Advice for Building Entry Level Gaming Computer? (Budget $1K)

LFlightMaster on 28/08/2020 - 18:34
Last edited 29/08/2020 - 09:46 by 1 other user

Hi guys, I'm a new member and wanting to build my own gaming PC. I'm 13 not look for anything super special, it's my first try at building and I have a limited budget.

I'm mostly interest in playing Competitive Minecraft, Roblox and also interested in flight simulators. I was looking at the AMD Ryzen 3600 as a good CPU, maybe 8GB memory, Wi-fi Motherboard, Not sure about the graphics card and prefer a pretty cool casing in white. Any advice for a newbie?

Already have accessories like monitor, keyboard, mouse and headset, so would only be the PC and hoping to budget under $1000 as I have to pay for it myself…

Computing Computer Desktop Computer

Comments

  • oscargamer on 28/08/2020 - 19:04
    +4

    Good on you for starting young ! Even more kudos for paying for it yourself !!

    Your biggest expense is going to be the graphics card (for the flight sims).

    I'd suggest….
    3300x cpu
    16gb RAM 3200mhz
    any B450 Mobo with wifi from a decent maker - MSI or Gigabyte or similar
    Case that you like
    PSU - don't forget PSU - i like the CX550M

    Then work out what money you have left and get the GPU…..

    • FlightMaster on 28/08/2020 - 19:10

      Thanks for the advice, I'll got check them out!

  • AustriaBargain on 28/08/2020 - 20:28

    Do you plan on doing any kind of work on the computer, editing videos, photoshop, etc.? If so you'll want more ram than 8GB. 13 is not too young for any of that stuff, as you know from YouTube. Could always buy more ram later.

    • FlightMaster on 28/08/2020 - 20:37

      Yeah, I'm thinking of getting into photo shopping and editing. I just thought I'd go 8GB just so I could add more if need later.

      • AustriaBargain on 28/08/2020 - 20:47

        You can go the big brand Adobe route, or use alternatives which are often free. I love Adobe but you're young enough to get into alternatives. Seven years from now the alternatives will be industry standards. You can subscribe to Adobe or you can acquire copies of specific apps through alternate means. Maybe you could convince a parent to pay for all the Adobe apps for you at student price in exchange for a few hours of photo editing/arranging printing at Big W or whatever per month. After a few months you'll have a good sense of how your edits will show up on Big Ws photo printing machines and you could be making print worthy edits to photos for the whole family, fill all those empty photo frames your mom bought over the years.

        • gtx on 30/08/2020 - 01:37

          Why would Adobe alternatives be industry standard in seven years?

          • AustriaBargain on 30/08/2020 - 01:38

            @gtx: People don't like paying Adobe prices. I'd stick with Adobe though because if it's all in one then there's a lot less to learn. At the same time I’d want to at least know how to work the alternatives if that’s what half of everyone will be using in 10 years time.

  • Yve on 28/08/2020 - 20:49

    CPU: Definitely try to save money on the CPU, I would also recommend the 3300X because 2 extra cores is unlikely to be helpful to you.

    Ram: 16gb 3200mhz Ram (Flight sim can be pretty dependent on ram afaik)

    Motherboard: B450 Mobo (The MSI Mortar ones are pretty good and cheap, Gigabytes Aorus lineup is a good choice as well though you can save a lot on budget mobos since you don’t really need good VRMs)
    Don’t forget a Wi-Fi card if you’re setting this up somewhere out of reach for Ethernet.

    PSU: Use the PSU tierlist on the linustechtips forum to choose one. Don’t go too cheap, I recommend C tier psus for your system.

    SSD: 256gb m.2 SSD as a boot drive until you can afford upgrades. Kingston A2000/Crucial P1/Adata 8200/Silicon Power are pretty cheap and fast.

    GPU: 2070 Super is a good card to buy first hand and should be going on sale during Black Friday. If you take the proper measures to ensure its working and clocking well then a second hand 1080Ti can be good as well.

    Windows 10 Education edition - You can get this using your school email off the hub. It’s basically Windows 10 Pro but better.

    Don’t forget to grab a monitor if you don’t have one. The second hand market has plenty for real cheap so you should ask your parents for help since some sellers can be dodgy.

    I would also recommend holding back until Black Friday - Cyber Monday as there can be quite good deals. Prices will definitely drop due to the announcements and release of products in September and October from Intel/Nvidia/AMD

    • AustriaBargain on 28/08/2020 - 21:55

      One option he has is to cheap out on the GPU for now, and get a worthy GPU later. I'd rather borrow more money for a better GPU now though, personally.

