£1000 budget for gaming PC will this be ok?

Bumhug · 12 May 2025 at 11:52

Building a PC for my nephew, currently has an Xbox One X so in need of a gaming upgrade. 14 years old and into the typical games (Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox) his room is tiny so going to be plugging into a fairly old 32 inch 1080p TV which is likely to die in the next year but will be replaced by another cheap one. Normally I go for AMD but from what I can see the 14400f seems a steal at that price not too fussed on upgrade paths but for an AMD build would be looking at an A5 though and probably a 7600x which is a fairly big price jump for around the same performance (from what I can see, may be missing something). Or maybe I should just go AM4 and get a 5700X3D

5060TI 16GB is another point of contention, with the 9060XT on the way would probably go that route depending on price but if limited to 1080p I have thought maybe Intel ARC B580 12GB would probably do the job.

Any thoughts, the more ARGB the better as he is autistic and could happily spend hours just looking at the lights.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Asus Prime B760M-A WIFI D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6KG-AS) = £109.99
1 x Intel Core i5-14400F (Raptor Lake-S) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-INT-02972) = £128.99
1 x Antec CX600M ARGB M-ATX Mini Tower - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-04160) = £54.95
1 x Thermalright AXP120 X67 Black ARGB Low Profile CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03293) = £34.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMW32GX4M2D3600C18) (SKU: MY-4D4-CS) = £70.99
1 x Team Group MP33 PRO 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen3 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-02682) = £92.99
1 x Aerocool Integrator 600W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: CA-23P-AE) = £41.99
1 x Palit GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Infinity 3 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PAL-04920) = £389.99

Total: £936.86 (includes delivery: £11.98)

dfour · 12 May 2025 at 12:04

That case can fit much bigger coolers than that one like the peerless assassin,

Cheaper non corsair rgb ram (less software needed)

Better psu designed for 'fish tank' style cases with more power headroom (600 wat min for 5060ti) also its ATX v.3 spec where the aerocool isnt.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB Black CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02724) = £29.99
1 x Kingston Fury Beast RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-299-KS) = £64.99
1 x Lian Li Edge Gold 750W Black Power Supply (SKU: POW-LIA-03766) = £85.99

Total: £180.97 (includes delivery: £0.00)

tamzzy · 12 May 2025 at 12:15

Bumhug said:
Or maybe I should just go AM4 and get a 5700X3D

absolutely not. not for a new build.

Bumhug said:
from what I can see the 14400f seems a steal at that price not too fussed on upgrade paths

absolute steal!

here's my take for your budget, though i acknowledge it's £50 over, it's a vastly better spec, and better yet, in stock

cheaper RAM, same 32GB, RGB, 3600MHz - don't believe the ryzen tuned marketing hype. it's the same XMP profile that intel uses.
gen 4 ssd
the case is in stock, and better still, comes with 6...yes...6 ARGB fans
cheaper cooler
5070
vastly better psu

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Intel Core i5-14400F (Raptor Lake-S) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-INT-02972) = £128.99
1 x Asus Prime B760M-A WIFI D4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6KG-AS) = £109.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 32GB (2x16GB) 3600MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit (CMW32GX4M2Z3600C18) (SKU: MY-4CK-CS) = £59.99
1 x WD Blue SN5000 2TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-WDC-02651) = £96.99
1 x Thermalright Assassin X120 Refined SE ARGB CPU Cooler - 120mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02726) = £17.99
1 x Aerocool Dryft Mini v2 Micro-ATX Case (SKU: CAS-AER-00607) = £55.00
1 x Palit GeForce RTX 5070 Infinity 3 SFF 12GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PAL-04407) = £499.99
1 x NVIDIA - DOOM: The Dark Ages Premium Edition Game Bundle (SKU: DIG-NVI-05178) = £0.00
1 x Lian Li Edge Gold 750W Black Power Supply (SKU: POW-LIA-03766) = £85.99

