Welcome!
This thread aims to do some thorough analysis on how to build a budget gaming PC for the winter of 2024 / 2025. With Black Friday / Week coming up, as well as Christmas, I believe now is an excellent time to build a new computer. My hope is that this thread will collect the advice from a lot of people in the community, so even though I will give a good starting point here, I do not expect my word to be absolute. I am going to start with discussing each component in turn the way I see it, and then add two example builds in the end, one based on Intel CPUs and one based on AMD. Feel free to add your favorite components and analysis the way you see it.
The focus for this thread is budget e.g. the cheapest you can get without buying complete and utter trash, there is a sister thread for the value builds. The target price for this build is $700, but if your particular build exceeds that budget with up to 15% (~$800) it is still worth discussing, especially if those extra 15% bring 50%-100% better performance.
If you are interested in discussing more value-oriented builds, check out the $1400 sister thread on the same topic.
Without further ado, let’s dive right into it:
Components
There are eight components required to build a modern PC in the mid-20s. Some of these matter more for performance, but all have their place and will limit some of your other choices if you build poorly. Think carefully. Budget wise, I am aiming for $700 or less, simply because that is a good tradeoff between quality and cheapness. I am listing brand-new components for this; eBay might help you go even cheaper. As a final note, these are mostly my opinions. They may not necessarily correlate with yours. That is fine. This is not about the one true way to build a budget PC, but presenting a way. Others exist and may, in fact, fit your particular use case better.
Again, if you feel this analysis leave out your favorite brand(s) feel free to suggest alternatives and why you like them. Value is more than just the money you throw into a build, after all - It is also subjective. While we can debate endlessly whether this or that motherboard is better because of this or that reason, or this or that feature is really important to have, let’s try to be respectful and try to recognize the fact that we all put different weight at different values. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, ya? The goal is to try and help everyone look for a decent gaming experience for the coming winter season, not to bash any one particular brand or way of thinking.
CPU
In the budget segment, I would spend around $125-$150 here. That gives a few interesting choices. Both LGA1851 and AM5 CPUs are a bit too pricey in this segment, especially AM5, where both motherboards and RAM are more expensive than AM4 and LGA1700. The cheapest good AM5 CPU is the 7600 non-X at $179. I do believe there are quite a few value propositions out there on both AM5 and LGA1851, but it’s just too pricey for $700 machines at the moment.
Therefore, the main contenders here are between LGA1700 and AM4, more specifically the $130 Ryzen 5700X and Core i5 12400, or the $150 Ryzen 5800X and the Core i5 12600k. The only real difference between the 5700X and the 5800X is that the latter is more OC friendly. The 12600k, however, comes with a full hyperthreaded 6 core + 4 smaller CPU cores. In practice, this will not make an enormous difference, but this could hold some better value for you.
CPU Cooler
At the budget level, a stock cooler can be helpful, but spending $20 on a cheap tower cooler should be more than enough to cool your CPU. I have included a tower cooler in the builds below, but you don’t really need to stress yourself out, here. For the components you are running, this $20 cooler will be more than adequate, and could even be skipped if the CPU comes with a cooler.
Graphics Card
In the budget segment, there really is only one decent option at the moment; the Radeon RX 6600. Nothing else comes close in terms of bang for the buck. RTX 3050 is trash, RTX 4060 costs $100 more and comes with far too little VRAM (if you can afford that, a 7600 XT with 16GB VRAM costs only $20 more) and the 7600 non-XT is a joke right now, price wise. If you must have Nvidia, the 3060 with 12 GB of VRAM is your best budget option… At $280.
The 6600 can provide quite a capable experience in 1080p, but you will most probably be required to lower your texture details, among other things. A solid 1440p@60Hz is possible, but you will need to tweak each individual game for it and turn down settings.
Motherboard
For AM4, the choice is easy. B550 all the way. While A520 might be worth it in some specific cases, I feel the $30 savings just isn’t worth it. At all. So just pick a B550 of your favorite brand that isn’t too expensive. X570 just doesn’t make sense anymore, look at current gen platforms if X570 is appealing.
For Intel, the choice is trickier. The choice is between a B760 or Z790 board here. Z790 has, in general, better quality and more features, and the difference in cost is like $30. H710 boards are pure garbage that does not even allow you to overclock your RAM, so avoid those. Regardless of brand, try to fit in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as wireless headphones are so much nicer than wired ones, these days.
RAM
We are going with DDR4 RAM here. DDR5 RAM has come down in price, but again, not enough to fit within a $700 budget. Not much to say, here - 32 GB is more or less par for the course in 2024, and sets you back a whopping $50. Going higher than 3600 MT/s is not recommended - the costs rise exponentially and as soon as you hit $1000 for a system, a DDR5 system makes more sense in either case.
Storage
Do not buy a hard drive in 2024! The hegemony of hard drives are ending, and sooner than most people realize. A 1TB m.2 drive would at least let you store some games on it, but SSD prices are not quite where they need to be yet. You also want to consider a drive with DRAM cache, though this adds ~30%-50% to the price of an SSD. If you can fit a DRAM drive into your budget, great. Have minimum of 1TB of storage. At this price point, I consider capacity as more important than a really fast drive, however.
Power Supply
For the power supply, stay away from no-name brands if possible. Some offers are worth to take a gamble on; with Power supplies, you tend to get what you pay for. A 750W is more than enough to drive the components that are presented here; but 1000W is not insane anymore, either. Try to ensure the PSU is compatible with the latest standards like ATX 3.0. I tend to try to go for Gold ratings and modular cables, simply because it makes the insides of the system so much nicer, but going with a Bronze PSU is fine, too, if that helps you spend more on a different part.
Case
A computer case is very personal. In the $700 bracket, parts are generally not going to overheat even if you have a case with bad airflow. However, the more power you draw into a case, the more heat you need to push out of it. $700 budgets can have virtually any chassis with some active ventilation, but if you are worried about it, a case with a mesh front and two 120mm or even better, 140mm fans in the front are among the cheapest and easiest back-front solutions you can get. There is a case to be made for $80-$100 chassis as you get a ton of niceties, but there is nothing really wrong with $40 cases either. However, stay away from the Cooler Master QL300, it is alright to build in but the “mesh” front has a fatal flaw with too small perforations, that does not allow air to flow proper. Good idea, bad execution.
The builds
The following builds are example builds with PC Part Picker as a guide. Pricing and parts follow the US market, please keep in mind the above advice if you make any changes, and adjust these builds to your own region and pricing. Great deals in the US are not necessarily great deals in the EU, after all.
And yes, I have chosen the same components save for the motherboard and CPU, to make things simple and keep an apples-to-apples comparison. PSU is only 650W, which I feel is a bit low, but I just would not fit the budget with the same PSU as the value build. The storage is DRAM-less, but the MP44L still packs quite a punch, and 1TB of storage at that. As for RAM, 3200 MT/s @ CL16 is good enough. You could go with 3600 MT/s as well, but it is not required. And of course, nothing beats the RX 6600 non-XT as a budget card at the moment.
Build 1: Adam the Acorn Avenger (AM4)
For AMD I have chosen to go with the $130 5700X, an 8 core Zen 3 with 65W TDP. This is then paired with the $109 budget MSI B550 Pro-VDH WiFi. This combo should last you for at least three years and possibly all the way to AM6 and Zen 7, but when you upgrade you need to go big on the upgrade, so make sure to save up.
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | $130.00 |
| CPU Cooler | Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE | $17.89 |
| Motherboard | MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI | $108.99 |
| Memory | TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | $46.99 |
| Storage | TEAMGROUP MP44L 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 | $56.99 |
| Video Card | PowerColor Fighter Radeon RX 6600 | $199.99 |
| Case | DIYPC S3-BK-ARGB ATX Mid Tower Case | $48.62 |
| Power Supply | Thermaltake Smart BM3 650W 80+ Bronze Semi-modular | $76.98 |
| Total | $686.45 |
Build 2: Ingo the Intrepid Initiator (LGA1700)
For Intel I have chosen to go with the $111 12400F, a 6 core Alder Lake CPU with 65W TDP. This is then paired with the more pricey $130 Gigabyte B760M Gaming Plus WiFi (DDR4). Just as with the AM4 system, this combo should last you for at least three years and possibly all the way to AM6 and Zen 7, but when you upgrade you need to go big on the upgrade, so make sure to save up.
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-12400F | $111.34 |
| CPU Cooler | Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE | $17.89 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte B760M GAMING PLUS WIFI DDR4 | $129.99 |
| Memory | TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | $46.99 |
| Storage | TEAMGROUP MP44L 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 | $56.99 |
| Video Card | PowerColor Fighter Radeon RX 6600 | $199.99 |
| Case | DIYPC S3-BK-ARGB ATX Mid Tower Case | $48.62 |
| Power Supply | Thermaltake Smart BM3 650W 80+ Bronze Semi-modular | $76.98 |
| Total | $688.79 |
Bonus build: Bart the Boggart (AM4)
This is a good granny build. One of the few instances where I can see an A520 board make sense in the budget. If Grandma (or your parents or kids) need a new and small PC, this is the way. Not very upgradable or graphically capable, however - but about the cheapest you can make it, today. Best part - it comes with a VESA mount so you can hide it away on the back of Grannys screen, like a true Boggart!
This thing can even play some 1080p eSport titles, although framerates will suffer for it. Best budget build for those who just need a new PC right now, and do not care about upgradeability. If you do care about that, put this baby in an MATX case with a B550 MATX motherboard and a proper PSU instead, this should be about as expensive.
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT | $126.29 |
| Motherboard | ASRock A520M-ITX/ac | $99.99 |
| Memory | TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 2x16 GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | $46.99 |
| Storage | TEAMGROUP MP44L 2TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 | $102.59 |
| Case | In Win Chopin MAX w/200W PSU | $129.00 |
| Total | $504.86 |
Closing words
I hope the above build examples and analysis helped someone looking for a new PC in 2024. Feel free to fill out below with good deals, agree, disagree, and don’t forget to keep things civil and be respectful. 
