What CPU and parts should I choose for a £1,000–£1,500 gaming PC?

If you’re buying everything from scratch, I’d choose the newer AM5 platform instead of spending around £300 on the older 5800X3D. A Ryzen 5 7600X with 32GB of DDR5-6000 and an RX 9070 is a more balanced option and leaves room for future CPU upgrades. You could use a capable budget air cooler, a B850 motherboard, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and an 850W Gold-rated power supply. Dropping from an RX 9070 XT to an RX 9070 only costs some graphics performance but gives you a newer platform and more memory.

For this budget, a Ryzen 7 5800X3D paired with an RX 9070 XT can provide excellent gaming performance, but the full build would be close to £1,500. You’d want a suitable air cooler, a B550 motherboard, 16GB of DDR4 memory, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and a good-quality 850W power supply. This makes sense if you already own compatible AM4 parts, but it isn’t necessarily the best starting point for a completely new build.

Before choosing parts, confirm whether the budget includes a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and operating system. If it does, the graphics card and processor may need to be scaled back. A non-3D Ryzen 7 5800X-class CPU with a midrange GPU such as an RTX 5060 Ti or Radeon RX 9060 XT would still make a solid gaming PC while leaving money for peripherals or a future upgrade.

You don’t have to spend the entire budget, especially if you already have peripherals. The best choice depends on your target resolution and refresh rate, the games you play, and whether you need Wi-Fi. For a new build, prioritize a current CPU platform, 32GB of RAM, a reliable power supply, and the strongest GPU you can afford after those basics.