Free AI Website Creator...because some of you don't like the sound of "Budget Build Gaming PC".
Budget Builds don't have to be complicated. Even though the term may imply that the parts involved would induce somewhat of a "crusty" experience, that is far from the truth. And even more so, you don't have to build a computer on a budget that looks bad either. At $500, a whole package that looks as nice as it plays is totally possible.
Technically speaking, you could even build a computer at super low prices using a 'Ryzen 5 3400G APU' with integrated graphics, still game at 1080p 30-60FPS or so in 'various' games, and leave yourself room to pair it with a dedicated graphics card upgrade later on.
For the newcomers, read carefully.
For people who have an idea of what they're doing, hopefully this will augment your existing knowledge.
If you want to just see the parts without the explanation, just skip to the bottom.
Note: This is best viewed from a full monitor screen or full-size display, as there is a lot to read.
There is a lot of information on PC Parts, but it's a good read, so I strongly advise you to click the button below to get an educational overview of various PC Components and their functions or purposes.
If you're in this camp, you most likely don't care too much about the appearance of the externals, the noise, peripherals, etc.
You just want it to get the maximum performance for the lowest price, period.
Your PC may look like a potato on the outside, but your games will run at an acceptable level... enough that you can at least enjoy them without your PC crashing or dying on you every 2 seconds from the CPU going thermonuclear.
This is the most sophisticated, but satisfying build to do. This segment is for people who don't fall into the traditional camps of "I need something that runs" versus the people that are in "I will spend whatever amount of money I need for it to be perfect."
For people who may need to buy a laptop or a portable PC, or a DIY project, this one might be for you. If you're in college and need just one device to do it all, or you are a minimalist looking to maximize wattage, heat, noise, performance, and price, this could be your group.
Ah...
The group that can never be satisfied.
The people who always will say, "If I just spent $100 more dollars, I can get this or that instead..."
Why are you even reading this? This is for Budget Builders.
A Proper "Budget Build" must follow these Principles:
Stick to to the budget. Stay within, or as close to your budget as possible. If not, it's no longer a "budget build." It's now a "I'm throwing as much money as the screen as possible" build. The point of budgeting is to save money, or use money efficiently.
It would be a poor use of budget of you had to spend money again to get a whole 'nother PC just to upgrade. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but if you can, you should have some options to be able to get more life and performance out of what you already have.
Be willing to be reasonable about your budget. Sometimes some things will just be what it is at the price point that it is. Learn to be content with what you have, and find the joy in achieving something that works with the hard-earned money you spent.
Sometimes, due to risings costs or other factors that affect market prices, it is inevitable that you'll run into 1 of 2 issues. Either (A) you'll have to learn to be satisfied with spending less and getting the performance you paid for, or (B) you will have to increase your budget to cover the cost for the performance level you want. Neither of these is a hard metric you have to abide by, but it's important to cover this so that you don't wildly swing between the two and end up running away from your budget.
If you say, "I only have $500 to spend," then you should try to stick to $500 as much as possible. Sure, you can maybe be a little flexible with going a little bit over, like $505, or $510. However, there may be a moment where you have to accept that a certain level of performance comes with $500 - and that's it! Or you might have to bump up the money to $600 or $700 to get something that is notably better (it has to be worth it for the budget increase!). In some cases (no pun intended), there are times when it is better to shell out a little extra cash for a better part up front so that you don't have to replace the whole component later (example: larger capacity Power Supply to prepare for a better GPU).
This can certainly be a challenge between drawing the line and staying there, or trying to figure out if your desire is worth more than how much you wanted to spend initially. Since we can succumb to our desire and start blowing money away, starting with a budget can narrow down your perspective and help you realize that not everything is purely performance based with thousands of dollars out the window, but on how effectively and efficiently you can make something work with what you have.
Doing budget builds is a challenge.. a really good challenge: building your skills and building your character.
So what exactly is a "gaming lite" setup?
