Build or buy? Or is my budget unrealistic?

dulpit

I have been thinking about buying or building a PC for ages. I currently have a laptop with a 3060 in it (gigabyte, think it's a 12th gen i5 processor too), it works fine for my needs but the noise out of it is something else. I also don't need a laptop, it's permanently plugged in on desk. I do also have an Xbox Series X but with the latest gamepass news it becomes more attractive to go PC route and have Steam sales/etc.

Games I like to play: RTS type games. Open world games. I like FPS games, but don't play online or anything.

Needs: better performance than my current laptop, and needs to be quiet. I don't need peripherals, and I connect to a 4K Samsung TV (but don't mind down-scaling the resolution if needed).

I would like to build, but would be happy in getting a pre-built if there was a future upgrade path (e.g. get a mid-range graphics card and upgrade at a later date).

Budget: I don't want to spend more than €800. Is this realistic at all?

Any suggestions?

K.O.Kiki

A good €800 build is hard ATM, if you could save a few pennies more it would be easier to get future-proof parts (good RAM, case, PSU).

PCPartPicker Part List: https://ie.pcpartpicker.com/list/tBRfwY

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 8400F 4.2 GHz 6-Core Processor (€121.22) (Amazon DE)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650M GAMING WIFI6E Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard (€115.90) (Amazon DE)
Storage: Kingston NV3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€57.55) (Amazon IE)
Video Card: MSI SHADOW 2X OC GeForce RTX 5060 8 GB Video Card (€286.30) (Amazon IE)
Case: Asus Prime AP201 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (€69.05) (Amazon IE)
Power Supply: Corsair RM650e (2025) 650 W Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€91.63) (Amazon IE)
Custom: KLEVV FIT V 32GB 6000MHz CL28 (€94.99) (Amazon DE)
Total: €836.64

Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-10-02 12:04 IST+0100

You could also consider

1. Upping the budget another 20-ish euro to get Ryzen 7500F (32MB L3 cache vs 16MB on 8400F)
2. Going with an older AM4 CPU (Ryzen 5600 or 5700) and budget B550 motherboard
3. Downgrading from B650M motherboard to an A620M / model without WiFi
4. Getting a cheaper case (it will likely be larger)

Also, there's an Amazon Prime Days sale next Tuesday-Wednesday.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869977#Comment_123869977

That's handy - I did spot the Amazon sale next week so it's in back of my mind to target then. Case size I'm not too concerned about, there's a spot on the floor it can go. I don't care about RGB or anything like that, nobody will see it except for me anyway.

Presumably going AM5 is much better for long term? Annoyingly wifi is a must for motherboard (forgot to mention that).

thenuisance

Last time I did something like this I bought a 'business' PC from paradigit (they were Komplett) at the time and then gradually beefed it up. I asked them to put in a different motherboard and they did it for me, were dead straight on the pricing difference and as far as I could see didn't charge me for it. It wasn't for gaming - I was using it for work on for some intensive computational work (not bitcoin mining but something with the same kind of requirements). After I'd tested that it started OK I threw away Windows 11! I didn't really calculate what kind of premium I paid for having it pre-built but I don't think it was much. I had built my own PCs from scratch for a good few years before that. I'm still using the box with a different motheboard in it.

It had plenty of space in it to add extra cooling, drives etc. I think it's worth looking at if you know where you want to get to with the system in future.

AMD is the best bang for the buck - I've used their processors for my last few PCs. Definitely go AM5 - there's a good chance the Ryzen 7 will come down in price to meet your budget at some point. I'm using a 7 at the moment and the laptop is a fairly old Thinkpad with a Ryzen 5 4000 which still has plenty of guts.

For performance - max out your memory first, then the speed of your storage, you can sit a couple of grades down on the processor if you do that.

dulpit

I figured I'd up my budget to €1000 and did some searching. I'm on phone so comparisons/etc aren't easy, so I was grabbing prices from either overclockers or hagglezon for amazon (nearly all amazon prices are from their German site).

PCPartPicker Part List: https://ie.pcpartpicker.com/list/vzBc8Q

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor (€185.00)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard (€130.00)
Memory: Crucial Pro Overclocking 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory (€100.00)
Storage: Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X2 NVME Solid State Drive (€100.00)
Video Card: Asus DUAL OC GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Video Card (€440.00)
Case: MSI MAG FORGE 112R ATX Mid Tower Case (€65.00)
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2023) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€75.00)
Total: €1095.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-10-04 13:51 IST+0100

I'm over budget here, but I didn't spend any real time searching for better deals, and I'm hoping that Amazon sale next week will help.

Is there anywhere here I'm way over kill on an individual part or anything you'd suggest I'd change?

K.O.Kiki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123876737#Comment_123876737

CPU: Get whichever is cheapest from 7600/7600X/9600X. Latter is "best" since it's newest generation & has better AVX-512 performance (great for emulation).

Memory: You want DDR5-6000 CL30 or CL28, not CL36. Same price, better latency.

Storage: No point overpaying for Samsung 990 SSDs. Get either a cheaper 1TB or splurge on a 2TB.

Power Supply: I wouldn't cheap out with a CX (Bronze) rated model when a RMe (Gold) is so close in price.

Rest of build is up to personal preference.

Coyler

If you want to go budget PSU the MSI MAG 650BN is the best option. Same rating as the Corsair CX 2023 but cheaper by €20. If you don't, as K.O.Kiki says, the RM650e is more or less the same price and a better pick,

I have to say, €329 for a 9060XT 16GB is a crazy good deal.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123879376#Comment_123879376

Ya, I'm looking at the 9060xt 16gb as a better bang for buck approach. That lead time for delivery from amazon de though…

dulpit

Oh actually, proper noob question: does the manufacturer/design of a gpu matter if its the same model? Like are all 9060xt 16gb essentially the same?

