Building a gaming PC for my sister-in-law, help needed with picking parts.

[Palaplu]

Hai all,

My sister-in-law asked me to build her a gaming PC.
She'd like to have it as soon as possible, or at least by january 2021.
- Budget: €1000 or less
- Resolution! 1080p, maybe 'futureproof' for decent 1440p
- System Purpose: gaming
- No overclocking
- Country: Belgium, but will order parts in Netherlands, cause a lot is cheaper there.
- Preferred Stores / Sites: Megekko.nl
- Parts that can be reused: nope
- Do you need an OS?: yes
- Do you need peripherals: external dvd drive.

'Requirements'

Case: Just black case with decent airflow will do, not too many RGB and whistles, but would like to make sure it's easy to build and upgrade in in the future.
PSU: Maybe make sure it is 'futureproof', enough watts to maybe someday slap in a stronger CPU/mobo/GPU.
CPU: Was thinking about going AMD CPU (budget) but always been an Intel man myself, so don't know what to pick.
AMD CPU's usually come with their own cooler I believe? Are they sufficient for non-OC CPU's?

Storage: I was thinking of slapping in a 1TB M2 drive (OS, software, games) and maybe a small 2.5inch HD (minor storage).
Mobo: would need M2 support, no overclock support, but wireless internet option would be great. A decent amount of USB ports.
RAM: 16GB. Would 32GB be overkill within the budget?
GPU: tricky, with the new cards not being all that available. I'm an Nvidia guy myself, but don't have a preference, whatever has most bang for the buck (euro).

Speedy help would be appreciated, might be able to make some Black Friday deals on some parts.
Thanks in advance, you guys helped me with building my own first PC a few years back <3

[Kagthul]

Hai all,

My sister-in-law asked me to build her a gaming PC.
She'd like to have it as soon as possible, or at least by january 2021.
- Budget: €1000 or less

Gonna be rough with some of the asks.

- Resolution! 1080p, maybe 'futureproof' for decent 1440p

This is the biggie on having trouble keeping the price down.

- System Purpose: gaming
- No overclocking
- Country: Belgium, but will order parts in Netherlands, cause a lot is cheaper there.
- Preferred Stores / Sites: Megekko.nl
- Parts that can be reused: nope
- Do you need an OS?: yes

Get one on the grey market, otherwise you lose ~100 Euro on the budget. Also, if you have a current key (or she does) you can QUITE LIKELY re-use it and/or get MS to transfer it. Might require a phone call where you tell them your computer melted and you're just replacing it. They usually dont care.

- Do you need peripherals: external dvd drive.

These can be had here in the US for 20$, so im not gonna make that part of the build. Buy one a week or two later or something.

'Requirements'

Case: Just black case with decent airflow will do, not too many RGB and whistles, but would like to make sure it's easy to build and upgrade in in the future.

Just so you're clear that regardless of whether you go Intel or AMD at this particular time, "upgrading" from here on out means "completely replacing the platform" - This is the last generation that will support AM4 for AMD and 400-series boards from Intel will -probably- support Rocket Lake-S next year, but since you aren't going with overclockable parts, there's not gonna be a lot to gain going to Rocket Lake. You'd be better off simply buying OC-able Intel parts now and OCing the bejeezus out of them (An extra ~100 Euro now, vs 200+ later for a Rocket Lake CPU that would actually be an upgrade).

* Platform = CPU, MoBo, and likely, RAM (as DDR5 is coming in the next year or two).

PSU: Maybe make sure it is 'futureproof', enough watts to maybe someday slap in a stronger CPU/mobo/GPU.
CPU: Was thinking about going AMD CPU (budget) but always been an Intel man myself, so don't know what to pick.
AMD CPU's usually come with their own cooler I believe? Are they sufficient for non-OC CPU's?
Storage: I was thinking of slapping in a 1TB M2 drive (OS, software, games) and maybe a small 2.5inch HD (minor storage).
Mobo: would need M2 support, no overclock support, but wireless internet option would be great. A decent amount of USB ports.
RAM: 16GB. Would 32GB be overkill within the budget?

32 is Overkill, period. Gaming does not require or benefit from 32GB of RAM.

GPU: tricky, with the new cards not being all that available. I'm an Nvidia guy myself, but don't have a preference, whatever has most bang for the buck (euro).

This is what is going to make building this by January problematic. You'd be absolutely insane to buy last-gen parts (at almost no discount) when for the same money (WHEN they are available, OFC) you can get parts that are 30+% faster. But supply on BOTH manufacturers cards is... who knows.

There is no guarantee at all that youll be able to get a modern GPU by January. Or even Feb.

Right now is probably the worst time to build a PC in the last 4-5 years. CPU Shortages (AMD side), GPU shortages (all around), prices spiking on some parts because of COVID and shipping/supply issues.

If this rig MUST be done by January, considering building the entire rig EXCEPT the GPU (since you likely wont be able to get it) and get a ~100 Euro placeholder GPU - something like an RX 570 - that will do 1080p/med-high - and then grabbing the 3070 (or RX 6800, though it is more expensive) when it is actually available.

PCPartPicker Part List: https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/tYmJwz

CPU: Intel Core i5-10400F 2.9 GHz 6-Core Processor (€157.90 @ Azerty)
Motherboard: ASRock B460M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1200 Motherboard (€89.95 @ Megekko)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (€61.99 @ Azerty)
Storage: Intel 665p 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€100.85 @ Megekko)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8 GB Founders Edition Video Card (€550.00)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case (€42.95 @ Megekko)
Power Supply: SeaSonic CORE GM 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (€86.40 @ Azerty)
Total: €1090.04
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-11-24 23:38 CET+0100

[Palaplu]

Gonna be rough with some of the asks.



This is the biggie on having trouble keeping the price down.



Get one on the grey market, otherwise you lose ~100 Euro on the budget. Also, if you have a current key (or she does) you can QUITE LIKELY re-use it and/or get MS to transfer it. Might require a phone call where you tell them your computer melted and you're just replacing it. They usually dont care.



These can be had here in the US for 20$, so im not gonna make that part of the build. Buy one a week or two later or something.



Just so you're clear that regardless of whether you go Intel or AMD at this particular time, "upgrading" from here on out means "completely replacing the platform" - This is the last generation that will support AM4 for AMD and 400-series boards from Intel will -probably- support Rocket Lake-S next year, but since you aren't going with overclockable parts, there's not gonna be a lot to gain going to Rocket Lake. You'd be better off simply buying OC-able Intel parts now and OCing the bejeezus out of them (An extra ~100 Euro now, vs 200+ later for a Rocket Lake CPU that would actually be an upgrade).

* Platform = CPU, MoBo, and likely, RAM (as DDR5 is coming in the next year or two).



32 is Overkill, period. Gaming does not require or benefit from 32GB of RAM.



This is what is going to make building this by January problematic. You'd be absolutely insane to buy last-gen parts (at almost no discount) when for the same money (WHEN they are available, OFC) you can get parts that are 30+% faster. But supply on BOTH manufacturers cards is... who knows.

There is no guarantee at all that youll be able to get a modern GPU by January. Or even Feb.

Right now is probably the worst time to build a PC in the last 4-5 years. CPU Shortages (AMD side), GPU shortages (all around), prices spiking on some parts because of COVID and shipping/supply issues.

If this rig MUST be done by January, considering building the entire rig EXCEPT the GPU (since you likely wont be able to get it) and get a ~100 Euro placeholder GPU - something like an RX 570 - that will do 1080p/med-high - and then grabbing the 3070 (or RX 6800, though it is more expensive) when it is actually available.

If we would wait for AMD CPU stock to go back to normal, and for either RTX 3070 availability or 3060ti release, which AMD CPU would you recommend for the budget?

We're going to build in the Cooler Master MasterBox NR600 Midi Tower btw, just decided that.

[Djuntas]

If we would wait for AMD CPU stock to go back to normal, and for either RTX 3070 availability or 3060ti release, which AMD CPU would you recommend for the budget?

We're going to build in the Cooler Master MasterBox NR600 Midi Tower btw, just decided that.

3060 and 5600 would be insane, but its kind of costly CPU. Honestly, an 10600 would also do fine, maybe even a 3700 from AMD last gen. But Id wait for January and see about Intels up coming...But doubt it will matter besides more price cuts.

Edit: Maybe a 9900k if the price is good for that now a days.

[Kagthul]

If we would wait for AMD CPU stock to go back to normal, and for either RTX 3070 availability or 3060ti release, which AMD CPU would you recommend for the budget?

I wouldn't.

They no longer have a competitive part at that price bracket. (They may in Q1 or Q2 next year, if they release a non-x 5600, or a 5500 or something)

The 3600, which basically trades blows with the 10400/F, is SUBSTANTIALLY more expensive as a platform than the 10400F + a B460... and a 5600X is even more expensive than that. The CPU is 100 Euro more all by itself plus another 20-40 Euro for a good 450 board.

And NEITHER platform (Intel or AMD) has a super viable upgrade path going forward. AMD is now done with AM4 - any upcoming Zen 4 chips will use a new socket, so your only upgrade path would be Zen 3 (Ryzen 5000) chips, which will provide only about a 10-15% performance gain over the 3600 at the same clock speeds - and only for about another 14-18 months, because when Zen 4 releases (Ryzen 6000 or whatever they call it) Zen 3 parts are gonna go outta stock QUICK. (Just like the 3060 is now almost entirely gone or selling *above* MSRP)

Mostly-similarly, Socket 1200 will support Intel's next release (Rocket Lake-S) but will not support the one after - Rocket Lake-S hits early next year and will likely only be available in quantity/at or below MSRP for about 18-20 months after release.

So, the 10400F is actually pretty much where its at in terms of price/performance in the sub-200 Euro CPU space at the moment. I dont really think its worth jumping to the 10600 - while yes, its got much higher boost (4.8 vs 4.3), most games are not CPU bound and a 4.0 Ghz CPU (what the 10400/F hits all-core) is still plenty fine to get acceptable framerates.

People on the forums will wring their hands about "but its so much slower than XYZ CPU!!1122!1@?@!?!" - yeah, it is. But it will still get FPS in the 80-100+ range paired with the right GPU... so who cares. Particularly given how cheap the 10400F is right now over there.