browsing on his Xbox. Lol. My brother-in-law from the other side of the family wanted to get involved so he’s donating the boot SSD that he just took out of his gaming laptop and a nice gaming mouse that he replaced. His parents are taking care of the monitor and already bought the case to get him excited and then they are tapped out. His birthday isn’t until August so I’m thinking prime days will happen in July and I’ll help them pick a decent 1440p monitor at a good price. They’re shooting to spend about $175 so I’m thinking I’ll be able to find a decent one that will be on big sale during the prime days. 
 

While his birthday isn’t for awhile, I’m trying to spread the purchases over a few months to help ease my wife’s mind. Lol. I’m now thinking of sending back the RAM and Noctua cooler I just bought and going in a slightly different direction. Mind you, he’s in a STEM program, but doesn’t know a ton about components, just coding so he thinks that any PC with cool RGB is a gaming PC and if it doesn’t have RGB, it must not be fast so I’m educating him, but I’m thinking if I can pimp it out with color while making it as blazing fast as our budget allows, he’ll be over the moon. Plus, being part of the LGBTQ+ community, he’s all about the rainbows as he just came out to his family. I’ve known for awhile and am proud of the guy. 
 

I’m thinking of going Ryzen 5 5600X and an ROG motherboard since they have a lot of white and RGB flair and the ASUS Aura system. Then trading to just 16 GB of RAM to save for other items, but getting quality RAM that is white and RGB. Also, I’d like to get a decently priced white RGB AIO cooler for it. Then an RX 6700 XT for GPU. Top it off with some inexpensive white RGB fans and white cable covering. 
 

He really wants to spend his birthday funds that he gets from family and friends (around $400 usually) on the CPU and motherboard so I’m trying to keep those components around that price together + or - a few dollars. He has no idea how much the GPU and other stuff I’m buying are costing and he would be uncomfortable and freak if he knew I was spending this much. He’s not super plugged into it so I’m trying to keep him from figuring it out, but want this year to be special as it’s been difficult since he came out and living in rural Texas. 
 

Does that seem like it would be a good build? Do you think he could get 3-5 years of gaming before having to dump more money into it?

 

Thanks for all the advice you’ve given. It’s been great and much appreciated. 

[Rblack77]

5 hours ago, filpo said:

go for the 5600 non x then. The same performance for 40 bucks less. Other than that you could get the 6750 xt if you want for a at least 40mhz factory oc

Thanks! I didn’t realize the 5600x wasn’t significantly better than the 5600. 

[SorryBella]

13 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

Hey Claire! You’ve been so helpful in my past posts, I should have guessed you would show up on this one.

I have this subforum on my forum feed, i just like building up lists for free on my free time. And i enjoy the flow, As Adam Ragusea once said, its enough job to keep me off the streets.

13 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

They’re shooting to spend about $175

For 1440p youre not getting that great of a quality, even for 1080p its hard to find a good monitor at that price. Currently you could get either C24G1 by AOC, MSI Optix G24C, and Gigabyte G24F 2 (theyre the update to the venerable G24F, with slightly worse response times but better color saturation than its predecessor). But if 1440p is what he really want, id say hope that Dell deeply discount S2722DGM as they would be pretty much one of the best for this besides the Gigabyte G27Q, but normally they are around 250$.

13 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

While his birthday isn’t for awhile, I’m trying to spread the purchases over a few months to help ease my wife’s mind. Lol.

Yeah i wouldnt go beyond what you did here, both video card and CPU combos are a highly fluid product that would shift a lot in both pricing and performance.

13 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

He really wants to spend his birthday funds that he gets from family and friends (around $400 usually) on the CPU and motherboard so I’m trying to keep those components around that price together + or - a few dollars. He has no idea how much the GPU and other stuff I’m buying are costing and he would be uncomfortable and freak if he knew I was spending this much. He’s not super plugged into it so I’m trying to keep him from figuring it out, but want this year to be special as it’s been difficult since he came out and living in rural Texas. 