K.O.Kiki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123880253#Comment_123880253

All GPUs should perform within 1-2% of each other.

The only thing that expensive models get are nicer shroud designs, more/bigger fans or more bigger heatsink/more heatpipes.

Essentially, more money = better looks and/or cooler, quieter operation.

Gone are the days of actual "premium" models.

Coyler

Drifted back to €354 now. But checked out the 9070 non-XTs. Massive jump over both the 5060ti and 9060XT and now retailing at €519.

PCPartPicker Part List: https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/mctkpK

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor (€172.87 @ Caseking )
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard (€119.00 @ Amazon Deutschland )
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (€104.52 @ Caseking )
Storage: Kingston NV3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€49.90 @ Amazon Deutschland )
Video Card: Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 9070 16 GB Video Card (€519.00 @ Amazon Deutschland )
Case: Montech XR ATX Mid Tower Case (€65.89 @ Caseking )
Power Supply: MSI MAG A650BN 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€54.90 @ Amazon Deutschland )
Total: €1086.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-10-06 20:57 CEST+0200

I'm under your first 5060ti build and you are talking a 30% difference in performace. Get a second opinion but I suspect at €519 you are talking some of the best value frames per euro. On top of that, you could actually drive a 4K display with it. Not for everything, you still need to use an upscaler or lower resolutions for the demanding titles but I'd like to people to pokes holes in my opinion.

Coyler

Boo, back up to €549 now. Price is all over the place last few days

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123886234#Comment_123886234

Annoyingly I saw it last night but thought I'd wait until today in case an Amazon sale kicked in for Prime Day or whatever it is…

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123886234#Comment_123886234

Maybe I'm being cynical, but that maybe they're raising it to be able to falsely claim it's discounted for Black Friday sales.

dulpit

I did some digging today and came up with the following build, all from Amazon. I will do a check against other providers for the exact costs, but I'm happy with the price here as it stands. The only thing I might change is the motherboard, I ended up putting together a very white build so might see if I can find a white mobo for a small bit more.

Before I pull trigger on this, is there anything obvious I am missing? I know I could spend more on the likes of a 9070 but I had it in my head to try and stick to around the €1000 mark so this isn't far off.

PCPartPicker Part List: https://ie.pcpartpicker.com/list/yysPZc

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor (€152.52)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 White 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler (€39.12)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard (€131.88)
Memory: Klevv FIT V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory (€100.27)
Storage: Crucial P310 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€64.21)
Video Card: Sapphire PURE Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB Video Card (€402.23)
Case: NZXT H7 Flow (2024) ATX Mid Tower Case (€86.06)
Power Supply: Asus Prime AP-750G 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€94.63)
Total: €1070.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-10-07 18:03 IST+0100

Coyler

Nice price for the 7600x, grab that.

Drop the cooler. Get it again later. Really simple drop in part. Put the money towards the GPU. The AMD stock cooler is perfectly fine

Motherboard is ideal.

RAM is fine.

SSD is fine but sometimes you get get sligher better models around that price. In the end, it doesn't matter too much. Any half decent NVMe drive will do

GPU, I'd keep my eyes peeled for a 9070 less than €530 on hagglezon. Over €400 and I'd start looking at 5060ti 16GBs but at €450 I'd be going to the next tier even if I had to run it sitting on a cardboard box for a month. 9060XT 16GB start getting interesting under €360. There are grey areas and edges cases in that but thats for you to make the call.

Case, your money, your choice.

PSU, can do better.

Buying from other Amazon sites can yield results. Don't get fixated on Amazon.ie.

dulpit

Thanks for advice, I've ended up getting everything now bar the gpu. Will think hard between the 9060 xt and 9070 depending on deals.

This is probably a stupid question, but assuming I have purchased one of each of the items I've listed, I don't need anything else to put the thing together, right? I'll have all cabling, wires, etc in boxes? Nothing obvious missing?

minitrue

The 7600X doesn't come with a cooler, the 7600 does but looks right now like a 7600X with a cheaper cooler like a Thermalright Burst Assassin for closer to €20 would end up cheaper than a 7600.

You should have everything you need to complete the build included apart from a philips head screwdriver (and you might even end up with one of those bundled with something).

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123887482#Comment_123887482

Yep, I had aimed to get a 7600 but with the prices it made more sense to get a 7600x and a separate cooler.

Will decide on GPU later and then presumably be back here in 1-2 weeks looking for help in putting the puzzle together.

Coyler

Apologies, forgot the 7600x doesn't come with a cooler. My bad.

Coyler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123886236#Comment_123886236

It's weird, the €519 model was just dropped in by €50 for a few days when they said it was only available in December. Seems it went back up when they got supply. Now saying you'll get it in October.

@dulpit the AM5 CPUs come with an iGPU. You can get your machine up an running so you can confirm everything is working while you work on a GPU.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123887989#Comment_123887989

Bought a 9070, so I'll have the lot by early next week. Excited now.

dulpit

Oh just thought - where does one source windows these days? I'd like a licence, but I don't necessarily want to spend Irish licence costs you know..

Spear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123888871#Comment_123888871

About €10 to €15, maybe less, off any pseudo legit key site. I use Kinguin and I'm currently seeing them for €11.64 on there.

Coyler

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11 - Official Microsoft Tool. Any 8GB USB stick or above will do. Your laptop can create it for you. I use Kinguin as well.

K.O.Kiki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123887836#Comment_123887836

Thermalright Phantom Spirit is a €34 endgame cooler. Cheaper alternatives are Burst Assassin (€20) & Royal Knight (€27). Wouldn't bother going past those..