Build for husband

[cmos12]

Budget (including currency): 1000usd

 

Country: US

 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: The Sims 4, Fortnight, web browsing / YouTube

 

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): Already have a Thermaltake 700w psu, Corsair 32gb 3600mhz ram, Gigabyte 1650 OC 4gb gpu, and 2 1080p monitors. Want to have everything purchased by mid March. I am about 2 hrs away from a MicroCenter but would rather purchase online and am not opposed to used parts if I can get them for a reasonable price. 

 

Need a GPU, CPU, storage, and wifi mobo. Will be using a Thermaltake Tower 300 case.

 

I definitely want to upgrade the GPU but not sure what to get. Dont need crazy performance but something that will handle the sims reasonably well just because he has mods installed and it takes a bit long to load on my pc that he uses now when he wants to play.

 

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Hinjima]

5 minutes ago, cmos12 said:

Budget (including currency): 1000usd

 

Country: US

 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: The Sims 4, Fortnight, web browsing / YouTube

 

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): Already have a Thermaltake 700w psu, Corsair 32gb 3600mhz ram, Gigabyte 1650 OC 4gb gpu, and 2 1080p monitors. Want to have everything purchased by mid March. I am about 2 hrs away from a MicroCenter but would rather purchase online and am not opposed to used parts if I can get them for a reasonable price. 

 

Need a GPU, CPU, storage, and wifi mobo. Will be using a Thermaltake Tower 300 case.

 

I definitely want to upgrade the GPU but not sure what to get. Dont need crazy performance but something that will handle the sims reasonably well just because he has mods installed and it takes a bit long to load on my pc that he uses now when he wants to play.

 

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

Welcome to the Forum. 1000 bucks is a healthy budget so that is not an issue  

Do you know what exact Thermaltake power supply  it is, I want to make sure that its not on the F or E:Tier on the PSU Tierlist.

Dont want you powering new expensive components with a possible dangerous PSU.

[dark_globe]

what is the specific model of this thermaltake psu ?

yeah you will need a better gpu for sure -
for fortnite and sims even the gtx 1650 is still good enough though
so it depends if he wants to play some newer and more demanding titles also

this case is mATX only so you will be  limited in motherboard options  to some degree
but there are some decent mATX mobos out there for sure .

if i were to live 2 hours from the nearest microcenter i would certainly use the opportunity .

[TetraSky]

I know you said it did not need to be crazy performances. But considering you have DDR4, this limits you to 12th, 13th and 14th gen Intel or to AMD's AM4.

With AM4, prices are so stupid that you'd be insane to not pick the 5800XT for $200, when the lower tier SKUs like the 5600 is $180. So may as well go with that.

 

Motherboard (about $100): 

https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-B550-WIFI6-Motherboard-Processors/dp/B0DXWWWTH8

 

CPU (around $220):

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-RyzenTM-5800XT-16-Thread-Processor/dp/B0D6NNDQ92

 

The GPU is where you have a lot of choices. But considering he doesn't play high end games, a 5060 or a 9060XT would be plenty.

Both the 9060XT 8GB and the 5060 8GB can be found on Amazon around $360. The versions with more VRAM cost a lot more.

 

As for storage... Prices went up a bit. But you can get 1TB for about $150. Or 2TB for $200.

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-P310-2280-PCIe-Gen4/dp/B0DC8RVRBZ?crid=3FF7WKPPV44XQ

 

All in all, about $880 before any taxes.

 

Since your nearest microcenter is about 2 hours away... I guess it wouldn't make much sense for you to drive there just to save $20 on the CPU (it's $200 right now on sale).

 

 

Now is it possible for it to be cheaper ? Yeah, of course. Can cheap out a lot on the CPU on both side of the aisle. But you wouldn't be saving that much unless you start going with used hardware. 

I personally wouldn't go lower tier with the GPUs even if he just plays Sims 4 at the moment. You can replace go with Intel, though. With the Intel B580 GPU for $310

https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-B580-Legend-Triple-Graphics/dp/B0DNV4NRK5

 

It's also possible to buy used parts.

[cmos12]

2 hours ago, Hinjima said:

Welcome to the Forum. 1000 bucks is a healthy budget so that is not an issue  

Do you know what exact Thermaltake power supply  it is, I want to make sure that its not on the F or E:Tier on the PSU Tierlist.

Dont want you powering new expensive components with a possible dangerous PSU.

Thermaltake 700w Smart 80+ White i believe. 

