$500 Gaming PC?

[VitaminB6]

My son wants to get his first PC. He currently has a laptop that's pretty outdated. With a $500 budget can we build a decent (or at least good enough) gaming PC? I'd prefer to buy new because it's fun to put everything together and would be a good learning experience for him. I haven't built a PC in a very long time so I could use some help if anyone is bored

 

[orangpelupa]

Are you okay with used stuff or gray area stuff?

Dunno how it is in your region, in here the market is full of used stuff and brand new but from gray source. They're usually around half the price of new.

Some parts on pc are practically immortal. RAM sticks, cpu. Used stuff from office usually are a safe bet as they won't overclock, and won't be power on 24/7.

Edit: rough spec

Ryzen 5 1600 af 90 usd
4gb x2 ddr4 40 usd
Gtx 1660 super or gray sourced gtx 1070 300 usd
PSU 40 usd
Casing 20 usd
Motherboard 50 usd

90+40+300+40+20+50= 540usd

Edit#
Cripes! Forgot the storage! For gaming I don't recommend hdd. Too slow, resulting in annoying load times (and stutter) in some games.

Sshdd is nice enough and cheap enough, if buying used.

 

[VitaminB6]

Are you okay with used stuff or gray area stuff?

Dunno how it is in your region, in here the market is full of used stuff and brand new but from gray source. They're usually around half the price of new.

Some parts on pc are practically immortal. RAM sticks, cpu. Used stuff from office usually are a safe bet as they won't overclock, and won't be power on 24/7.

Yeah, I'm OK with used parts I just don't want to buy an already built used PC. I'm in the US if that matters, thanks!

 

[manux]

Here is one pretty recent approach to building 500$ pc

 

[orangpelupa]

Yeah, I'm OK with used parts I just don't want to buy an already built used PC. I'm in the US if that matters, thanks!

I edited my post above with a build.

If you go with used cpu and memory, it seems it maybe can be on budget. If also use used motherboard and gpu, pretty sure it's gonna be on budget.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Do you have any parts such as a case, PSU, monitor etc. that you already own or do you have to buy everything?

What kind of performance do you/he expects and which games does he want to play?

I don't know what you can buy for 500 dollars that would actually run somewhat recent games at reasonable performance but you can get close.

CPU: AMD ryzen 2600 (150)
Main board: ASrock b450 (60)
Memory: 2x8gb Corsair vengeance 3200mhz cl16 (65)
GPU: gtx 1660 (210)
Storage: 512gb SSD (65)

That is 560 dollars. Add another 100 if you need a case and PSU and another 100 ~ 150 if you also need a monitor plus another 50 if you also need a mouse and keyboard.

That system will run games but don't expect any high settings or fps. To be honest I think right now is a bad time for budget gaming PCs.

If you want to game onna budget you are much better off buying a ps5 or Xbox series x. The value proposition is just much better.

If it's more about building something with your kid you might get something old and second hand for 50 bucks or whatever and do some kind of retro machine?

 

[orangpelupa]

Yeah with ryzen 3 just launched, gtx 3000 series... It's probably gonna be better to buy pc some months later after these new stuff got enough stock for the market, so it price stabilize down,

Thus previous gen stuff will be cheaper. And gonna be some deep sales to clear out old stocks.

Btw if gonna decide to give more budget to casing or PSU, give it to PSU. even with flimsy 10 dollars case, it should be fine. But a quality PSU is a must for peace of mind and avoiding weird issues.

 

[orangpelupa]

That system will run games but don't expect any high settings or fps. To be honest I think right now is a bad time for budget gaming PCs.

Actually that should be able to run games at high quality or at high fps. But can't do both.

My pc is ryzen 5 2600, gtx 1660 s.

It can run most games on high or ultra at 1440p at 60fps. Some games at high would need 30 fps lock as it hovers in pretty much useless ~40 fps as I don't have VFR TV, and I really intolerant to tearing.

The cpu is really anemic tho. So for heavy cpu games like flight simulator 2020, overclocking it to 4.2 GHz really helps. For VR, with OC it able to be really stable outputting 72fps. Without oc, there's some random stutter at rare times.

 

[VitaminB6]

Do you have any parts such as a case, PSU, monitor etc. that you already own or do you have to buy everything?

What kind of performance do you/he expects and which games does he want to play?

I don't know what you can buy for 500 dollars that would actually run somewhat recent games at reasonable performance but you can get close.

CPU: AMD ryzen 2600 (150)
Main board: ASrock b450 (60)
Memory: 2x8gb Corsair vengeance 3200mhz cl16 (65)
GPU: gtx 1660 (210)
Storage: 512gb SSD (65)

That is 560 dollars. Add another 100 if you need a case and PSU and another 100 ~ 150 if you also need a monitor plus another 50 if you also need a mouse and keyboard.

That system will run games but don't expect any high settings or fps. To be honest I think right now is a bad time for budget gaming PCs.

If you want to game onna budget you are much better off buying a ps5 or Xbox series x. The value proposition is just much better.

If it's more about building something with your kid you might get something old and second hand for 50 bucks or whatever and do some kind of retro machine?

I don't have a case, PSU, or Windows so that will definitely add to my price. Is a prebuild cheaper in general? Kind of seems that way when I was pricing stuff out. Your list is similar to what I was coming up with as far as price for a decent system. Where I hadn't built a PC in a long time I kind of wanted a second opinion on the $500 price range. I had looked at the Ryzen 3400G that was shown in the video above but it looks like it struggles to hit 60FPS even at 720P in a lot of games. Not sure it has a decent enough CPU where I could later upgrade to a discrete GPU without upgrading the CPU either. My hope was that I could build something for around $500 that would play recent games at low resolution and decent FPS then upgrade parts later, but even that seems like a stretch on a $500 budget. Appreciate the responses from you guys. I may have to just go used, and like tongue_of_colicab said maybe I can build a cheap retro PC to get the PC building experience with my son.

 

[orangpelupa]

Windows 10 pro is expensive. It's like 200 dollars right?

So it's cheaper to buy cheap 100 dollars mini pc China no brand with windows 10 pro. Then you use that license to your own pc hahaha.

But as your kid is a student, you can apply for free windows 10 from Microsoft student website thingy. IIRC they just need student email with @schoolname address.

If no school email, you can send them student proof (I forgot what tho)

 

[Davros]

Windows 10 pro is expensive. It's like 200 dollars right?

paid £12 for mine
https://www.vip-scdkey.com/software/microsoft-pc-10-pro-oem_1227-20.html#techyescity
try the discount code tyc

 

[Cyan]

Here is one pretty recent approach to building 500$ pc

that, or either wait for AMD GPUs of the RX 6000 series that are coming out in a few months. Imagine a medium level GPU from AMD with 12-14 teraflops and Infinity Cache further down the line.

That's going to be epic, a superb PC for the price of a console. Aside from the 1600AF other great processors are getting cheaper too.

 

[Davros]

Ps: if you need a side fan digi is your man
https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/putting-my-pc-in-a-new-case-with-a-few-upgrades-but.61917/page-2