Guidance on Parts for PC Build (Budget $1000)

Hi All,

My younger brother has asked for help upgrading his ageing PC.

It's an all-around build for the general tasks, as well as music production and gaming 1080p.

He has a GTX 1060 at the moment, so I think he will keep that, and waiting for GPU's to drop

This is my idea to him for an upgrade. I know a few of these parts will come down during the Prime Day Sale, so this would be the top pricing right now.

Just want some input on the actual parts.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor $284.78 @ JW Computers
Motherboard ASRock B550M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $129.00 @ PCCaseGear
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory $249.00 @ PC Byte
Storage Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive $129.00 @ Amazon Australia
Case Lian Li LANCOOL 215 ATX Mid Tower Case $115.00 @ JW Computers
Power Supply Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $138.78 @ JW Computers
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total $1045.56
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-06-16 14:18 AEST+1000

Comments

  • +1

    Yeah that looks fine

  • +4

    does he need the 32gb of ram? - 16 would be more than enough

    • +4

      Agree on this. Get 16GB and use the savings to buy some SSD storage
      Edit: Missed that you're adding a 500GB SSD to the list. You could also get a 1TB Kingston A2000 or WD SN550 for around $125 as secondary storage

    • More the fact that I got 32GB for $140 last prime sale, so I thought I would future proof a bit. He is also starting to record music, so would thought that would help.

      • Nah, I second the advice above.
        Go by halving RAM to 16GB, whilst doubling nVme to 1TB. More balanced that way. If anything, you could move up to 3600MHz RAM (4000MHz still has issues). You will always use the Main Storage, and 1TB is kinda limiting as it is. I think if you're going for 32GB RAM, then it means you need a more powerful CPU as well. So I would recommend going for an 8-core (or higher) CPU instead like the r7-3700/i9-9900k or better.

        By the way, can you find any cheap(ish) price for the r5-5600X ?
        That would give you lower latencies/higher single-thread performance. Won't mean anything for the GTX-1060, but could be useful for when upgrading the GPU. Otherwise, don't worry about it —you can always upgrade these components later: GPU, RAM, CPU, Secondary Storage. However, try to NOT upgrade your: Case, PSU, Mobo, as its just better getting these things right the first time around. Also don't neglect your accessories: Monitors/Display, Mouse, Keyboard, Mic, Headset, Speakers, Ports Hub, Lighting, Chair, Desk etc etc. Some people even buy the largest iPad Pro so they can use it as a third/portrait display for miscellaneous stuff, and use the Apple Pen so they get to have a cheap Wacom scribe.

        Look here for some inspirations: https://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations/

        edit: ninja'd, some good advice written down.

      • +1

        No need to future proof RAM - as long as there are spare slots it's easy to upgrade in future if the need arises.

        The latest gen consoles have 16GB of RAM that's shared between CPU and GPU so for PC games 16GB RAM + whatever is on the graphics card should be sufficient.

    • It'll depend on what program he uses for music production. If he'll use Pro Tools, dropping to 16gb ram might be an error. That program is a resource hungry beast.

      While I don't use it, some of my friends complain about 32gb not being enough. It always struck me as odd that sound would need more ram than video, but it's a common thread you hear in post production sound.

  • +1

    Looks good, would suggest going 5600x and B550, some good combo deals for a little more. For PSU, would go RM750x instead, bit better quality components. For RAM, try and get 3600Mhz instead of 3200. SSD is bit expensive, but is Gen 4 I suppose.

    Current deals:
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/630962 - $467 for Ryzen 5 5600x and B550 Tomahawk
    https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/402293660586?epid=17027522242 - $123 for RM750x with code PEOFY22
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/629574 $69 pickup or + delivery for Lancool 215

    • Thanks.

  • +2

    My advice would be to drop it back to 16gb ram and spend the extra $$ on either a ssd, or upgrading the cpu to a 5600x with this deal. Can always add extra ram when needed.
    As for the case, for around that price i would recommend the lian li lancool mesh ii for a similar price

    • It was between those two, but I chose the 215 because of the Gamers Nexus review.

      • I think if you take a closer look at that review, you will see the mesh 2 has better thermals across the board, the main difference being this case upon release was quite a bit cheaper, however the mesh 2 has come down quite a bit in price to make it extremely competitive. Regardless, either case will give you what youre looking for!

  • power seems a bit overkill but that's pretty cheap regardless.

    https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

    • +5

      This was for future proof to update the GPU either 3070 or a 40 series.

  • +2

    Agree that if your budget can take it to substitute in:
    16GB 3600mhz instead of 32GB 3200mhz RAM
    5600X CPU
    1TB SSD

  • +1

    OK, This is what I have come too.

    AMD 5600X + MSI B550 TOMOHAWK Motherbord - $467
    CORSAIR RM750x – GOLD - $123.24
    Lian Li Lancool 215 Black - $118
    Corsair LPX 16GB 3600 CL18 – $129.57
    Samsung 980 1TB - 155

    Grand Total: $992

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