First time builder with a couple questions

[Chucklebear]

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade from my laptop to a desktop, and really want to try my hand at building it myself. I've watched a few Youtube videos, and read some threads here, but wanted to check in before I begin. To start, these are my current specs. They allow me to run Retail at around a 4, and Classic at basically max settings:

Intel i5-7200 at 2.5GHz
8mb RAM
256gb SSD
NVIDIA 940MX
External monitor: 27in curved, 1080p, 60hz
Everything is docked into a 2 port HDMI KVM

I'm pretty fond of this laptop as it's been chugging along for almost 4 years now, and really only want to replace it if I get much better results for Shadowlands. The only thing I use this PC for is WoW, that's it. There's a YT video (can't post links yet, "How To Build a $550 Gaming PC in 2020!") from Paul's Hardware got my attention - if I replicated it exactly, what would my performance look like in Retail? Is this a good build for what I'm looking to do? I like the idea of going off a video as I don't want to leave much up to guesswork in my first foray.

My budget is probably $800 or less. One thing that has stood out is how much better Classic looks on my little Surface Pro 7 versus my 27in 1080p monitor. Obviously it doesn't run as well, but am I going to be underwhelmed with my new tower if I stick with this monitor? Going up to 2k or 144hz seems pretty price prohibitive, but if I get a much better experience maybe I can play with the budget.

Thanks in advance for your help and feedback!

[Thunderball]

I'm pretty fond of this laptop as it's been chugging along for almost 4 years now, and really only want to replace it if I get much better results for Shadowlands. The only thing I use this PC for is WoW, that's it. There's a YT video (can't post links yet, "How To Build a $550 Gaming PC in 2020!") from Paul's Hardware got my attention - if I replicated it exactly, what would my performance look like in Retail? Is this a good build for what I'm looking to do? I like the idea of going off a video as I don't want to leave much up to guesswork in my first foray.

It would do fine. It's not perfect for WoW but it would do just fine, given your current monitor. That list is pretty bad though.

My budget is probably $800 or less. One thing that has stood out is how much better Classic looks on my little Surface Pro 7 versus my 27in 1080p monitor. Obviously it doesn't run as well, but am I going to be underwhelmed with my new tower if I stick with this monitor? Going up to 2k or 144hz seems pretty price prohibitive, but if I get a much better experience maybe I can play with the budget.

Thanks in advance for your help and feedback!

Surface 7 Pro has an IPS 2736 x 1824 screen, ofc it's going to look better than your (likely) a TN 1080p screen. You're gonna be pretty dissapointed if you keep comparing it to Surface Pro 7. It's not really about the refresh rate (even though it helps too), it's about resolution and panel quality. You cant really afford a new higher resolution screen with this budget so just get a build going, sell off your laptop and look into getting a new screen later.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3300X 3.8 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($126.95 @ Adorama)
Motherboard: MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($99.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($75.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($103.49 @ Adorama)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB SC ULTRA GAMING Video Card ($239.99 @ Walmart)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12III 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($64.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $791.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-20 18:51 EDT-0400

[Kagthul]

Okay, i had to peak at Thunderball's post just to make sure he hadnt given good advice on accident...

crisis averted, he didn't, so... ignore him.

That 550$ build from Pauls would crush your current setup, based entirely on the fact that the MX940 GPU is terrible.

This is not to say "its going to play on Ultra settings and 100fps" - but it will beat the snot out of your current laptop.

However, unless you're going to transition to playing more AAA games down the line, and want to be able to overclock and tinker with the system, you might be able to eke out more performance for the same price or just slightly more. (Honestly, that build at Pauls is pretty upgradeable. Just throwing in a higher end GPU down the line will keep that rig relevant for at least 3-4 years).

Here's an Intel build. Its not as upgradeable down the line (you can throw in a new CPU, but you cant ever Overclock or use XMP profiles on RAM) but will perform roughly on par with the the Ryzen 5 3600, and is cheaper than the AMD equivalent just because the motherboards are cheaper (at least until A520 boards actually drop).

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bPQNK4

CPU: Intel Core i5-10400 2.9 GHz 6-Core Processor ($182.00 @ B&H)
Motherboard: ASRock B460M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1200 Motherboard ($76.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory ($52.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Team MS30 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX 570 4 GB Phantom Gaming D Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($49.89 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12III 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($64.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $606.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-20 20:45 EDT-0400

Only about 50$ more than the PHW build, but will perform better (marginally) out the gate and have more longevity (being 6 cores/12 threads). A GPU upgrade in a year or two and youll get ~4 years out of this easily for 1080p gaming.

