I’m sure many people building on a budget where the plan is to slowly collect components have had the same worries as me, what if when I finally finish collecting all the components something is DOA and I’m too late to send them back? So I lost my nerve and ordered enough to get the base system up and running. in the form of the CPU, RAM and power supply.
PROCESSOR
I was looking at three processors, the Ryzen 5 3600 was my baseline, I didn’t want to go lower than this but if it was all I could afford I would get it, fortunately I could afford to push for a better processor and it became a tossup between the Ryzen 5 5600x and the Ryzen 7 3700x they are very similar prices, and with my focus less on gaming I had a real issue working out if the newer 5600 processor was better than the older 3700 with more cores.. eventually the decision was taken out of my hands as all of the Ryzen 5000 series CPU’s were out of stock everywhere that had them at anywhere near RRP.
RAM
I knew at this point I couldn’t afford my planned 32+gb of ram, so I just grabbed the cheapest stick of 8gb I could find, this would allow me to get it all tested, a stick of Crucial 8 GB DDR4 2666MHz CL19 isn’t quick or pretty but at under £30 it would get the job done and not break the bank.
Power Supply
I wanted a fully modular power supply so I could keep everything neat, I also wanted single colour cables rather than the rainbow array that I’ve had in the past as I feel they look kinda messy. Despite many gamers having the opinion you must have at least a 1000w power supply, I knew I didn’t need a ridiculously high wattage power supply for my build which is fortunate as I know I can’t afford a high wattage PSU from a brand I trust and since everything I’m spending can be destroyed by a dodgy power supply I really did want to go with a respected brand. I settled on the Corsair 550 W RM550x Series 80 PLUS Gold Full Modular ATX Power Supply Unit which I got at a slightly inflated price because it’s a terrible time to buy computer parts.
When these parts all arrive I should be able to get building.
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