Looking for a pc build for around 650$

[mANKLG]

Budget (including currency): 650

Country: Greece

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: GTA5, Warzone 2, Fortnite, Forza

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):  1080p resolution. I am not sure about refresh rate but I would guess 60hz.

 

Hey everyone! Im looking for a build around 650$ for my friend. He wants to play games like GTAV, Warzone 2, Fortnite etc at a decent FPS. The original parts he had on his list were these:

cpu: ryzen 7 5700g

mobo: Asus ROG Strix B550-A gaming ATX

RAM:  Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16GB (2x8) 3600hz

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 

SSD: kingston A400 SSD 480GB 

psu: Be Quiet System Power 10 550W full wired 80 plus

tower: Kolink Observatory Lite gaming midi Tower

 

I dont think this was a good list and looks like he can get much better stuff for much better value. Even with integrated graphics, as I can see from benchmarks he will only be playing at 30-45 FPS for those games, except Fortnite. But again, I dont know much about pc builds. Looking for advice. 

Thank you!

 

[lopj245]

Honestly has he looked into used Pc's? Might be worth a gander, he can get a much better system used.

[FoxieTheFox]

I'd also recommend to take a look at used pc market for such a little budget. But if he sticks to the building idea, he can also search for used parts. Stay away from used SSDs though, as their TBW may be worn out and they may contain malware, since they are nearly impossible to securely erase, unlike HDDs. 
Integrated graphics is definitely not enough to get 60fps in those games in 1080p, unless playing on minimal settings maybe. If I were him I'd personally go with RX 6600 as it has awesome perfomance in 1080p and is one of the best value GPU in terms of price-per-fps, pretty budget one too.
For the CPU, obviously he won't need to pay extra for integrated graphics if he gets a GPU, and 8 cores is overkill for gaming purposes in 1080p 60fps, so I'd say Ryzen 5500 would be a great choice.
For the PSU, although BeQuiet makes great cooling solutions, I'd recommend to stay away from their PSUs as they are often stinky and not very reliable, based on reviews of the budget models such as System Power and Pure Power at least. Better go with Seasonic or Fractal Design. 
For the SSD, it's better to go with NVME than with Sata, as it's way faster, easier to install and the price is the same nowadays. Kingston KC3000 or Samsung 970 EVO are great deals with DRAM, good controller and 5 year warranty, while the most budget ones are DRAMless, have cheap controllers and come with a 3-year warranty. 
For the mobo, Asus ROG series is kind of an overprice so for a budget build I'd rather go with Asus Prime or something like Gigabyte Aorus Elite. 

[Queen Chrysalis]

1 hour ago, FoxieTheFox said:

TBW may be worn out

No.  It's hilarious to me that people think gaming PCs ever come anywhere close to this.  There are SSDs in some PCs now that are over a decade old and still haven't even come close to this. 

 

1 hour ago, FoxieTheFox said:

while the most budget ones are DRAMless

This really doesn;t matter at all unless you know why you need one.  Gaming doesn't care about this at all.

2 hours ago, FoxieTheFox said:

For the mobo, Asus ROG series is kind of an overprice so for a budget build I'd rather go with Asus Prime or something like Gigabyte Aorus Elite. 

Really anything that has the features you need is good.  There aren't really any garbage boards left, and at this budget all that matter s is compatibility, it's a non-computational component.

[FoxieTheFox]

36 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

It's hilarious to me that people think gaming PCs ever come anywhere close to this.

Gaming PCs don't, others do. There was a shitcoin that was mined on SSDs and after it lost popularity, there was a short flow of really worn out SSDs coming to the used parts market. They often came with their firmware flushed so you couldn't tell it's worn out. And even with disregarding that, there are plenty other cons in buying used SSDs, like malware and controllers that can possibly fail over time, and zero pros (saving $10 isn't worth the trouble). 
 

 

42 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

This really doesn;t matter at all unless you know why you need one.  Gaming doesn't care about this at all.

 

I don't understand why buy DRAMless when you can buy with DRAM for almost the same price while getting other good things like better reliability. 

48 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

Really anything that has the features you need is good. There aren't really any garbage boards left, and at this budget all that matter s is compatibility, it's a non-computational component.

