Budget: 2000-2500$ -- 2500 is max
More specific use (what games, what programs): Valheim, New World - want it to be able to play pretty much anything/everything. I'm assuming 2-2.5k is enough to get virtually everything playable at medium and most games at high.
Planned time until purchase: ASAP
Do you need an Operating System?: No
Do you have any specific preferred components?: Always preferred intel but if AMD is the go to now for a cpu, then so be it.
Do you need a sound or wireless card?: Wireless card would be nice, but not necessary.
Do you want stock cooling or do you plan on overclocking?: Don't plan on overclocking
Do you need a monitor? mouse? keyboard?: No - do not need any
Zip code/location? (Shipping costs): Columbus, Ohio

My friend is getting married and 5 of us are buying him a computer because his last one just blue screened (and was to old for me to care enough to salvage it).
I haven't been tracking parts much lately. Would love some input on what he should get. This PC is 100% for gaming use and will be used rarely, if it all, for anything else.
I also want this to be plug-n-play more or less. I had originally intended on going to microcenter and building it for him, but I don't think I will be able to do that anymore (since it'll be the holidays).

If I missed anything, feel free to ask. There is a microcenter nearby.

youre bettter off going to a microcenter and get them to build a computer for you for 2-a2.5 you can get a nice computer with a 3070 a ryzen 7 or 9 and some other good bones and you can always upgrade on top of it as time goes by. they will charge u retail for the card rather than buying a computer with a used gpu and paying 2-500$ above retail on the card depending what is it

i live in texas. he's in ohio. i'm not going to be with him when he purchases. he knows nothing about computers. if i should just go guess parts for him, i can do that. but kinda the point of the post was to find a decent build that i can send him that way he has a "grocery list" of what he is purchasing when he goes to microcenter.

was intending on having him have microcenter build it for him unless there were crazy deals that someone posted in a build.

Know that there is a GPU shortage and it's on high demand.

Not sure which OH store to look, so I picked Columbus, OH, and below is my suggested list.

CPU - AMD 5800X ($300 USD)
CPU cooler - Noctua NH-D15S (low stock) ($110USD)
Motherboard - Any X570 motherboard with WiFi built in (because it'll have BT built in with the WiFi) such as Asus X570 TUF Gaming WiFi, Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite WiFi, MSI X570 MPG Gaming Edge WiFi ($220 USD)
Storage - Crucial P5 Plus 1TB ($150 USD)
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB ($80 USD)
PSU - EVGA SuperNova GT 650W ($100 USD)
Case - Fractal Design Meshify 2 (low stock) ($170 USD)
OS - Win10Home (buy in the United States) or Win10Pro (buy cheap from non-US volume licensing product keys)
GPU - Any RTX 3060 since this is the entry level

Also, giving someone who doesn't know how to build computers or knows nothing about computers, and giving them a grocery list, isn't ideal. But I'm giving you what you asked for.

This post was edited by Xet on Dec 20 2021 10:51am