Gaming build advice

[kaychamo]

Hello,
I would like to make a new build for gaming and am looking for your advices. It's been 6 years I didn't touch a lot on mine

What I aim :
- silent
- efficient on budget
- max fps with low/medium graphics: I like to play 2560x1440 100hz on a samsung g5 34" (that screen does a lot of "coil whine" noise over that )
- case able to fit a 3 fans gpu (for later)

What I already have :
- gpu: asus rtx 4060 => my budget gaming card, enough for my needs
- ram: Corsair vengeance lpx CMK32GX4M2E3200C16 (2x16Go DDR4 3200 PC25600)

What I am not sure :
- May I go to a m-atx mb and save 50€ ?
- Should I use this ram I already have or is it too much perf gone/compatibility issue ?
- I am open to OC, but not fine with the last years new acronyms
- Any suggestion about better choice of hardware ? (link below)

I came to these setup after some research (country=france):

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor (€215.06 @ Amazon France)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler (€42.90 @ Amazon France)
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B650 EAGLE ATX AM5 Motherboard (€153.19 @ TopAchat)
Memory: *Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (€102.99 @ Amazon France)
Storage: Patriot P400 Lite 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€54.99 @ Amazon France)
Case: Fractal Design Pop Silent ATX Mid Tower Case (€91.09 @ Amazon France)
Power Supply: *Corsair RM850e (2023) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€109.90 @ Corsair)
Total: €770.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-12-29 16:54 CET+0100

Many thanks in advance!

Edit "full story":
My configuration was some weeks ago:
i5-7600K @4.5Ghz
8Go Ram
Asus 1650 Super

Then tried:
32Go Ram => small improvement
4060 => about stable @80fps (I'm OK playing on "low settings, full performance")

The game is path of exile 2 and is known to be cpu intensive, that's why I think I had to make that 100% increase CPU perf now. When I look at in-game debug graphes, I see that cpu as 10-20ms of reponse time, when gpu seems fine at 4ms.

 

[Chrispy_]

"Efficient on a budget" is to slap a 5700X3D in your existing AM4 system, I think.
The 4060 is the bottleneck for just about everything with a 5700X3D in there, and AM4 is still excellent for gaming if you use either the 5700X3D or 5800X3D.

If you want a new system as a foundation for a future GPU, put the rest of the money in a savings fund until you're ready to buy the new GPU because the answer is a 9800X3D-based PC and that isn't really available at realistic prices right now, and it's also completely wasted on a 4060. By the time you replace the 4060, the 9800X3D will likely be much easier to buy, cost much less, and there will likely be better motherboards and RAM you could buy in the future rather than paying for those now and have them sit around stuck behind a 4060.

If you can give us your budget and what you do (gaming only, work+gaming, gaming+video editing etc) that will help people answer you more clearly, I think.

What I am not sure :
- May I go to a m-atx mb and save 50€ ?
- Should I use this ram I already have or is it too much perf gone/compatibility issue ?
- I am open to OC, but not fine with the last years new acronyms
- Any suggestion about better choice of hardware ? (link below)

Micro ATX boards are fine, but the ones that are significantly cheaper than ATX boards tend to have cut-down M.2 lanes and worse VRMs for high-end CPUs. If you don't intend to put a powerful CPU in there and you aren't likely to use more than one or two SSDs, then it's not really a problem.

Your DDR4 will only work with AM4 motherboards. You cannot re-use it if you want to build an AM5 system

Don't OC, it's practically worthless these days. PBO+ is the AMD clock/voltage control and you're going to see best results by undervolting using Curve Optimiser in the BIOS. You will see some mild performance gain by raising the power budget (PPT) but at the cost of much more noise and higher temperatures. Most AM4 and AM5 CPUs respond well to undervolting at the same power budget, and in many cases you can see decent noise reductions for minimal performance loss by dropping the PPT by 15% or more in some cases.

Can you fill out your system specs so we know what we're working with? At the moment I'm making guesses on what your current system is, I'm assuming it's an AM4 2000 or 3000-series Ryzen.

 

[HD64G]

Not bad selection of parts there. I would go on and order it. Have fun with your upcoming new PC!

