My brother wants to make himself a new PC. It needs to be full AMD mid-tower PC.
We’d like it to be fast with great gaming performance. Any recommendations on parts are appreciated!
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Do a quick search on the forvm. Many answers here but your criteria is still vague.
Do you want 2160P Gaming? 1080P? 1440P maybe?
Do you want fast storage? Fast HPC?
Also, your budget right now is kind of low so more specifics will help dial in what you can get for that budget. Will an APU work for his needs?
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Sizing limitation(s)?
Heatsink or AIO usage?
“Set once + Forget” or “Upgrade overtime” mindset?
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We all do. But 1000$ is the low-end of gaming PCs. With today’s GPU prices, you have to go cheap on pretty much everything else to fit a GPU into that budget.
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It really depends on the type of graphics card you can procure and for how much. If you budget about $650 for the system itself, that only leaves $350 for the GPU. You try to go cheaper on some parts here and there, but you’ll be hard pressed to build anything decent for less than $600 (minus GPU).
If APU only graphics is acceptable, you’re options open up a lot. You can even plan provisions for a discrete video card in the future with the extra budget that is now available. There are many older games and emulation software that run well on integrated graphics, you’ll just have to give up any hope of playing modern AAA titles (for now).
My free advice, that should be taken for what it’s worth, would be to not invest any large amount into the current GPU market right now. Supply is increasing, prices are dropping, and what is coming in the next few generations will absolutely crush current high end cards for mid-range prices ($500-700msrp as opposed to current $300-500msrp).
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Adding to what E-Wasted said above, I would suggest that a GPU is out of your price range right now. You just can’t build a fast PC and have a good GPU when most good GPU’s sell for over $1,000 by themselves. Buying a moderate GPU for half of that is just throwing money down the drain.
Use PCPartPicker.com’s System Builder to add components that you like, beginning with a Ryzen 7 5700G. That’s the currently-best-bang-for-buck CPU/GPU combo. It has an on-board GPU which is “adequate” to play most games at lowered settings. It also comes with an adequate cooler which will save you a few bucks. You can always spring for a better cooler later, if you find it necessary.
Personally, I would tend to choose 32GB of RAM, if you can fit it into your budget, because it will help your overall experience to feel faster. Sixteen GB should be your minimum.
SSDs boot faster, but HDs offer more bang-for-buck, with little or no sacrifice in speed after booting. One option is a small boot SSD and an HD for games. But don’t get an SSD smaller than 250GB; Windows and your profile will grow over time. Or just buy an HD now and add an SSD later.
Find a PSU from a decent brand with enough power to run a modern GPU. That way, if you find more money someday, then you will be ready to add a GPU, which will improve gaming performance. But expect to pay as much for the GPU as for the entire PC, unless the market improves.
You probably do not need fancy features from expensive motherboards. As long as you choose a decent manufacturer, most motherboards work. So this is a good place to economize. (Check the specs to make sure the motherboard is compatible with 5700G without requiring a UEFI flash, because flashing can be problematic if you do not have an old cpu lying around).
Decent cases can often be found in the $50-100 range. You will want room for fans; cooling is the most important part of cases.
Arctic sells a bundle of 5 120mm fans for a bargain price (and good enough quality).
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To expand on this further, integrated graphics are going to perform much better with faster memory, even if that exceeds the infinity fabric’s 1:1 or intel’s gear 1 memory controller settings. It is one of the few times you would want to go with memory faster than 3800 on a ryzen system (if budget allows).
Also, pay attention to memory ranks or you might end up with an unnecessary 64gb because the 2x16 kit you first bought was single rank SK Hynix and you have to double up to take advantage of dual rank performance. Dual channel memory is the minimum for good performance, but dual rank/dual channel is the optimal choice.
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iGPUs are crap
Not taking away from anything BilB said, but if you play games like Forza Horizon 4/5 you can benefit from an SSD. I’ve had loading issues causing my car to come to a grinding hault when going pretty fast. This does not happen at all on any of my devices even with ones with cheap Inland (MicroCenter brand) SSDs.
