Does This Build Make Sense?

[Music_Teacher49]

Budget (including currency): $1500+/-

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/MNsMzf

 

Country: USA 

 

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

 

Hello everyone, this is my first PC build. I’m hoping to get some feedback on my parts list and would greatly appreciate any input. I’m not necessarily going for extreme budgeting. Just a solid, fast computer that can handle music production, photo editing, and can run most games without crazy drops in frame rates. I linked my build list, but here’s the rundown:

 

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor

 

Noctua NH-D15S chromax.black 82.51 CFM CPU Cooler

 

MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
 

G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
 

Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
 

MSI VENTUS XS OC GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB Video Card
 

SeaSonic FOCUS PLUS 850 Gold 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

 

Fractal Design Meshify 2 Mini MicroATX Mid Tower Case

Peripherals:

Any advice on mouse and keyboard selection would be great. Oh! and any advice about a monitor would be awesome! I’m looking at this monitor in particular:

 

Gigabyte M27Q 27.0" 2560 x 1440 170 Hz Monitor

 

Let me know if this is a balanced build and what I should swap out. I do take a lot of photos so I’m also thinking about an SSD? My goal is to have this built sometime within the next month or two. Thanks for reading! 

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by Music_Teacher49
Forgot a few details.

[mariushm]

Cooler is too expensive for that CPU. 

These will work just as well at around $50

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/TyBhP6/be-quiet-pure-rock-2-black-cpu-cooler-bk007

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kNK7YJ/scythe-cpu-cooler-scmg4000

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9Z6p99/deepcool-ak400-zero-dark-plus-5946-cfm-cpu-cooler-r-ak400-bknnmd-g-1

 

You could do a bit better in the motherboard department (better features, as in better quality onboard audio, more usb on IO shield etc). The MSI board is solid, can run that 5700x well and even handles higher wattage Ryzens, but some features are missing, to reduce cost. 

For example, if you don't need Wireless and can tolerate the "paint job", Asrock B550M Steel Legend is more feature packed  and only 10$ more expensive: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nFhmP6/asrock-b550m-steel-legend-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b550m-steel-legend

 

It has ALC1200 audio vs older ALC892 , 6 SATA vs 4,  has 2 USB 3.2 10g ports (one usb C) on IO shield  vs none on the MSI, it has the bottom pci-e x16 with 4 pci-e lanes while the MSI board has only pci-e x1 slots. 

The wireless on the MSI board is not particularly great or fancy, it's just some Wifi ac 533 mbps or something like that, you can buy pci-e x1 cards on eBay or other places for 10-20$ that can do Wifi 6... so it's not a big loss.

 

If you can get it at $140 (seems only newegg has it that low) and you're willing to change case to an ATX capable one, Asrock B550 PG Velocita looks like a good deal as well : https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ZPDkcf/asrock-b550-pg-velocita-atx-am4-motherboard-b550-pg-velocita

Benefits over the Steel Legend : ALC1220 instead of ALC1200 (won't hear a difference) , a few slots extra, there's space for wireless antennas on io shield if you decide to use a wireless card, USB 10g front panel header if your case has one of them (if your mobo has no such header you can use adapter to plug that into the usb 3 5gbps header on motherboard)

 

 

No on the video card. Rather go with 2  8 GB sticks and buy later another 2 sticks, and use the money and what you save on cooler to add to the video card budget. 

Less than 8 GB VRAM in 2023 is a no-no, and that card is also low performance. 

 

Newegg has a MSI AERO ITX OC GeForce RTX 3060 12GB for $325 : https://pcpartpicker.com/product/4pnypg/msi-geforce-rtx-3060-12-gb-aero-itx-oc-video-card-geforce-rtx-3060-aero-itx-12g-oc

There's a further $20 mail-in rebate discount, but don't make decision based on that. It's good deal, around twice as fast as that 1660. 

Note that this is the ITX version with only 1 fan, so the clock speeds may be a bit lower and therefore card may be a tiny bit slower than what you see in reviews of other 3060 12 GB cards. 

 

If you're not a nvidia fan, there's RX 6700 10 GB for $329 : https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Rs92FT/xfx-speedster-swft-309-radeon-rx-6700-10-gb-video-card-rx-67xlkwfdv

 

It's around 20-25% faster than RTX 3060, 10% slower than 6700XT. A review here : https://www.tomshardware.com/news/sapphire-rx-6700-10gb-299-dollars

 

For power supply, you can go lower to around 750 watts, even 650 watts would be fine. 

The video cards consume 200-250 watts , the cpu less than 100 watts, so even a 650 watts will barely be used at 50% of its capabilities. 