[Hinjima]

2 minutes ago, cmos12 said:

Thermaltake 700w Smart 80+ White i believe. 

Thats what I was afraid of. That PSU is on the F:Tier on the new Tierlist because it has failed most protections.

Here is a link to the updated Tierlist if you want to check yourself.

Its a bit overwhelming but you can use the ABOUT and Tiering Criteria to read about how the Tiers work.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1akCHL7Vhzk_EhrpIGkz8zTEvYfLDcaSpZRB6Xt6JWkc/edit?gid=1078495601#gid=1078495601

 

So after reading this, I highly recommend you to get a new PSU with this new build and not risk the new components with a poor quality power supply.

 

I will be back tomorrow, its 3AM here and I need sleep.

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news.

[cmos12]

3 hours ago, TetraSky said:

I know you said it did not need to be crazy performances. But considering you have DDR4, this limits you to 12th, 13th and 14th gen Intel or to AMD's AM4.

With AM4, prices are so stupid that you'd be insane to not pick the 5800XT for $200, when the lower tier SKUs like the 5600 is $180. So may as well go with that.

 

Motherboard (about $100): 

https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-B550-WIFI6-Motherboard-Processors/dp/B0DXWWWTH8

 

CPU (around $220):

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-RyzenTM-5800XT-16-Thread-Processor/dp/B0D6NNDQ92

 

The GPU is where you have a lot of choices. But considering he doesn't play high end games, a 5060 or a 9060XT would be plenty.

Both the 9060XT 8GB and the 5060 8GB can be found on Amazon around $360. The versions with more VRAM cost a lot more.

 

As for storage... Prices went up a bit. But you can get 1TB for about $150. Or 2TB for $200.

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-P310-2280-PCIe-Gen4/dp/B0DC8RVRBZ?crid=3FF7WKPPV44XQ

 

All in all, about $880 before any taxes.

 

Since your nearest microcenter is about 2 hours away... I guess it wouldn't make much sense for you to drive there just to save $20 on the CPU (it's $200 right now on sale).

 

 

Now is it possible for it to be cheaper ? Yeah, of course. Can cheap out a lot on the CPU on both side of the aisle. But you wouldn't be saving that much unless you start going with used hardware. 

I personally wouldn't go lower tier with the GPUs even if he just plays Sims 4 at the moment. You can replace go with Intel, though. With the Intel B580 GPU for $310

https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-B580-Legend-Triple-Graphics/dp/B0DNV4NRK5

 

It's also possible to buy used parts.

Will there be any performance loss if the motherboard only has pcie x4 and the gpu is pcie x5? 

[cmos12]

1 hour ago, Hinjima said:

Thats what I was afraid of. That PSU is on the F:Tier on the new Tierlist because it has failed most protections.

Here is a link to the updated Tierlist if you want to check yourself.

Its a bit overwhelming but you can use the ABOUT and Tiering Criteria to read about how the Tiers work.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1akCHL7Vhzk_EhrpIGkz8zTEvYfLDcaSpZRB6Xt6JWkc/edit?gid=1078495601#gid=1078495601

 

So after reading this, I highly recommend you to get a new PSU with this new build and not risk the new components with a poor quality power supply.

 

I will be back tomorrow, its 3AM here and I need sleep.

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news.

Thanks for that, prefer bad news over potentially ruining expensive parts

[dark_globe]

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($174.00 @ B&H) 
CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING FROZN A620 PRO SE 58 CFM CPU Cooler  ($29.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550 EAGLE WIFI6 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Crucial P310 w/Heatsink 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($120.99 @ B&H) 
Video Card: ASRock Challenger OC Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB Video Card  ($439.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Phanteks Eclipse G370A ATX Mid Tower Case  ($45.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: ASRock Steel Legend SL-750G 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($89.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1000.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2026-02-05 01:32 EST-0500

[Hinjima]

8 hours ago, cmos12 said:

Thanks for that, prefer bad news over potentially ruining expensive parts

Yeah, absolutely.  A new decent PSU will be around 10% of your budget, so in the 80-100 dollar range.

8 hours ago, cmos12 said:

Will there be any performance loss if the motherboard only has pcie x4 and the gpu is pcie x5? 

No, even the fastest RTX 5090 only drops about 1-3% in performance overall by going with Pcie 3.0 over 4.0.. We have barely saturated PCIE 3.0 with GPU's so 4.0 is plenty fast still  I will be a few more GPU generations before 5.0 becomes 'mandatory'