 

[Macro Device]

efficient on budget

There's nothing more budget efficient than reusing whatever you got with a DDR4 i5-12400F build. However, 12400F isn't the fastest CPU out here so you might go for 12700K/F (these are dirt cheap on second hand).

May I go to a m-atx mb and save 50€ ?

If you don't have a lot of expansion cards to connect then yes, it's a fine idea.

 

[nomdeplume]

"Efficient on a budget" is to slap a 5700X3D in your existing AM4 system, I think.

Then make timely purchases on better cooling and SSD that will carry over to next system.
Same applies to any 5800X3D that someone is upgrading beyond. Plus a new PSU if required.

 

[phanbuey]

these are good parts - easy upgrade once you're ready to do so.

 

[kaychamo]

Hey and thanks for your comments!

I have always lived with a low/mid-tier computer, so putting 900$ in a graphic card would be new to me. These days... I will have to adapt!

My configuration was some weeks ago:
i5-7600K @4.5Ghz
8Go Ram
Asus 1650 Super

Then tried:
32Go Ram => small improvement
4060 => about stable @80fps (I'm OK playing on "low settings, full performance")

The game is path of exile 2 and is known to be cpu intensive, that's why I think I had to make that 100% increase CPU perf now. When I look at in-game debug graphes, I see that cpu as 10-20ms of reponse time, when gpu seems fine at 4ms.

You can see that I would be buying a new case, PSU... so I can resell my old build (bios is setup, and hardware is in a pretty good state). It will also be a sweet gift to me, yayay new computer!

I may have made mistakes, and that's why i'm here today, getting better!

 

[Chrispy_]

Yeah, you need a new PC I think.

If you're on a tight budget then look for a used B450 or B550 motherboard on ebay and drop a cheap 5700X3D into it - that way you can use your new RAM and 4060 and that should be pretty balanced in terms of CPU and GPU performance.

You can buy a new AM4 motherboard too, but it's a one-off that will need throwing away or selling along with the 5700X3D and DDR4.

For PoE2, I'd strongly recommend an X3D chip of some kind. 7800X3D is very overpriced right now, and 9800X3D is almost unobtainable, which means a 5700X3D actually makes a lot more sense than it normally would. The recommendation right now is to NOT buy AM4 because it has very little future, but if you can pick up a decent motherboard for €75 and buy a 5700X3D for €225 then you have a cheap platform with free RAM that you already own!

However, a placeholder CPU in an AM5 build like the one you've put together in your first post is also very reasonable. I'd be tempted to get a 7700 (non-X) or even a 7700X if you can, simply because games are starting to use more than 6 cores and the original PoE was one of the first games that really needed more than 4 cores. I haven't tried PoE2 yet, but GGG sure know how to use threads, so I'd be willing to bet that they're targeting 8 cores because that's what both the XBox and PS5 use and they're developing for both consoles as well as PC. The rest of your list looks fine to me. I've built in a Fractal Design Pop once and it's not a case I will buy again, but it was okay for the money.

IMO, an 8-core placeholder CPU will be worth more than a 6-core in a couple of years time, so it should be easier to sell for a good price, and it will last you longer before games start to struggle on 6 cores - but whether it's worth the extra €80 right now depends on your budget and how long you intend to keep it for.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Going with AM4 will allow you to have a slightly better machine for now, but AM5 should be the prudent choice. You will be able to drop even a Zen 6 chip on that sometime. Are you able to acquire a 7600X3D somehow? Seems like that would fit your use case like a glove. But of course, no more than €250 or so for it. Otherwise I believe your initial proposal of a R5 7600X rig is the way to go. Micro ATX board can be used to reduce the cost, yes, but I am not sure if it is worth losing some of the expansion ports the full size motherboard affords. Your choice.

I do not recommend LGA 1700 for the same reason, dead end platform with limited upgrade potential, and not even mentioning the LGA 1851 platform as a viable option either because Core Ultra is performing terrible for games and since supply is so limited, the prices tend to be so much higher.

 

[Cvrk]

mmm. When you give advice usually solid arguments must be brought to the table. else, one is not relevant. so forgive me, will say only this.

ryzen excellent choice. 7k series is smoked. you are left with one option.
9700x. make your peace with it.

as for ram you said from 8 to 32gb was a small improvement. either your not playing the "right" games or are unable to tell the difference.
I went from 16 to 32 and it is a huge difference.
the way I see it in 2025, 32gb ddr4 is the minimum requirements

 

[Chrispy_]

ryzen excellent choice. 7k series is smoked. you are left with one option.
9700x. make your peace with it.

