Gaming PC base unit - £700 Max budget

[danmck]

My son wants a PC for Christmas.

He will be playing the new Jurassic world evolution 3 game and hoping to play battlefield 6 at a reasonable level. This will be on a 1080p monitor for now but ideally if possible on 1440p monitor in the future.

We have everything apart from the base unit so just need everything for that. I have being trying to spec this myself and I was hoping to future proof the build as much as possible, but I have really been struggling due to the cost of the graphics card (as trying to get 16gb or as close as possible)

Can anyone please recommend a decent build within budget (or as close as possible) that would be suitable for some hassle free gaming ?

Thanks

 

[Gray2233]

Tough one without skimping here and there, I'd really try to boost your budget by £50-100 or so.

- W11 keys can be had for around a tenner, don't go retail or you'll murder your budget.
- There's a few items not currently in stock here unfortunately, no idea when they'll be back in.
- Things like storage and a better HSF than the stock are easily added down the line, but I'd really push for a better case and NvME for another £50ish total, I'd prefer an entry level B850 motherboard too which would add another £40 give or take.

I'm told Intel drivers have improved lately, they're not entirely perfect but I'd rather spend £200 on a 12gb Intel card than £200 + on an 8gb AMD/Nv at this point, and you can always upgrade the GPU next year.

Make sure the Intel card actually fits in the listed case, only reason I selected it was due to the price.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x MSI MAG A650BN UK PSU 650W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: POW-MSI-03345) = £47.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £160.99
• 1 x Sparkle Intel ARC B580 TITAN OC 12GB GDDR6 Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-SPK-03779) = £199.99
• 1 x Aerocool Bolt Mini TG Micro-ATX case - black (SKU: CA-234-AE) = £24.95
• 1 x WD Green SN3000 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-WDC-04131) = £52.99
• 1 x PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-PNY-04563) = £109.99
• 1 x MSI Pro B840M-B (AMD AM5) B840 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-05550) = £89.99

Total: £698.88 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

 

[lepharaon33]

Tough one without skimping here and there, I'd really try to boost your budget by £50-100 or so.

- W11 keys can be had for around a tenner, don't go retail or you'll murder your budget.
- There's a few items not currently in stock here unfortunately, no idea when they'll be back in.
- Things like storage and a better HSF than the stock are easily added down the line, but I'd really push for a better case and NvME for another £50ish total, I'd prefer an entry level B850 too which would add another £40 give or take.

I'm told Intel drivers have improved lately, they're not entirely perfect but I'd rather spend £200 on a 12gb Intel card than £200 + on an 8gb AMD/Nv at this point, and you can always upgrade the GPU next year.

Make sure the Intel card actually fits in the listed case, only reason I selected it was due to the price.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x MSI MAG A650BN UK PSU 650W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: POW-MSI-03345) = £47.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £160.99
• 1 x Sparkle Intel ARC B580 TITAN OC 12GB GDDR6 Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-SPK-03779) = £199.99
• 1 x Aerocool Bolt Mini TG Micro-ATX case - black (SKU: CA-234-AE) = £24.95
• 1 x WD Green SN3000 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-WDC-04131) = £52.99
• 1 x PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-PNY-04563) = £109.99
• 1 x MSI Pro B840M-B (AMD AM5) B840 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-05550) = £89.99

Total: £698.88 (includes delivery: £11.98)

Suggestions if you can add ~£50–£100​

• Case: step up to something like the Fractal Pop Mini Air or NZXT H5 Flow (~£60–£70) for vastly better airflow and easier building.
• Motherboard: swap to an MSI B650M Pro or ASRock B650M PG Riptide (~£130).
• Storage: consider a Crucial P5 Plus 1 TB or Lexar NM790 1 TB for ~£15–20 more — faster sustained speeds.

 

[Tetras]

and I was hoping to future proof the build as much as possible

That's a big ask for the budget, I'm afraid. For £700 for the whole tower with future 1440p usage in mind, you're really just looking at maximising the ability to even play the latest games now, let alone down the road.

We used to go DDR4 with these kind of builds (Ryzen 5600 or 12400F/14400F), but the high price of new DDR4 has pretty much killed that option and AM5 is better for future upgrades anyway.

 

[tamzzy]

but the high price of new DDR4

and the rising prices of DDR5 RAM also makes the order that much taller

 

[deviation]

That's a big ask for the budget, I'm afraid. For £700 for the whole tower with future 1440p usage in mind, you're really just looking at maximising the ability to even play the latest games now, let alone down the road.

We used to go DDR4 with these kind of builds (Ryzen 5600 or 12400F/14400F), but the high price of new DDR4 has pretty much killed that option and AM5 is better for future upgrades anyway.

and the rising prices of DDR5 RAM also makes the order that much taller

DDR4 versus DDR5, has become the east coast vs west coast!
Poor old AM4, it just wants to live, but all this RAM'ism is killing both sides