So! With that being said, any SSD beats no SSD as long as it is SATA 3, and those Inland SSDs can fill the void with good capacity for the price and even if you do not live near MicroCenter (I do tho) I learned today that they ship!
They also normally have good CPU/Mobo bundle deals. So hopefully this can help you save a few extra $$$$
SSDs can make all the difference. I have a 2012 ASUS laptop that is an absolute potato with a 2c/2t 1.5ghz non-boosting celeron and I stuck my old Patriot Wildfire 128gb SSD ($300 new in 2012 
) in there and it loaded Windows 10 with fair ease and even more surprisingly it installed the latest updates without much trouble. It can even play 720p videos on youtube with only occasional stuttering.
Unfortunately the fan sounds awful, but on this early model it is mounted to the back of the mainboard so it’ll probably get put in the pile with the other ones that needs parts or repasting.
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At $1000 there will be sacrifices. What type of games? Hard to say what’s best for you. Here are my thoughts for what they’re worth:
Based on the prices I see online today you’re either going to settle for something like a ryzen 5600g and hope to upgrade to discrete gpu when prices improve. Or if you’re not interested in waiting something like an intel 12400 and the most gpu you can get with the rest of your budget.
Or hold off for a bit. Prices do seem to be coming down and maybe you could save a little more for your budget?
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With the direction the prices are going now. Where i’m looking the 3070 ti droped about 100 euro, last week. q2 of this year intel wil come with there new gpu’s that will change the price even more. But on the other hand. With all the inflation. And war mongering. (please nobody tell Americans that de Rusians actually do have weapons of mass destruction 
) It might be a saver bed to buy a computer before everything actually go’s to shit. (sorry for this. but this is the reality we have created for our selfs but the truth is your not buying a gaming pc worth a 1000 dollar for a 1000 dollar right now)
If you really want to, try sourcing an old am4 system Nerds tend to have them after upgrades. And spend it all the money on a videocard.
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Okay this is by far one of the better budget cases out there, you can get cheaper, but for the 20-30$ you save you’ll be left with a pile of scrape in comparison
This PSU should get you by with the hardware config were going with, 5 year warranty
We’ll go with the 5600G/X what ever you can find and what’s cheaper, fairly certain 5600x was what amd recommended in their very own reviewers guide at launch, it’s fine, 5600G similar perf. Has igpu, but lanes run at 3.0 where the X will run at 4.0, not much of a problem, if it becomes a problem later on, chances are you’ll upgrade to sometging with more cores that supports 4.0 anyway
B550 A-pro is pretty decent
16GB is fine, 3600 is what I recommend for running fabric at 1:1
500GB is fine unless you’re a star citizen or ARK survival fan
Leaving you with about 400 to blow on a GPU, I’d personally go to microcenter to see what you can get cheaper before ordering
Later down the road a nice gift for him would be case fans and a CPU cooler
I recommend artic fans and coolers
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Yup agree, if there is a MC nearby maybe they have some interesting upgrade kits on sale.
cpu + mobo + memory kits.
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Got two builds to suggest - the one that will be a good starter pack but will quickly need upgrades;
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6 Cores 12 Threads | $218.99 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte A520M DS3H Micro ATX | $70.98 |
| Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 2x8 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | $54.99 |
| Storage | Intel 670p 512 GB M.2-2280 NVMe | $49.99 |
| Video Card | PowerColor Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Fighter | $508.99 |
| Case | Cougar MX330-X ATX Mid Tower Case | $52.98 |
| Power Supply | BitFenix Formula Gold 750W ATX | $69.90 |
| Total | $1026.82 |
And the one that I recommend you get if you can scrape together the money:
Mid tower that lasts for 3+ years
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 5700G 3.8 GHz 8 Cores 16 Threads | $297.95 |
| Motherboard | MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX | $121.98 |
| Memory | Neo Forza FAYE 2x16 GB DDR4-3600 CL18 | $99.99 |
| Storage | Sabrent Rocket 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME | $84.99 |
| Video Card | Sapphire Radeon RX 6600 XT 8 GB NITRO+ | $619.00 |
| Case | Cougar MX330-X ATX Mid Tower Case | $52.98 |
| Power Supply | BitFenix Formula Gold 750W ATX | $69.90 |
| Total | $1346.79 |
Comments about the changes, from most important to least:
CPU - Another $80 is a bit of a stretch, but it is an 8-core CPU, and you do want 8 cores in order to match what is in the latest consoles.
