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[Tams]

Really great advice. Thank you Gaf I will try and customize the prebuild to get better milage out of the money he has. Sadly i cant help him with building his own pc - i'm a console gamer my whole life and dont know the first thing about pc parts and putting them together. I dont want to make a mistake - it is his money on the line.

He got the money over many years, saving christmas and birthday money.

Neither did Terry Crews.

Are you a Terry Crews of this world or a coward?

If you break his shit, the you pay for it. If he breaks it... then he better ask very nicely for some money to replace it.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

for the love of god don't get an AMD card...

Why? They offer far better raw performance than nvidias offerings at the same price. If ray tracing matters then OK.

 

[01011001]

Why? They offer far better raw performance than nvidias offerings at the same price. If ray tracing matters then OK.

thy don't really... they are usually at most, MAYBE, 50€ cheaper for the same raster performance.

those 50 bucks more are absolutely worth it for DLSS and better RT performance, both of which make the cards way more future proof than any current AMD card

 

[JohnnyFootball]

thy don't really... they are usually at most, MAYBE, 50€ cheaper for the same raster performance.

those 50 bucks more are absolutely worth it for DLSS and better RT performance, both of which make the cards way more future proof than any current AMD card

The extra memory on AMD cards FAR better future proofs the cards than nvidia.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

thy don't really... they are usually at most, MAYBE, 50€ cheaper for the same raster performance.

those 50 bucks more are absolutely worth it for DLSS and better RT performance, both of which make the cards way more future proof than any current AMD card

This right here is a far better deal.

MSI Mech Radeon RX 6600 Video Card RX 6600 MECH 2X 8G - Newegg.com

Buy MSI Mech Radeon RX 6600 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 Video Card RX 6600 MECH 2X 8G with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

$260 for a 6600 8GB.

 

[LazyParrot]

Stay far the fuck away from that Asrock motherboard. PSU is wayyyy to weak.

I doubt that system even hits 300 watts at full load. 550 is plenty.

 

[Deanington]

Heres an Intel build. A couple hundred more for better storage, wifi, etc. Plus OS and extra rgb fans ( yuck ). Nothing wrong with an AMD card either. At this budget, their prices, and performance it probably will be a better choice.

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/f3jWfv

 

[Shifty1897]

Too be honest. His friend just got a gaming pc and somehow both got into their minds that "true gamer play on a pc". Donst ask me. Teenage crap like that.

Being a PC gamer is half fiddling with settings, benchmarks, and troubleshooting, and half actually playing games.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

I dont want to assume what OPs kid likes but if its anything like the current generations....fortnite, minecraft, overwatch, roblow.....what ppl here are recommending is some serious PC gamer shit that is following the latest trends and needs a $1000 GPU.

 

[CLW]

PS5 problem solved money saved ;-)

 

[01011001]

The extra memory on AMD cards FAR better future proofs the cards than nvidia.

This right here is a far better deal.

MSI Mech Radeon RX 6600 Video Card RX 6600 MECH 2X 8G - Newegg.com

Buy MSI Mech Radeon RX 6600 8GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 Video Card RX 6600 MECH 2X 8G with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

$260 for a 6600 8GB.

sorry, but if you actually think AMD cards are more future proof you are delusional. if it was 100% only about raster performance, maybe, but RT is becoming more and more prevalent

 

[peronmls]

Just get a pre-built. I do not recommend jumping into building your own unless he actually has interest in building one.

 

[Deanington]

sorry, but if you actually think AMD cards are more future proof you are delusional. if it was 100% only about raster performance, maybe, but RT is becoming more and more prevalent

Rt isnt future proofing, thats just aesthetics. Plus, future proofing is a myth.

 

[ManaByte]

Try to find someone selling a PC with a pre-shared Steam library. I hear that's a pretty good deal.

 

[01011001]

Rt isnt future proofing, thats just aesthetics.

12GB of VRAM vs 8GB in this specific case... is that future proofing?

what about having DLSS that gives massive performance boosts with little to no visual downsides? and even games that look better with it due to DLSS often beating TAA in image stability.

also, the more games use RT the more you will want it to actually be usable on your card, which on any mid range or low end AMD card it basically isn't

 

[Buggy Loop]

sorry, but if you actually think AMD cards are more future proof you are delusional. if it was 100% only about raster performance, maybe, but RT is becoming more and more prevalent

Future proofing on memory was a dumb bet anyway considering that console IO solutions are imminently coming to PC with DirectStorage & sampler feedback. Memory will be a streaming interface without bloating up with waiting assets. Faster VRAM is the future proofing

 

[BadFunnyGuy]

Hello Gaf ..... i need your help.

