Building the wife a computer, our 3rd Ryzen CPU coming

So, my wife has decided that it's time to replace her Samsung Series 7 Ultrabook from about 2013. It's served us well, but it's a Core i5-3337U dual core @ 1.8Ghz, with 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, running Windows 8.1 (it's been solid, so I never upgraded it).

Anyway, she wanted to start playing some Call of Duty with me and some of our friends, so she was considering doing a desktop build rather than a laptop. Her current laptop works, she has an iPad Pro and a Smart Phone....so a laptop isn't a requirement.

Obviously, she is not a hard core gamer, so a lower end video card will suffice...IF I CAN FIND ONE. I got lucky today and won a drawing on an EVGA RTX 3060 12GB XC Gaming.....so it's time to get to ordering parts to build.

This is what I am building her. Coming out to about $1,650

• AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
• Asus TUF Gaming X-570 Pro
• 16GB Crucial Ballistix DDR4-3600 RAM
• 1TB WD Black SN750 NVMe
• Seasonic GX-750 fully modular power supply
• AOC CQ27G 27" 144Hz curved monitor
• EVGA Nvidia RTX 3060 XC Gaming
• Fractal Meshify S2 in black with tinted tempered glass

As you can see, we are very happy AMD Ryzen campers in my household. My son rocks a Ryzen 5-3800X, I have a Ryzen 9-5900X and the wife is going to have a Ryzen 5-5600X.

pparks1 said:

So, my wife has decided that it's time to replace her Samsung Series 7 Ultrabook from about 2013. It's served us well, but it's a Core i5-3337U dual core @ 1.8Ghz, with 4GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, running Windows 8.1 (it's been solid, so I never upgraded it).

Anyway, she wanted to start playing some Call of Duty with me and some of our friends, so she was considering doing a desktop build rather than a laptop. Her current laptop works, she has an iPad Pro and a Smart Phone....so a laptop isn't a requirement.

Obviously, she is not a hard core gamer, so a lower end video card will suffice...IF I CAN FIND ONE. I got lucky today and won a drawing on an EVGA RTX 3060 12GB XC Gaming.....so it's time to get to ordering parts to build.

This is what I am building her. Coming out to about $1,650

• AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
• Asus TUF Gaming X-570 Pro
• 16GB Crucial Ballistix DDR4-3600 RAM
• 1TB WD Black SN750 NVMe
• Seasonic GX-750 fully modular power supply
• AOC CQ27G 27" 144Hz curved monitor
• EVGA Nvidia RTX 3060 XC Gaming
• Fractal Meshify S2 in black with tinted tempered glass

As you can see, we are very happy AMD Ryzen campers in my household. My son rocks a Ryzen 5-3800X, I have a Ryzen 9-5900X and the wife is going to have a Ryzen 5-5600X.

Hi there
How do you get on with those curved monitors -- I think I'd probably get a bit distracted -- what are they like for "Edge distortion" if not sitting dead square in front of the screen. When not gaming what are they like for "Standard Movie and TV watching and / or using apps like photoshop and above all what about "Officy things" like email, zoom, spreadsheets etc.

Cheers
jimbo

Jimbo,

It's interesting that you ask? I've actually never owned a curved monitor before. This is going to be a new experience for us. We decided on this build to give it a shot. I'll let you now what I think once I get some time to use it. The monitor will be here soon and I can test it with my computer before I get hers fully built.

Yeah, have seen all of fractal options. My rig is in a meshify s2 in white. For $109 at Microcenter, it's been an awesome case. I'm more interested in airflow over soundproofing and my rig is nearly silent in the Meshify s2. Would have gone the compact route but microcenter didn't have them and honestly it's about 4 inches shorter front to back, which isn't a deal breaker.

The io panel being in the chassis is nice on the meshify2, but honestly I'm not taking off my front panel ever, and the wife will have a single m2 drive with maybe a second m2 down the road. So, I dont need the ability to run a ton of hard drives like the meshify 2 offers.

I like your choice of components! Your Wife's rig should be very fast with an easy upgrade path if desired in the future. I recently watched a review on the case you are going with. I personally like the style they offer. Looking forward to seeing the finished system!

Yeah, we got the case unpacked last night and she installed her power supply. This is her first build, and I'm making her do the work to learn her way around.


Just waiting for the unicorn to arrive today (video card), and the motherboard will be here tomorrow. So, box should be running later this week.

Got the box built last night. Wife did all of the work. She got everything plugged in, including the front panel connectors all correct on the first attempt.

Had a few problems with some DRAM timings preventing the box from booting, but a BIOS update fixed that issue.

Looks great! Components look like they belong together and adds to the clean look. Very nice!