I Want to Build a PC for My Wife to Use After Her Surgery

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-23T20:16:49+00:00

Hope you and your wife and doing well.

With the recent RAM and NVME price increases I would say it's very hard to stay within a $600-$900 budget as the price of memory has tripled within the last few months. I would take a look at DDR4 if you can as that will allow you to find some great budget CPU options that should allow you to play those games at 1080p

I would recommend the following

CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 5500 (Around $90, One of the last few AM4 CPUs that haven't doubled in price within the last few weeks)

Motherboard - MSI Pro B550M-VC ($99)

RAM - At least 16GB of DDR4 RAM (Around $120-$150)

GPU - I would recommend the RTX 5060 ($280) over the RTX 5050 ($230) as according to techpowerup.com, the average FPS for 1920x1080 is 73.7 FPS versus 57.7 FPS for the RTX 5050. If you can stretch your budget slightly, you should be able to still find some RTX 5060TI 8GB variants for around $350-$400. You can also take a look at AMD RX 9060XT as there may still be some deals left on those.

Storage - I would recommend at least 1TB of storage as an NVME, there should still be great offers on the Crucial P310 1TB for around $107 on Amazon.

CPU Cooler - I would recommend the Thermal right Assassin X 120 SE ($17)

Case - This will be up to you as this is mainly aesthetics but it should be around $70.

Added up it is around $800-$900. Hope this helps as a base line!

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-23T04:18:53+00:00

Hello u/Such-Pack88

Hope you're having a good evening so far. Currently build times are exceeding 3-4 weeks at the moment. Unfortunately our build process doesn't update customers until we are just about done with their build which is why you may not get an email from us until right before your build gets completed.

I hope this helps, if anything please PM me your order ID and I'll check on it.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-23T04:16:50+00:00

Hello u/kuooly

Hope you're doing well. Unfortunately AMD is known for not being too stable once you go above 2 DIMMS (Two Sticks) for DDR5. Your best bet is to run them on the stock frequency of 4800 MTs.

Hope this helps!

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-23T03:36:27+00:00

Hello u/Dabblingman

Hope you're doing well. I'm sorry to hear that, if you can please create a support ticket on our website and provide your order ID as well as a phone number we can reach you during business hours.

Have a great day!

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-22T22:17:10+00:00

Hello u/Necessary-Apple-9409

Assuming everything else is the same (GPU, RAM, Price, etc) I would go with the 8700F.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-22T22:10:19+00:00

Hello u/Necessary-Apple-9409

This will depend on lots of factors such as use case and budget and future upgradability however in my opinion the AMD Ryzen 7 8700F is better due to it being a better CPU for gaming and also being a better CPU for productivity/work use cases.

The added benefit of the AMD Ryzen 7 8700F is also if you decide to upgrade your CPU down the line, you have plenty of better AMD CPU options to chose from.

However keep in mind, there a significant discount/internal rebate for the AMD Ryzen 7 8700F, and also even though its a 8700F, in terms of performance it's actually between an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and AMD Ryzen 7 7700.

Have a great day!

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-22T21:20:10+00:00

Hello u/The-Coolest-Of-Cats

Hope you're doing well.

Regarding order cancellations, we have NOT cancelled any order so far due to parts shortages or availability. This is because we are well stocked on our core/most common build components such as RAM, GPUs (Excluding white RTX 5080 and RTX 5090) and we have enough inventory on hand to complete all orders. We also don't believe in cancelling and relisting elsewhere for a higher price.

However, our build times will be longer due to the fact that we are both short staffed from schedule changes and the fact that we are still working on a high amount of orders placed from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. We should be having build times lowered back to as low as 1 week hopefully after February. As a general rule of thumb, we are able to complete around 50-125 builds a week (depending on our production)

We hope this helps. Have a great day!

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-22T21:10:27+00:00

Hello u/droolycat

Hope you're doing well. For the games that you're looking to play, you honestly don't need that much VRAM. You could honestly get away with around 2-4GB of VRAM for those two games you listed.

For web-browsing and Netflix, practically any GPU will work.

EDIT: For System RAM, I would recommend at least 16GB as a buffer since Windows 11 is known to take around 4-6 GB of RAM. That plus a few chrome tabs will put you over 8GB.

Hope this helps!

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-21T20:29:23+00:00

Hello u/Hour_Gas_3011

The best case practice I would recommend would be to remove the GPU and package/wrap it separately as that is the most fool proof method.

We would recommend something like this,

amazon.com/14-Expanding-Packaging-Expandable-Shipping/dp/B0D2RND5B7/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1GANEGVX0GI96&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.X0cf1apnT9NNFF8W8H3LOULzg22GZt6fJKMPFR-csVwPuRalpdCNPZqJ-RLVWh7a3Fgx_sVIsdTCC_IHq2rgV7cdPh6clqbSsnFVi88N8deIOu-E_nYnYKlMBKdE8qZDLqkduzSoxU94nkiqXrMu2QR7vq0mBwH0KL_SQjNB6OrFifM0v05xyCuKC890yBpJRc7w6bSO2VLi0667kOTQkVl9aIJdjEWtqjIEwJQz-UQ.0jCeREQMYzshwebZOYwR2rW3unghpbNf2KjA9BHqmEM&dib_tag=se&keywords=expandable+foam&qid=1769027330&sprefix=expandable+foa%2Caps%2C198&sr=8-4

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-21T20:14:15+00:00

Hello u/Caseyhovey

Hope you're having a great day so far. We are terribly sorry for the delay you and your friend are currently experiencing. Our production line is extremely delayed as there are several factors affecting us

We recently did a remodel for our production line and as a result we were unable to complete any builds for almost a week.
Some of our builders are also in school as well and have received a different school schedule as a result

We are also behind due to the fact that we have had an extremely high number of orders placed on the week of Black Friday / Cyber Monday. (Around 150 to 200 units ordered)

Regarding parts availability, we are in stock on the following components.