Okay so youre covering the GPU cost and he's covering the CPU cost with it being 400$. How much are you willing to chip in for GPU? Im glad that the release cycle for both 13th gen and 7000 series AMDs are done for the most part so i can make a pretty clear decision here, but of course always remember that price will continue to shift around as DDR5 matures and shrinks in cost, same with motherboards. If the rural area is nearby Houston or Dallas, you can forget all of this and just get Micro Center 7600X combo at 400$ exact, which would trade initial performance in cache-heavy games for a far better upgradability because next year you can drop in either the generation depreciated price of the remaining 7800X3D stock or the 8000 series AMD, but of course thats still up in the air. If you do only care about initial performance or you dont live near Micro Center (sadge), then you should do a 13600KF and B660M Bazooka by MSI, which would be 425$ in total, cross shop that with the 5800X3D which would be 427$ when paired with B450 Steel Legend by Asrock. You might be tempted to downgrade to the similarly looked B550M PG Riptide which would win the AM4 by default, but the thing doesnt have as good of a VRM thermal as the Steel Legend or even the budgeted down version of B550 Pro4, the B550m Pro4, in testing. Both of the board i recommend should have no issue handling their CPUs full stock power budget without turning the VRM traces to black goo, pentium 4 style. But yeah both CPU does run quite hot and the u9s might not have cut it considering that they both max out its bigger sibling the U-12S.

[Rblack77]

7 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

I have this subforum on my forum feed, i just like building up lists for free on my free time. And i enjoy the flow, As Adam Ragusea once said, its enough job to keep me off the streets.

For 1440p youre not getting that great of a quality, even for 1080p its hard to find a good monitor at that price. Currently you could get either C24G1 by AOC, MSI Optix G24C, and Gigabyte G24F 2 (theyre the update to the venerable G24F, with slightly worse response times but better color saturation than its predecessor). But if 1440p is what he really want, id say hope that Dell deeply discount S2722DGM as they would be pretty much one of the best for this besides the Gigabyte G27Q, but normally they are around 250$.

Yeah i wouldnt go beyond what you did here, both video card and CPU combos are a highly fluid product that would shift a lot in both pricing and performance. Hell, if you are 

Okay so youre covering the GPU cost and he's covering the CPU cost with it being 400$. How much are you willing to chip in for GPU? Im glad that the release cycle for both 13th gen and 7000 series AMDs are done for the most part so i can make a pretty clear decision here, but of course always remember that price will continue to shift around as DDR5 matures and shrinks in cost, same with motherboards. If the rural area is nearby Houston or Dallas, you can forget all of this and just get Micro Center 7600X combo at 400$ exact, which would trade initial performance in cache-heavy games for a far better upgradability because next year you can drop in either the generation depreciated price of the remaining 7800X3D stock or the 8000 series AMD, but of course thats still up in the air. If you do only care about initial performance or you dont live near Micro Center (sadge), then you should do a 13600KF and B660M Bazooka by MSI, which would be 425$ in total, cross shop that with the 5800X3D which would be 427$ when paired with B450 Steel Legend by Asrock. You might be tempted to downgrade to the similarly looked B550M PG Riptide which would win the AM4 by default, but the thing doesnt have as good of a VRM thermal as the Steel Legend or even the budgeted down version of B550 Pro4, the B550m Pro4, in testing. Both of the board i recommend should have no issue handling their CPUs full stock power budget without turning the VRM traces to black goo, pentium 4 style. But yeah both CPU does run quite hot and the u9s might not have cut it considering that they both max out its bigger sibling the U-12S.

On the monitor, I totally hear what you’re saying about the 1440 and a $175 budget. Amazon Prime Days last year had some amazing monitor deals and I was able to get a monitor for my wife that was over $100 off their normal price. I’m hoping to find a decent 1440 for the same type of deal this year as the sale is thought to probably be in July. I’m curious about your opinion on this one. Is the jump from 1080p to 1440 a really noticeable one? Is it worth the extra expense? I console game on the occasions that I do game and I do it on an 85” 4K Sony Bravia so I know that junk from 1080p was huge, but not sure on the smaller screen and what equates to a half step up in res.  Also, what stats should I be looking for to be decent on refresh rate, etc.?

