Graphics card: Low/medium budget: Keep dreaming. High budget: You actually get a medium budget card for a high budget price, from a very limited selection. Extreme budget: 3090 or 6900XT. Rejoice, you actually may be able to buy one, but the price will be extreme indeed.

Nice guide although a little pointless because GPUs are almost impossible to buy...

Great guide in a worse possible time.

interesting dilemma: i7 10700k or 5600X Page 2 error: BLOCKCHAIN is not included in Computer Jargon 😱

Francesco:

In all honesty, I wouldn't advise to buy a B450 mobo to anyone building a new pc in 2021, apart from those trying to save every last penny. B550 will usually give you more features, higher CPU boost clocks and better compatibility for future upgrades, Yes it will cost you rougly an extra 50$, but for a midrange build they are well spent, in my opinion.

I would because: - it's less expensive than A520 in most case - it's totaly a bargain in price compared with a B550 motherboard (there is even X470 that are less expensive with more argument too) - have the bigger CPU choise than the 5 series (Zen, Zen+, Zen2 and Zen3) - bring on table more than A520 (overclocking and boost is the same btw etc etc) The only bad point versus B550 is only the PCIe 4.0 wich is irelevant versus A520 wich is in PCIe 3.0 too. So yes you can do a great medium segment pair with even a Zen3 (i have put a 5600X on the one i have with 2 X 32g... opportunity with a shop that have no GPU to put with them 😉 ). And the price saved permit to put more memory (never enough) or better SSD (on that point too, you can save more: PCIe 3.0 are less expensive, and not so less fast compared with PCIe 4.0 version).

Hilbert Hagedoorn:

It has been a while since the last version of this guide, the world is very much a changed place since then. The pandemic of the SARS-COV-2 / COVID-19 virus has thoroughly left its mark on 2020 and 20... Guru3D Q1 Winter 20/21 PC Buyer Guide

hmmm regarding the situation we have the choise: IGP, APU, GT 710 1g for low end, GT 710 2g for mid range and GT 730 2g for high end... (maybe i am trolling... but sadly it is the actual choise)

jbscotchman:

"I have been building PCs since 2014" HH That has to be an error.

Probably because it's not Hilbert's article 😉

Francesco:

I don't know... I had a system equipped with a 3700x on a (decent) B450, all bios updates done etc, switched to a spare B550 I recycled from another system and gained +100mhz on multicore boost (the rest of the system was unchanged, same cooling etc. ). My bro has a 5800x on a x570 that is boosting all core at 4650, we tested it on the B450 and it was boosting at 4400, then we tested on the B550... it was boosting at 4600. Most B450 have worse power phases than most B550 mobos. Let's say that 2-3 years from now you will feel the need to upgrade your CPU... 5900x will be a lot cheaper by then and could give you a nice upgrade over the 3600 you are buying now, you are going to have an harder time getting the max out of a 5900x with a B450. I will add that no one knows for sure what AMD has in store for the near futrure... let's say they'll release something along the line of the XT 3000s... and let's say for some reason B450 will not support them. To put it short, I would not advise anyone building a new mid range system in 2021 to buy a 2018 mobo, just to save 50$. If we are speaking of a low end PC, it's a different story, but not a mid range system.

It depend on 3 things: - The agesa (should be equivalent (i haven't said the same) ) latest on my board mean same boost than on my X570 on Zen2 and Zen3 the acceptation of 128g of ram, and beta of SAM / PAR - The powerphase, most A520 and B550 have the same than A320 and B450 so it's point that is very important, as an exemple a 11 phase A320 never have throttle down with 3900X while a 5 phase B450 will have issue... it should fit your processor, cheap Gigabyte and Asus are weak on this point even on B550, premium one are OK. The B450 he chose is very strong on that and OC as hell. - The brand of the motherboard, i know that some will desagree, but i really think that on AM4 Asus and Gigabyte are just OK, but a step back from Asrock and MSI. Last point the future proofing of those motherboard: the socket AM4 is near his end of life, next one should be next gen Zen and use DDR5, so motherboard bough today is for actual CPU and maybe a refresh only. (but it's better than the futureproof on actual Intel) To have tested my 5600X on my X570 (asrock) then put definitively on my B450 (MSI), because i had already a Zen2 with more core, so zen3 better on the old one, i can tell that result are the same on CPU side.

jbscotchman:

Who is this Raffaele fella?

The guy responsible for making these guides since 2017? 🙂

Always a pleasure to read this kind of guides. Thanks HH.

U cant build a system when crucial components are not on a market for almost 1/2 of a year already. Its sad how much work went in this article, considering its currently useless.

Can anyone suggest any web pages with low prices on PC Hardware in Europe? (if its allowed of course) Cause here in Greece things have gone out of control..... Thank you!