Can you build a decent gaming PC for £600

[Annatar]

Hello,

Someone has asked me to build their 14 year old son a gaming PC for a budget of £600. He currently has a PC with a AMD Athlon 3000G and 1 stick of 8gb RAM. It was a cheap prebuilt they bought in 2019 I think.

With £600 is it even possible to build something decent especially considering how bad RAM prices are now.

 

[tamzzy]

absolutely yes, the computer has an AM4 base so you can start from there

as to the prebuilt, what are the other specs (ssd/psu/cooler) etc
also knowing what speed the ram is, would help a ton

 

[throwaway4372]

I think you'd be 600 lighter and still not have something decent. Better to save another grand then check again.

 

[Annatar]

absolutely yes, the computer has an AM4 base so you can start from there

as to the prebuilt, what are the other specs (ssd/psu/cooler) etc
also knowing what speed the ram is, would help a ton

OS – Windows 11 64 Bit
CPU – AMD Athlon 3000g
RAM – 1 stick of 8gb DDR4
Motherboard – ASUSTeK AM4
Graphics – 2048mb ATI AMD Radeon Vega 3 (Integrated)
Storage – 1TB HDD
PSU - Unknown

That's all the information I have currently. I personally don't want to touch his old PC as I'm guessing the PSU will be something cheap and I don't want to end up in a situation where I have to update bios, change cpu and put in a GPU and it goes wrong leaving me with the blame. They originally wanted to get a GPU but I said that CPU is ancient and terrible and will just bottleneck anything decent.

 

[tamzzy]

what i would do:

1) update the mobo bios
2) swap the psu to the MSI MAG 650 (new): https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...0-plus-bronze-power-supply-pow-msi-03345.html - £48
3) swap the 3000g to a ryzen 5600 (used) - £80
4) add in another 8gb ram (used) assuming that the current ram is 3000/3200MHz - £25
5) add in a 9060XT 16gb: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-...gddr6-pci-express-graphics-gra-xfx-05433.html - £330
6) add in a 1TB NVME SSD, assuming the board has a M.2 slot as you haven't specified which board exactly: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...pcie-4.0-solid-state-drive-sto-wdc-06213.html - £100

total damage = £583 give or take

other considerations:
a) CPU cooler for a £10-15
b) if the kid isn't a massive gamer (ie, simple games like fortnite only) then could potentially save a few bob and get a 9060XT 8GB instead: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...-pci-express-graphics-card-gra-asu-05199.html (£270)
c) the current case may need swapping out if it has not a lot of ventilation, you haven't said

I personally don't want to touch his old PC as I'm guessing the PSU will be something cheap and I don't want to end up in a situation where I have to update bios, change cpu and put in a GPU and it goes wrong leaving me with the blame.

realistically, there isn't much of a choice if you want to keep to budget
the cheapest new pc at ocuk is £800: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk...-rtx-5060-pre-built-gaming-pc-fs-pb14-ep.html
this is also poorer in performance compared to the above

in all honesty, if you're unsure, just wash your hands off this request tbh.
you probably don't want to be their tech support in the future, either.

 

[Tetras]

I personally don't want to touch his old PC as I'm guessing the PSU will be something cheap and I don't want to end up in a situation where I have to update bios, change cpu and put in a GPU and it goes wrong leaving me with the blame.

in all honesty, if you're unsure, just wash your hands off this request tbh.
you probably don't want to be their tech support in the future, either.

Reading this I agree. If they're that bad to deal with, I'd be telling them to just buy a console or a prebuilt (if they can find anything better for that).

At £600, they may think they're spending a lot of money, but it is a very tight budget for a gaming PC.

They originally wanted to get a GPU but I said that CPU is ancient and terrible and will just bottleneck anything decent.

Yeah, that's true it would be a big bottleneck, but it would at least push some older games into playability that aren't now, even if the card was a basic one without a power connector like a 1050 Ti or 1650.

If they could get a 2600/3600 CPU, another 8GB and a 1650, it would turn it into a respectable machine, albeit still not playing the latest AAA games.

 

[Gray2233]

Have you considered looking into Geforce Now? There's a sale on at the moment, puts the premium package at a fiver and ultimate at a tenner for a month.

NVIDIA GeForce NOW

Your Games, Your Devices, RTX On

www.nvidia.com

Ultimate gives you access to a 5080 equivalent system, I'm not sure how the latency is for online gaming but I'm told it's pretty good.

