Could someone suggest a really cheap ($400-$500 budget) desktop pc configuration?

[TITAN RTX 4100]

Hi there, I currently use a cheap laptop and like playing games. The reason I have a laptop is because I don't have much budget for premium gaming desktop PCs. I've always wanted a decent gaming desktop, but just have never had the budget or knowledge for a good enough one. I don't play super intensive brand new 2023 games at all, though there is a game called "Cities: Skylines" which I have realized uses more RAM than almost any game there is. On my cheap laptop, I play the game on the lowest graphics settings and 720p resolution(I do have a 1080p gaming monitor that i use). Other games I play include Minecraft, ETS2/ATS, and this one game that not many people know about, called "Burnin' Rubber 5 HD"(I do play more games than that, but these are the main ones.). I was looking into getting a computer with maybe a Ryzen 5 4600g or 5600g(Which aren't too expensive), but if anyone else has any decent suggestions, please tell me. Intel UHD graphics won't do. I also was considering whether I should get a graphics card instantly, or if I should wait a few months for it. I found a gtx 1660 super on amazon for $140, but I don't know yet if I could spend above $500. Since I play Cities Skylines, RAM and CPU are important, which is really frustrating considering my budget. I may be able to spend $60-$100 on 32GB of RAM, but I don't want to. Could anyone please give me some suggestions?

 

[Vayra86]

A budget of 500 would tie you to an IGP for sure, but its doable. The question is whether that will really elevate your gaming enough, a 5600G isn't that fast. Enough for Cities, but since Cities demands a lot of the CPU, is this really the best combination I wonder.

16GB of RAM will run Cities proper, but yes, you could go for 32GB eventually - its possible to do this in steps as well provided you get a motherboard with 4 DIMM slots which most have. However that RAM with an otherwise budget system is way out of balance Not sure if that'll pay off.

You might be better off starting on that gaming desktop proper with a budget of around 900,-. If you can drop 400 bucks on a GPU you can get pretty far. If you can buy second hand locally, that's a good option as well for GPU. Only sellers you trust on that... and it will generally work out fine - GPUs don't die fast. Don't go ebaying one though.

RDNA3 is fleshing out its midrange right now, and the prices are coming down as competition rises. Waiting never hurts, and it also tends to increase the budget When the midrange is complete this gen is a good time to look at those second hand offerings perhaps even (way!) below 400 bucks. People might put their RX6700(XT)'s up, if you see them at a decent price, go for it. On the Nv side I would not readily recommend a last gen GPU, as Ampere's midrange is pretty weak, but an x60/x70 range at a low low price might do too.

If you go discrete GPU, a 5600X + 16GB DDR4 based system is going to do fine and is budget friendly; or on the Intel side 12400(F).

 

[TITAN RTX 4100]

A budget of 500 would tie you to an IGP for sure, but its doable. The question is whether that will really elevate your gaming enough, a 5600G isn't that fast. Enough for Cities, but since Cities demands a lot of the CPU, is this really the best combination I wonder.

16GB of RAM will run Cities proper, but yes, you could go for 32GB eventually - its possible to do this in steps as well provided you get a motherboard with 4 DIMM slots which most have. However that RAM with an otherwise budget system is way out of balance Not sure if that'll pay off.

You might be better off starting on that gaming desktop proper with a budget of around 900,-. If you can drop 400 bucks on a GPU you can get pretty far. If you can buy second hand locally, that's a good option as well for GPU. Only sellers you trust on that... and it will generally work out fine - GPUs don't die fast. Don't go ebaying one though.

RDNA3 is fleshing out its midrange right now, and the prices are coming down as competition rises. Waiting never hurts, and it also tends to increase the budget

Speaking of a GPU, would an RTX 3060 be decent? I've seen those around $300 for the 12GB version, and having 12GB of VRAM would be nice(As there are a lot of games I wanna play that I can't because of my laptop) and having 12GB of vram would make it easy to play the most intensive. I do want to have an intel cpu such as the i5-13600k(maybe even 14600k), but that and everything else would be a bit too much money. I'm definitely not able to spend $1200+ right now. I could maybe purchase the part induvidually over the next few months(first i'd get the basic stuff), then get more ram, then get a new cpu (and motherboard if I go with intel), then a GPU, and then whatever else. So at the beginning I'd have basic stuff, and then slowly get the better stuff over a multiple month period.

 

[Vayra86]

A 12GB 3060 is definitely a good option. Anything >8GB really from last gen.

By getting an earlier gen CPU instead of Intel 13th gen or Ryzen 7000 you can stick with DDR4 and you could even do a GPU upgrade on it and still be fine with that base - I think you can take that up to a 6800XT-level without being too CPU limited. But even a 3060 will play pretty much anything that isn't the newest stuff at 1080p at high or max settings. Its a completely different world if you come from budget laptop and/or IGP. Definitely worth the extra expense.

 

[sam_86314]

Here's a complete system without a case. I tried to cram a 3060 and a PSU that won't burn your house down, and those made it go over budget.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI A520M-A PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($29.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: TEAMGROUP MP34 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card ($289.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX650M (2021) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $628.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-09-16 17:42 EDT-0400

With the 5600G, you could make do with the iGPU and get a dGPU later. Excluding the dGPU makes it around $340 (again, without a case).

