Finally ready to build a new PC! Would love some help with the build :)

europeanunion · December 25, 2023

My current PC is approaching 8 years old and starting to finally feel its age, would love some help on building a new one for the upcoming year!

Budget: 1600-2000 CAD (Can go higher if the build includes parts that will absolutely boost it! or lower if I can get something just as good lol)
Location: Canada
Use: Gaming with the possibility of streaming/recording
Peripherals required : Currently have two, need one replaced so a new monitor
Operating System required: Windows 10 preferred
Form Factor: ATX
Colour Theme: Current PC is Black and Red, so a Blue and White aesthetic would be awesome, but this is not important if cost prohibits better parts.
Current Build: GPU - AMD Radeon R9 380. CPU - AMD FX 6300 Six Core, Mother - Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3, RAM - 16gb 800MHZ DDR3

I'm a bit of an AMD fanboy at heart as my current build is AMD based and has been with me through thick and thin, but in all honesty it doesn't really matter, I'm looking for the best bangs for my bucks and if that happens to be Nvidia or even Intel then that is okay! I'll be playing a mix of games from LoL to Cyberpunk, so I need something that can handle low to high resource hungry games. I don't need 200fps on games like Cyberpunk (I'm used to to 30-40fps anyways lol), just something that can run at a minimum of 60! I appreciate any help you guys can give me

Nocte · December 25, 2023

This could be a starting point for you. Play around with the parts as you see fit for your specific use-case.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor ($499.95 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($104.99 @ Canada Computers)
Motherboard: MSI B650 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard ($209.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: ADATA XPG Lancer Blade 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($119.99 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($119.98 @ Memory Express)
Video Card: Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB Video Card ($699.00 @ Canada Computers)
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case ($104.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($137.50 @ Vuugo)
Total: $1996.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-12-24 21:22 EST-0500

RONOTHAN## · December 25, 2023

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/dkBzpB

That's roughly what I'd go for, with the CPU and GPU being a bit more up in the air. Before getting into those, I'll quick explain the other picks:

The Peerless Assassin is one of the best air coolers on the market right now, and it's super cheap for the performance it offers. It's not the easiest thing to install, and IMO the aesthetics are meh, but price to performance wise it's really hard to beat, especially when that money could be put towards a better GPU.
The motherboard is the cheapest B650 board on the market, and while it's nothing special, it's also perfectly adequate for any CPU you can currently put in the socket, and again, that money can be put towards something that would actually affect performance.
The RAM is the cheapest 6000 CL30 speed bin, which on an AM5 setup is best speed bin you can get.
SSD is a well reviewed 2TB. You can probably get by with a cheaper model, though this was the cheapest one I remember the reviews being good of.
Case is super easy to build in, plus it's white with RGB fans so you can have your ideal aesthetic.
PSU is a very well reviewed 850W, which should be good enough for most GPUs you'll put in this system.

As for the CPU/GPU, it's complicated. Given your Windows 10 preference, you really should go AMD, though generally they're the better value as of now. The two options I put in that list for you to pick between are the 7800X3D and the 7600. The 7600 is a very capable gaming chip that would do more than well enough for the games you're looking to play for pretty cheap, but the 7800X3D isn't all that much more expensive and is the best gaming CPU you can currently buy.

As for the GPU, there's three cards in there, the 7800 XT, RTX 4070, and 7900 XT. The 4070 and 7800 XT perform about the same in traditional raster performance, and their prices are about the same (the 4070 is $20 more), though the extra features of the 4070 like NVENC (if you plan on streaming this is very nice to have), CUDA, significantly better ray tracing, and much better power consumption make it the better pick IMO (just the lower power consumption would probably have the card pay for itself within a year or two depending on how expensive electric is near you). The one advantage the 7800 XT has is an extra 4GB of VRAM, though personally I don't see that necessarily becoming that big a deal within the life of the card, but if you plan on keeping the system for another 8 years it might be worth considering. The 7900 XT is the fastest card of all three of them while being the most expensive (~40% faster on average). If you get it, you will be just at the maximum of the budget with the 7600, while if you go for one of the slower cards, you can go up to the 7800X3D and have a CPU that can power the top end card from 4-5 years in the future if you want to upgrade at that point.

I'll let you make that pick, since there are reasons to go either way. I'd probably go X3D and 4070 for my system, then put the money left over towards a future GPU upgrade in 4-5 years, but if you don't want to think about upgrading your GPU for a while going the 7900 XT method would also work, plus you an always upgrade your CPU at that same interval if you think about it.