I'm planning a relatively affordable gaming PC and am considering staying with AM4 and DDR4 instead of spending more on AM5 and DDR5. My target games include Minecraft, Fortnite, GTA, ARC Raiders, and similar titles. The planned parts are a Gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE V2 motherboard, Ryzen 7 5700X, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3600 CL18, a 1TB Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, an ASUS RTX 3070 TUF Gaming 8GB, a Corsair Nautilus 240 RS liquid cooler, extra Corsair RS120 ARGB fans, a Corsair 3500X ARGB case, and a Corsair RM750e power supply. The total budget is about €1,100. I originally considered the 5800X3D, but it is too expensive, and the 5700X3D is unavailable where I live. Are these parts well balanced, or would you recommend cheaper alternatives or switching to a different CPU and motherboard platform?
3 Answers
It’s worth comparing the total cost against an Intel B660 or B760 build with a Core i5-12400F, 13400F, or 12600K/F. Depending on local prices, one of those combinations could offer similar or better gaming performance than the Ryzen 7 5700X, while also giving you a newer upgrade path.
The 980 Pro is a good SSD, but it’s probably excessive for a gaming-focused build unless you found it used at a particularly good price. A cheaper 1TB NVMe drive should load games just as quickly in practice, so the savings could go toward the graphics card or CPU.
I found the 980 Pro on a used-parts site and it wasn’t much more expensive than new budget SSDs. Would you still choose a cheaper model?
The overall parts list isn’t automatically bad, but make sure the prices make sense in your region before committing to AM4. At around €1,100, platform comparisons matter a lot, and the best choice may be whichever offers the strongest CPU and GPU combination for the money rather than sticking to AM4 by default.
So in that case, would you replace both the Ryzen processor and the B550 motherboard rather than just changing one part?