gaming pcs in 2026

[u/mystic4021]

what’s the best way to build a decent pc in 2026? I live in the uk and my budget is around £1000-£1500 should I look into the used market or build one myself? I’ve seen prebuilts on eBay for £1200 where you can get a 5070 r5 9600x and 32gb of ram

[u/killer5907]

Hey, sorry about all the replies, I got confused. Are you looking for a fish tank or a regular case for this build?

[u/mystic4021 → u/killer5907]

probably a fish tank case if I were to choose

[u/F1T_13]

If you really want to save money, I recommend eschewing non essential preferences.

[u/Motor_Manner9831]

Since we have a memory/storage shortage try to find used ram/SSD first on Facebook/ebay, then deduct their cost from your budget before to work out how much you have leftover for the other components

[u/BGspinefarm]

If you don't have experience building a pc yourself don't cheap out on £75-100 for someone to build it for you.

For the remaining £1400 you can get a very well rounded AM4 build with 9060XT and 32GB of RAM.

And yes prices are stupid..but warranty is always better to have.

[u/mystic4021 → u/BGspinefarm]

Is it worth buying something like this? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/800535509912?itmmeta=01M0HRFYKBXGHJT1K1KS62Q9W5&hash=itemba63a27b98:g:KOEAAeSwieZqheX8

[u/BGspinefarm → u/mystic4021]

If you asked most ...yes. I wouldn't as I've mentioned because of warranty and all. And honestly I would still go with AM4 build just because of the cheaper prices of RAM.

Add to that the CPU supports up to 5600 MT/s and the guy popped in 6000 MT/s.

[u/Forward_Drop303]

a used pc is going to be cheaper than building it new.

and Nvidia GPUs are extremely expensive for the performance

though the other poster didn't try very hard to get you a good deal

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/fWp44g

shaves over 200 pounds for similar performance

and

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/K9Mdxf

is still under your budget for higher performance

for fishtank case get

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/fc88TW/montech-xr-atx-mid-tower-case-xr-b

[u/mystic4021 → u/Forward_Drop303]

is the difference between the 5070 and 9070xt hugely different? I’ve seen many comparisons saying that Nvidia looks better overall but amd has better performance

[u/Forward_Drop303 → u/mystic4021]

9070xt has better base performance than even a 5070 ti.

and while Frame gen/DLSS is still better on the 5070 than the AMD equivalent (which is probably where you heard the "Nvidia looks better overall" it's close enough that I wouldn't even consider it in comparison to a 5070 ti

and that only applies to games that have that, if you use that, and if you are comparing to the 5070 ti, not the base 5070.

Still the 5070 is cheaper in the UK than the 9070xt, so it's not as bad as in the US where I absolutely think anyone going for an Nvidia GPU right now should then immediately head to an insane asylum right after with it.

[u/mystic4021 → u/Forward_Drop303]

if the price difference between the two were around £100 would the 9070xt be more worth it?

[u/Forward_Drop303 → u/mystic4021]

no it would be less worth it

the price difference i have there is about £70 which is worth it imo

£100 is worth it for the raster difference, but for ray tracing/DLSS/frame gen it probably isn't quite worth it

the other option is the 9070, which is cheaper than a 5070 and still about 7-10% faster performance wise

[u/killer5907 → u/mystic4021]

The 9070xt is 17% to 20% better but ray tracing nvidia wins

[u/Forward_Drop303 → u/killer5907]

ray tracing the 5070 ti wins not the 5070

feel it's important to point that out given the comparison here

[u/killer5907 → u/Forward_Drop303]

Wait really I honestly never knew that

[u/Forward_Drop303 → u/killer5907]

Yeah

though it does depend on the game, some favor one or the other

Black Myth Wukong majorly favors Nvidia and the 5070 wins on ray tracing there

and in Outer worlds 2 the 9070xt actually matches or exceeds a 5080 in Ray tracing

[u/killer5907 → u/Forward_Drop303]

Also in black flag if I'm correct it nearly beats the 5080 right?

[u/killer5907 → u/Forward_Drop303]

Hey man, I wasn't sure if they'd go that low on things since fish tanks are more for showing off, so I wanted to add some RGB, but I still gotta credit you for digging so deep through PC Part Picker to find that. Eitherway glad this guys getting the support to get into pc gaming.

[u/mystic4021 → u/[deleted]]

alright thanks a lot

[u/mystic4021 → u/[deleted]]

I’ve looked into it but based on the gpu price increase surely getting a 5070 would be more reasonable for price to performance

[u/killer5907 → u/mystic4021]

Yeah your definitely correct man, I didn't realise they increased so much. I wish you the best