Before I get into specs, just some background as I am an old man and not a typical gamer. I have played WoW on older i7s with SLI to i3s with low profile cards and even an i3 Mac mini with an egpu. Just saying this because I don’t really care about what others think of my build - I just want something that works for my budget. I know for most of that time the i3 was much better than the i5 because WoW didn’t handle more than a core and it had a higher clock speed.
I have the mini I am using now and will continue till my build is done - I plan to do the build in stages.
Just got the case, have a 650 bronze PS, non-optimal 16 gb ram, 500 gb ssd and 1 tb hdd and a 1030 card I can make work if I get something without a GPU until I upgrade the GPU. Currently using a 1440p 75hz monitor (and doing ok with my mini and the 560 gpu) but have a 1080p @ 65hz I can also use.
Was hoping to add the mobo and cpu next and was looking at (mono / CPU combos):
Intel i3-12100 - $220-$230 on Newegg
AMD 2600g - $240 local at Microcenter
Intel i5-12400 - $230 - $270 local at Microcenter depending on if mobo deal has parts in stock
As you can see, all of these are close in budget. Not going to OC or mess with trying to eke out a few extra frames - been there done that and never seemed worth it. Just looking for good enough for now
yes I know how great the 5800X3D is but it jumps the price to $460 local at Microcenter - not sure I care enough to wait for the extra income ( I am very income limited)
Ultimate goal is to add something like:
AMD 6600 as the video card (under $300 now at Microcenter)
Anything you can see as to why any of the processors would be worth it over the others since the cost is so close?
so Microcenter has some pretty insane deals right now.
12600k + z690 motherboard for like $300 before tax. I’d personally spring for the 12700k + z690 board for $350 but budget is budget.
Only problem with this is it requires ddr5 which I don’t have.
Corsair 4000D
Powerspec 650 bronze
Generic DDR4 from 2 old prebuilt I had prob 2166 - would be upgraded later as needed
Inland 500gb ssd - carry over 1TB hdd
Slow GT1030 - it was a low profile but I removed the plate and can make it work if I had to for a few months till I get the GPU upgrade
yeah I agree on the somewhat i5 (if I sprung on the 12700k instead of the 12400) and my Microcenter says they have ( 1 ) DDR 4 mobo in stock but none of the combo pages show it (but the single page lists it as included in the $50 special - that how I got as low as the $230 for the 12400
Yeah for the 5600G with the mobo I linked I was looking at $239.98. Like I said I can match that with the i3 on Newegg
I was hoping to stay in the $250 - $300 for now range, then spend the same on the video card.
Only thing I found I liked is others talked about the 5800X3D and it seems interesting - but I know that is way outside what I want to spend but after looking at my taxes, it might be doable
Edit - I don’t know why, but the 5600g keeps autocorrecting to 2600g…
LOL just overthinking I guess, I know any of the above will work
I don’t really like any of the am4 motherboards at microcenter I think i would just go get a MSI PRO B550M-VC for 110 off Amazon and combine it with the 5600g from Microcenter (if you don’t need the igpu the 5500 should be a lesser bin of the same cpu with the igpu disabled.)
So your intention is to retain most of what you have.
If you want to keep your ram for example the best for WoW with DDR4 would be to get the Am4 setup and grab a used 5800x3d in the future.
I personally have the 5800x3d and unless you find yourself hanging out in the major city or doing raids/large scale pvp often. The 5600 will hold you over just fine. Or you can go with the above suggestion and Josh grab a 5500 for under 100 at MC and upgrade later on. You may just have to dabble in the used market
Where the 5800x3d shine isn’t the highest fps it can get but when you have dips that goes below 60. For example, the 5900x I was using would go down to 40s in the current major city but with the 5800x3d it stays closer to 60.
But yeah, I want to continue to use what I have and slowly replace to better stuff but still having something to play with now instead of waiting for 6 months till I can get all of the parts.
I don’t game except for WoW and older games that would be fine on the gpu of the 5600G or my old 1030.
I might end up doing Linux again on my sata ssd, then adding win 11 after I get an M2 later (or maybe a couple of small M2s set up in a raid - with my data on the HDD)
But yeah my intent still is:
Case - done
mobo / cpu - 1st (maybe $300 unless taxes really work out)
Video card - 2nd (again $300 seems to be my budget without having to wait way too long)
Ram - 3rd (since I hear the AMDs are really helped with RAM - maybe 4 8s of perfectly matched)
M.2 - 4th
RGB / looks items - sometime (never had but think it might be cool)
For AMD and RAM 2 matched 16’s (3600) would be a better choice. Sometimes the IMC on the CPU struggles with 4 sticks. You might not attain the XMP settings with 4 sticks.
idk if anyone mentioned this but if you have an amd graphics card and you choose a ryzen with integrated gpu, it’ll actually crossfire. this shouldn’t be “the reason” you choose a specific CPU but it is a nice perk
Microsoft Surface Pro 6 with 16GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, dual core i7’s (2.1GHz, 2.0GHz), with docking station which has 24" Samsung Business class monitor, Bluetooth keyboard, and Razer Atheris gaming mouse.