New build help

[Cook_1]

I want to build a PC for FFXIV Shadowbringers. I've been totally out of the loop hardware wise for sometime now so could use some help. My laptop has been doing just fine but I think I need something with a bit more bang.

Max budget is $1500 and just the tower built, have everything else. If I can stay under this that would be great, this is just the max I'm willing to spend.

Monitor: Dell U3415W (QHD 3440 x 1440 at 60 Hz)

Type: I want to do a mATX build to save on space and I'm not looking to OC.

CPU: I don't know which would be better here, I've been in the Intel family for a long time but once upon a time I was an AMD fan as they offered the best bang for the buck.

GPU: I know FFXIV favors Nvidia, what range of cards should I be looking at here?

HD: The last hard drive I bought was a 3.5" SSD - it seems things have evolved a bit since then. Any info on what to look for here would be great.

Motherboard: Any specific features I should be looking at?

RAM: I know I want 32GB, I'll find the best set available in my price range.

Case/PSU: These I can figure out on my own.

 

[Grimlaking]

My recommendations... lets just hit the points that matter.

1. MMO gaming at 4k. So you want decent performance and pushing 4k level of pixels you'll want a rather strong video card. Especially since you don't have any frame sync for any lulls in that monitor as you described it.

2. CPU... CPU actually matters for MMO gaming because of the number of independent characters that need to be tracked and properly positioned for rendering at any one time and the tracking of gear objects and colors and all of that as they are fed to you. So for CPU I would go with a current gen Ryzen, 3000 series if you can hold out for it.

3. Motherboard, Stick with a main board manufacturer you trust. If you are going with the Ryzen 3000 stick with one that has support for PCIE 4. Otherwise go with what your gut tells you.

4. Storage: What you don't want to miss out on is NVME drives. Get a good fast NVME drive for your system. A nice 1 Tb drive I see going for 100 in the hot deals forum would be a nice grab to make even while you wait.

5. Video card. your game of choice is team green. Personally pushing that pixel count I would want a 2080, It's more likely to fit in your budget and should be ok for 60hz gaming at that resolution.

So lets seee...

100 for the storage
700 for the video card if you can find a good deal.
500 for a CPU
200 for a good motherboard

Thats no case, no power, or anything else but it would be a solid gamer for a few years to come.