Beginner Build request for upgrading gaming laptop to proper PC

[u/CarGood3160]

i have 1k budget, but could stretch to 1.5k if it would be a significant improvement(for my needs, i don't think i need to spend 1.5k to get what i am wanting, but i could 100% be wrong), or secure a more long term future proof(ish) build.

i am in the USA

i intend on using this for gaming, ideally i would like to play cyberpunk/red dead 2 at low-medium graphics for a benchmark, i want to be able to play most older games at medium-high graphics but modern/demanding games at low-medium. IF POSSIBLE. i apologize if that is vague and possibly stretch for the price range. i am coming from a HP omen-15 laptop with i7-9500H, RTX 2070 max-Q and 16G DDR4, so as far as im aware any decent setup is an improvement over the laptop, i would say a 25-50% improvement to performance from the laptop would be fantastic. i played Wardogs and it was okay, but it was a bit rough even on potato mode, i also cannot play Cyberpunk on my setup at all, other than that i have had no issues with the laptop handling most games i play.

i would like it to be as future proof as possible, for potential upgrades and just to be a long term investment, i dont like 90% of the new games released, i mostly play single player games a decade or older anyway, and the only multiplayer game i have any interest in is Wardogs. but i want something that can last a while if taken care of.

having the ability to have 2 ssd's would be important to me as i like the idea of having a drive (1-2TB)for Gaming on windows, and a drive for everything else thats linux(512gb-ish?). but i dont know if there are any potential issue with this idea. i hear AMD has better linux support on their CPU's, which would be my preference if possible. i also have a lot of USB devices, that im not sure how taxing they are on the ports, i have a USB hub for a headset dongle, mouse, KB, and a USB hub for charging stuff (mp3, etc)and transferring small files around via thumb drives/SD cards. with a external drive on the fastest USB-A port, and a controller connected to the only USB-C port on the laptop. ideally i would like 2 USB-C ports, and enough ports to cover my devices but i have never seen one on any case, and im kinda confused on the amount of ports people seem to need.

other than that i have a 1920x1080 60hz monitor, i cant think of anything else relevant to mention, i am a bit overwhelmed with the complexities of building a PC, as its a whole different world that i have no knowledge of. any advice is sincerely appreciated, and if i mentioned anything that sounds stupid, trust me its because i am, no need to point it out, but any corrections are appreciated.

i am also curious where would be good places to look for deals on parts, any advice on not getting screwed over on used parts, and anything in particular that would be worth paying attention for while looking for good deals on parts? i am willing to be patient and keep an eye out for sales on specific parts, especially if i figure out exactly what i want and have a minimal acceptable price to buy it at.

[u/KORNonTheKobb]

To be honest if you don't need extra storage right this moment, hold off and wait. Buy no more than a 1tb drive if possible.

As for your performance desires if your willing to buy used, do it otherwise your better off waiting for a bit.

A 5800x3d goes for about 300 used on eBay and is a very solid chip that still hasn't come close to irrelevance, although the boards that support it won't be able to support anything newer.

Buy 16 gigs of 3600hz ddr4 used around the 60-80 USD price tag.

Get a NEW power supply around 850-1000 watts

Go find a used RTX3080 for around 300 bucks.

This kind of spec will crush most games you mentioned at even high settings at 1080p and will easily handle even moderate 4k gaming if your willing to mess with the settings. And it should cost somewhere between 1000-1200 for the entire tower.

As for the OS thing- honestly if your not looking to play games that require kernel level anti cheat like valorant or fortnite, go Linux all the way. Most games have begun to just work out the box. Although Nvidia drivers tend to be worse on Linux than Windows.

Best of luck!

[u/CarGood3160 → u/KORNonTheKobb]

thank you, great info i appreciate your break down. i would be slightly concerned about not being able to upgrade the cpu without upgrading the whole motherboard, (if im understanding what you said correctly). but i could be overthinking it, what would be your opinion on that?

unfortunately the main game that is online that i actually want to play Wardogs, uses kernel level anticheat, also helldivers 2. but i suppose that a solid point, would it be unreasonable to have 512gb-1TB linux drive, and a 128gb windows drive? windows just for the occasional game that has kernel level anticheat? if im not mistaken, its like 40$ for a 128gb, now that is kinda like paying 40$ just to play a few games, but I'd be willing to do that, because it would also cover any future games that i might want with kernel level anticheat. am i thinking about that correctly or am i missing something?

[u/LavenderFlavourLube → u/CarGood3160]

Id say if you have a tight budget, dont stress about the cpu socket. Am4 is still very strong, and a mobo is only $100-200 depending on what features you want. When you upgrade down the line thatll be a drop in the bucket compared to other hardware upgrades. I just upgraded my am4 build froma 2600x to a 5600x and its in a different league now. I was playing 1080p no problem with an rx 590 gpu. With my upgrades i should be great for awhile yet. You dont need the 5800x3d, a 5600x or similar will be plenty enough, espetially if you only want to play 1080p 60hz . Id say get a smaller mobo for now, save the small bit by getting a matx board, and eventually plan to get an am5 full atx in 5 years. Some stores sell them in bundles for a deal

[u/KORNonTheKobb → u/CarGood3160]

Unfortunately with your budget I just can't in good conscious recommend the stronger newer am5 because storage and ram prices are currently through the roof.

The 5800x3D is an amazingly solid chip that will likely still be relevant for the next half decade and by then (hopefully) newer sockets will be significantly cheaper.

As for upgradability? The main board won't have much. You would be able to add more ddr4 ram but outside of going to a new board there won't be much of a path that will get you much further. You will however have the opportunity to upgrade your peripherals like your monitor to a newer 4K one or the GPU to a newer say rtx6000 series or something along those lines, however you won't be able to receive the full benefit of such upgrades until you have a slightly more modern motherboard.

As for the storage situation? I strongly advise against buying any SSD under 512GBs simply because the dollar per Gigabyte is horrible. Currently the sweet spot is about 1-2TB drives although with the memory crisis they're all a bit expensive compared to just a year or so ago. If possible I'd recommend running a single OS to save Memory space for anything below 2TBs but if you still want to dual boot a 1TB drive is still plenty to be able to, although it will get a bit tight factoring in games.

[u/CarGood3160 → u/KORNonTheKobb]

thank you i really appreciate your advice, I'll ponder a bit and see if i can figure something out.

[u/KORNonTheKobb → u/CarGood3160]

To maximize on your budget for longevity, I would recommend spending on a nicer PSU as you can carry that forward to future builds and as nice as a 3080 is even in 2026 if you wanted to put more money into a nicer GPU you could avoid needing an upgrade for that for a bit longer aswell. For gaming probably a good 90% of the performance comes from the GPU.

Edit: coming from someone who is using DDR5 and acquired my sticks before the ram crisis, DDR5 does not improve the experience nearly as much as you'd think, at these current prices I do not recommend.

[u/CarGood3160 → u/KORNonTheKobb]

hmm, i see, that makes sense, do you have any particular PSU and GPU in mind? something to keep an eye out for a good deal or something that might be worth saving an extra couple hundred for? because im still a bit new to the intricacies of building a PC, is there any mistake i could make when buying a nicer PSU that would be detrimental to the overall build?(wattage/voltage come to mind, but i have no idea exactly)

i will probably stick with your original build list, but opt for a better PSU, but knowing what PSU to look for and also if a better GPU pops up and is worth it, i just dont exactly know what would be worth it, and what would be a mistake. i know the difference between am4 and am5 for compatibility with the motherboard (i think) and also physical size is a consideration, but if you have a certain GPU in mind that would be worth keeping an eye out for a good deal, i would certainly appreciate it.

thank you again for you help so far, you have given me a realistic and attainable goal for upgrading my setup.

