Out of the game for a while, need advice on a PC build

[jzj1990]

Hey all,

I haven’t built a PC in nearly a decade and I’m a little bit out of date as to what parts/manufacturers are still quality.
I’m hoping to build a decent model with a 24” monitor (preferably two) for under $1500 CAD. It will primarily be used for rendering/music production with some light gaming thrown in. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[timta2]

It's a terrible time to build a PC. I would wait for prices and availability of parts to improve.

 

[sneekypeet]

IMHO deals can be had on systems, and as much as it makes me cringe to say it, it is done with prebuilts.

Without buying power, as said above, costs and availability will be the biggest dream killers.

 

[Isaac`]

you can build a good mid to low end build rn
as long as the video card has less then 4g of vram

 

[PaulieG]

It's not a terrible time to build a system. It's simply a terrible time to be a gamer who needs a high end graphics card. There is a difference.

 

[Hyderz]

i'd go with a nice prebuilt like from nzxt.
cant find gpu and even if you do the prices r sky high.
always pay msrp and for aib models pay additional 5-10% from msrp.

 

[AleXXX666]

It's not a terrible time to build a system. It's simply a terrible time to be a gamer who needs a high end graphics card. There is a difference.

yeah, but most people somehow understand "bad times for powerful gpu purchase=bad times for building whole pc lol"

to OP: ram prices are going up slowly, too. but not crazy as gpu prices, so not a big deal. get 4 slot mb and don't care, okay with 16 gb first time.

 

[storm-chaser]

It's a fine time to build a new computer, you just have to choose your parts wisely

For CPU I recommend the 6c/12t 10th gen Intel 10600KF on sale on newegg for $209 right now. Only an i5 but still a great chip for overclocking and has an excellent cost/performance ratio (Intel's most budget friendly option without compromising on performance). You are getting 9900K performance up to six cores, so it's on par with intel's 9th gen flagship... As for GPU, maybe go for a used RX 580 such as this MSI 4gb gaming X for $59.99. Sounds like a "cheap out" option, but even the 4GB version is still an excellent GPU and will play all the latest games with ease on high detail settings.

GPU:

MSI Radeon RX 580 4gb Gaming X 4G GPU AMD Graphics Card | eBay

Condition is "Used".

www.ebay.com

CPU:

Intel Core i5-10600KF 4.1 GHz LGA 1200 BX8070110600KF Desktop Processor - Newegg.com

Buy Intel Core i5-10600KF Comet Lake 6-Core 4.1 GHz LGA 1200 125W BX8070110600KF Desktop Processor with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

RAM (3200MHz is more than enough to handle anything you throw at it and will not bottleneck the system):

Patriot Viper Steel Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4 3200MHz Kit PVS48G320C6K - Newegg.com

Buy Patriot Viper Steel Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4 3200MHz Kit PVS48G320C6K with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

Budget?

 

[Isaac`]

It's a fine time to build a new computer, you just have to choose your parts wisely

For CPU I recommend the 6c/12t 10th gen Intel 10600KF on sale on newegg for $209 right now. Only an i5 but still a great chip for overclocking and has an excellent cost/performance ratio (Intel's most budget friendly option without compromising on performance). You are getting 9900K performance up to six cores, so it's on par with intel's 9th gen flagship... As for GPU, maybe go for a used RX 580 such as this MSI 4gb gaming X for $59.99. Sounds like a "cheap out" option, but even the 4GB version is still an excellent GPU and will play all the latest games with ease on high detail settings.

GPU:

MSI Radeon RX 580 4gb Gaming X 4G GPU AMD Graphics Card | eBay

Condition is "Used".

www.ebay.com

CPU:

Intel Core i5-10600KF 4.1 GHz LGA 1200 BX8070110600KF Desktop Processor - Newegg.com

Buy Intel Core i5-10600KF Comet Lake 6-Core 4.1 GHz LGA 1200 125W BX8070110600KF Desktop Processor with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

RAM (3200MHz is more than enough to handle anything you throw at it and will not bottleneck the system):

Patriot Viper Steel Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4 3200MHz Kit PVS48G320C6K - Newegg.com

Buy Patriot Viper Steel Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4 3200MHz Kit PVS48G320C6K with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

yeah but the 3600g is cheaper and a faster cpu
its cheaper by 30 dollars where i am i would just use the 3600

 

[jboydgolfer]

ive built a few PC's during this shortage , & its gone smooth. i admittedly recycled GPU's , that i bought during the previous builds, so obviously that made things much smoother. short of AMD cpu's, & GPU's, i noticed no shortage. I dont use AMD cpu's, & i didnt need GPU's, so it was no different than normal for me. i found some great sales/deals in SSD's & PSU's. also from intel likely feeling the heat of AMD finally releasing a cpu that competes with a current generation intel processor. all made for a decent building process.

