Kid wants the cheapest bestest build that plays everything for £300!

[PaulW]

Hi,

A friend who's nephew wants a gaming PC with a £300 budget that plays everything! is living in a dream world and he should get him a steam deck. clearly His budget of £300 is unworkable but I've endeavored to get it as low as possible and still not be pants. so far i have come up with this for £734

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 Black 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler
Gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE AX ATX AM4 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory
Western Digital Black SN770 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC GeForce RTX 4060 8 GB Video Card
Deepcool CC560 V2 ATX Mid Tower Case
MSI MAG A650BN 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

Can you suggest some savings or improvements to this to get him the best bang for the buck that is going to be better than a pocket calculator. i also don't know what games he is playing he wants it to play everything but he is 14 so i am guessing the usual for that age.

Thanks

P

 

[mickyflinn]

Get a 5600 with a cooler and drop the CPU cooler for the time being to release funds , you will gain pcie4 as the 3600 is only pcie3.

Memory you want 2x 8 GB or 2 X 16gb as a single stick of memory hinder performance.

 

[Tetras]

I'd look for an old Ryzen bundle, anything from 1600 to 3600. The stock cooler would be fine.

Graphics: GTX 1060, RX 570/580. I'd be reluctant to go much slower than those because anything recent will be barely playable and if it is much slower he'd have no chance.

You could have a look for something less searched for/older, like GTX 770, GTX 970, RX 5500.

Ultimately, I think you're right though, just buy a console.

 

[ED209]

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (1 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory

I would change this, I would not run a system with 1 x stick of ram.

It needs to be 2 x 8GB sticks otherwise this will impact performance when it comes to gaming

 

[PaulW]

you want 2x 8 GB or 2 X 16gb as a single stick of memory hinder performance.

It needs to be 2 x 8GB sticks

Thanks for that both of you, glad i asked i'll change it to 2x 8gb Cheers

 

[mickyflinn]

Thanks for that both of you, glad i asked i'll change it to 2x 8gb Cheers

You welcome .

If you really want to budget down the the rx6600 is perfectly fine for 1080p gaming specially games like Fortnite, cs2.

 

[PaulW]

You welcome .

If you really want to budget down the the rx6600 is perfectly fine for 1080p gaming specially games like Fortnite, cs2.

Thanks, he'll only need it for 3-4 years anyway before beer, women and working for a living consume his life.

 

[tamzzy]

are you buying the components used or new?

 

[PaulW]

Get a 5600 with a cooler

which one comes with the cooler bundled, might suggest that although i don't like stock coolers personally.

 

[PaulW]

are you buying the components used or new?

new for now

 

[Rob_B]

For someone with an initial desire to get it all for £300 he doesn't need some of that. For £700 I'd be trying to go AM5, are you speccing it for him or you?

As mentioned get a 5600 (make an offer on the B grade one at OCUK), drop the HSF, change to a B450, 2x8GB sticks of RAM, get a 2nd hand GPU.

 

[Nasher]

Trying to find a used CPU and MB might save quite a lot and is low risk. CPUs don't tend to go wrong.

A good used case. Used SSDs can be found dirt cheap too. Many have been stripped from corporate PCs and barely used. Probably just had an OEM image on it.

 

[mickyflinn]

which one comes with the cooler bundled, might suggest that although i don't like stock coolers personally.

It's usually only X variants that don't come with a stock cooler just check .

Cheaper alternatives to the peerless .

Assassin x
Assassin spirit.

 

[Tetras]

It's usually only X variants that don't come with a stock cooler just check .

(For AM4) 4500, 5500, 5600G, 5600 & 5600X all have a cooler. I don't know if the 4600G does. I don't think any of the 8 cores do.

 

[PaulW]

For someone with an initial desire to get it all for £300 he doesn't need some of that. For £700 I'd be trying to go AM5, are you speccing it for him or you?

As mentioned get a 5600 (make an offer on the B grade one at OCUK), drop the HSF, change to a B450, 2x8GB sticks of RAM, get a 2nd hand GPU.

specing it to be as cheap as possible which will play the games he wants but i dont know them yet. even £700 might be over his budget unless he gets some help.

 

[tamzzy]

you're better off getting some parts used imo

cpu, mobo and ram as used parts are quick wins, esp if bought as a set as may have windows already activated
gpu would probably get new as would be the most expensive component
psu...i would want to be reliable, so...new would be preferable unless you knew the use history of the psu if getting used
ssd could consider getting used, but this one is up for debate, again, like the psu, would want to know the use history first if getting used
case definitely get new and as long as all the parts were cleaned up and dust-free...will make the whole build look and feel exactly like new, esp if you keep the plastic protector on the tempered glass for the kid to remove lol

i wouldn't bother with an aftermarket cpu cooler and stick to the stock cooler to keep costs down. not like overclocking is on the cards anyhow

 

[tamzzy]

if you're going new then this would be my suggestion (£60 cheaper than your spec)
ryzen 5600 (+20% on the 3600)
cheaper b550 mobo (i've used before, and is good enough for a 5600 and even a 5800x3d)
32gb ram dual channel
rx7600 is approx 4060 in rasterisation performance but £40-50 cheaper, see review here: https://www.techspot.com/review/2718-geforce-rtx-4060-vs-radeon-7600/ (techspot = co-written by hardwareunboxed's presenter)
don't need a sn770 for an entry/mid-range build, the sn580 is good enough
cheap and cheerful psu (again, i've used it before in a couple of builds i have done for friends, so speaking from first hand experience...i've also previously used the msi abn psu that you specced, but it's not really needed and so you can shave a few £££ this way)
cheap case to bung the build into

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Six Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D2-AM) = £124.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B550M DS3H (AMD AM4) B550 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BR-GI) = £94.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (SKU: MY-0AJ-TG) = £59.99
• 1 x Sapphire Radeon RX 7600 Pulse Gaming 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-02Y-AM) = £248.99
• 1 x be quiet! System Power 9 600W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply **OEM NO BOX** (SKU: CA-13V-BQ) = £38.40
• 1 x WD Blue SN580 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-WDC-00540) = £65.99
• 1 x Kolink Inspire Series K6 ARGB Micro-ATX Case - Black (SKU: CA-047-KK) = £29.99

Total: £663.34 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[tamzzy]

as the 3600 is only pcie3.

the ryzen 3600 is pcie4 as long as using a x570 or b550 board
its the ryzen 4500/5500 that are pcie3 locked

 

[Removed User 345456]

You welcome .

If you really want to budget down the the rx6600 is perfectly fine for 1080p gaming specially games like Fortnite, cs2.

Not sure about that my brother...

In my 2nd rig, the MITX in my sig, I tried out a RX 5700 XT with my 3600 non X and 16gb ram, it achieved the same variable fps my rx 570 8gb did but slightly better with less random stuttering in CS2

I think the 3600 is a major bottleneck for CS2, I was never able to get a 165hz 1% low, the RX 5700 XT went to 80-110 with smokes thrown at 1080p all low no FSR and IIRC a RX 5700 XT is basically a pci-e 4.0 RX 6600XT isn't it? Or bang on a 6600 non XT?
If I wasn't lazy, I'd of bothered to put the RX 5700 XT in my 5700X rig, but i really couldn't be bothered to take apart 2 rigs, redo the drivers and blah blah blah. Plus said RX 5700 XT sounded like a jet engine so it went straight back and had headache inducing coilwine, Powercolor fails once again, and just before I was going to shut it down, it decided to make the screen flicker... - that's twice they've been **** for me! Never again!

 

[mickyflinn]

the ryzen 3600 is pcie4 as long as using a x570 or b550 board
its the ryzen 4500/5500 that are pcie3 locked

Oh dam I'm having one of those days tx for the correction

Not sure about that my brother...

In my 2nd rig, the MITX in my sig, I tried out a RX 5700 XT with my 3600 non X and 16gb ram, it achieved the same variable fps my rx 570 8gb did but slightly better with less random stuttering in CS2

I think the 3600 is a major bottleneck for CS2, I was never able to get a 165hz 1% low, the RX 5700 XT went to 80-110 with smokes thrown at 1080p all low no FSR and IIRC a RX 5700 XT is basically a pci-e 4.0 RX 6600XT isn't it? Or bang on a 6600 non XT?
If I wasn't lazy, I'd of bothered to put the RX 5700 XT in my 5700X rig, but i really couldn't be bothered to take apart 2 rigs, redo the drivers and blah blah blah. Plus said RX 5700 XT sounded like a jet engine so it went straight back and had headache inducing coilwine, Powercolor fails once again, and just before I was going to shut it down, it decided to make the screen flicker... - that's twice they've been **** for me! Never again!

Point taken.

Cs2 is buggy no doubt but it's about expectations and budget, 1080p low should be achievable FPS with a rx6600 .

It's still good option for most 1080p gaming admitly not at high fps but budget dictates..