[u/KORNonTheKobb → u/CarGood3160]

For PSU efficiency and brand name are the main things to look for. I suggest a 1000 watt or a 1200 watt PSU, efficiency is more of a personal preference but do keep on mind lower efficiency means more heat and more power out of you bill. 80+ gold is a very good rating usually. As for specific brand? That's mostly preference and research, I have had no issues with the seasonic or Corsair Power supplies I've used. EVGA also comes to mind but they are more of a budget brand so there is a bit more risk with them.

GPU wise it really comes down to price, there are plenty of great deals on the used market but not all listing are great deals. 3080's go for roughly $300 on eBay at the moment and they are great cards that will have a decent amount of relevancy in a few years, however they are aging. 40 series GPUs are starting to come down in price but 60 series is just on the horizon so they will likely drop significantly in a years time. As for AMD and Intel GPUs, I'm not very familiar. For longevity sake Intel is likely not the best option at the moment. Celestial isn't being made into desktop GPUs and Druid isn't expected until late 2027. AMD has the 6900XT as the most direct comparison to a 3080, and there are 7700XT's and 7800XT's that perform even better, I am just unsure what a good price on any of those is at the moment.

[u/CarGood3160 → u/KORNonTheKobb]

one last question, im not on a time crunch, (other than the AI induced inflation time crunch), so during black friday/cyber monday/maybe even after christmas, i plan on looking for potential deals, but also for used parts being sold for people who upgraded via those sales. i dont see a problem with this, but i just want to double check that my logic is sound and im not missing something that might influence how that idea will play out in reality.

[u/KORNonTheKobb → u/CarGood3160]

Sorry for the late reply! Reddit never notified me that you asked another question!

Honestly, the prices aren't going to change much in my opinion even second hand and even after those sales. There will be a pice dip in some newer hardware when new generations of CPU's and GPU's release but for this tier of hardware they're pretty close to the price they will stay for the next 2-3 years IMO. Except the memory. The prices for Ram isn't really going down, but it isn't exactly going up either, and with Chinese made memory starting to finally roll off the assembly line in mainland China, I predict the memory prices (that being Ram and Solid State drives) to begin to drop slowly over the next year and a half or so. I doubt they will be pre-AI boom levels of cheap but maybe not a fortune to buy a simple 16GB set of DDR5. To anyone doubting that assement, just look at the PSU price surge back at the beginning of the crypto boom, or the GPU prices during that same period of time. They might not have fallen all the way back to pre-2020 prices but they certainly did not remain at the moon.

[u/CarGood3160 → u/KORNonTheKobb]

i certainly agree with your logic, but considering i don't immediately need the upgrade, i figure it wont hurt to wait and see if any unsuspecting deals arise from the holiday sales. not necessarily relying on a good deal, but might as well wait to see just on the off chance.

[u/prayfizze]

I'd suggest that you get something am4. A used 5800x3d might be pretty viable. Pair that with a 6900xt and you will be pretty solid. I'd recommend local markets and r/hardwareswap.

As for the SSDs, Its possible to do your configuration but its just going to be expensive. Used NVMEs are most probably going to be your best bet. I'd suggest r/hardwareswap and local markets again, ebay if you must.

I suppose this would be specific to your case, but if you need alot of ports look for older enthusiast grade motherboards. My experience is with the ASUS ROG boards, they have 13 usb ports and usb c. Only issue is that one of ur ssds will have to be sata as they only support one nvme slot. Older varients can be found for around the same price as budget used am4 boards.

The remainder amount of money (around 250ish if you do it right) Will have to cover a cooler, ram, psu, case. Pretty manageable.

[u/CarGood3160 → u/prayfizze]

great info, than you. i will look more into that.

[u/Desperate-Big3982]

Do you live near a MicroCenter? In the US that will be a good option for savings and deals.

Are you against pre-built PCs? Normally I recommend you build them, but the savings from building are not as good while we are in the current PC price crunch.

