Build Advice $500 dollar gaming pc

[Brandon Tran]

my friend is looking to buy a gaming pc but his budget is $500 or less. i’m not very educated or familiar with lower end pc parts so i need some help. can someone show me a build with the max budget being $500 for gaming specifically?

 

[Lucky_SLS]

If you want a good gaming PC, you might have to stretch your budget to 600 USD or look at used parts.

look for used RX6650XT or RTX3060

GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2023: Graphics Cards Ranked

We've run hundreds of GPU benchmarks on Nvidia, AMD, and Intel graphics cards and ranked them in our comprehensive hierarchy.

www.tomshardware.com

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($95.70 @ MemoryC)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Silicon Power XPOWER Turbine 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($30.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: TEAMGROUP T-Force Cardea Z44L 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($43.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sparkle ORC OC Arc A750 8 GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: MagniumGear NEO AIR (2023) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 - TT Premium 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $560.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-21 04:02 EST-0500

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I’d suggest on the graphics card considering the used market. Like eBay. But you have to read and ask questions and check the sellers feedback to be very sure what you are buying. For example I’m seeing rx 5600xt and rtx 2060 cards sell just over 100 bucks. Some of the 5600 xt cards close to 100. If you go that route really look at the sellers feedback and the description though. Though I think eBay has a money back guarantee if for example the item is described as working and doesn’t.

But those cards should perform in the range of an rx 6600 non xt despite the 6gb of vram.

 

[Brandon Tran]

If you want a good gaming PC, you might have to stretch your budget to 600 USD or look at used parts.

look for used RX6650XT or RTX3060

GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2023: Graphics Cards Ranked

We've run hundreds of GPU benchmarks on Nvidia, AMD, and Intel graphics cards and ranked them in our comprehensive hierarchy.

www.tomshardware.com

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($95.70 @ MemoryC)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Silicon Power XPOWER Turbine 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($30.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: TEAMGROUP T-Force Cardea Z44L 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($43.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sparkle ORC OC Arc A750 8 GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: MagniumGear NEO AIR (2023) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 - TT Premium 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $560.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-21 04:02 EST-0500

my friend pushed his budget to $600 and this is what i made. we live near a microcenter so i decided to take advantage of the deals there. anything i should change? i don’t think the build is that bad though.

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx?load=db84a120-9d75-4f9f-b5df-1cf15d5317e9

 

[Lucky_SLS]

as you can see, amazon and newegg have better prices.

i would upgrade the cpu to 5600 and would not change anything else.

the A750 is much better than the 1660 super as you can see from the GPU hierarchy chart above.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor ($127.35 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Silicon Power XPOWER Turbine 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($31.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: TEAMGROUP T-Force Cardea Z44L 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($43.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Acer Predator BiFrost OC Arc A750 8 GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Case: MagniumGear NEO AIR (2023) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 - TT Premium 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $593.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-11-24 03:12 EST-0500