Nvidia RTX 5000 graphics cards are coming soon, and «old» components are getting cheaper in anticipation of the new series, so it’s time to build a bargain PC of the month. In this issue, we have collected five successful configurations for different tastes and budgets, taking into account current discounts in stores.
Budget PC of the Month for UAH 24,700
| Gaming PC «Budget PC» | Price, UAH | |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 5 5500 Tray | 3700 |
| Motherboard | Asus PRIME A520M-R | 2400 |
| RAM | 16 GB G.Skill Aegis DDR4 2x8GB 3200CL16 | 1500 |
| Drive | 1 TB SSD Kingston NV2 SNV2S/1000G | 2800 |
| Video card | 8 GB Gigabyte Radeon RX 7600 Gaming OC | 11000 |
| Cooler | 105 W Vinga CL3011 | 400 |
| Power supply | 500 W Zalman Wattbit II | 1600 |
| Body | Mini Tower Vinga CS316B | 1300 |
| The entire PC | 24700 | |
Six-core AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is still relevant for budget gamers and has only one competitor in the form of Intel Core i3-12100F. A similar inexpensive configuration on Intel considered last month. The only drawback of Ryzen 5 5500 is PCI-E 3.0 support, which we will take into account when choosing other components.
Motherboard Asus PRIME A520M-R can easily cope with an economical processor and allows you to overclock the RAM. For 2400 hryvnias, it’s hard to find something fundamentally better. For better cooling of all components of the motherboard, it is recommended to take a classic cooler, not a «tower».
We choose a drive with PCI-E 3.0, because the processor will not allow PCI-E 4.0 to work at full capacity anyway. The hit 1 TB will do SSD Kingston NV2 SNV2S/1000G. It makes no sense to take smaller volumes, because the savings are too small compared to the cost of other components. 16 GB of RAM is enough G.Skill Aegis DDR4 2x8GB with an optimal ratio of frequency and delay.
Video card Gigabyte Radeon RX 7600 Gaming OC for 11,111 UAH is a real gift. This is more than an adequate amount for the top-of-the-line three-fan version from Gigabyte. With this cooling, temperatures will be much lower, as in reference models.
An alternative is any budget version of Nvidia RTX 4060. It is somewhat more expensive, but has its own serious advantages, including DLSS, Frame Generation, and better performance in workflow scenarios.
Power supply Zalman Wattbit II 500W is still a bestseller. It has a well-known brand, a good component base, low cost, high efficiency, and 2×8 pin power supply for video cards. The half-kilowatt version is enough for a combination of Ryzen 5 5500 + RX 7600.
So, for some UAH 24,700 you can build an up-to-date gaming computer that allows you to play in Full HD and Quad HD. The potential for upgrades is minimal, but this has never been a priority for budget PCs.
If you want, you can save a little more money by replacing the video card with an RX 6600, buying a cheaper case, a 512 GB drive, a box cooler on the secondary market, and a non-branded power supply for 700-900 UAH. But is it worth the savings?
Optimal PC of the month from 58,000 UAH to 67,000 UAH
| Gaming PC «Optimal» | Price, UAH | |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-13600KF | 11800 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte Z790 UD | 9200 |
| RAM | 32 GB GOODRAM IRDM DDR5 6000CL30 | 4800 |
| Drive | 1 TB Samsung 980 PRO MZ-V8P1T0BW | 4400 |
| Video card | 16 GB RTX 4060 Ti GDDR6 JetStream Palit | 19500 |
| Cooler | 260 W Deepcool AK620 Zero Dark | 3100 |
| Power supply | 650 W MSI MAG A650BN | 2500 |
| Body | Midi Tower MSI MAG FORGE 100M | 2700 |
| The entire PC | 58000 | |
| Video card Plus | 12 GB Asus GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Dual | 28500 |
| The whole PC Plus | 67000 | |
The Intel Core i5-14600K update was not as successful as the older 14700K model, so the optimal PC has added Intel Core i5-13600KF without a built-in graphics card. A solid representative of the mid-range class, perfectly balanced, strong in all scenarios – this processor has almost no flaws and puts its equally successful competitors to shame.
To unleash the full potential of the processor with an unlocked multiplier, you need a Z690/Z790 motherboard, but most of them are too expensive Gigabyte Z790 UD has a powerful 18-phase power supply, operates with fast memory, and offers perhaps the best «power/price» ratio on the Ukrainian market.
A simple but strong, powerful, productive board without fancy «bells and whistles (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth). For this money, you can buy something based on the B760 with wireless interfaces, but in this case, you won’t be able to play with advanced processor settings.
RAM GOODRAM IRDM DDR5 2x16GB 6000CL30 is the golden mean in the DDR5 world. An excellent latency-to-frequency ratio is what you need for a mid-range PC. There’s no point in chasing higher frequencies when every hryvnia counts.
Samsung 980 PRO MZ-V8P1T0BW is one of the best SSDs on the market. Although it’s not the latest model, it brings much newer competitors to their knees. The 980 Pro has earned a reputation for being a stable, fast (under all conditions) drive, even though it costs 10% more than similar models like the Kingston KC3000. For an optimal PC, one of these 1TB SSDs is enough, and if necessary, add another lower-end 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB drive to the free M2 connector.
At the beginning of sales, the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB had an inflated price tag – the difference in cost from the RTX 4070 Super was so small that the larger VRAM capacity of the 4060 Ti did not save the day. Now RTX 4060 Ti GDDR6 JetStream Palit 16 GB costs only 19,500 UAH, which is 9,000 UAH less than the older model. Both cards are good, but the 4060 Ti 16GB is more profitable at this time. It is a universal option for work and gaming with Ultra textures for years to come.
