If you’re thinking of building a new rig or upgrading a current one, you’re in a good place.
Recently I made a video about my new desktop PC. I chose specific components perfect for me but also one that is good for everyone who wants to build more than average mid-tier desktop. This build is perfect for everyone, starting with gamers, streamers, content creators, otaku, and even as your work machine. What is important, is that this one can be easily pushed to offer you 60+ fps with 1080p and even 1440p [but not in every game and not on every top high settings].
There are a few things I would like to mention. This article is an extension to my video – “NZXT, MSI Unify, Ryzen 7 3700X, 1660Ti Build Perfect for Gamers and Creators” published on YouTube. I would like to focus on some aspects that I had no time to mention in a video and hope a lot of you will find them interesting. For example, I’m going to show you some other option you can choose for a lower price and for a higher one. But, what is more, important this is an article for everyone – which means no tech babbling and confusing phrase that you can find everywhere. I’m trying to make this from a point of view where anyone can find that information without reading extra lines with an explanation about every tiny component or feature in the graphic card, motherboard, or anything else. But still, I have to mention a few of them and would like to explain the most important one that plays a big role in making your decision – what to buy or what is best for me. I hope you understand that. Also, I have some benchmarks, performance tests, and a quick review.
I forgot about one important aspect of this article and video. I have a lot of IT experience and I’ve been working with computers for a long, long time. As a computer service technician and now I’m in the Design and Development industry. I’ve been working for the past 10 years with notebooks, mostly Mac OS but also with a desktop on Windows and Linux. But I build the last PC about 10-12 years ago. That was quite a long time ago. Since that time a lot of changed and I tried to catch up with the most important trends, changes, etc but the reality can be brutal. You may ask why? Because many new motherboards, graphics cards are available out there in a wild world, so people like me have a lot to catch up on if they want to build something useful. But luckily this isn’t rocket science and building PC in these times doesn’t look that complicated like it was years ago.
Ok so you’ve got some small intro, now we can move into the next part.
I wanted to build a PC that will be looking nice – in an esthetic way, it will be efficient, not extremely noisy, and performance will be enough to match basic needs from someone who wants to play games, create content, stream, and watch something or listen to music.
Sounds like mashup but we’re talking about desktop – you can always upgrade it!
Ahh if I talk about esthetic I mean it needs to be a good looking machine and not some freak. So it will use a nice body [for a future I’m working on some customization tutorials]. We get some LED – but not too much. This isn’t a Christmas Tree but in the future we will make it look better [but this is a topic for a different article and/or video]. We want to make sure this build will last for some time.
Also, remember that prices for every component change very quickly and they depend on various factors. E.g. the country you are in. I will provide average prices based on well know shops and Amazon. All prices in $ and £, plus with links to buy a product [of course these are affiliate links and I will get a small % from your purchase, I hope you don’t mind, but this is how I can support my work on website and YT].
If you’re not happy with some of my suggestions, remember that you can find many e-shops that run specific deals, just go and grab them.
This build features
Motherboard: MSI MEG x570 Unify
One of the best x570 from MSI
Chipset: X570 | Memory: 4x DDR4 up to 128GB | PCIe slots: 2x PCIe 4.0/ 3.0 x16, 1x PCIe 4.0/ 3.0 x16, 2x PCIe 4.0/ 3.0 x1 | USB port: 3x USB 3.2 Gen2, 4x USB 3.2 Gen1, 6x USB 2.0 | Storage: 4x SATA 6Gb/s, 3x M.2 | Network: 1x Realtek 2.5 Gbps Lan, Intel Wi-Fi 6gen 802,11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, Bluetooth 5.1 | Audio: 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
Good motherboard with one of the best VRM available from MSI. It may cost more but can help keep it cool. Also, this motherboard has WiFi and this is a new 6 generation. It is an important feature if you have no other way to connect your PC with a network. This motherboard offers very good performance and possibilities for future upgrades. There is plenty of USB options, M.2 for storage, and 7.1 Audio. But some of you may not like it because this motherboard is LED free. I know that everyone is divided in this category but this motherboard offers great performance and lack of LED shouldn’t be an issue.
Average price: $290/£270
Where to buy:
– View at ebuyer
– View at Scan
– View at Amazon
CPU: Ryzen 7 3700x with Wraith Prism
8cores, 16 threads full of power enough to get you most what you need and more. Plus nice RGB fan.
Cores: 8 | Threads: 16 | Base Clock: 3.6GHz | Turbo Clock: 4.4GHz | Overclocking: Yes | L3 Cache: 32MB | TDP: 65W | PCIe 4.0 lanes: 16
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x offers very good performance. This one is useful when you’re working with multitasking applications when you stream and work on your video. Also, this CPU is not behind when it comes to games. This one comes with a nice stock cooler: Wraith Prism and offers you some RGB. In my opinion, this is the best choice after Ryzen 5 3600. If you want to have a future proof build go for it. If you have a smaller budget, go with Ryzen 5 3600 and get MSI B450 [motherboard].
Average price: $320/£290
Where to buy:
– View at ebuyer
– View at Scan
– View at Amazon
GPU: MSI Geforce GTX 1660ti Gaming X edition 6GB
Not a bad graphic card.
