This is the first PC building experience I've had. I've taken apart older computers with no real value nowadays, but this is my first real start to finish PC build that actually produced a functional computer.
The PC uses a MSI b650-p motherboard, with an AM5 socket. I used a AMD 5 7600x processor with a base clock speed of 4.7 GHz and a maximum boost speed of 5.3 GHz. It draws 105 watts of power.
My RAM is 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, clocked at
The GPU that I chose was the AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB for my GPU, as I happened to have one laying around and I thought that I would try it before blowing $2-300 on a modern GPU. It has exceeded my expectations for such a low end card, although I do think the CPU is kinda carrying this GPU. I'll probably upgrade it in the future, but for now, it's okay.
My PSU is the Thermaltake 700W. It's cheap, and although it doesn't have great quality or anything, it is good for a temporary solution to get the PC running.
The case that I chose was the Corsair 4000D Airflow, which comes with 2 case fans (non-RGB). I did add 2 extra fans that I had on hand during the build. Together, they more than keep the CPU cool.
Cooling the CPU is the Cooler Master 212 Halo RGB (Black). It is cost effective, high quality, and has RGB (Not necessary for me, but is always nice to have the feature).
I picked up all these parts at my nearest Best Buy, as they had some deals going on that made the price just under what I would have paid on Amazon or other online vendors, plus I don't have to wait weeks for shipping from God knows where.
In terms of performance, this build exceeds my needs, running my main games (mostly Fortnite) at over 70 fps high settings, which is more than enough for me. It also absolutely demolishes other general use tasks that a standard office PC could do (of course).
What I've learned from this whole experience is that it is really important to do your own research and find what YOU actually need for what you want to achieve. A lot of people will tell you that AM4 is obsolete or that it's well worth the money for AM5. In my opinion, that isn't true. AM4 is just slightly older and it will be out of service sooner, however, that does make it less expensive. I chose AM5 for this build, because future-proofing is really important to me and I got a good deal on the chip I used. You don't need what I have to run stuff the same, figure out yourself what you want to achieve and go from there. There are benchmarks to look at, reddit posts to read, and online articles waiting for you to read. In my opinion, the best way to learn all this information that I have learned over the span of a few months is to surround yourself with it. Watch YouTube videos about budget PC's, read stuff online, and most importantly figure out for yourself what you want and don't let anyone tell you, "Oh that chip isn't near good enough, you need this". Do you own research and find out for yourself.
A good way to do this is to google benchmarks with your exact build online and test out your hardware that way. This is exactly how I made the final decision for my parts.
Overall, this PC more than accomplishes what I want it to, but the GPU is really holding back the system overall. I'm currently looking into upgrading my RX 570 4gb to a RX 5700-XT. This upgrade will double my current GPU (According to some benchmark sites).
In the farther future, I might upgrade the RAM to 64 GB total. Right now, 32 GB is more than enough for my uses. The only reason I would upgrade it is if I got a good deal on it or if I decide to do some more advanced 3d rendering or AI training.
I plan to use this computer for some gaming, mostly casual, although I probably will try some competitive play eventually (Check out the channel for that).
With this computer, multitasking will be very efficient and will allow me to try new things that I have never had the opportunity to do.
I honestly think that PC builds are subjective to what you need in a PC. It's impossible for me to say exactly what the objectively best PC build it for anyone. However, I do have a some recommendations for choosing your build:
DDR4 isn't going anywhere for a while, although DDR5 is significantly faster. (DDR4 is around 2/3 the price)
It turns out, you don't need RGB fans, keyboard, mouse and GPU (Adds a significant amount of price)
Take into account how long you want to be able to use your build without swapping everything (Everything hinges on this decision)
Choose your CPU platform first (AM5 only works with DDR5, but AM4 has motherboards that support both DDR4 and DDR5) AM5 will be around for longer that AM4, but is is more expensive, but also faster
Depending on what you want to do with your computer, choose a CPU and RAM combo that works for you:
CPU is really just how much you are willing to spend
AM4 cpu's are Ryzen/AMD 5000 series CPUs
AM5 is the 7000 series
My personal recommendation for a CPU is the Ryzen 5 7600x (6 cores, 12 threads, high clock speed)
RAM is really easy to choose:
4gb can't do much at all
8gb is still pretty small, although it will work (Not for much of any gaming)
16gb is mid range, easily handling multitasking, and workstation loads, as well as some light gaming
32gb is pretty high end, and is what I'd personally recommend. It is more that you'd need for general use tasks, and can more than handle some mid range gaming (High/max graphics, in some titles)
64gb is generally as high as you'd go. Assuming that the rest of your system doesn't bottleneck it, it can tear through all games you could ever want to play, train advanced AI's etc.
128gb is possible, but you'd spend 300 dollars just on RAM (for ddr5. I'm guessing you'd be using DDR5, if you even need this much RAM.)
When installing 2 sticks of RAM, check your motherboard's manual for which slots to install them in (Usually slot 1 and 3 or 2 and 4.)
A motherboard is also relatively easy, it essentially depends on what socket you want, how much upgradability you want and if you need a lot of PCIe.
The 2 most obvious differences in a motherboard are the CPU socket and amount of RAM slots. The third would be the PCIe slots.
AM4 motherboards are less expensive, and usually uses DDR4, although some use DDR5.
AM5 motherboards are more expensive, and always use DDR5.
I honestly don't know much about intel parts, so I will stick to what I know (AMD)
Some motherboards have 1 RAM slot, some have 2, some have 4, and others have more. For 90% of people, 4 slots is enough.
Generally more RAM slots will have more PCIe slots, but all gaming motherboards will have a GPU slot (also called PCIe x16)
PCIe slots come in 4 sizes, PCIe x1, x4, x8, and x16. There are also different versions, with different speeds. PCIe slots are used for graphics cards, Ethernet ports, WiFi cards, extra hard drive slots and much, much more. You can find a PCIe card for almost everything.
Your GPU should match your CPU's performance. Some GPUs are also better than other for different purposes. If any part of your system holds back your system, it reduces that performance of all the other parts. This is called a bottleneck. For example, my rx 750 has a pretty significant bottleneck on my CPU.
My personal recommendation for a GPU is either a RX 5700XT, RX 7500, Nvidia 3060, or a lower end 40 series card. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH HERE!!
Your PSU should leave you room to upgrade (I'd recommend at least 600 watts)
Unless you have room in your budget, remember that you really don't need a full RGB setup.