We recently tested a video card Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro+, which showed that 90% of video games require less than 10 GB of video memory in Ultra HD 4K with the highest quality textures. So, the 16 GB buffer in the RTX 4060 Ti will last for another 5-8 years with a huge margin.
It’s not easy to cool 13600KF, so you’ll have to buy a budget «watercooler» or a top-of-the-line tower Deepcool AK620 Zero Dark will cope with such a CPU and allow you to overclock it a bit with a bus or multiplier. The main thing is to choose the case to fit the dimensions of a tower of such huge size (16 cm high).
The optimal PC turned out to be relatively economical, so MSI MAG A650BN 650 W is enough for any scenario. The combination of 13600KF +4060 Ti consumes up to 350-400 W at 100% load of all components, and 200-300 W in games.
There are many beautiful cases on the market for 2000-3000 hryvnias, but it was the MSI MAG FORGE 100M. A neat Midi Tower with an atypical design, a transparent lid, high-quality ventilation, and a weight of almost 6 kg. A nice bonus is the three included case fans.
For one and a half thousand dollars (58 000 UAH), you can build a PC in the 13600KF/32GB/1TB/RTX4060Ti16GB configuration with a good power supply, powerful air cooling, and a nice case. A more expensive alternative would be the RTX 4070 or RTX 4070 Super. Another (still relevant) optimal PC with RX 7800 XT was reviewed in the previous issue PC of the Month (May 2024).
Progressive PC of the Month from UAH 96,800 to 121,500
| Gaming PC «Progressive» | Price, UAH | |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D | 16200 |
| Motherboard | Asus ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI | 11400 |
| RAM | 48 GB A-Data Lancer Blade RGB DDR5 6000CL30 | 7400 |
| Drive | 2 TB Samsung 990 PRO MZ-V9P2T0BW | 8500 |
| Video card | 16 GB Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti SUPER WINDFORCE | 38000 |
| Liquid cooling | 330 W be quiet! Pure Loop 2 360 | 5300 |
| Power supply | 850 W Chieftec Atmos CPX-850FC | 5200 |
| Body | Midi Tower Lian Li Lancool 216 RGB | 4800 |
| The entire PC | 96800 | |
| RAM Pro | 96 GB A-Data Lancer Blade RGB DDR5 6000CL30 | 14800 |
| Drive Pro | 4 TB Samsung 990 PRO MZ-V9P2T0BW | 15400 |
| Video card Pro | 16 GB MSI RTX 4080 SUPER GAMING X SLIM | 48400 |
| The whole PC Pro | 121500 | |
Of course, the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D will lose to the Intel Core i7-14700K without a chance (it was discussed in May PC of the month) in work tasks, but for video games it is the best option. The problem is that for many heavy work scenarios, the graphics card is more important than the processor.
For example, working with local neural networks, 3D graphics, video game development, and other heavy tasks can be done by AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D if you add a graphics card of the appropriate level to it, it will take on the main load.
Motherboard Asus ROG STRIX B650E-F GAMING WIFI with 15-phase power supply allows you to install more powerful processors, such as AMD Ryzen 9 7900, 7900X, 7950X or 7950X3D. A good option without overpaying for the X670/X670E chipset that gamers don’t need.
Non-binary RAM A-Data Lancer Blade RGB DDR5 6000CL30 is almost the perfect choice for AM5. AMD processors love low latency and are not too sensitive to high frequencies. Two 24GB strips will be enough for the most demanding gamers, and if you need to work with super-heavy software, we take two of these sets, increasing the amount of RAM to 96GB in the configuration Plus.
Drive Samsung 990 PRO MZ-V9P2T0BW 2TB drive will perfectly complement the memory subsystem of an optimal PC. Professionals and gamers who keep dozens of AAA games on the drive may want to consider the 4 TB version SSD Samsung 990 PRO M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0, which was added to the more expensive version of the optimal PC.
New Gigabyte RTX 4070 Ti SUPER WINDFORCE has an attractive price and 4 GB more video memory than its predecessor, the 4070 Ti. This video card is enough for gaming in Quad HD, Ultra HD, and running any demanding programs. In the build Pro added a more powerful and UAH 10,000 more expensive one MSI RTX 4080 SUPER GAMING X SLIM.
AMD’s flagships currently have unattractive prices, so we don’t take them into account. For example, the RX 7900 XTX costs about 50,000 UAH, and you’ll have to pay as much as 40,000 UAH for the RX 7900 XT. The configuration of a progressive PC with AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX considered in the past issue for May, but it makes no sense to buy them now with cheaper and better Nvidia.
With the processor cooling (actually incredible hot) will cope be quiet! Pure Loop 2 360 – a high-quality, quiet and modest liquid cooling system from a European brand. Suitable for power supply Chieftec Atmos CPX-850FC or any other modular PSU with a 16-pin cable for Nvidia RTX 4000 graphics cards. You can also take a «kilowatt model for» height, of course, if your wallet allows it, although this is not necessary with this configuration.
With the chassis, everything is individual, complicated, subjective, because it is a matter of taste. As an example, we added Lian Li Lancool 216 RGB – is a classic Midi Tower with an uncluttered design, large capacity, and excellent ergonomics. It can accommodate a video card up to 390 mm, CPU coolers up to 180 mm high, and a 360 mm liquid cooling system.
«Only» 96 800 UAH and progressive PC with the best gaming processor «in your pocket». This is despite the fact that the owner will receive a good memory subsystem with the world’s #1 PCI-E 4.0 drive, a large amount of RAM, and a sufficiently powerful graphics card. If this is not enough, then for UAH 121,500 you can double the ROM and RAM in the configuration Proand enough for a more productive RTX 4080 Super graphics card.
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