 

Yes. He’s responsible for the CPU and motherboard for around $400. We have until August when he’ll have his funds, but if an amazing, can’t miss deal comes up between now and then, I can front him the money and let him pay me back. I really want him to have “skin in the game” on this and not just buy the whole thing for him. Should he be looking at the 5600 or 5600X in your opinion. He will game 90% of the time on this thing so productivity stats are kinda pointless for this build so I’m looking for max gaming performance. Also, on the motherboard, having WiFi would be great, but if not, do the usb dongle adapters work well?
 

On the GPU, I ideally want to stay around that $400 mark and have been looking at the RX 6750 XT which I can get around that mark and I want to get a decent one and not a “no name” brand that might not be quality. I did see a deal right now at NewEgg for a Gigabyte RX 6800 for $465 which is on sale for $150 off and looks like an amazing deal. It’s above my budget, but I might be able to squeeze it if it’s really an amazing deal and would make a huge difference for him. What do you think about this?

[SorryBella]

1 hour ago, Rblack77 said:

Is the jump from 1080p to 1440 a really noticeable one?

At 27 inch and above, yes. Even at 27 inch for normal viewing distance you can distinguish each pixels in the screen at 1080p as there's just lower pixel density, which means each pixel is perceived to be bigger. But at below that, no, id say 1080p suffices and you get the fringe benefit of more options with higher refresh rates due to esport scene still preferring 1080p 24 inch monitors. 

1 hour ago, Rblack77 said:

Also, what stats should I be looking for to be decent on refresh rate, etc.?

Refresh Rate specification and gray-to-gray response time isnt everything there is to shopping a monitor, especially for the latter. The former is a bit easier to explain but in a nutshell more and more brands are employing overclocks straight from the scaler on cheaper panel that possibly couldnt handle it, causing ghosting. This happens a lot on 75hz and 165hz market in particular, but this doesnt mean that you should avoid them. Its just that you need to be more aware and make sure that it can handle such refresh rate in the real world. And speaking of ghosting, that brings me to visual clarity. As you can tell, every brands implement things differently even when theyre using the same panel. A badly tuned good panel could just become a blurry smeary mess anyway, and vice versa. This is why you should do your due dilligence and investigate real world response time according to reviewers, and make sure the image quality on fast moving things are as good as what the specification suggests. Rtings and Hardware Unboxed (Theyre also main correspondent for Techspot, so there's that too, and there are older reviews for more monitors that are less common as they slowly phased out on their main channel) made a pretty wide deep dives on a lot and i mean A LOT of monitors, especially said visual clarity metrics. Blurbusters also make some of their own investigation into the monitor space, but theyre more focused on providing the tools.

2 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

Should he be looking at the 5600 or 5600X in your opinion.

There are still performance to be gained in going with 7000 series, but they are pretty cool if you want to make a budget build that can perform now at low cost. But of course the obvious downside being that he is limited to 5800X3D for upgrades, and AM4 boards would start to dwindle in software support and stock in general as more of the industry moves on to AM5. Id go for non X between the 2, 5600X extra feature for its price isnt worth it, its just the Extended Frequency Range boost algorithm that is basically more dead stock power budget for the CPU. You can just match it by giving the CPU adequate cooling, letting the standard boost algorithm to perpetually keeps its boost. Ryzen 5 5600 with a B450 Steel Legend by Asrock is currently at 254$. But speaking from personal experience, when you dont have active income, build the best you can get because the brutal truth is that you might not get to have seconds on it.

3 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

On the GPU, I ideally want to stay around that $400 mark and have been looking at the RX 6750 XT

Unless if theyre at same price of a 6700XT, dont bother. 6750XT is just an overclock job out of the box for what essentially is still a 6700XT, and as you observe you are so close to 6800 and 6800XT money (or even pretty much at it if you shop used) for a 6750XT, which would give out even more performance. And of course, wait for 7800XT or 7700XT to arrive and see its street price, as i said before you can buy things in phases if you have the means to test it to see if its not DoA, but CPU and GPU should be bought in 1 go so you know youre getting the best possible deal and maybe even snag generational performance increase in a full combo.

