[SOLVED] PC Build for my wife, help and advice?

kafungalung

Honorable
Dec 7, 2013
87
1
10,645
Ok so here is the system so far: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DbQtb8

She does ALOT of editing and makes t-shirt designs and decals and what not to print out for a side hustle she has. she honestly doesn't play any games but i want her to be able to play some stuff with me from time to time like minecraft, pummel party ect. basically its a workstation that i want gaming able. with that being said i know graphics cards are in a weird place right now so thats where i need the most help.

but if any of this build seems inefficient or sub optimal for her needs feel free to augment.

I have found with past builds that a budget for me at least never goes as planned, i usually spend more than intended because rebates and shipping get miscalculated ect. so for a budget just keep it reasonable with the things i already have on here. i cant spend 1500$ on this pc but 750-1000 is reasonable. but if you can do better for cheaper dont let me stop you lol.

I know a little about CPUs and graphics cards and next to nothing about MOBOs PSUs and hard drives besides that SSDs > HDD and m.2 > everything. so keep that in mind. thanks in advance for any help.
 
Solution
For her specified workload as well as the particular games that you have mentioned, she will need more CPU power than GPU power. Here is the build that you should be looking for, including better quality parts than your list...


PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor | $294.14 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard | $114.99 @ Best Buy
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | $83.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Crucial P2 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $64.99 @ B&H
Storage | Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive |...
Ok so here is the system so far: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DbQtb8

She does ALOT of editing and makes t-shirt designs and decals and what not to print out for a side hustle she has. she honestly doesn't play any games but i want her to be able to play some stuff with me from time to time like minecraft, pummel party ect. basically its a workstation that i want gaming able. with that being said i know graphics cards are in a weird place right now so thats where i need the most help.

but if any of this build seems inefficient or sub optimal for her needs feel free to augment.

I have found with past builds that a budget for me at least never goes as planned, i usually spend more than intended because rebates and shipping get miscalculated ect. so for a budget just keep it reasonable with the things i already have on here. i cant spend 1500$ on this pc but 750-1000 is reasonable. but if you can do better for cheaper dont let me stop you lol.

I know a little about CPUs and graphics cards and next to nothing about MOBOs PSUs and hard drives besides that SSDs > HDD and m.2 > everything. so keep that in mind. thanks in advance for any help.

What do you mean by "editing" exactly?

With regard to the build, that looks pretty decent setup. I would suggest changing the motherboard to a "B450 max" model as that will make sure the board has Ryzen 3000 series support out of the box (as the B450 series of boards came out before Ryzen 3000 launched, earlier boards might need an update first before being able to support the newer cpu).

With respect to graphics card, if you are only looking at a bit of light gaming occasionally, no point spending too much on a card. There are plenty of capable options available for not too much, I would suggest looking at the GTX 1650 Super, or GTX 1660 Super cards from nVidia or something like an RX 570 / 580 from AMD (these typically work out a bit faster and cost less than the newer RX 5500 series). For the games you are playing there's no point going any higher than these.

Edit: I updated the parts list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FtPjCL
 
Last edited:
For her specified workload as well as the particular games that you have mentioned, she will need more CPU power than GPU power. Here is the build that you should be looking for, including better quality parts than your list...


PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor | $294.14 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard | $114.99 @ Best Buy
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | $83.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Crucial P2 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $64.99 @ B&H
Storage | Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $54.98 @ Newegg
Video Card | Gigabyte Radeon RX 570 4 GB GAMING Video Card | $119.99 @ Newegg
Case | Phanteks P300 ATX Mid Tower Case | $49.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply | Corsair CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply | $84.99 @ Corsair
Monitor | HP V270 27.0" 1920x1080 60 Hz Monitor | $145.00 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1023.06
| Mail-in rebates | -$10.00
| Total | $1013.06
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-07 15:05 EDT-0400 |
 
Solution
Thanks for the fast replies, I forgot to say the case is already bought in that list. Is the 3700X that much better than the 3600? and would i not need a aftermarket cooler on it?

The 3700X is quite a jump in multi thread performance - this was why I was asking what you meant by 'editing' - by that do you mean video editing or just graphics design work?

If doing video work the 3700X is much faster for encoding and for certain filters and such than a 3600. Otherwise the single thread performance difference between the two is small so for graphics stuff the performance difference is small.

Cooler wise, both cpu's come bundled with a reasonable cooling solution that is fine to handle the cpu's at stock settings (especially if the case has reasonable ventilation and a couple of fans included). Given your wife isn't planning on much if any gaming there's probably not much to be gained by messing around with over clocking (and Ryzen 3000 doesn't over clock much anyway) so you are probably ok with the stock fan.
 

kafungalung

Honorable
Dec 7, 2013
87
1
10,645
yeah she does more graphics work where i do all the video editing ect. and great one less thing i have to buy then lol. so would the final build look the same just with a 3600 instead of a 3700x.
 
For her specified workload as well as the particular games that you have mentioned, she will need more CPU power than GPU power. Here is the build that you should be looking for, including better quality parts than your list...


PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor | $294.14 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard | $114.99 @ Best Buy
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory | $83.99 @ Newegg
Storage | Crucial P2 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $64.99 @ B&H
Storage | Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $54.98 @ Newegg
Video Card | Gigabyte Radeon RX 570 4 GB GAMING Video Card | $119.99 @ Newegg
Case | Phanteks P300 ATX Mid Tower Case | $49.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply | Corsair CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply | $84.99 @ Corsair
Monitor | HP V270 27.0" 1920x1080 60 Hz Monitor | $145.00 @ Amazon
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1023.06
| Mail-in rebates | -$10.00
| Total | $1013.06
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-05-07 15:05 EDT-0400 |


Looks like the B450 might not be compatible with the next gen CPUs according to AMD presentation, perhaps spending 30$ more for a X570 Pro4 would be wiser.
 
Looks like the B450 might not be compatible with the next gen CPUs according to AMD presentation, perhaps spending 30$ more for a X570 Pro4 would be wiser.
Haven't seen that yet, but if that's the case then you are right. If OP already owns the Chassis, then that money can go towards a x570 board.
As for the CPU, besides better productivity performance the 3700x adds more longevity to the build. Not to mention Minecraft is a pretty core hungry game and will benefit with all the cores you can provide.