First time builder, looking for advice

OppositeNote · January 4, 2025

Budget (including currency): €1800-2000 with some wiggle room

Country: Belgium

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: mostly factory/sim games (Satisfactory, Cities Skylines 1&2, ...) and single player RPG's, also some shooters (CoD, Battlefield, Overwatch, ...)

some minor 3d modelling

Other details: currently playing on a Lenovo Legion Y520 laptop, but it just isn't cutting it anymore so looking to finally build a PC.

I already have a great mouse (Logitech G502 Hero) but no keyboard or monitor.

MOBO: I'd like to have WiFi since we're still renovating and there's no ethernet yet where I'm planning to put my pc. Some room for upgrades later on would be great as well.

CPU: I was leaning towards AMD 5600x simply because of all the problems I keep hearing with the 13th and 14th gen intel CPU's, however any advice is welcome.

COOLER: I've heard almost only good about the Peerless Assassin 120mm so I'll probably go for that, since I feel like an AIO would be overkill for what I'm trying to do.

MEMORY: Looking for 32GB DDR5 but not sure what brand or make...

STORAGE: 1-2TB Nvme SSD is the goal, leaning towards Samsung

GPU: I do have an RTX 3070 that I can buy from a close friend for around €250. It was used in his mining rig but undervolted and always kept cool so it should be fine for some time yet.

CASE: Looking to build in the Cooler Master Qube 500 Flatpack, mostly because it seems to have plenty of room inside, plus i get to have fun 3dprinting some stuff to hang onto it.

PSU: Depends on the CPU probably, but I'd rather buy a good Gold or Plat one now and be safe for the foreseeable future, rather than have to upgrade it as well when I eventually upgrade the GPU.

MONITOR: 1440p at 120hz would be great but lower is fine, so long as there's a feasible upgrade path for when more budget comes up.

Thanks in advance for the help!

YoungBlade · January 4, 2025

With that budget, you can definitely go up to AM5, and get better than a Ryzen 5 CPU.

Here's what I've got:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://be.pcpartpicker.com/list/kyKdb2

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (€279.00 @ Amazon Belgium)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler (€42.90 @ Amazon Belgium)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard (€149.00 @ Amazon Belgium)
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (€99.90 @ Megekko)
Storage: Lexar NM620 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€105.21 @ Azerty)
Video Card: NVIDIA Founders Edition GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB Video Card (€250.00)
Case: Cooler Master QUBE 500 Flatpack ATX Mid Tower Case (€69.90 @ Megekko)
Power Supply: Deepcool PM850D 850 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (€93.85 @ Megekko)
Monitor: Gigabyte M27Q 27.0" 2560 x 1440 170 Hz Monitor (€224.97 @ Amazon Belgium)
Total: €1314.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-01-04 18:48 CET+0100

You've still got plenty of room here if you want to go higher end, but for the use-case you're describing, I think this should be solid.

Since new graphics cards are going to be announced in a matter of days, there might be better options there, but a €250 3070 is basically impossible to beat in the current new market. Maybe AMD's 9070 XT will turn out to be a great value, but Nvidia won't be launching anything in the sub €500 range for a long while to go.

Still, if you did want more horsepower from the GPU, the 7700 will easily keep up with whatever upgrade you throw at it in the next year or two, and by saving money now, you can upgrade the GPU sooner down the road.

Millios · January 4, 2025

https://be.pcpartpicker.com/user/OmegaTheMan/saved/XkHRzy

Smt like this should be great

To be frank if it wasnt for the 3d modeling you could get a bit more out of this but this will do perfectly well regardless

What @YoungBlade is also a good choice if you wanna save a buck but to be able to just hop on and not think about upgrades for a while I'd suggest the build I listed on the basis that everything there will power through tasks but new cards are coming out soon and I'd suggest waiting for those

Why_Me · January 4, 2025

https://www.kitguru.net/components/cases/james-dawson/cooler-master-qube-500-flat-pack-case-review/

https://pcoutlet.com/parts/video-cards/nvidia-rtx-5070-and-rtx-5070-ti-specs-rumors-release-info-pricing-estimates

https://www.msi.com/Monitor/G272QPF-E2

If you can wait a few weeks from now before purchasing your gpu the RTX 5070 12GB and RTX 5070 Ti 16GB are expected to be announced (launched) along with the 5090 and 5080 during this year's CES later this month.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 7 7700 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (€279.00 @ Amazon Belgium)
CPU Cooler: *Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler (€52.42 @ Azerty)
Motherboard: *Asus TUF GAMING B650-E WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard (€164.95 @ Megekko)
Memory: *Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (€109.90 @ Amazon Belgium)
Storage: *Patriot P400 Lite 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€104.90 @ Megekko)
Case: *Montech AIR 903 MAX ATX Mid Tower Case (€84.42 @ Amazon Belgium)
Power Supply: *MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€118.31 @ Azerty)
Monitor: *MSI G272QPF E2 27.0" 2560 x 1440 180 Hz Monitor (€179.00 @ Amazon Belgium)
Total: €1092.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-01-04 19:35 CET+0100

brob · January 4, 2025

1 hour ago, OppositeNote said:

Budget (including currency): €1800-2000 with some wiggle room

Country: Belgium

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: mostly factory/sim games (Satisfactory, Cities Skylines 1&2, ...) and single player RPG's, also some shooters (CoD, Battlefield, Overwatch, ...)

some minor 3d modelling

Other details: currently playing on a Lenovo Legion Y520 laptop, but it just isn't cutting it anymore so looking to finally build a PC.

I already have a great mouse (Logitech G502 Hero) but no keyboard or monitor.

MOBO: I'd like to have WiFi since we're still renovating and there's no ethernet yet where I'm planning to put my pc. Some room for upgrades later on would be great as well.

CPU: I was leaning towards AMD 5600x simply because of all the problems I keep hearing with the 13th and 14th gen intel CPU's, however any advice is welcome.

COOLER: I've heard almost only good about the Peerless Assassin 120mm so I'll probably go for that, since I feel like an AIO would be overkill for what I'm trying to do.

MEMORY: Looking for 32GB DDR5 but not sure what brand or make...

STORAGE: 1-2TB Nvme SSD is the goal, leaning towards Samsung

GPU: I do have an RTX 3070 that I can buy from a close friend for around €250. It was used in his mining rig but undervolted and always kept cool so it should be fine for some time yet.

CASE: Looking to build in the Cooler Master Qube 500 Flatpack, mostly because it seems to have plenty of room inside, plus i get to have fun 3dprinting some stuff to hang onto it.

PSU: Depends on the CPU probably, but I'd rather buy a good Gold or Plat one now and be safe for the foreseeable future, rather than have to upgrade it as well when I eventually upgrade the GPU.

MONITOR: 1440p at 120hz would be great but lower is fine, so long as there's a feasible upgrade path for when more budget comes up.

Thanks in advance for the help!