Budget gaming rig: yay or nay?

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
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I bought a MSI Gaming laptop a couple of years ago its been now, and it runs the game just fine, upgrading memory is a piece of cake, it has a 1TB nvme2 drive and theres a bay also for another, or an ssd depending on what you perfer…

As long as you sit it on a hard surface (desk table top) it doesnt even get hot.

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Reading through the Notebook Check review, there are a couple of points on this model that I would definitely direct you to:

  • They mention that the built in monitors color correction is not too great and if you are doing photo editing, you should connect to a properly calibrated external monitor.
  • The upgrade of RAM appears to be a simple process, but I would definitely say if you are buying this, you should budget for a new 32 GB RAM kit and a 2 TB M.2 SSD.
  • The gaming performance appears to be fairly decent at 1080P with their unit getting just above 80 FPS on high settings in XPlane 11.11. I would assume that this would translate to around 30 FPS in MSFS 2020 but am not positive.

Can’t really say I’ve used this system layout or specs, but I’ve been using DaVinci Resolve for performing some drone video editing and having a good dGPU and RAM definitely helps with being able to scrub the video timeline.

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I greatly appreciate all the input as I get up to speed on current components. I’m now back to looking at desktops, not laptops. According to Tom‘s hardware CPU hierarchy chart, it looks like the AMD Ryzen 5 has the best performance/value nexus, outperforming Intel i9 10th gen and i7 11th gen. I did read Windows 11 was having some performance issues with the Ryzen chip. Have the new patches resolved this, or any reason to stay away from ADM? Also looking into GTX 3070ti based on Tom’s GPU hierarchy chart. Now venturing a little above budget build to the low $2000 range.

CPU chart

GPU chart

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Pre built list and build your own list:

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Great !
Just a few minor corrections…
Switch the ram From DDR4 3200mhz from DDR4 3600mhz Ryzen Chips perform best at that frequency with a cas timing of 16-19-19 or below.

The Case is a showpiece case and is usually ok and recommended … But it appears your cooling is on Air and that case is most appropriate for Water cooling. If sticking with Lian LI then Lan Cool II Performance Black (I use this case and heartily recommend it) . Or the Corsair 4000D airflow

Windows Home ?? can we do Windows Pro ? (This is a personal pet peeve of mine lol) If home works for you then don’t mind me lol… im just not a fan of purposely hobbled Operating systems

Apart from the Memory speed recommendation and the Case being ever so slightly overkill this should be a very nice build that should get you where you want to be. The only other thing i would have liked to have seen on the motherboard would have been Wifi 6 but also that is a personal preference since i no longer use network cables… which is why i went with the Strix Gaming F Wifi.

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Thanks! I was kind of grabbing blindly on the case, and power supply and whatnot. On the Windows website the only difference I saw between home and pro was encryption features? One benefit of the AMD is it supposedly handles video editing better, which I may be doing some of on this build.

(EDIT: updated the build list. LMK what you think)

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Your all set with this Build !

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Thanks! I even changed up the power supply and cooling fan just now. One last thing: between the case I chose and the Corsair 4000D, any thoughts on which might have better airflow?

https://www.newegg.com/white-corsair-4000d-airflow-atx-mid-tower/p/N82E16811139157?Description=Corsair%204000D%20airflow&cm_re=Corsair_4000D%20airflow-_-11-139-157-_-Product&quicklink=true

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811129268?Item=9SIA0ZXC2S0778

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Note Antec has not been mentioned anywhere… They have fallen off the scene a bit.
The best cases nowadays are from Lian Li, Phanteks, Fractal and Corsair, Special Mention to BeQuiet if you like cases with sound dampening.

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Awesome. Changed my case to the Be Quiet! Pure Base 500DX.

Now I have a cooler option: fan or liquid. I have selected this Be Quiet CPU fan, after discount is $40.00

I have the option of buying a bundle with my Asus motherboard with this liquid cooler, which makes the cooler about $56.00 after the discount and a mail in rebate. With that case and my build, should I go for the liquid cooler or save a little money and stick with the fan cooler?

I’m buying all this today. Thanks so much!

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Bought it all. Found the CPU new on ebay for $30 cheaper, everything else from newegg. Ditched the CPU fan cooler and got the liquid cooler/mobo combo. Thanks so much, this was immensely helpful. I’ll visit back here once its built and give you a field report!

And of course when I get MS2020 running. May need to do some performance/settings tweaks