Ridge Zero | RX 9060 8GB + Ryzen 5 5600 | Ready-to-Go Gaming PC | PC36

⛰️ Ridge Zero

Small, quiet, and nothing like a PC to look at

Most gaming PCs are built to be looked into. The Fractal Ridge is built to be looked at: a fabric front set into a machined aluminium frame, with feet in the box for standing it upright beside a monitor or laying it flat under a television like an amplifier. Ridge Zero is the least expensive way to own one.

Inside is a Ryzen 5 5600 and a Radeon RX 9060, and that pairing is chosen rather than settled for. Both run cool and draw little, which is exactly what a chassis this thin wants, and together they play modern games at 1080p with the settings up and competitive titles far faster than most monitors will show you.

The result is the quietest, coolest machine in the Ridge range by some margin, and the one we'd put in a living room without a second thought. Building this small takes longer than building a tower, and that time is in the price rather than added on top.

🧬 Built to last, designed to evolve

This system is built on AMD's AM4 platform rather than the newer AM5. That is a deliberate choice at this price: AM4 is a mature, extremely well supported socket with cheap memory and cheap boards, and it is what makes this machine cost what it does. Being honest about the trade, AMD have stopped releasing new processors for it, so the processor here sits near the top of a range AMD stopped extending. The CPU upgrade we offer on this platform is the Ryzen 7 5700X. The graphics card, storage and cooling all remain straightforward to change, within the space limits any small form factor build has.

