First-Time PC Build (Feedback & Advice Needed)

[Darth Destiny]

Budget (including currency): $1000 USD (not including tax)

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Halo Infinite, Fortnite, Street Fighter 6, Helldivers 2, Red Dead Redemption 2 and overall a mix of higher-end/modern competitive & casual games. I *might* stream them too for fun but gaming is my top priority. 

Other details: This would be my first time building a gaming PC given my gaming laptop can't run the listed games efficiently and I would like some feedback/advice on the PCPartPicker list below. I already bought the CPU (AMD Ryzen 7 5800x) & Storage (Western Digital Blue SN580 2 TB) from this list because they were on sale. I will have enough soon this month to buy the graphics card and while I am tempted to get the 6750 XT over the 6700 XT I am not trying to spend over $300 USD. I currently have a 1080p 240hz monitor so if possible I'd like to be able to run my games at 120 FPS minimum and target 240 FPS for more competitive games. The rest of the parts I plan to buy over the summer (or in May if they go on sale and I have the money) as a new Microcenter will be opening in North Carolina soon so I will have that option along with online options. Thank you for your advice and feedback in advance! 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xyYCQP

 

[BentleyOwen123]

looks good, maybe change the cooler to a PA120SE and use the money to upgrade the gpu to a 6750x

[BentleyOwen123]

also you might want to consider the arctic p12 5 pack of fans instead.

[Why_Me]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i5-12600KF 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor  ($152.65 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: *Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($35.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *ASRock Z690 Pro RS ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: *TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($47.59 @ Amazon) 
Storage: *ADATA Legend 800 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($108.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: *Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7700 XT 12 GB Video Card  ($389.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: *Montech AIR 903 BASE ATX Mid Tower Case  ($65.00 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: *MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.00 @ MSI) 
Total: $1009.11
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-05-03 16:43 EDT-0400

[BentleyOwen123]

1 minute ago, Why_Me said:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i5-12600KF 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor  ($152.65 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: *Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($35.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *ASRock Z690 Pro RS ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: *TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($47.59 @ Amazon) 
Storage: *ADATA Legend 800 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($108.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: *Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7700 XT 12 GB Video Card  ($389.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: *Montech AIR 903 BASE ATX Mid Tower Case  ($65.00 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: *MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.00 @ MSI) 
Total: $1009.11
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-05-03 16:43 EDT-0400

im likeing this one, unless you need 8 cores i would return the cpu and pick this up instead

[filpo]

22 minutes ago, Darth Destiny said:

AMD Ryzen 7 5800x

if you return this I'd go for this 

This is over budget but it'll get MUCH better performance than your list and it has a much better upgrade path with am5 and ddr5

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU Cooler: *Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($33.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *ASRock B650M Pro RS Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($129.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: *TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($87.49 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Leven JPS800 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($104.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: *Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Video Card  ($479.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: *Phanteks XT PRO ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: *MSI MAG A650BN 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($59.00 @ MSI) 
Custom: 7500F ($130.00)
Total: $1075.35
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-05-03 16:44 EDT-0400

22 minutes ago, Darth Destiny said:

will have enough soon this month to buy the graphics card and while I am tempted to get the 6750 XT over the 6700 XT I am not trying to spend over $300 USD.

if you're planning to stream you'll have to do cpu encoding which is quite heavy so it's better to get a gpu with a dedicated encoder (such as one from nvidia or an AV1 encoder if your streaming service supports it)

 

22 minutes ago, Darth Destiny said:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xyYCQP

CPU cooler can be reduced to a thermalright PS120SE for better performance and a lower cost

Motherboard can be changed to this Gigabyte B550M AORUS ELITE AX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (B550M AORUS ELITE AX) - PCPartPicker

2Tb of SSD should be around $100 so a JPS800 2tb for $105 would be great for this

Corsair 4000D isn't a great case, 903 Base is quite a bit better for airflow and also has a lot of space for a radiator

A better alternative to that psu can be had for less (A750BN PCIe 5)

EDIT: A750GL PCie 5 is only $5 more so that would be better

Edited May 3 by filpo

[podkall]

7 minutes ago, filpo said:

A better alternative to that psu can be had for less (A750BN PCIe 5)

Power Supply: MSI MAG A750BN PCIE5 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($84.00 @ MSI)

