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

Unlike other instances of Amazon's big sale, this Prime Day seems to have been one of the best ones for PC component deals. So, I had a bit of an idea - what's the best PC you could theoretically build using only Prime Day deals? Some of these are deals we've covered today already, while others will be new - but at the end of it, there will be a theoretical PC build from only Prime Day reductions.

The CPU - Intel Core i5-12600K - £152 (was £180)

Finding a CPU was actually quite difficult, as the 12400F deal from yesterday has now expired. This was the next best alternative we could find - the plucky Intel Core i5-12600K for £152. That's a low price on a nippy CPU for gaming and content creation, while offering support for modern creature comforts such as DDR5 RAM and PCIe 5.0.

With this in mind, the 12600K is more than up to the task of modern demands, with 10 cores and §6 threads. In our testing, it's proven to be a potent CPU for gaming workloads, with some excellent results in the likes of Flight Simulator 2020 and Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. In the latter, the 12600K actually traded blows with AMD's 5800X3D - that's some solid company to keep.

In content creation workloads, the 12600K also impressed. This came with high-flying results such as better single core performance in Cinebench R20 than AMD's top-of-the-line Ryzen 9 5950X, while using less power, which is something to be proud of.

The GPU - Gigabyte RX 7900 GRE - £484 (was £599)

This seemed an absolute no brainer - the RX 7900 GRE is the pick of the bunch when it comes to AMD's current run of GPUs, being a card that's as affordable as Nvidia's lower-end Super options, while also being quicker. Our testing revealed the RX 7900 GRE to equate to RTX 4070 performance in RT workloads, while pushing on to RTX 4070 Super levels in terms of pure rasterization.

It's a card that's comfortable at 1440p, while you could even push 4K too if you'd prefer, while this Gigabyte card is also forwards looking with support for both AV1 encoding and decoding, as well as coming with both HDMI 2.1 and DP 2.1 outputs.

Morever, £484 for a card that's this beefy in spec with 16GB of VRAM and a 256-bit bus is truly excellent - that's why it makes it into the Prime Day PC.

The RAM - Crucial Pro 32GB DDR5-6000 CL36 - £85 (was £155)

Given that the 12600K supports speedy DDR5 RAM, it seemed a no-brainer to slot a kit in. This Crucial Pro option is the pick of the bunch at just £85 for a 32GB option with good speeds and tight timing.

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 Crucial kit provides the chance for you to get some extra performance while also giving you a fair amount of capacity. This kit's tighter CL36 timings also mean it's suitable for overclocking, too.

The SSD - Lexar NQ790 2TB NVMe SSD - £102 (was £120)

We're obviously going to need some storage here, which is where this 2TB Lexar NQ790 drive comes in. At £102, it's one of the best bang-for-the-buck choices we could find, considering its snappy 7000MB/s reads and 6000MB/s writes in a 2TB capacity, where other drives at this price point are usually much slower.

We're also getting a 2TB drive here, giving you enough room for a Windows install and a lot more, while random performance is also decent to allow for snappy load times into the OS and into games, too. You can't ask for much more than that.

The Motherboard - MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY ATX - £158 (was £230)

Finding a suitable motherboard to pair with 12600K was harder than you might think, as there aren't too many deals going on capable options. However, we did find this MSI MEG Z690 UNIFY ATX option for £158, which is a solid price for a mobo of this quality.

This MEG Z690 UNIFY offers pretty much all you could want from a Z690 motherboard at its price point, with support for DDR5 RAM and has a pair of PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, too, alongside a handful of M.2 ports for adding SSDs into. It also comes with a generous helping of rear ports with seven (!) USB Type A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, as well as a singular USB-C, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, audio jacks and an optical out. Networking is also well-covered with a pair of 2.5-gig Ethernet ports, and support for WiFi 6E.

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 Halo - £32 (was £38)

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 Halo for £32 - a relative of one of the most beloved budget CPU coolers with added RGB.

The Hyper 212 Halo is up to the task of cooling the 12600K with its fan offering speeds of up to 2050RPM and a fair amount of airflow with 51.88CFM - that's rather close to coolers that cost a lot more than the Halo, such as the Noctua NH-U12S.

As well as this, the Halo comes with a generous helping of RGB if you wanted it, as this build otherwise comes with no RGB - it's horses for courses, but flashy lights usually cost more.

The Fans - ARCTIC P12 Slim PWM PST (3 Pack) - £19 (was £22)

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 Arctic P12s are here for their solid value for money, as well as decent airflow for such a cheap set. Three fans for £19 isn't really to be sniffed at.

The Case - Corsair 4000D Airflow - £65 (was £100)

Admittedly, the case choice is a prime example of groupthink, but also because the Corsair 4000D Airflow is a genuinely good PC case. After all, nearly 19,000 Amazon reviews can't be wrong, right?

In all seriousness, getting the 4000D Airflow for just £65 for Prime Day is excellent as it's a case that's easy to build in and offers solid looks. There's rom for six 120mm fans inside, with Corsair providing a pair already that are designed to move airflow into channels towards key components such as your processor and graphics card, improving temperatures.

In addition, cable management should be a doddle with lots of tie points and velcro included inside the case, and Corsair also offers a reasonable amount of front I/O with the 4000D Airflow for quick connectivity. You get a headphone jack, USB-C and USB-A port, as well as that all-important power button for, well, turning your PC on. The 4000D Airflow can also fit a pair of SSDs and a pair of HDDs inside for more storage, while a tempered glass side panel allows you to show off your build with ease.

The Finished Build - Price - £1168

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 and 4K 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.