New Desktop PC Build or Buy???

[JagerDog]

I've long had mine built by Central Computer (basically a white box). Very fair price on the parts and labor including x'fer from old to new.

[WoodTurner]

Here is the latest tweak... https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9rW3HG



I have not tried it recently. I know I have gotten late 80's and early 90's games from when I was a kid to run on DOS box. I do not have the skill set to make those tweaks myself to get them to run nor do I care enough to learn. Just trying to figure this out has been like drinking water from a fire hose.

One vintage game I want to try to get to run is Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator which I really enjoyed back in the day.



I forgot to remove the air cooler. The air cooler was the default in the guide. I just added the card reader because there was a slot to fill and why not? I have decided not to go with the CD/DVD drive and my wife will have to be happy with an external if she needs it.



Thanks. Good info. I switched both video card and case again. The video card will fit no problem and I was planning on putting the radiator on the top where it will fit.



Would you go with the Ryzen 7 58003DX over the Ryzen 7 7800X3D I was planning on using?



I agree with you 100%. I was planning on trying to keep it half this price which may be a bit on the low side but we are not pro gamers or even enthusiasts. My wife is convinced that if we go all out, it will last longer. I don't know if that is really true. Her theory is that if we get super fast stuff it will take longer to become obsolete or too slow to be usable.



I made that change.

The 7800x3d will be better, but you could save some cash by building an am4/5800x3d.
Going with am5/7800x3d will "future proof" it a bit more since am5 is on it's first generation and if they keep up with tradition, you'll be able to drop in a new CPU in 5 years to upgrade.
I just did this with my first gen Ryzen computer that I built in 2017. Been running a 1700x since that time. I just bought a 5800x3d and plopped it in for a nice upgrade to hopefully last me another 4+ years.

+1 to Snuffleupagus on getting a bigger nvme drive. 2tb is worth the extra $60

You can save money on your GPU. Even if you still want the 4070, they can be had for $550-600 right now instead of the $745 that PCPP lists for the founders.
I would go with a 6800xt for about $475 which will give similar performance to a 4070. Or go with a 6950xt for about $580 which should be noticeably more powerful than the 4070 in most cases, though it uses more power.

Just to add: Looks like it will be a nice build that I'm sure you'll be happy with for years. I do agree with your wife on spending a bit more to future proof it a bit, as long as it doesn't stress the wallet.

[lakersfan]

I have a Ryzen 9 5900x paired with a 4070ti for 1440 resolution gaming. Nividia is going to dump the 4070 TI and 4080 soon and come out with super versions with more vram with similar pricing so might be worth waiting for. Raedeon cards are solid but Nvidia is still better at the ray tracing. I would do AM5 motherboard as AM4 its not supported with the newer series CPU. DDR5 ram is the new ram standard to go with the new motherboards and CPU’s. If going intel I would wait for the 15th generation as the 14th was just a refresh of the 13th and the 15 will likely require a new motherboard socket then you can get beyond the 15th generation in the future. No matter which CPU manufacturer you go with I would go Ryzen 7 or i7 series and nothing less specially for gaming. Newer Ryzen CPU get warmer than Intel. I?m going Intel next I believe you get better performance to cost ratio.

[gdr_11]

You cant go wrong with the remanufactured Dell PCs on Amazon. Make sure you look on the Amazon Dell store and just pick the config that works for you. I have bought 3 and all were in like new condition and worked fine for me. I had to replace the hard drive on one after 5 years but that is not a big deal.

[MrFancyPants]

One vintage game I want to try to get to run is Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator which I really enjoyed back in the day.

That game is so bad ***. One of the best flight sims ever.

Would you go with the Ryzen 7 58003DX over the Ryzen 7 7800X3D I was planning on using?

I would NOT get a 5800X3D at this point, as the AM4 is a dead end platform. Definitely spring for the 7800X3D so you have a runway for future upgrades. I am currently parting out my AM4 desktop core, CPU (5950X), mobo (ASUS Crosshair VIII Dark Hero), and RAM, and bought an AM5 core with the 7800X3D. The cost to upgrade after selling my AM4 parts is only a couple hundred bucks and I'm now on a new platform, so it was a no brainer. Hell I sold the 5950X already for more than what I bought the 7800X3D for on sale. I completely disassembled the water cooling loop and I'm cleaning all the components now, bought new tubing since its cheap insurance, and working on putting it back together.