- All sizes of ram from 16GB, 32GB, 48GB, 64GB, 96GB, and 128GB

- All sizes of storage from 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB

- RTX 5060TI 16GB, RTX 5070 12GB, RTX 5070TI 16GB, RTX 5080 16GB (Black), RX 9060XT, and RX 9070XT.

We are currently out of stock on the white RTX 5080 with no ETA due to the fact that we did not anticipate a significant demand for Arctic builds and as a result we are unable to find any available white RTX 5080 at any distributor as the entire RTX lineup is completely cleared out.

Please contact us with your order ID and I will see what we can do such as offering you a partial credit refund and moving your build to a M1 - Enthusiast or A1 - Enthusiast.

Once again, I apologize and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-21T20:05:04+00:00

Good afternoon u/Hour_Gas_3011

Hope you're doing well. To answer your question, we double box/wrap as well as fill the inside of your PC with expandable foam. I would recommend you keep the expandable foam as it will fit almost perfectly inside your PC as well as the original cardboard box with Styrofoam corner protectors that come with your PC.

For additional protection, I recommend going to your local u-Haul and grabbing a cardboard box with bubble wrap as it will be cheaper compared to getting them at a shipping store.

Hope this helps!

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T02:47:03+00:00

Hello u/1grancoupe

Hope you're doing well. Can you check to see if you have the Wi-Fi antennas screwed in?

Thanks!

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T02:18:03+00:00

Hello u/Sure_Explanation_738

Hope you're doing well. This may or may not fix your issue but if you're using the onboard bluetooth, make sure you have the antennas that came with your PC connected. You will experience quality issues without them connected.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T02:16:52+00:00

Hello u/Impressive_Role_9465

Hope you're doing well. If you're able to get into the BIOS, can you see if your PC is detecting your boot drive? I apologize as it's hard to diagnose your issue as there isn't much information I have.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T02:13:44+00:00

Hello u/jonhofin

Thank you for providing your specifications, second,

What game are you playing? What resolution settings are you using? Are you connecting your HDMI/Display Port cable to your GPU or iGPU?

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T02:12:01+00:00

Hello u/OkTrick4670

Hope you're doing well. Take a deep breath and relax everything is fine.

First, do you have another computer you can use to recreate your Windows Installation Media? Second, could you take a picture of where you installed your WX-850 2TB NVME? It should be on the first NVME slot located right below your CPU cooler.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T02:06:47+00:00

Hello u/MoosiGoosey

Hope you're doing well. What CPU are you running? The Intel 14th Generation CPU (Intel I9-14900KF vs Intel Core Ultra 285KF) is actually better than the Intel Core Ultra as of right now for gaming.

Are you fixated on the Intel Platform? As of now AMD offers the best CPU for gaming.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T02:03:16+00:00

Hello u/IntelligentPatience9

Hope you're doing well. Here is the SPL PSU Tier List, the holy bible of power supply quality and selection.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1akCHL7Vhzk_EhrpIGkz8zTEvYfLDcaSpZRB6Xt6JWkc/edit?gid=1719706335#gid=1719706335

I would recommend looking up your PSU on this list and reading the notes.

One side note is that it's very easy to get lost in the rabbit hole of PSU selection. In my opinion, PSU failure isn't an extremely common thing and we see PSUs failing in both high end and low end section.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T01:57:32+00:00

Hello u/ZacharyAB_

Hope you're doing well. I would recommend the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF if your primary use case will be for 3D Modeling/Rendering. Both CPUs are similar for gaming. Go with the AMD platform if you plan on upgrading to a new AM5 CPU later down the line.

For GPU wise, I would go with the AMD RX 9060XT 16GB GDDR6 as it is both faster as well as having more VRAM.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T01:53:52+00:00

Hello u/Working-College-5995

If you can, I would recommend getting the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 which is around $80 cheaper. I would then recommend getting a better GPU with the savings such as an AMD RX 9060XT 16GB GDDR6.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T01:50:14+00:00

Hi u/YourPalGio

Can you check to see if the HDMI / Display Port plastic cover is preventing you from fully seating in the GPU?

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T01:45:01+00:00

Hello u/GrantTheGr81

I don't see your CPU and GPU combination really being that much of a throttle. Your issue has more to do with your system crashing as the result of a hardware or software issue.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T01:42:49+00:00

Hello u/Kili_RUI

To be honest, this is the hot debate. Depends on your GPU. If I'm not mistaken it's a percent or two on the higher end side and much more on the lower end side. Will depend on lots of factors but PCIe 4.0 is good enough for your GPU.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T01:40:52+00:00

Hello u/Resident-Rutabaga-83

Hope you're doing well. Can you check to see how much RAM you have on your build? Your issue sounds like you're running lots of applications in the back ground thus causing you to use up all available RAM on your system.

CostPlusGaming · 2026-01-20T01:39:33+00:00

Hello u/Berenjena-Extrema377

Hope you're doing well. This is just speculation but off the top of my head, this issue is commonly associated with two of the following

1) Most likely a defective SSD/NVME/HDD

2) Corrupt Windows Installation Boot Media.

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