I'm putting together a gaming PC for Minecraft with shaders and GTA, but the current parts list comes to about £1,361.55, which is more than I can comfortably spend. The build uses a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, Radeon RX 9070, 16GB DDR5-6000 memory, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and a 750W Gold-rated power supply. I'd like to reduce the price to roughly £1,000 while keeping a sensible upgrade path for more demanding games, including GTA 6 if it releases in the next year or two. I'm willing to upgrade the memory later once my finances improve. Which parts would be safest to downgrade, and is it better to save the extra money now for the stronger GPU or buy a cheaper card and upgrade later?
5 Answers
Check the memory price carefully because £259.99 for a 16GB DDR5 kit looks unusually high. A reasonably priced 16GB DDR5-6000 kit could reduce the total significantly, although 32GB would be preferable for newer games and shader-heavy Minecraft. You can add another matching kit later, but buying 32GB from the start is usually safer for compatibility.
Getting all the way down to £1,000 with similar performance may require buying some components second-hand. Used GPUs, CPUs, and sometimes memory can offer good value, but check the seller, test the parts where possible, and avoid sacrificing power-supply quality just to meet the target.
The biggest savings will probably come from changing the CPU and GPU rather than cutting small amounts from the case or cooler. A Ryzen 5 9600X would still be a strong gaming processor, and a Ryzen 5 7600X is worth considering if it’s at least £40 cheaper. Both keep you on the AM5 platform, so a future CPU upgrade should be straightforward.
The SSD also looks expensive for a 1TB drive. A well-reviewed budget PCIe 4.0 NVMe model could save money without noticeably affecting gaming performance. You can also choose a cheaper non-modular 750W power supply, provided it has a solid safety and efficiency rating; modular cables are convenient but don’t improve performance.
You could save a substantial amount by stepping down to a lower-tier graphics card, such as an RX 9060-class card, or by looking for a reputable used card from the previous generation. The trade-off is that you may need to upgrade sooner for newer games, so keeping the RX 9070 now is the better long-term option if you can stretch to it.
I’m mainly trying to avoid another major upgrade in one or two years. Is it worth saving the extra £200 now for the stronger GPU?
Would upgrading the CPU later be relatively easy, or would I need to replace the motherboard as well?