 

[storm-chaser]

yeah but the 3600g is cheaper and a faster cpu
its cheaper by 30 dollars where i am i would just use the 3600

They are both about the same price, right near $200... where are you finding the 3600g for $30 less? Both would be good options, just about equal, but IMO the intel platform is a little more enjoyable to OC and the OC can typically be pushed a little harder, and everyone likes higher clock speeds. Also the latency is slightly higher on the AMD processor. These AMD chips run about 60-70 ns in average latency versus 40-50 ns for the intel chips, not that that makes much of a difference, but it is noteworthy.
10600KF on the left and 3600 on the right...

 

[Isaac`]

They are both about the same price, right near $200... where are you finding the 3600g for $30 less? Both would be good options, just about equal, but IMO the intel platform is a little more enjoyable to OC and the OC can typically be pushed a little harder, and everyone likes higher clock speeds. Also the latency is slightly higher on the AMD processor. These AMD chips run about 60-70 ns in average latency versus 40-50 ns for the intel chips, not that that makes much of a difference, but it is noteworthy.
10600KF on the left and 3600 on the right...

View attachment 191980

You using userbenchmark a website know for having a Intel bias

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I'd just look for a new amd series pre-built in your budget whether a desktop or laptop is preferred
You show no region.

 

[John Naylor]

1. A budget would be an essential piece of information as well as monoitor resoltion.

2. Also what applications ... benchmarks are interesting as a starting point but totally useless for determining how your PC will run your apps / games.

3. When you look at office and productivity benchmarks for example ... how fast they can complete a benchmark script is of no value as the bottleneck where is always the user. No one has ever had their productivity impacted by choosing one $200 CPU over another.


Let's figure latest currently available stuff and start with the e AMD 5600X for example retailing for $300. What's available on the other side for gaming ? Fr
om T{PUs 5600x review9s)

Intel's 10400F scores 100.4% to the 5600X's 100.0 a virtual tie except that the Intel CPU retails for $145
Intel's 10600KF scores 100.9% to the 5600X's 100.0 a virtual tie except that the Intel CPU retails for $199 and it overclocks to 101.9%
Intel's 10700KF scores 101.4% to the 5600X's 100.0 a virtual tie except that the Intel CPU retails for $309 and it overclocks too
Intel's 10850K scores 103.5% to the 5600X's 100.0 no longer a virtual tie except that the Intel CPU retails for $309 and it overclocks too 104.7 ... almost 5%

Do you do video editing ?

5600X hits 194.2 s / 193.6 s overclocked
10850k hits 233.1 s / 226.7 s overclocked

That's a significant advantage (16.7%) there... so if you are doing video editing, there's a pretty good reason to get the 5600x

Do you do AutoCAD ?... Since it is a single threaded program, with only minor activities off loaded to a single core, you are best going with Intel here.

I could go thru thru multitude of programs that TPU tests with but, that would take more time then I have available. Research how your apps perform with each platform / GFX card being considered and make ya choice based upon the results of that effort.

But in short, the best platform for you is the one that runs YOUR programs he fastest .... synthetic benchmarks are great for \bragging rights but little else.

 

[storm-chaser]

You using userbenchmark a website know for having a Intel bias

It's not just userbenchmark. Here is a completely unrelated review that basically says the same thing as userbenchmark...

