First time building a pc, what do you guys think?

ueatgoodfood said:

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx?load=5fc48f33-be8d-4b87-b319-afa2a0f45fa7

I also am not sure how to build it myself. For a first timer, should I try to build it myself or just pay somebody to do it for me?

Welcome to the forum. Most of the components look great, however I noticed you have both an air cooler and liquid cooler selected. The included air cooler with the Ryzen 5 3600 will outperform the air cooler you selected and would save you money. The liquid cooler will definitely out perform the air cooler, but won't really give you much of a performance boost, mostly just lower temperature and acoustics with the added RGB aesthetics.

I also noticed you have both a 2.5 inch 500GB SSD and 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD paired with a 2TB HDD. While I am one that believes you can never have too much SSD space, I wanted to make sure this was intended and not an oversight.

I see you included a capture card as well. Do you plan to capture video from external sources (game consoles, secondary PC, etc)? If you are simply gaming and streaming from just your PC with no intent to capture from another source, this capture card might not do much for you as your GPU and CPU can already perform the required encoding to stream your content. 

As for whether or not you should perform the build or pay someone to build it, that will depend entirely on your comfort level. PC building has gotten much easier and is definitely a fun hobby to get into. If you have patience and take time to prep, I think you'll do just fine. We can also help here on the forum if you run into any roadblocks and have any questions. That being said, we do offer build services in-store: https://www.microcenter.com/site/service/instore-service-complete-build.aspx. 

I wish you the best of luck with your build, and I hope you enjoy your entry into the world of custom gaming PC's.

ueatgoodfood said:

TSMichaelB said:

ueatgoodfood said:

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx?load=5fc48f33-be8d-4b87-b319-afa2a0f45fa7

I also am not sure how to build it myself. For a first timer, should I try to build it myself or just pay somebody to do it for me?

Welcome to the forum. Most of the components look great, however I noticed you have both an air cooler and liquid cooler selected. The included air cooler with the Ryzen 5 3600 will outperform the air cooler you selected and would save you money. The liquid cooler will definitely out perform the air cooler, but won't really give you much of a performance boost, mostly just lower temperature and acoustics with the added RGB aesthetics.

I also noticed you have both a 2.5 inch 500GB SSD and 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD paired with a 2TB HDD. While I am one that believes you can never have too much SSD space, I wanted to make sure this was intended and not an oversight.

I see you included a capture card as well. Do you plan to capture video from external sources (game consoles, secondary PC, etc)? If you are simply gaming and streaming from just your PC with no intent to capture from another source, this capture card might not do much for you as your GPU and CPU can already perform the required encoding to stream your content. 

As for whether or not you should perform the build or pay someone to build it, that will depend entirely on your comfort level. PC building has gotten much easier and is definitely a fun hobby to get into. If you have patience and take time to prep, I think you'll do just fine. We can also help here on the forum if you run into any roadblocks and have any questions. That being said, we do offer build services in-store: https://www.microcenter.com/site/service/instore-service-complete-build.aspx. 

I wish you the best of luck with your build, and I hope you enjoy your entry into the world of custom gaming PC's.

Hello.

I wasn't aware of the Ryzen 3600 coming with an aircooler. So then should I remove the liquid cooler in addition to the extra air cooler I selected?

Also, I'm not too sure about the SSD. I may have accidentally selected 2 with different sized memories. Is only 1TB needed? That's the part that confuses me the most.

I actually plan to require console play so that is why I plan to get a graphics card. I'm mostly getting the pc to stream some retro console games actually.

I think the included cooler for the Ryzen 3600 will do just fine for your needs. As for the SSD, I'd personally just use the 1TB model and if you need extra storage, pair it with the 2TB HDD. It sounds like the capture card will do just fine for capturing the input of your retro consoles, assuming you have the means to connect them via HDMI.

Overall, these tweaks should save you a fair bit of cash, so you can put that into faster components if you feel the need to do so, or simply invest that money elsewhere.

ueatgoodfood said:

TSMichaelB said:

ueatgoodfood said:

TSMichaelB said:

ueatgoodfood said:

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx?load=5fc48f33-be8d-4b87-b319-afa2a0f45fa7

I also am not sure how to build it myself. For a first timer, should I try to build it myself or just pay somebody to do it for me?

