A buddy asked me to build him a PC with a budget of $1500. This is what I came up with. He ONLY plays WoW and League of Legends. this is solely for that, so keep that in mind. he doesnt need a AAA rig or anything close to that. But he does want a solid machine thats gonna last him for a while. Opinions on this build?
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2GwBbh
PCPartPicker Part List
What’s a while? And no upgrades during that “while”? What settings does he want to play at during this “while”?
He has no plans on any other games, he wants a solid rig that will last him through the expansion and some. He wants to play on ultra on wow. so 7+ and I have no idea about league, as I dont play it, but id imagine hed want it on max settings. And no plans to make any upgrades during that time
- CPU - it’s fine for LoL, WoW, and pretty much any game.
- Cooler - Not necessary, but can’t fault it either since the Stealth kinda sucks. Maybe go cheaper, like an Deepcool Gammaxx 400 for stock quieter settings and only $25. Or get something flashier for looks.
$25
https://www.amazon.com/DEEPCOOL-GAMMAXX-400-Blue-Compatible/dp/B00JQ2YDCY
- Motherboard - Can probably get by with a cheaper B550 like the Gigabyte DS3H for $90 if he isn’t overclocking or anything crazy. Not gaining much by spending more on a motherboard if you aren’t an enthusiast, and the DS3H can also support upcoming Ryzen 5000 series if that’s something he wants to consider. Also PCIE4 which on RDNA cards like the 5600 XT gains a few % over the B450. Not really huge though.
$91
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-b550m-ds3h/p/N82E16813145210?Item=N82E16813145210&Description=b550&cm_re=b550-_-13-145-210-_-Product
- 32gb isn’t helpful for this generally, and 3600 cl 18 is slow. Get a 16gb kit of 3600 cl16 instead and save $50. They are usually around $70-75. Or if the RGB is important, can’t really fault that either. Looks can be important.
$75
https://www.newegg.com/ballistix-16gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820164185?Description=16gb%203600%20cl%2016&cm_re=16gb_3600%20cl%2016-_-20-164-185-_-Product
- SSD is too expensive, you won’t notice a difference in gaming/windows/loading between that and a $100-110 QLC NVME SSD like a Crucial P1, WED N550, or Intel 665p.
$105
https://www.newegg.com/western-digital-blue-sn550-nvme-1tb/p/N82E16820250135?Item=9SIAN0MBM84029&Description=1tb%20nvme%20ssd&cm_re=1tb_nvme%20ssd-_-20-250-135-_-Product&quicklink=true
- 1660 - slow for the $225. With the savings mentioned above, you can get a 5600 XT for $270-290 and get shadowlands free, and it’s about 35% faster than the 1660. I would recommend an Nvidia card if it was that big a deal for him, but they are all mostly incredibly overpriced right now specifically.
$279 (after rebate) + Free Shadowlands/Godfall
https://www.newegg.com/asrock-radeon-rx-5600-xt-rx5600xt-pgd3-6go/p/N82E16814930028?Item=N82E16814930028&Description=5600%20xt&cm_re=5600_xt-_-14-930-028-_-Product
- Case - this is a good case, but i’d go with the P400A instead because cooling will be better.
$61
https://www.newegg.com/black-phanteks-eclipse-p400a-atx-mid-tower/p/N82E16811854085?Description=phanteks%20p400a&cm_re=phanteks_p400a-_-11-854-085-_-Product&quicklink=true
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Windows - there’s ways to get this cheaper but can’t fault this choice to buy it.
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Fans - no opinion.
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Monitor no opinion - seems appropriate for esports/wow.
Above changes the system will play pretty much any game at 1080p/60 or better with high settings. Generally.
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your build is fine and will deliver ultra settings in those games currently and handle high settings down the road but personally if I was building it myself;
CPU - go with the 3300x if possible (assuming you can find it) otherwise 3600 is fine but currently over priced by $25
CPU cooler - you can shave $10 with a gammax 400 and get the same results
memory - you don’t need 32GB, 16GB is more than enough
storage - get a WD 550N 1TB for $50 less, he will never see the performance difference in gaming.
PSU - Antec Earthwatt Pro for $95 on Amazon (it’s pretty much a rebranded seasonic Focus) or Antec HCG 650 (rebranded Seasonic Focus Plus) for $106 on Amazon.
Used the savings to step up to a AMD RX 5600XT video card (some come with Shadowlands) Nvidia 2060, or AMD RX RX5700XT
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get out of my head 
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lol seriously
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I missed the PSU part. Good catch.
the power supply itself is excellent just overpriced by $10-15
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Your build looks hella solid there fam, Though i would reccomend getting a cheaper NVME drive simply because the end user wont notice the difference between the samsung ones and other brands so a cheaper one of the same storage level will do just fine!
Also ditch the thermal take riiings i’ve had so many of them fail on me now it isn’t funny.
Cooler wise, I don’t know if you have ID cooling where you are but ID cooling sells really cheap AIO’s and they tend to perform a little better for the same rough price you’ve got your Hyper 212.
You can also get Windows keys off ebay that are actual and legitimate keys for a lot less than from a retail store, I’ve never had any issues with these keys and for the 10-15 dollar price vs 120 dollars it’s worth it.
With the money saved from above you can easily get a 5700XT in that budget wich is a far better card than the 1660, And i would suggest waiting like a day or 2 so that we can all see the AMD launch event wich is around the corner wich may make prices drop further.
Salhezar has some good suggestions.
Pick up a cheap windows 10 pro key and get some Arctic Cooling F12’s fans, if you wanted to save money you can even go with 3200mhz cl16 2x8gb ($45+) and be good.
Black Friday is coming and sales might be going on earlier/longer since covid is still here…
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