Total: £1,054.93 (includes delivery: £0.00)

tamzzy · 12 May 2025 at 12:22

@Bumhug I've recommended the case before.
here's how it looks with all the lights: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/upgrade-recommendations.18992544/post-37396209

dfour · 12 May 2025 at 12:24

You can always sell the Doom game for about £40-£50 to cover the difference

Its a shame the bottom fans arent reverse blade like the side fans but first world problems at that price

Bumhug · 12 May 2025 at 13:08

tamzzy said:
@Bumhug I've recommended the case before.
here's how it looks with all the lights: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/upgrade-recommendations.18992544/post-37396209

That is a nice case! Not so sure on the 5070, got to wait till pay day on 19th so will have a think on it

tamzzy · 12 May 2025 at 13:13

Bumhug said:
Not so sure on the 5070

(already pre-skipped to the appropriate section)

Tetras · 12 May 2025 at 14:40

Bumhug said:
Normally I go for AMD but from what I can see the 14400f seems a steal at that price

7600/7600X have been edging towards ~£150 (UK prices I mean, not imports) and I'd personally take one for that over the 14400F, but by the time you add the board and DDR5 it'll be more than £30 and would need a cooler for a 7600X, whereas the 14400F can survive with the box cooler.

Bumhug · 12 May 2025 at 14:50

tamzzy said:
(already pre-skipped to the appropriate section)

But at 1080p on a 60hz screen is it worth the extra money? Just seems a bit over kill

Not ruling it out, just already told my other half its going to cost about 700 quid........

tamzzy · 12 May 2025 at 14:52

Bumhug said:
Not ruling it out, just already told my other half its going to cost about 700 quid........

OH! (literally and figuratively :cry:

)
to be honest, with a £700 budget i'd look at getting some used parts, eg the core bundle (cpu/mobo/ram) which are the least likely parts to fail to save some dosh

dfour · 12 May 2025 at 15:24

tamzzy said:
OH! (literally and figuratively )
to be honest, with a £700 budget i'd look at getting some used parts, eg the core bundle (cpu/mobo/ram) which are the least likely parts to fail to save some dosh

I think he just told his other half it was £700

as his original build was over £900

Bumhug · 12 May 2025 at 15:26

I am happy spending the 1000, we are redoing his whole bedroom so sorting out furniture as well, its looking like our original plan wont work due to the room being tiny but new option is going to be couple hundred quid cheaper so may as well put that to good use

Apart from GPU think I am sorted on spec now, probably best wait till there is more info on the 9060 range before committing, fingers crossed the 9060XT falls between the 5060 and 5070 and cost the same as a 5060, can at least hope!

Deibu · 12 May 2025 at 15:53

I believe it's the 18th for more news on the 9060/XT so not long to wait now.

Bumhug · 27 May 2025 at 11:13

Just a quick update, went for the 5060Ti 16GB. Also had to make a few changes, turns out the case was far too big and needed to get something with a smaller footprint this meant new PSU as the Lian Li was just a tad too big (the replacement was 20 quid cheaper elsewhere) . NVMe drive had also gone up in price so changed that as well.

Built over the weekend, case was a bit fiddly with a couple of motherboard screws that were a challenge to get in and some very nasty sharp edges that drew blood a couple of times. Performance wise haven't really benchmarked it just played a few games to test and everything looks amazing and runs silky smooth. Its almost silent as well, ran OCCT for a couple of hours and it hit 63C and fans weren't even breaking a sweat!

With cheap wireless keyboard/mouse/headset and some cheapo lighting from China and ignoring the Xbox controller and rechargeable battery packs it came to just over £1000

Substitutes were...
My basket at OcUK:

1 x Kolink Observatory HF Mesh ARGB Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-07R-KK) = £49.99
1 x Kingston NV3 2TB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SNV3S/2000G) (SKU: STO-KNG-02943) = £99.95
1 x MSI MAG A750GL 750W 80 Plus Gold ATX 3.0 PCIE5 Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-013-MS) = £104.99
1 x Palit GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Infinity 3 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PAL-04920) = £389.99

Total: £644.92 (includes delivery: £0.00)