First Gaming PC for 14 y/o son… is this a good one

[Ryounglaw]

My 14 y/o is saving money… up to 2k …. For his first gaming PC. I found this one. Research suggested the Ryzen 7 9800x3D and and the Rtx 5070 would be good at this price point. I found this For $1999.

Skytech Azure Gaming PC Desktop, Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz (5.2 GHz Turbo), NVIDIA RTX 5070 12GB, 2TB Gen4 NVMe SSD, 32GB DDR5 RAM 6000 RGB, 850W GOLD PSU, 360mm ARGB AIO , Wi-Fi, Win 11,Montech XR​

The mother board isn’t great but I think it the best I can find. What am I missing

TIA

 

[Ryounglaw]

https://www.newegg.com/skytech-gaming-desktop-pcs-geforce-rtx-5070-amd-ryzen-7-7800x3d-32gb-ddr5-2-tb-ssd-st-azure3-1731-b-al-black/p/3D5-000Z-002E8?Item=9SIA1HJKEH4125

 

[Colif]

Hi

They only really show the models, not the makers. They probably take the cheapest they can find. Its a B650 board which isn't bad, there isn't a massive difference between them and B850.

I don't know how good their PC are. I just helped someone recently asking about them... here.

it looks okay but you don't really know who makes all the parts. Apart from the CPU and case.

Obviously you not in Australia as the one in my sig cost $3700 without the GPU.

 

[Why_Me]

My 14 y/o is saving money… up to 2k …. For his first gaming PC. I found this one. Research suggested the Ryzen 7 9800x3D and and the Rtx 5070 would be good at this price point. I found this For $1999.

Skytech Azure Gaming PC Desktop, Ryzen 7 9800X3D 4.7 GHz (5.2 GHz Turbo), NVIDIA RTX 5070 12GB, 2TB Gen4 NVMe SSD, 32GB DDR5 RAM 6000 RGB, 850W GOLD PSU, 360mm ARGB AIO , Wi-Fi, Win 11,Montech XR​

The mother board isn’t great but I think it the best I can find. What am I missing

TIA

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor ($375.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: *Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($37.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *ASRock B850 Pro RS ATX AM5 Motherboard ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory ($92.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Silicon Power UD90 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($95.97 @ B&H)
Video Card: *Sapphire NITRO+ Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB Video Card ($899.99 @ Newegg)
Case: *Montech AIR 903 MAX ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.97 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: *MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $1871.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-19 10:17 EDT-0400

How to get windows 11 for free (or less than $15)

You don't need to pay Microsoft's $139 retail price for Windows.

www.tomshardware.com

PCPartPicker Part List

Monitor: *LG 27GS75Q-B 27.0" 2560 x 1440 180 Hz Monitor ($169.00 @ Adorama)
Total: $169.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-19 10:12 EDT-0400

 

[TimGarcia1991]

Dell Optiplex is a good starter PC. Just throw in a EVGA 1050 TI SC and he'll be good to play.

 

[Why_Me]

Dell Optiplex is a good starter PC. Just throw in a EVGA 1050 TI SC and he'll be good to play.

?

 

[Colif]

?

it seems they really love that Dell as its mentioned in a lot of their posts here.
I guess they figure it was where they started, its good enough for others...
my 1st PC was a IBM Aptiva with a Celeron 300, there is no way I would suggest that now... One of my cores is 17x faster than it. There is no way to compare my 1st PC to what I have now... well, in a way that makes sense. Easy to just compare stats but its the combo of them all that makes the difference.

 

[Lutfij]

Dell Optiplex is a good starter PC. Just throw in a EVGA 1050 TI SC and he'll be good to play.

Anything with a GTX1050Ti in an OptiPlex does stand up to a 2,000USD build.

Friendly reminder to read through OP's post instead of just reading the thread's title, before posting.

 

[memedealer]

There is some good input here, as far as prebuilts skytech is one of the best rated prebuilt pc companies you can use.

If you buy the parts yourself you can prob save a bit of money but that is a good price.

But that is a great first build from a prebuilt company for the price.

I just got a zotac solid oc 5070 and I have a 7900x and it is a great gpu.

One thing that took me years to figure out, the expo settings on the ram are not ideal if your cpu doesn't support the speed.

I had 6000mhz expo with 2 min boot times.
I found the cpu supported speed of 5200mhz. After that the pc ran much more responsive.

So I will post this just in case since it will be his first pc.

When you get the pc double check the ram speed to this

https://imgur.com/a/CKVScV8

View: https://imgur.com/a/CKVScV8



and here is the amd website of the 9800x3d for future reference, just click on connectivity.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/desktops/ryzen/9000-series/amd-ryzen-7-9800x3d.html

Hope your son has a blast

 

[memedealer]

Also here is a pcpartpicker list in case you or he decides to build it himself, its $1730
and you can get windows 10/11 from a key site for about $30

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/x6mYzP

 

[Colif]

One thing that took me years to figure out, the expo settings on the ram are not ideal if your cpu doesn't support the speed.

I had 6000mhz expo with 2 min boot times.

Two minutes reminds me of HDD. Mine sits in BIOS for 18 seconds before handing control to windows. Guess I could set up fast boot but that doesn't change a lot.

some board makers make this easier by having the CPU as a choice on the QVL so you can at least check what speeds/latency/size sticks were tested before you buy any.
It always helps to check if ram has been tested by either motherboard maker or ram maker, with the board you picking.

The lower speed with 4 ranks is common across all AM5 boards as its a restriction by the CPU. It is possible to over ride that with manual settings but its not a guarantee that it will work. Main reason most sets only have 2 sticks in them still.

Even the 9800x3d will drop in speed , my X870 board drops to 5600 with 3 sticks and 3600 with 4.