First time build

[Call Me Mav]

Budget (including currency): 1,500usd

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: I don't really play any AAA titles. Main games I play are Predecessor, Runescape, and other like titles.

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): 

Below is just kind of a list I have smacked together to get a base foundation of what I'm looking for. I am looking for advice on where i can spend my money better, and if you will, include why so I can better understand for future reference. I'm not at all looking for a power house, but I'm looking for decent FPS, reliability, and the absolute best bang for the buck. Thank you.

 

Monitor:  244hz 1080p AOC

 

https://pcbuilder.net/rigs/LLMnqu/

 

[kitnoman]

 

22 minutes ago, Call Me Mav said:

https://pcbuilder.net/rigs/LLMnqu/

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X

ASUS TUF Gaming A520M-PLUS (WiFi)

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 X 8GB) DDR4 4000+

SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD With Heatsink 1TB PCIe Gen 4 

Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L

This is a decent mobo, but there are B550m boards that's around the same price. While the ram isn't bad, but depending on the price, it might be higher than what you need. Basically for the 5000 series CPUs, the sweet spot is 3600ghz with the lowest latency as possible(average are cl18-16, anything lower is good but if there's like $30-50, for a ddr4 that to high now). The storage is also good, but that's a bit expensive for your budget as well. Then you take look at the part that, you won't get the gen 4 speed that you paid for since you chose an A520m that only support gen 3. What this means is the speed would be reduce to gen 3 speed which is around 3000-3300mb/s. Also samsung isn't the best anymore, there are other brands that performs the same or better while have a more reasonable price. While the case is decent enough.

22 minutes ago, Call Me Mav said:

XFX Speedster SWFT 210 Radeon RX 6600

Monitor:  244hz 1080p AOC

Now I've put these together as they're very much related. First of, 6600 would probably not get 244fps on most games at 1080p. Depending on the price, it might be more worth it to get a 6650xt or 7600 at least. But even 7600 or 7600xt might not get those consistent high fps.

22 minutes ago, Call Me Mav said:

Noctua NF-F12 PWM, Premium Quiet Fan, 4-Pin

Seasonic Focus V3 GX-750, 750W 80+ Gold

While these two parts are great, but the fans might be a bit expensive, considering your budget and the fact that your cpu gpu won't produce that much heat. For the PSU, that's great but there might be other brands and model that's more affordable.

I would recommend these two build. This one is closer to your current build in price, but would definitely have a higher cpu and gpu performance. In general get a Case with decent fans included. For budget gaming builds, it needs to be balane bt get the best gpu you can. Because a better gpu would in general have a better performance than a build with better CPU. For example 7700x+7800xt would be better overall than 7800x3d + 7700xt. Another to make sure you watch reviews on and don't just buy teh cheapest is the monitor. You would always be looking at your monitor, so even if your gpu and cpu are great, if the monitor sucks, you might not have a good gaming experience.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($214.09 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($33.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2 Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($94.97 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Crucial P5 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($74.93 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI MECH 2X CLASSIC OC Radeon RX 7600 8 GB Video Card  ($249.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Phanteks XT PRO ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Total: $917.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-15 12:18 EDT-0400

 

But with your max budget, this would definitely get you those 200 and even 300+fps on those FPS games at 1080p.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($356.00 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($33.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B650 LiveMixer ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($94.97 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Acer Predator GM7000 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($77.98 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: ASRock Challenger OC Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Video Card  ($489.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Phanteks XT PRO ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 850 - V2 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($94.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1347.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-15 12:28 EDT-0400

[Call Me Mav]

25 minutes ago, kitnoman said:

 

This is a decent mobo, but there are B550m boards that's around the same price. While the ram isn't bad, but depending on the price, it might be higher than what you need. Basically for the 5000 series CPUs, the sweet spot is 3600ghz with the lowest latency as possible(average are cl18-16, anything lower is good but if there's like $30-50, for a ddr4 that to high now). The storage is also good, but that's a bit expensive for your budget as well. Then you take look at the part that, you won't get the gen 4 speed that you paid for since you chose an A520m that only support gen 3. What this means is the speed would be reduce to gen 3 speed which is around 3000-3300mb/s. Also samsung isn't the best anymore, there are other brands that performs the same or better while have a more reasonable price. While the case is decent enough.

