Help with picking components for 1080p gaming PC, budget 899-1350 USD

vikekh · September 12, 2023

Budget (including currency): 899-1350 USD (or 10k-15k SEK)

Country: Sweden

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Latest AAA 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 require some assistance with putting together a reasonably priced, bang for the buck gaming PC. I intend to use it for 1080p gaming and, to a lesser extent, music production. A close relative has already given me a lot of pointers and helpful advice, but we think that it's wise to ask here for some additional input. I am living Sweden.

I would like to be able to play the latest and upcoming AAA titles in 1080p while maintaining a reasonably high FPS (~75-100) and performance is more important than playing with maxed out graphical settings. Upgradability is also important.

Budget: 10k-15k SEK (899-1350 USD)
Case: Black or other dark colour, simple and not too messy. The case should be spacious and easy to open, and it should contain a couple of 3.5'' bays.
CPU: I've been eyeing the AMD Ryzen 5 5600* and 7600. The latest CPU socket AM5 (7600) is interesting, provided that it's worth the money. Unless the CPU malfunctions, I will most likely not replace it. An Intel CPU that is equivalent to the ones mentioned above is also of interest.
Motherboard: Is PCIe 5 support worth the money? I'd like space for one M.2 NVMe SSD, preferably two. I prefer built-in WiFi. I have a number of 3.5'' HDDs that I'd like to use, so a number of SATA 3/6 ports are required. Form factor is irrelevant except for compatibility and upgradability, so ATX is probably the preferred choice.
RAM: 2x8 GB DDR 4 or 5? What frequency and what determines the frequency?
GPU: I'm torn between the Nvidia RTX 4060 8 GB and the 4060 Ti 8 GB. Does 8 GB memory constitute a problem for 1080p gaming? I'm quite biased towards Nvidia because of drivers and DLSS. I will not be using raytracing.
HDD: Fast and reliable M.2 NVMe SSD (PCIe 4/5) 1 TB.
PSU: How much power does, for instance, an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and a Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti require? I'd like to be able to swap out the GPU for another in the same price range in a couple of years. I prefer a modular PSU. How important is 80+ certification?
Cooling: What kind of CPU fan is appropiate for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X? How many additional fans should I go for?
LED: Superfluous, preferably nothing of the sort.

Thanks in advance!

SorryBella · September 13, 2023

10 hours ago, vikekh said:

I intend to use it for 1080p gaming and, to a lesser extent, music production.

So strong CPU and big RAM, preferably with a pretty decent Nvme SSD for hot storage.

10 hours ago, vikekh said:

I've been eyeing the AMD Ryzen 5 5600* and 7600.

10 hours ago, vikekh said:

2x8 GB DDR 4 or 5?

one or the other and the 5600 is slightly slower. The 7600 performance equivalent on AM4 is 5800X3D and thats only in gaming, in productivity they lose easily. And generally for gaming and DDR5, you want 32GB to find the best deal around on it.

10 hours ago, vikekh said:

Is PCIe 5 support worth the money?

Not really unless your music sample size is so big that it constantly juggle between RAM and SSD. And considering this is going to be a mild work, the bigger RAM is enough, and any GPU and SSD that's going to come out with Pcie 5 support is going to not yet saturate that bandwidth. For context, 4090 barely saturate Pcie 3 right now.

10 hours ago, vikekh said:

PSU: How much power does, for instance, an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and a Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti require?

550-650W, but at current market pricing the 750-850W is going to be an easier find and better deal because it'll last to your next build. So yeah, 750-850W would be my answer even though again, you can get away with less.

10 hours ago, vikekh said:

Cooling: What kind of CPU fan is appropiate for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X? How many additional fans should I go for?

AM5 XFR is a completely different beast and any cooling you can get is good cooling. 7600 non X meanwhile has no XFR instruction, and thus run cooler with the milder 65W TDP than the 125-150W on the 7600X. You can run the stock cooler that comes in the box for 7600.

But most is kind of irrelevant. We can go better than 4060Ti.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor (kr2917.24 @ Amazon Sweden)
Motherboard: ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2 Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard (kr1731.00 @ Proshop)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (kr1387.00 @ Amazon Sweden)
Storage: Crucial P5 Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (kr1326.00 @ Amazon Sweden)
Video Card: XFX Speedster SWFT 319 Radeon RX 6800 16 GB Video Card (kr5649.00 @ Amazon Sweden)
Case: Deepcool CC560 ATX Mid Tower Case (kr639.00 @ Amazon Sweden)
Power Supply: Corsair RM850e (2023) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (kr1399.00 @ Komplett)
Total: kr15048.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-09-13 08:30 CEST+0200

vikekh · September 14, 2023

18 hours ago, SorryBella said:

one or the other and the 5600 is slightly slower. The 7600 performance equivalent on AM4 is 5800X3D and thats only in gaming, in productivity they lose easily. And generally for gaming and DDR5, you want 32GB to find the best deal around on it.

OK, so let's say we go DDR5. Are there any pros and cons with 4x8 GB vs 2x16 GB other than that I lose 2 RAM slots with the first? (Say I'll cheap out and put more in the future.) I'll choose the highest speed supported by the MB. Anything more with RAM? What is the common speed for DDR5 and what is the priciest speed? A relative bought RAM labeled "for AMD Ryzen", what's that about? What is the interface between CPU and RAM?

