PC build help for £2000

[2drunk2funk2]

Hi

My son wants a PC and knows I have built quite a few in years gone by so wants to do one with me for himself, to learn the process.

I have not built one since my 5800X3D with a 4070 Super pairing a few years back.

He wants to be able to play AAA games.
He has 2x24" HD monitors @ 144mhz. I have recommended he goes for 27" QHD monitor if upgrading but he is not sure, so ideally looking at options with and without a gaming 27" monitor.
He is not looking for RGB and I would prefer air cooled, not confident enough for a first water cooled set up.

He also has decent keyboard and mouse but he does not like old case and the other components are too old.

I am way out of touch on best combos and components now so would love some advise for a 2K budget.

Many thanks

 

[Tetras]

This is way under budget, but it would suit running the 1080p monitors and support an upgrade to 1440p.

If this is a first build, I'd suggest keeping the individual part cost down, with some potential for future upgrades (i.e. I wouldn't want to be fitting a £500+ graphics card or a £400+ CPU on my first attempt).

There are currently lots of deals on CPUs and other parts, so I'd consider something like a 7600/7600X instead, if the price is good.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Six Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-02677) = £179.99
• 1 x MSI B840 GAMING PLUS WIFI (AMD AM5) B840 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03996) = £124.99
• 1 x Crucial Pro 48GB (2x24GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C46 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-01086) = £99.95
• 1 x XFX Swift 9060 XT Gaming OC Triple Fan 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-XFX-05431) = £350.00
• 1 x Team Group MP44L 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03129) = £99.95
• 1 x Kolink Unity Meshbay Performance Midi Tower Case - Black Mesh (SKU: CA-081-KK) = £35.79
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02517) = £84.94

• 1 x Thermalright Assassin Spirit 120 Evo Dark CPU Cooler - 120 mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02667) = £14.99

Total: £1,002.59 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

 

[freddie64]

Seeing as the OP has built a PC before, how about this? (Not sure how long the GPU will stay at this price though)

Overspecced for 1080p but has money left over for a 1440p monitor.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £399.95
• 1 x MSI PRO B850-P WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03995) = £174.99
• 1 x Kingston FURY Beast EXPO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-KNG-03705) = £110.00
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 850W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02519) = £104.98
• 1 x Crucial T500 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-CRU-01090) = £128.99
• 1 x Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 Black Dual Tower CPU Air Cooler (SKU: COO-TLR-03280) = £39.95
• 1 x Gainward GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Phoenix-S 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-GNW-05399) = £679.99
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 216 Mid-tower PC case - Black (SKU: CA-7BG-LL) = £85.99

Total: £1,724.84 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[JollyJamma]

This is way under budget, but it would suit running the 1080p monitors and support an upgrade to 1440p.

If this is a first build, I'd suggest keeping the individual part cost down, with some potential for future upgrades (i.e. I wouldn't want to be fitting a £500+ graphics card or a £400+ CPU on my first attempt).

There are currently lots of deals on CPUs and other parts, so I'd consider something like a 7600/7600X instead, if the price is good.

Total: £1,002.59
​

I like this suggestion a lot since it’s great value and allows a lot of flexibility for upgrades down the line.

That RAM should overclock to 6000 MT/s easily too which you and your son can learn about together.

I wouldn’t spend more than you have to if the performance is good enough.

I might go for a faster GPU than the 9060XT but it’s still plenty fast enough for what OPs child will use it for and 16gigs of VRAM is nice to have, even if it’s not going to be as fast as a 9070XT with 12 gigs of VRAM.​

 

[2drunk2funk2]

Hi
Thanks for suggestions.
He does not have to spend the whole 2K but leaning towards not having to upgrade for a while, so rather get bang for buck now.
The 9800X3D is the processor I was looking at, so thanks for that recommendation and mobo/memory to match. I was wondering though whether 32gb is the low end now, and 48gb a better option?

I have not looked at AMD gpus yet, only Nvidia as that's what I have always used.
Still trying to work out best value GPU (with a 1440p in mind) , that being a TI variant or maybe a 5080

JollyJamma

That RAM should overclock to 6000 MT/s easily too which you and your son can learn about together.

I can build and wire up the from scratch, done that a dozen times. I will probably be looking at stock rather than O/C to start. I have not had great experiences with overclocking, specially memory.
Hoping the build will not really need an O/C for the current AAA games he will play. Nice to have as an option to tweak later though.

 

[Craig_d1]

This is way under budget, but it would suit running the 1080p monitors and support an upgrade to 1440p.

If this is a first build, I'd suggest keeping the individual part cost down, with some potential for future upgrades (i.e. I wouldn't want to be fitting a £500+ graphics card or a £400+ CPU on my first attempt).

There are currently lots of deals on CPUs and other parts, so I'd consider something like a 7600/7600X instead, if the price is good.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Six Core 5.40GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-02677) = £179.99
• 1 x MSI B840 GAMING PLUS WIFI (AMD AM5) B840 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03996) = £124.99
• 1 x Crucial Pro 48GB (2x24GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C46 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-01086) = £99.95
• 1 x XFX Swift 9060 XT Gaming OC Triple Fan 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-XFX-05431) = £350.00
• 1 x Team Group MP44L 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03129) = £99.95
• 1 x Kolink Unity Meshbay Performance Midi Tower Case - Black Mesh (SKU: CA-081-KK) = £35.79
• 1 x Phanteks AMP GH 750W 80PLUS Gold ATX Power Supply Modular - Black (SKU: POW-PHK-02517) = £84.94
• 1 x Thermalright Assassin Spirit 120 Evo Dark CPU Cooler - 120 mm (SKU: COO-TLR-02667) = £14.99

Total: £1,002.59 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

only prob with a b840 is you can't enable PBO on it..just don't see the point when you can get a b850 for similar money.

 

[Tetras]

I was wondering though whether 32gb is the low end now, and 48gb a better option?

32GB is still fine for almost all games, but if I was spending £2K I'd prefer at least 48GB. That said, you'll notice e.g. £100 on the graphics card more (if it moves you up a tier).

Still trying to work out best value GPU (with a 1440p in mind) , that being a TI variant or maybe a 5080

For 1440p a Ti is fine.

 

[freddie64]

Hi
Thanks for suggestions.
He does not have to spend the whole 2K but leaning towards not having to upgrade for a while, so rather get bang for buck now.
The 9800X3D is the processor I was looking at, so thanks for that recommendation and mobo/memory to match. I was wondering though whether 32gb is the low end now, and 48gb a better option?

I have not looked at AMD gpus yet, only Nvidia as that's what I have always used.
Still trying to work out best value GPU (with a 1440p in mind) , that being a TI variant or maybe a 5080

My spec was just to give you a idea of what you can get for your max budget (including monitor).

Re the motherboard, i have no experience with AM5 so someone may be able to advise on better, although a review i saw was favourable.

I have never felt the need to have more than 32GB of RAM, but having more is not a bad thing.

Was going to suggest a 9070 XT but the prices have gone back to normal so i went with the 5070 TI.

The 5080 is probably a good card but not at them prices

 

[Craig_d1]

My spec was just to give you a idea of what you can get for your max budget (including monitor).

Re the motherboard, i have no experience with AM5 so someone may be able to advise on better, although a review i saw was favourable.

I have never felt the need to have more than 32GB of RAM, but having more is not a bad thing.

Was going to suggest a 9070 XT but the prices have gone back to normal so i went with the 5070 TI.

The 5080 is probably a good card but not at them prices

9070xt can still be had for £570 elsewhere tbh