Now I've put these together as they're very much related. First of, 6600 would probably not get 244fps on most games at 1080p. Depending on the price, it might be more worth it to get a 6650xt or 7600 at least. But even 7600 or 7600xt might not get those consistent high fps.

While these two parts are great, but the fans might be a bit expensive, considering your budget and the fact that your cpu gpu won't produce that much heat. For the PSU, that's great but there might be other brands and model that's more affordable.

I would recommend these two build. This one is closer to your current build in price, but would definitely have a higher cpu and gpu performance. In general get a Case with decent fans included. For budget gaming builds, it needs to be balane bt get the best gpu you can. Because a better gpu would in general have a better performance than a build with better CPU. For example 7700x+7800xt would be better overall than 7800x3d + 7700xt. Another to make sure you watch reviews on and don't just buy teh cheapest is the monitor. You would always be looking at your monitor, so even if your gpu and cpu are great, if the monitor sucks, you might not have a good gaming experience.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($214.09 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($33.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2 Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($94.97 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Crucial P5 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($74.93 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI MECH 2X CLASSIC OC Radeon RX 7600 8 GB Video Card  ($249.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Phanteks XT PRO ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Total: $917.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-15 12:18 EDT-0400

 

But with your max budget, this would definitely get you those 200 and even 300+fps on those FPS games at 1080p.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($356.00 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($33.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B650 LiveMixer ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Silicon Power Value Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($94.97 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Acer Predator GM7000 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($77.98 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: ASRock Challenger OC Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Video Card  ($489.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Phanteks XT PRO ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 850 - V2 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($94.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1347.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-15 12:28 EDT-0400

Wow, thank you for taking the time to put this together. Both the CPU and GPU are ones that I was looking at, but I wasn't sure if that was going to be overkill for what I was looking for (assuming I have no clue what overkill is). Big thanks on the motherboard suggestion, because that is one thing that I absolutely have no clue about. Only big question I have now is, at the price point of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, how does that compare against the Ryzen 9 5950X? It was another CPU I was looking at, I still get a little confused with all the "GEN" compatibilities and making sure everything is running optimally with each other.

 

While $1,500 is my budget, it is not a hard lock, but more of a general direction I set for myself to build what I felt like would be a decent gaming computer for what I do. 

 

As for the micro case option, I have a dual motor electronic desk that I have my current PC bolted underneath. So I'm trying to keep weight down enough to not over strain the motors, keeping in mind that both computers will be attached underneath.

 

I went with the Noctua fans because they were overkill honestly. I have them in my current build, and I absolutely love them, I'm a BIM Modeler so that PC constantly has a heavy load on it, and it is almost completely silent aside from the GPU going absolutely bonkers (I made a horrifyingly bad choice when picking the GPU for 3D modeling XD).

[kitnoman]

6 hours ago, Call Me Mav said:

Wow, thank you for taking the time to put this together. Both the CPU and GPU are ones that I was looking at, but I wasn't sure if that was going to be overkill for what I was looking for (assuming I have no clue what overkill is). Big thanks on the motherboard suggestion, because that is one thing that I absolutely have no clue about. Only big question I have now is, at the price point of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, how does that compare against the Ryzen 9 5950X? It was another CPU I was looking at, I still get a little confused with all the "GEN" compatibilities and making sure everything is running optimally with each other.

it's a great cpu, but 7800x3d is best for gaming. I haven't seen benchmarks between the 2 in productivity, but I would assume it would be better a bit has it has more cores. So in PC, ryzen or intel 3 and 5 are basically entry to mid level components(i3 ryzen 3, i5/ ryzen 5), while the ryzen 7 and Intel I7 mid to high tier gaming PCs. The I9s and ryzen 9 like 5950x are really those halo products and gear towards productivity with their high core count. If you have a budget, max the gpu first and at just get the highest ryzen 7 or I7 you can get. Plus 1440p would be the new standard in just a short years. If you build your PC now with a 7800xt, you will realize that and even probably 7700xt are already overkill for 1080p. Just like when the gtx 10 series like 1060 6gb or gx 580 were overkill for 720p. 

 

While the gen is just the generation. At least for now intel and AMD desktop have similar naming scheme. basically the first 1-2 digit indicate there the generation. The higher the number, the newer, like the ryzen 9 5950x, the 5 indicates that it' from 5000 series. Then te 3rd number going from right to left(just like how Japanese reads), the 9 in 5950x, means it tier within that generation, here its a ryzen 9, the 5700x, 5800x and 5800x3d are all ryzen 7. This is the same with intel. They have one more digit since their Intel I core naming as started longer. So 13 and 14 gen would start that those numbers, I5 13600k and 14600k are both I5 from one gen to the next. The last two digits usually means they're either fresh or overclock or both, basically slightly better. Or at least for AMD they don't have enough naming as 5900x is already highest. they an't go 6000 because that would be another generation. Lastly the letter depending on which if it's from intel or AMD would mean different things. Like the x on AMD 5600x means that it's has a default higher clock and frequency and tdp compare to 5600.

6 hours ago, Call Me Mav said:

While $1,500 is my budget, it is not a hard lock, but more of a general direction I set for myself to build what I felt like would be a decent gaming computer for what I do.

At the very least don't go lower than 6600/6650xt/3060ti/7600. But personally, I would 6700xt 6750xt or 7700xt. If you wish to keep your current GPU longer, get the gpu with at least 12gb vram.

6 hours ago, Call Me Mav said:

 

As for the micro case option, I have a dual motor electronic desk that I have my current PC bolted underneath. So I'm trying to keep weight down enough to not over strain the motors, keeping in mind that both computers will be attached underneath.

 

I went with the Noctua fans because they were overkill honestly. I have them in my current build, and I absolutely love them, I'm a BIM Modeler so that PC constantly has a heavy load on it, and it is almost completely silent aside from the GPU going absolutely bonkers (I made a horrifyingly bad choice when picking the GPU for 3D modeling XD).

There's really not much limitation now, unlike say 5 to 10yrs ago. You can even go with an ITX build to get it even smaller and still have space for good pc. The only problem is budget as smaller case and motherboard generally are more expensive. If you are 3d modeling and other productivity. You should google the actual application to see if their gpu or cpu intensive. If you are not planning to upgrade until like 5 or more years. Then I would suggest intel, as the current match up, they are better in productivity. In terms of GPU as well, nvidia's is generally better in productivity. You would probably need higher ram starting with 32gb with for this task.

 

For a productivity build and gaming, this should work. The only downside of going with intel is that you are stuck with 13th and 14th gen. As their motherboard only support those to generation. So when they release a the 15th gen, it would be on a different platform. As for AMD, the current 7000 series is the first on their AM5 platform and as they plan to support it for 4-5yrs or more. Then that means, at the very least, AM5 will support at least 3-4 generation, all the way to AMD 9000 or 10k, hopefully. What that means for you and me, is that if AMD 9800x3d is so much faster than what we all have right now, then you only need to buy a new cpu and just update your bios and it would work on your current system. You won't need to get a new motherboard.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K 3.4 GHz 20-Core Processor  ($389.99 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($76.98 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock Z690M-ITX/ax Mini ITX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($134.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($53.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Acer Predator GM7000 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($77.98 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Asus DUAL GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card  ($589.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: RAIJINTEK OPHION Mini ITX Desktop Case  ($78.53 @ Newegg Sellers) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.99 @ Best Buy) 
Total: $1492.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-15 20:56 EDT-0400