18 hours ago, SorryBella said:

Not really unless your music sample size is so big that it constantly juggle between RAM and SSD. And considering this is going to be a mild work, the bigger RAM is enough, and any GPU and SSD that's going to come out with Pcie 5 support is going to not yet saturate that bandwidth. For context, 4090 barely saturate Pcie 3 right now.

OK, so PCIe5 support maybe not worth the money right now is what I am reading.

18 hours ago, SorryBella said:

We can go better than 4060Ti.

I am aware that AMD probably provides more bang for the buck, but if you would humour me and pretend AMD GPU's doesn't exist, what is your take on Nvidia GPU's for medium 1080p gaming? I would like to be able to play the latest AAA games for the next 5 years with above 60 FPS and ranging down to medium settings. Wouldn't an RTX 4060 8 GB (not Ti) suffice? My plan would be to upgrade GPU in the future as there seems to be a huge leap for every **60 generation? Like if I were to get an RTX 6060 in the future, wouldn't that let me get by until then and spend less money now?

Also if you would please sell me on AMD GPU's? Pros: they have more VRAM and more bang for the buck. Cons: They don't have DLSS or G-Sync, drivers have been worse historically.

Also: thank you very much for your input!

SorryBella · September 14, 2023

2 hours ago, vikekh said:

4x8 GB vs 2x16 GB

Dont go 4 stick DDR5. Theyre a headache to balance on EXPO/D.O.C.P settings. And this is compounded with 8GB DDR5 stick being all JEDEC reject at 4800C40s, theyre not worth even glancing at because 3200C16 DDR4 kits are cheaper and perform about the same in synthetics and real life. Its that bad.

2 hours ago, vikekh said:

What is the common speed for DDR5 and what is the priciest speed?

1. JEDEC: 4800-5200C40. Not worth it unless if you get it for free, they're basically the same as 3200C16 DDR4 in speed as stated before. The latency on it is super cursed.

2. Tweakables: SK Hynix 5600C40-46 like Team T-Create Classic DDR5. These are easily able to be tweaked to the upper stratosphere of speed later mentioned but the usual caveat of silicon lottery applies. If you're going to run this on EXPO/D.O.C.P, same issue of the top applies.
3. Budget: 5600C32/6000C34. These speeds are the bare minimum if you don't want to tweak around, and the cheapest of the bunch. Not the best but not the worst, at least they wont hold back most CPUs out right now to the point where you pull your hair out.

4. Bang for the Buck: 6000C30 for AMD, 6400C32 for Intel. Both at the same price but Zen inherently prefers a bit of a lower latency due to how Infinity Fabric works and only until recently with AGESA 1.0.0.7 update, 6000MHz is their best bet. Intel prefers raw bandwidth and 6400C32 is what Raptor Lake is very comfortable on so those 2 speeds are my recommendation and default for any system meant to run on stock settings.

5. Top of the Line: 7200C32/34. Hatefully costly, and in terms of value on what you get its kinda questionable on whether its worth it. And yeah, youre going to need to hit a pretty good binning on the CPU IMC especially for AMD side to get it to run without you turning the dials around.

2 hours ago, vikekh said:

A relative bought RAM labeled "for AMD Ryzen"

On AM4, nothing. It used to mean that they come with either Micron E Die or Samsung B Die which can run on AMD D.O.C.P without any tweaking back when Zen memory controller was pretty bad. But on AM5, this means EXPO. This is the proper AMD answer to Intel's XMP, and are different in fundamental of how they work. With this, AMD EXPO RAM is more stable on AM5, and would be the recommended pick if available at good price. But this doesn't mean that Intel XMP only memory is not compatible for AM5, they'll just fall back to AMD D.O.C.P which can be a dice roll in stability until recent BIOS updates remedies that.

2 hours ago, vikekh said:

What is the interface between CPU and RAM?

IMC, Internal Memory Controller. This sits inside of your CPU, firstly done in AMD K8 of Athlon 64 and then Intel Nehalem architecture inside of 1st gen Intel Core. So what determines its quality is very much dependent on your CPU silicon lottery which can vary, and arguably even more on lower end as yield improves for the flagship chip on both side.

3 hours ago, vikekh said:

what is your take on Nvidia GPU's for medium 1080p gaming?

4070. I personally don't think 60fps is the target for PC gaming, consoles can do that nowadays for a lot cheaper. 120fps would be more worthwhile to chase, and of course the issue of VRAM limitation rears its ugly head, even at medium 1080p, VRAM usage on latest titles (particularly PS5 ports) ranges at 10-12GB. if you HAVE TO own an Nvidia card, 4060Ti 16GB would be the bare minimum.

3 hours ago, vikekh said:

Cons: They don't have DLSS or G-Sync

DLSS and DLFG isnt magic and all of its functions really only start to pay in dividends when you are at either high resolution like 4K, or if you got high framerate to boot. Nvidia shouldnt really hide that fact from the consumer, but here we bloody are. G-Sync is very much superseded by VESA VRR, all G-Sync and Freesync "compatible" monitors nowadays pretty much all run at VESA VRR protocol. G-Sync Ultimate meanwhile uses the old school G-Sync module and comes with actually good G-Sync adjacent feature like ULMB2. But these cost an arm and a leg.