Question Buying a Pre-Built Pc

Ferimer

Distinguished
Hi everyone.

I am helping out a friend get into the PC Gaming life. I have been doing some searching and its boggling my brain on how to narrow my searches down. l am looking at building the best bang for the buck style but also having a great GPU. I know the 4060 ti has two options of either 8GB or 16GB variants. l also am curious if there is a much better alternative to that. The idea is to play games that just cannot be played on certain consoles. However maintaining the graphical output and FPS for these other types of games. I am steering away from intel CPU's and want to go AMD route but unsure just what is the best budget esque CPU at this time. Looking to not have to spend anything more than $1600 CDN PRE TAX. Thank you for your help and suggestions in advanced.
 
Last edited:
Hi everyone.

I am helping out a friend get into the PC Gaming life. I have been doing some searching and its boggling my brain on how to narrow my searches down. l am looking at building the best bang for the buck style but also having a great GPU. I know the 4060 ti has two options of either 8GB or 16GB variants. l also am curious if there is a much better alternative to that. The idea is to play games that just cannot be played on certain consoles. However maintaining the graphical output and FPS for these other types of games. I am steering away from intel CPU's and want to go AMD route but unsure just what is the best budget esque CPU at this time. Looking to not have to spend anything more than $1600 CDN PRE TAX. Thank you for your help and suggestions in advanced.
Here is an example of a complete build that would be quite nice for PC Gaming right now. Comes in at $1606 CDN.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D 3 GHz 8-Core Processor ($256.95 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit EVO 69 CFM CPU Cooler ($63.90 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M AORUS ELITE AX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($74.99 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN580 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($164.92 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card: ASRock Challenger OC Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Video Card ($663.29 @ Amazon Canada)
Case: Fractal Design Pop Mini Air MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($94.99 @ Canada Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($137.50 @ Vuugo)
Total: $1606.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-08-20 11:07 EDT-0400
 

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
Best budget CPUs at the moment would be the 5600X/5700X or i5-12400/i7-12700 with DDR4 3200.

A case could be made the newer Ryzen 7600, but OEMs will sell you slow DDR5 memory.

As for GPUs, Nvidia low/mid range is expensive. RX 6650XT/RX 7600 from AMD are cheaper and better than the 4060 for general gaming. 4060Ti competition is even more in favor of AMD. RX6800/7700XT, 7800XT.

Budget is high enough for a pretty decent build. Pre-builts will be sort of average in comparison.
 
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USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
When buying a prebuilt, pay very close attention to the warranty terms.

An item that, if sold on its own, would have a 5 or 10 year warranty....falls under the overall one year for the system.

And sometimes, you have to ship the whole PC to them, on your dime.

Also, pay attention to the parts where they don't list the make/model. Like the PSU.
Often, it will only say "700W", with no indication of the actual thing.
Resulting in a 700 watt paperweight, that I wouldn't use as a doorstop.