[Call Me Mav]

19 hours ago, kitnoman said:

it's a great cpu, but 7800x3d is best for gaming. I haven't seen benchmarks between the 2 in productivity, but I would assume it would be better a bit has it has more cores. So in PC, ryzen or intel 3 and 5 are basically entry to mid level components(i3 ryzen 3, i5/ ryzen 5), while the ryzen 7 and Intel I7 mid to high tier gaming PCs. The I9s and ryzen 9 like 5950x are really those halo products and gear towards productivity with their high core count. If you have a budget, max the gpu first and at just get the highest ryzen 7 or I7 you can get. Plus 1440p would be the new standard in just a short years. If you build your PC now with a 7800xt, you will realize that and even probably 7700xt are already overkill for 1080p. Just like when the gtx 10 series like 1060 6gb or gx 580 were overkill for 720p. 

 

While the gen is just the generation. At least for now intel and AMD desktop have similar naming scheme. basically the first 1-2 digit indicate there the generation. The higher the number, the newer, like the ryzen 9 5950x, the 5 indicates that it' from 5000 series. Then te 3rd number going from right to left(just like how Japanese reads), the 9 in 5950x, means it tier within that generation, here its a ryzen 9, the 5700x, 5800x and 5800x3d are all ryzen 7. This is the same with intel. They have one more digit since their Intel I core naming as started longer. So 13 and 14 gen would start that those numbers, I5 13600k and 14600k are both I5 from one gen to the next. The last two digits usually means they're either fresh or overclock or both, basically slightly better. Or at least for AMD they don't have enough naming as 5900x is already highest. they an't go 6000 because that would be another generation. Lastly the letter depending on which if it's from intel or AMD would mean different things. Like the x on AMD 5600x means that it's has a default higher clock and frequency and tdp compare to 5600.

At the very least don't go lower than 6600/6650xt/3060ti/7600. But personally, I would 6700xt 6750xt or 7700xt. If you wish to keep your current GPU longer, get the gpu with at least 12gb vram.

There's really not much limitation now, unlike say 5 to 10yrs ago. You can even go with an ITX build to get it even smaller and still have space for good pc. The only problem is budget as smaller case and motherboard generally are more expensive. If you are 3d modeling and other productivity. You should google the actual application to see if their gpu or cpu intensive. If you are not planning to upgrade until like 5 or more years. Then I would suggest intel, as the current match up, they are better in productivity. In terms of GPU as well, nvidia's is generally better in productivity. You would probably need higher ram starting with 32gb with for this task.

 

For a productivity build and gaming, this should work. The only downside of going with intel is that you are stuck with 13th and 14th gen. As their motherboard only support those to generation. So when they release a the 15th gen, it would be on a different platform. As for AMD, the current 7000 series is the first on their AM5 platform and as they plan to support it for 4-5yrs or more. Then that means, at the very least, AM5 will support at least 3-4 generation, all the way to AMD 9000 or 10k, hopefully. What that means for you and me, is that if AMD 9800x3d is so much faster than what we all have right now, then you only need to buy a new cpu and just update your bios and it would work on your current system. You won't need to get a new motherboard.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K 3.4 GHz 20-Core Processor  ($389.99 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 56.3 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($76.98 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock Z690M-ITX/ax Mini ITX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($134.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($53.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Acer Predator GM7000 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($77.98 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Asus DUAL GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card  ($589.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: RAIJINTEK OPHION Mini ITX Desktop Case  ($78.53 @ Newegg Sellers) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.99 @ Best Buy) 
Total: $1492.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-15 20:56 EDT-0400

Thank's again, so I ended up buying a 7800xt 12gb asus model. and I think im going to go with the ryzen 9 7900x+3d. I think this will work for me now in my current prebuilt Corsair until i have the approval to expand my budget more to finish the build.