Building AdviceHello everyone, assisting a friend in setting up their initial PC due to Black Friday. (1k CAD budget)
Building AdviceHello everyone, assisting a friend in setting up their initial PC due to Black Friday. (1k CAD budget)
He has been using an Xbox series S for several years now, and after convincing him to try PC and Steam, he aims to enjoy modded Minecraft, Marvel rivals, Dead by Daylight, and stream or use it on a desktop. He’s hoping the prices will drop around Black Friday or Cyber Monday since he gave me a budget of 1k CAD (still unsure how firm he is). I’m just curious what people think and if there are any changes he should consider.
The listed components for Windows 11 are compiled here. Each item reflects the current pricing and availability as shown.
Your current configuration is widely recognized in the market as a hotbox scenario, potentially causing serious issues.
The optimal setup for Ryzen systems using a B550 chipset leans toward a dual-channel DDR4-3600MHz or DDR4-3600MT/s memory with tight latency.
A single 1TB drive falls short for 2026, especially since the minimum recommended is 16GB for gaming setups.
Category-C power supply is recommended.
If you can access an AM5 socket, it would be a better choice.
Your friend might eventually talk about his unpleasant experience.
Here’s a possible list for an AM5 build:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core (Vuugo, $250.69)
Cooler: Thermalright Burst Assassin 120 SE (Amazon Canada, $29.90)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650M GAMING PLUS WIFI Micro ATX AM5 (Vuugo, $159.84)
Memory: Silicon Power XPOWER Storm RGB 32 GB DDR5-6000 CL36 (Newegg, $219.97)
Storage: TEAMGROUP Z440 Lite 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME (PC-Canada, $60.99)
Storage: ADATA XPG GAMMIX S60 Blade 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME (Canada Computers, $159.99)
Video Card: PowerColor Reaper Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB (Amazon Canada, $499.99)
Case: Deepcool CH360 DIGITAL MicroATX Mid Tower (Canada Computers, $74.99)
PSU: ASRock Steel Legend SL-750G 750W 80+ Gold Certified Modular ATX (Vuugo, $89.72)
OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Home Retail - 64-bit (Best Buy Canada, $179.98)
Total: $1726.06
Includes shipping, taxes, and applicable discounts
Generated by PCPartPicker
2025-11-19 12:05 EST-0500
This list is flexible—adjust based on your friend’s priorities.
2xSSD options, reduced drive size for OS, apps, and launchers, with the larger drive designated for games. A better PSU is advised; category-B is preferable for longevity. You can upgrade later if needed. Gaming at 1440p is possible, but expect limited detail in AAA titles. An OEM license key is tied to your motherboard’s BIOS, and swapping it may result in losing the key. If USB Type-C isn’t important, consider a simpler case like Montech 100 Air or X5M, saving around 20 CAD.
There are concerns about memory prices dropping, which could affect SSDs, RAM, and GPUs.
Wow, that does make things clearer. Thanks! I really appreciate it. The case isn't fixed, just a temporary placeholder. To switch to AM5, what changes would be incompatible?