I'm putting together a gaming PC for around £1,700, including a 1440p monitor. I mainly want to play Wuthering Waves, Fortnite, Red Dead Redemption 2, and modded Minecraft. I've only been researching for a day, so I'm not very confident choosing parts yet. My initial build is already over budget, and I still need to include a power supply and monitor. Would it make sense to switch from AM5 to AM4 to save money on memory and the motherboard, or would I be better off keeping AM5 and choosing a cheaper graphics card? I'd also appreciate general advice on the build. Ideally, I'd like a white case and fans, although I'm happy to use a black case with a few white components if that saves money.
3 Answers
There’s a prebuilt available for about £1,599 with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Radeon RX 9070 XT, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. That’s a much stronger CPU and GPU combination than the parts list you put together, and it leaves roughly £100 for a monitor. The case isn’t especially attractive, but you could move the components into a nicer case later if you want a white setup.
AM4 probably won’t save as much as you expect. DDR4 prices aren’t dramatically cheaper than DDR5 anymore, so the main saving may only be around £40–£60 from the motherboard and memory. That isn’t enough to justify buying an older, less upgradeable platform. At 1440p, games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Wuthering Waves will generally be limited more by the GPU, so keep AM5 and choose a sensible graphics card instead. A decent 1440p monitor can often be found for under £150, so make sure the full budget includes the monitor and PSU before finalizing the build.
You could keep the AM5 platform and make a few small changes to the parts selection. With around £50 more than your current target, it should be possible to fit a suitable CPU, GPU, memory, power supply, and the rest of the system. I’d avoid cutting the platform back to AM4 unless the savings are substantial.
That looks like an incredible deal, thanks! My only concern is that it doesn’t have many reviews, although buying it from a major retailer makes me feel a bit more comfortable.