My son wants to buy his first gaming pc. He previously only had a playstation console. Im a lowly console gamer all my life and dont have the first clue about gaming pcs.
He asked me about a specific pc he wants to buy - and i dont know if it is a good offer or not. Which leads me to this thread. Gafers, what do think about this pc - is it good vaalue for my sons money?

Gamer PC Ryzen 7 7800X3D mit RTX4070Ti *Aktion*

Gamer PC Ryzen 7 7800X3D mit RTX4070Ti *Aktion*:

www.dubaro.de

AMD Ryzen 5 5500 (6x 3.6GHz / 4.2GHz Turbo)
Gigabyte B450 GAMING X
12GB NVIDIA RTX3060
16GB (2x8GB) G.Skill RipJaws V DDR4 3200MHz
500GB MSI M390 Spatium M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVME (L 2300MB/s ; S 3300MB/s)
600W be quiet! System Power 9

949,00€

If it is not a good offer - do you have a better pc setup in the same price range?

Thanks in advance

I think it looks pretty nice, but I highly recommend you get a larger storage device. 1-2TB SSD will be just fine.

 

[rofif]

Looks ok. I thought to maybe get him a steam deck.. but I think it's better for long time pc users

 

[BennyBlanco]

PS5 problem solved money saved ;-)

Yeah he’s gonna love that ps5 version of valorant. O wait.

 

[kiphalfton]

A kid wanting to buy a PC and not expecting his parents to buy it for him

In any case, something with a RTX 3070 will do. Good happy medium. Probably also coupled with like a 5600X or i5-12400, 16GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, and decent air cooler. I have seen some cheap refurbished Corsair iCUE coolers (H100i, H115i, H150i for like $65 to $75) on Corsair website, so possibly check that out if you want to build your own computer.

 

[kiphalfton]

Being a PC gamer is half fiddling with settings, benchmarks, and troubleshooting, and half actually playing games.

Troubleshooting a custom built PC can potentially be a PITA, but I think it's hugely overblown for new builds.

And whether you build a PC or buy prebuilt, if everything works but then one day out of the blue you start having some random issue... you yourself are likely going to have to troubleshoot it.

 

[kiphalfton]

Heres an Intel build. A couple hundred more for better storage, wifi, etc. Plus OS and extra rgb fans ( yuck ). Nothing wrong with an AMD card either. At this budget, their prices, and performance it probably will be a better choice.

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/f3jWfv

Why would you buy a Z690 for a CPU that doesn't overclock? Or buy a full price windows 11 key?

A B660 motherboard work work perfectly with that CPU.

And there are resellers on Reddit that sell Windows 11 keys for a fraction of the price. Heck I wouldn't even buy a Windows 11 key, but buy a cheaper Windows 8 key and use that since it will upgrade to Windows 10 or Windows 11.

 

[ozz ex machina]

Being a PC gamer is half fiddling with settings, benchmarks, and troubleshooting, and half actually playing games.

No it isn't. If you want to you can fiddle. If you're a chad you can just blast games and they will pretty much universally outperform consoles.

 

[Black_Stride]

sorry, but if you actually think AMD cards are more future proof you are delusional. if it was 100% only about raster performance, maybe, but RT is becoming more and more prevalent

Preach!

I think, but I can definitely be wrong, that the PSU is like right on the limit.

70 + 180 = over 600?
Mate that powersupply is well below even scratching its effeciency, let alone being right at the limit.


The whole 80+ rating is about efficiency, most power supplies are most happy at about 50 - 60% of their rating but maintain above 80% efficiency all the way to 100% load, its a 600W power supply.
If it has a decent 80+ rating its most likely orgasming all through 360 to 500W.
OPs machine is like what 270W.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Being a PC gamer is half fiddling with settings, benchmarks, and troubleshooting, and half actually playing games.

Console gamers think that.

 

[Deanington]

Why would you buy a Z690 for a CPU that doesn't overclock? Or buy a full price windows 11 key?

