Building a gaming PC with my son

[HiJoeK]

Budget (including currency):  1,000 USD

Country: United States

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Modern games - mostly 1080. upgrade path to 1440 would be fine.

Other details My son wants to build a gaming PC. I've been out of the hardware loop for...15 years now. We don't need a monitor or any peripherals. He set himself a budget of 700, but he doesn't know I'm willing in throw in another 300 or so. That puts the budget around 1,000 USD. I've been looking at some of the build guides at pcpartpicker, but being out of the loop, I feel lost.

 

What is important to him: Playing his favorite games at a "decent framerate and quality" as he put it. His current computer is a laptop using AMD integrated graphics, so anything is probably better .  (edit: and RGB )

What is important to me: Not wasting money, and a good upgrade path for the next 3-5 years.

 

This is what we were looking at: Modest AMD Gaming Build. Is this good? To me that would the list below. Any tips or advise on what to look for would be awesome!

• not buying older parts that have better performance at an equivalent price
• would be upgradable as his needs/wants change. I know I could add more ram or storage - i'm thinking more about the CPU/GPU platforms
• would be able to play Fortnite, modded Minecraft (which is more on the CPU in my experience), and other esports titles. He isn't really in to AAA games right now, but I think that is because he doesn't have a computer that is even capable. So if it could play modern games at 1080 50ish FPS then it would be a bonus

 

edit: I have two unused legal copies of Win11 so that will not have to factor in to the price

[Chapunna]

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/kYKH99/great-amd-gaming-build

 

Add 100 and get this its more better but change case with fans

[brob]

PCPartPicker Part List

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($219.99 @ B&H) 

CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin King SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($19.29 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte B650M DS3H Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Amazon) 

Memory: Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($94.97 @ Amazon) 

Storage: TEAMGROUP T-Force Cardea Z44Q 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($105.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: MSI VENTUS 2X BLACK OC GeForce RTX 4060 8 GB Video Card ($294.99 @ B&H) 

Case: Montech AIR 100 ARGB MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Best Buy) 

Total: $1025.20

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-03 13:54 EST-0500

[Vinlhere]

49 minutes ago, brob said:

PCPartPicker Part List

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($219.99 @ B&H) 

CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin King SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($19.29 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte B650M DS3H Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Amazon) 

Memory: Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($94.97 @ Amazon) 

Storage: TEAMGROUP T-Force Cardea Z44Q 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($105.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: MSI VENTUS 2X BLACK OC GeForce RTX 4060 8 GB Video Card ($294.99 @ B&H) 

Case: Montech AIR 100 ARGB MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Best Buy) 

Total: $1025.20

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-03 13:54 EST-0500

This. The unfortunate thing right now, and with the Modest AMD build that is on pcpartpicker is that AM4 is technically a last gen socket so upgrade wise it's not good since you've have to upgrade almost everything for the AM5 socket (CPU, motherboard and Memory) 

 

For a somewhat simple upgrade path for 5 years I'd say this:

 

1. The 4060 is perfect for a starter GPU. If you're looking for an upgrade that is cost effective(if that's even a thing(thanks nvidia)) I would jump to whatever the 5000 series of 6000 series xx70 card, ie 5070 or 6070 when they release or an upgrade is wanted/needed. 

 

2. The 7600x gives a bit of thermal head room so if you or son want to get more into the nitty gritty of it then you can swap the cooler for something more akin to a 3x 120mm AIO cooler you could overclock a small amount to get a bit more power out of the chip if it's needed in the next 5 years. 

 

Aside from that this machine should easily last you 5 years if not more if games stick around where they are now with new releases for 1080p/1440p. 

 

[MadAnt250]

2 hours ago, HiJoeK said:

Not wasting money,

Go for an SSD with a DRAM cache. The Crucial P5 plus nvme I believe has a DRAM cache and is like under $80 for 1TB of capacity.

Also, go for 32GB of RAM, modern gamers do a bit more than just game these days with lots of apps open while gaming. Also, modded games can use up a lot of memory, and yes modded Minecraft too. I think most of the replies will recommend 32GB of RAM anyway.