 

yes

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 hour ago, podkall said:

Power Supply: MSI MAG A750BN PCIE5 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($84.00 @ MSI)

 

yes

+10$ gets you an 850w gf1 with a 10 year warranty

[Darth Destiny]

1 hour ago, filpo said:

CPU cooler can be reduced to a thermalright PS120SE for better performance and a lower cost

Motherboard can be changed to this Gigabyte B550M AORUS ELITE AX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (B550M AORUS ELITE AX) - PCPartPicker

2Tb of SSD should be around $100 so a JPS800 2tb for $105 would be great for this

Corsair 4000D isn't a great case, 903 Base is quite a bit better for airflow and also has a lot of space for a radiator

A better alternative to that psu can be had for less (A750BN PCIe 5)

EDIT: A750GL PCie 5 is only $5 more so that would be better

Thank you so much for this suggestion as it ends up saving me more money for better performance. So based on this, on the list I ended up replacing the CPU Cooler, Motherboard, Case, & Power Supply to what you've suggested. Unfortunately, I can't return the storage and CPU so I am stuck with those. I did have some questions though based on these changes I have made.

1. Will I still need the extra Thermalright TL-S12 X3 47.6 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack I have on the list or will the fans in the case suffice? 
2. Other than price what is the difference between the motherboard you recommended and the one I had chosen and why would you recommend your choice over mine? 
3. With this new build cost-wise I'll be to afford the 6750xt guaranteed but at the cost of going over budget is it worth getting the RX 7700 XT now instead and why?

[SorryBella]

1 hour ago, Darth Destiny said:

1. Will I still need the extra Thermalright TL-S12 X3 47.6 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack I have on the list or will the fans in the case suffice? 
2. Other than price what is the difference between the motherboard you recommended and the one I had chosen and why would you recommend your choice over mine? 
3. With this new build cost-wise I'll be to afford the 6750xt guaranteed but at the cost of going over budget is it worth getting the RX 7700 XT now instead and why?

1. XT Pro Ultra is the one that comes with the extra 3 intake fans. I personally would keep it so you can have those 3 fans for intake, and it still come out cheaper than current XT Pro Ultra price.
2. Well the usual adage of "more for less". That Aorus Elite is good enough for a 5800X3D in terms of VRM and it cuts out most of the extra meat that the B550M-VC have. I personally would pick the B550M Pro4 here because that is even more power for the buck, but really at $80+ for an AM4 board we really are talking edge on edge advantage.
3. All things considered, the 6750XT is not a great bump up in price when compared to 6700XT because all it is is just a power unlocked 6700XT that is close to 7700XT in performance, but would also eat up more power than the 7700XT. It would also have AV1 encoding missing which is going to be a massive issue for playback quality and worsen power consumption on video playback as more and more video platform switches to it. If you can find it equal or cheaper than 6700XT then good for you but if not the extra cost would be better off to jump to that 7700XT.

also for the record, does this mean that the 5800X and the SSDs are exempted from the budget or not? If not, how much did you pay for those 2 items?

[Darth Destiny]

1 hour ago, SorryBella said:

1. XT Pro Ultra is the one that comes with the extra 3 intake fans. I personally would keep it so you can have those 3 fans for intake, and it still come out cheaper than current XT Pro Ultra price.
2. Well the usual adage of "more for less". That Aorus Elite is good enough for a 5800X3D in terms of VRM and it cuts out most of the extra meat that the B550M-VC have. I personally would pick the B550M Pro4 here because that is even more power for the buck, but really at $80+ for an AM4 board we really are talking edge on edge advantage.
3. All things considered, the 6750XT is not a great bump up in price when compared to 6700XT because all it is is just a power unlocked 6700XT that is close to 7700XT in performance, but would also eat up more power than the 7700XT. It would also have AV1 encoding missing which is going to be a massive issue for playback quality and worsen power consumption on video playback as more and more video platform switches to it. If you can find it equal or cheaper than 6700XT then good for you but if not the extra cost would be better off to jump to that 7700XT.

also for the record, does this mean that the 5800X and the SSDs are exempted from the budget or not? If not, how much did you pay for those 2 items?

