Learn me Grassroots DIY PC gaming rig

Lil Stampie really wants to build his own PC gaming computer.  Background is I used to be a computer tech/geek but 20 years since I did it for a living. Last PC I built was 10 years ago.  E36 M3 changes quick so get me up to speed.  Also this needs to be on a good performance/value ratio.  He has a 32 inch Samsung 1080p TV that's for his Xbox "sim" rig so he'll start with that as his monitor and sound using HDMI input.  

We need:

Case/motherboard/cpu

Memory

Video card

Hard drive

Sound card? (Are these on the mb these days)

$500 budget. 

My thoughts from back in the day is hit that perfect price point on the video card. Hard drive should be solid state. Sight overkill on RAM unless the solid state drive will make up for that. Case doesn't matter much other than he'll think some look "cool" and put the rest towards the mobo and CPU. Got some brand and model recommendations?

I can't help, but I'm watching... My 10 year old dual Xeon servers are starting to fall below the specs. Two bits of advice you probably already know.

- Check the requirements of some of the newer games and make sure you are well above the minimum spec.

- There's lots of good benchmark sites out there, but I have found this one easy to search and compare for video and cpu: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/

I'd suggest using the build a pc tool on https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

Considering how critical the video card is, and how tight a $500 budget is, I'd suggest looking at https://www.reddit.com/r/hardwareswap/ and pick up some used parts.  

Yeah on a $500 budget, the more you can buy used the better. Focus on a CPU with a high clock speed rather than many cores and get at least 8GB of RAM, the video card is the wheels & tires of PC gaming performance so get the best one you can. Do get an SSD, just keep it backed up, their normal failure mode is irrecoverable and with zero warning.

I'll echo that on that budget, you're going to be looking at used stuff. That shouldn't be a deal breaker- gaming computers are one of those things that attract people who have to be on the bleeding edge. They're always dumping used equipment. 

A good gaming graphics card can easily be more than $500 by itself. That said, running at 1080p on a single monitor doesn't require a state of the art video card any more. 

I highly suggest seeing what games he plans on playing, and then doing a bit of research on the specs those games require and seeing if you can find a sweet spot middle ground. 

For example, the estimated specs for Cyberpunk 2077, one of the upcoming "hot" titles, are:

• OS: Win 10 64
• Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz / AMD Ryzen R5 1600
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Nano 8GB or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
• VRAM: 6GB
• System Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Storage: 70 GB Hard drive space

Let me check with kid#2 and see what his parts stash looks like. I know he just helped a buddy build a rig so most of his good stuff may be gone. He should also know what the bargain stuff is as he helps people with this fairly often. 

Edit: he says the Ryzen 1600 65W AM4 is the hot ticket for $85 on Amazon right now. That's the CPU that kid#4 has and he's been nothing but happy. He's leaving for school right now but says he'll log on and type out all he knows this afternoon. 

Thanks guys. Used won't work mostly because it'll be his grandparents buying parts for his Christmas gifts. I'll research the links today while I'm working. 

The editors at PCPartPicker have done a pretty good job:

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/bgj48d/entry-level-amd-gaming-build

I built basically this machine minus the video card two years ago, it is VERY capable.

In reply to szeis4cookie :

Keep in mind that the CPU on that build is a 1st generation Ryzen - I'd look for a similar build with a second or third gen (2600 or 3600) instead. Especially the third gen has had yet another bump in performance.

In general, AMD is currently the way to go for CPUs for budget (and not so budget) builds.

Tim, that's a fair point. The 2600 would take you right up to the $500 budget limit, so would be doable. 3rd gen I think may be a stretch too far.

If he's using a typical 60hz 1080p Samsung TV as a monitor, you have a hard budget cap at $500, and buying used isn't an option, I'd probably skip the GPU for the initial build, spend the money on a better CPU and RAM, maybe a motherboard with an M.2 slot, and get a good PSU with future GPU upgrades in mind.  Integrated graphics, and APUs are a lot better than they were 10 years ago.  You're not going to play AAA titles on max settings, with shadows, ray tracing, and anti-aliasing, but you'll still be able to play most games on low to mid depending on how old the game is.  If they're into Esports titles, most of those games don't require much for a GPU.