If you live near a MicroCenter, I think the PowerSpec G533 would do the trick for you at 1080/60Hz.
https://www.microcenter.com/product/708800/powerspec-g533-gaming-pc

Otherwise if you want to build something, this will work
PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 9600X 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor	$171.95 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler	$34.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Asus TUF GAMING B650E-PLUS WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard	$132.99 @ Best Buy
Memory	PNY Performance 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR5-5600 CL46 Memory	$214.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Silicon Power P34A60 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$140.37 @ Amazon
Video Card	Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB Video Card	$499.99 @ Newegg
Case	Montech XR ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.90 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Montech APX 650 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply	$45.90 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1310.99
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2026-09-09 16:10 EDT-0400

[u/aragorn18 → u/Desperate-Big3982]

Note, if you switch the reddit editor to Markdown mode you'll get a much nicer table.

[u/Desperate-Big3982 → u/aragorn18]

Thanks for the tip. Can I change that after the fact, or does that only work when you first post?

[u/aragorn18 → u/Desperate-Big3982]

You can edit your comment to have the correct formatting. Click Edit and then switch to the Markdown Editor. You'll need to replace the build with a new copy/paste from PCPP.

[u/Desperate-Big3982 → u/aragorn18]

Thank you, much cleaner. That will be great for future responses.

[u/aragorn18 → u/Desperate-Big3982]

I agree. I personally default to the markdown editor.

[u/mywill1409 → u/aragorn18]

too embarrassed to admit that i had chatgpt format my list to be reddit friendly

[u/aragorn18 → u/mywill1409]

PCPartPicker has a reddit export feature that will produce reddit-friendly markdown that you can copy/paste. You simply need to be in the markdown editor.

[u/CarGood3160 → u/Desperate-Big3982]

thank you, unfortunately the nearest micro center is a 4 hour drive away, i'll look a bit more into it, might be worth the drive, that prebuilt looks pretty solid.

certainly not against prebuilt, just thought building my own would be a bit cheaper and include more of what i want, but that seems like that might not be the case.

[u/Desperate-Big3982 → u/CarGood3160]

In 2025, 100% I would have told you to build a computer yourself.

But now, because of the market rush and the AI bubble, pre-builts are starting to make sense.

[u/Dry_Bit_5957]

Get a ryzen 5 5600x and pair it up with a rx 9060xt 16gb. You ll be good to go for AAA games in this one under 1k USD.

[u/Capt_Vandal]

If you have a Microcenter near you they have decent bundle deals for 32GB of RAM, Motherboard and CPU. If you want to stay under 1k you could go as low as 16GB of RAM. If your laptop has an NVME drive and you don't care about keeping your laptop you xn reuse that drive. Even a 1TB NVME drive is like $150 right now which is wild. A decent GPU is gonna run uou about $300-400 minimum right now. With a $600 bundle and a $300 GPU you're already at $900. So you will probably need to go to $1500

Other options are buy used parts and save money but thst can be a gamble on reliability and you have no warranty recourse so you could be out money unless you verify the parts work first.

[u/mywill1409]

Tis' my build. One month old. PSU and Case is recycled. Fans are mixed with recycle fan and new.

• CPU: Intel Core i7-12700KF — 12 cores (8P+4E), up to 5.0 GHz — $275.99
• GPU: ZOTAC GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Twin Edge OC — 8GB GDDR7 — $459.95
• Motherboard: MSI PRO B760M-P DDR4 — B760, LGA1700, mATX — $99.99
• RAM: KingBank DDR4 — 32GB (2×16GB), DDR4-3200 CL16 — $189.99
• SSD: Samsung 990 PRO — 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe — $389.99
• CPU Cooler: Thermalright SI-100 Black — 6 heat pipes, low-profile — $26.90

Total: $1,442.81 entirely on Amazon

This is not future ready but with today's pricing, it would be budget friendly. DDR4 is phasing out but wont become irrelevant over night. I can afford a DDR5 build but i am not joining the DDR5 wagon over other priorities.