Advice for Building a Desktop

[Pine]

What it says on the tin.

My laptop crapped out on me towards the end of the summer. Lately, I’ve been making do with an ancient (circa 2012) notebook and borrowing my wife’s laptop any time I want to do some serious work, but neither of these has the performance capabilities I’m looking for. They’re both too old to even connect to a 5G network, for goodness sake, and are slower than molasses by my standards.

I am looking to build a new computer. Laptops have served me well, but I’m sick of them having short life expectancies due to wear and tear. As such, I have decided to grow up and build a desktop.

I have never built a computer from parts before, and am a bit out of my depth.

I am looking for serious gaming-quality hardware, but it need not be bleeding-edge competition-grade stuff. Ideally, this desktop would last me at least five years with modest maintenance, perhaps a bit longer with upgrades over time.

I am in no hurry on this, and with Fall upon us, I am happy to wait for November to take advantage of Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, or even farm this out to family for Christmas gifts. They’re always complaining that I never ask for anything.

Parts I currently have:
-A quality mouse
-A USB Keyboard
-Speakers
-A CD/DVD drive
-A nearly-new 1TB SSD, salvaged from my old machine. ~8-10 months old

[Pine]

This is the pre-constructed desktop I was looking at when I decided to build my own, for reference.

[Pine]

Yeah...I don’t really know enough about hardware or parts to know what the right stuff is though, or what to prioritize. Shell out for a graphics card? Processor? Is mainboard the priority for longevity?

[Pine]

Die, Pops

As for budget...flexible. Less than $1500, but as I said above, I’m planning on taking advantage of Black Friday sales, asking for parts for Christmas, etc.

[Pine]

The processor is "Intel Cor i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz", and it says that 8 times so I guess I have 8 of them?

You most likely have one processor with four computational units (cores) that are able to perform trickery on the code they run to make your OS think you have 8 cores.

See, I don’t even know what the hell that means

[Pine]

Sure

[Pine]

I really appreciate all the work and thought that’s gone into replies to this thread so far. You guys are great!

I was researching AMD and whether I wanted to go Ryzen 5 or spring for a 7, and ran across this CPU/motherboard/heatsink combo.

It *appears* to have the requisite necessities at a plausible price, so what am I missing?

[Pine]

^Never mind, I just priced out the parts

[Pine]

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Tanaar/saved/

Here’s where I’m at now. It’s partially a build I found on pcpartpicker, with some elements from suggestions here and elsewhere.

I think I’ve finalized the CPU, but I’m still very unsure of the graphics card options.

Thoughts on the build? Please note that I already own SSD storage, OS, monitor (I think I have a compatible one) and some peripherals. Some parts (like RAM and power supply) are on a parametric filter for current best offers within parameters.

What am I missing? Do I need a sound card if I’ll be using built-in monitor speakers and headphone jack? I don’t actually care about sound quality beyond basic use.

[Pine]

Specifically looking for advice on main board and case. Wattage, chip sets, pins, space...that’s all Greek to me still

[Pine]

The build looks good. Might want to consider R5 3600X as your processor instead of just the normal R5 3600.

If you have a bit extra money, you can splurge on a better case. It'll make building the PC a lot easier.

Got a case recommendation? I liked the price and the aesthetics, but form is the vassal of function

[Pine]

Also, can you explain the substantive difference between the R5 3600 and the 3600X, aside from a 20-25% price increase?

[Pine]

Yeah, but that’s more than twice what the other one would cost. Is there a space issue? Cooling? Sockets or something?

Remember, I’m parting this out to family for Christmas, so any parts I can keep down to a reasonable price (like $50 vs $110) are important.

By all means, if there’s a substantive difference, I’ll go with the better model. I just don’t know what those differences are.

[Pine]

Ah, onboard backup graphics would make a difference

I have no specific preference on Nvidia or whomever.

[Pine]

We’re not building a dream PC here - I am budget constrained

[Pine]

Update:

I’m zeroing in on the “rough draft” of this build. I added on my SSD to check compatibility, and left it there for now to complete the build. For a monitor, I have a lightly-used 19-inch HDMI-compatible TV in storage, which will do temporarily. I’m aware of potential lag issues between TV monitors compared to purpose-built monitors, and will be looking to replace it in the late/winter early spring.

I’ve done a bit of research on GPUs, and have been pointed towards the upper-end Radeon cards repeatedly within my budget bracket, especially the RX 5700 XT chipset.

Part list here

Thoughts?

[Pine]

It should only have 16. I’ve been tweaking the parametric filters to include more items, it may have saved wrong

Edit: Yep that’s what happened. I refined the RAM filter this morning and both the new and old were showing up

[Pine]

Do I *need* 3TB storage? No.

The 1TB SSD is salvaged from my laptop, and has my OS and major programs etc. It’s about 1/3-1/2 full. I intend to use the HDD for storage of bulkier files and libraries, like music, photos, archived stuff etc., most of which are not presently on the SSD. It’s a luxury addition.

I have all of the needed peripherals. My monitor is only 720p, so it’s next on the list to upgrade. I’ve decided not to part this out for Christmas, and have already purchased case and PSU. Trying to convey what I want to relatives who are not tech-savvy would be a huge headache. The rest I’ll get myself when it goes on sale. The monitor upgrade is not strictly a necessity, but it IS something I can ask for for Christmas. It’s in my wife or parents price range, and the specs are easier to understand for the lay person.

For the CPU, I know it’s more than I need. I’m buying for five years down the line rather than today.

The Sapphire Nitro+ is brand new, and has gotten a boatload of praise. Here is a review.

[Pine]

This from the guy who was recommending a Tomahawk mb, which is RX 480 iirc.

Just yanking your chain. I had the Tomahawk listed until I read that review of the Nitro+, and it specifically recommended pairing it with an RX570 mb and Ryzen 3000-series. As for the future, it can’t do ray-tracing, but I’ve never been a bleeding-edge kind of guy

[Pine]

Final build

As far as I can tell, there's no point to waiting for Black Friday for PC components, only peripherals. I'll wait on the monitor, but I'm pulling the trigger on the rest after my next paycheck.