I'm building my first desktop, and my original budget was €1600, but right now I'm at around €1800. My main concerns are having enough USB-C ports to stay future-proof and the high price of the RAM. I'd like to figure out how to trim about €200 from my budget. What parts can I downgrade without losing meaningful performance? I'm also reusing a 1 TB M.2 SSD from my old laptop. Here's my build link: [PCPartPicker List](https://be.pcpartpicker.com/list/2JRHdb).
4 Answers
You could go for a cheaper motherboard and switch to air cooling for the CPU. This should help you save some cash without affecting your performance too much.
You might want to consider just a 1 TB drive for now and save for another later. Also, think about going with 16 GB RAM, either in 2x8 or 1x16 configuration. That way, you could also upgrade later without too much hassle.
If you're mainly gaming at 1080p, I'd suggest downgrading to a 9600X CPU, a cheaper B850 motherboard, a more affordable case, and an air cooler or a budget AIO like Thermalright. If you're aiming for 1440p, you could cut costs elsewhere to save for a better GPU like the 5070 TI.
I think you can easily shave off over €200 without compromising on performance. Check out this link for some suggestions: [PCPartPicker List](https://be.pcpartpicker.com/list/LsfkVF).
This one looks really interesting! Thanks for the tip!