It's "kinda-sorta" budget, but leans a lot towards that upgradeability and flexibility.
Unfortunately, a lot of people out there buy the absolute jankiest, cheapest components they can find without any disregard for how much money they'll have to spend later on just to replace everything piece by piece. This results in them spending more money than they could have if they just planned the build better off in the first place.
I'll give you an example.
There was someone I know that really wanted to get a gaming PC, but unfortunately they didn't have money to buy parts. After some while they managed to get some money for their birthday/Christmas, then proceeded to immediately blow it on a crusty PC with an Intel Pentium CPU and an old GT-series card from 10 years ago: it was the sleeper PC... without the gaming PC inside.
If they had just waited a little longer, saved a bit more money, they would have been able to acquire something a lot more flexible and upgradeable - while still enjoying some level of low level gaming.
When it comes to budgeting, it doesn't necessarily mean we just buy the cheapest thing ever and spend as little money as possible - it means we make a reasonable limit of what we want to spend, then we try to stick to that as close as we can.
So that means accounting for just enough money to buy the minimum to enjoy your PC experience, then budget again for the upgrade that will take it from "Gaming Lite" to "Premium Gaming".
You'll need to build a setup centered around a solid CPU that can carry your "rig" (your gaming PC) well beyond a few years. The CPU needs to be able to perform so that if you start off with a very weak GPU and then upgrade it to something more powerful later, the CPU will not bottleneck or "hold back" any performance.
This also means that the motherboard and PSU (Power Supply Unit) should also have some remaining capacity to support additional upgrades. If your motherboard doesn't have enough slots or ports, or the PSU doesn't have enough capacity to deliver more wattage with a more powerful part, then you'd have to spend more money down the road to replace that entire unit. At that point, it would then probably lead to you to trying to justify why you should spend yet another $600 to $800 to build another PC, when the first one didn't need to be replaced.
Let's take a look at some of the parts, and why those parts were selected.
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For our target, we should be aiming to build a PC that can play nearly all games at 1080p, 60FPS. Note that sometimes you will have to workaround the game's settings and lower some things here and there to achieve that target, but more or less you should be able to play without big hassles. If you end up being able to get away with playing games at 1440p (2K) resolution at 40-60 FPS, that's a bonus.
In addition, you don't have to strictly follow this list: it's not a rulebook - it's more like guidelines... you can mix and match whatever you feel makes sense according to your budget. The list is here to provide a point of reference so you know what you need to play games in 1080p/60FPS at the minimum. Anything you substitute that is better than what I have will either be A) a
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A 6-Core, 12-Thread CPU, turbo to 4.1Ghz. 65 Watts.
This CPU should be more than enough for moderate gamers to take advantage of running everything from games, Discord, a browser for viewing guides, streaming, and more. Given that it has 12 threads, it should also do reasonably well with some productivity tasks too, like video editing.
The product kit also comes with the well performing AMD Wraith Cooler, which should also save you money from having to buy another separate CPU cooler.
Alternative: Ryzen 5 5600G, more to be explained below.
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Conversions fall by 12% for every extra second a webpage takes to load. If you want people to engage with your brand and improve the performance of your campaigns, you have to speed things up. AMP offers a way for you to give users a faster experience everywhere -- on ads, landing pages or your entire website.
Conversions fall by 12% for every extra second a webpage takes to load. If you want people to engage with your brand and improve the performance of your campaigns, you have to speed things up. AMP offers a way for you to give users a faster experience everywhere -- on ads, landing pages or your entire website.
Conversions fall by 12% for every extra second a webpage takes to load. If you want people to engage with your brand and improve the performance of your campaigns, you have to speed things up. AMP offers a way for you to give users a faster experience everywhere -- on ads, landing pages or your entire website.
Conversions fall by 12% for every extra second a webpage takes to load. If you want people to engage with your brand and improve the performance of your campaigns, you have to speed things up. AMP offers a way for you to give users a faster experience everywhere -- on ads, landing pages or your entire website.
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