 

[wolar]

At that amount of money why not try the used market? You most likely get a better deal.

 

[TITAN RTX 4100]

Here's a complete system without a case. I tried to cram a 3060 and a PSU that won't burn your house down, and those made it go over budget.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI A520M-A PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($29.97 @ Amazon)
Storage: TEAMGROUP MP34 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card ($289.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX650M (2021) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $628.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-09-16 17:42 EDT-0400

With the 5600G, you could make do with the iGPU and get a dGPU later. Excluding the dGPU makes it around $340 (again, without a case).

Thank you! That is just right for me. I added a case, and removing the gpu makes it just $400 with the case. I'm glad you suggested a Corsair power supply. Those ones look like the best ones you can get. I can do with the iGPU, and a 3060 a little later would be a great choice. Thanks to your great suggestions, I might just get the PC I've wanted for years now.

 

[sam_86314]

Thank you! That is just right for me. I added a case, and removing the gpu makes it just $400 with the case. I'm glad you suggested a Corsair power supply. Those ones look like the best ones you can get. I can do with the iGPU, and a 3060 a little later would be a great choice. Thanks to your great suggestions, I might just get the PC I've wanted for years now.

I'll also add that I'd probably aim for a B550 board (around $100) rather than an A520 if you can. I picked the A520 since it was pretty much the cheapest new board available so I could try and squeeze the RTX 3060 in.

Something like this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Ytdrxr/asrock-b550-phantom-gaming-4ac-atx-am4-motherboard-b550-phantom-gaming-4ac

or this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/NT7p99/asrock-b550m-pro4-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b550m-pro4

They'll give you an extra M.2 slot and PCIe Gen 4 if you later upgrade to a 5800X or something.

 

[TITAN RTX 4100]

I'll also add that I'd probably aim for a B550 board (around $100) rather than an A520 if you can. I picked the A520 since it was pretty much the cheapest new board available so I could try and squeeze the RTX 3060 in.

Something like this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Ytdrxr/asrock-b550-phantom-gaming-4ac-atx-am4-motherboard-b550-phantom-gaming-4ac

or this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/NT7p99/asrock-b550m-pro4-micro-atx-am4-motherboard-b550m-pro4

They'll give you an extra M.2 slot and PCIe Gen 4 if you later upgrade to a 5800X or something.

Yeah, I would too. I may not be able to get a b550 now but maybe later as an upgrade, only problem being I'd have to disassemble and reassemble the computer. I'll see.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Make the motherboard the best you can afford. A decent B550, in my opinion, is very much worth it.

 

[Belfaborac]

^ What he said. Swapping a motherboard later necessitates tearing the whole thing apart, while everything else can be swapped in/out very easily. Not to mention that you'll have more expansion possibilities and can be sure that any future CPU will operate optimally. If you go too barebones you're far too likely to regret it later.

 

[Vayra86]

Yeah, I would too. I may not be able to get a b550 now but maybe later as an upgrade, only problem being I'd have to disassemble and reassemble the computer. I'll see.

Dont do that. Get the right board now or you are being penny wise / pound stupid as they call it its also better if you get a Windows OEM license as it is tied to motherboard. Saves a lot of hassle and eventually money.

 

[TITAN RTX 4100]

Dont do that. Get the right board now or you are being penny wise / pound stupid as they call it its also better if you get a Windows OEM license as it is tied to motherboard. Saves a lot of hassle and eventually money.

Yeah, I didn't really think much about that. But me replacing the motherboard, that is a pretty stupid idea, especially since I have almost no knowledge on building pcs.

 

[TITAN RTX 4100]

All the parts for the new PC finally arrived! I got a Ryzen 5 5600G, MSI B550M PRO-VDH motherboard, 32GB of RAM, a 512GB M.2 SSD(Crucial P3 Plus) and a 1TB SATA SSD(Samsung 870 EVO SATA SSD). I got a MSI MAG A550BN power supply, as I needed to spend less money on that sadly, but I will eventually get a Corsair RM750e PSU, as it's new and good. I picked the Thermaltake Versa H18 as my case. I will eventually get an RTX 3050 or 3060 in a few months from now. I finished building the PC, and it works pretty good so far. I installed Windows 11 Pro(I haven't got a key yet), and I installed a few games, including Cities Skylines, and in that game, not only was the fps higher, but the simulation speed was running faster too. I almost can't wait to get my hands on a 30 series GPU to max out the potential of this new PC! Then I'll finally be able to play games like Cyberpunk!

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

Just for your consideration at least in the land down under *AUSTRALIA*
you can get a 6700 non xt for less then a 3060 and it does handily beat it

 

[TITAN RTX 4100]

Just for your consideration at least in the land down under *AUSTRALIA*
you can get a 6700 non xt for less then a 3060 and it does handily beat it

I just looked and a 6700 non XT is $279 USD, which is lower than a 3060. a 6700 XT is $319 USD, which is a bit more than the RTX 3060 I was thinking of getting. Prices in a few months will be even lower, and as long as I don't have driver issues, I'll likely go with a 6700 or 6700 XT. Thanks for the suggestion!