My work has a 5K computer loan program so it’s time to upgrade my old desktop.  This new setup will be for gaming and basic remote work (MS Word/Excel).  I’m not too particular in AMD vs Intel etc.  

What would guys (and girls) recommend for a build?

Isn’t there a website on computer builds for any budget?

Apologize if this is not there right sub section.

It depends on both the monitor resolution and the games you'll be playing.

For gaming, the Ryzen 5 or i5 is enough cpu, but the 7s or 9s will give you more ummph.

GPU selection is the tough one as there are so many options.

Gamers Nexus is held in high regard:

gamersnexus dot net

GN YT

Tomshardware has some good GPU charts that make it easy to compare relative performance acroos the
brands and generations:

Tom's GPU chart

32 G memory is now the norm.

NVME SSDs, I stay with Samsung or Western Digital but Crucial is well regarded as well.

I always try to go middle of the road on motherboards, cheap ones are that for a reason and to super deluxe are
probably overkill.

Case, lights, fans are personal preference, cooling is going to be either air, AIO liquid cooler, or custom loop.

ETA: PC parts picker

I run an IT department and at one time I built gaming computers for a living.  I would recommend Intel processors and ASUS motherboards.  Yes; AMD's are well regarded and will benchmark faster "if" that game is optimized for AMD processors otherwise Intel will be faster across the board and will have less comparability issues.  At release Red Dead Redemtion 2 would not run for 2 weeks until a patch was released.  Similarly a lot of the people on the Diablo 4 forums having issues seem to be running AMD. Both Intel and ASUS are at the top of the list of brands for reliability and are most likely to be problem free.  I also like Corsair for RAM and Power suppllies as being almost guaranteed trouble-free.

If you are looking to buy something already built and with a $5000.00 budget you can get a system from Corsair that is all "top of the line":
Corsair

I believe the monitor can’t be over 27” (people were buying big screen tvs years ago so there’s a limit now)

Games are like Star Citizen, Starfield, Balders Gate.  My son plays COD


I’ll definitely check out PC Parts Picker.  Looking for a system to build to get the most bang for my buck.

I'd look for something with:

-AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D or Intel i7 13700K
-Decent ATX B650 (AMD) or Z760 (Intel) mainboard
-32GB DDR5-5600 PC5-44800 CL32 RAM
-2TB PCIe Gen4 TLC SSD
-Radeon 7800xt or GeForce 4070/Super
-Decent ATX case
-Decent tier 850W power supply

Monitors are kind of a personal choice thing but a decent 1440p 27" is probably $275-450 bucks.  Get at least 120Hz refresh rate.

A little over a year ago I went with a Asrock B650E Taichi motherboard with a Ryzen 7600 cpu and 32 gigs of ram.





I purchased the motherboard with intentions of upgrading the next gen Ryzen cpu's until AM5 is done so I went with really nice motherboard with all the feature that I wanted.

Also threw in a EVGA RTX 3090Ti FTW video card.

I overclock the 7600 and use a 420 mm AIO cooler.

Zero complaints so far.

Heres what I came up with.  Comes out to just under 3K. Apparently our program was dropped down to 3K

Anyone see issues with this setup? Appreciate the feedback.

Intel Core I9 Processor
544.99
Corsair ICUE CPU Cooler
119.99
Artic Silver 5 Thermal Paste
8.69
MSI Pro Z90-A Motherboard
239.99
Corsair Vengeance 32GB Memory
117.99
WD Black SN850X 4TB SSD
299.99
Asus GeForce RTX4070 Video Card
569.99
Corsair 4000D ATX Case
89.99
Corsair RM850 Power Supply
139.99
Windows 11 Home
119.99
Corsair ICUE SP190 3/pack Fans
64.99
Asus VG279QM Monitor
262.34
Corsair K55 Pro XT Keyboard
74.99
Logitech G502 Mouse
47.99
Cyber Acoustics Speakers
69.99

Total
$2980.19

Which Icue cooler is that?  Didn't know they had any that inexpensive and I'm concerned it is a 120 or 140mm one.  For an i9 I'd go at least 240mm (2 120mm fans on the radiator) or bigger.

Otherwise at first glance it looks fine.  From all the Corsair stuff it will likely glow like a gay unicorn disco but you can control that with Icue software.

Asus screwed some of the AM5 Ryzen processors.  They took shit from the market, offered a fix but said use the fix at your own risk and told everyone problem was fixed.  I used to like Asus but totally wrote them off on this last build because of that.

OP, make sure that if you go with an AM5 socket (which I would at this stage) that your RAM is optimized for whatever processor brand you are buying whether it be Intel or amd.  That didn't really matter as much in the past but from what I read and watched it does matter for AM5.

I like Intel but went with the 7800x3D from AMD this this time around.  I haven't had any issues.

This is great advice OP.  

The cooler is the Corsair iCUE H100i RGB ELITE 59.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler 240mm

I’m a little scared about the gay unicorn disco glow now.  I mean seriously, who goes the disco anymore

Don't the big games have recommended specs/graphics cards/drivers/etc for best performance?

I don't come from a gaming world, but Solidworks is pretty system-intensive and they have a decent guide for spec'ing a machine that'll play nice for that application.