Plan your gaming PC build budget. See how to split your money across GPU, CPU, RAM, storage, and more — based on your use case and total spend.
Mid-range build
1080p high/1440p medium settings
38% of budget
16% of budget
10% of budget
9% of budget
7% of budget
7% of budget
5% of budget
5% of budget
3% of budget
Entry-level — £400–£650
1080p gaming at medium-high settings
Mid-range — £650–£1,100
1080p high/1440p medium settings
High-end — £1,100–£1,800
1440p ultra / 4K medium settings
Enthusiast — £1,800–£4,000
4K ultra / high refresh rate 1440p
For pure gaming, 35-40% of your budget should go on the graphics card. A great GPU paired with a mid-range CPU will almost always outperform a high-end CPU with a budget GPU. The GPU renders every frame you see.
A low-quality power supply can damage every other component in your PC if it fails. Buy from a reputable brand (Corsair, Seasonic, be quiet!, EVGA) and aim for 80+ Gold certification. Add ~20% headroom above your estimated system wattage.
For gaming, 32 GB of DDR5 at 5600 MHz will serve you better than 16 GB at 7200 MHz. Most games are not RAM-speed bottlenecked but some do run into 16 GB limits with modern titles. Go 32 GB first, worry about speed later.
There is no good reason to use a traditional hard drive as your primary drive in 2025. A 1 TB NVMe SSD costs under £60-70 and makes a massive difference to game load times. Add a secondary larger SSD for storage rather than an HDD.
Use the allocation as a planning baseline before shopping. It helps reveal whether a budget is balanced for the target resolution and frame rate; it is not a parts compatibility checker.
Example
For a GPU-led 1440p build, the calculator will normally reserve more of the budget for graphics than for a productivity-first machine.
A cheaper build with a well-matched monitor can feel better than an expensive build whose graphics card is limited by the chosen resolution or refresh rate.
£600-900 gets you a capable 1080p/1440p gaming PC. £1,000-1,400 puts you in high-end 1440p territory. 4K gaming starts around £1,600-2,000+. Prices fluctuate with GPU stock, so check current GPU prices first — they drive the overall budget more than any other component.
Building is typically 15-25% cheaper than buying pre-built at the same spec level. You also get full control over component quality (especially PSU and cooling, where pre-builders cut corners). The trade-off is time, a small risk of assembly mistakes, and no bundled warranty on the whole system.
Both compete well today. NVIDIA has the edge in ray tracing, DLSS upscaling, and driver stability. AMD typically offers better rasterisation performance per pound at the mid-range, and FSR upscaling works across more games. Check benchmark comparisons for the specific games you play.
Intel CPUs above the 65W TDP tier and most AMD X-series CPUs do not include a cooler. Even when a stock cooler is included, an aftermarket air cooler (£25-50) will run cooler and quieter. If you're not overclocking, a good air cooler is all you need.