Hey all, I’m just looking for some advice around building an (ideally sub £650) gaming PC for my nephew for Christmas.
Money is quite short with his parents, so the cheaper the better, but I will help where I can. There is some loose agreement around £650 total.
I would appreciate some advice around this parts list I have come up with : https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/6ZR9NP
Thanks in advance for any help.
EDIT: I will be giving him a spare 2TB WD Red HDD that I have from my NAS
Hey…
The way I’m seeing this - it’s perfectly fine. It’s pretty much what I have in my PC. With one small difference.
I have an HDD for games. 250GB NVMe is perfect for boot drive and software and in general everything that needs massive speed.
Games in general are just fine on a hard drive. Yes, the loading times will be slightly faster, but the RX 580 won’t allow those 4K texture packs and super high res rendering stuff that make the loading time even longer that they need to be. 1TB drives are around 35£ so that will pass 650 limit, but will give the kid some space to install a bunch of games.
Honestly I don’t see anything that needs changing. Everything is pretty much fine for the price.
One more thing but that’s optional, is that you may want to buy one extra fan for the case. It comes with 2 fans on the front and no fan to take the hot air out of the case. Yes, the air will find its way out, but still, a 6£ Arctic fan will do just fine and drop the thermals with a few degrees.
Thanks, I’ve sent the parts list over to him in replacement of his original list.
I agree on the storage, I had intended to give one of my WD Red 2TB from my NAS upgrade but failed to mention in the post.
Good point about the fan, I didn’t actually check what comes with the case.
If you can afford it, I’d definitely be inclined to go for a 500GB boot SSD so a couple of games could be loaded onto that. The cheaper Crucial options are a decent pick for a build like this. They’re QLC, so longevity isn’t wild, but browsing the web and gaming aren’t exactly write-heavy.
Could make up some of the difference by going with some Teamgroup 3200MHz memory over the 3600MHz.
Regarding the case, it comes with a couple of Fractal fans. Probably a good idea to throw one in the back for exhaust, as @psycho_666 suggested.
I’ve decided to go for the Crucial P2 500GB NVME as it is only an extra £10.
I’ll stick with the Teamgroup 3600MHz as I believe it should run a little more in sync with the R5’s 1800Mhz FCLK.
Thanks for the advice.
The 5500XT could be a better option since it’s a much newer and efficient graphics card than the 580 at almost the same performance. Thus, you can opt for a lower power PSU and save a few bucks there.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/ybwkcf/msi-radeon-rx-5500-xt-8-gb-mech-oc-video-card-rx-5500-xt-mech-8g-oc
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/KJtKHx/asrock-radeon-rx-5500-xt-8-gb-challenger-d-oc-video-card-rx5500xt-cld-8go
I’ve made an alternative build for you which I consider to be a bit more balanced and that will have a decent upgrade path.
Motherboard
Asus TUF GAMING B460-PLUS
I’ve spent a bit more on the motherboard for the upgradability.
This is a solid board and should have no troubles running a 8C/16T part down the line.
RAM
G.Skill Trident Z
Solid and reputable brand.
Storage
ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB
Significantly faster and twice the storage of the samsung you picked.
I definitely think a 500GB drive is worth it, and ADATA is the best one for budget NVME.
GPU
Sapphire Radeon RX 5500 XT 4 GB
This card is about 5% faster than the RX580, while consuming 100W less power. I would much rather pick this one as it will be much cooler and quieter.
Case
Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh
One of the best budget cases, superior to the Fractal Focus G in my opinion.
PSU
be quiet! System Power 9 700 W
I picked this one cause it has better connectivity than the Seasonic, but is still a very decent and popular unit.
Total: £610.61
I think I have finalised the list with the nephew. I’ll be giving him my old unused CX600 PSU and putting the cost savings towards a 1060 SUPER.
I believe the following list should be within budget while lasting a couple years : https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/6JncTJ
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