When was the last time continuum had a build guide?

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Pocky Is God

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  • #1
    The daughter is slowly turning into me and asked me how much it would cost to make her a gaming PC for some game she wants to play. I quoted her $1200USD (I have some parts I can give her, but not a lot). So sans a power supply, whats the mid-range looking like for you guys recently?

    I'm thinking a x3D chip to get her through a few upgrades should she require them, and a 4070 or 7900xt if they are on the cheaper end, or I get a new video card and I give her my 6900XT?

    What say you? Thinking mATX and a more..tall case?
     
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    hobold

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  • #4
    A recent build guide for the $1200 price point had picked a Ryzen 7600X and a Radeon 7700XT. The mainboard was a basic one with no WiFi and entry level audio; but the VRMs could handle a Ryzen 7950X without getting too hot. RAM and mass storage were more on the generous side, with 32GB and 2TB NVMe. So that was a build with solid performance now and the expectation of some upgrades in a few years.

    Put it in a case that can breathe, add a generous tower cooler (forward-looking to a CPU upgrade), and you have a nice, quiet system that can realistically be upgraded in another few years.



    The actual build guide went for water cooling, as you can see. This is not what I would suggest.
     
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    Pocky Is God

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  • #6
    hobold said:
    A recent build guide for the $1200 price point had picked a Ryzen 7600X and a Radeon 7700XT. The mainboard was a basic one with no WiFi and entry level audio; but the VRMs could handle a Ryzen 7950X without getting too hot. RAM and mass storage were more on the generous side, with 32GB and 2TB NVMe. So that was a build with solid performance now and the expectation of some upgrades in a few years.

    Put it in a case that can breathe, add a generous tower cooler (forward-looking to a CPU upgrade), and you have a nice, quiet system that can realistically be upgraded in another few years.



    The actual build guide went for water cooling, as you can see. This is not what I would suggest.
    Click to expand...


    This is exactly what I was thinking. Thank you.
     
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    IceStorm

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  • #7
    Can fit a 4070 if you are providing the power supply:

    PCPartPicker Part List

    CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor ($184.99 @ Newegg)
    CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 36 CO CPU Cooler ($35.99 @ Amazon)
    Motherboard: ASRock B650M Pro RS Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Newegg)
    Memory: G.Skill Flare X5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($104.99 @ Amazon)
    Storage: Lexar NM790 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($120.77 @ Amazon)
    Video Card: MSI VENTUS 2X OC GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB Video Card ($544.99 @ B&H)
    Case: Montech AIR 903 BASE ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.00 @ Amazon)
    Power Supply: MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Amazon)
    Total: $1268.71
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-05-26 23:48 EDT-0400

    I wouldn't buy an AMD GPU without a vcache CPU. vcache boosts DX11 drawcall performance for AMD's GPU drivers by 40-70%. It's still not nVidia levels of performance, but it's a whole lot better than without vcache.
     
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    hobold

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  • #8
    While 3D-VCache is nice when you can get it, I don't see it as a requirement for a value gaming rig. It's not a pice point where you have a 4090 that cannot be fed fast enough.

    Besides, in another two weeks or so there's Computex, and the expectation is some Zen 5 announcement then. Any AM5 CPU is plenty good today, and the socket will see nicely improved options for future upgrades.
     
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    IceStorm

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  • #9
    hobold said:
    While 3D-VCache is nice when you can get it, I don't see it as a requirement for a value gaming rig.
    Click to expand...
    I'm not saying it is, I'm saying it's a requirement for an AMD GPU. nVidia doesn't have the same problem.

    I'd rather have a 4060 over a 7700 XT, if you saddled me with a non-vcache CPU. The drawcall performance on AMD's DX11 driver is bad without vcache.
     
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    Pocky Is God

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  • #10
    I still have the Corsair RM
    IceStorm said:
    Can fit a 4070 if you are providing the power supply:

    PCPartPicker Part List

    CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor ($184.99 @ Newegg)
    CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 36 CO CPU Cooler ($35.99 @ Amazon)
    Motherboard: ASRock B650M Pro RS Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Newegg)
    Memory: G.Skill Flare X5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($104.99 @ Amazon)
    Storage: Lexar NM790 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($120.77 @ Amazon)
    Video Card: MSI VENTUS 2X OC GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB Video Card ($544.99 @ B&H)
    Case: Montech AIR 903 BASE ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.00 @ Amazon)
    Power Supply: MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Amazon)
    Total: $1268.71
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-05-26 23:48 EDT-0400

    I wouldn't buy an AMD GPU without a vcache CPU. vcache boosts DX11 drawcall performance for AMD's GPU drivers by 40-70%. It's still not nVidia levels of performance, but it's a whole lot better than without vcache.
    Click to expand...
    I still have the Corsair RM850X that I replaced for no reason when I was having the Baldurs Gate 3 hard off issue. So she will be getting that.
     
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