[Fourth Dimension]

I don't think you need to much more help but here's a nice PC for the price https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wk2FRv

[Rblack77]

1 hour ago, Fourth Dimension said:

I don't think you need to much more help but here's a nice PC for the price https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wk2FRv

Thanks for the build. Just curious. Why Intel over Ryzen? I’ve heard that the real benefit of the Intel is performance on productivity function and for gaming, Ryzen has the edge. Just curious your thoughts. 

[Rblack77]

2 hours ago, SorryClaire said:

 

6 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

Is the jump from 1080p to 1440 a really noticeable one?

At 27 inch and above, yes. Even at 27 inch for normal viewing distance you can distinguish each pixels in the screen at 1080p as there's just lower pixel density, which means each pixel is perceived to be bigger. But at below that, no, id say 1080p suffices and you get the fringe benefit of more options with higher refresh rates due to esport scene still preferring 1080p 24 inch monitors. 

6 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

Also, what stats should I be looking for to be decent on refresh rate, etc.?

Refresh Rate specification and gray-to-gray response time isnt everything there is to shopping a monitor, especially for the latter. The former is a bit easier to explain but in a nutshell more and more brands are employing overclocks straight from the scaler on cheaper panel that possibly couldnt handle it, causing ghosting. This happens a lot on 75hz and 165hz market in particular, but this doesnt mean that you should avoid them. Its just that you need to be more aware and make sure that it can handle such refresh rate in the real world. And speaking of ghosting, that brings me to visual clarity. As you can tell, every brands implement things differently even when theyre using the same panel. A badly tuned good panel could just become a blurry smeary mess anyway, and vice versa. This is why you should do your due dilligence and investigate real world response time according to reviewers, and make sure the image quality on fast moving things are as good as what the specification suggests. Rtings and Hardware Unboxed (Theyre also main correspondent for Techspot, so there's that too, and there are older reviews for more monitors that are less common as they slowly phased out on their main channel) made a pretty wide deep dives on a lot and i mean A LOT of monitors, especially said visual clarity metrics. Blurbusters also make some of their own investigation into the monitor space, but theyre more focused on providing the tools.

6 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

Should he be looking at the 5600 or 5600X in your opinion.

There are still performance to be gained in going with 7000 series, but they are pretty cool if you want to make a budget build that can perform now at low cost. But of course the obvious downside being that he is limited to 5800X3D for upgrades, and AM4 boards would start to dwindle in software support and stock in general as more of the industry moves on to AM5. Id go for non X between the 2, 5600X extra feature for its price isnt worth it, its just the Extended Frequency Range boost algorithm that is basically more dead stock power budget for the CPU. You can just match it by giving the CPU adequate cooling, letting the standard boost algorithm to perpetually keeps its boost. Ryzen 5 5600 with a B450 Steel Legend by Asrock is currently at 254$. But speaking from personal experience, when you dont have active income, build the best you can get because the brutal truth is that you might not get to have seconds on it.

 

Should he be looking at a Ryzen 5 7600X over the 5600? If so, am I correct that would require an AM5 and DDR5 to support it? From what I see the upgrade path would be better, but would the performance gain be significant? Also, would a $400-ish GPU new be enough for that bump in CPU?

[RevGAM]

Just a quick note: you were saying you want certain colors for components, which will drive up your overall cost. Keep your wife happy and just focus on price and performance, not looks. Your nephew can put stickers all over it.

[SorryBella]

4 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

Should he be looking at a Ryzen 5 7600X over the 5600?

Mhm. You really wanna compare the 7000 series crops to 5800X3D really, even with the initial issues with RAM on launch for Ryzen 7000 series, theyre all far better in raw performance if you only care about gaming. You also wanna cross shop the 7600X with its non x variant, theyll be easier to cool with lower power budget and still performs well with some tweak to said power budget. 

4 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

If so, am I correct that would require an AM5 and DDR5 to support it?

