hey everyone, i’m thinking of finally switching off of my laptop and going to a pc to play competitive, my current laptop setup has a gtx 1050TI and an i7 7700hq. not bad and can run 144fps smooth in creative but in stacked lobbies it just gets too hot and i get frame dips which really affect gameplay.
anyways, i’m a student on a tight budget (under 1k euros) what specs can you guys recommend for a gaming pc? gonna be editing vids on it too. i don’t care about aesthetics and stuff strictly performance. must be able to run 144fps constantly
only need a tower BTW i have all the other peripherals
fortnite competitive will be the most tasking thing on the system
Fortnite will run on a potato. There is tons of options to get that done. Let’s look at the video editing first. What software do you edit on?
I was bored …
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/sqN9gJ
This would be my recommended “do everything” build.
Overall solid performance, quiet, efficient, very easy to upgrade.
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There are three things you have left out:
- What is your preferred resolution (1080, 1440 or 4k)? Assuming 1080.
- How much more storage do you need? I am assuming you already got a dog-slow mechanical harddrive.
- Do you need any extra expansion cards like a capture card?
Nice build, but at $189 for a 580, it’s better to buy a 5500 XT for roughly the same price. Also, we europeans tend to include shipping, sales tax and customs in our budget, this means a €1000 system is equivalent to a $750-$800 system. 
Better compromise build IMO: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HjJdL2
Rationale: Stock 3600 cooler is quite adequate, 5500 XT will be supported longer and costs just as much, and the Aorus Pro B550 is good enough for this use case. Full build is smaller without sacrificing upgradeability and performance, and budget is much closer to what OP wants.
This assumes some scavenging for hard drives will be made from the old system though.
Are you sure that a repaste + cooling pad won’t do it for you? I made a pretty sick cooling pad buying the Amazon perforated metal base + Eluteng dual 120mm USB fans.
If you’re looking for a system my suggestion is:
- Ryzen 5 3600
- MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX
- G.Skill Flare X (for AMD) F4-3200C16D-16GFX
- MSI GEFORCE RTX 2060 VENTUS XS 6G OC
- Seasonic FOCUS GX-550
- Sabrent SSD 512GB Rocket NVMe
- Phanteks P400a
Everything should be availble in the EU zone for aroun 1K.
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Oh no… No, not that case, not that PSU. Don’t you dare… And that board is super crippled… No… Noooo… No…
Give us a link to a store or something… We can only guess pricing in your country.
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Stop being silly. I see nothing wrong with the case in particular and it costing only $40 gives quite a big bang for the buck. Of course, the meshify is a better option, depending on your needs, but the Core 1000 is adequate for the system proposed.
The PSU is nothing wrong with either, while non-modular and very… Icky with the ketchup-and-mustard thingies, the case doesn’t really care about that. You don’t show the insides, so don’t really care. Modular is the better option but it’s not really important, merely aesthetics. 600W on a 300W system will ensure it will almost never spin the fan.
The B550 motherboard is also fine for this system. It’s not a great solution mind you, but it is good enough for these components.
That said, if there is room to stretch the budget a little it should be first better Motherboard > better case > better PSU > rest of system. At €1500, we should really be able to put some great parts together…
The issue with it it’s not even bronze. It’s just 80+. God knows what componentry is in there. Do not cheap out on the PSU. I can deal with the bad case, but not the bad PSU. It’s not about the cables or modularity… It’s about the quality.
My issue is it’s lacking the very basic trouble shooting features. At least LEDs if not full post code.
Do not get me wrong, I understand budget constrains more than you may understand, but I would say buy 16gigs of ram now and allocate the budget to at the very least better PSU…
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/RsKm9G
Total of 50$ on top. Gold PSU, much better airflow case, cheaper ram, same speed, cheaper SSD, same capacity and speed… Performance is the same, but the PSU gives you 7 years of warranty and the case have better cooling potential.
Also everything is pretty much black, white and gray, so there won’t be any massive ugliness if you have it on visible place.
I would also recommend a lot more storage…
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Define better. The 580 is pretty much on par in terms of performance, has more memory and since it is a Sapphire card it is properly built with a good cooling solution. (I’m not saying the ASRock isn’t but I don’t know that card.)
If you have a limited budget the last thing to buy are products that might not stand the test of time. That board is one of those examples. If you want to cut cost on a board, cut features, not quality. I would go B450 before buying into a low end B550 board.
Same for the PSU. Now I am a brand whore for Seasonic anyway but I would at least advise to buy from an actual manufacturer. And anything under 80+ Gold has no right to exist these days.
And whatever case you buy, don’t make it M-ATX. That is a dead end.
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Efficency rating does not say anything about the quality of the components inside.
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Combined with a proper brand it’s a pretty solid indicator.
Wait, EVGA is not considered a proper brand nowadays? I’ve heard a few big-name Techtubers recommend them the last couple of years, and yes it is not rated gold 80+ but rather bronze - but like MazeFrame says, that says very little about the components inside.
That said, if you can update the PSU within budget to a gold one, do it. 7 year warranty is sure as heck better in most respects.
It depends on your purposes. Those are nice things to have for sure, but most Aorus boards can be trusted to work properly - and it has a lot better VRM setup than an equivalent B450 not to mention upgrade capabilities. I think that particular board will beep out the error signal with a debug beeper, it’s slightly more annoying but not a deal breaker since you only deal with debugging once a year, if ever.
I am pretty confident the board will do the job; if you have the extra cash to stretch a little further, the other MBs are better and will support beefier components. It’s just that, well, should you go for the car with a top speed of 90 mph or 125 mph, when max speed limit you will drive is 75 mph?
