Mid-range gaming desktop

[sakoki]

Budget (including currency): 1000€ max I guess?

Country: Austria

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Dota 2, CS:GO, Baldur's Gate 3

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): 

 

Hi y'all, I'm getting back into PC gaming after a long pause. I built my last PC about 10 years ago, so I'm super out of the loop on PC hardware. My main games are DotA 2 and CS:GO, which are obviously easy to run, but I would like for them to run well. Beyond that, I have some interest in newer games (namely Baldur's Gate 3), but this is really not a priority. Many years ago, I bought some Star Citizen pack, but was never able to play. Frankly, I don't think it's worth it for me to overspend on my PC just to run it, but if that happens to be cheaper than I'm expecting, it'd be nice. Lastly, ray tracing looks cool, so if I can get that it's a nice bonus, but again, not necessary.

I'm currently either using two 1080p monitors, or a 4k TV (largely for watching movies). I have peripherals. I don't have a Windows license, back in the day I always used an expired demo version, I don't know if that still works.

I would prefer a small-ish case, ideally something that fits into a 33.5cm x 33.5cm shelf.

 

While I set my budget to 1000€, this is neither desireable, nor a hard limit. I would like to spend as little money as possible, while ending up with a PC that can run my games well for a couple of years. I would be super grateful for suggestions that include different options, with an explanation of what I'd be gaining/losing. Also, if someone could tell me if DDR5 RAM is worth it that'd be great, last I bought RAM sticks they were DDR3...

 

Thanks y'all! I heavily relied on these forums when I built my first PC forever ago, and I'm delighted to be back once again.

[Why_Me]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  (€141.90 @ Alza) 
Motherboard: *Asus TUF GAMING B550-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard  (€128.90 @ Alza) 
Memory: *G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€66.90 @ Alza) 
Storage: *Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€59.90 @ Alza) 
Video Card: *Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB Video Card  (€370.90 @ Alza) 
Case: *Deepcool CC560 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€57.90 @ Alza) 
Power Supply: *MSI MPG A750GF 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€111.90 @ Alza) 
Total: €938.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-14 19:56 CEST+0200

[sakoki]

4 hours ago, Why_Me said:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  (€141.90 @ Alza) 
Motherboard: *Asus TUF GAMING B550-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard  (€128.90 @ Alza) 
Memory: *G.Skill Aegis 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€66.90 @ Alza) 
Storage: *Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€59.90 @ Alza) 
Video Card: *Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB Video Card  (€370.90 @ Alza) 
Case: *Deepcool CC560 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€57.90 @ Alza) 
Power Supply: *MSI MPG A750GF 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€111.90 @ Alza) 
Total: €938.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-14 19:56 CEST+0200

Thank you, that's a really good starting point, and I can actually find some lower prices as well. One question though, what's the benefit of the expensive motherboard? I can get an Asus MoBo for under 60€, what advantage does spending 70€ more give me?

[Why_Me]

21 minutes ago, sakoki said:

Thank you, that's a really good starting point, and I can actually find some lower prices as well. One question though, what's the benefit of the expensive motherboard? I can get an Asus MoBo for under 60€, what advantage does spending 70€ more give me?

2.5GB LAN, better VRM's, Realtek 1200 audio code, M.2 Key E slot, etc ...

https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards-components/motherboards/tuf-gaming/tuf-gaming-b550-plus/

[Queen Chrysalis]

2 hours ago, sakoki said:

Thank you, that's a really good starting point, and I can actually find some lower prices as well. One question though, what's the benefit of the expensive motherboard? I can get an Asus MoBo for under 60€, what advantage does spending 70€ more give me?

 

1 hour ago, Why_Me said:

2.5GB LAN, better VRM's, Realtek 1200 audio code, M.2 Key E slot, etc ...

https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards-components/motherboards/tuf-gaming/tuf-gaming-b550-plus/

For a 65w CPU that won't really amount to much.  Unless you're anaudiophile and exclusively using the 3.5mm audio out for nice speakers, this won;t mean much.

[Queen Chrysalis]

YOu could get around 900 euros while still getting the 5600/6700xt, an aftermarket cooler, double the storage, and a high-end PCIe 5.0 PSU:

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  (€141.90 @ Alza) 
CPU Cooler: Deepcool AG400 75.89 CFM CPU Cooler  (€24.90 @ Alza) 
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING A520M-PLUS WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (€88.90 @ Alza) 
Memory: Patriot Viper Steel 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€66.90 @ Alza) 
Storage: Kingston NV2 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€80.90 @ Alza) 
Video Card: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB Video Card  (€371.90 @ Alza) 
Case: Zalman S2 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€38.90 @ Alza) 
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€117.90 @ Alza) 
Total: €932.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-15 02:19 CEST+0200

 

 

A520 boards are fine with the newer ryzens as the auto boost will have the CPU going faster than you'd ever need it to.  Some of then still have BLCK OC if you ever wanted to use it, but you probably never will anyway.  This one also has onboard WiFi and bluetooth.

 

Adding in the aftermarket cooler will keep the system quieter and allow the CPU to stay fully boosted under heavier loads whenever it needs to.

 

With a 2TB SSD you'll never run out of space.  A 1TB crucial P3 would have you under 900.

[Why_Me]

1 hour ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

 

For a 65w CPU that won't really amount to much.  Unless you're anaudiophile and exclusively using the 3.5mm audio out for nice speakers, this won;t mean much.

I should have added that board I posted comes with a M.2 heatsink unlike those poor people budget boards that don't. Meanwhile that build I posted still comes under the OP's budget.

[Queen Chrysalis]

2 hours ago, Why_Me said:

M.2 heatsink

These do next to nothing.  Some people don't even put them back on.  The primary purpose is marketing.  SSDs don't get anywhere near warm enough during use to affect performance or durability in any way.

[Why_Me]

35 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

These do next to nothing.  Some people don't even put them back on.  The primary purpose is marketing.  SSDs don't get anywhere near warm enough during use to affect performance or durability in any way.

Reviews say otherwise. With that said my build came under budget and it didn't include a poor person's budget board.

[sakoki]

Thank you both for the replies! It took a while, but here's what I ended up ordering, in case anyone's curious:

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G

MoBo: ASUS Prime A320M-K

RAM: Memoria G.Skill 32GB C15 Aegis

GPU: Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6700 XT

Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB
Case: Chieftec Mesh Pro Cube CI-02B

 

I realised I could probably reuse the following parts from my old PC, as I replaced them a few years ago and expect them to function well:

PSU: Corsair AX760
CPU Cooler: some Cooler Master Watercooler, I can't find the exact name rn. A cheap-ish CPU AIO set.

 

Not sure about the latter, if it doesn't work (not sure about backwards compatibility between AM4 and AM3), I'll stick with the stock cooler for the moment.

 

In total, this came to 679.33€, which is way less than I was expecting to pay, so I'm very pleased with that. I'm a little concerned about the case, because I've never worked with µATX before and am worried smth won't fit, but as far as I can tell, it should all be fine.

 

On 7/15/2023 at 6:26 AM, Why_Me said:

Reviews say otherwise. With that said my build came under budget and it didn't include a poor person's budget board.

I also went with a "poor person's budget board", I'm sure a more expensive board would have some neat features, but I feel like at this price point, if I was gonna spend an extra 90€ on a component, it would be the CPU or GPU, not a M.2 heatsink.

[The Hope]

You can use Clear Linux to play Dota 2, CS:GO and Baldur's Gate 3 and you will get a free performance and stability boost compared to windows10/11.

 

Clear Linux works well with Intel and AMD graphics, so the following build would work well: