New Build

[Phillip Baker]

Budget (including currency): £1000

Country: UK

Games, programs, or workloads that it will be used for: Gaming & Photograpy

Other details: Below is my current spec, which is around 7 years old

 

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero

CPU: Intel i5 8600k @ 3.6 Ghz

Ram: 32GB 

GPU: Gigabyte NVidia 1050ti 

Storage: 500GB Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 

OS: Windows 11 25H2

 

Looking for recommendations on a spec to upgrade to. 

 

[Why_Me]

16 hours ago, Phillip Baker said:

Budget (including currency): £1000

Country: UK

Games, programs, or workloads that it will be used for: Gaming & Photograpy

Other details: Below is my current spec, which is around 7 years old

 

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero

CPU: Intel i5 8600k @ 3.6 Ghz

Ram: 32GB 

GPU: Gigabyte NVidia 1050ti 

Storage: 500GB Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 

OS: Windows 11 25H2

 

Looking for recommendations on a spec to upgrade to. 

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i7-14700F 2.1 GHz 20-Core Processor  (£299.41 @ Amazon UK) 
CPU Cooler: *Thermalright Royal Knight 120 80.45 CFM CPU Cooler  (£35.60 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: *Asus TUF GAMING B760-PLUS WIFI D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (£139.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: *Asus DUAL OC GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Video Card  (£398.94 @ CCL Computers) 
Power Supply: *MSI MAG A750GLS PCIE5 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£95.21 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £969.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-12-15 09:18 GMT+0000

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/236854/intel-core-i7-processor-14700f-33m-cache-up-to-5-40-ghz/specifications.html

 

https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards-components/motherboards/tuf-gaming/tuf-gaming-b760-plus-wifi-d4/  

 

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/graphics-cards/dual/dual-rtx5060ti-o16g/    

 

https://www.thermalright.com/product/royal-knight-120/

 

https://www.msi.com/Power-Supply/MAG-A750GLS-PCIE5

[RadiatingLight]

For a single upgrade that won't break the bank too much and give you totally-fine gaming performance, just buy a better GPU.
Spend half your budget on something like an RTX 5060 (Ti) or AMD RX 9060 (xt), and you'll have enough gaming performance for most things you plan to play, especially if you're not playing on 1080p high-refresh-rate.

 

Save the other £500, and upgrade the rest of the platform later.

Especially now with RAM prices so high, you'll be hard-pressed to do a complete platform upgrade within your budget.

 

IF you do want a full upgrade, maybe consider something like an AMD 7600X to stay within budget and get onto AM5 so that you have a good CPU upgrade path in the future.