I agree the Core 1000 is ugly and that your case is more visually appealing, but seeing as the OP said
The Core 1000 meets that criteria and has enough airflow potential (though you might want to add a 92mm fan in the back). The Focus G is however definitely the better case of the two mATX boxes shown and has some excellent cable management options, so as long as budget allows, go with the slightly more expensive case.
As for mATX being a dead-end… Well, yes and no. You can’t fit a full-sized ATX board in there for sure, but you can fit any mini-ITX or mini-DTX board should mATX go extinct. Seeing as we are headed more and more towards a mini-ITX gaming future, well…
And yes, I would recommend a mini-ITX build if the OP did not say he wanted video. If you require a capture card or additional blazing-fast NVMe storage options, then mATX or larger is recommended.
5500 XT is on par or slightly better performance, same amount of memory, draws less power and runs cooler. You can go under 200W of total system peak power with the 5500 XT card!
Oooh, interesting. In that case, let me revise my recommendations:
CPU (€286.41): AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
GPU (€168.37): Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8G G5 OC Lite
Motherboard (€137.95): Gigabyte B550 Aorus elite
Memory (€59.80): Corsair Vengeance LPX black DIMM kit 16GB, DDR4-3200, CL16-18-18-36
Storage (€56.71): Kingston A2000 NVMe PCIe SSD 500GB, M.2
PSU (€68.23): Cooler Master Reactor Gold Full modular 550W ATX 2.31
Case (€28.96): Zalman T7, acrylic window
Total: €805.85, though you might want to invest in a more quiet cooler. I left some headroom for shipping and any hidden sales tax, I would upgrade the RX 580 to an RX 5600 XT if I had €130 more. Something like the €284 Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5600 XT.
EVGA is a fine brand for nvidia based GPUs. Because they manufacture those themselves. They are not PSU makers, they just relabel stuff. Also the PSU you chose is not 80+ bronze, it is just 80+.
Well, since the purpose is not just gaming but also video editing, I would try to build a system that can be expanded. M-ATX is not optimal for that. And yes, it would surely work with a 3600 but I would not trust it with a 3900X. Also it is running realtek LAN which I would always try to avoid.
You are not building your garage to the exact dimensions of your smart car, that’s silly.
It is an 8GB card, I totally missed that. Don’t know why I thought it was only 6GB. Sorry for that.
Still, I don’t know that card. And ASRock is pretty new to GPUs so I would probably still go with the Sapphire. That one is quiet. In terms of efficiency the Navi card should be better, yes. But Polaris holds up ok as well. The RX580 Pulse is running on one 8pin and Sapphire is listing it with a consumption of <225W.
Yeah, you are right. Thought it was bronze 80+. I think I may have suffered a Dunning-Kruger moment here… -_-;;
If your case is a cheap-o $30 case, you can afford to upgrade to a bigger one later if required. Mini-ITX is changing the gaming PC form factor; many are opting for sub10 liter cases like the LZ7, Dan A4, Loque Ghost or J-Hack Pure.
These days, a midi-Tower makes little sense since most people want a harddrive, a graphics card and very little else. How much of those expansions are you using, and how much will you use in the future? If we are being honest?
Not saying everyone is going small - but many do like to trade desk space for upgradeability, and having a fully stacked 10 disks with 3 GPUs tower will be even more and more niche in the future. Not saying everyone will opt to go small though, just most people. As always, if you need those 10 disks and 3 GPUs, more power to ya!
For gaming, not a whole lot. But if you’re
You might want something down the road which you just can’t fit in a M-ATX build.
Well, you are only saving space on the z axis. M-ATX cases still have the same footprint.
@CamdenJayce Fortunately for you it is relatively easy to pick parts in the 1k price range, also you get
great value for money.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yVKtZf
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CPU: Ryzen 3600
This is a no brainer, best bang for buck CPU on the market right now. -
GPU: GTX 1660 Super
Excellent performance/watt. While there is a case to be made for the RX580, that card is 15-20% slower and will consume up to 100W more power.
Benchmarks -
Motherboard: [Decent Model] X570
Good B550 boards are still relatively pricey, so you might as well go with a X570. -
RAM: 32GB@3200MHz
Video editing so 32, and Ryzen likes speed so 3200. -
SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 500GB
One of the best on the market, no need to save a few coins on a QLC one unless you favor storage and would opt for 1TB, in which case you can pick the Intel 665p. -
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh
Has airflow, and that’s all you need. Just add two extra fans. Review here -
PSU: EVGA BQ 750W
Will last you ten years no problem. Review here
On paper, yes. I mean it is gonna be faster, that is true. But the 125W rating… I doubt it. I haven’t seen a 1660 Super with less than an 8pin and I’m pretty sure it will make use of it.
EDIT Yeah it is closer than it should be. This is system power but even if we say all of that is the GPU, it’s about 45W difference.
But the main factor between GPU brands would be software and I don’t mean games. If CUDA is on the table, Radeons go out the window anyway. And the 1660 Super has 6GB memory. I double checked this time. 
You said you don’t mind the performance of your laptop, just that it thermal throttles. While I do like theorycrafting PCs, the most bang-for-the-buck in this case would be to just get a laptop cooling pad, like a Zalman ZM-NS1000 (I have one, does a good job). Since you already have peripherals and a monitor, all you would have to do is raise the laptop on the pad at your preferred height (I prefer maxing out the height) and using the laptop screen as a second monitor.
At this point in time, most people would recommend a Ryzen 5 3600, me included, but you could either get a RX 570 (it will still be an upgrade over the 1050Ti), or get a 580 or 5500XT as pointed above by others, depending on your budget. But I strongly recommend trying out a cooling pad first, shouldn’t be more than 50 euros for a quality one (compared to 1000 euros on a new build).
PSU rebranding is not the end of the world, but it does mean that you have to be more careful in exact model selection. Last I checked, at least some of their models were pretty good.