 

[Why_Me]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($141.00 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: *Thermalright Assassin X Refined SE ARGB V2 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($19.89 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *ASRock Z690 PG Riptide ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: *Silicon Power GAMING 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($54.97 @ Amazon) 
Storage: *TEAMGROUP MP33 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($61.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: *Asus DUAL OC Radeon RX 7600 XT 16 GB Video Card  ($329.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: *MagniumGear NEO AIR (2023) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: *Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 (2024) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Operating System: *Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit  ($114.99 @ Newegg) 
Case Fan: *ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($8.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $971.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-03 17:41 EST-0500

[HiJoeK]

3 hours ago, Why_Me said:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($141.00 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: *Thermalright Assassin X Refined SE ARGB V2 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($19.89 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *ASRock Z690 PG Riptide ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: *Silicon Power GAMING 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($54.97 @ Amazon) 
Storage: *TEAMGROUP MP33 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($61.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: *Asus DUAL OC Radeon RX 7600 XT 16 GB Video Card  ($329.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: *MagniumGear NEO AIR (2023) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: *Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 (2024) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Operating System: *Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit  ($114.99 @ Newegg) 
Case Fan: *ARCTIC P12 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($8.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $971.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-03 17:41 EST-0500

Thanks. I forgot to mention that I already have a copy of Win11 to use so that makes this list even cheaper. How does the 7600 compare to the 4060 rec'd above? Is there a place I can go to compare perf? (I know..noob here...i'm starting from scratch  )

 

edit: found userbenchmark.com which does what I want. I guess they are fairly similar in price:perf

[Why_Me]

2 hours ago, HiJoeK said:

Thanks. I forgot to mention that I already have a copy of Win11 to use so that makes this list even cheaper. How does the 7600 compare to the 4060 rec'd above? Is there a place I can go to compare perf? (I know..noob here...i'm starting from scratch  )

 

edit: found userbenchmark.com which does what I want. I guess they are fairly similar in price:perf

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/sapphire-radeon-rx-7600-xt-pulse/

 

[4eyeguy]

2 hours ago, HiJoeK said:

Thanks. I forgot to mention that I already have a copy of Win11 to use so that makes this list even cheaper. How does the 7600 compare to the 4060 rec'd above? Is there a place I can go to compare perf? (I know..noob here...i'm starting from scratch  )

 

edit: found userbenchmark.com which does what I want. I guess they are fairly similar in price:perf

4060 gets better performance but has less vram. If you’re willing to go 30ish bucks over budget you can do this: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/chyrusreed/saved/#view=pds9K8

(It could be cheaper without rgb)

I really think that what you are doing for your kid is great and really kind of you and wish you the best!

[HiJoeK]

Thanks everyone. I think I have enough to put a part list together with him. I'll.post back tomorrow with something. 

 

Appreciate all the help

[HiJoeK]

Morning all Here is what I put together. Just a few questions. And thanks again for helping. The last time I had to part together a computer was in 2004

 

• How's the cooler?
• Is that a decent powersupply? What about the manufacturer? I see it has some mixed reviews but this is the internet and some people are picky
• I know the memory is lower than recommended, but I can always throw in another 2x8 kit if needed. Is it too slow though?
• I ended up choosing the 3060. Mostly because it is a little cheaper and seems to be within 10% of the 4060. Is that a dumb move?

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($219.99 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING SE-214-XT 68.2 CFM CPU Cooler  ($17.98 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650M DS3H Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR5-5200 CL36 Memory  ($64.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial P5 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($78.68 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  ($289.39 @ Newegg) 
Case: Montech AIR 100 ARGB MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($67.98 @ Amazon) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WBAX200 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax PCIe x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($32.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $971.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-04 11:42 EST-0500

 

 

[Bagzie]

20 hours ago, MadAnt250 said:

Go for an SSD with a DRAM cache. The Crucial P5 plus nvme I believe has a DRAM cache and is like under $80 for 1TB of capacity.

Also, go for 32GB of RAM, modern gamers do a bit more than just game these days with lots of apps open while gaming. Also, modded games can use up a lot of memory, and yes modded Minecraft too. I think most of the replies will recommend 32GB of RAM anyway.

 

Dram cache is massively overrated for a gaming machine , it makes no difference.

[brob]

32 minutes ago, HiJoeK said:

• How's the cooler?
• Is that a decent powersupply? What about the manufacturer? I see it has some mixed reviews but this is the internet and some people are picky
• I know the memory is lower than recommended, but I can always throw in another 2x8 kit if needed. Is it too slow though?
• I ended up choosing the 3060. Mostly because it is a little cheaper and seems to be within 10% of the 4060. Is that a dumb move?

 

• CPU cooler is okay.
• PSU is Tier C on https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/. Not a good choice. Invest a little more for a good ATX 3.0 compliant PSU like https://pcpartpicker.com/product/YRJp99/corsair-rm750e-2023-750-w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-cp-9020262-na.
• Actually, with DDR5 it's not necessarily a simple matter of adding another 2x8GB kit. 
• No.

You can get a decent WiFi enabled motherboard for less than the cost of using an add-on card.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor ($219.99 @ B&H) 

CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING SE-214-XT 68.2 CFM CPU Cooler ($17.98 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: MSI PRO B650M-A WIFI Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg) 

Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($92.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Crucial P5 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($78.68 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card ($289.39 @ Newegg) 

Case: Montech AIR 100 ARGB MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.98 @ Amazon) 

Total: $988.99

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-04 12:27 EST-0500

[MadAnt250]

37 minutes ago, Bagzie said:

Dram cache is massively overrated for a gaming machine , it makes no difference.

You do know a gaming PC is used for other tasks too? Cacheless SSD's wear out faster, don't bother trying to save a few bucks on a cachleless OS drive that may have a bunch of other things written and rewritten on it.

[Bagzie]

2 hours ago, MadAnt250 said:

You do know a gaming PC is used for other tasks too? Cacheless SSD's wear out faster, don't bother trying to save a few bucks on a cachleless OS drive that may have a bunch of other things written and rewritten on it.

Never ever had a drive fail on me because its exceeded its TBW rating.

 

Sorry but unless you do large file transfers on a regular basis they are basically the same.

 

Having an ssd is important , Outside of specific use cases a drive that uses slc cache is fine.

 

My sn770 has a TBW of 1200TB and even though it's not the best drive it still runs absolute rings around my 970 evo in every real world scenario.

 

On average I'm writing about 8gb per day , That's quite literally 40 years before it will go read only.

 

Now nobody uses a gaming PC for just gaming that's correct but I don't think his obviously young son who plays minecraft and fortnite is going to be requiring a dram cache on his ssd.

 

 

 

 

[Why_Me]

4 hours ago, HiJoeK said:

Morning all Here is what I put together. Just a few questions. And thanks again for helping. The last time I had to part together a computer was in 2004

 

• How's the cooler?
• Is that a decent powersupply? What about the manufacturer? I see it has some mixed reviews but this is the internet and some people are picky
• I know the memory is lower than recommended, but I can always throw in another 2x8 kit if needed. Is it too slow though?
• I ended up choosing the 3060. Mostly because it is a little cheaper and seems to be within 10% of the 4060. Is that a dumb move?

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($219.99 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING SE-214-XT 68.2 CFM CPU Cooler  ($17.98 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650M DS3H Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR5-5200 CL36 Memory  ($64.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial P5 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($78.68 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  ($289.39 @ Newegg) 
Case: Montech AIR 100 ARGB MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($67.98 @ Amazon) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WBAX200 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax PCIe x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($32.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $971.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-04 11:42 EST-0500

 

 

You want 2x16GB DDR5 6000 CL30 for these builds.

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/cCKscf/silicon-power-value-gaming-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr5-6000-cl30-memory-sp032gxlwu60afdeae

[MadAnt250]

19 hours ago, Bagzie said:

Never ever had a drive fail on me because its exceeded its TBW rating.

 

Sorry but unless you do large file transfers on a regular basis they are basically the same.

 

Having an ssd is important , Outside of specific use cases a drive that uses slc cache is fine.

 

My sn770 has a TBW of 1200TB and even though it's not the best drive it still runs absolute rings around my 970 evo in every real world scenario.

 

On average I'm writing about 8gb per day , That's quite literally 40 years before it will go read only.

 

Now nobody uses a gaming PC for just gaming that's correct but I don't think his obviously young son who plays minecraft and fortnite is going to be requiring a dram cache on his ssd.

 

 

 

 

First off your SSD uses system RAM for caching. Second I'll trust the Tech Tip Guy here in the video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ybIXsrLCgdM

 

Although I don't don't trust the tech tip guy for everything.

[Bagzie]

1 hour ago, MadAnt250 said:

First off your SSD uses system RAM for caching. Second I'll trust the Tech Tip Guy here in the video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ybIXsrLCgdM

 

Although I don't don't trust the tech tip guy for everything.

Trying to work out what I said that you are actually responding to or did you just feel the need to type something?

 

Drives without dram on them still have a cache it just uses a portion of the drive in slc mode.

 

The video you linked is 6 years old when alot of drives did need to use system memory as cache , fancy controllers and the above mentioned slc cache as an option has largely negated that.

 

For the vast majority of people read performance is infinitely more useful that sustained write speeds.

 

Performance does fall off a cliff after you have written about 300gb of data in one sitting..

 

Do you do that often? 

[MadAnt250]

4 hours ago, Bagzie said:

Trying to work out what I said that you are actually responding to or did you just feel the need to type something?

 

Drives without dram on them still have a cache it just uses a portion of the drive in slc mode.

 

The video you linked is 6 years old when alot of drives did need to use system memory as cache , fancy controllers and the above mentioned slc cache as an option has largely negated that.

 

For the vast majority of people read performance is infinitely more useful that sustained write speeds.

 

Performance does fall off a cliff after you have written about 300gb of data in one sitting..

 

Do you do that often? 

Ok, so...

I see what you are saying.

 

I'm a bit out of date, and so is the info I have used over time. 

 

Well... oof! Time flies, oof on me.