board + CPU + GPU £500

Dantr01

Dantr01

Dantr01

Associate
Joined
24 May 2025
Posts
4
Location
UK
Hi

I'd like a new motherboard , CPU and GPU for around £500.
If possible I would like to game at 1440p 60fps but not sure if my budget will allow ?.

So far I've seen...

Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core 4.6GHz - £119.99
ASUS TUF Gaming B550-Plus - £134.99
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3060 12GB - £248.99

what do you guys think ?

Thanks
 
I think your budget is a bit on the tight side. You don't mention what ram you have but unless it's already 3200mhz or 3600mhz you'd really need to factor in some new ram, in which case you'd be better off moving to an AM5/DDR5 build.

The 3060 12Gb whilst would probably be ok, as at least the amount of vram would help at 1440p, but otherwise it's a bit underpowered. If buying new and your games are well supported the Intel B580 12Gb is the same price and will be a good few steps quicker.
 
Thanks guys....

yeah my current PC is about 7-8 years old, i've got a - TUF Z370-PLUS GAMING - GTX1060 - i3 3850k, So I would need RAM upgrade as well. Currently 16GB @2400.
Yeah I did think £500 might be pushing it a bit.
 
Dantr01 said:
Yeah I did think £500 might be pushing it a bit.
Click to expand...
OCUK have the Arc A750 at £150, which is a good price for a budget build. Is it ideally suitable for 1440p? No, but Arc has always been stronger at 1440p/4K than the competing cards (maybe due to the bigger bus) and can beat both the 3060 and 6600, on average.

Build I just did in another thread:

(CPU cooler in the CPU box)

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £558.83 (includes delivery: £11.98)​
 
Intel Core i5-12400F 2.50GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail
CP-6AR-IN
£125 (incl. VAT)
£99 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
MSI PRO H610M-E DDR4 (LGA 1700) DDR4 mATX Motherboard
MOT-MSI-03383
£60 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey
MY-0AJ-TG
£80 (incl. VAT)
£48 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Intel ARC A750 Gaming 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
GX-08U-IN
£240 (incl. VAT)
£170 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Team Group MP44L 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive
STO-TMG-03128
£53 (incl. VAT)
£50 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Antec CX600M ARGB M-ATX Mini Tower - Black
CAS-ATC-04160
£55 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black
POW-PHK-02517
£85 (incl. VAT)
Find out more
Last edited:
Are there any particular games you're hoping to play? What is your exact PSU?

It might be better to get a GPU and pop in a second hand i5 8600K or something, they can be had for £30-40. You should see healthy uplift and you can put any savings in the pot for a more substantial future platform upgrade to something like AM5. The AMD RX9600 launches soon and might be a good fit in that regard, AMD has less driver overhead than Nvidia and I think(?) Intel too.
 
Last edited:
Gray2233 said:
Are there any particular games you're hoping to play? What is your exact PSU?

It might be better to get a GPU and pop in a second hand i5 8600K or something, they can be had for £30-40. You should see healthy uplift and you can put any savings in the pot for a more substantial future platform upgrade to something like AM5. The AMD RX9600 launches soon and might be a good fit in that regard, AMD has less driver overhead than Nvidia and I think(?) Intel too.
Click to expand...
My PSU is a Cougar 550w, I was hoping to play CyberPunk and Stalker 2 on it. Im happy to lower in-game graphics as well, I don't need to play on High or Ultra or anything. As long as it looks descent and runs around 60fps ish at 1440p.
 
Dantr01 said:
My PSU is a Cougar 550w, I was hoping to play CyberPunk and Stalker 2 on it. Im happy to lower in-game graphics as well, I don't need to play on High or Ultra or anything. As long as it looks descent and runs around 60fps ish at 1440p.
Click to expand...

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £122.93 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

CEX sell Intel 8600K's for £30-35, you might find one cheaper elsewhere, note that you might need a bios update.

The RX9600 launches in a couple of weeks, I believe it'll be around £250-350 depending on the version but someone else might have a better idea of the exacts. I'm assuming you might need a better HSF given you're on an old i3, plus the 8600K's OC decently which should help your situation, but do make sure it'll fit in your case.

You're going to need a better/new PSU either way so these purchases don't go to waste as they could be transplanted into a new build. Start saving for a new motherboard/cpu/RAM, but the above should put you in a position to play the games you want as long as you're sensible with your expectations performance wise.

Here's a guy running an 8600K with an Nvidia 4070 for reference:


Hold in mind that despite the CPU being hit hard, it looks like he's running it at stock (4.6-4.8ghz should be possible without it breaking a sweat), and as mentioned AMD suffers less from driver overhead than Nvidia so you should be okay.

Cyberpunk shouldn't be a problem at all.
 
Last edited:
thanks so much for the replies guys. I really appreciate it.
So yes I think I will wait for the RX9600 and see what the prices are then, thats a good idea.
I'll come back here again to annoy you guys if I run into any problems xD
Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom