Build ideas for around $900?

I’m on board with my friend's build; we're looking at about $1,300 this time around. Here’s what I’ve put together

ASRock AB350 Pro4 motherboard, AM4 socket
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 BOX
1TB Seagate Barracuda 550W HDD
550W Corsair CX Series modular CX550M
16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-19200U 2400MHz CL15 G.Skill Flare X
Inno3D GTX1070 8G Twin X2 V3, 8GB GDDR5
Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD

Total $2988

Yeah, he still needs a case—he already decided on that shiny Versa C22... 😵 Aesthetics matter a lot to him, which is why I'm mainly questioning the motherboard choice.
I know Giga gaming is usually a solid buy, but since this one is black and white, it would fit the whole look of the rig perfectly, so that's why I picked it.
It shouldn't be much worse than a Giga build, right?

The rest seems fine, I guess. I know the GTX 1080 is priced pretty close to this, making the 1070 feel like a bit of a bad deal, but it just seems like the only way to stay within budget. Any suggestions are welcome. 🙂

Honestly, you're better off checking out Newegg to get a real sense of the market.
Scour the web to find where the components are actually hitting those lowest price points.
And whatever you do, stay far away from Inno for a GPU; they're just not a reliable manufacturer in my book.
You’d be much safer sticking with a tried-and-true brand, like Gigabyte for instance.
I’m not sure how much of a rush your friend is in, but honestly, GPU prices should dip in a few months, so if he’s looking to save some serious cash, he might want to just sit tight and wait.

Procurement? Never heard of it. 😬 That stuff about Inno is just nonsense, I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole. $100 I'd go with MSI just because their warranty is better, but whatever. Around here, things are even $100 worse... since my 1080 is already right there, it’s just pointless.

Yeah, a tight budget for sure 😬 ... featuring a GTX 1080:

WD Blue 1TB SATA
AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Samsung 250GB 850 EVO
ASRock AB350M Pro4
Fractal Focus G, black with window, no PSU
Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! Edition
edition Fortron Hexa 85 550W, 80+ Bronze, ATX
G. Skill Aegis 8GB DDR4 3000Mhz

9 $187 - uziShop

I guess we can swap in the case you actually want 😛

https://www.google.com/search?q=thermaltake+c22

I agree, you don't have to buy everything from a single retailer. 😍 If he wants a modular power supply, he definitely should go for it. Last time I built a rig for someone, I threw in a Raider and honestly regretted it; I really should have stretched the budget to get a CX550M or at least a Hypera m so there wouldn't be a mess of cables inside the case.
And it turns out now he's looking for a "motherboard that glows." 🙂
Is there anything decent in that price range that actually looks okay and has a few damn LEDs?
He could even run a GTX 1070 in there. Let's just grab a modular PSU and a "motherboard that glows," because he isn't some hardcore enthusiast gamer. He just wants a solid PC, doesn't sweat the tiny details, and practically doesn't even know the difference between FHD and 4K. 🤣

Stay away from that AMD build.
In two years, you won't be able to run any decent games because the processor will be a total bottleneck.
It’s smarter to grab an Intel i7 now and pair it with a weaker graphics card, then just upgrade the GPU in a year or so...
These budget AMD setups are basically short-term gaming solutions.

I usually tell people that the CPU is the most critical component for gaming, but they rarely listen... Graphics cards come out constantly, and processors do too, but the CPU is the foundation everything else depends on. You can swap a GPU easily, but the processor isn't that simple...

A friend of mine picked up an i5 a while back, and now he’s looking at replacing his entire rig because he wants dual 1080ti cards for UHD performance.
He wouldn't listen to me; instead of getting a better processor and a 970, he opted for a weaker CPU and a 980 card.
Now, that decision to save a few hundred bucks is going to cost him several thousand.

Jacob Watson63 said:Stay away from that AMD build
In two years, you won't be able to run games because of the processor.
Better to go with an Intel i7 now and a weaker GPU, then just upgrade the card in a year...
These cheap AMD setups are only meant for short-term gaming.

I usually tell people that the CPU is the most important part for gaming, but nobody listens... GPUs come out constantly and processors do too, but the CPU is the foundation everything else relies on. You can swap a graphics card easily, but a CPU isn't that simple...

A buddy of mine grabbed an i5 a while back, and now he’s looking at replacing his entire rig because he wants dual 1080ti cards for UHD
He wouldn't listen to me, so instead of getting a better processor and a 970, he bought a weaker CPU and a 980 card
Now that little difference is going to cost him thousands later on.

You're talking nonsense. If you're actually trying to future-proof a build, you do it with a Ryzen. Anyone who knows even a little bit about hardware will tell you the current Ryzen lineup absolutely crushed Intel's Kaby Lake lineup. 6 cores, 12 threads—hello? 😵 Why do you think the upcoming Coffee Lake chips are shifting toward i3s being quads and i5s being hexas?

Anyway, I don't want this turning into another endless AMDvs Intel debate; anyone reasonable should reach the same conclusion. I ended up putting something like this together here in the States:

AMD Ryzen 5 1600
MSI B350 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT Red 8GB DDR4-2400 UDIMM
Samsung 250GB 850 EVO
WD Blue 1TB SATA
Corsair CX650M Watt Modular (2015 edition Fortron)
Zotac GTX 1080 AMP! edition sa 3

With a 3% discount, it comes out to $3029

I went with this motherboard because it fits the case perfectly and has some cool LEDs. I'm not 100% sure about the power supply; I know Corsair released the CX modular series again and it's pretty solid, but I need to check if this is the specific 2015 edition Fortron. Everything else seems fine—there's no point in dumping money into 16 GB of RAM right away if it means getting a worse GPU.

Is that everything?

Everything looks fine, but you might want to try bumping the memory up to 2666MHz and setting the processor to 3.7GHz using the stock cooler. It’ll probably help you get more out of the graphics card.

Hmm, should I bump up the voltage? Would that be necessary to stretch it for the 1600x then?

I don't think you'll need to mess with the voltage for 3.7ghz. Honestly, the 1600X is kind of a dud anyway, plus you're gonna have to go out and grab a separate cooler regardless.

fadedorca66 said:You shouldn't need to mess with voltage for 3.7ghz. The 1600X is garbage anyway + you'll have to buy a separate cooler

Look, I know it's garbage, but it's my rig. If it were mine, I'd just force it up via BCLK and call it a day, but I don't know... 🤷 Why am I forced to buy a separate cooler for the 1600X? And yeah, is this specific Corsair model actually a good one?

The Jer 1600X doesn't include a cooler, just like all the other -X processors. The power supply seems fine, I guess.

Adam Moore3 said:Look, I get it’s basically the same crap, but if it were my rig, I’d probably just force it through BCLK and call it a day. But honestly, I don't know. 🤷 Why am I stuck buying a separate cooler for the 1600X? Also, is this Corsair model actually any good?

You don't even need to force an overclock on the non-X models; they're all unlocked. It's just that the 1600X has XFR, which is some kind of auto-overclocking thing AMD does that doesn't really matter to anyone.

That Cors is perfectly fine

Wow, I completely lost track of the OC scheme with these new generations. Alright then, I think we've got the whole thing sorted out. Thanks everyone 🙂