A B660 motherboard work work perfectly with that CPU.

And there are resellers on Reddit that sell Windows 11 keys for a fraction of the price. Heck I wouldn't even buy a Windows 11 key, but buy a cheaper Windows 8 key and use that since it will upgrade to Windows 10 or Windows 11.

Cool, whats great about posting builds is being able to tweek them. I seen what looked to be the cheapest on the list for wifi and went with it, plus cpu can be upgraded if need be. Honestly also not knowing the cheaper route of the B660. Not sure I would want to be scouring the internet for cheap dodgy ( most likely not, but internet ) Windows keys ( as a first time builder ) either. Which pc partpicker doesnt seem to have, as far as cheap goes. The goal was to not be overwhelming as possible to a potential first time builder and presenting an easy linear list. Its not gospel by any means.

 

[BadBurger]

I think the rig in OP is a decent deal if he's going to be gaming at 1080p, or even 1440p with some sacrifices for some games. A single 512GB drive is going to be pushing it depending upon how many games your son wants play at a time, and what else he'll end up using the PC for. Have to remember Windows is going to eat up a chuck of that disk, and some new PC games are massive as compression on the PC isn't as great as it is on PS5 and XBS|X in my experience. But you could just get your son a SD card (I am assuming that PC has a reader) and teach him how to store his non-game data on it.

As for building a PC, while it really is a lot easier than non-techie people think, in your case I would just go with a prebuilt. No reason to risk mucking things up for your son's first PC. Prices on components are so much during these times that choosing to build one's own PC doesn't save big dollars like it did just three or four years ago.

 

[baphomet]

People on here are apparently really bad at suggesting PC parts.

The 600watt power supply is more than enough for that build.

Don't need a bigger m.2 drive, just get an ssd.

The build is probably more than enough for your son.

 

[CitizenZ]

The first thing you want to ask, that everyone neglects, what resolution, what size monitor/ tv am I going to be using. This should always be your first step.

Also, I would suggest buying 2 power supplies. No other part fails more often. Often meaning 3+ yrs down the road.

 

[Xyphie]

Also, I would suggest buying 2 power supplies. No other part fails more often. Often meaning 3+ yrs down the road.

Now this is some proper shit advice. Why would you buy a second PSU? Just to keep it around as a spare? It's not like PSU's are made some of rare unobtainium. You can order one and have it the next day if it breaks, which they rarely do if you have a half-way decent one (like anything with a 80+ Bronze rating or something).

 

[CitizenZ]

Now this is some proper shit advice. Why would you buy a second PSU? Just to keep it around as a spare? It's not like PSU's are made some of rare unobtainium. You can order one and have it the next day if it breaks, which they rarely do if you have a half-way decent one (like anything with a 80+ Bronze rating or something).

As someone who used to work at home, it was pretty important. I have had this happen 3 times, and I am just on a recurring dies, replace, send in a for new. Christ, it was just a suggestion from actual experience.

 

[Gp1]

Why no one recommends a Core I5 12400 + B660 with DDR5?
Imho the main advantage of I5 12th today are the upgrade options to Raptor Lake later and DDR5 would futureproof it more even with the current prices. I'm buying something in the same league as the OP. And with DDR 5 you can use a single stick in dual for sometime, or not?

At the 1080p/ low 1440p...
CPU wise, you have 2 options at this level today: Ryzen 5 5600 + AM4 + 16gb DDR 4 or I5 12th + B660 + 16 ddr4/5. Both configs would probably grant you a future serie 6 GPU upgrade without bottlenecks.

GPU: 3060 or 6600(xt)

A 80plus anything 500/600W PSU is well above what a system like this will demand by far.

For storage a Nvme 500gb +1 tb Sata SSD would be ok but you can juggle with a single 500 nvme for some time.

Anything else is just accessory.

 

[Knightime_X]

Looks fantastic to me.
BUT ask him if he can hold out for an RTX 4060.
That should be right around the corner.

Storage wise that 500gb won't cut the cookie at all.
Could use it mostly for OS and minor storage but too small for newer games.
Could add an external HDD or internal for more space.

 

[Black_Stride]

As someone who used to work at home, it was pretty important. I have had this happen 3 times, and I am just on a recurring dies, replace, send in a for new. Christ, it was just a suggestion from actual experience.