Unfortunately with the skyrocketing costs the chances of building a decent gaming PC for less than a grand is a tall order even when going second hand, and it'd still offer worse performance than GeForce Now.

 

[Kelt]

Unless it was a close relative, or a friend with benefits, I wouldn't touch this request with a ten foot bargepole.

 

[Gray2233]

Unless it was a close relative, or a friend with benefits, I'd wouldn't touch this request with a ten foot bargepole.

I think we have very different views on "friends with benefits" because I sure as hell wouldn't go out of my way for a regular hookup.

 

[Rob_B]

what i would do:

1) update the mobo bios
2) swap the psu to the MSI MAG 650 (new): https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...0-plus-bronze-power-supply-pow-msi-03345.html - £48
3) swap the 3000g to a ryzen 5600 (used) - £80
4) add in another 8gb ram (used) assuming that the current ram is 3000/3200MHz - £25
5) add in a 9060XT 16gb: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-...gddr6-pci-express-graphics-gra-xfx-05433.html - £330
6) add in a 1TB NVME SSD, assuming the board has a M.2 slot as you haven't specified which board exactly: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...pcie-4.0-solid-state-drive-sto-wdc-06213.html - £100

total damage = £583 give or take

other considerations:
a) CPU cooler for a £10-15
b) if the kid isn't a massive gamer (ie, simple games like fortnite only) then could potentially save a few bob and get a 9060XT 8GB instead: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...-pci-express-graphics-card-gra-asu-05199.html (£270)
c) the current case may need swapping out if it has not a lot of ventilation, you haven't said



realistically, there isn't much of a choice if you want to keep to budget
the cheapest new pc at ocuk is £800: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk...-rtx-5060-pre-built-gaming-pc-fs-pb14-ep.html
this is also poorer in performance compared to the above

in all honesty, if you're unsure, just wash your hands off this request tbh.
you probably don't want to be their tech support in the future, either.

This, £600 goes nowhere any more.

Assuming you want to do it then a new CPU, some more RAM and a GPU upgrade is their best bet, you really need to more what motherboard it is though before you can do anything.

 

[Capitano]

Need 600 just for the RAM these days

 

[sastusbulbas]

Maybe a bit of a stretch, but I can currently build a basic gaming PC no thrills for around £660 based on AM4 B550 with an Intel Arc B580 GPU all new full retail. Case is rather uninspiring, no RGB, and you need to use the stock cooler.
For an extra £10 you could get a Kolink or similar case at around £40 with a side window and RGB, and add a Jonsbo 120mm or 90mm single fan RGB CPU cooler for £8 for a bit of light and colour. Increasing the cost to around £680. If you could stretch to £60 on the case I would recommend the Phanteks XT M3 with three RGB fans with an RGB air cooler.

If you could add an extra £100 I would be saying get the AMD 9060xt 16gb. But below that your only option is Intel.
You could also drop the 1tb NVMe for a 500gb NVMe, but I feel that is a real compromise and at some point in the future even with 1tb you will need to add more storage. But 500gb would save £30.

Ryzen 5 5500 Processor is available new for £70
Gigabyte B550M Aorus Elite Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard is available new for £86

You need to shop around for these but they are available.

Add the above to what is listed below and if you get free postage it helps.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (SKU: MY-0AK-TG) = £89.99
• 1 x Gigabyte Aorus 7300E 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-GIG-06500) = £94.99
• 1 x Kolink Observatory HF Mesh PWM Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: CAS-KLK-01625) = £29.99
• 1 x Intel ARC B580 12GB PCI-Express GDDR6 Limited Edition Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-INT-03759) = £239.99
• 1 x Intel Holiday Bundle - Choose One Of Four Premium Games (SKU: DIG-INT-06664) = £0.00
• 1 x MSI MAG A650BN UK PSU 650W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: POW-MSI-03345) = £47.98

Total: £502.94 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

Not sure if shopping around can drop a few more £££ but stock is limited at these prices and really no other option but AM4 for budget builds.

 

[SkyTerran]

Good one.

A significantly faster all Intel DDR4 build is 800 quid.
Intel Core i5-14600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor £189.99
Asus PRIME B760M-A WIFI D4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard £105.95

Even cheaper with say a used i7-12700F for £150 - which is still a beast with 8x P cores.