    • CrazyBargainCatcher on 30/08/2020 - 08:40

      Pushing it for 2070 for under $1k

  • GangGang on 28/08/2020 - 21:16
    +1

    Head over to www.pcpartpicker.com & click system builder. Input all your details to see if everything is also compatible. It should help you out.

  • TheProcess on 28/08/2020 - 21:27

    https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/rmp_sg_whirlpoolpcs_gaming_con…

    Check this out, very handy resource that I use to when I build a new PC every 4-5 years.

    • Agret on 29/08/2020 - 01:45

      Pretty funny that they are recommending speakers, should be headphones on there. That $1000 build looks alright although I would change the 1600AF for a 3300X as it makes a big difference in games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPMCvB_0b4w

  • bmerigan on 28/08/2020 - 21:59
    +1

    Get a 256GB SSD for your boot drive, and a 2TB-4TB 7200RPM hard-drive for games and media. It's the best way to balance performace and budget.
    Also, absolutely no need to get Intel Corei7 or i9 CPU, in case someone suggests it.
    GPU I think you'd have to go for a GTX 1660 Super or better.

    • oscargamer on 28/08/2020 - 22:35

      Totally disagree with this.

      SSD for boot, sure.
      HDD for programs NO NO NO. This is the drive that does most of the day to day work. Why have a HDD slowing 99% of what you do? Much much better to get a 100gb SSD for boot and a 2tb SSD for programs.

      HDD only for Nas or other storage

      • bmerigan on 28/08/2020 - 22:37
        +1

        A 2TB SSD?! The whole budget is $1000…
        Also, I have this setup and while games don't load instantly all my programs are still installed on the SSD and run just fine.
        Flight Sim itself needs at least 160GB of space.

      • Agret on 29/08/2020 - 01:48
        +1

        I would say 500GB SSD for boot since they are under $100 now (Kingston A2000 nvme is the way to go) and then 2/3TB hdd for games.

        HDD for programs NO NO NO. This is the drive that does most of the day to day work. Why have a HDD slowing 99% of what you do? Much much better to get a 100gb SSD for boot and a 2tb SSD for programs.

        Do not install your programs onto the hard drive, install all programs to the SSD so they are not accessing anything from HDD. Most programs are small so disk space is not an issue here. By just installing games/storing media on the HDD it means when you go to play or update a game it gets 100% of the HDD speed to itself since nothing else is accessing it, works great. HDD is only an issue when used for the OS & programs because it has to constantly seek all over the place fetching files for all the background processes which will slow down your whole system.

        2tb SSD is a luxury item for $2000+ builds and definitely not something you need

      • FlightMaster on 29/08/2020 - 08:47

        I'm slightly confused whether I should get a better SSD or a HDD?

        • iforgotmysocks on 29/08/2020 - 09:52

          I'd suggest starting with a 1TB SSD only and add to it later.

        • bmerigan on 29/08/2020 - 11:08

          You wil need several TB of storage eventually. It's not economical to achieve that with only SSD

    • FireRunner on 28/08/2020 - 23:59

      I usually find 250GB not far from 500GB SSD prices. I would opt for the 500GB since it's better value and you get more fast storage so you can have a handful of games that load fast

  • FlightMaster on 29/08/2020 - 09:31

    Just another question, do I need a sound card?

  • FlightMaster on 29/08/2020 - 13:59
    +1

    Thanks to everyone's advice, I've definitely gained a lot larger of an idea of what I need to get and what is better than others.

  • sal78 on 30/08/2020 - 00:19
    +1

    Researching and building your own pc is extremely rewarding and satisfying. It's great that you want to give it a go. My son built his own pc and did some research on parts but he had a lot of assignments n exams so I helped to monitor prices and research.

    This is his recent built. Prices are a bit lower now since he built it in June at peak Covid prices. I think it's still a pretty good deal. Having peripherals will save a lot of money.

    https://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/sal78/saved/

    Parts
    https://imgbox.com/N7ubLV9Z

    Set up
    https://imgbox.com/KO39MOWF

    The case we bought included 3 x fans with RGB and remote. Otherwise you have to factor in fans too. He went with purple because his mobo is red and it matches. If you are OCD about colours I suggest you buy black mobo.

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