Building a new PC and looking for some build advice, parts, etc. My budget is $1,000 and I already have a GPU and Windows Key.
Budget is a good start but specifics would be helpful:
- What will you be doing with the PC?
- If gaming, specifically what type?
- What size/form factor do you prefer? (e.g. small/mini-ITX/ full tower/ATX, etc)
- Do you want the absolute best you can get with your budget or are you looking for bang for buck?
- What features are important to you? (e.g. lots of ports, lots of drives, upgrade capacity, overclocking support, etc)
Also, the specific GPU you have could help for recommend balanced parts (no sense in pairing a bottom barrel CPU with a top tier GPU for example).
Just playing Wow.
Full tower.
Never going to overclock.
GPU is a 1660 Super
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Here’s the two builds I came up with. I’m sure someone with more experience with a broader range of components would be able to suggest better, but I think these will work as starting points at least.
Intel “Budget” Build (~$800)
AMD “Nicer” Build (~$1000)
The first makes a few tradeoffs for cost savings, but they shouldn’t be particularly noticeable, particularly for WoW. You get a 6 core 11th gen Intel with a reasonably nice motherboard, along with a 500GB PCI 3 SSD and the ability to upgrade to a PCI-E 4.0 SSD in the future (which may become useful for Windows 11, with Direct Storage). Case is decent but cuts a few corners, and CPU cooler is a good head and shoulders above most budget options.
The second gets you a considerably nicer motherboard with more ports and integrated wifi and bluetooth, an AMD Zen 3 CPU with 8 cores, a 500GB PCI-E 4 SSD, a nicer case (that I can personally vouch for), and a top tier CPU cooler. It does, however, come with the caveat of needing to upgrade the motherboard’s BIOS with a thumb drive and the motherboard’s BIOS flashback button to make it compatible with Zen 3 (it was originally built for Zen 2).
Both of these systems will be trading blows when it comes to WoW, so it’s really a matter of personal preference. It’s possible to create an Intel build that more closely matches the AMD build in features, but to do that, counterintuitively you’ll want to fall back to the previous generation of Intel CPUs (10th gen) and motherboards, because 11th gen Intel beyond the i5-11400 are bad and not worth the money.
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Amd’s killing it right now and for your budget I would definitely look into the 5600x as your processor or 5800x if you can stretch your budget a bit. The 5600x will be cheaper however the 5800x will age a lot better just keep in mind that may take you outside your budget. It’s more of an investment CPU that will make your system last you a lot longer. The last time I look the 5800x was $398 on amazon.
I would only look at a AMD products because investment-wise a couple years down the road when you go to resell your products and upgrade the AMD will most likely self for more than anything Intel has to offer
You can also get a really inexpensive but decent b550 motherboard. I’m not sure the current pricing on it that I would look into the b550 tomahawk.
Here is a pretty good deal on a decent motherboard and processor combo for the 5600x.
5800x which is only $100 more and the CPU I would recommend. It’s just a better investment and will also be worth more years later not to mention age better
I hope this helps you.
On a side note this is the best CPU Cooler on the market brand-wise and this size is all you would need for the 5800x. I have used their products for years and absolutely swear by their aios. They are pretty much always your best bang for your buck
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I would advise getting Arctic 360 for 5800X because 5800X can get toasty. Can’t go wrong with these as well
Corsair H150i Elite Capellix
EK AIO 360 D-RGB
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Agreed.
Finally got my RTX 3070ti FTW3 Ultra I wanted 
Best Buy Drop
Didn’t keep up with PC these days. Still patiently waiting for GPU prices to drop.
Did some gardening instead to build some mosquito repelling zone. They are getting out of hand.
Lavender X4
Rosemary X2
Oregano X1
Mint X1
Peppermint X1
Apple mint X1
Chocolate Mint X1
Lemon Balm X1
Lemon Thyme X1
Catnip X1
Garlic Chive X1
Indian Borage X1
Mexican Mint X1
Arabian Jasmine X1
Butterfly Bush X1
Chrysanthemum X1
Oh I got it at MSRP off of a BB drop
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Thats great. Prices here are still crazy. They are dropping slowly.
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Lots of love for AIO coolers in here. Considered going for the EK 360 D-RGB for my latest build but I couldn’t say no to the effortlessness of the NH-D15. Just paste it well and forget about it for 5 years. Realistically can probably get that out of a quality AIO too, but it’s an absolute certainty on air.
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What I like about the arctic and ek aios is they are practically on par with custom water loops.
Air cooling just can’t keep up. Not to say it’s not good because air cooling is still a very good solution however there’s not much of a comparison between the two.
I have personally tried some of the larger air coolers both Noctua and Sythe and Arctic as well as a few off name brands. None could get within 15c of the Arctic during a prime95 stress test.
Another disadvantage to air cooling is the ramp-up time versus a AIOs which is practically instantaneous. It’s almost like a supercharger versus a turbocharger on a car. One has a ramp up time the other does not.
The Arctic is also the quietest AIO I have ever seen in my life. Even when it’s maxed out during a stress test at 100% it’s almost silent
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I can’t say no to the Arctic myself. Although my needs are more around 100% load for extended periods of time.
At the end of the day AMD chips will throttle and the perf diff is going to be minimal in the grand scheme of things. For the Intel side don’t buy a terrible mobo and you’ll be fine.
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