Smoked? It's basically the same (2% slower) but selling for lower prices:
7700X is €50 cheaper than 9700X in France, which is a great discount.

as for ram you said from 8 to 32gb was a small improvement. either your not playing the "right" games or are unable to tell the difference.
I went from 16 to 32 and it is a huge difference.
the way I see it in 2025, 32gb ddr4 is the minimum requirements

It shouldn't have made a difference, unless your original 16GB config was single-channel which sucks, and you moved to dual-channel kit. The speed improvement would have been because your single-channel config is a crime that severely holds back just about any CPU I can think of.

Games don't show any improvement at all by adding more RAM as long as you have enough RAM to run them, and even the latest, most demanding titles like Indiana Jones, Senua (Hellblade 2), or Alan Wake 2 run just fine on systems with 12GB RAM. Even the latest games have a relatively low RAM footprint because the engine has to run on PS5 and XBOX which means that the larger the game engine's RAM requirements, the less VRAM is available for the graphics engine. They have to share 16GB between both!

If you look at YouTube you'll see many many examples of the latest games cranked to maximum settings with afterburner running, and it shows you quite clearly that the total system RAM usage is rarely over 16GB, and that includes Windows, drivers, background software etc. Bring up task manager if you don't believe me - I bet a whole bunch of your favourite 2024 games run in under 8GB of RAM.

 

[kaychamo]

I felt like a lot of choice were OK, thanks to your explanations. Many thanks for your help, it was really precious!

I'm going for the 7700 (no-x) @290€, for the socket + 8 core + lower tdp
I made a few minor changes after reading some reviews

Some prices are better at alternate.fr shop (but pcpp seems buggy with it) so I should pay a bit less than this list :

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (€325.14 @ Amazon France)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler (€42.90 @ Amazon France)
Motherboard: ASRock B650M PG Lightning Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard (€149.25 @ Amazon France)
Memory: *Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (€102.99 @ Amazon France)
Storage: Patriot P400 Lite 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€54.99 @ Amazon France)
Case: be quiet! Pure Base 500 ATX Mid Tower Case (€89.02 @ Amazon France)
Power Supply: Corsair RM850e (2023) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€109.90 @ Corsair)
Case Fan: Noctua P14s redux-1200 PWM 64.92 CFM 140 mm Fan (€17.89 @ Amazon France)
Total: €892.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-12-30 11:08 CET+0100

 

[Chrispy_]

Looks great.

The Pure Base 500 is a decent case IMO, but you can do better from the same shop:
https://www.alternate.fr/be-quiet/Pure-Base-501-Airflow-boîtier-midi-tower/html/product/100074433
It's a similar style with the solid side panel you've already chosen twice, but it has better airflow, better included fans, and supports a USB-C header.
I would drop the 20-year-old Noctua Redux fan and put a very quiet 900rpm Shadow Wings 2 in the rear, take the included PW3 fan from the rear and pair it up with the included front one.

There's nothing wrong with the Noctua, it's a fan that will work but it's overpriced and it's just the cut down version of one of their 2003 models with none of the airflow/bearing/material advances Noctua have made in the last two decades. IMO, if you're not buying Noctua's LCP fans then you shouldn't buy Noctua fans at all.

 

[Waldorf]

@kaychamo
if you want corsair, get the RMx, not the e, not worth the little savings.

RMx 850

 

[arbiter]

@kaychamo
if you want corsair, get the RMx, not the e, not worth the little savings.

RMx 850

given the parts could just go with a lower wattage psu say around 650watt. as that system won't pull anywhere near that. Hell my build pulls only around 400-450watts under gaming load.

 

[Chrispy_]

given the parts could just go with a lower wattage psu say around 650watt. as that system won't pull anywhere near that. Hell my build pulls only around 400-450watts under gaming load.

Think his plan is to upgrade the GPU later, so 850 is headroom for potential 300W GPUs down the line.

 

[Waldorf]

@arbiter
usually aiming for wattage under load to match ~50% load, so i'd still go for 850w.

