Build vs Buy - Gaming PC

[Spoodzilla]

Been out of the game for 20 years. Looking to build a gaming rig around the £1000 mark. Been getting myself up to day with the current hardware, apparently raid 0 and overclocking aren't really things anymore.
Is it better value to build or buy pre built?
Can anyone advise on a good cpu/graphics card combination that fits into this price bracket? I'm guessing 4k gaming is out of the question at this price point.
I'm looking at a 750w psu, at least 32gb ram and 1tb storage. A fancy glass case and pretty lights would be nice too

I used to know which speed of ram to get to match up with CPU clock cycles, motherboard bandwidths, but totally out of touch these days!

 

[tamzzy]

self build is always better, if you have the time to diagnose problems if/when they occur
prebuilts usually cheap out on some parts (usually ram/mobo/psu) but you have the return-to-base warranty for as long as it lasts

for £1k, you'd be looking at a rough build of: ryzen 7600, rx7800xt or rtx 4070 (non-super), 32gb ram
this will run 4k, but obviously not at ultra settings. more suited to high-refresh rate 1440p gaming, which is the sweet spot imo

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600 Six Core 5.10GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DW-AM) = £179.99
• 1 x Asus Prime B650M-A WIFI II (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6K6-AS) = £129.99
• 1 x TeamGroup Vulcan EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C38 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (FLABD532G6000HC38ADC01) (SKU: MY-0B2-TG) = £89.99
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02517) = £84.95
• 1 x SAPPHIRE PULSE AMD Radeon™ RX 7800 XT Gaming Graphics Card with 16GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA™ 3 architecture (SKU: GRA-SPR-00764) = £449.99
• 1 x AMD Radeon - Space Marine & Unknown 9 Awakening Games Bundle (SKU: DIG-AMD-02939) = £0.00
• 1 x Team Group MP44L 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03128) = £52.99
• 1 x Aerocool Dryft Mini v2 Micro-ATX Case (SKU: CAS-AER-00607) = £55.00

Total: £1,042.90 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Tetras]

I'm guessing 4k gaming is out of the question at this price point.

mickyflinn's build (7800 XT or 4070 non-Super) will get you playable framerates at native resolution in the majority of games, the other games you will need upscaling. It is a big ask for a 1K build though, so you're right that this is pushing it.

If you look at the charts on this page, it gives you a break down under 4K for each of the games tested, but note that they use the highest settings so you can do a bit better than the numbers quoted.

AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Review

With the Radeon RX 7800 XT, AMD is going after the GeForce RTX 4070. Our review confirms that AMD has achieved performance parity in rasterization and is pretty close in ray tracing, at a much better price point, and they are giving you 16 GB VRAM, instead of just 12 GB.

www.techpowerup.com

This is a good video for giving some context on what is possible and what to expect:

 

[zaniro]

What kind of games do you play? CPU or GPU intensive bias might dictate what you prioritise.