Looking to build a $600*ISH* Gaming PC that can be upgraded easily

[corriexaviersmith]

Hi all, I'm looking to start buying parts to build a gaming pc, but have never gone through the process of buying parts.

I'd like to be able to play atleast 1080p (1440p would be nice, but frame rate is more important) smoothly and atleast high settings. Honestly I will probably mostly be playing Skyrim SE and Fallout 4, and would love to heavily mod Skyrim once again.

$600 dollars seems like a nice starting point from what i've been reading, although that can stretch. I will be buying the parts periodically. I would really like to be able to upgrade over time. So skimping on a CPU wouldn't be a huge problem as long as the Motherboard would support something better when I went to upgrade.

Here's what i have so far..

I'm unsure for the CPU and Motherboard. But Intel is preferred.
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti 4GB? Would love thoughts\comparisons.
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB
HDD: No clue where to start. Since i'd like to get an SSD eventually I can't see myself needing more than 250gb, but speed would be important. Case: Something cheap and practical would be nice. Could care less if it looked terrible, would prefer easy upgrading and good cooling.
PSU: Thinking along the lines of a Corsair CX Series 550 Watt. not sure if bronze certified would be enough or if i would need the gold?
ODD: I have several older optical drives lying around, I can't think of any occasion where i would need one so i'm not worried about it.

Basically I would like something that could handle a heavily modded Skyrim SE (most other things i would play would be fine.) The $600 is not firm and can stretch, but it seems like a decent range to start in.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

If you prefer Intel you should wait until next year when the cheaper Coffee Lake CPUs and cheaper B360 mobos becomes available. Right now with your tight budget I think Ryzen is the only way to go if you cannot wait.

 

[corriexaviersmith]

If you prefer Intel you should wait until next year when the cheaper Coffee Lake CPUs and cheaper B360 mobos becomes available. Right now with your tight budget I think Ryzen is the only way to go if you cannot wait.

Thanks for the reply. I would like to be done by mid December if at all possible. Is it fairly easy to upgrade from a Ryzen CPU to an Intel? From what i've been reading some i5's are still supposed to be handling newer games very well. Unless I've found bad sources

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

You cannot upgrade from AMD to Intel without changing the motherboard. They are not compatible.