I'm from Belgium and want to move from console gaming to PC. My budget is roughly €1,000, possibly stretching to €1,100. I've been comparing parts from online retailers and would appreciate advice on compatibility, value, and where I can reduce costs without wasting performance.
My current selections are an AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB for about €460, a Ryzen 7 5700X for €190, 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory for €190, a Thermalright Phantom Spirit cooler for €40, a Corsair RM750e power supply for €100, and a case for around €50. I still need to choose a motherboard and SSD.
That already puts me above €1,000 before adding storage and a motherboard. What combination of parts would make the most sense for gaming, and are any of my current choices overpriced or unnecessary?
3 Answers
For gaming, a Ryzen 5 5600 is a better-value choice than the Ryzen 7 5700X. Eight cores are not especially useful for this budget-focused gaming build. You can also use a less expensive cooler, since the Phantom Spirit is more cooling than a 65W CPU needs. A basic B550 motherboard, a 500GB or 1TB NVMe SSD, and a 550W quality Gold-rated PSU should be enough for the RX 9060 XT. A sample build with 32GB RAM and that graphics card comes to roughly €1,090, although the memory price in your list is unusually high.
An Intel Core i5-13400 or i5-14400 can be a reasonable alternative to the 5700X if you find one at a good price, but there is no need to move to an i7 for this build. A stronger RX 9070-class card would perform better, but if it costs about €100 more, keeping the RX 9060 XT is sensible and leaves more room for the rest of the system.
Before buying everything from one retailer, compare Belgian and Dutch price listings. A price-comparison site aimed at those markets can show which shops currently have the lowest prices, which matters a lot with a strict budget. Bundle discounts and used components could also help bring the motherboard and SSD into the total.
The faster card is unfortunately about €100 more, so I’ll probably stay with the RX 9060 XT. If I consider Intel, would an i5-13400 or i5-14400 be the better choice, and do I need a special suffix after the model number?