I'm planning to build my first PC, and while I don't intend to use it mostly for gaming, I would like it to run games like Skyrim and Diablo 3 at reasonable high settings. This PC will be primarily for research, streaming YouTube, participating in video calls, and handling my personal documentation and taxes. With a budget of $600 to $800, can I put together a build that meets these needs? I'm completely new to this, so any guidance on where to start would be super helpful!
3 Answers
Go for an Intel Core i5 14400F and a Radeon RX 6600, those should do well. Pair that with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and any NVMe SSD you can find. And don't worry about the cooler, the stock one should work fine!
If you're looking at 1080P gaming, an RX 6600 or an RTX 3060 is more than capable for what you need. I had a similar setup before and ran Skyrim smoothly. Any recent i5 or Ryzen 5500 CPU will work too, and I recommend going for 32GB RAM just to be safe. If you're mostly browsing and reading documents, you definitely can get a decent setup for Skyrim that also serves those tasks well.
Would a pre-built PC in this price range work just as well?
I've got some solid part recommendations for you! Check out this list I made: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zM7wJn. The key is to go for a budget-friendly GPU, but if you're new, buying a new one is probably safer than going used. If you're planning to really mod Skyrim, consider bumping your RAM to 32GB; it's just an extra 20-30 bucks. And for the build itself, YouTube is your friend! Channels like LinusTechTips have comprehensive guides, but be ready for a long one. Just a heads-up: when you finish building, make sure to connect your monitor to the GPU, not the motherboard!
Wow, this is phenomenal! I don't plan on heavily modding the game at all. Thanks a ton!
Will I need to buy Windows as well? Sorry, I'm really new to all this!
Thank you for the recommendations!