Build Advice TH's recommended $1500 budget build looks great, but can I save money on the case or mobo? Or optimize it for minimum price increase?

[PlayerDot]

I'm having issues with my current 5 year old PC that seem to be like an endless game of whack-a-mole, so I'm opting to just get myself a fully new upgrade.

The budget build recommended on the website is looking promising.

CPU	Intel Core i5-13400F	$209
Motherboard	ASRock B760M Pro RS WiFi LGA	$129
GPU	Radeon RX 6800 XT	$579 - $799
RAM	Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 32GB (2 x 16GB) 3200	$74
Storage	WD Black SN850X (2TB)	$159
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P360A	$99
PSU	Thermaltake Toughpower 750W	$95
Cooler	N/A (included)	$0
Total:		1350 - 1500

Realistically, money isn't an issue and I could go for a $2000 budget with no problems,
I just don't want to spend more money than necessary for features on a board or case I'm not going to use or enjoy.

I completely agree with the choice of CPU and GPU, so that's not even up for discussion. I'm willing to put down that much money for the processor and graphics card (even if their performance might exceed my 1080p gaming needs!).
I also have a few barely used 1TB SSDs, so I'm going to be using those instead, and saving money on that front, too.

But...
A WiFi-capable motherboard? If it's barely more expensive than the non-WiFi version, I'll get it just in case. But it's unlikely that I'll connect to WiFi unless I move to a place where wired connections are hard to get.
A case with a million RGB lights, or a glass cover to see inside your PC? I'll likely turn those off, and want to cover the glass.

It bothers me that the case, motherboard and PSU alone would cost me $550 over here, even if I'm looking at the absolutely cheapest deal I can find in my general area.
The $99 case is almost $170 where I live, the PSU would be also be around $170, and the motherboard is around $200. I'm not used to spending more than $300 on ALL of these components.
I tried looking into the alternatives, but other manufacturer's PSU's are about the same price for the same performance, so that's not an option.

So, where could you even save money if you didn't want to compromise on the CPU, GPU or the RAM's performance?
Are there alternatives for the RAM?

 

[TalenH]

Hey guys, looking at the 1500$ budget pc build, if I wanted to spend an extra 100$ on better ram what would you suggest?

 

[Aeacus]

what would you suggest?

I suggest that you make your own topic, rather than trying to hijack this one.

Also, use this guideline,
link: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-new-build-or-upgrade-advice.528714/

 

[PlayerDot]

To be honest you're not guaranteed that wont be the case with high end hardware either, especially if theres been a major tech shift in that time.

Yes, completely understandable. I seem to have the misfortune of always being on the tail end of new tech shifts, which is why I decided I'd wait till April to see what the new GPUs will be and then decide on a card.

Also you should have blown outyour computer a few times, and cleaned up, and reapplied thermal paste on that card at least once during that 4 year period for the best performance.

I do blow it out regularly (at least twice a year, and pretty much every time I have to open it up for any reason), though the thermal paste not as often since it's a bit trickier.
I've been starting to look into electrical blowers or compressors since cans of compressed air really add up over time.

What i would suggest, regarding GPUs;
If you mainly play AAA titles (e.g Hogwarts: Legacy), get the beefiest GPU you can afford.
But if you mainly play small/casual/old games, get the GPU that will give you close to 144 FPS at 1080p, if your monitor is 144 Hz. That would be GTX 1660 Ti/ GTX 1070/ RTX 3050.

I play a mix. Though I guess the performance issues with AAA titles, especially ports, tends to throw me off from playing more recent ones. With my current build I've had to buy more case fans and an after market cooler to get temperatures below 90°C when playing games like Monster Hunter World, Dark Souls 3, The Divison 2, Devil May Cry 5, Nioh 2, but it didn't stop the stuttering -- and this is on games that came out around the same time I built my PC.

Which I guess also leads to another issue: if my cooling isn't good, my CPU and GPU will throttle under high load anyway.

"Future proofing" is not an excuse, nor a justification. It's a guess that may or may not work out in your favor. There's a lot more than can be done/changed, with justification, with that €150 difference that can definitely improve your entire gaming/pc experience considerably more than a handful of fps you may not even see.

Good point. In many of these cards the average 1080p or 1440p FPS is not much of a meaningful difference for most current games.
Though, I do use some niche 3D applications a few weeks in a year and thought it'd be neat to try playing games with raytracing, both of which are handled considerably better by those higher end cards (and CPUs, but the upgrade is helpful for ML and data processing I do on the regular). It'd be nice if I was able to do those things when I need them without worrying about flimsy performance. Also, I am often playing two games at the same time or running a game + a 3D viewer's like Second Life or VR Chat. Why? I play TW: Warhammer 3 co-op often, and waiting 3 minutes for someone to end their turn or 20 minutes for them to play out their fight can be boring.

I think for now, I'll order all the other parts except the GPU and use my RX 580 in the meantime. I don't think I'm going to be playing anything fancier than Guild Wars 2 or heavily modded Minecraft until summer anyway. If the newer <€500 cards aren't that much better, I'll just go for a RX 6750 XT.

This is what my parts list looks like now.
Note, I already have the SSDs, with about 60TB written on the 970 EVO and I doubt even 1 TB on the 870 EVO since I got it a month ago and only used it to install fresh Windows 10 to it while I was troubleshooting which component is causing all the glitches and swapping out parts.

 

[Karadjgne]

Though, I do use some niche 3D applications a few weeks in a year and thought it'd be neat to try playing games with raytracing, both of which are handled considerably better by those higher end cards (and CPUs, but the upgrade is helpful for ML and data processing I do on the regular). It'd be nice if I was able to do those things when I need them without worrying about flimsy performance. Also, I am often playing two games at the same time or running a game + a 3D viewer's like Second Life or VR Chat. Why? I play TW: Warhammer 3 co-op often, and waiting 3 minutes for someone to end their turn or 20 minutes for them to play out their fight can be boring.

That's justification. A higher ranked gpu serves a purpose. While not exactly a solid Need, it's not an excuse based on a whim because 'so and so on YouTube got....'. There's a definitive reason for going higher.