I know we have a lot of computer building nerds here, so I thought I'd share a new build I'll be doing within the next week or so for my son. I've purchased all the parts. I'm just waiting on a couple of pieces to ship.
I'm going AMD Ryzen this time. I would have gone Intel, but prices of motherboards for 8th-gen Intel CPUs are just stupid for budget builds. You guys can critique my parts choices if you wish, and I know you will.
He has a 24" 1080p monitor @60Hz. No plans on going higher with that. He mostly plays e-sport titles like LoL, Smite, Overwatch, and CS:GO.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For $114.00)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350-Gaming ATX AM4 Motherboard (Purchased For $90.00)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (Purchased For $105.00)
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU650 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $40.00)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $49.00)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 950 2GB Superclocked Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Deepcool - TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $48.00)
Power Supply: EVGA - B3 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $80.00)
Total: $526.00
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-24 22:47 EDT-0400
As you can see, I'll be re-using his old EVGA GTX 950 videocard. I really want to plop a 1050ti in there, but videocard prices are just ridiculous right now. The cheapest available 1050ti online in Canada is over $350. I'll have to wait on that.
I bought a Ryzen 3 1200. 4 cores, 4 threads, unlocked. The Gigabyte B350 motherboard allows me to overclock it, and makes for future upgradability. I probably went overboard with the motherboard on a "budget" build, but it's full ATX and has 4 RAM slots and lots of fan headers. I like that.
RAM was a pain in the butt. Like GPUs, the price of RAM in Canada is just dumb. I really wanted to get 1x8GB @ 3200, but it's all way too expensive. I settled on a 1x8GB @ 2400 stick, and I think I overpaid. Nothing else is available.
I got a couple of great deals for storage, I think. The 120GB SSD will be for Windows and a few games, and the WD Blue 1TB is for bulk storage. I'll be on the lookout for a deal on a 240GB+ SSD in the future so he can store his games on that.
I heard good things about the Deepcool Tesseract, and it was cheap. It also looks good. I bought it.
I also probably went overboard with the EVGA 550W fully modular PSU. I could have bought a cheaper PSU, but I feel that this PSU is the kind of thing that will last a long time and thrive throughout many upgrades and re-builds.
Comments are critiques are welcome (but I already bought all these parts).
I'm going AMD Ryzen this time. I would have gone Intel, but prices of motherboards for 8th-gen Intel CPUs are just stupid for budget builds. You guys can critique my parts choices if you wish, and I know you will.
He has a 24" 1080p monitor @60Hz. No plans on going higher with that. He mostly plays e-sport titles like LoL, Smite, Overwatch, and CS:GO.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For $114.00)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350-Gaming ATX AM4 Motherboard (Purchased For $90.00)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (Purchased For $105.00)
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU650 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $40.00)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $49.00)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 950 2GB Superclocked Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Deepcool - TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $48.00)
Power Supply: EVGA - B3 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $80.00)
Total: $526.00
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-24 22:47 EDT-0400
As you can see, I'll be re-using his old EVGA GTX 950 videocard. I really want to plop a 1050ti in there, but videocard prices are just ridiculous right now. The cheapest available 1050ti online in Canada is over $350. I'll have to wait on that.
I bought a Ryzen 3 1200. 4 cores, 4 threads, unlocked. The Gigabyte B350 motherboard allows me to overclock it, and makes for future upgradability. I probably went overboard with the motherboard on a "budget" build, but it's full ATX and has 4 RAM slots and lots of fan headers. I like that.
RAM was a pain in the butt. Like GPUs, the price of RAM in Canada is just dumb. I really wanted to get 1x8GB @ 3200, but it's all way too expensive. I settled on a 1x8GB @ 2400 stick, and I think I overpaid. Nothing else is available.
I got a couple of great deals for storage, I think. The 120GB SSD will be for Windows and a few games, and the WD Blue 1TB is for bulk storage. I'll be on the lookout for a deal on a 240GB+ SSD in the future so he can store his games on that.
I heard good things about the Deepcool Tesseract, and it was cheap. It also looks good. I bought it.
I also probably went overboard with the EVGA 550W fully modular PSU. I could have bought a cheaper PSU, but I feel that this PSU is the kind of thing that will last a long time and thrive throughout many upgrades and re-builds.
Comments are critiques are welcome (but I already bought all these parts).