If a person came to the pc-enthusiast forum asking for part-picking advice, you oughta advice, not just tell him to buy anything. And at this budget what matters is a budget, that's why I recommended not to buy ROG Strix. As for the compatibility, OP's friend picked actually compatible stuff so I assume he will be fine at least with that. Also, there are garbage boards: Biostar for example.

[Queen Chrysalis]

13 minutes ago, FoxieTheFox said:

(saving $10 isn't worth the trouble). 

Completely agree, just worth pointing oput because people will get weary of new budget SSDs because other models have higher r/w durability ratings when it really won;t matter unless you know it will.

13 minutes ago, FoxieTheFox said:

buy DRAMless when you can buy with DRAM for almost the same price

For gen 3 drives yes, but only the 670p and UD80.  And on a budget like this $10 here and $20 there on things that won;t affect actualy performance at the cost of a better GPU is not worth it in the slightest.  For Gen 4 drives the price almost doubles.

13 minutes ago, FoxieTheFox said:

pc-enthusiast forum asking for part-picking advice, you oughta advice, not just tell him to buy anything

PC enthusiast should not mean money waster.  A product is only worth it's cost if you'll use the thing that makes in more expensive.  99% of users don;t make any use whatsover of the $300 motherboards marketing pros convince them they need for gaming.

13 minutes ago, FoxieTheFox said:

Biostar for example.

Can' speak to their new stuff, but I never ran int the AM3+ Biostar board I had and actually got a decent OC on an FX8150 with it.  And their boards are barely available in america anymore.  There ar some really basic ones out there for say, AM4 under $80, but as soon as you are spending $10 more than the cheapest ones, you're power delivery and regulation components will have heat sinks, everything will work fine and you'll never have a problem.  Unless you know you need more ports or headers you're probably just wasting money.

[mANKLG]

3 hours ago, FoxieTheFox said:

I'd also recommend to take a look at used pc market for such a little budget. But if he sticks to the building idea, he can also search for used parts. Stay away from used SSDs though, as their TBW may be worn out and they may contain malware, since they are nearly impossible to securely erase, unlike HDDs. 
Integrated graphics is definitely not enough to get 60fps in those games in 1080p, unless playing on minimal settings maybe. If I were him I'd personally go with RX 6600 as it has awesome perfomance in 1080p and is one of the best value GPU in terms of price-per-fps, pretty budget one too.
For the CPU, obviously he won't need to pay extra for integrated graphics if he gets a GPU, and 8 cores is overkill for gaming purposes in 1080p 60fps, so I'd say Ryzen 5500 would be a great choice.
For the PSU, although BeQuiet makes great cooling solutions, I'd recommend to stay away from their PSUs as they are often stinky and not very reliable, based on reviews of the budget models such as System Power and Pure Power at least. Better go with Seasonic or Fractal Design. 
For the SSD, it's better to go with NVME than with Sata, as it's way faster, easier to install and the price is the same nowadays. Kingston KC3000 or Samsung 970 EVO are great deals with DRAM, good controller and 5 year warranty, while the most budget ones are DRAMless, have cheap controllers and come with a 3-year warranty. 
For the mobo, Asus ROG series is kind of an overprice so for a budget build I'd rather go with Asus Prime or something like Gigabyte Aorus Elite. 

Thanks a lot for everything! I will tell him to get the ryzen 5 5500 cpu and the rx 6600. I watched a few videos with these 2 paired together and they do perfect on 1080p. So yeah really good choices. As for the mobo, I found the Asus prime B550M-A for 86$. Almost 90$ less than the mobo he chose, so he can put that money towards the gpu. Found also a Samsung 980 nvme m.2 500gb for 30$, instead for the SSD that he chose.

 

Looks like it will be totally different now and a much better system that what he had in mind. Thanks again!

[mANKLG]

4 hours ago, lopj245 said:

Honestly has he looked into used Pc's? Might be worth a gander, he can get a much better system used.

Unfortunately he is a bit biased towards getting used parts and cant convince him otherwise lol :/. Otherwise yeah it would have been a very good option.