 

[arbiter]

@arbiter
usually aiming for wattage under load to match ~50% load, so i still go for 850w.

i know but a 4060 and 7600x is more likely gonna be closer to 300-350max. my 400-450 is a 4070 super and 13700k. didn't see anything said about changing gpu later on so ~50% load would be 650watt psu.

 

[AleXXX666]

Hey and thanks for your comments!

I have always lived with a low/mid-tier computer, so putting 900$ in a graphic card would be new to me. These days... I will have to adapt!

WHY one should adapt to greedy market policy? There are ALWAYS alternatives.
If you are OK with settings tinkering and do realize that during actual gamePLAY you wont notice even medium from high settings diff, and "ultra" could be a word for some peaceful game like SIMS or Slimerancher in ACTION games you do play, not WATCH, don't you?

"Efficient on a budget" is to slap a 5700X3D in your existing AM4 system, I think.
The 4060 is the bottleneck for just about everything with a 5700X3D in there, and AM4 is still excellent for gaming if you use either the 5700X3D or 5800X3D.

AM4 is already bottleneck even for 4060. (let me explain)
it isn't reasonable to get a cpu for upgrade THEN COOLER then MAYBE even psu, maybe it's better to go all-new?

 

[Why_Me]

https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005005916891390.html
AMD Ryzen 5 7500F €152,16

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler (€42.90 @ Amazon France)
Motherboard: *Gigabyte B650 EAGLE ATX AM5 Motherboard (€156.94 @ Amazon France)
Memory: *Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (€102.99 @ Amazon France)
Storage: Patriot P400 Lite 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€54.99 @ Amazon France)
Case: *Montech AIR 903 BASE ATX Mid Tower Case (€69.43 @ Amazon France)
Power Supply: *MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€102.00 @ Amazon France)
Total: €529.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-12-31 11:52 CET+0100

 

[Waldorf]

@AleXXX666
enough games where the difference is noticeable, and there is a big difference if i play on a 22 or 50in using same settings, even in shooters.
ever played something like Siege and know how long you sometimes "stand around", while defending?
unless we know OPs preference or even the games played (to know the impact on fps), not up to us to what visuals are acceptable.
ignoring i can always tinker with settings, independently from the gpu i use.

@Why_Me
not sure, but seen any tests on the pcu? i remember looking for someone else, and nothing i saw (that was more than 20E cheaper) had proper quality (vs the RMx).

 

[Why_Me]

@AleXXX666
enough games where the difference is noticeable, and there is a big difference if i play on a 22 or 50in using same settings, even in shooters.
ever played something like Siege and know how long you sometimes "stand around", while defending?
unless we know OPs preference or even the games played (to know the impact on fps), not up to us to what visuals are acceptable.
ignoring i can always tinker with settings, independently from the gpu i use.

@Why_Me
not sure, but seen any tests on the pcu? i remember looking for someone else, and nothing i saw (that was more than 20E cheaper) had proper quality (vs the RMx).

MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850W PSU Review - Page 11 of 11 - Hardware Busters

Hardware Busters - MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850W PSU Review - PSUs

hwbusters.com

 

[Chrispy_]

AM4 is already bottleneck even for 4060. (let me explain)
it isn't reasonable to get a cpu for upgrade THEN COOLER then MAYBE even psu, maybe it's better to go all-new?

5700X3D is on par with non-X3D AM5 for gaming for much less money, and he already had a brand new 32GB DDR4 kit going spare which is why I suggested a used board as a placeholder (read post #8).

Yeah, AM5 is better, but here was my logic:

​

€224 R7 5700X3D​

€75 B550 board from ebay​

€0 Existing DDR4 kit​

€299 Total​

​

€280 R7 7700​

€153 B650 board​

€103 DDR5 kit​

€536 Total​

​

In a couple of years time, that €237 of saved money can buy an AM5 board better than any current B650, and whatever DDR5 is optimal for Zen6 (it's ulikely to be DDR5-6000)

He's gaming, so X3D is the end goal and right now AM5 X3D isn't an option on the current budget, so both options are temporary placeholders, the difference is that one is a new platform now, and the other lets you hang onto a good chunk of cash for a while and buy a better new platform later. IMO neither are wrong options.