Maybe get the kid something off of Nvidia GTX/RTX tree for a birthday present later, or Christams 2020, and a legit higher refresh rate monitor to go with it at some point.

Ryzen 5 3600, Linus Tech Tips has proclaimed to "Just buy a Ryzen 5 3600 and be done with it," in their 2019 Holiday CPU Buyers Guide.  You only have to watch the intro.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Let me check with kid#2 and see what his parts stash looks like. I know he just helped a buddy build a rig so most of his good stuff may be gone. He should also know what the bargain stuff is as he helps people with this fairly often. 

Edit: he says the Ryzen 1600 65W AM4 is the hot ticket for $85 on Amazon right now. That's the CPU that kid#4 has and he's been nothing but happy. He's leaving for school right now but says he'll log on and type out all he knows this afternoon. 

Did he get the stock CPU Cooler with it too?

Seconding the AMD CPU based on bang-for-buck.

Check the motherboard for sound specs.   Even the low-end stuff should have the basics covered, but a "gaming" specific board may offer better sound.  You are correct in that audio hardware is now almost exclusively on the MB.

SSD's are coming down in price, and are crazy fast.  As mentioned, back it up.

Video hardware makes or breaks a gaming rig.  Don't skimp there.  I thought I was going to have to build son #2 a whole new rig.  Got him a decent video card and I'm no longer hearing complaints about how he can't play Overwatch on his old computer.  And this things an antique AMD A-series A8-5600K on an FM2 motherboard.

What bigdaddylee82  said.

When we put together my oldest first gaming machine we went with an AMD with the integrated graphics and he used that for about a year before getting a GPU.  

If you want I can ask him what kind of system he would put together for that price, all of his friends have had him spec out machines for them.  When he said he wanted to build a system I had been out of gaming for so long that he did all the research.

In reply to Stampie :

So there's a lot you can do for $500, but it all depends on wether or not you'd like to scrounge and buy older/used parts for your build. As others said, the "Build a PC sales" subreddit will be your friend- the trick with it is to set "ranges" with what parts you need, not to focus on specific things.

All AMD processors use the AM4 socket and thus, upgrades are super easy- they also come with their own CPU Coolers which are actually very decent and have some overhead for overlocking. Intel have been swapping socket types left and right, so be ready to compare CPU sockets repeatedly to make sure you've got it right.I'm using the B450M "Mortar" motherboard and it's been pretty great- mini ITX but packages well with good USB 3. Only looses out on having built in red LEDs.

Cases will depend on motherboard size and airflow needs, so until you choose a motherboard options are just that. Big cases are no longer needed, and thanks to standardization you can totally buy one off craiglist (or take one for free) without issue. Could save you some coin.

You don't need a sound card anymore unless you're doing some extensive MIDI work.

Memory is an interesting topic. I am not a fan of overclocking memory, and neither is Linus as was posted- go above ~3000 mhz for clock speed and some computers start to get real wonky. Intel processors max out at 2133mhz and Ryzen max at 2666, so there's no reason to buy RAM that is capable of 3000+. From there, 8GB is doable but 16 is always better, no reason to go more unless you're doing some specialty stuff like CAD.

Hard Drives should be SSD. M.2 if you can, but it's no dealbreaker.

Thanks to Ryzen ARM chipsets video cards aren't as needed as they used to be and the 2400G is pretty good- 2200G if you're not afraid of overclocking for performance. I know youtubers have made gaming PCs with them for as little as ~$350 bucks, and a graphics card can still be added in later.

Phil's Computer Lab has a great video on some of the wild things that can be found on AliExpress. Though he really mod's his stuff.

Vega 11 graphics are fine if you have some sort of strugglez kink.  The RX570 from that $500 build on pcpartpicker is easily twice as fast.

I just finished building this one myself:

https://pcpartpicker.com/b/GPP323

If used parts aren't an option you are probably going to be best off skipping the discrete GPU for now. Here is my $499.91 build, the PSU is overkill for the current hardware BUT will support a discrete GPU down the line. You want as much fast RAM as possible for the Ryzen APU since it uses system memory as VRAM:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($121.00 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($83.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($64.98 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($94.99 @ B&H) 
Case: NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($69.98 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($64.98 @ Amazon) 
Total: $499.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-16 11:12 EST-0500

EDIT: The PCPP build linked earlier in this thread also has a lot of bang for the buck, FWIW, but sacrifices in a few areas (though ANY build sub-$500 build will).

I wanted to see if it was possible to get an X570 board and an RX570 within the budget.  Went over by $3.89 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/h8VLcq

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($92.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock X570 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($129.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: GeIL EVO POTENZA 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($34.95 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX 570 4 GB Phantom Gaming D Video Card  ($113.98 @ Newegg) 
Case: HEC HX300 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($36.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12III 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ B&H) 
Total: $493.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-16 12:19 EST-0500

In reply to red_stapler :

Not bad, but with a video card you don't need a G-series CPU. You'va also got only 8gb of RAM.

GIRTHQUAKE said:

In reply to red_stapler :

Not bad, but with a video card you don't need a G-series CPU. You'va also got only 8gb of RAM.

That's the cheapest CPU compatible with an X570 board.  I picked 8GB over 16GB because you won't be running games at settings that would require 16GB.

Here's mine. I went just a little over to take advantage of some current deals going on for the next few days. I run a 2600X and it's a great mid-tier processor, and the 570 Radeon should handle most anything. I didn't use M.2 SSD here, instead regular SSD just kind of as a slightly cheaper placeholder- the B450M does have two M.2 slots so you could use one for wireless or more SSD storage like I did. The Q300L is the case I use- looks nice, small, stupid cheap and has tons of expansion space including enough for 2x 240mm radiators (!).

If you want to trim cost, you drop the video card to a 470 (they can be overclocked to 570 levels), downgrade the processor, or downgrade the power supply to something as low as a 400-450 watt from it's current spec. Just remember that before you change power supplies altering other parts will also alter power use too.

Other than that, it's got a lot of room to expand for ~$550.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fdqwYH

Kinda like being at a Mr. Olympia event watching all these PC geeks flexing.

Dude, I love building something on these tight restrictions- it gets hard to find performance below $700 when you're not talking overclocking or using odd parts like 2011 LGA server sockets and registered RAM.

GIRTHQUAKE said:

Here's mine. I went just a little over to take advantage of some current deals going on for the next few days. I run a 2600X and it's a great mid-tier processor, and the 570 Radeon should handle most anything. I didn't use M.2 SSD here, instead regular SSD just kind of as a slightly cheaper placeholder- the B450M does have two M.2 slots so you could use one for wireless or more SSD storage like I did. The Q300L is the case I use- looks nice, small, stupid cheap and has tons of expansion space including enough for 2x 240mm radiators (!).

If you want to trim cost, you drop the video card to a 470 (they can be overclocked to 570 levels), downgrade the processor, or downgrade the power supply to something as low as a 400-450 watt from it's current spec. Just remember that before you change power supplies altering other parts will also alter power use too.

Other than that, it's got a lot of room to expand for ~$550.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fdqwYH

I think your build is pretty much a winner but I'm heavily predisposed against Gigabyte products because of their abysmal RMA process and generally bad customer support. I would also spend the extra ~$25 and replace the 500GB 2.5" SSD with a cheaper 1TB NVMe SSD. Otherwise I think you're good.

This is how I would do it for $585: 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WyHJn7

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($129.99 @ Walmart) 
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B450M-A/CSM Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($74.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($94.99 @ Adorama) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 570 4 GB RS XXX Video Card  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($40.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($64.98 @ Amazon) 
Total: $585.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-16 14:42 EST-0500

FWIW, EVGA graphics cards come with overclocking software, and as far as I understand it, they will warranty cards that have been overclocked. Might be able to buy a little free performance boost with little risk.