Ive been building PCs for well over 15 years.
And not just for me but for pretty much all my friends and 5 years "professionally". And even at the company we didnt have that level of badluck.
Power Supplies are generally actually the most reliable parts we ever shipped out.
Most of them come with 5 to 10 year warranties.
Which ever brand you were/are using maybe its time to change.

 

[PhaseJump]

Build looks good enough. The rest of the advice is all nitpicking and fine tuning that is totally needless. It will need more storage before anything else.

As someone who used to work at home, it was pretty important. I have had this happen 3 times, and I am just on a recurring dies, replace, send in a for new. Christ, it was just a suggestion from actual experience.

PSUs aren't in short supply, and they rarely fail such as you have described. Even if they did, and you were to stockpile them, you run a greater risk of having a bad batch of failing product that will be out of warranty in the future.

As someone who comes from the ass end of the internet, where the clown universe intersects with this one; My advice would be to tell you to get your home's electrical panel and wiring inspected before you burn to death in your sleep.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[CitizenZ]

Build looks good enough. The rest of the advice is all nitpicking and fine tuning that is totally needless. It will need more storage before anything else.



PSUs aren't in short supply, and they rarely fail such as you have described. Even if they did, and you were to stockpile them, you run a greater risk of having a bad batch of failing product that will be out of warranty in the future.

As someone who comes from the ass end of the internet, where the clown universe intersects with this one; My advice would be to tell you to get your home's electrical panel and wiring inspected before you burn to death in your sleep.

Dang, I should have also clarified I am about an hr away from the nearest town so like in my garage, I keep spare parts for almost everything. Didnt know I touched such a nerve for offering advice that can simply be, OMG, ignored. Life, you know, its not real difficult in any way. none.

 

[K2D]

I can't recommend yet, but I would have gone with mb with pci 4.0, nvme drive to match, and a high end cpu/mid tier gpu. There are no graphics hog titles I'm looking at right now..

 

[unclbenn]

great rig OP, i had a similar mid range rig when i was 15 and it really made me appreciate pc gaming. my parents paid a local computer shop to put it together for me and ever since then i've been putting computers together myself. maybe this computer will lead him to start building computers himself.

 

[PhaseJump]

Dang, I should have also clarified I am about an hr away from the nearest town so like in my garage, I keep spare parts for almost everything. Didnt know I touched such a nerve for offering advice that can simply be, OMG, ignored. Life, you know, its not real difficult in any way. none.

The underlying point is that you're killing power supplies and stockpiling them because they fail, and jokingly it begs questions as to why. Like I said, it implies that your electrical system is probably fucked up and it implies that you're not doing anything to address it. Stockpiling junk only leads to having to potentially use "new" old junk that is out of warranty by the time they're swapped.

 

[CitizenZ]

The underlying point is that you're killing power supplies and stockpiling them because they fail, and jokingly it begs questions as to why. Like I said, it implies that your electrical system is probably fucked up and it implies that you're not doing anything to address it. Stockpiling junk only leads to having to potentially use "new" old junk that is out of warranty by the time they're swapped.

I have a total of 2. One fails i reship and its replaced because of warranty. I simply put the other in when it fails. Over 20 yrs the only components that have failed is a PS, 3 total in 3 different locations from OH to MN, to PA.

 

[Haint]

The $399 FE 3060Ti is the indisputable best choice for a "budget" system, but I'm not sure how pricing in your euro moon bucks compares to our eagle dollars. Now is probably a poor time in general to be buying a system with the 4XXX series expected to launch around September. Even if the budget cards don't hit that date, you can probably buy used 3080s or 3090s for like $400 around that time frame.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Why no one recommends a Core I5 12400 + B660 with DDR5?

DDR5 isn’t needed right now, and makes little to no difference. Intel motherboards are also pricier, and the sockets aren’t supported very long.

The AM4 socket has been around for years, and OP can get a much better deal on parts by going AMD.

I see literally no reason to upgrade beyond my 16GB of DDR4 3200 Ram right now, let alone be the early bird on far pricier DDR5. Something better is always around the corner in the PC industry, and by the time I buy DDR5, it’ll be faster and better utilized then what’s available right now.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Some of the hardware choices being discussed here. I hope OP can still take something useful away from this. PC users do everything, except stop argueing about their favourite building blocks and the colors on them.

