This is the second in what will (I promise) become a monthly series of New Parts PC Builds.  If your new to CountBeanz and Beanz on Tech then we produce monthly New and Used part PC Builds, weekly guides to emulating retro games and other tech reviews for stuff we buy.

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This $500 build is centred on what is arguably the best bang for buck processor of 2020 - the Ryzen 3 3100.  With 4 cores, 8 threads and a boost of up to 3.9 GHz it's perfect for entry level PC gaming.  Even though AMD are expected to release Desktop Zen 3 late in 2020 it's unlikely they will release their full stack of products - so it's likely this will remain the best entry level AMD processor through to mid 2021.

 

Whilst sticking within budget our parts choices have been focused on performance today, but with upgrade potential.  The MSI B450m Pro-M2 Max is Zen 2 compatible out of the box and AMD have assured us that B450 will be able to support Zen 3 (although BIOS updates are always a bit nerve racking for me....).  This is an entry level board but should see you fine for a 3600 or Zen 3 equivalent moving forward.  

 

The Case, PSU and Memory should all allow for upgrades without changing - and are the most keenly priced on the market at the date of this build.  If you cant find these, or at this price,  then look to budget about US$120 - 130 dollars for all three and that should keep you straight - with 16GB of RAM @ 3200 and a 400W 80+ rated PSU a minimum spec.

 

Cases in particular are emotive purchases, at under US$30 with 3 RGB fans (albeit not PWM) included this is great value and provides a little bling - but it might not be to everyone's taste!  It is compact even for a micro ATX and plugging in components and cable management more generally is fiddly.  But you do get what you pay for and at this price point you'll be hard pushed to get much better than a CIT case without compromising elsewhere.  It now seems to be out of stock everywhere....

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The GPU is a value choice, the 1650 Super is arguably the best GPU at the US$160 price point (the 5500XT is broadly the same price and performance) and allows for 80 - 100 FPS at 1080p max settings in most current titles.  Through testing it was apparent that the GPU is the bottleneck for this build, with the 3100 not getting much above 60% usage when the 1650 Super was maxed out.  If you do have a few more $$$ then pushing up to the 1660 Super would be the first place to invest them - all the other build components would easily support such an upgrade.

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In terms of performance in Gaming this system is no slouch, using 1080p max settings to stress the GPU we can report 80+ FPS on all 6 titles tested which provides some confidence that this is capable of 1080p 60+ FPS in all modern titles.

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Overall assessment - if your looking for an entry level PC gaming build, and your nervous about the used parts market, then this is great starting point.  It provides plenty of jam today and will allow for upgrades to the important bits over the coming couple of years (CPU and GPU) without need to upgrade the skeleton of the system.

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Let me know in the comments below the YouTube video what you think....

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Until the next one - Go Well!

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