Question Help with new build for my son

[rh71]

I have twin 11yo boys who are gamers (Fortnite/Warzone) and back in late 2018 I built one of them a mid-range PC while the other stayed on the XB1. It's now time for the other to get on PC and of course I can't make it too much better than the 2018 machine or jealousy would ensue. Just need a more modern version of:

CASE: Thermaltake Versa H17 Micro ATX
RAM: GSkill 8GB DDR4 2133
CPU: i3-8100 Quad-Core 3.6GHz
GPU: MSI Radeon RX 580
MOBO: AsRock B360M Pro4

Budget is $400-$500 (approx cost of above, although you'd guess that that performance would be cheaper now?) and I still have to get an SSD, PSU, monitor(s), KB/mouse on top of that.

So my request is if you can give me leads as to what today's equivalent in terms of performance would be, even better if cheaper. I've been on AT for a long time but I was never one to keep up with hardware although I can put it all together. If there are pre-builts that would meet my needs, I'm ok with that too. Thanks.

 

[pauldun170]

That Cougar was actually an option that I presented to my kid, vs. this (was $54 sale). So he took the latter. The Thermaltake is $10 more than when we bought it last time so for $45+, I figure I'll try others.

Looks nice but looks like it doens't come with fans. Did you already have fans for it?

 

[rh71]

Looks nice but looks like it doens't come with fans. Did you already have fans for it?

Yes 1 old one, but now of course he wants the LEDs.

 

[rh71]

That DarkFlash DL21 is nice, but they have a new variant, the "Mesh" version, with a Mesh front. I would personally opt for the Mesh version, even if it isn't/wasn't on sale, for better cooling.

It's priced at $100... too rich for this build. I'm already way over as you can see...

Saved Part Lists

pcpartpicker.com

So basically the only thing we splurged on was the i5-9400F (and that's only because it's currently overpriced at $166... should be ~$95). Ok the monitor too (got another for the other guy). Everything else was fitting for a low-mid tier machine... and we're over $1k after tax. Covid did not help.

His bro's PC was at a lower budget because we had existing parts like SSD, monitor, keyboard/mouse... so I guess my budget was a bit aggressive to start. And some of the parts weren't double the price like now (case, psu, cpu cooler). Now we have a good idea of what a full build costs.

 

[rh71]

Just put it together tonight - weird issue going on with "no signal"...

Question - No signal on Viewsonic

Just bought 2 of the 27" Viewsonic for the kids (at $225), and having a problem with "no signal" (on both monitors/different cables) when connecting via HDMI to a new PC build with an RX 580 card. The CPU is an i5-9400F (no native graphics) if that matters. RX 580 PC hooked into an old monitor...

forums.anandtech.com

 

[VirtualLarry]

So how did this all turn out? Did you get the i5-9400F rig built for the 2nd guy, and did you get your monitors to work out?