PC Build for ~$1200
Posted by shekurika@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 17 comments
Friend's son wants a pc to play mostly Minecraft and Fortnite on 1080p.
I have an old 2070S he can have for free. Budget is ~900-950CHF (~$1200)
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/f3F7W9
does this look ok?
Points: - 9600X and 7600X are the same price - 2x16GB is at least 450 which feels way too much - RM650x isnt available and 750x is only 15.- cheaper -> I feel like RM850x is fine if he wants to swap the GPU in 1-2 years - Case is chosen by him, imho a bit expensive buuut if he wants that
PixelPete27@reddit
You near a microcenter?
shekurika@reddit (OP)
not even on the same continent sadly.
PixelPete27@reddit
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/kLKfH3
What does that look like for pricing for you?
I swapped out the PSU for a similar quality PSU according to the PSU tier list, it's 1000W, and much cheaper. 1000W would give you a pile of headroom if you ever upgraded to a larger GPU. If you don't want to use this, get the same brand but get the G850 and you can save another $20.
I swapped out the motherboard for a better/cheaper board.
Swapped out the SSD for a better one that has PCIe 5, and it's $10 cheaper, which the motherboard I selected had.
With the savings on the stuff, I put in 32gb ram, and it's still slightly cheaper.
Not sure where you are though, or if these prices will be the same for you wherever you are.
EDIT: just checked, looks like you're in Switzerland, but PC part picker doesn't let me set it to that country :( so I can't check prices. So if the prices are wildly different, what you have is good. I'd definitely go the AM5 route if I were you. You could even just buy 1x16gb stick of ddr5, just so when you upgrade to 32gb you can just buy the matching stick. as you don't want to run 4 sticks of ddr5, it doesn't run as well and clocks the ram speed down.
DM me if you have any questions.
shekurika@reddit (OP)
PSU is the same, Motherboard a bit more expensive (~25$), the memory is $450 sadly. its about the cheapest RAM thats available here. cheapest (2x16GB, 4800MHz) is about $420
PixelPete27@reddit
The PSU is $50 cheaper where I am and better. The mobo is $70 cheaper and better The SSD is $10 cheaper and better.
Dang. I wish I could look at prices in your region. Any websites or anything you can recommend to me look for pricing closer to where you are?
shekurika@reddit (OP)
https://www.digitec.ch/ is where I preferably buy stuff. prices are in CHF so add +25% to get USD. you can swap languages in the topright the gear then click "Sprache: Deutsch".
PixelPete27@reddit
That's fair.
PSU: https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/msi-mag-a850gl-pcie5-850-w-power-supply-pc-35982679
That is a good PSU, B+ on the psu tier list, (yours is A tier), but this is quite a bit cheaper. You only need an A tier PSU when you're running a super high end GPU, so I'd save the cash for now and go with this, it is still great and way more than enough. This PSU is still good for GPUs up to a 9070XT and 5070.
SSD: I couldn't find one at a better price on that site, so that SSD you chose is good.
Mobo: https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/gigabyte-b850-gaming-wifi6-am5-amd-b850-atx-motherboards-53483473 cheaper/better mobo with more options.
Case: https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/montech-xr-atx-matx-mini-itx-pc-case-47334624?tagIds=524
Cheaper case, but if you like the aesthetics of yours (which I'm assuming you do), run it!
RAM: https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/product/patriot-viper-venom-2-x-16gb-6000-mhz-ddr5-ram-dimm-ram-46286962
Seems like a decent deal for your area, faster ram with lower cas latency. Didn't know if saving on the other pieces could afford you to buy it.
I didn't bother checking out Germany, seemed like a hassle for you on PC part picker, unless you had a friend or someone there with a mailing address that you could ship all the parts to, but then like you said, returning things would suck.
shekurika@reddit (OP)
Hey man, rly appreciate it! Ill check these out tomorrow, thanks :)
changen@reddit
Either you spend big and get a AM5 build which is going to be fully upgradable and supported for probably the next 5-6 years or you go full budget with an am4 build and give up on all luxuries.
My personal suggestion would be getting something like a 5500, A520 or b550 board and 16gb of ram. It should cost around 150-200$ max for the core parts and should be fine for any game to run. Yes, he probably won't be getting 300+ fps on those games, but it run well enough to competitive.
150$ will tide him over for the next 2-3 years at which point AM5 will fully mature, prices will normalize and you can upgrade to AM5, with a sunken cost of around 5$ a month for the AM4 parts.
Buying a "good" AM4 build like you suggested would probably cost the same as the AM5 sans the extra ddr5 overhead (so 100$ extra) but you lose so much potential in upgrades and features. I don't feel like it's worth it.
So either pay the extra money and get an am5 build or save the money and get a bare minimum am4 build.
shekurika@reddit (OP)
B550 is ~$100, Ryzen 5600X or 5800X is $150 /$170, 16GB RAM is ~120. Not entirely sure its worth the savings tbh
changen@reddit
a 5500 is 50$. A b450 or a520 board should be cheap used under 100$ (probably 50-60$). Same with ddr4 ram. I bought 8gb sticks for 20$ each last weekend. 16gb is 40$.
There are sales for the 5500+b550 mobo NEW for 110$ right now on some sites. Obvious, you are in Europe, but the concept still stands.
The entire point of an AM4 build now is that stuff is expensive, so use the most cost effective parts.
Narrow-Prompt-4626@reddit
A DDR4 system will be cheaper and still sufficient for those games. If he uses mods or joins modded servers he would benefit from having 32gb on hand
Something like a 5600X + peerless assassin cooler, B550 board, 2x16gb ddr4, will cost \~$500 altogether instead of it just being DDR5 ram
shekurika@reddit (OP)
B550 is ~$100
Ryzen 5600X or 5800X is $150 /$170
2x16GB RAM is ~220.
-> Not entirely sure its worth the savings tbh
changen@reddit
I used to recommend Am4 builds like some of the people here but if you are gonna spend big money on a new build, at least get something you can upgrade in the future.
AM4 should now be strictly a "hold me over for the next year" build. A basic a520 or b550 board + 5500 and some cheapo ram will run 99% of games perfectly fine. And it should cost 150$ total (50$ for board, 50$ for cpu, and 50$ for ram). Yeah, you probably can't do 300+ fps esport (Apex Legends for example is bottlenecked at around 200 fps with a 3060 running at 70%), but if you want to just play games for cheap, then it's perfect. 150$ for 12-24 months which then you can upgrade to am5 when prices normalize is perfectly good. Spending 300-400$ on AM4? Not a good idea.
If you are going to do a new build. I really would recommend getting AM5 and just biting the ddr5 bullet.
Pale-Conference-5838@reddit
https://ebay.us/m/FvTWcx
Legitimate-Earth-421@reddit
You can most definitely go for a ddr4 system especially for those games.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/x9c8T This is my build as I am a broke college student and didn’t feel like spending more than 1200
Legitimate-Earth-421@reddit
The mother board I used was the asrock b550m pro se and that was a mirco atx but you can change that as it doesn’t support usb c. I also got the components when ram was a little cheaper so I was about 2 get 4x 8 gb of ram but since you have a graphics card already you still save about 200 dollars on the ram