 

1 hour ago, Music_Teacher49 said:

Let me know if this is a balanced build and what I should swap out. I do take a lot of photos so I’m also thinking about an SSD? My goal is to have this built sometime within the next month or two. Thanks for reading! 

 

A lot of components have great prices due to deals, so it's difficult to give you quotes if you plan to not buy right away or in the next few days. In "the next month or two" you could have big discounts on video cards or on specific motherboards.

For example, the Asrock B550 PG Velocita may be a good deal right now as it's $140 at Newegg, but a month from now, it could be 160-180$. Another motherboard could be on sale making it a good deal at a certain price point.  

 

 

[johnno23]

I think the only weak part is the GPU as it has such a low amount of vram and also many games today are pushing the limits on older GPU limitations.

if you have the budget look to at least a 30 series from nvidea or an AMD equivalent if you want to run games and keep the system relevant for a couple of years or more.

For monitors I am still a fan of IPS. especially if you want to mess with photos etc...

[Music_Teacher49]

3 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Cooler is too expensive for that CPU. 

These will work just as well at around $50

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/TyBhP6/be-quiet-pure-rock-2-black-cpu-cooler-bk007

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/kNK7YJ/scythe-cpu-cooler-scmg4000

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/9Z6p99/deepcool-ak400-zero-dark-plus-5946-cfm-cpu-cooler-r-ak400-bknnmd-g-1

 

You could do a bit better in the motherboard department (better features, as in better quality onboard audio, more usb on IO shield etc). The MSI board is solid, can run that 5700x well and even handles higher wattage Ryzens, but some features are missing, to reduce cost. 

For example, if you don't need Wireless and can tolerate the "paint job", Asrock B550M Steel Legend is more feature packed  and only 10$ more expensive: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/nFhmP6/asrock-b550m-steel-legend-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b550m-steel-legend

 

It has ALC1200 audio vs older ALC892 , 6 SATA vs 4,  has 2 USB 3.2 10g ports (one usb C) on IO shield  vs none on the MSI, it has the bottom pci-e x16 with 4 pci-e lanes while the MSI board has only pci-e x1 slots. 

The wireless on the MSI board is not particularly great or fancy, it's just some Wifi ac 533 mbps or something like that, you can buy pci-e x1 cards on eBay or other places for 10-20$ that can do Wifi 6... so it's not a big loss.

 

If you can get it at $140 (seems only newegg has it that low) and you're willing to change case to an ATX capable one, Asrock B550 PG Velocita looks like a good deal as well : https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ZPDkcf/asrock-b550-pg-velocita-atx-am4-motherboard-b550-pg-velocita

Benefits over the Steel Legend : ALC1220 instead of ALC1200 (won't hear a difference) , a few slots extra, there's space for wireless antennas on io shield if you decide to use a wireless card, USB 10g front panel header if your case has one of them (if your mobo has no such header you can use adapter to plug that into the usb 3 5gbps header on motherboard)

 

 

No on the video card. Rather go with 2  8 GB sticks and buy later another 2 sticks, and use the money and what you save on cooler to add to the video card budget. 

Less than 8 GB VRAM in 2023 is a no-no, and that card is also low performance. 

 

Newegg has a MSI AERO ITX OC GeForce RTX 3060 12GB for $325 : https://pcpartpicker.com/product/4pnypg/msi-geforce-rtx-3060-12-gb-aero-itx-oc-video-card-geforce-rtx-3060-aero-itx-12g-oc

There's a further $20 mail-in rebate discount, but don't make decision based on that. It's good deal, around twice as fast as that 1660. 

Note that this is the ITX version with only 1 fan, so the clock speeds may be a bit lower and therefore card may be a tiny bit slower than what you see in reviews of other 3060 12 GB cards. 

 

If you're not a nvidia fan, there's RX 6700 10 GB for $329 : https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Rs92FT/xfx-speedster-swft-309-radeon-rx-6700-10-gb-video-card-rx-67xlkwfdv

 

It's around 20-25% faster than RTX 3060, 10% slower than 6700XT. A review here : https://www.tomshardware.com/news/sapphire-rx-6700-10gb-299-dollars

 

For power supply, you can go lower to around 750 watts, even 650 watts would be fine. 

The video cards consume 200-250 watts , the cpu less than 100 watts, so even a 650 watts will barely be used at 50% of its capabilities. 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for the information! 

[Music_Teacher49]

3 minutes ago, johnno23 said:

I think the only weak part is the GPU as it has such a low amount of vram and also many games today are pushing the limits on older GPU limitations.

if you have the budget look to at least a 30 series from nvidea or an AMD equivalent if you want to run games and keep the system relevant for a couple of years or more.

For monitors I am still a fan of IPS. especially if you want to mess with photos etc...

Good to know! Thanks for the reply.