RAM - Throw in $45 more, and 32 GB will allow you to play all games the coming three to five years.
Storage - Easiest to motivate, 70% more money for twice the storage.
Motherboard - Another $50 nets you a strong motherboard that could even easily run a 5950X, make sure to buy an adequate cooler for that upgrade though.
GPU - Adding $100 to the build you get something that will allow you to update to 1440p gaming, but if this is not important for the next few years, go with the plain 6600.
As always, feel free to mix and match for your perfect build. These are just examples, but $1000 is leaving you hanging on a subpar system that will feel old pretty fast, while $1250 leave you with a decent system that will be snappy 3 years later.
Also, the GPU could probably be found for $100 less if you are willing to wait around a couple of months for a deal. That will require patience and quite a bit of a time investment though in hunting - money isn’t the only resource to value.
[edit]Replaced RAM on the more expensive build from a 3200MHz @ 22 Latency to 3600MHz @ 18 Latency, improved table readability[/edit]
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I’m gonna be honest: the current market makes what you’re asking for impossible.
$1500-2000 is the bare minimum to get anything of decent value
At $1000 your cutting so many corners for a disappointing experience that is just say save the money or buy a consol, hell, buy both
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I like this, but I would ditch the RX 6600XT. It isn’t necessary, and currently sells for three times what it is worth.
If the GPU market improves, then the OP can always add a GPU later. That’s the entire point of buying the 5700G APU.
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Its far from impossible. A thousand dollars will get you pretty far into a new system build as long as you don’t blow it all on an overpriced GPU. You could also get very far building or buying a used system to run an an overpriced GPU.
A haswell or later i5 or a first or second gen Ryzen with anything better than a 6500XT or 1660 would come in at around a thousand dollars if your target was 1080p 60fps with medium / high graphical settings. My nephew has my old i7 4770 paired with a 1660 super, its almost as fast as my 5900X and Geforce 1080. (I can get mid 40s high settings in Red Dead Redemption, he can get lower 40s in Red Dead Redemption with the same settings).
@RainSage reconsider if it has to be AMD and if it has to be new or not, most later DDR3 systems still hold up for gaming. Older hardware doesn’t benchmark very well vs new stuff but it can still give you the great gaming performance you want when paired with a decent GPU. You might be chasing a white rabbit down a hole because the user market value of older CPU and memory can get goofy but someone somewhere is always trying to offload a perfectly useable processor. All I’m saying really is if you shop around you might be able to put most of the budget into a new GPU and have the great gaming experience you want.
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Playing on a 5700G iGPU is like playing on a GTX 750 Ti in the current market. Yes you can, no I do not recommend it, but will play e-sport titles on 60Hz just fine. I recommend the 5700G since it is $50 cheaper than the 5800X - but if you’re going for a non-iGPU the much stronger 12 core, 20 threads Intel Core i7 12700F is there for $320, too.
However, the Intel motherboards currently cost like, $50-$100 more, and I feel DDR5 is the way to go with Intel now but currently DDR5 still costs like 200-300% more than DDR4.
If you don’t care about upgrades though, Intel DDR4 does provide a nice performance boost and is my recommendation for a $1500 build. Lower, and the $100-$300 Intel tax cuts too deep into your potential performance.
Yes, exactly my point. It is adequate at lower settings. And he won’t be blowing 60% of his budget on overpriced-and-under-performing crap. As said, he can always upgrade when the market improves.
The 12700F suggestion could be a good one if the rest of the build can fit the budget. (Which it might without a GPU. Maybe.)
Shrug … I’m not the one you have to convince, anyway. 
We’re both just giving ideas to the OP. (And I think you recommended a good configuration. I would just skip the GPU because it’s overpriced and this is a budget build.)