Advantages of Intel Core i5 10600KF

• Newer - released 10-months later
• 14% higher Turbo Boost frequency (4.8 GHz vs 4.2 GHz)
• 15% faster in a single-core Geekbench v5 test - 1376 vs 1198 points

Advantages of AMD Ryzen 5 3600

• Has 20 MB larger L3 cache size
• More modern manufacturing process – 7 versus 14 nanometers
• Consumes up to 48% less energy than the Core i5 10600KF – 65 vs 125 Watt
• Newer PCI Express version – 4.0
• Around 6.08 GB/s (15%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth

Intel Core i5 10600KF vs AMD Ryzen 5 3600: performance comparison

We compared 6-core Intel Core i5 10600KF (4.1 GHz) against AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (3.6 GHz) in games and benchmarks. Find out which CPU has better...

nanoreview.net

In any event, both CPUs are great and I highly doubt one is "better" than the other. Both are very advanced CPUs with tons of processing power and lighting fast response times. You could do a blindfold study and Im about dead certain you would have any idea or be able to tell which CPU they had while gaming, or whats under the hood. Like saying the Corvette ZR1 is "better" than the Dodge Viper. Well, as soon as you realize they both do the 1/4 mile in under 12 seconds you realize they are both very very fast and there is no real loser in the bunch.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Not sure why anyone would recommend intel
They change sockets more than some people change underware lol

 

[PaulieG]

Hi,
Not sure why anyone would recommend intel
They change sockets more than some people change underware lol

Both Intel and AMD sockets are now EOL. Anything after this requires a new board because of DDR5. Get whatever you want. It's all fun to play with.

 

[Selaya]

The OP is looking for a Workstation- not a Gaming build. Seriously, read the OP.
I would not recommend Intel for Workstation.

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/ynznJf

... I thought I was clever here, but this is CAD1,600 without the case which doesnt seem to be avail in Canada at all, and I probably overkilled on the memory here. And displays not included. Neither the GPU.

Edit: Probably doesnt need the overkill memory for a Workstation.

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/CQryTJ

Placeholder GPU, feel free to get something better used (1060, 580, 390, 980[Ti], w/e you can find basically) instead. Still not including displays though, and the case doesnt seem to be available.

Edit2: You're supposed to be getting the SK Hynix Gold P31 but apparently it may not be available in CA? (It is in the US, but idk whether they'll ship it to CA) So I added the SN750 as an alternative.

 

[ThrashZone]

Both Intel and AMD sockets are now EOL. Anything after this requires a new board because of DDR5. Get whatever you want. It's all fun to play with.

Hi,
Sounds better to wait but then again cpu isn't picked yet 30 series amd is really cheap and upgrades down the line.
50 series amd is just now getting in stock on some versions.

 

[Fry178]

@jzj1990
i assumed you want an OD, if not, case options are a tick better.
dont waste your moni on two screens, get a larger UHD screen, and do pip/pbp/split..
couple of 43in tvs are decent as monis, even for gaming.

with gaming not the top priority, go amd, better in every aspect.
not sure if you benefit from 32 vs 16gb, check reviews (from the sw you use), to see how much impact it has,
as dropping to 16gb saves some cash..

real problem will be the gpu, maybe check with family/friends if someone wants/did upgrade/wants to sell their card.

no gpu

 

[80-watt Hamster]

couple of 43in tvs are decent as monis, even for gaming.

Disagree, at least in part. TVs often work great for games and video, but not for desktop work unless you shop VERY carefully. Most use chroma subsampling, which renders static imagery and text poorly. Additionally, you have to watch out for overscan. I've plugged into plenty of TVs that don't want to scale to screen edge properly because the panels aren't a VESA pixel count that the card or driver supports.

 

[phanbuey]

Most modern TVs are good as monitors as long as you buy the right one (RGB with Chroma 444)... The one massive advantage they do have is you can sit further away from them - which really helps with the fatigue and eyestrain for work. The fonts aren't as good but that's mitigated by distance from the panel.

 

[Fry178]

@80-watt Hamster
not sure what tvs you looked at, but never said "by the next one you see..",
nor did the OP state any requirements when it comes to moni, and render does not equal P/V editing,
(completely ignoring that i can adjust anything related to it, as in color depth/range,
content type reported and resize mode reported to display, in the Nv panel.

a calman ready UHD 10 bit 4:4:4 panel with decent cal out of box, 120hz and vrr,
is cheaper than the equivalent moni, that only offers height adjustment vs the tv.

 

[Anymal]

Hi,
Not sure why anyone would recommend intel
They change sockets more than some people change underware lol

More than people change socks!