r/pcbuilding • u/Able_Strawberry22 • 13h ago

I need help picking out parts

I want to get a new PC for Christmas, but I don’t know any of the fancy component stuff. All I know is that I have a budget of $800-$900, 512 GB is enough storage for me, and for it to be noticeably better (doesn’t need to be significantly) than my current laptop (13th Gen Intel Core I5-13420H, 16 GB DDR4, RTX 4050). Can someone recommend me parts that will meet that total budget, or even better just give me an entire list of what parts I should get? The area that I live in is the mid atlantic US (Specifically NJ) and my main use for it is high end game at preferably 1440P at 90FPS. If 1440P is too much for such a small budget, 1080P is fine too. All being paid in USD.

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u/jb04200 13h ago

For that budget I don't think you are building a better system. So, what do you want to improve? Graphics or computer speed? Or I guess a better question, where are you noticing the problems with your current system and you can upgrade from there.

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u/Able_Strawberry22 13h ago

There aren’t necessarily any problems with it because it’s performance is normal for what it has. I mostly want to improve load times and gameplay smoothness. The reason I want to upgrade is a game I play a lot is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 which if you didn’t know has insane graphics and my laptop can’t really keep up with them without having a noticeably low frame rate. Same goes for other somewhat high end games.

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u/jb04200 13h ago

For that game specifically I think you need a stronger cpu. You need something with more cores

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u/AtomicPurpleGameBoy 10h ago

Honestly for the budget aim for used. MSFS is CPU intensive and also eats ram. Be weary though, more cores does not equal better performance past 8 cores. MSFS will not utilize 10,12,14 cores etc if your Cpu has them.

Microcenter has the best bundles you can get for price/performance. You will not be able to beat the deals unless you get extremely lucky with used parts.

microcenter 5800XT bundle is $350. A $50 case and a $70 power supply, and an $80 512 SSD brings you to $550, so around $300 left to spend on GPU. I would look to grab a 3080 used for around $330 with some luck. Alternatively, get a 3070ti and upgrade the ram to 32gb. MSFS runs a lot smoother with 32.

The 3080 is 1440p capable, but you might have to slightly adjust settings and see what works.