PC Build - Under £700

[Cadder]

Hi all,

So far I have the following PC at £1080, but need to get it under £700. Of course I expect performance to drop but I think this build is overspecced anyway.

The goal is - to be able to play Factorio, Satisfactory and other similar titles. This spec far exceeds that. What would you change to get it under £700 while ensuring it can last a couple generations of upgrades?

MSI Mag Tomahawk B550M Mobo + Ryzen 5600X CPU = £390
3060 Ti Founders Edition GPU = £380
MSI Mag Force Case = £48
16GB 3600Mhz CL16 RAM = £82
CPU Cooler = £30
PSU = £75
1TB NVMe Storage SSD = £75

Also, let's assume we can get a GPU at MSRP. Thanks in advance

Edit: I'll keep tweaking this list below for the final spec based on comments in the thread:

Mobo: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX II AMD - £60
CPU: **B GRADE** RYZEN 5 3600 - £140
CPU cooler: Arctic Freezer 7 X Air Tower CPU Cooler - £17
GPU: 3060 Ti FE - £300
RAM: VULCAN Z T-FORCE 16GB (2X8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHZ DUAL CHANNEL - £70
Storage: ADATA SU630 480GB 2.5" SSD - £38
Case: **B GRADE** Kolink Nimbus RGB Mid Tower - £28
PSU: Corsair CV550 - £40

Total = £693

 

[mickyflinn]

Could drop to a ryzen 3600 and a b450 motherboard.

 

[Robert Disbury]

You can get a tomahawk max B450 board and 3700x for £250 at the moment. That would save £140 use the included cooler to save another £30 get 16gb of 3200 memory for £65 to save another £17

 

[EsaT]

£30 is too much for just CPU cooler on that budget.
And could go even below £20.
Arctic Freezer 34 CPU Cooler - 120mm= £24.95
Jonsbo CR-1000 GT 120mm ARGB CPU Cooler - Black= £16.99

Again 1TB NVMes start from £90.
WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £89.99

While memory is £75.
Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £74.99

 

[Cadder]

It's not essential that the SSD is NVMe so could maybe save a few pennies there.

I like the cost savings of the B450 boards but from what I've seen they don't support 5000 series CPUs. Ideally this would be a PC that is cheap to begin with but could be upgraded later.

Really appreciating the help here everyone, some great suggestions in this thread already.

 

[Joxeon]

Ive been running a B450 tomahawk max with a 5800X since November, there are also B550 boards under £100 and maybe worth checking out the B-grade sections for some bargains.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte B550 AORUS Pro AC (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £110.00
• 1 x **B Grade** MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £120.00
• 1 x **B Grade** AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £139.99

Total: £381.09 (includes shipping: £11.10)​

​

 

[Quartz]

while ensuring it can last a couple generations of upgrades?

Not happenning. It's all change to DDR5 with the next generation of CPUs and motherboards.

You can save £100 by going Intel:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming B560M-Plus (Socket LGA 1200) Micro ATX Motherboard= £132.95
• 1 x Intel Core i5-11400F 2.60GHz (Rocket Lake) Socket LGA1200 Processor - Retail= £149.99
• 1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo V2 CPU Cooler - 120mm= £32.99

Total: £326.43 (includes shipping: £10.50)​

​

Save a few pounds more with the Kolink Citadel Mesh case.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming B560M-Plus (Socket LGA 1200) Micro ATX Motherboard= £132.95
• 1 x Intel Core i5-11400F 2.60GHz (Rocket Lake) Socket LGA1200 Processor - Retail= £149.99
• 1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo V2 CPU Cooler - 120mm= £32.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey= £69.95
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 500GB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0C)= £56.99
• 1 x Corsair CV Series CV450 450W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (CP-9020209-UK)= £39.95
• 1 x Kolink Citadel Mesh Micro-ATX Case - Black= £44.99

Total: £539.51 (includes shipping: £11.70)​

​

Just add your GPU.

You can get a tomahawk max B450 board and 3700x for £250 at the moment.

The 3700X is £260 on its own.

 

[Robert Disbury]

No. You can currently get it new for £194.13 if you know where to look. Still available at the time Of this post.

 

[mickyflinn]

I like the cost savings of the B450 boards but from what I've seen they don't support 5000 series CPUs.

They absolutely do support 5000 series Cpu's the don't support pcie4 .

 

[Cadder]

They absolutely do support 5000 series Cpu's the don't support pcie4 .

My bad, I was looking at duff information it seems. I was roped in by the pretty colours :

Spoiler: Misinformation

That's great, it should open up some more cost-effective options.

 

[mickyflinn]

My bad, I was looking at duff information it seems. I was roped in by the pretty colours :

Spoiler: Misinformation

That's great, it should open up some more cost-effective options.

Heres the cpu support list for the b450 tomahawk.


https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/B450-TOMAHAWK-MAX#support-cpu

 

[Cadder]

Heres the cpu support list for the b450 tomahawk.


https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/B450-TOMAHAWK-MAX#support-cpu

Thank you, much appreciated.

Had a little look at pre-built PCs this morning and they're dreadful value for money at the moment. Not surprised of course.

 

[Cadder]

So there we have it, a PC build under £700. In a few months time this will seem really bad value for money, but right now this is decent for what is needed. I had to help a little, by giving a spare 240GB SSD with Windows 10 on it (from my server) and selling my 3060 Ti card for £300 since it's used

Mobo: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX II AMD - £60
CPU: **B GRADE** RYZEN 5 3600 - £140
CPU cooler: Arctic Freezer 7 X Air Tower CPU Cooler - £17
GPU: 3060 Ti FE - £300
RAM: VULCAN Z T-FORCE 16GB (2X8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHZ DUAL CHANNEL - £70
Storage: 2.5" 240GB Kingston SSD - Free
ADATA SU630 480GB 2.5" SSD - £38
Case: **B GRADE** Kolink Nimbus RGB Mid Tower - £28
PSU: Corsair CV550 - £40

Total = £693

Thanks OCUK Clearance - I just hope they're all in decent nick!