I'm still rocking a RTX 3080, planning to upgrade to a 4090 when prices get more reasonable. The performance gap between even the 4080 and 4090 is insane.

[RANGER295]

I have a Ryzen 9 5900x paired with a 4070ti for 1440 resolution gaming. Nividia is going to dump the 4070 TI and 4080 soon and come out with super versions with more vram with similar pricing so might be worth waiting for. Raedeon cards are solid but Nvidia is still better at the ray tracing. I would do AM5 motherboard as AM4 its not supported with the newer series CPU. DDR5 ram is the new ram standard to go with the new motherboards and CPU?s. If going intel I would wait for the 15th generation as the 14th was just a refresh of the 13th and the 15 will likely require a new motherboard socket then you can get beyond the 15th generation in the future. No matter which CPU manufacturer you go with I would go Ryzen 7 or i7 series and nothing less specially for gaming. Newer Ryzen CPU get warmer than Intel. I?m going Intel next I believe you get better performance to cost ratio.

I wish I could wait for either the new video cards or for the price to come down on the current ones but this is for Christmas so I am on a time line.

That game is so bad ***. One of the best flight sims ever.



I would NOT get a 5800X3D at this point, as the AM4 is a dead end platform. Definitely spring for the 7800X3D so you have a runway for future upgrades. I am currently parting out my AM4 desktop core, CPU (5950X), mobo (ASUS Crosshair VIII Dark Hero), and RAM, and bought an AM5 core with the 7800X3D. The cost to upgrade after selling my AM4 parts is only a couple hundred bucks and I'm now on a new platform, so it was a no brainer. Hell I sold the 5950X already for more than what I bought the 7800X3D for on sale. I completely disassembled the water cooling loop and I'm cleaning all the components now, bought new tubing since its cheap insurance, and working on putting it back together.

I'm still rocking a RTX 3080, planning to upgrade to a 4090 when prices get more reasonable. The performance gap between even the 4080 and 4090 is insane.

I played I believe Combat Flight Sim 2 for hours back then. That was the one in the pacific. The controls were not quite as realistic as the regular flight simulator where you can adjust fuel trims, flaps, and all that stuff IIRC but it was way more fun and the basic response to the stick was realistic. I am really surprised Microsoft did not keep up with that game.

[RANGER295]

What do you guys recommend for the RAM and the memory/SSD?


I started ordering stuff. I have the CPU, Motherboard, power supply, case, and video card on their way. I switched video card again. I figure I can always return stuff if I change my mind or find a better deal but I am shopping early black Friday sales.

[Iknownot]

Ram get whatever Is approved / tested by your MOBO manufacturer to work with the board you picked at whatever ram speed you are getting. If you are going with DDR 5, most people seem to be trying for 5600 or 6000 speed. (DDR 4 tended to be 3200 or 3600).

As for storage, m.2 SSD are so cheap now I’d basically go 1tb at a minimum but probably 2TB. I’d have a transfer speed of 5000 Mbs as my floor. You can prob catch a 2 Tb for $80-120 depending on the sale you catch. Crucial, Samsung, Sabrent, or WD.

[SanDiego619]

This thread is getting me excited

I better stop looking before I start building a new pc

[high_revs]

What do you guys recommend for the RAM and the memory/SSD?