Upgradeability is.. meh. You could throw an i7 in here (i9s are probably out due to power req)... but it wouldn't do much better really, other than it boosts quite a bit higher. But you cant OC on B460. But if you didn't want to deal with that anyway, then you're not missing out.

You could shave off 60$ and get the i3 10100, which is 4 cores/8 threads. For my money, i'd keep the 6 core CPU.

If you want to stick with Ryzen, then i'd suggest something like this:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RCMKWb

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($174.99 @ Walmart)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($82.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Team MS30 512 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX 570 4 GB Phantom Gaming D Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($49.89 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12III 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($64.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $602.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-20 20:54 EDT-0400

The two systems will perform nearly identically. The Ryzen system is a bit more future proof, as you can overclock on it and it will accept the next-gen Zen 3 (Ryzen 4000 non-APU) chips. But, again, i doubt you, as a somewhat average user, are going to want to be tinkering around with it. The 3600 at stock with AMDs new boost algorithms is just fine for 99% of people.

Again, a GPU upgrade in a year or two will keep this rig relevant for 4+ years.

Edit: if you CAN spend the whole 800$, id spend the difference on a much better GPU.

For 320$ or so you can get an RTX 2060 (so, roughly an extra 180$, putting you near the 800$). Alternatively, an Rx 5700 is about the same price and about the same performance as a 2060. Either would last you for the entire 4-ish year life of this rig at 1080p/60.

Some people might suggest waiting for the RTX 3000 series announcements at the end of the month, but at your budget range and needs... i dont really see a point in waiting. nVidia is going to release the high-end SKUs first (so, 3070, 3080, 3080Ti/3090), and the 250-350$ range parts probably wont launch until late this year or early next year.. so you'd be waiting months to get a GPU in your price bracket.

However, you could grab the Rx 570 right now, and then jump on a putative 3060 (or the AMD Navi2/Big Navi equivalent) early next year. Youd likely be able to re-sell the RX 570 for at least half what you paid for it, or could just keep it as a spare GPU (i have an RX 470, basically the same card, that i have just for having a spare in case i need to diagnose something).

Up to you.

But as long as you're not obsessed with heading for 1440p+, high refresh gaming, and are just going to stick to 1080p, the 2060 or RX 5700 will do you fine for years if you can stretch your budget.

[Thunderball]

@OP Thankfully Kagthul is probably getting some rest after that post. I'm just gonna address a couple of mistakes he made.

1) You dont need a 6 core CPU for WoW. Dont even look at Intel - it only makes sense if you get an unlocked chip, and you overclock both the memory, the ringbus and the CPU. 10600K is the cheapest unlocked CPU and it's out of your budget. 10100 is straight up a lot worse than 3300X (or 3100 for that matter), and AMD stuff can be overclocked.
2) Dont buy that SSD. It's cheap but it has no DRAM cache.
3) While it makes sense to get a better GPU there's really no room to save money here considering it's your first build. You need a good case that's gonna last you for a while, and while you can save a bit by downgrading to 500 gig SSD it doesnt really give you anything. Stuff you wanna upgrade is the GPU, but really the next step up that makes sense for WoW is 2060 Super that would give you RTX capability (it would be 5600 XT if you played anything else, but since you dont), but tbh I dont really like the card at that price point ($400). I wouldnt consider a 2060 non-Super since while it's a good card, and $80 cheaper than the Super it doesnt have enough RTX hardware to use the capability. AMD's 5700 non-XT is not worth considering, same with 5700 XT really - you dont need that power for WoW.

[Chucklebear]

Thank you both for your input. It's a lot to think about for sure. One other point, would I see a noticeable difference if I were to upgrade my monitor to say a 24in IPS QHD 75hz? Like you said, the Surface looks way better and while the panel won't be as nice (this would be a Viotek around $200), I have a feeling it would look better than my current monitor. I also work from home, and honestly am thinking about downscaling to 24in anyways since it hurts my eyes after a full day.

What kind of drop off in performance would I see if I tried to push one of these new builds at 2k to a new monitor? Would it be worth doing or even be supported?