Yep which is also why AM5 is so looked down on in pricing, its the massively expensive DDR5 kit and the accompanying - and admittedly pretty overbuilt minimum standard - B650 motherboard. I also didnt consider it so much without Micro Center exactly for the fact that a competitive DDR5 kit is still pretty expensive. You want 5600C32/34 in an AM5 based build, preferably with even lower CAS latency if available, and also a dual rank RAM kits instead of single rank (but admittedly manufacturers REALLY dont want you to know on whether theyre running SR or DR, as even on Intel, dual rank kits runs faster) and those would run you 100-130$ a kit, and theyre most likely going to be running on D.O.C.P profile which AMD supersedes for their exclusive EXPO profile. Theyre both mixed bag, but EXPO kits have been pretty stable for straight "XMP" tweak across pretty wide range of boards. But of course as more AGESA update rolls in and DDR5 continues to tumble in price from demand, AM5 can be a very very lucrative option.

4 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

Also, would a $400-ish GPU new be enough for that bump in CPU?

At 1080p, CPU would matter more so i would pay more mind in spending way too much on the GPU just for it to be underutilized. 6700XT and 6800XT would be fine in this use case, some would argue that both of those cards are solidly at 1440p territory even though they do scale in 1080p high framerate scenario.

4 hours ago, Rblack77 said:

Thanks for the build. Just curious. Why Intel over Ryzen? I’ve heard that the real benefit of the Intel is performance on productivity function and for gaming, Ryzen has the edge. Just curious your thoughts. 

Hey dont worry, im also confused on this cost prop too, they have been recommending this exact build to several people in the forum by now. 3060 isnt worth it at its new street price in my opinion, but 12th gen Intel does go neck in neck against 5000 and 7000 series AMD in games thanks to their strong boost clock, absurd power budget, and thread director (their built in hardware level task scheduler) generally being good at making sure the games run in all of its P-core instead of E-core. Id recommend cross shopping just like before, and id definitely keep a price watch on 12600K as they pretty much performs the same against the 13th gen i5 lower end brethren like 13400, but with a better on-paper binned Integrated Memory Controller so more stability at higher speeds to compensate the fact that 13th gen has the IPC advantage. Between 12600K and 13600K though? Generational bump prevails and 13600K wins on both framerate and PPD (Performance per Dollar) even on release.

ps:

4 hours ago, RevGAM said:

Just a quick note: you were saying you want certain colors for components, which will drive up your overall cost. Keep your wife happy and just focus on price and performance, not looks. Your nephew can put stickers all over it.

Coming from part of the LGBTQ community myself, we have some of the greatest graphics designers out there so yes this is absolutely viable.

[RevGAM]

7 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

At 1080p, CPU would matter more so i would pay more mind in spending way too much on the GPU just for it to be underutilized. 6700XT and 6800XT would be fine in this use case, some would argue that both of those cards are solidly at 1440p territory even though they do scale in 1080p high framerate scenario.

3DMark rated my 6800XT as 1440p Ultra.

[Rblack77]

6 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

Mhm. You really wanna compare the 7000 series crops to 5800X3D really, even with the initial issues with RAM on launch for Ryzen 7000 series, theyre all far better in raw performance if you only care about gaming. You also wanna cross shop the 7600X with its non x variant, theyll be easier to cool with lower power budget and still performs well with some tweak to said power budget. 

Yep which is also why AM5 is so looked down on in pricing, its the massively expensive DDR5 kit and the accompanying - and admittedly pretty overbuilt minimum standard - B650 motherboard. I also didnt consider it so much without Micro Center exactly for the fact that a competitive DDR5 kit is still pretty expensive. You want 5600C32/34 in an AM5 based build, preferably with even lower CAS latency if available, and also a dual rank RAM kits instead of single rank (but admittedly manufacturers REALLY dont want you to know on whether theyre running SR or DR, as even on Intel, dual rank kits runs faster) and those would run you 100-130$ a kit, and theyre most likely going to be running on D.O.C.P profile which AMD supersedes for their exclusive EXPO profile. Theyre both mixed bag, but EXPO kits have been pretty stable for straight "XMP" tweak across pretty wide range of boards. But of course as more AGESA update rolls in and DDR5 continues to tumble in price from demand, AM5 can be a very very lucrative option.