 

[JetBlackPanda]

Who has decent pre-builts these days anyways?

 

[BlackTron]

you are wrong in many ways... first of all, this is a Smash Bros Controller right here:

you could bind all of this onto a keyboard and have the same effect, just less stylish and slighly less ergonomic for many.


also, go watch some Apex Legends and Call of Duty tournaments.
you can bet that every team in Apex has at least 1 controller player and there are even full controller teams, with one guy even playing on console as far as I know. and they compete on a very high level.

Controller becomes more and more common to see in competitive shooters on PC

Yep I'm aware there are lots of controller-using FPS players, for example Call of Duty really made its mark as an Xbox 360 dudebro game. It's like if a 360 controller wasn't getting cheetos on it in a weed-smoked up room, it wasn't a real game of COD. So to some extent, it really depends on the game and the culture behind it. I'll admit I'm not watching that many tournaments or Twitch streams lately, and I know there's a lot of cross-play games now, but generally, yeah COD and Halo has a lot of controller players thanks to the console roots, but Overwatch didn't even have a console version until later. It had a competitive focus of ONLY online multiplayer and the entire meta behind it grew behind using a mouse on PC. Look at the crazy shit a Genji player does that is just physically impossible with a controller lol. The console players can play within their walled garden, but it's like using a go-cart while thinking you have a race car and being blissfully unaware of it.

Didn't want to derail the thread, but I wish cross-play wasn't a thing with these FPS games now. I like how Overwatch does it, separate gamepad and m/kb players. Walled garden. I usually say options are good, the problem is that controller users get auto-aim, meaning actually good players with a controller get an unfair advantage. I say, use the same input everybody else does in the genre or turn off the auto-aim crutch.

I agree with you that I need to watch more streams and tournaments. I don't play Apex, but just read that the game automatically turns on aim-assist for controller. Unless they somehow turn it off otherwise, I just lost all respect for the supposed standards of "high level play". Let me know when controller players stand up to mouse/kb without needing some sort of "assist"...LOL. The sad thing is, the fact that these games automatically add aim-assist for controller is like an admission it's not as effective and that anyone using it needs help compared to a mouse/kb player.

As for your Smash controller that isn't out yet. Um, nice controller? The page for that thing has this long and complicated (by its own admission) explanation of how to do tilts and diagonals using the buttons. I mean sure if you want precise control of the analog stick in any game you could devise a system for mapping all the axis and gradients of movement using buttons/keys instead of an actual stick but uh...that's an extremely special use case and you know what meaning my analogy was supposed to get across lol.

 

[kiphalfton]

As someone who used to work at home, it was pretty important. I have had this happen 3 times, and I am just on a recurring dies, replace, send in a for new. Christ, it was just a suggestion from actual experience.

For me the biggest thing I can attribute to having extra PSU's laying around is when an insane deal pops up. Deals were hard to come across in the past, let alone now due to all the BS supply constraints.

Also if you had told me they were going to discontinue the EVGA G3 and EVGA G2, both of which are top of the line PSU's, I would have bought a couple more. In varying wattage, mainly because I like having higher wattage PSU's in MY systems, BUT down the line when I want to strip stuff out and resell that PC, then I put lower wattage PSU's in it.

In any case PSU's will be fine, like everything if stored adequately enough. People may say, "but it may be DOA". Okay well there's a tool for that, to test them, and even the free little adapter some PSU's come with (essentially a dummy plug for thr motherboard PSU cable) is good enough to make sure it's not DOA.

 

[Kamina]

OP wont leave this thread without a 2,5k gaming rig

 

[BennyBlanco]

Being a PC gamer is half fiddling with settings, benchmarks, and troubleshooting, and half actually playing games.

being a console gamer is half using 2007 talking points about how cumbersome PC gaming is and half playing games

 

[Shifty1897]

being a console gamer is half using 2007 talking points about how cumbersome PC gaming is and half playing games

I mean, I have a gaming PC I built and I have a Switch and PS5. Didn't mean to trigger all of PCGaf, I don't even mean my comment negatively, I enjoy tuning settings to find the perfect balance of FPS and visual fidelity, but it does account for a sizeable portion of my time spent playing PC games. Obviously you don't have to do that if you don't want to, you can just slap a preset a go, but the compulsion was always there for me.