[Thunderball]

Thank you both for your input. It's a lot to think about for sure. One other point, would I see a noticeable difference if I were to upgrade my monitor to say a 24in IPS QHD 75hz? Like you said, the Surface looks way better and while the panel won't be as nice (this would be a Viotek around $200), I have a feeling it would look better than my current monitor. I also work from home, and honestly am thinking about downscaling to 24in anyways since it hurts my eyes after a full day.

What kind of drop off in performance would I see if I tried to push one of these new builds at 2k to a new monitor? Would it be worth doing or even be supported?

Idk, depends on what you have currently. You havent mentioned it. I suggest not buying any QHD monitors that are smaller than 27inch. Could be issues due to high pixel density.

[Auberdeen]

Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade from my laptop to a desktop, and really want to try my hand at building it myself. I've watched a few Youtube videos, and read some threads here, but wanted to check in before I begin. To start, these are my current specs. They allow me to run Retail at around a 4, and Classic at basically max settings:

Intel i5-7200 at 2.5GHz
8mb RAM
256gb SSD
NVIDIA 940MX
External monitor: 27in curved, 1080p, 60hz
Everything is docked into a 2 port HDMI KVM

I'm pretty fond of this laptop as it's been chugging along for almost 4 years now, and really only want to replace it if I get much better results for Shadowlands. The only thing I use this PC for is WoW, that's it. There's a YT video (can't post links yet, "How To Build a $550 Gaming PC in 2020!") from Paul's Hardware got my attention - if I replicated it exactly, what would my performance look like in Retail? Is this a good build for what I'm looking to do? I like the idea of going off a video as I don't want to leave much up to guesswork in my first foray.

My budget is probably $800 or less. One thing that has stood out is how much better Classic looks on my little Surface Pro 7 versus my 27in 1080p monitor. Obviously it doesn't run as well, but am I going to be underwhelmed with my new tower if I stick with this monitor? Going up to 2k or 144hz seems pretty price prohibitive, but if I get a much better experience maybe I can play with the budget.

Thanks in advance for your help and feedback!

few QoL upgrades to that list that will hardly cost you, and will indefintely "future-proof" you through the expansion after Shadowlands for sure.

- go 480gb over 256gb SSD. very close in price. only reason I say this is if you want to start saving recorded WoW clips from OBS
- go 27" FLAT 1440p(2K), 120-144hz. the graphics are truly night and day from a curved 60hz 1080p 27"
- check out the Intel i5-6600k, overclockable and very close in price, and while WoW is not very demanding on your GPU, your CPU can start to really heat up in world bosses/raid/W-pvp
- Nvidia 1060 3gb very close in price and future proof
- bronze rated power supply

happy building! remem, mobo in case first :P

[Kagthul]

Thank you both for your input. It's a lot to think about for sure. One other point, would I see a noticeable difference if I were to upgrade my monitor to say a 24in IPS QHD 75hz? Like you said, the Surface looks way better and while the panel won't be as nice (this would be a Viotek around $200), I have a feeling it would look better than my current monitor. I also work from home, and honestly am thinking about downscaling to 24in anyways since it hurts my eyes after a full day.

What kind of drop off in performance would I see if I tried to push one of these new builds at 2k to a new monitor? Would it be worth doing or even be supported?

If you want to do QHD/1440p (“2k” isnt correct for that resolution but gets mistakenly used a lot), youd want to step up to a 2070 SUPER or 5700XT. Both will do 1440p at high settings and 60+fps (but probably shy of 100fps), but itll be fine on a 75hz display. For the money, the 5700XT is a better buy (its a little less powerful, but often 80-100$ cheaper than the 2070 SUPER).

However... at that point youre reaching the point where id say “wait for it” and see what the RTX 3000 series announcement looks like, as you will likely be able to grab a 3070 (or whatever they name the product in that spot in the stack) for the same price as what a 2070 SUPER costs now, and itll likely be a lot faster (30%+ if leaks are anything to go by).

As for lower end GPUs (2060, 5700 non-XT), theyll run 1440p just fine, but youll have to turn some settings down. Really, ANY GPU (including intel iGPUs) will run 1440p on the desktop/non-gaming uses just fine. Heck, i run two 1440p monitors on my daily driver MacBook Pro which only has the Intel iGPU. So even if you went with an RX 570 “for now”, you could just run games at 1080p until you replace the GPU down the line.

Really just depends on what you want to spend and how patient you want to be.