pc/laptop to run steam games

[whitnes10]

Hey everyone! I'm new to this site, so apologies if this has already be asked somewhere else. We are looking at getting a CPU (desktop or laptop) to be able to adequately run steam for our 7 year old son. This will be a family cpu, for everyday school usage (word docs, excel, just basic stuff) and then steam. My son specifically really wants BeamNG and Fish Feed and Grow, as he watches Youtube videos on these two games. Not looking to break the bank, so am wondering if anyone has good suggestions on specs to look for, even a suggested budget friendly cpu, etc. Just looking for some guidance if anyone is able to provide.

I have looked at Steam and see the specs recommended for both games, BeamNG has higher prerequisites, but wondering if it will need to be a gaming cpu specifically or if we can get away with an everyday cpu with higher specs.

Thanks in advance for anyone who is able to assist.

Take care.

 

[PlanetLockdownFilm]

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Mobo: GIGABYTE B550 GAMING X V2 or another budget B550 board
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX 6600XT / NVidia RTX 3060 TI
RAM: FURY Beast 16GB DDR4 3200MHz CL16 Dual Channel Kit or another 3200MHz ram kit
Storage: SSD Samsung 870 EVO 2TB
Power Supply: Seasonic Core GM, 80+ Gold, 650W - Gold rating is important here,
CPU Cooler: Veetro V5 Black
Case: get a Mesh Case for good cooling.

The processor is about the best bang for the buck, but now there are similar, possibly slightly cheaper options from last generation intel. You need a minimum of 4 cores / 8 threads, but I think 6 / 12 is optimal. 16 GB RAM is more than enough. The graphics card is the sore spot for gaming, there are cheaper options (like an integrated graphis card on the cpu, for instance AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with no discrete graphics necessary) but If it's about games they only lead to frustration as some games barely work or barely don't, or they work but with bad graphics. He likes two games at the moment but there might be more around the corner. The NVidia card above is slightly better than the AMD, I'd pick that but also check the prices. For SSD you don't really need an M.2 (the tiny ones that go directly in the motherboard) to feel a real difference, and 2TB should be plenty of space and simple enough for the whole family. Maybe get a separate partition for the operating system. A better and cheaper option would be to get a 500GB-1TB SSD for the OS a 2TB - 4TB classic HDD for pictures, music, etc. For SSDs I warmly recommend SAMSUNG EVO, the versions that come with the 5 year warranty. For HDDs maybe get a TOSHIBA. I think the latter version is better but a bit more complicated, and you might consider beforehand how much storage you need. If you take lots of pictures and make videos a bigger HDD would brse a good thing in the long run. Still, don't keep your important data on a single drive. It's also imporant to limit screen time and spend a proportional amount of time outdoors. When I was a kid, I only used the computer when the weather was bad.

 

[beers]

What price range are you looking at? The above part list would be a pretty reasonable balance for cost/performance.

 

[PlanetLockdownFilm]

The total price, unfortunately, because of the 100% markup on graphics cards is just below $1800 for the NVidia version and you subtract about $100 - $120 for the AMD card, or add an extra $100 for a RX 6700 XT. "Normal" graphics cards prices should be about half of what they are today, but I doubt they'll drop below 120% msrp. So this should be $1350 - $1500 but it is about $1650 - $1800 In detail (using amazon as a reference):

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X - $230
Mobo: GIGABYTE B550 GAMING X V2 or another budget B550 board - $130
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX 6600XT / NVidia RTX 3060 TI - $730 / $830
RAM: Kingston FURY Beast 16GB DDR4 3200MHz CL16 Dual Channel Kit or another 3200MHz ram kit - $102
Storage: SSD Samsung 870 EVO 2TB - $230
Power Supply: Seasonic Core GM, 80+ Gold, 650W - Gold rating is important here - $115
CPU Cooler: Veetro V5 Black - $35
Case: get a Mesh Case for good cooling. - $80 - $120 Search youtube for "Best PC Airflow Cases" and pick one you like.

Also, consider a 1080p monitor for good fps and quality settings in most games.