To build a Gaming PC that will be more than capable of handling pretty much any game you can throw at it with little to no issue, you will need to spend between $700-800. This is the sweet spot to get you the most bang for your buck.
My name is Ty Robinson, an IT Tech professional, and an avid PC gamer. I have built many PC’s in my day with varying budgets, from extremely tight to having much more wiggle room.
What you are looking to play on your Gaming PC will heavily impact the budget. Nonetheless, a decent gaming PC that will be more than ready for anything within the next few years will only be about $700. I’ll go into what makes up that build!
Let’s get started.
Contents
Key Takeaways
- The most important gaming PC parts are the GPU, CPU, and RAM.
- Future-proofing your PC with better parts now will keep you from spending money on upgrades.
- Gaming becomes more hardware and software intensive as time goes on.
Crucial PC Parts for a Decent Gaming Experience
While every part of a PC is integral to its functioning properly. The parts that you want to focus on for performance, are the graphics card, RAM, and CPU. About 30-50% of your budget should be allocated just for the Graphics card if constraints allow.
Go through the list below when purchasing your PC parts to make sure you have everything you need.
- GPU
- CPU
- Motherboard
- RAM
- Storage
- Power Supply Unit (PSU)
- Computer Case
- Operating System
CPU
CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. The CPU is the computer’s brain; for games to run how you want them, you need to make sure the brain is powerful enough for the task. CPUs handle the bulk of your system’s process.
Some CPU-intensive games include total war games or ones where tons of NPCs are on screen at a single time.
Mid Range CPU prices are about $125-$300, here is a great AMD CPU I recommend.
GPU
GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit. The GPU is the powerhouse and main component when it comes to gaming.
It works in tandem with the CPU to get you the best performance. The graphics card takes care of the video output and needs to be strong enough to handle the games you throw at it.
Your GPU and CPU need to be close in performance so that one does not bottleneck the other. In other words, getting an expensive graphics card, but going cheap on the CPU, won’t give you the performance you desire since the CPU can’t keep up with your Graphics Card.
GPU prices can vary greatly. Some of the mid-range ones cost about $250-$500. Here is a great AMD GPU.
RAM
RAM stands for random-accessed memory and is a key component in making your computer function.
RAM is the memory of your device. As a rule of thumb, most recent titles use almost 8 to 12GB of RAM just to run, so going for 16GB or even more will give you some more headroom for background tasks (such as streaming).
RAM is where all of our applications store and access data on a short-term basis. Along with your game, applications include things like; Google Chrome, Itunes, your mail app, etc. This means, the more applications you use at once, the more RAM your PC will use.
16GB of RAM will cost between $45-$60. You can get a good pair of RAM here.
Motherboard
The Motherboard is the hub for all of your PC parts. It handles the power distribution and allows all of the different components that make up the computer, to communicate with one another.
When purchasing your motherboard, you must make sure you purchase one that is compatible with the CPU you are getting. Whether it be Intel or AMD, you need to make sure that they will work together.
Motherboards can cost between $80-$300. I have linked a good AM4 motherboard here!
Storage
The storage is where your OS (operating system), files, and games will be stored. The read and write speeds also affect the load speed of your games. It is important to keep that in mind when purchasing your storage option.
When it comes to a decent gaming PC, I highly recommend going with a Solid State Drive (SSD). SSDs are smaller, thinner, quieter, and faster than a normal hard drive. They do not have any moving parts, which means it lasts longer But with that trade-off comes a price increase.
You should get at least 1TB of storage space so that you won’t have to worry about space when installing games. Motherboards come with multiple SATA ports, which is what you need for your SSD, so you can always add more storage space in the future.
There are also PCIe-mounted SSDs, which ditch the SATA connector, and connect straight to the motherboard. Since it doesn’t communicate through the SATA cable, it also gets faster speeds than normal SSDs. But the price increases with this as well.
You can purchase an SSD for $50-$150. You can purchase a normal SSD, but if you’re interested in the PCIe option, click here.
PSU
The PSU or Power Supply Unit is what will power all of the components in your PC. Depending on the parts you get, you may need to purchase one with more wattage. It is a good practice to purchase one with extra wattage in the 650w range, to leave room for upgrades in the future.
PSUs normally cost between $40-$100. You can get a 650w PSU here.
Operating System
Windows is the best operating system for gaming, as it is the one best optimized for it. You can purchase a copy here!
The Decent Gaming PC
I put together a build that will net you excellent performance on every single recent triple-A title that has been released that someone could want to play. To look at the pricing and parts that went into it, follow this link.
The GPU in this build is the RX 6650XT, a cost-effective, and powerful unit utilizing RDNA 2 architecture. This allows for light Ray-Tracing, like the 20 series cards from NVIDIA. With this GPU, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a game that it can not run at 1080p on high settings.
In the image below, I will show you the average frame rate performance that this GPU gets on some of the most popular recent titles.
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is an extremely good price to performance CPU, that pairs exquisitely with our GPU.
The CPU and motherboard can support up to 3200mhz memory speed. So that is exactly what we are getting with the 16 GB of Corsair Vengeance RAM.
Final Thoughts
It will cost $800-900 to build a decent Gaming PC that will last you a few years and has an excellent upgrade path. If you choose to grab your parts and not follow the list in this article, make sure that your motherboard and CPU are compatible, and you are all set to start gaming!
