What's the price/performance sweet spot these days for a new gaming build?

[jimm_eh]

Budget (including currency): I'd like to top out at $2500 CAD, but if I can get under $2k with little loss of comparative performance, I'd be interested.

 

Country: Canada (but near the border)

 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Pure gaming. No VR, and I have a workstation for productivity.  Current game is primarily Minecraft, but I'd like the headroom to check out some more recent AAA titles as well.  I don't game online, it's single-player only for me.  Display is 4k but I can tolerate 1080p, and >60fps isn't a priority. 

 

Other details: 

The machine being retired is an 11 year old OC'd 3770K (4.2GHz) with 1080 GPU, so there's lots of upside room.

It's all about the box, I already have the display, mouse, KB etc.  

I'd consider used parts, but warranties are preferred.

 

Mobo just needs to be reliable, won't need much by way of features.

Things I'd like to have, but am willing to skip if the cost differential is big enough:  Mini ITX and/or all-white "icebox" RGB bling build.

Not interested in OC (this time), and would prefer air cooling (though I realize this would likely keep me out of the smaller miniITX cases)..

 

32GB RAM should cover it (stability favored over bleeding edge performance).

In keeping with trying to hit the price/performance sweet spot, current thoughts for CPU/GPU combo are:

5800X3D (to leverage cheaper DDR4 and performance/watt)
4070ti or comparable AMD, but last-gen like a 3080-90 or AMD 6xxx series would be OK for the right deal

.

thanks for the input!

[Shimejii]

5800x3D Would probably be the best bet for you for price. Depending on the pricing of 3080s in your area, or if you just want to go 4070 for warranty sake. Would not go 4070ti, just not worth it imo. 

 

 

[Queen Chrysalis]

The 5800x3d will do absolutely nothing for you at 4k.

 

I think you'll like this:

the case has a single 140mm fan on the front for intake, the ffan in the parts list would be your exhaust.  the GPU draws cold air from underneath the case.  It also has a nice white PSU shroud so a black PSU won't stand out.  The Deepcool AG400 in white would be $7 less, but the Assassin King has an extra heat pipe, so it's up to you I guess.  The AG400 in plain chrome with a black fan is only $25, but the CPU cooler is kinda at the center of the build, so it carries a lot of aesthetic weight.  And white with an RGB fan would look really nice.

 

Either of these could also take a 12400f instead of a 13400f to save about $50, but those extra cores might be nice to have later on.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13400F 2.5 GHz 10-Core Processor  ($275.95 @ shopRBC) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin King SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($47.35 @ Amazon Canada) 
Motherboard: ASRock B760M-ITX/D4 WiFi Mini ITX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($169.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($76.98 @ Amazon Canada) 
Storage: Kingston NV2 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($126.99 @ iSanek) 
Video Card: Zotac GAMING Trinity OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti 12 GB Video Card  ($1087.99 @ Best Buy Canada) 
Case: Fractal Design Torrent Nano Mini ITX Tower Case  ($119.99 @ Memory Express) 
Power Supply: MSI MPG A850G PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($177.98 @ Newegg Canada) 
Case Fan: Fractal Design Aspect 12 RGB 32 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($17.99 @ Memory Express) 
Total: $2101.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-04-20 21:17 EDT-0400

 

You could go with a 7900xt and get better performance at 4k for the same price.  You would also get to use a similar quality PSU that would cost $30 less (no need for PCIe 5.0 connector).  I think the 4070ti I used in the first parts list looks cooler with the aesthetic of the build, but the 7900xt would be a little bit faster.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13400F 2.5 GHz 10-Core Processor  ($275.95 @ shopRBC) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin King SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($47.35 @ Amazon Canada) 
Motherboard: ASRock B760M-ITX/D4 WiFi Mini ITX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($169.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($76.98 @ Amazon Canada) 
Storage: Kingston NV2 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($126.99 @ iSanek) 
Video Card: ASRock Phantom Gaming OC Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB Video Card  ($1133.77 @ iSanek) 
Case: Fractal Design Torrent Nano Mini ITX Tower Case  ($119.99 @ Memory Express) 
Power Supply: ADATA XPG CORE Reactor 850 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($149.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Case Fan: Fractal Design Aspect 12 RGB 32 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($17.99 @ Memory Express) 
Total: $2119.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-04-20 21:21 EDT-0400

 

Note that both of these have slightly overkill PSUs, but that's only because I saw significantly higher end units available than sufficient ones for like $10 more each.  I didn't really splurge on anything for aesthetics or ITX.  I did this list before I read that part of your post, and it was a difference of like $70 at most.

 

If you actually wanna come down to Minnesota for the day you could get something faster and cheaper, but the exchange rate might just fuck it up anyway.

 

[Queen Chrysalis]

EDIT:  Swapping this motherboard into either build might be worth it if you wanna use the USB Type-C port on the front of the case. 

ASRock H670M-ITX/ax Mini ITX LGA1700 Motherboard (H670M-ITX/ax) - PCPartPicker

 

It also has way more ports and a somewhat better chipset.

[Bob__]

For me this motherboard has been bulletproof in terms of reliability and I am running a crazy OC on it

https://www.amazon.ca/MSI-Z690-ProSeries-Motherboard-Socket/dp/B09KKYXXQB/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=pro+z690-a&qid=1682041048&sr=8-4

[jimm_eh]

@Queen Chrysalis  Thank you so much for taking the time.  Among other things, you've confirmed that PcPartPicker has a Canadian-specific option I can use (easy to recognize because of all the parts with no prices because they aren't carried here   )

I'm in BC, so a run for the border would be in Washington rather than Minnesota.  I have been to the Microcenter there, back in 2003 when I took a freelance gig in town.

In any case, I'll definitely use your lists as a starting point, though it'll be a bit later than I was planning on account of having done my taxes this weekend and owing enough to temporarily clobber my budget

[Why_Me]

56 minutes ago, jimm_eh said:

@Queen Chrysalis  Thank you so much for taking the time.  Among other things, you've confirmed that PcPartPicker has a Canadian-specific option I can use (easy to recognize because of all the parts with no prices because they aren't carried here   )

I'm in BC, so a run for the border would be in Washington rather than Minnesota.  I have been to the Microcenter there, back in 2003 when I took a freelance gig in town.

In any case, I'll definitely use your lists as a starting point, though it'll be a bit later than I was planning on account of having done my taxes this weekend and owing enough to temporarily clobber my budget

Washington state doesn't have a Microcenter tmk.  They used to have Fry's but that place went out of business some years ago.