Some solid choices!
We recently had two clients build systems very close to this, and then their pre-build list they made some choices not as future proof or thought out as we generally suggest.
Having said that, there are some rules we lay out for our clients entertaining the thought of building their first PC that help them both make solid decisions.
The first rule is to set a budget, regardless of funds. Even with deep pockets, laying out your spending reduces the likelihood of making tactical errors.
$800 is quite achievable, although the majority of our clients build on AM4 to gain a cost based performance advantage.
Second, choose a case. What you pick is what you'll be living with for time, so you do you. We advise our clients to go with something well ventilated, with horizontal motherboard installation (far easier to work on).
Phanteks Eclipse P300A is an excellent choice! Here's an example of what our clients find to be the most beneficial case available:
It's a horizontal form factor which made assembly easier and fixing errors quicker.
Third, time to pick a graphics card. If you're not building around this single component, you're going to make mistakes in your build. It's team Nvidia and team AMD. Without getting into a lot of details, we profess AMD with the rise of RDNA2.
Your ASRock RX 6600 XT Challenger D 8GB OC is indeed an excellent choice! Here's what our clients have invested in working with your budget:
The newer chipset and current price with instant coupon has made it extremely attractive.
The fourth item on the list is a processor. Intel and AMD. Regardless of choice, we advise our clients to avoid the latest/greatest to avoid the new problems that come with it. The Core i3-12100F is a great starting point with the build on the LGA1700 platform, has upgrades will consistently get cheaper and cheaper. Once again, AMD is our suggested go to:
Intel Core i3-12100F vs AMD Ryzen 5 5500
This is also where we highly suggest our clients to avoid an AIO on a first-time build, or at least starting out with the build. One of the largest mistakes builders make with an AIO is not having an air cooler in the closet or under the bed in case something fails or testing is required. It's an inexpensive investment, and you can always add the AIO, and all of its headaches, after the fact. And the ID-COOLING FROSTFLOW X 240/280 series has definitely been one of those headaches. Our clients generally start out with this model, air cooler, and work up to a proper AIO, or sometimes loop, when the time comes:
And then the majority of cases, especially with the properly vented case, the Assassin 120 will outperform most three fan AIOs. And when AIO time comes, purchase one with an external pump that's not built into the block.
We have a team member that taught thermodynamics at the Air Force Academy for nearly 30 years, and finds this to be the only AIO assembly that should even be considered.
Now fifth, find a motherboard. Although your case will dictate the form factor, we advise Micro ATX. Unless you need all of those extra slots, a full ATX is asking for trouble. Motherboards are the single most complicated part of your PC, and it's best to only get the features you'll need. Your choice in an ASUS Prime H670-PLUS D4 is solid, and was the board chosen by our two clients for their builds. And if you're not running ethernet, remember you'll need to invest in a PCIe Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card.
Sixth: RAM and storage. When it comes to RAM there's a host of reasons to currently make 32GB the minimum. And with four slots you can always add two more matching sticks later, but two 16GB sticks are best. RAM is often the least investment in a build, but that lack can cause the most issues. The same goes for NVMe SSDs. They've come down in cost but builders will go with smaller name brands without research.
And not only is the day of "gamer16" at an end in 2023, our faith in Corsair RAM, which used to be our go-to, has diminished greatly over the last two years as the quality and compatibility of their DDR4 has been more than questionable. Outside of Samsung, Taiwan and Korea are doing much better and making memory chips using more traditional methods that are far more stable and compatible.
As a bonus, there's a simple and inexpensive "fix" you can build into your system. Simply add a cached 128GB SATA SSD and use it as a disconnected, fully functional and updated, bootable drive. If problems arise, you'll just remove your main SSD, plug in your backup SATA SSD, and diagnose. If it's a hardware or or other software issue. Issue. It's a cheap investment.
Has for an NVMe PCIe SSD, you've got Gen4x4 support directly from the CPU, and it's best to try to utilize that. But be careful, all Gen4x4 are not created equal! Some are actually converted Gen3x4s, and you can always tell by the read/write speeds. As a minimum on Gen4x4, you're looking for minimum read/write speeds of approximately 5,000/4,500MB/s.
Here are parts our clients commonly use that have excellent performance:
ADATA Legend 840 1TB PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe 1.4 M.2 Internal Gaming SSD Up to 5,000 MB/s (ALEG-840-1TCS)
Seventh on the list is the power supply unit or PSU. Like RAM, more is better. But you best do research. We like your choice in Thermaltake Smart 600W, and should work well with your setup. Both of the clients went with the PS-SPD-0700NPCWUS-W 700W version, but it's currently out of stock at Amazon.
And there you have it! Please let us know if you have any questions.