GPU Cores: 1536 | Base Clock: 1500 MHz | Boost Clock: 1875 MHz | Memory: 6GB | Memory Speed: 12 Gbps | Memory Bus: 192 -bit
This GPU is powerful enough to be used with 1080p, 1440p, and 4K screens, personally I tested it with 1440p and 1080p connected simultaneously. GTX Ti offers one of the best performances from all available GTX 1660 and is close to RTX 2060. But why not to chose RTX2060? Because for that price this is enough and 2060 cost more and offer performance barely visible for most users. But if If you’re looking at a similar build and got a little bit more money, just get RTX2070 instead, than you’ll be set to go with more games and this results in higher FPS.
Average price: $299/£299
Where to buy:
– View at ebuyer
– View at Scan
– View at Amazon
Memory: Corsair Vengeance PRO 32GB RGB
3200 MHz, 32GB and RGB
Capacity: 2x16GB | Timings: 16-18-18-36 | Speed: 3200MHz | Voltage: 1.35v
If you’re looking to use your desktop for content creation, 3200Mhz will be enough, plus I choose RAM with CAS 16 that is perfect for builds with AMD Ryzen. Also, I went for 32GB, this sounds like a massive amount of ram but it is very useful for multitasking and applications that need a lot of RAM – video editing, some photo editing apps, streaming with multi-sources, etc. But if you want to use your new rig just for gaming, 16GB will be enough.
Average price: $160/£140
Where to buy:
– View at ebuyer
– View at Scan
– View at Amazon
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVMe M.2
Great performance, fast and reliable
Capacity: 1TB | Interface: PCIe 3.0 (x4) | Sequential Read/Write: 3400MB/s / 2500MB/s | Random Read/Write: 500k IOPS / 450k IOPS
The best choice you can make if you need a fast HDD. This one is reliable and perfect for any kind of work, even in a gaming rig where you need quick startup – and not only your machine but also games and apps.
If you need more space than that, because NVMe is pricy, get additional regular SSD if you can or good WD Black with 7200RPM. After that, you’re set with extra space.
Average price: $180/£160
Where to buy:
– View at ebuyer
– View at Scan
– View at Amazon
PSU: EVGA Supernova 750W G3
This one is designed to deliver supreme power
Output: 750W | Certification: 80 PLUS Gold | Connectors: 2 x 4+4-pin CPU +12V (EPS), 1 x 4-pin FDD Power, 4 x 4-pin Molex, 6 x 6+2-pin PCIe, 9 x SATA | Fans: 1 x 130mm | Modular: Full Modular
PSU is very important. This unit is responsible for getting all power to all of your hardware inside your PC. Remember one – don’t be extra cheap on it and choose what you need. But if you’re going to choose EVGA, you won’t be disappointed.
Why is my case 750W when I need less? Because it is important to have more than you need. If you plan to change GPU or add one more or connect some external peripherals, you need to be prepared for that. So anytime when you add something new, even some new fans with RGB have that in mind so you don’t need to replace everything. If you don’t need all of that power, no worries your desktop will take only what it’s needed.
Average price: $120/£100
Where to buy:
– View at ebuyer
– View at Scan
– View at Amazon
Case: NZXT H510i
Clean, great cable management and extra LED
Type: Mid Tower | Compatibility: ATX, MicroATX, Mini-ITX | Ports: 1x Headphone/Mic, 1x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1x USB 3.1 Type-C | Fans: 2x 120mm | Drive Bays: 2 x 2.5″ Internal, 1 x 2.5″/ 3.5″ Internal, 2 x 3.5″ Internal
The desktop case is your computer body, where we need to pack everything in. NZXT H510i is my choice, full of LED, with USB-C in front and a nice glass window so you can look at everything inside your case. Mentioned RGB light will highlight your hardware, and if you add to this Ram with RGB and CPU Cooler then this isn’t that bad setup.
Average price: $99/£99
Where to buy:
– View at ebuyer
– View at Scan
– View at Amazon
I mentioned all of the components this build uses, all of them work perfectly and offer smooth work. When I start testing this machine with applications like Adobe Photoshop, After Effect and tried to record gameplay from my PlayStation 4 with Elgato HD 60s. I was very impressed with the results. There was completely no issues. But if you add some benchmarks and get to see results, you’ll be surprised.
But what about games you can ask me? No worries, I played a few games that are perfect for everyone. But because I’m Otaku first I had to test something in my category.
I tried games like
Pokemon Trading Card Game Online – no issues but what you can expect from a game that can run at max of 60 FPS. But for example Magic the Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh can run with more FPS so isn’t locked.
Monster Hunter World – I tested this one on High settings. The game works really well. But you can find some locations where you could benefit from extra FPS. Average one I had was about 56 FPS on High settings.
Total War: Shogun 2 – max settings and as a result of that I had 141 FPS average score. And that wasn’t difficult to push it over that. But that was a pleasure to play this game with.
Borderlands 3 – on high settings average 79 FPS. I even tried higher settings and gameplay was smooth without any issues. But I need to spend more time to get better results from different settings.
Of course, that’s not everything. I played games like Valkyria Chronicles, Ori, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Bastion, and many others.
In overall I had very good results. So this build was a big success and I can easily refer it to everyone who’s looking for a work station or gaming station.
All tests were made without any overclocking. No change to CPU, GPU, or even Ram. Everything at stock values.
I played all of that on a 144MHz monitor and 32 inches, but this is a topic for a different article and video [very soon].
If you have any questions related to my build or you need help to build a budget desktop or something better, please let me know. I’m more than happy to help you. Ask a question I a comment section or under my video.
Check my full video with hardware showcase, build in time-lapse, and review on YouTube:
