THe parts to Build a Gaming PC under 500
Getting started with a gaming PC under 500
Is it possible to build a gaming PC under 500 that could still play the latest titles? Yes. This is a great starter PC with room to upgrade. Main reason this is possible is because of the combined CPU and GPU from AMD. AMD also powers the hardware in the latest generation of XBOX and PS4. While it will run everything you won’t be able to max out many settings it is a good cheap first entry.
In the lists below you will find two gaming PCs under 500 as of the time of this writing. Prices may raise or lower depending on markets.
Complete build
CPU
We’ll start with the APU, this is the AMD Ryzen 2200G. (Accelerated Processing Unit). This is the Brain child that contains the CPU and GPU all in one. This is what makes it possible to build a PC under 500. Otherwise we’d have an entry level work PC. If you haven’t upgraded to a Ryzen at this point, we highly recommend you do!
RAM
For the ram we’ve selected to splurge a little bit (and a bit of hunting around) to get 2x8GB (16GB total) RAM running at 3200MHz. While the GPU will take some of that you will have ~14GB dedicated RAM to work with. With OS and other applications you should have no problems with a full 8GB for games at any time. Unless you like to browse with over 120 tabs open at once.
MotherBoard
For the Motherboard We’ve decided to go with the solid A320M ProM2 V2 Motherboard from MSI. Packed with a lot of features, this will give us a stable platform to do anything you want with room to upgrade.
Storage
For the hard drive we’re going with a 2TB HDD from Hatachi. No solid state at this price but it’s an upgrade for the future. Still 2 terabytes is enough to install plenty of the latest titles! That’s a lot of games, music and video.
Case
Next we have the CoolMaster Micro ATX tower. The tower has a solid design with plenty of room for any additional parts and upgrades and includes a nice side window.
Power Supply
It’s not all good news, after we had to cut corners get a gaming PC under 500, that leads us to the Power Supply. If you are thinking of upgrading anything I would first recommend something more substantial than this guy. Still we have a bit of breathing room here.
Display
Next is the monitor. While there’s a lot of good monitors out there, this baby will get you there futher faster. It supports the FreeSync technology (Which is compatible with AMD and Nvidia cards too!). This technology allows you to sync the refresh rate to your monitor to prevent screen tearing with out the need to lock in “wait for vertical refresh”. In other words you can get a good 5 -15 FPS boost just by using this monitor!
Pretty sweet stuff!
That’s a complete gaming PC under 500 totaling $497.92. Everything. A good entry for PC gaming with room to grow.
Notes
This PC is cheap. If you’re thinking of upgrading anything get a better Power Supply FIRST. After that you can think of getting a better graphics card and possible CPU too. A solid state drive will help you boot up faster and load into games. It won’t boost your FPS at all but it will cut down on loading times. Your RAM is pretty good and that’s one thing I don’t recommend upgrading here, not worth it unless you do HEAVY multi tasking. If it were me I’d upgrade the power supply then storage to a SSD.
Just the case
Do you already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse? If so we have a machine that still fits that budget!
CPU
We’ll upgrade that APU to a Ryzen 5 2400G. Good boost to our CPU, GPU and our precious FPS.
Storage
Next we’ll sacrifice a terabyte of storage for speed! Still a terabyte SSD can go a long ways, and much faster. Better boot and load times for a little bit more. Trust me when I say you won’t miss the space.
Power Supply
The Power Supply is where we get a nice upgrade where it matters. It’s not over the top but it does give us room to easily upgrade a dedicated graphics card later!
There you have it, two gaming PC’s under 500. In fact this second one comes in at $472.50. So you have a little room to grow if you wanted more RAM, a different case or PSU. Me I’d upgrade the SSD but that would break the budget on staying under 500.
In Conclusion
Overall the systems are similar but this is a better gaming PC under 500 dollars. Room to upgrade and grow. I personally have always loved budget gaming computers and this is a great entry. Now the monitor I listed above is still a great option. Turning on freesync will give you a noticeable speed boost. That is turning that on and disabling wait for vertical refresh. On some games that alone can make up the difference between these two builds. FreeSync is just worth it. For the price and cross compatibility.
It’s easy to get into PC gaming these days. These parts are NOT set in stone you can mix and match as you really want to! Don’t like the case or CPU? Feel free to change that up! Just be sure to check compatibility. As always I hoped you enjoyed this build and if you have any questions feel free to ask questions or jump on our discord.
Average FPS
These are averages reported by a lot of people. This isn’t meant to be a benchmark but to show what the machine is capable of.
