New build for gaming $1200-$1500

hoek88

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Oct 29, 2008
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Hello all,
I was lurking and it seems all the recent new build discussions, the folks said they weren't gaming on them. I am out of the loop on the hardware these days and my buddy wants to start gaming with me. Probably the most intensive thing we would be playing would be Rocket League or Civilization 6, but he wants something relatively future proof for the next 3-5 years. Budget is $1200-$1500. I know the GPU market is really stupid right now. Thank you for any suggestions.
 
I'd say make a build around an i5-11600k or a Ryzen 5600G and a motherboard with video outputs so you at least have some sort of video. Then you can hunt around for something like a GTX 1650/60, GTX 1060, GTX 1050 Ti, RX570/80 or something a bit older on the used market. Anything you find new is going to be heavily overpriced, like a GTX 1650 on Newegg is $330. I paid $400 for a GTX 1070 Ti back in 2018, which is a much better card.

An 11600k or a 5600G will keep you going for several years, you can upgrade the video card later when you need to.
 
Civ 6 doesn't need much for graphics, but does like CPU. Most of the time it's not real CPU heavy, but when you click the end turn button and the AI players make their moves it can use a lot more CPU than most games. It'll still work on an old dual core though. It'll just take longer. Looks like Rocket League will want a bit more GPU, but nothing too heavy. If my Googling is correct a GTX 1060 or RX470 is recommended.

So, a few options...
1. Start by finding a decent used vid card. He won't need current gen for this stuff. Trying to future proof a vid card with current prices is more of a bad idea than usual. Just aim for good enough for a year or two. A vid card is one of the easiest things to swap out in a system. Once the card is in hand get the rest of the parts. GiGaBiTe mostly nailed it with the card list, but I'd add the RX 5600XT and maybe the RTX 2060 just because once in a while you'll find someone on a forum looking to sell their old card for what they paid for it and at MSRP both of those will fit in the budget. Of course once in a while you'll get lucky and get a better deal.
2. New Vid card hunt. Gotta keep it to $500-600 or so or less to have enough left for the rest of the build, but it can happen. Takes hunting and/or luck though. I snagged a no-combo EVGA RTX 3060Ti XC in August for ~$500 including tax & shipping from a Newegg Shuffle. That was luck. First and only shuffle I ever entered. Most people getting deals like this are stalking a Microcenter, repeatedly entering shuffles, or otherwise putting in work.
3. Just buy a pre-built. $1500 will get you a decent machine (16GB, 6-8 cores, SSD, etc.) with an RTX 3060 in it. Sacrilege I know, but it's the easiest way to get a vid card these days without overpaying. Also you can get it down to about $1k with a GTX 1660 Super, though it'll likely have a 250-500GB SSD + 1TB hard drive setup if you go with a big brand.
4. AMD APU build. This is going to have the worst GPU performance of the above options. It's also the cheapest short term. You could do a $1k or less build with an APU without any trouble, leaving some budget for a vid card when he can snag one.
5. Screw it, just pay up. Increase the budget and get an RX 6700XT for ~$800. Those you can just order. I basically went this way last December. First I wanted a 3080, then a 3080 or 6800XT, then either of those or a 6900XT... ended up with a 3090 because I managed to get it into my cart and check out.

What would I suggest? Depends on how capable your friend is with PCs and how much support work you want to do. If he's the tech savvy type I'd start with hunting down a used vid card unless he feels like putting in the effort and $ for a new one. If not I'd recommend a pre-built unless you feel like doing tech support for free and putting in work to get the parts. I limit that to immediate family and current girlfriends. The only person I've ever built a machine for who wasn't real tech savvy was my brother. I've bought dad plenty of parts as gifts over the years, but he got into PC building before I did and if he asks me for help it's usually a real stumper.
 
After I got my Ryzen 5600x and installed it on a B550 chipset , paired it with a RX 570 8Gb and played some Fortnite with the rig

I record game play to see what I missed and sometimes upload to Youtube and my first video to hit 1K views .. It's an interesting hardware match up and I payed before prices for everything even cpu .. it's around $900 build for me .

 
Because of the GPU market I would be buying a pre-built.

That budget can get you pre-built with a i7 11700 with 3060 ti. The 3060 ti is a lot faster than the non ti card.

You would likely need to upgrade the CPU cooler, so you would still get some CPU building experience.
 
Hello all,
I was lurking and it seems all the recent new build discussions, the folks said they weren't gaming on them. I am out of the loop on the hardware these days and my buddy wants to start gaming with me. Probably the most intensive thing we would be playing would be Rocket League or Civilization 6, but he wants something relatively future proof for the next 3-5 years. Budget is $1200-$1500. I know the GPU market is really stupid right now. Thank you for any suggestions.
check the stock on this a few times a day. They come back in to stock pretty often.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-r...070-1tb-hdd-512gb-ssd/6455823.p?skuId=6455823

RTX 3070
I7-11700f
Asus B560-G Gaming Wi-fi MATX mobo (its really nice)
https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-b560-g-gaming-wifi-model/
2 sticks of generic 3200mhz ram
Decent gold rated power supply from a known OEM
teensy cpu cooler. you will need to buy something better. I recommend the Bequiet Shadow Rock TF2, Dark Rock TF2, or Noctua NH-C14S, as they will fit, garunteed. Even if you have to take the top fan off the Dark Rock TF2.
 
Here's a Lenovo Legion with a Ryzen 5800 non-X (the non-X is 100mhz slower than a 5800x. that's the only difference). and an RTX 3060:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo...d-1tb-hdd-raven-black/6453859.p?skuId=6453859

its a little over $100 more than that cyberpower with the 6600xt. The 6600xt is a fair bit more powerful than an RTX 3060 in some games. but not always. But this PC's CPU is quite a bit better (two more cores and double the cache. which matters) and it comes with 16GB of RAM, instead of 8GB.

I would probably be inclined to get this one.
 
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Here's a Lenovo Legion with a Ryzen 5800 non-X (the non-X is 100mhz slower than a 5800x. that's the only difference). and an RTX 3060:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo...d-1tb-hdd-raven-black/6453859.p?skuId=6453859

its a little over $100 more than that cyberpower with the 6600xt. The 6600xt is a fair bit more powerful than an RTX 3060. But this PC's CPU is quite a bit better (two more cores and double the cache. which matters) and it comes with 16GB of RAM, instead of 8GB.
same machine but with a 256Gb SSD and a 1660 super
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo...d-1tb-hdd-raven-black/6457349.p?skuId=6457349
 
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