Budget Gaming Rig - First build in over 20 yrs

chemerik

I'm going for a basic gaming PC in the next 2-3 months that will also get used for other low-demand tasks. Gaming at 1080, mostly RPG and strategy games, including online play of tabletop RPG games and retro gaming, not expecting to play AAA titles. I want something that will last and be power efficient. I've never owned a PC designed for gaming before - this is a treat for myself. Also, I prefer little or no RGB - a few tasteful lights is fine I just don't want unicorn vomit. Some items I plan to look at in-store before deciding on what I really buy. GPU - I'll see what current prices are when I show up, I'm looking at an RX 6600/6600 XT or RTX 3060 card. Case - I'm looking at ATX cases around $100 (up to ~$120 for case+extra fans). Keyboard/Mouse - I've never owned a gaming keyboard or mouse and I'm looking for something that will improve the game experience at reasonable cost. The deskpad is because my wife will love the design and for the price it's worth trying out. I'll be adding a gaming monitor, but depending on budget at the time may be living with a 15" 60Hz monitor or 24" HDTV for the short term.

Being so long since I've built a PC (rather than just an upgrade or part replacement), I'd love an compatibility issues pointed out along with any place the items I've picked out don't match my goals for the system. Any cases, keyboards, or mice of similar price I should be sure to look at is also appreciated. Sorry for the format below, the system won't let me post a link yet.

CPU

AMD Ryxen 5 5600

$179.99

Motherboard

ASUS - B550-PLUS TUF Gaming WiFi II AMD AM4 ATX

$184.99

RAM

G.Skill - Ripjaws V 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 PC4-25600 CL16 Kit Black

$66.99

Case

Cool Master NR600 MasterBox Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower - Black

$99.99

Power Supply

MSI - MPG A750GF 750 Watt 80 Plus Gold ATX Full Modular

99.99

Video Card

PowerColor - AMD Radeon RX 6600 Fighter Dual-Fan

$369.99

M.2 / NVMe SSD

Inland - Performance 1TB 3D TLC NAND PCIe Gen4x4 NVMe M.2

$104.99

Keyboard

Redragon - Devarjas K556 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - Brown

$39.99

MSI - Clutch GM11 Gaming Mouse

$24.99

Mouse Pads

Accessory Power - Enhance Extended Large Mouse Pad - XL

$21.99

Case Fans

Arctic Cooling - P14 Fluid Dynamic Bearing 140mm

$9.99

magarity

I'm curious what your plan is for the 140mm fan. That case says it comes with a pair of 120mm, one each front and back. It fits 3 120mm or 2 140mm in front. Since it appears you want to use the cooler that comes with the 5600x then I would get 2 more 120mm so all three front spaces are blowing inward.

Do you live near a microcenter? For the keyboard and mouse you really ought to go by in person and poke at the display models before making a final decision. Otherwise there arent any problems with your list at all.

JZhu17

I'm assuming you're just sticking with the wraith cooler since you didn't list any? I think it's fine but getting a decent air cooler isn't too much more. I also would go with a different case for better thermals. A suggestion would be the Lian Li Lancool ii Mesh Performance.

Also what they said. Try out some mice and keyboards before buying them. I don't really tell anyone to buy some budget gaming mouse and keyboard. Mice yes when some nice $60 one goes on sale for $30. But keyboards can crap out on you so I advise putting some research into some.

chemerik

I'm planning on the stock cooler.

megarity - the 140mm fan was because I was looking at different fans and other cases used 140mm and I forgot to change to 120mm. As I'm looking at thermal reviews and case+fan costs, I actually think I'll just get a case that comes with 3 fans.

JZhu17 - The case you recommend is currently $135, is there any benefit over the $110 Lian Li Lancool 205 Mesh? I know it's not a big price jump, but enough I at least want to know I'm getting something for the extra $25.

And I do live near a Microcenter (it's a 20 minute drive so not a frequent trip but I'm planning to buy my parts in person). I will be checking out keyboards and mice in person. From quick research, it looked like keyboards that go on sale for $40-50 were often good enough to be better than an office keyboard and enough that if I wasn't really happy with it long-term, I'd at least know what I wanted from a more expensive solution.

JZhu17

Yeah 205 is fine. II has marginally lower temperatures but honestly save the money.

TAPEthan

chemerik, my suggestions are:

1. get a cheaper b450 motherboard(184 for a b550 motherboard is exorbitant, that is like above x570 motherboard prices). My recommendation is the GIGABYTE B450 motherboard for $78, it is also compatible with Ryzen 5000 series and will have no problem containing the Ryzen 5 5600.
2. Recommend the RTX 3060, it right now(at least the single fan phoenix v2 model) sells for like $390 online. It has the really valuable DLSS features for gaming, although if you want slightly better pure performance the RX 6600 XT is not bad for like $420, just that I think the current price point of the RTX 3060 makes it very appealing as it slots between a RX 6600 and 6600 XT in price and performance, but it does pack the DLSS features.
3. Honestly, I see the tempered glass version of the 205M Lian Li as a better option, as it is only $59.99 right now, however if you do want some lower temperatures, you can still go with your mesh version of it. However, I do think that the temperatures of the tempered glass version will be perfectly fine.
4. Hope these suggestions helped you!