At 1080p, CPU would matter more so i would pay more mind in spending way too much on the GPU just for it to be underutilized. 6700XT and 6800XT would be fine in this use case, some would argue that both of those cards are solidly at 1440p territory even though they do scale in 1080p high framerate scenario.

Hey dont worry, im also confused on this cost prop too, they have been recommending this exact build to several people in the forum by now. 3060 isnt worth it at its new street price in my opinion, but 12th gen Intel does go neck in neck against 5000 and 7000 series AMD in games thanks to their strong boost clock, absurd power budget, and thread director (their built in hardware level task scheduler) generally being good at making sure the games run in all of its P-core instead of E-core. Id recommend cross shopping just like before, and id definitely keep a price watch on 12600K as they pretty much performs the same against the 13th gen i5 lower end brethren like 13400, but with a better on-paper binned Integrated Memory Controller so more stability at higher speeds to compensate the fact that 13th gen has the IPC advantage. Between 12600K and 13600K though? Generational bump prevails and 13600K wins on both framerate and PPD (Performance per Dollar) even on release.

ps:

Coming from part of the LGBTQ community myself, we have some of the greatest graphics designers out there so yes this is absolutely viable.

Well... thanks for all the input.  Here's the build as I currently have it:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/rblack77/saved/4QTrGX

 

Overall, way way way over budget, but doable if I balance it correctly. 

- We already have the Case, Boot SSD, HDD, OS, and PSU. 

- I found a bundle at NewEgg and possible bundles at Micro Center that will get him in around $425 for the CPU and Motherboard which is within his budget. 

- His parents will buy the monitor and this one gets excellent ratings and reviews for $230 and I think during Amazon Prime Days, we should see this one come down so hopefully they can get it for $175-$200.

- I'm buying everything else which comes in at about $700 which is under my $400 budget for the GPU and about $100 over my budget that I discussed with the wife, but I can make it work.

 

Does this look like a quality build and good value for performance vs cost?

 

 

[RevGAM]

35 minutes ago, Rblack77 said:

Well... thanks for all the input.  Here's the build as I currently have it:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/rblack77/saved/4QTrGX

 

Overall, way way way over budget, but doable if I balance it correctly. 

- We already have the Case, Boot SSD, HDD, OS, and PSU. 

- I found a bundle at NewEgg and possible bundles at Micro Center that will get him in around $425 for the CPU and Motherboard which is within his budget. 

- His parents will buy the monitor and this one gets excellent ratings and reviews for $230 and I think during Amazon Prime Days, we should see this one come down so hopefully they can get it for $175-$200.

- I'm buying everything else which comes in at about $700 which is under my $400 budget for the GPU and about $100 over my budget that I discussed with the wife, but I can make it work.

 

Does this look like a quality build and good value for performance vs cost?

 

 

I don't remember if you said one way or the other about air vs water cooling, so apologies. You can shave $60+ off the price if you get either the ThermalRight Peerless Assassin (not SE), $55 with the DeepCool AG620, $45 with the DeepCool AK620 ($40 with the white or zero black version), and $20 with the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4. All of them are great coolers that rank at the top of the air cooler chart.

I would recommend you increase the SSD to 1TB and don't get that SSD. Not sure if you said you had another one to add. It is really expensive and you could get 2TB for the same price from another brand, or even $120 for some 2TB SSDs that are gen 4.

You can get a 5-pack of those fans for $35 on Amazon.

[SorryBella]

23 minutes ago, Rblack77 said:

- I found a bundle at NewEgg and possible bundles at Micro Center that will get him in around $425 for the CPU and Motherboard which is within his budget. 

I think i know which newegg bundle deal we're talking here, the B650 Livemixer with 7600X? God i hate it so much but the Livemixer is among the best in the lineup of B650 boards, but they also stick so hard i think calling it a "sore thumb" is just discrediting the metaphor. But yeah they fit in nicely with the budget.

26 minutes ago, Rblack77 said:

We already have the Case, Boot SSD, HDD, OS, and PSU. 

