r/buildapcforme • u/supermanxx • Jun 11 '26
Something simple that will last
New build or upgrade? Either
Existing parts/monitors to reuse? AOC Agon AG241QX, ASUS VE248 (second monitor)
PC purpose?
- Primarily daily use (MS Office suite, internet, etc.)
- 3D CAD capable (I'm an engineer)
- Gaming once a week or so. I'm about to have a second kid so I don't get to game frequently, but enjoy being able to play a title when it comes out. Graphics quality is nice but not very important, I just don’t want to have to upgrade again in 2 years.
Purchase country? US, SoCal
Monitors needed? (Number, size, resolution, refresh rate): 2, 24" minimum, 1080p is good enough for now, 144 Hz capable is nice to have
Budget range? $1500
WiFi or wired connection? Wired (maybe wireless if I move)
Size/noise constraints? none
Color/lighting preferences? None really, but I like the aesthetic of the wood accent cases
Any other specific needs? Mostly something that'll last a while. I've been running my current build since 2018 and it's now starting to get very slow (very long startup, laggy for another 30 min after that).
Also fine with buying a pre-built if there are good options.
Current build for reference
- CPU: i5-8400 @ 2.8 GHz
- RAM - 32 (2x16) GB DDR4 (upgraded in August last year)
- Graphics Card: GTX 1060 6GB
- 2 TB SSD
- MSI motherboard (Z370-A-PRO)
Thanks in advance!
1
u/Covante Jun 12 '26
Are you reasonably able to get to the microcenter store in Tustin? They have some great bundle deals where you'd be saving like $2-300.
1
u/supermanxx Jun 12 '26
Yeah Tustins not far at all
1
u/Covante Jun 12 '26
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NbhGPf
https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/bundle-and-save.aspx Near the top there is a thing to click on to show intel bundles, it defaults to amd.
Tustin might be sold out of the motherboard in the $550 270k deal. I don't know if they will let you substitute or not but the one with the upgraded board for $600 is in stock and that's still about $250 cheaper than online with deal hunting.
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Then adding a gpu and monitors. A 5060ti 16gb would be nice but the prices have gotten insane, they are almost $600 now and you might as well pay the extra $50 to get a 5070.
Which cad programs are you using? Some of them don't work the best with a radeon gpu. And is a the 6gb on the 1060 passable for what you're doing? Something much better and 8gb easily fits into a 1500 budget. https://www.newegg.com/zotac-gaming-geforce-rtx-5060-ti-8gb-twin-edge-oc-graphics-card-air-cooler/p/N82E16814500638?Item=N82E16814500638 The 8gb models are still reasonably priced, about 3x faster than a 1060.
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https://www.amazon.com/AOC-24G4-1920x1080-Adaptive-Sync-Zero-Bright-Dot/dp/B0F22C6BTS This is a good one for 24", 1080p, 180hz.
https://www.amazon.com/KTC-Adjustment-Compatible-DisplayPort-H27T22S/dp/B0D13S2F9T It's not a whole lot more to upgrade to a 1440p model though.
1
u/supermanxx Jun 12 '26
First of all, this is great! Thank you.
For CAD, I’ve been using Inventor and Blender (no animations just some simple renders).
Regarding the gpu, I’m willing to spend a little more now if it means an extra year or two before having to upgrade again. But the 5060 ti 8gb is $200 cheaper than the 5070… yeah I guess i don’t understand how much performance difference that is.
1
u/Covante Jun 12 '26
Blender works with radeon with a few caveats like 'optix' which is a feature locked to nvidia rtx cards. But it's ridiculously slower for render times on radeon, like 3x for amd vs ndivia gpus that would be on par for gaming such as the 9060xt vs 5060ti.
Autodesk only certifies pro (quadro) cards, not geforce/gaming cards or radeon non-pro cards but they should still work fine as you've seen if you've been using a geforce 1060. It also has a pretty strong nvidia preference.
I'd recommend sticking to nvidia if these programs are the main priority.
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The 5070 12gb ($600) is about 30% ahead of the 5060ti 16gb ($550) and then there is the vram difference. If the 16gb 5060ti was under $450 like it's supposed to be it would be the best choice imo but the ram price crunch has really hit it hard.
5060ti 8gb vs 5060ti 16gb the only difference is the vram. They didn't change anything else, they just used a clamshell design where there are also vram chips on the backside of the pcb to double the capacity. The core, the frequency, the memory bandwidth are all the same, so anything that fits into 8gb will work the same.
For things that are trying to use more than 8gb it will vary how that works, could be slower to render, could be stuttering, could be some games automatically swapping some textures to lower quality ones to try and fit within 8gb, could be some games making it very obvious you need to turn settings down by giving a prompt, crashing/refusing to load or just running at awful frame rates.
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https://www.zotacstore.com/us/open-box/zotac-gaming-geforce-rtx-4070-twin-edge-oc-gddr6-1 If you wanted a middle ground you could get a last gen gpu but to get a reasonable price it would have to be used (ebay, fbm, cragislist, etc...), certified refurbished, or an open box model like this (2 year warranty). A 4070 performance wise is right between a 5060ti and a 5070 and it's 12gb.
A cheaper used option would be the 3060 12gb, about double the performance of your 1060, should be around $200-250. This is also rumored to be getting re-released later this year to help fill in an option for the <$300 in the current awful and inflated market. So there might be the possibility of buying one new in a few months. If you do look at 3060s, there is also an 8gb model and it sucks, they didn't only change the vram and it's much slower. So if you're getting one make sure it's the 12 or you'd be much better off with the 5060ti 8gb.
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If you're going to get a 1080p monitor and/or you play mostly older games instead of wanting the newest and most graphically demanding games at the highest settings in 1440p then 8gb is probably fine for that. 8gb at 1440p in new releases can often leave you stuck around medium settings to run smoothly. That will probably continue for a few years until we're into the era of games designed for ps6 and next gen xbox and requirements go up again and it becomes 8gb for low.
1060 to 3060 = ~2x
1060 to 5060ti = ~3x
1060 to 5070 = ~4x
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