Looking for suggestions on if i should change up my planned pc build

[Burnin]

Budget (including currency): 500US aprox.

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: VR and flatscreen gaming, playing games such as no mans sky, satisfactory, baldurs gate 3, heavily modded minecraft, and half life alyx.

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): plan on having 3 monitors at 1080p and 60Hz, and using Immersed VR for high refresh rate gaming.

Im trying to plan out my first PC build but want some advice on if i should swap anything up and would prefer to have am5 to have future upgradability please give your thoughts.


ASUS B650M-A Prime AX II AMD AM5 microATX Motherboard|
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X                                                                      |--300
G.Skill Flare X5 Series 16GB DDR5-6000                                     |

Thermaltake Contac 9 cooler |-20
G.Skill 650 Watt 80 Plus Bronze |-40

RX6600XT |-120

unsure of exact model but some corsair case i found used thats ATX |-15

 

plan on using storage i have lying around at least until i can upgrade it.

probably goes without saying but i can answer questions.

[ImWilly]

45 minutes ago, Burnin said:

ASUS B650M-A Prime AX II AMD AM5 microATX Motherboard

For starters, avoid this motherboard

Although it should be working fine with Ryzen 7600 X of your choice, the beauty of AM5 CPU is future upgradeability

And with immense choices of motherboard with similar or even lower price, it's unnecessary to settle on a bad board

If you really want a mATX board, you could go for ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2 or ASRock B650M PRO RS

And if you want a ATX size board, you could go for ASRock B650 PG Lightning/Livemixer, Gigabyte B650 Eagle AX, MSI Pro B650-S WIFI

 

45 minutes ago, Burnin said:

Thermaltake Contac 9 cooler

Not a bad choice to cooldown 7600X, but if you're willing to pay 70% more (from $20 to $35), Thermalright Peerless Assassin is good and capable of cooling down a bit more challenging CPU such as 7800X3D if you're planning to upgrade the CPU in the future without breaking the bank

Other than that, you could stick with Thermaltake Contac 9

 

45 minutes ago, Burnin said:

G.Skill 650 Watt 80 Plus Bronze

Never knew that G.Skill also make a PSU, and because not a lot of review, I can't be sure if it's a good PSU or not. The only thing that attracts is probably the $40 price tag which is ridiculously cheap

IMO, you could go for EVGA SuperNOVA or Gigabyte UD

 

45 minutes ago, Burnin said:

unsure of exact model but some corsair case i found used thats ATX

Well, as long as the motherboard and CPU cooler fits, it should be fine

[Burnin]

31 minutes ago, ImWilly said:

1 hour ago, Burnin said:

ASUS B650M-A Prime AX II AMD AM5 microATX Motherboard

For starters, avoid this motherboard

Although it should be working fine with Ryzen 7600 X of your choice, the beauty of AM5 is future upgradeability

And with immense choices of motherboard with similar or even lower price, it's unnecessary to settle on a bad board

Just wondering what makes the board bad?

[ImWilly]

1 hour ago, Burnin said:

Just wondering what makes the board bad?

The VRM performance of cooling is barely minimum

Plus the pricing of ASUS is relatively high despite for budget build.

And with lots of other manufacturer offer the same or less price with even better cooling performance, there's kinda no strong reason to stick with ASUS board expect for the brand recognition

 

But it doesn't mean that this ASUS B650M-A Prime AX II couldn't handle Ryzen 7600X

It's probably could handle it since 7600X is not a demanding CPU to start with, but the advantage of AM5 platform is that long term upgradeability to newer or higher power CPU in the future. If you're not planning on doing future upgrade for the next 3 or more years and on budget, it's better to go by AM4 that is perfectly capable and on good price because it's not the current gen model instead of sticking to motherboard that limits your upgrade choice.

 

By price comparison using Amazon pricing as reference, ASUS B650M-A Prime cost $166, ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2 cost $148 while Gigabyte B650 Eagle (full size ATX size) cost $160

So for ASUS that cost more but has no heatsink on the VRM and less VRM quantity compared to the other two, while the other brand has mentioned features while cost less, it makes no sense to stick with brand that offers less and cost more.

Plus, few months ago ASUS (especially in America) got in trouble for not honouring warranty claim from customer and making 'allegedly kidnapping situation' (it's hyperbole expression, obviously) for customer to pay up some service fee before doing repair or else they will return the RMA parts disassembled to customer

[Burnin]

11 hours ago, ImWilly said:

The VRM performance of cooling is barely minimum

Plus the pricing of ASUS is relatively high despite for budget build.

And with lots of other manufacturer offer the same or less price with even better cooling performance, there's kinda no strong reason to stick with ASUS board expect for the brand recognition

 

But it doesn't mean that this ASUS B650M-A Prime AX II couldn't handle Ryzen 7600X

It's probably could handle it since 7600X is not a demanding CPU to start with, but the advantage of AM5 platform is that long term upgradeability to newer or higher power CPU in the future. If you're not planning on doing future upgrade for the next 3 or more years and on budget, it's better to go by AM4 that is perfectly capable and on good price because it's not the current gen model instead of sticking to motherboard that limits your upgrade choice.

 

By price comparison using Amazon pricing as reference, ASUS B650M-A Prime cost $166, ASRock B650M-HDV/M.2 cost $148 while Gigabyte B650 Eagle (full size ATX size) cost $160

So for ASUS that cost more but has no heatsink on the VRM and less VRM quantity compared to the other two, while the other brand has mentioned features while cost less, it makes no sense to stick with brand that offers less and cost more.

Plus, few months ago ASUS (especially in America) got in trouble for not honouring warranty claim from customer and making 'allegedly kidnapping situation' (it's hyperbole expression, obviously) for customer to pay up some service fee before doing repair or else they will return the RMA parts disassembled to customer

Alright thanks for the detail id never even have thought to look at VRM, and the only reason i was looking at it in the first place is because of a bundle from Micro Center for 300 that included the cpu, mobo, and ram, so ill probably look more into other options especially since your right i dont plan on upgrading again in am5 lifepsan.

[ImWilly]

7 hours ago, Burnin said:

bundle from Micro Center for 300 that included the cpu, mobo, and ram

That is a pretty sweet deal with price tag of $300

8 hours ago, Burnin said:

i dont plan on upgrading again in am5 lifepsan

That's understandable, wish you could find the dream PC