I'm getting back into PC building after several years and would appreciate some advice on this cost-focused gaming build. The current parts are an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, Corsair 240mm liquid cooler, Gigabyte A520M motherboard, RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition, 32GB of DDR4 memory, an 850W Gold-rated power supply, and a Lian Li A3 case, coming to roughly £944.
I'm aiming for 1080p at around 60 FPS. Most of the games I play are older, heavily modded titles such as Skyrim and The Witcher 3, with Red Dead Redemption 2 being one of the more demanding games I might play. Keeping the price down is the main priority, and I'm open to buying the CPU, graphics card, or even RAM second-hand if there are worthwhile deals. DDR5 is currently too expensive, so I'm sticking with DDR4 and would like the option to upgrade parts later if possible.
Are there any obvious parts I should change, and would a used CPU or GPU make more sense for this budget?
1 Answer
The Ryzen 7 3700X only makes sense at a good second-hand price. At around £195 it’s far too expensive for an older processor, but roughly £80 used would be much more reasonable. I’d also choose a B550 motherboard instead of an A520 board, since it gives you better features and a more sensible upgrade path. The 240mm liquid cooler is unnecessary for this class of CPU; a decent air cooler would save money and be simpler. The 850W power supply is also more than this system needs, so a good-quality 550–650W unit should be enough unless you’re planning a much more powerful future GPU.
The £195 price was for a new processor, but I’ve found a used 3700X for about £80. Would that be a reasonable buy for this build?