A friend needs a new gaming PC soon after saving for several years. I put together this mostly budget-focused AM5 build using only new parts available in local stores:
- Ryzen 5 7500F — €123
- Arctic Freezer 36 Black — €27
- Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX V2 — €136
- G.Skill Flare X5 16GB (2x8GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 — €312
- Gigabyte Radeon RX 7600 8GB — €343
- Lexar NM790 512GB NVMe SSD — €123
- Seasonic Focus GX ATX 3.1 750W — €122
- Corsair Frame 4000D RS — €75
Total: €1,261.
He plans to play at 1080p and 144Hz for the next few years. He is interested in modern games but does not need maximum settings or extremely high frame rates; around 40–50 FPS in the most demanding titles would be acceptable. He is coming from a PS4 and specifically prefers DDR5 and AM5 for easier upgrades later, even though an AM4/DDR4 system might offer better value today.
The original target was €1,000, but local pricing made that unrealistic, so he agreed to spend roughly €200 more. He already owns a 1TB 3.5-inch hard drive, while the NVMe drive would mainly hold the operating system and a few regularly played games. Is anything poorly matched or overpriced, and would you change any parts?
2 Answers
The main concern is the 512GB SSD. Modern games can take up a lot of space, so it may become frustrating very quickly, especially if the hard drive is used for everything else. If possible, move to a 1TB NVMe drive, even if it costs somewhat more. Otherwise, the parts are reasonably balanced for 1080p gaming.
Nothing stands out as a major mistake. The Ryzen 5 7500F paired with a decent aftermarket cooler is a good choice for this budget. Before giving him the system, update the motherboard BIOS to a current version and enable EXPO so the memory runs at its advertised DDR5-6000 speed. If the budget ever allows, 2x16GB would be a worthwhile upgrade because 16GB is becoming a limitation in some newer games. The case is also a solid choice.
I was already planning to enable EXPO, but I hadn’t considered updating the BIOS for newer memory training and compatibility improvements. I’ll do that before installing everything. A 32GB kit may have to wait, though.
That makes sense. I’ll look harder for a reasonably priced 1TB NVMe drive so he doesn’t have to constantly uninstall games.