The Digital Foundry Prime Day PC: the best PC component deals we can find in one PC

Back in July, I set myself the task of building the best theoretical PC only from Prime Day deal discounts. With the return of Prime Big Deal Days on Amazon, I thought it best to take the mantle up again as a bit of fun, and see what we could come up with. Here's the makings of the Digital Foundry, October Prime Day PC.

The CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 7700X - £219 (was £440)

On the front of CPUs, we've actually gone the other way from our first Prime Day PC, opting to build on the AM5 platform with AMD's Ryzen 7 7700X. Earlier in the day, we've seen deals on the 7900X and 7900X3D, but this reduction on the 7700X seems to be available at the time of writing.

This is an 8-core/16 thread chip that makes for an excellent option for both gaming and content creation workloads, as we've found in our testing. In actual fact, due to the 7700X's single chiplet design, it actually offers as good, if not better gaming performance than the higher-end non-X3D chips AMD offers. In addition, while its content creation scores aren't as potent, they remain strong.

Building on AM5 is also future-proof for any further upgrades you wish to make down the line, be it to any of the Ryzen 9000 chips (if you want to), or anything that comes later on.

The GPU - Zotac RTX 4070 Super Twin Edge - £509 (was £549)

We've also gone the other way in terms of GPU choice, too. The 4070 Super here from Zotac is a solid dual-fan-cooled option with a sleek black frame and excellent performance at 1440p in our testing as one of Nvidia's newer chips of the current generation.

This is a card that's comfortable with 1440p ray-traced workloads, with some solid results in the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and Dying Light 2. It also provides a major uptick in performance against the standard 4070, while taking it well to AMD's RX 7900 GRE, which was our previous inclusion in the other Prime Day PC. You also get the benefit of DLSS 3 frame-gen tech with the 4070 Super, too.

If you want to save a little bit and still get some excellent 1440p performance, you can also go for a Gigabyte RX 7800 XT which we've seen in the Prime Day madness for £420.

The RAM - Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30 - £93 (was £138)

We've also changed the RAM around a smidgen, opting to go for a Corsair Vengeance kit that benefits from both a sensible 32GB capacity, snappy 6000MT/s transfer rates and tighter CL30 timings that are suitable for overclocking, and fit the optimal RAM spec for AM5 chips such as the 7700X we're using.

We've seen DDR5-6000 RAM have an impact in offering an enviable performance boost in some titles in our CPU testing in the likes of both Cyberpunk 2077 and Flight Simulator 2020 against the base-spec DDR5-4800, and this Corsair kit provides the chance for you to get some extra performance while also giving you a fair amount of capacity. This kit's tighter CL30 timings also mean it's suitable for overclocking, too.

The SSD - WD SN850X 2TB NVMe SSD - £120 (was £372)

We're obviously going to need some storage here, which is where this 2TB WD SN850X drive comes in. At £120, it's one of the best bang-for-the-buck choices we could find in the deals landscape, considering its snappy 7400MB/s reads and 6600MB/s writes in a 2TB capacity, where other drives at this price point are usually much slower, while WD's choice also offers some seriously brilliant random performance, too..

We're also getting a 2TB drive here, giving you enough room for a Windows install and a lot more in terms of beefy games and apps that have the potential to take up a fair bit of space.

The Motherboard - Asus Prime X670E Pro Wifi - £228 (was £280)

Finding a motherboard was actually one of the harder portions of this build, as they weren't too many deals going on mobos full stop. The best we could do was this Asus Prime X670E Pro Wifi, which is jam-packed with pretty much all of what you could want from an AM5 motherboard.

There's support for DDR5 here (as is a necessity for AM5), as well as for PCIe 5.0 and four M.2 slots for expansion. Networking is well covered with support for both Wifi 6E and 2.5-gig Ethernet on the rear. The rear I/O otherwise is plentiful with a total of four USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports,, 3 Gen 2 Type A ports, a trio of USB-C ports, DisplayPort and HDMI. It also looks rather stylish with its white and silver accents, too.

The PSU - Cooler Master MWE 750W V2 Gold PSU - £71 (was £84)

Getting a quality PSU is of paramount importance to any PC build, as you want a reliable unit that's going to provide enough power and last for a long time. That's where this deal on the Cooler Master MWE 750W V2 80+ Gold option comes in for £71.

This is an 80+ Gold unit, which is testament to its excellent efficiency, while its 750W of power provides enough to power this entire system with a little bit of headroom if you want to upgrade any parts of it down the line. In addition, it's also fully modular, so you only need to plug in the cables that you need, making cable management a hell of a lot easier.

The CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black - £22 (was £25)

It seems everything CPU related is a bit difficult to find, as getting a competent CPU cooler was also a bit of a fiddly task. Enter the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black for £22 - a relative of one of the most beloved budget CPU coolers with a mean black colourway.

The Hyper 212 Black is up to the task of cooling the 7700X with its fan offering speeds of up to 2500RPM and a fair amount of airflow with 70.3CFM - that's rather close to coolers that cost a lot more than the Hyper 212 Black, including Noctua's NH-U12S

The Fans - Corsair iCUE AR120 RGB (3 Pack) - £30 (was £38)

Admittedly, the case fans here are simply if you wanted to add more fans to the stock ones in the case we've picked out. These Corsair AR120 options are a capable set of three 120mm fans with the fun of RGB to kit out your PC with for some additional flair, as well as coming with decent airflow, too..

The Case - MSI MPG GUNGNIR 110R - £71 (was £93)

Weirdly, the lovely Corsair 4000D Airflow we used before was nowhere to be seen on Amazon this timw around, so instead we've gone for an MSI choice with a little more in the way of left-field looks. It's more angular than the 4000D, but comes with lots of solid features that make it a decent mid-tower case.

The MPG GUNGNIR 110R comes with four 120mm ARGB fans pre-installed, with three in the front and a rear-exhaust. There's also room for two more 120mm fans in the top, too, or you can slot in radiators in the top and front, too. This case also supports larger CPU coolers of up to 170mm in height and longer GPUs up to 340mm in length, too, while there are magnetic filters for helping to eliminate any dust and a tempered glass side panel for showing off your build.

Front I/O is a real highlight here as the MPG GUNGNIR 110R offers a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C and a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, as well as microphone/headphone ports, a power button, reset button and a button for controlling case LEDs, too.

The Finished Build - Price - £1363

So, there you have it - that's the finished build for you - here's a PC PartPicker list of components if that's easier - although their prices aren't all correct, hence the difference at the end. Nonetheless, this is a competent system for 1440p RT gaming with a speedy CPU and GPU combo, as well as solid RAM, a snappy SSD, and decent room for upgrades down the line elsewhere.