I started ordering stuff. I have the CPU, Motherboard, power supply, case, and video card on their way. I switched video card again. I figure I can always return stuff if I change my mind or find a better deal but I am shopping early black Friday sales.

you can do something like this - https://youtu.be/jw_mnwo9Nag?si=THitY6L5czEUCBtN

don't have to do that kind of price (kewl to watch though and learned something re: threadripper mobos). what i mean is do 1TB for your OS and apps and have a secondary and/or with tertiary (disk mirror) to backup your data for your cad and stuff. unsure how much heavy reading/writing you'll do and /or you need super fast write.. you can save some $ getting slower nvme or even SSD drives just for your data. i had a drive cage for 3.5" drive and used these below on (bought on prime day) and have them mirrored.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H2RR55Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

ram? seems you're going am5? i use g.skill and works fine with ddr3600. kid will use corsair vengeange. sure there are plenty like crucial, kingston, patriot, etc. always though those would be more lower end performance but it seems they sell in higher speeds. take a look at the latency. that seems to drive the price up with lower latency numbers.

[67Cuda]

I got these for my build.

CPU cooling. I prefer fan over liquid cooling. Liquid cooling will saturate to not much cooling.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y87YHRH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Case cooling, I picked the same brand as the CPU cooling.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CG2PGY6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[SactoDoug]

For your main SSD, I would recommend getting a Gen 4 M.2 SSD. I personally like the WD Black series but there are several good brands out there. Do not go too cheap. The cheap SSDs do not have DRAM. An SSD stores its map on the DRAM. If it does not have DRAM, that means it is writing the map to the NAND which is both slower and adds additional wear to the drive. If you stick with the major name brand Gen 4 SSDs then you should be fine.

RAM speed is not that important for AMD based systems. You will want at least 5200 but people start running into stability problems over 6000. People have pushed another 5% performance out of their systems going from 5200 to 6000+ but I have also seen horror stories where every other time they reboot the system has to recalibrate the memory timing for 10 minutes before the system will boot. The x3d chips in particular do not like memory overclocking. IMO get a good deal on a major name brand and don't worry too much about speed.

[ibanezfoo]

OP, it doesn't sound like you need a crazy anything on your computer and could get away with WELL under your budget.

I do some gaming on an Intel i3-12100x(don't recall if nothing or T) with 32GB ram and a used 1050ti card. It is a 4/8 CPU. It does fine at reasonable graphics level. It won't run my 4k monitor at huge settings but I'm not into that level of gaming. I want to say CPU, MB, cooler, RAM, and GPU were right at $300(new except GPU). I reused case and PSU. I paid for Win11 at reputable store.

As someone else noted, watch case size for coolers and cards. I had to return my CPU cooler because it was too tall.

Never had an issue with cooling beyond dust in close to 40 years(yes, original 8088 crew). I don't have millions of fans or any of that shift. My above computer has two 170mm fans. CPU isn't throttled. Biggest issue I've run into is TIM going bad and cpu having issues; mainly on Intel NUCs.

Don't ever buy an i3 anything. Just don't. Hear me now and believe me later. Don't do it.

[MrFancyPants]

What do you guys recommend for the RAM and the memory/SSD?

If you got the 7800X3D, get G.Skill Trident 6000 MHz RAM in whatever capacity you need. The AMD chips work best with 6000 MHz straight up. Stay away from Corsair Vengeance, it's budget RAM with inferior chips and timings as compared to the G.Skill, which utilizes higher binned ICs.

As for SSD, get the fastest interface your mobo supports, if an X670 board it's likely PCIE 5.0. My board has 4 m.2 slots and I run multiple SSDs, one 1 TB for a dedicated Windows (boot/OS) drive on the fastest interface, partitioned into OS and a tier 1 work space, a second 4 TB install SSD for games, and other drives for storage or other needs. The best two SSDs you can get right now are the Samsung 990 Pro and WD SN850X, either will work great, so choose the best sale price you can find.

[Iknownot]

Don't ever buy an i3 anything. Just don't. Hear me now and believe me later. Don't do it.

I3 12100 13100 14100 are not your fathers i3. They are quite good processors for a basic machine for regular usage (internet, word docs, media consumption ) and they are a great budget processor for a budget gaming build.

I?ve built several i3 machines for friends lately for budget gaming Builds with a used 1660ti, a used 2060 and one friend just upgraded his 1660ti to a 4060. CPU runs them all and makes for a very nice $400 or so 1080p gaming rig.

Just my 2 cents but the current i3 is perfectly fine and actually pretty robust for the price.