Source
r/buildapc•
FaithwithinReason

Girlfriend cheap-ish gaming, streaming, editing rig

Build Help

Her laptop is running on borrowed time. She mainly plays CS:GO, but would like to branch out to other games. Currently her branching has led her to commandeer my desktop.

She also streams with her friends and does light editing in Premiere.

I have some spare parts from old builds. A 1tb Intel SSD, and a 1tb Maxtor drive, a decent monitor and all the peripherals.

Any critique? I've always got Asus motherboards, but the ASRock seems to be popular with this price range, chipset. Am I going overboard on the RAM speed? Should I take it down to 3000mhz?

Thanks for any and all input...

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

TypeItemPrice
CPU*AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor$149.99 @ Amazon
CPU CoolerCooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler$29.99 @ Amazon
MotherboardASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard$59.99 @ Newegg Business
MemoryG.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory$100.98 @ Newegg
Video CardAsus - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB STRIX Video Card$209.89 @ OutletPC
Power SupplyCorsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply$39.99 @ Amazon
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total$590.83
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-02 20:55 EDT-0400

Posted Aug 3, 2018, 12:58 AM UTC · edited

111
solonit•

2600 + B450. Only $3 more. They come with Wraith Stealth cooler.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

TypeItemPrice
CPUAMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor$170.98 @ Newegg
MotherboardGigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard$71.98 @ Newegg
MemoryG.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory$100.98 @ Newegg
Video CardAsus - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB STRIX Video Card$209.89 @ OutletPC
Power SupplyCorsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply$39.99 @ Amazon
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total$593.82
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-02 21:00 EDT-0400
3
FaithwithinReasonOP•

Wow that's a hell of a jump for 3 bucks. Thanks!

How do you feel about Gigabyte? I helped a friend who bought gigabyte and he had boot problems through the life of his build. I'll admit though, this was 15 years ago. Things might have changed or he just might have got an unlucky board.

1
kad902•

Probably just unlucky gigabyte is solid at least my experience with them

2
FaithwithinReasonOP•

Thanks for the input!

1
solonit•

He probably unlucky and got a defected one, I use Asrock and Gigabyte, both of them are good. Have to say B450 boards are new and not much review on them, so should wait a bit for more info.

2
FaithwithinReasonOP•

Thanks for the input. I'm looking to bite the bullet in the next week or so. I think the motherboard is my biggest roadblock at the moment.

As I said below, there will be a limited amount of future upgrading. At most, a bit more ram, so I'm thinking a micro-atx with 4 slots. Lower power consumption is also a plus. I'll have to ponder on brands for a bit.

1
solonit•

AMD supposedly to be able to upgrade up to Zen2 7nm architecture (2020) on all current AM4 board. How much is true on that remains to be seen.

1
golli123•

Second u/solonit 's list. If you want to save $20, then there isn't really much difference between 3200 and 3000Mhz RAM like this kit

You didn't mention having a case yet.

Going with a Ryzen 5 2600 is the better way to go anyways, but i think in later batches the ASRock AB350M Pro4 had some issues (only the microATX version as far as i know), so while it spec wise is really nice i'd probably not recommend it. Not sure if it's fixed, but there were a number of posts with freeze issues i think.

Besides that check out r/buildapcsales

2
FaithwithinReasonOP•

Thanks for your recommendations.

You're right about missing the case. I was debating getting a micro-atx or full sized mobo so I hadn't looked at cases yet. I think micro-atx is the way to go. At most, she might add another couple of sticks for RAM so I can get a micro with 4 slots.

Any tips on cheapish cases?

1
golli123•

I'd say either form factor for case and motherboard are fine tbh. Not that big of a difference.

For the case it probably doesn't matter that much either and you could at least partially also go by looks.

If you switch PCPartPicker from "detailed list" to "list" like this you get preview pics that are quite helpful.

Sadly PCPartPicker doesn't have an option to filter for how many case fans are preinstalled, but newegg always has that in their spec sheets. You probably want 2 (one intake, one exhaust) or maybe 3 (second intake) for some decent airflow. So if a case only comes with one i'd factor in another $5-$10 for something like an Arctic F12 or be quiet! silentwing 2.

On the budget side something like this with 2 preinstalled fans probably does the job just fine. Or you look at what cases are currently on sale over at r/buildapcsales like e.g. this one (assuming those MIR matter).

I often filter PCPartPicker something like this since i think those manufacturer make some of the better cases. While it may filter out some other decent cases it also get's rid of most of the complete budget ones. I'd say anywhere between $30-$70 you can get decent quality and good value for how much you spend. Below imo quality starts to suffer a lot and you also don't really have to spend more, since at that point you have more or less all the features you'd need.

Looking at it if you want to go mATX the Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L (1 installed fan) looks kinda neat imo.

1
DoDus1•

For the price to performance, I would use an MSI AERO ITX RX 560. It will save you $70 which be used on a 1700 or 2600 and kick the PSU to a 550W for future upgrades.

1