Thank you for the informative answer. Due to this, I will now be keeping the 3 fans for intake giving me a total of 6 fans. I will also be choosing the 7700 XT over just the 6750 XT given your recommendation and this now puts me around $50 over budget (but given the graphics card is arguably the most important part of the build I am ok with that as it will just take me longer to save for). 

When it comes to the motherboard however I am hesitant to get the B550M Pro4 due to it not having Wi-Fi 6e like the Gigabyte B550M AORUS ELITE AX as if I were to buy the cheapest adapter atm for Wi-Fi 6e on PCPartPicker and add it to the cost of the B550M Pro4 it would come to around $118 USD (which will put me even more over budget). So it leaves me to question whether it is worth doing that combo or going with the Gigabyte one. So if you or anyone could give further input on this that'd be great. 

To answer your question the 5800X and SSD are included in the overall budget as I paid $175 (when before it was $202) for the CPU and $114 (saving around $10 dollars for SSD) for the SSD when they were on sale and bought in a combo. 

[SorryBella]

18 hours ago, Darth Destiny said:

giving me a total of 6 fans

No just get 1 of the 3 pack, you dont need to fill the top mount unless if you are aiming for all look rather than actual performance.

18 hours ago, Darth Destiny said:

if I were to buy the cheapest adapter atm for Wi-Fi 6e on PCPartPicker and add it to the cost of the B550M Pro4 it would come to around $118 USD (which will put me even more over budget). So it leaves me to question whether it is worth doing that combo or going with the Gigabyte one.

Honestly do the Gigabyte then if wifi is your concern. I personally dont because i go hard wired on ethernet, bluetooth would be more of your concern in wireless connectivity on PC in my opinion. But yeah thanks for the info. Here's something more fitting to your budget.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($175.00 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($32.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M AORUS ELITE AX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($47.59 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN580 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($114.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7700 XT 12 GB Video Card  ($389.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Phanteks XT PRO ATX Mid Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master G700 700 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Case Fan: Thermalright TL-S12 X3 47.6 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack  ($16.89 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1017.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-05-04 17:58 EDT-0400

[Darth Destiny]

4 hours ago, SorryBella said:

No just get 1 of the 3 pack, you dont need to fill the top mount unless if you are aiming for all look rather than actual performance.

Honestly do the Gigabyte then if wifi is your concern. I personally dont because i go hard wired on ethernet, bluetooth would be more of your concern in wireless connectivity on PC in my opinion. But yeah thanks for the info. Here's something more fitting to your budget.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($175.00 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($32.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M AORUS ELITE AX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($47.59 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN580 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($114.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7700 XT 12 GB Video Card  ($389.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Phanteks XT PRO ATX Mid Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master G700 700 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Case Fan: Thermalright TL-S12 X3 47.6 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack  ($16.89 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1017.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-05-04 17:58 EDT-0400

Thank you so much for this as I mostly changed my build to this except for:

1. The CPU Cooler: Instead I chose to go with the Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler because it performs better than the Assassin for a few more dollars.  Edit: After looking more into it I ended up going with the Peerless Assassin to save money because the performance difference isn't too tremendous. 

2. The Motherboard: I think I might stick with the MSI PRO B550M-VC WIFI Micro ATX AM4 because if you look at reviews for the Gigabyte one you see more people having similar trouble with the wireless network adapter (not to mention overall the reviews for the MSI one are better than Gigabyte's reviews). This to me is important because I am unable to get ethernet so having WiFi is very important for me. 

3. The Graphics Card: After looking at competitors I found that the XFX Speedster SWFT 319 Core Radeon RX 6800 16 GB Video Card has similar (and at times better) performance to the 7700XT for $30 dollars cheaper (will be $40 dollars cheaper after May 6th) which is big given the budget I am trying to maintain. I know the 7700XT has AV1 encoding but I am not using it to take streaming seriously and more so would just be streaming only if my friends wanted to watch me play. So really as long as I get better stream quality than my 2060 gaming laptop with an RX 6800 I am leaning toward getting that more due to the price.  

All that said if you feel the exceptions I have made are not to your liking I'd be more than happy to hear why you feel I should not make those exceptions. 

[SorryBella]

3 hours ago, Darth Destiny said:

The Graphics Card

If you can find those 6800 that would be it, but yeah they are getting scarce. 6800XT on used market is also feasible.