I'm putting together a gaming PC for a friend with a budget of roughly £1,000–£1,200, though there's a little flexibility. The current parts list uses a Ryzen 7 5700X, 32GB of DDR4 memory, an RX 9060 XT 16GB, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and a 650W power supply, coming to about £1,202. Is this a balanced build, or are there better ways to spend the budget? I was assuming AM4 with DDR4 would be the more affordable option, but I'm open to alternatives such as AM5 and DDR5.
4 Answers
The build should work well, but the Ryzen 7 5700X isn’t a major gaming upgrade over a cheaper Ryzen 5 5600X. If pricing and availability are reasonable, an X3D processor would offer better gaming performance, although it may not fit comfortably within this budget.
Don’t assume DDR4 is automatically cheaper. That 32GB kit is listed at around £210, which is extremely expensive and costs more than the CPU. Compare the combined price of the CPU, motherboard, and memory against an AM5 setup before deciding. The SSD is also unusually expensive at nearly £177, so cheaper memory and storage could free up money for other components.
AM5 may be the better long-term choice. A Ryzen 5 7500F paired with an AM5 motherboard and 16GB of DDR5 can fit close to the same budget while leaving a future upgrade path. Sixteen gigabytes is still usable for gaming, though 32GB would be preferable if the price difference is manageable. Keep the graphics card as the priority, and consider a less expensive NVMe drive rather than spending nearly £177 on a 1TB SSD.
Check second-hand or discounted memory options as well. A 32GB DDR4 kit can often be found for roughly £50–£100 depending on the seller and warranty, so the current memory price is inflating the build considerably. It’s also worth comparing Intel platforms that support DDR4 if you find a good CPU and motherboard deal.
You could look for a different 32GB DDR4 kit or reputable used memory. Similar capacity and speed should usually cost far less than £210, so that’s the first price I’d investigate.