As a self help, remember that you can mark things as purchased in PCPartPicker, making sure you can either type the price you bought it in, or just mark it as $0 so you dont need to see both total (not yet purchased) and total (purchased), and focus on just the former. Its all in the gears icon, or the configure button on mobile.

31 minutes ago, Rblack77 said:

- His parents will buy the monitor

Neato! Id definitely vouch for the Mobiuz due to its wider global availability, but cross shop them with XG250 (and its Omni lineup brethren XG2431) by Viewsonic which would be an extra 60$ for 240hz monitor so amazing in visual clarity id rather buy that than basically any other 1080p monitor. But yeah depending on his parent and how generous Jeff Bezos Garage Sale would be, that might be overextending generosity. Other good shout alongside the benq would be C24G2 by AOC, Predator XB253 line (too much of a gamble for my liking in how many versions there are, find the Q version or just move on, theyre the ones widely reported to have the best tune in response time), GN650 by LG, and S2422 by Dell to name a few. Honorable mention would go to the previous gen GN600 by LG, but i cant find any in stock US-wide.

 

But yeah, the only thing id switch off on is 240mm AIO. Personally speaking they kinda overdue its welcome, twin tower coolers like AK620, Bequiet Dark Rock Pro 4, Thermalright Peerless Asassin, and of course the classical NH-D15 would perform better in places where theyd have more airflow to go by, and at a cheaper price. The Peerless Assassin comes in ARGB version too if thats a factor.

[Rblack77]

4 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

I don't remember if you said one way or the other about air vs water cooling, so apologies. You can shave $60+ off the price if you get either the ThermalRight Peerless Assassin (not SE), $55 with the DeepCool AG620, $45 with the DeepCool AK620 ($40 with the white or zero black version), and $20 with the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4. All of them are great coolers that rank at the top of the air cooler chart.

I would recommend you increase the SSD to 1TB and don't get that SSD. Not sure if you said you had another one to add. It is really expensive and you could get 2TB for the same price from another brand, or even $120 for some 2TB SSDs that are gen 4.

You can get a 5-pack of those fans for $35 on Amazon.

I'm going to talk to him about cooling. He really wanted water cooling and I had a Noctua that was $69 that I'm returning so really, I'm not too concerned about a $40 increase, but thanks for the recommendations.  If he changes his mind and is okay with air cooling, I'll definitely look at those.  I like the DeepCool coolers so those seem like a great price.

 

The SSD is not one that I would choose if I were purchasing it, but someone I know has donated a few parts that they recently upgraded to the project and that is their old SSD so it's free which I can't beat and won't say no to, but you're right that I could have done better for less had that been one I was looking at buying.  He can upgrade this in the future if he wants to.

 

Thanks for the price on the fans.  He really only needs 2 if he water cools or 4 if he air cools and that price is less than buying two individually so I'll use that tip.  These fans and the water cooler and RAM are pretty neat for him because they are all compatible with the RGB controller built into the motherboard and will all work together for cool effects.  As I said in a prior post, this is pretty important to him.... Kids... Yeesh!

 

Thanks again for all your help.  You guys have been awesome!!

[RevGAM]

8 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

But yeah, the only thing id switch off on is 240mm AIO. Personally speaking they kinda overdue its welcome, twin tower coolers like AK620, Bequiet Dark Rock Pro 4, Thermalright Peerless Asassin, and of course the classical NH-D15 would perform better in places where theyd have more airflow to go by, and at a cheaper price. The Peerless Assassin comes in ARGB version too if thats a factor.

Um, the D15 is going for $98 on NewEgg (blech) and $110 on Amazon...Same as the CM AIO...

[RevGAM]

1 minute ago, Rblack77 said:

I'm going to talk to him about cooling. He really wanted water cooling and I had a Noctua that was $69 that I'm returning so really, I'm not too concerned about a $40 increase, but thanks for the recommendations.  If he changes his mind and is okay with air cooling, I'll definitely look at those.  I like the DeepCool coolers so those seem like a great price.