MaxProAndU Team
Most of our clients with your motherboard, or similar, are running a G.Skill RipJaws V Series 32GB (2x16GB) kit , DDR4 4000 part number F4-4000C18D-32GVK
It's a lot better enhancement options.
Another popular upgrade, to take advantage of both the CPU and the motherboard, is the fairly new Nemesis Series Gen4x4 NVMe SSDs, since they're read/write speeds are consistently above 7,000/6,000MB/s
NEMIX RAM Nemesis Series 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe R/W up to 7,415/6,800MB/s - NMS-M2G4N-1TB
And finally, the 5600X, once optimized, has enough wind in it to push a Radeon RX 6750 XT
Ryzen 5 5600X and Radeon RX 6750 XT Bottleneck Calculator
Outside of that, some go old school and add one more SSD, specifically as a PFZ (Page File Zone) dump, so windows and other applications aren't beating the hell out of the C drive, shortening its lifespan, walking the PCIe lanes open.
It's an old school trick that many people have forgotten about.
But this is a setup that's fairly common with the majority of our clients
MaxProAndU Team
We have three clients that picked up these ST-ChronosW-0254-AM when they were down to $1,000 during Black Friday/Christmas.
The only problem that they had, at least that we recorded, was the RAM included had a little trouble with XMP.
Two of them upgraded to 32GB anyway
Which fixed the XMP problem, the virtual memory issue, and enhanced the support for the RTX 3060 12GB of VRAM. The other client went with something he could tweak a little bit more.
Primarily because there was a deal on a Ryzen 7 5700G and it's still brought him in under budget.
Of course, you could easily build one for less, but OOTB, they stated this wasn't a bad pre-built.
MaxProAndU Team
Thank you all for your input! I appreciate the great answers, and it's helped me understand both what'd be worth it for my usage and worth keeping in the future.
My conclusions:
Thanks again, guys. Really appreciate the help. I'll definitely be coming back/searching the archives for when I decide to OC my hardware when the time comes.
You got a laundry list of requests, so we'll give you some tips that we give our clients.
It's basically best to build your own, but these rules work just as well for someone who is looking to buy a pre-built.
Regardless of the intent, there are some rules we lay out for our clients entertaining the thought of building/buying their first PC.
The first rule is to set a budget, regardless of funds. Even with deep pockets, laying out your spending reduces the likelihood of making tactical errors. If you're conscious about every item purchased, you'll have vested more time and thought into what you'll be using.
Second, choose a case. What you pick is what you'll be living with for time, so you do you. We advise our clients to go with something well ventilated, with horizontal motherboard installation (far easier to work on, less continuity problems). Here's an example:
Third, time to pick a graphics card. If you're not building around this single component, you're going to make mistakes in your build. It's team Nvidia and team AMD. Without getting into a lot of details, we profess AMD. Here's their best and what's most popular:
XFX Radeon RX 7900XT Gaming Graphics Card with 20GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA 3 RX-79TMBABF9
The fourth item on the list is a processor. Intel and AMD. Regardless of choice, we advise our clients to avoid the latest/greatest to avoid the new problems that come with it. Once again, AMD is our suggested go to:
AMD Ryzen™ 7 5800X3D 8-core, 16-Thread Desktop Processor with AMD 3D V-Cache™ Technology
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core, 16-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G 8-Core, 16-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor with Radeon Graphics
AMD Ryzen™ 5 5500 6-Core, 12-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor with Wraith Stealth Cooler
Now fifth, find a motherboard. Although your case will dictate the form factor, we advise Micro ATX. Unless you need all of those extra slots, a full ATX is asking for trouble. Motherboards are the single most complicated part of your PC, and it's best to only get the features you'll need. For our application so far:
Sixth: RAM and storage. When it comes to RAM there's a host of reasons to currently make 32GB the minimum. And with four slots you can always add two more matching sticks later. RAM is often the least investment in a build, but that lack can cause the most issues. The same goes for NVMe SSDs. They've come down in cost but builders will go with smaller name brands without research.
As a bonus, there's a simple and inexpensive fix to increase system performance while saving unnecessary wear-and-tear on your NVMe. Simply add a cached 128GB SATA SSD and use it exclusively for the Windows Page File system. Now PF has its individual pipeline to use without compromising the primary drive. Here are parts our clients commonly use:
PNY CS2140 2TB M.2 NVMe Gen4 x4 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - M280CS2140-2TB-RB
Seventh on list is power supply unit or PSU. Like RAM, more is better. But you best do research. Generally we have clients go with at least a 600W PSU, with these two being the most common:
And there you have it! Please let us know if you have any questions.
MaxProAndU Team