Gaming build for £500

sniperone · 14 Sep 2025 at 17:19

Been out of the loop now for a few years after dumping pc gaming and looking to build a budget build for my nephew .
Have a 1080p 120hz monitor and keyboard already ,He plays most games 12 year old children do can anyone spec me a build for this sort of price or should I just buy him a ryzen laptop or one of those mini pc’s with a fast ryzen soc .

Tetras · 14 Sep 2025 at 17:34

I'd suggest getting 32GB of DDR4 second hand, since new prices have gone up a lot.

CPU cooler in the CPU box.

12400F or better, 14400F is recommended.

No WIFI with this board.

Rebar must be enabled for the Arc card to work properly.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Intel Core i3-12100F 3.30GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AS-IN) = £73.99
1 x MSI PRO H610M-E DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 mATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03383) = £55.00
1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (SKU: MY-0AK-TG) = £39.95
1 x Sparkle Intel ARC B570 GUARDIAN OC 10GB GDDR6 Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-SPK-03924) = £182.99
1 x Team Group MP33 PRO 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen3 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-02681) = £43.99
1 x Aerocool Bolt Mini TG Micro-ATX case - black (SKU: CA-234-AE) = £24.95
1 x MSI MAG A650BN UK PSU 650W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: POW-MSI-03345) = £49.99

Total: £482.84 (includes delivery: £11.98)

Gray2233 · 14 Sep 2025 at 17:43

I'd be half tempted to get a Steam Deck and a dock, although the above build would be superior outside of the fact the deck can be portable.

It'll struggle with modern AA/AAA games however, and some games aren't supported at all I don't think.

tamzzy · 14 Sep 2025 at 17:46

Honestly for £500 I'd be tempted to go straight for the MM to look for used parts. Your £ will stretch much further.
£500-ish = Ryzen 5600 + RX9060XT territory

sniperone · 14 Sep 2025 at 20:12

Gray2233 said:
I'd be half tempted to get a Steam Deck and a dock, although the above build would be superior outside of the fact the deck can be portable.

It'll struggle with modern AA/AAA games however, and some games aren't supported at all I don't think.

Did think of going that route I have a deck myself but I don’t play AAA games .

sniperone · Monday at 10:10

So I managed to buy a gigabyte b550m elite micro itx board with 64gb ram with a Ryzen 2600G for £125 so have the base just need a gpu,power supply and case

The cpu is slow and old by today’s standards I want to go air cooling and thinking of a better cpu the board is compatible with the 5800x3d is this cpu suitable for air cooling in a micro itx build or is there something better than the said chip that people recommend

mickyflinn · Monday at 11:59

sniperone said:
So I managed to buy a gigabyte b550m elite micro itx board with 64gb ram with a Ryzen 2600G for £125 so have the base just need a gpu,power supply and case

The cpu is slow and old by today’s standards I want to go air cooling and thinking of a better cpu the board is compatible with the 5800x3d is this cpu suitable for air cooling in a micro itx build or is there something better than the said chip that people recommend

If your budget is still £500 then that leaves you £375 and I think that motherboard is matx not itx .

New

CPU 5600 £90
Case DEEPCOOL MATREXX 40 3FS £35
1tb m2 £45.
PSU MSI S650BN £50
Leaving £150 for a GPU.

Tetras · Monday at 12:26

sniperone said:
a gigabyte b550m elite micro itx board

That's not an ITX board, can you check?

sniperone said:
a Ryzen 2600G

I've never heard of a 2600G, more likely a 2600 OR a 2400G?

The 2600 isn't that bad actually, considering your budget I'd just leave it. If a 2400G, that's not so good, but not terrible either.

sniperone said:
and thinking of a better cpu the board is compatible with the 5800x3d is this cpu suitable for air cooling in a micro itx build or is there something better than the said chip that people recommend

With your low budget, that CPU is definitely not an option, they'd be very expensive and considering the likely graphics card it isn't worth it overall (system would be unbalanced and GPU bad).

sniperone · Monday at 17:40

Tetras said:
That's not an ITX board, can you check?

I've never heard of a 2600G, more likely a 2600 OR a 2400G?

The 2600 isn't that bad actually, considering your budget I'd just leave it. If a 2400G, that's not so good, but not terrible

Tetras said:
either.

With your low budget, that CPU is definitely not an option, they'd be very expensive and considering the likely graphics card it isn't worth it overall (system would be unbalanced and GPU bad).

Oh ok I’ll just leave the cpu see how it pairs with a cheap gpu if I can find one at a decent price
Yeah it was a typo it’s a AMD 2600

sniperone · Monday at 17:42

mickyflinn said:
If your budget is still £500 then that leaves you £375 and I think that motherboard is matx not itx .

New

CPU 5600 £90
Case DEEPCOOL MATREXX 40 3FS £35
1tb m2 £45.
PSU MSI S650BN £50
Leaving £150 for a GPU.

Is the 5600 a big jump from the 2600 ?

Tetras · Monday at 17:43

sniperone said:
Oh ok I’ll just leave the cpu see how it pairs with a cheap gpu if I can find one at a decent price
Yeah it was a typo it’s a AMD 2600

Ah, alright! They're not great by the standard of today (a 5600 would be better, for example), but for a budget PC, it is just fine and can play the vast majority of games when paired with a nice graphics card.

Having said that, sod's law he'd choose to play the one or two games that would chug on it :cry:

sniperone · Monday at 19:16

Tetras said:
Ah, alright! They're not great by the standard of today (a 5600 would be better, for example), but for a budget PC, it is just fine and can play the vast majority of games when paired with a nice graphics card.

Having said that, sod's law he'd choose to play the one or two games that would chug on it

That’s what I’m thinking so looking around for a 5600 just so he’s ok for a bit longer . Might push me slightly over budget but I don’t mind another £50 but absolutely no more .

Tetras · Monday at 19:46

sniperone said:
That’s what I’m thinking so looking around for a 5600 just so he’s ok for a bit longer . Might push me slightly over budget but I don’t mind another £50 but absolutely no more .

If it was me, I'd leave it with the 2600. That's just because your budget is so tight and you already paid for the 2600, which is more than passable for a budget gaming PC. The priority now is the graphics card, because the 2600 gets you into decently playable territory for 99% of games, so next you'd need a good graphics card. I'd aim for a 6600 or 3060 12GB if you can, but if I was going to splash out, it wouldn't be on a new CPU, it'd be getting a 9060 XT 16GB.