Welcome to the forum. Most of the components look great, however I noticed you have both an air cooler and liquid cooler selected. The included air cooler with the Ryzen 5 3600 will outperform the air cooler you selected and would save you money. The liquid cooler will definitely out perform the air cooler, but won't really give you much of a performance boost, mostly just lower temperature and acoustics with the added RGB aesthetics.

I also noticed you have both a 2.5 inch 500GB SSD and 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD paired with a 2TB HDD. While I am one that believes you can never have too much SSD space, I wanted to make sure this was intended and not an oversight.

I see you included a capture card as well. Do you plan to capture video from external sources (game consoles, secondary PC, etc)? If you are simply gaming and streaming from just your PC with no intent to capture from another source, this capture card might not do much for you as your GPU and CPU can already perform the required encoding to stream your content. 

As for whether or not you should perform the build or pay someone to build it, that will depend entirely on your comfort level. PC building has gotten much easier and is definitely a fun hobby to get into. If you have patience and take time to prep, I think you'll do just fine. We can also help here on the forum if you run into any roadblocks and have any questions. That being said, we do offer build services in-store: https://www.microcenter.com/site/service/instore-service-complete-build.aspx. 

I wish you the best of luck with your build, and I hope you enjoy your entry into the world of custom gaming PC's.

Hello.

I wasn't aware of the Ryzen 3600 coming with an aircooler. So then should I remove the liquid cooler in addition to the extra air cooler I selected?

Also, I'm not too sure about the SSD. I may have accidentally selected 2 with different sized memories. Is only 1TB needed? That's the part that confuses me the most.

I actually plan to require console play so that is why I plan to get a graphics card. I'm mostly getting the pc to stream some retro console games actually.

I think the included cooler for the Ryzen 3600 will do just fine for your needs. As for the SSD, I'd personally just use the 1TB model and if you need extra storage, pair it with the 2TB HDD. It sounds like the capture card will do just fine for capturing the input of your retro consoles, assuming you have the means to connect them via HDMI.

Overall, these tweaks should save you a fair bit of cash, so you can put that into faster components if you feel the need to do so, or simply invest that money elsewhere.

Can you explain what HDD and SSD are? Do I really need both the SSD or should 1 be just fine?

SSDs are solid state drives, HDDs are hard drives. SSDs are storage like hard drives, but because they operate with flash-based memory instead of a mechanical component, they are MUCH faster than hard drives. We always recommend using an SSD because your computer will boot faster and programs will open faster. All around it'll just have your computer running much quicker and smoother than with a hard drive. 

We actually have a guide on SSDs and hard drives you can read through here, if you want some more information:

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/2969/how-to-choose-your-parts-part-6-ssds-and-hard-drives

ueatgoodfood said:

Thanks guy! My last question would be on how do I know if my computer can handle certain games? I plan to plan Fortnite, GTA V and Valorant for the most part

So in your case, the build you originally listed will definitely be able to handle those games. Fortnite and Valorant are pretty light on graphics requirements, and GTA V is a little older so hardware has had time to progress since its release. Fortnite and Valorant both you should easily get 1080p/144FPS performance, GTA V I'm not exactly sure what kind of FPS to expect but you should definitely be able to run 1080p/60FPS+ at high settings. 

You can always look up the recommended system specs for the games you plan to play, and if your computer matches or exceeds that, you can expect to reliably hit 1080p/60FPS+ at good settings. You can also look up benchmarks and tests in the games you're playing.

As long as you have a second video output you should be able to do two monitors as a minimum. Beyond two monitors is where it gets a bit more complex, with requirements for certain types of ports on the integrated controllers. Dual monitors is rarely a problem.

ueatgoodfood said:

Thank you so much guys! I hope to purchase all this equipment by the end of this week. Unfortunately, the graphics card isn't available anymore on the Microcenter website

We have a number of different 2060 Supers we carry, of course availability will depend on your local store. However, we try to restock them frequently so keep an eye on the website for what's in stock.