📃 Specifications

• 🧠 CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  • 6 cores, 12 threads of Zen 3, boosting to 4.4GHz, with 32MB of L3 cache
  • Still a genuinely good gaming processor, and by some distance the best value chip AMD have ever sold. At this resolution with this graphics card, it is the card that sets your frame rate
  • 65W TDP, though like any modern Ryzen it boosts past that whenever there is thermal headroom to take. That is still a light heat load, and the AXP120-X67 fitted here absorbs it without ever needing to spin up. In a case with a hard 70mm ceiling on cooler height, a processor that runs cool is the correct choice rather than a compromise
  • If you ever want more cores, the Ryzen 7 5700X drops straight into this board. It is the CPU upgrade we offer on this platform, and it helps most with streaming, editing and heavy multitasking rather than with frame rates
• ❄️ CPU cooler: Thermalright AXP120-X67
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  • A low-profile top-down cooler, 67mm tall, with six heatpipes and a full-size 120mm fan
  • The case allows 70mm and no more. That rules out every tower cooler ever made, so the only question is which low-profile cooler, and this is the best one available. Most coolers at this height use a 92mm fan and have to spin it hard; the 120mm fan here moves the same air far more slowly, and fan speed is what you actually hear
  • Top-down design, so it also pushes air across the motherboard's power stages and memory, which in a chassis this size is worth having
  • Considerably more cooler than a 65W processor asks for, boost included. This is the easiest job the AXP120-X67 is given anywhere in the Ridge range, which is a large part of why this build is also the quietest
  • Mounted with Thermalright's own paste, applied by hand rather than using a pre-applied pad
• 🔲 Motherboard: ASRock B550M-ITX/ac (Mini-ITX)
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  • 8 phase power design with 50A Dr.MOS and 60A chokes. Plain English translation: comfortably more power delivery than a 65W processor asks for, and enough for the Ryzen 7 5700X if you upgrade later
  • PCIe 4.0 x16 for the graphics card, which is what this card uses
  • Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 built in, aerial supplied. Gigabit Ethernet
  • Four SATA ports, which is generous for a Mini-ITX board
  • One M.2 slot and two memory slots. Both are used on this build. There is more about what that means for upgrades in the transparency notes below
  • PC36 only uses motherboards chosen for stability and longevity. See our Trusted brands page
• 📏 Memory / RAM: 16GB (2×8GB) DDR4-3200 CL16
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  • Dual channel DDR4-3200 CL16, which is the sweet spot for Ryzen on AM4 and the speed the memory controller runs best at
  • Two matched sticks in the board's two slots. On AM4 dual channel matters more than it does on newer platforms, so a matched pair is the right call even at this price
  • DDR4 is a large part of why this machine costs what it does. It is a fraction of the price of DDR5 at the moment, and on a build at this level you would not feel the difference
  • 16GB is enough for every current game at these settings
  • Specification guaranteed, model may vary. Happy to confirm the exact part on request
• 💾 Storage: 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  • Rated at 5,000MB/s or better. Games load in seconds and Windows feels instant
  • This is a QLC drive, which is the honest tier for this price. It is quick for everything you will do day to day, and it slows down only during very long sustained writes such as moving hundreds of gigabytes in one go. For gaming and normal use you would not notice
  • We fit 1TB as standard across the whole range rather than varying it by price, so comparing our machines to each other is straightforward. The 2TB option is below
  • The board has a single M.2 slot and this drive occupies it, so extra storage goes in one of the case's four 2.5 inch bays. Worth reading the note below before you plan around it
  • Specification guaranteed, model may vary. Happy to confirm the exact part on request
• 🎮 Graphics card: AMD Radeon RX 9060 8GB
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  • RDNA 4 with 8GB of GDDR6. Comfortable 1080p at high settings in modern titles, and very high frame rates in competitive games
  • Supports FSR 4, AMD's machine-learning upscaler, which needs RDNA 4 hardware and is a real step up from FSR 3. It is the reason a card at this level still has life in it in two years
  • AV1 encoding for streaming and recording at a much better quality-to-bitrate ratio than older codecs
  • A modest card by design. It draws little power and produces little heat, which is exactly what 12.6 litres wants
  • Being straight about ray tracing and about the 8GB: Radeon is still behind NVIDIA on ray tracing, and 8GB is enough at 1080p but can run short at 1440p with textures at maximum in the heaviest recent titles. Both are fixable by turning one setting down a step, and neither is a surprise at this price. If either matters to you, the upgrade options below and a word on live chat will sort it
  • The chipset and VRAM are guaranteed: it will always be an RX 9060 with 8GB. The AIB brand varies with availability, and we only use established manufacturers. See our Trusted brands page for more info
• 🧰 Case: Fractal Ridge, Black
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  • 12.6 litres. 374 × 110 × 395mm standing up, or 360 × 375 × 115mm lying down. Mini-ITX, three expansion slots
  • A fabric front panel set into a CNC-machined aluminium frame. It is meant to sit out in a room rather than under a desk, and it does not look like a computer
  • Feet are supplied for both orientations. Stand it upright beside a monitor, or lay it flat under a television like an amplifier. Both are designed in rather than tolerated, and we set it up whichever way you tell us
  • Two 140mm Fractal Aspect 14 PWM fans included in the side panel as intake, feeding air directly onto the graphics card
  • Sandwich layout. The motherboard sits on one side and the graphics card on the other, connected by a rigid PCIe riser card rather than a ribbon. That is what makes a case this thin possible
  • Graphics cards up to 335mm long, CPU coolers up to 70mm tall, SFX and SFX-L power supplies
  • Four 2.5 inch drive mounts, with all four brackets in the box. No 3.5 inch bays
  • Front I/O is USB-C, two USB-A and a combined headphone and microphone jack
  • Small form factor builds take considerably longer to assemble, cable and tune than a standard tower. That work is included in the price rather than added to it
• 🌬️ Case cooling: 2 × 140mm side intake, included with the case
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  • Two Fractal Aspect 14 PWM fans in the side panel, blowing straight onto the graphics card through its own perforated panel. It is a simple arrangement and it works well, because the card has its own side of the sandwich and its own air
  • Proper four-pin PWM fans, not the three-pin fans usually bundled at this price, so they can be slowed right down when the machine is idle. Plain black, no lighting
  • The case also has three 80mm mounts in the top which Fractal do not populate. On a build at this heat level they are not needed, and we would rather leave them empty than sell you fans that are not earning their place
  • Fan curves are set by hand before dispatch and verified through our standard stress testing rather than assumed
  • A 65W processor and a modest graphics card is the easiest job this case will ever be given. This is the quietest and coolest configuration in the Ridge range by a wide margin
• ⚡ Power supply: Thermaltake Toughpower SFX 750W 80+ Gold, fully modular
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  • SFX form factor, because that is what a case this size takes. An SFX unit is roughly half the volume of a standard ATX supply and costs considerably more for the same wattage, which is one of the hidden expenses of building small and one we would rather explain than bury
  • 750W is far more than this build draws, which is deliberate. It means a much larger graphics card can go in later without touching the power supply, and in a case this size that is not a swap you want to be doing twice
  • Fully modular, which in 12.6 litres is a functional requirement rather than a tidiness preference. There is nowhere to put a cable you are not using
  • 80 PLUS Gold, and ATX 3.1 certified. All PC36 power supplies of 750W and above are ATX 3.1 certified
• 🔌 Cabling: Black cabling, routed for a small chassis
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  • Short runs, routed specifically to keep the intake path and the card's own fans clear. There is 13.8mm of routing space behind the power supply and not much anywhere else
  • Fully modular, so nothing unused is installed. This is where a large share of the assembly time on a Ridge goes
• 📶 WiFi / Bluetooth / Ethernet: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 4.2 and Gigabit Ethernet, included
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  • Built into the ASRock B550M-ITX/ac. No separate adapter needed, and the aerial is supplied in the box
  • Wi-Fi 5 rather than Wi-Fi 6 on this board. It is comfortably quicker than any UK domestic broadband connection, so for downloads and online play it makes no practical difference
  • Gigabit wired Ethernet, which we would still recommend over wireless for competitive play
• 🪟 Operating system: As chosen by you from the listing options below. Windows 11 Home (OEM) is recommended.
• 🧹 Setup and optimisation: PC36 High-Class Standard. Full stress test with certificate, bloat-free installation, and BIOS set up properly
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  PC36 High-Class Standard, included free with every build

  • Ready the moment you open the box. Your PC boots straight into Windows with a local account already set up. No account sign-in wall, no first-run questionnaire, no half-hour of setup before you can use the machine you just bought
  • BIOS updated and configured properly: manual fan curves, PBO enabled, XMP enabled, Secure Boot enabled
  • Vanilla Windows 11 installation if you choose Windows, with no bloatware added by us, and all drivers loaded and ready to go
  • Full stress test with certificate. Every system is torture tested on CPU, RAM and GPU before dispatch, and ships with the certificate to prove it. The same test our most expensive machines get

  PC36 Premier Optimisation, available in the listing options

  • CPU tuning to bring thermals and noise down with minimal performance loss, plus a deeper strip and debloat of Windows and a hand-tuned fan profile
  • Worth more in a small case than a large one. There is less air to work with, so how the fans are curved has a bigger effect on what you hear. On this tier the machine is already quiet, so this makes a quiet machine quieter rather than fixing a problem

  PC36 Ultimate Performance Tune, available in the listing options

  • Advanced overclocking: memory tune, CPU tune and GPU overclock on top of everything in Premier
  • Not the machine for it, and we will say so. This build is limited by the graphics card, and a processor overclock will not change your frame rate. The money would do more good spent on the card
• 🛡️ Warranty: 3 years parts & labour (return to base)
  Click or tap for deeper spec info

  • Standard 3-year coverage included, parts and labour both. The same warranty as every machine we sell, regardless of price
  • Optional extended warranties in the listing options below

👁️ Transparency notes

• A large part of this price is the case and the build time it takes, not only the components (click or tap to read more)

  The Fractal Ridge is an expensive chassis and small form factor builds take considerably longer to assemble. If what you want is the most performance for the money, a micro-ATX machine will beat this comfortably at the same price and we will point you at one on live chat. Ridge Zero is for people who want this specific object.

• Product images are representative photos of a similar spec in the same style. Your PC will look similar but not identical. Our support team can help clarify anything you're unsure of.

🛠️ Popular upgrade options

• Quick-add upgrades. This listing has a set of one-click upgrades chosen to fit this exact build, each one priced, in the Quick-add Upgrades section on this page. Memory, storage, optimisation, the anti-sag bracket and the extended warranty are in the build options instead. Anything not shown in either place, ask us on live chat and we will price it.
• Graphics card upgrade: available via live chat.
  Click or tap for more info

  The 750W supply is deliberately oversized and the case takes cards up to 335mm, so a considerably faster card will go in without any other change. An RX 9060 XT 16GB is the natural next step and doubles the video memory. Talk to us and we will price it against simply buying Ridge One, which is often the better answer since that build also moves you to AM5.

• Storage upgrade to 2TB: available in the listing options below.
  Click or tap for more info

  Worth taking now rather than later on this build specifically, because the board has only one M.2 slot and it is occupied. Adding storage afterwards means a 2.5 inch drive rather than a second NVMe, which is slower and more fiddly in a case this size.

• CPU upgrade to Ryzen 7 5700X: choose it from the quick-add upgrades, or speak with us via live chat.
  Click or tap for more info

  Eight cores instead of six, on the same platform and the same cooler. Worth it if you stream while you play, edit video, or run anything that genuinely uses every core. Honest caveat: in most games it will not raise your frame rate much, because the 5600 is already quick enough per core and the graphics card is the limit. If frames are what you are after, put the money into the card instead and we will say so if you ask.

• White colourway: available via live chat.
  Click or tap for more info

  The Ridge comes in white as well as black, and we build it either way. Ask us before you order and we will price it up. Everything else about the machine is identical.

• Extended warranty: available in the listing options below.
• Anything else: speak with us via live chat. This is a small case with real limits, so if you have something specific in mind we would much rather discuss it before you order than have you discover a constraint afterwards.

🎯 What is this PC best for?

• 1080p gaming at high settings and high refresh rates
• 1440p gaming with sensible settings, particularly with FSR 4 enabled
• Living rooms and desks where a tower would not be welcome, and where the machine is meant to be seen
• Lying flat under a television as a console replacement
• Streaming and recording, using the card's AV1 encoder
• Buyers who want a small, quiet, good-looking machine and have decided that matters more than raw performance per pound

📊 Performance estimates

Figures are 1440p. Performance varies with game updates, maps, settings and background apps. These are estimates, not guarantees.

Fortnite - Competitive Settings (click or tap to expand)

1440p: 150-195 FPS
Native testing (no upscaling or frame generation).

Cyberpunk 2077 - Ray Tracing Medium (click or tap to expand)

1440p: 40-52 FPS
Upscaling set to Auto (DLSS / FSR / XeSS based on GPU).

Battlefield 6 - High Settings (click or tap to expand)

1440p: 70-90 FPS
Native testing (no upscaling or frame generation).

💬 Need help?

Not sure if this is the right spec for you? Ping us on live chat and we'll help you choose the perfect PC for your games, work and budget. You'll be talking to one of us, not a chatbot.