New Build - £900 Budget.

pvtkranox

pvtkranox

pvtkranox

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Joined
1 Oct 2014
Posts
33
Location
Hartlepool, UK
Good day to you all,

After a bit of advice, I've been self-building for quite some time, but more so looking for some additional advice on a build, as helping a friend out who is on a budget.

We have a budget of around £900, can stretch +10% if needed, but looking to keep it as close to this as possible.

I'm not bothered about peripherals, primarily just the following: (2 prices I'm looking at)
Firstly;
-Mobo
-CPU
-RAM
-GPU

Secondly;
-Mobo
-CPU
-RAM
-GPU
-PSU

I've got a case, HDD, monitor etc - So these don't need to be looked out.

My biggest caveat, if you will is that it's upgradeable, I am more than aware for this budget I won't be future proof for years, but the option to upgrade Ram, CPU, GPU is a must. I've looked about myself and even resorted to looking at the pre-built ones - My main issue with these as for 905, the Mobos are absolute tripe, and would need to be the first thing to be replaced when looking at upgrading.

Just a few ideas on builds would be great.
 
For CPU upgradeability AMD is only choise.
Though if current PC isn't falling apart would best to wait for release of Zen2 CPUs to improve available bang per budget from the start.
Release should be in Computex in couple weeks and future proof for 2-3 years 8 core/16 thread should be sub £250.
(unlike's Intel's butt rape&robbery overprices)

Graphics card is lot more upgradeable to take advantage of increase in performance per price.

Also price of RAM is coming steadily down.

And some SSD would be must for operating system.
SSD improves daily use experience lot.
Half TB drives are available for less than £60 and quarter TB drives for fair £30.

And what's the current PSU?
Suspect it's some old low end cheapo, which could be risk to new parts.
Especially if case is some best before dozen years ago PSU on top model.
 
@EsaT Thanks for the information.

Overall, yeah AMD was the go-to choice, I feel you get a lot more bang for your buck, and not limited by Intel prices, or having to upgrade everything in 12 months due to new gen and incompatibility.

SSD/HD I'm fine with, for the time being just chuck in whatever I had spare - It's not really a bottle neck issue for the moment, same with the PSU - Running a 650w Corsair modular.

As you say, Ram is cheap enough - A decent 2x8gb 3000mhz, can come in at £100 (or less) easily.

It was more what people had around mobos/cpus, any issues they have, links for ones that are currently at a good price etc.
 
The new motherboards will have features that X470/B450 boards don't have, faster and more PCie lanes etc, so best hold out a couple of weeks.
 
People get too bogged down on upgradability IMO - for most people a decent CPU will last for years, and when you do go to replace it the socket will have been long superseded.

Ryzen was sold that way and people rave about it, but purchasing a 1700x then upgrading to a 2700x was no different to purchasing an 8700k + board and I can drop a 9900k in.
 
pvtkranox said:
and not limited by Intel prices, or having to upgrade everything in 12 months due to new gen and incompatibility.

Running a 650w Corsair modular.

It was more what people had around mobos/cpus, any issues they have, links for ones that are currently at a good price etc.
Click to expand...
Intel hasn't had new architecture in long time.
They just rebrand same soon four year old 6th gen Skylake.
While forcing people artificially to change motherboards.
Honestly they would be only at 7th gen with extra cores over four justifying that.

Corsair has PSUs starting from standard cheap models, so precise model number is needed for knowing its quality.

In current AMD motherboards Asus/Gigabyte have lots of models with complete garbage level CPU VRMs.
MSI again has decent VRMs starting from £100 level.
Unless there's some newer improved CPU clock speed control related mechanism, current motherboards could stay as completely valid choises for better priced normal use PC.
Some PCIe v4.0 lanes from chipset really don't give much anything for normal home use.
 
Webzta said:
People get too bogged down on upgradability IMO - for most people a decent CPU will last for years, and when you do go to replace it the socket will have been long superseded.

Ryzen was sold that way and people rave about it, but purchasing a 1700x then upgrading to a 2700x was no different to purchasing an 8700k + board and I can drop a 9900k in.
Click to expand...

