Budget Build - £700

Associate
Joined
28 Sep 2011
Posts
102
Location
Stratford-upon-Avon
Good Morning All,

A good friend has asked me to help spec / build him a PC which will be mainly used for basic home tasks (Word / internet etc..) but would like to be able to play some games on it. (He currently plays on PS4).

Unfortunately all my experience is with Intel and NVidia.
For some reason, Intel systems seem to be a lot more ££ than the AMD (Same with NVidia over Radeon). Ive seen a lot of positive feedback on the recent Ryzen 5 CPU's and they seem to come in at decent prices. Unfortunately having never built or looked closely at AMD processors, I am hoping the OC community can lend a hand.

Trying to spec something myself quickly goes well over the budget.

Any assistance is much appreciated.

The £500 budget is not set in stone and he is willing to spend a bit more to give him a little more future proof system. (Lets say a stretch to £650).

He already has a monitor, keyboard and mouse, so only tower build required.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
26 May 2012
Posts
16,177
basically nearly the same spec as lltfdan, but with a few minor changes.
as the above spec, ryzen 2600 with rx570 8gb, is the best value cpu/gpu combo on the market currently.

1) better mobo - i'd get the MSI b450m gaming plus for around the same price as ocuk (is £10 cheaper than the b450m mortar at £78, but unfortunately, oos currently)
2) changed the ssd/hdd/odd combo for a large 500gb ssd. the sammy 860 evo is one of the best sata3 ssd on the market currently. if really penny pinching, can save £9 by going for the teamgroup 480gb ssd...
3) cheaper case with a fan bundle
all for just over a hair's worth of the top of the budget, £659 - as you're 25 posts off getting free shipping :) (sub-£650 if you swap the mobo and ssd around)

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £670.54 (includes shipping: £11.70)
 
Last edited:
Man of Honour
Joined
26 May 2012
Posts
16,177
Thank you very much for the assistance guys. Will definitely be looking at the Ryzen and RX bundle mentioned.
Just for my own understanding, what would the Rx570 be compared to on the NVidia range?

Werner
1060 3 GB version. But with loads more vram so performance won't be gimped
 
Associate
OP
Joined
28 Sep 2011
Posts
102
Location
Stratford-upon-Avon
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2015
Posts
18,514
Associate
OP
Joined
28 Sep 2011
Posts
102
Location
Stratford-upon-Avon

Thanks, but that is a bit too much over the initial £500 budget and stretch of £650.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2015
Posts
18,514
Thanks, but that is a bit too much over the initial £500 budget and stretch of £650.



My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £567.55 (includes shipping: £11.70)


if you can place extra on the mobo or 8gb version then great, but not end of the world​
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
Joined
28 Sep 2011
Posts
102
Location
Stratford-upon-Avon
With the other builds so close in price, what are peoples opinions of the Citizen Gaming build on offer at the moment.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk...-8gb-graphics-three-free-games-fs-1aq-og.html

Has a better GPU and can swap the HDD out for an SSD at almost no extra cost.

With windows removed, it comes in at £705.

Also, any recommendations on which of the 2 GPU's? Or are they near identical apart from visual appearances?
 
Man of Honour
Joined
26 May 2012
Posts
16,177
My basket at Overclockers UK:
  • 1 x OcUK Gaming Citizen Gaming PC - AMD Ryzen 5 2600, RX 590 8GB Graphics ***THREE FREE GAMES*** = £799.99
    • Memory:Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G30
    • Graphics Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 590 Red Devil 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
    • Solid State Drive (optional):TeamGroup 480GB L5 Lite SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive
    • WIFI:Unwanted
    • Operating System:Unwanted
    • Security Software:Unwanted
Total: £814.09 (includes shipping: £14.10)

it's a decent price.
but some budget parts (eg psu) to keep costs down...that's why.
if you don't want to DIY it isn't a bad shout :)
 
Associate
OP
Joined
28 Sep 2011
Posts
102
Location
Stratford-upon-Avon
I like DIY build but just thought with this the gpu is a lot better with same cpu and ram as in DIY build.
So only real difference would be psu. Could look to ask for an upgrade on psu.

DIY build comes in at about 680
So for £25 more get upgrade from 570 to 590 gpu. Looking at benchmark website, the 590 seems to score about 25% higher.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
26 May 2012
Posts
16,177
DIY build comes in at about 680

not sure if you're looking at the right spec, or i'm looking at the wrong spec.
i've specced up the citizen pc as close as i would normally
(except it doesn't give the option for a rx580 (rx590 is basically just a pre-overclocked rx580, and far too overpriced to consider it a good "upgrade" over the rx580)
as above - it comes to £800 with the following options - 480gb ssd, 16gb 3000mhz ram.

below is a DIY option, in comparison to the citizen pc above, has:
1) better board
2) better psu
3) faster ram
4) faster and larger ssd
5) as mentioned, rx580 is better value than the rx590 right now, so add £60 if you definitely want the rx590 instead.

can argue it both ways, both specs are within £20 of each other...with the citizen pc sacrificing points 1-4 for a better gpu.
and my custom spec sacrificing point 5, for points 1-4

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £795.49 (includes shipping: £11.70)
 
Last edited:
Associate
OP
Joined
28 Sep 2011
Posts
102
Location
Stratford-upon-Avon
@tamzzy sorry, but the build you have spec'd is just shy of £800, so £100 more than the citizen gaming build. So I would expect better parts.

I've ordered the Citizen gaming build for the better gpu. Comes with 3 year warranty, so sure OC would sort out any issues if they occur on the psu.
Also, as much as I like building the systems myself, the mortar MB seems to be out of stock absolutely everywhere.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
26 May 2012
Posts
16,177
@tamzzy sorry, but the build you have spec'd is just shy of £800, so £100 more than the citizen gaming build. So I would expect better parts
not sure if you're looking at the right spec, or i'm looking at the wrong spec.
i've specced up the citizen pc as close as i would normally
(except it doesn't give the option for a rx580 (rx590 is basically just a pre-overclocked rx580, and far too overpriced to consider it a good "upgrade" over the rx580)
as above - it comes to £800 with the following options - 480gb ssd, 16gb 3000mhz ram

If you're going for the basic citizen pc, just note that it has no SSD and only 8gb ram.
Also, about the custom spec not having better parts, it has better parts... see points 1-4 ;)
 
Back
Top Bottom