New Budget Build Gaming PC

My 15yo son built the below specs PC for his 13yo cousin last week. He lost his dad a few mths ago. It was very sudden and unexpected. At that time my son built his 1st pc and my bro in law was eager to build one with his son and asked us a bunch of questions. A week later he was gone.

This is his Birthday present from us. Some other relatives bought monitor and peripherals for him.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor $169
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B450M-A Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $79
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 16 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 $95
Storage: Western Digital Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive $69
Video Card: Inno3D GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB Twin X2 OC Video Card $199
Case: MSY Rotarium 4 x RGB fans $85
Power Supply: Gigabyte GreenMax Plus 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified $69
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND PCIe x1 $17

Total $782

I don't really know where I could have saved $ without compromising. Perhaps i3 10100 but I think this system is better for upgradeability. Not many late 2nd hand components.

My son took a whole day to build his 1st pc. With this one he only took about 1hr.

Comments

  • +1

    Condolences my friend this was a nice way to remember him I am sure for everybody involved.

    Best way to start a sad event is with another happy one.

    He is definitely going to be watching him from heaven I hope the family knows that his passing does not have to be a sad one but condolences nonetheless.

    As for doing better on the build it is a pretty good one.

    You could have gotten higher to the AMD RX 580 for $30 more + delivery getting about 25-30% more fps or with a NVIDIA 1060 3GB for $30 less plus delivery but still 10-20% more fps vs the 1650 but honestly the 1650 is a good choice it is not bad.

    if you go through some past video card deals you can see that they usually hover around that price

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/tag/video-card
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/tag/video-card?page=2
    etc

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/586124 RX 580 $229
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/583044 GTX 1060 SC Gaming 3GB $169 + Delivery

    For around $799 + delivery this deal was pretty close to yours about a month ago
    it doesnt have a wireless network adapter and it had only 240GB storage which is less than your 500GB and slower ram but same size at 16gb - but it had a better cpu R5 3500X and a better gpu 1660 Super 6GB for just an extra $17 + delivery

    always worth a gamble to message luke to see if he can do a special for you on expired or sold deals because you never know somebody might have returned one or someone might have missed an extra pre built pc left around somewhere there is always a chance

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/580916

    anyways best of luck to you and sorry for your loss happy holidays take care and stay well

    • +1

      Personally i would get also more storage space. Most HDD's are pretty cheap now days, for example this
      [Scorptec] (https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/hard-drives-&-ssds/hdd-3…)
      Cause most games have pretty high install files
      or even this one [Centrecom] (https://www.centrecom.com.au/seagate-barracuda-35-2tb-256mb-…)

      • +1

        This 1000%

        Start off with an external or portable 8-12TB HDD from Amazon somewhere.

        Very economical when you look at $/TB sometimes it goes very close to $20/TB

        You can have a fun or swap in SSD and put your loading time sensitive games in there that might feel the most benefit from a decent Samsung EVO or something.

        SSD's can go for around $120/TB at the very cheapest (unless gambling in the second hand market which has its own scammer and faulty fakes etc caveats) more likely around $145/TB for a good all round best value one which is usually a Crucial BX/MX or Samsung EVO 850-870 but yeah the price premium is 5-6x times minimum over a mechanical hard drive so it is the ultimate question of best value vs best performance.

        Keep the starter or current SSD for the OS and non gaming programs only for now so things dont get messy or you know whatever just enjoy yourself and have fun :)

        • +1

          8-12TB might be a bit overkill for a 15yr old. But if u want optimal performance run the OS on a SSD and other files on a HDD

          • +1

            @Roystar4life: True that. That is a bit overkill. But the only reason I mentioned it is so you don't have to buy another later down the line just take really good care of it and it should last you a very long time and you won't get low storage space anxiety ever again or for a long time.

            Maybe 4TB might be the sweetspot.

            If you can find one for $100 or under take it.

            This was a good deal.

            https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/574161

            Keep tabs on this page for good deals generally $25/TB and under is the sweet spot.

            https://www.ozbargain.com.au/tag/portable-hard-drive

    • -1

      I have no clue where you got your GPU statistics, but they are completely false. As you can see from this Hardware Unboxed vid (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1zgAJK4TO0&ab_channel=Hardw…), the rx 580 is basically the same as the 1650 super and the Nvidia 1060 3gb is leagues behind. Please do your research before posting advice. Also I would highly recommend against buying the cheap Techfast builds as their PSUs are fire hazards, their cases are awful and they usually have low tier motherboards and ram.

  • I think your parts selection for the most part is very good however there are some things I would change. The case looks very questionable in terms of quality and I would definitely recommend something with better airflow for a better price, such as the Thermaltake H18. The power supply also looks not the best and this is the one part I would not cheap out on, as a good power supply can basically last a lifetime. Also spending a bit more on the motherboard might be beneficial (although not too important) as getting a better board, such as the Asus TUF B450M Pro, will open up better upgrade paths due to the better vrms.

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