 

The SSD is not one that I would choose if I were purchasing it, but someone I know has donated a few parts that they recently upgraded to the project and that is their old SSD so it's free which I can't beat and won't say no to, but you're right that I could have done better for less had that been one I was looking at buying.  He can upgrade this in the future if he wants to.

 

Thanks for the price on the fans.  He really only needs 2 if he water cools or 4 if he air cools and that price is less than buying two individually so I'll use that tip.  These fans and the water cooler and RAM are pretty neat for him because they are all compatible with the RGB controller built into the motherboard and will all work together for cool effects.  As I said in a prior post, this is pretty important to him.... Kids... Yeesh!

 

Thanks again for all your help.  You guys have been awesome!!

Um, I just bought an Arctic P12 and it only cost $7.95, so I'm confused because your link shows $43 for 3...Definitely not cheaper than that, or 5 for $33.

[SorryBella]

3 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

Um, I just bought an Arctic P12 and it only cost $7.95, so I'm confused because your link shows $43 for 3...Definitely not cheaper than that, or 5 for $33.

ARGB v Non-ARGB.

5 minutes ago, RevGAM said:

Um, the D15 is going for $98 on NewEgg (blech) and $110 on Amazon...Same as the CM AIO...

Yes but you also get noctua massively robust support network and near-perpetual free mounts. And they usually do go for 90-100$ on Amazon on a lot of times, you can just check the proof over at CamelCamelCamel.

[Rblack77]

11 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

I think i know which newegg bundle deal we're talking here, the B650 Livemixer with 7600X? God i hate it so much but the Livemixer is among the best in the lineup of B650 boards, but they also stick so hard i think calling it a "sore thumb" is just discrediting the metaphor. But yeah they fit in nicely with the budget.

As a self help, remember that you can mark things as purchased in PCPartPicker, making sure you can either type the price you bought it in, or just mark it as $0 so you dont need to see both total (not yet purchased) and total (purchased), and focus on just the former. Its all in the gears icon, or the configure button on mobile.

Neato! Id definitely vouch for the Mobiuz due to its wider global availability, but cross shop them with XG250 (and its Omni lineup brethren XG2431) by Viewsonic which would be an extra 60$ for 240hz monitor so amazing in visual clarity id rather buy that than basically any other 1080p monitor. But yeah depending on his parent and how generous Jeff Bezos Garage Sale would be, that might be overextending generosity. Other good shout alongside the benq would be C24G2 by AOC, Predator XB253 line (too much of a gamble for my liking in how many versions there are, find the Q version or just move on, theyre the ones widely reported to have the best tune in response time), GN650 by LG, and S2422 by Dell to name a few. Honorable mention would go to the previous gen GN600 by LG, but i cant find any in stock US-wide.

 

But yeah, the only thing id switch off on is 240mm AIO. Personally speaking they kinda overdue its welcome, twin tower coolers like AK620, Bequiet Dark Rock Pro 4, Thermalright Peerless Asassin, and of course the classical NH-D15 would perform better in places where theyd have more airflow to go by, and at a cheaper price. The Peerless Assassin comes in ARGB version too if thats a factor.

Great tips on the monitor.  I actually have a couple of those on the back up list to keep an eye on and will add the others.  I'm selling a few AV components that I'm no longer using to make up the difference in what we had agreed to spend so I may be able to supplement their purchase to help get him to the 240hz.

 

The water cooler was his choice, but I may try to talk him down and into another one that has RGB as that seems to be a driver for the water cooler.  I've been watching a bunch of videos from different sources and it's a split over AIO or air.  I'm honestly fine either way as the price difference isn't super extra if it means that much to him.  My biggest concern is his being responsible enough to keep an eye on it and fill it when needed.  Typical 13 year old with short attention span.

 

That's a good tip on the site and zeroing out the cost.  My wife is interested in seeing it tonight and if she sees that we've gone from ~$500-600 all the way to $2k, she'll probably faint and then kill me when she wakes up.

 

Thanks again.  And, hey... I sent you a PM earlier. I don't know if you accept them or even notice them, but just wanted to drop a couple of things not so build related.