Not to burst your bubble, but the opportunity for someone to go from with a Z370 from 8700K to 9900K is hardly great, 11 months apart and unless you got a really good Z370 board good luck getting it stable at 4.7 fully loaded without melting the VRM's, and that is it end of line, no more upgrades.

If you bought an AM4 board back in Feb-March 2017 with an R7 1700, then you'll still be able to get a new CPU for it in June/July 2020 when Zen3 is released, and that will mean the ability to put a 16c/32t CPU in it. That's a four year gap, so if you replace your CPU once in four years, and your board doesn't need to be changed, then by the time you need to change, it could have been 7,8 or even 9 years. Intel in all likelihood will have had 8 chipsets out in that time, and another 4 sockets that were unnecessary.

Back to the OP's question:

Put everything on hold until AMD announce and launch Zen2 based Ryzen 3000 CPU's, RAM prices are still failing weekly, as is NAND flash so it is only going to get cheaper until Q4 this year, also Nvidia are going to be dropping GPU prices or be facing a pretty dim view from the shareholders why they keep missing quarterly targets.

You've not actually specified on what your friend will be using this build for, that will have a great deal of influence on what weighting is put to each component.
 
Journey said:
Back to the OP's question:

Put everything on hold until AMD announce and launch Zen2 based Ryzen 3000 CPU's, RAM prices are still failing weekly, as is NAND flash so it is only going to get cheaper until Q4 this year, also Nvidia are going to be dropping GPU prices or be facing a pretty dim view from the shareholders why they keep missing quarterly targets.

You've not actually specified on what your friend will be using this build for, that will have a great deal of influence on what weighting is put to each component.
Click to expand...

Looking to build in the next, probably 4-6 weeks. Usually, I would wait, no issues, but doesn't have a PC at all currently. Looking at something along the lines of.
CPU - AMD Rzyen 2700 (possible x)
Ram - 2 x 8GB - 3000mhz
Mobo - Something like the Asus X470,
PUS - Be Quiet Modular - Something like a 750w.
GPU - Depending on the above, will more than likely have around £300 to spend, give or take.
 
pvtkranox said:
Looking to build in the next, probably 4-6 weeks. Usually, I would wait, no issues, but doesn't have a PC at all currently. Looking at something along the lines of.
CPU - AMD Rzyen 2700 (possible x)
Ram - 2 x 8GB - 3000mhz
Mobo - Something like the Asus X470,
PUS - Be Quiet Modular - Something like a 750w.
GPU - Depending on the above, will more than likely have around £300 to spend, give or take.
Click to expand...
Do you need the X470 features - if not the MSI B450 Tomahawk or Carbon are proven boards (quality VRM) and will save you a considerable amount of money - do you need WiFi?

Example: - quality B450 with WiFi, 2700X and a quality Seasonic with semi passive cooling 10 year guarantee (The 2700X comes with 2 free games - which you could sell on to offset cost). You could obviously save money choosing the 2600X - if only gaming - but if you're streaming then the 2 extra cores will come into their own. A 2600X paired with a better GPU would give superior performance than a 2700X paired an under-powered GPU.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £601.06 (includes shipping: £11.10)



The below Vega 64 is on special and also comes with 2 free games - which you could sell on bringing the card to ~£300:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
​
 
Last edited:
Plec said:
Do you need the X470 features - if not the MSI B450 Tomahawk or Carbon are proven boards (quality VRM) and will save you a considerable amount of money - do you need WiFi?

Example: - quality B450 with WiFi, 2700X and a quality Seasonic with semi passive cooling 10 year guarantee (The 2700X comes with 2 free games - which you could sell on to offset cost). You could obviously save money choosing the 2600X - if only gaming - but if you're streaming then the 2 extra cores will come into their own. A 2600X paired with a better GPU would give superior performance than a 2700X paired an under-powered GPU.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £601.06 (includes shipping: £11.10)



The below Vega 64 is on special and also comes with 2 free games - which you could sell on bringing the card to ~£300:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
​
Click to expand...


Thanks for this, it's exactly what I was looking for.
Coming it at £950 for the lot (including PSU) Is pretty much spot on.

The x470 certainly is not a must, don't need WIFI - It was just an idea.
 
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