My friend is about to buy his first PC and has a budget of around £750. Since I have some experience in building PCs, he asked for my help. I'd love to get some insights from others who might spot issues or suggest improvements while keeping to the budget. Here's the build he's considering:
- **CPU:** AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor - £80.95 @ Amazon UK
- **CPU Cooler:** NZXT Kraken 240 RGB - £109.99 @ Amazon UK (Is this necessary?)
- **Motherboard:** Asus PRIME A520M-A II/CSM Micro ATX AM4 - £59.95 @ Amazon UK
- **Memory:** Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 - £75.46 @ Scan.co.uk
- **Storage:** Kingston NV3 1 TB M.2 NVME SSD - £48.99 @ Amazon UK
- **Video Card:** Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 7600 XT 16 GB - £288.99 @ CCL Computers
- **Case:** Montech AIR 100 ARGB - £46.94 @ CCL Computers
- **Power Supply:** MSI MAG A650BN 650 W - £44.95 @ AWD-IT
- **Total:** £756.22
Any input would be much appreciated, as this is only my third build and I'm still learning!
2 Answers
I noticed your storage choice, the Kingston NV3 uses QLC flash which isn’t very durable. It slows down significantly after a few years. Consider getting a TLC flash drive instead, such as the Kioxia Exceria Plus G3 or a WD Blue SN580. It'll be a better long-term investment!
I heard the MP44L has had some recent hardware changes, just a heads up!
Spending 15% of your budget on a CPU cooler is quite excessive, especially for a Ryzen 5 which can be cooled well with the stock cooler. If you can bump your budget to around £800-830, you could even consider going for an AM5 build. Otherwise, I’d suggest switching to a more reasonable air cooler and possibly upgrading to a 9060XT 16GB for better graphics performance!
I get that! The cooler was more for aesthetics. If I upgrade the GPU, is it worth switching to the 5600X instead?
Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely keep this in mind for future builds.