A gaming PC build under $500 is not something easy to make now. A budget gaming rig is expected to have a dedicated graphics card that is capable of running newest games at least at mid details in full HD. But a good graphics card capable of doing that is expensive these days. On the other hand, the maximum amount you can spend on the graphics card shouldn’t exceed 20% of your budget, as you’ll need a good amount for buying the processor, motherboard, HDD, RAM, DVDRW, computer case, and power supply too. However, with 20% of $500, ie., $100, you can’t buy a good gaming graphics card that will be able to deliver a satisfactory performance. On the other hand, spending more on the graphics card will restrict your choices of other important parts for your rig. Yet, after extensive research on the net and a long debate among our gaming enthusiast team members, we have decided to go along with the following list of components. We have included both Intel and AMD based configuration here.
For Intel
CPU & MB: Intel Core i3-7100 and GIGABYTE LGA1151 Intel H270 | Amazon
For AMD
CPU & MB: AMD Rayzen 3 1300x and GIGABYTE GA-A320MA-M.2 | Amazon, or
CPU & MB: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 and GIGABYTE GA-A320M-HD2 | Amazon
– The following components are fully compatible with both Intel and AMD Rig
1. GPU: Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5 128 Bit | Amazon
2. RAM: Kingston HyperX FURY Black 8GB Kit (2x4GB) 2133MHz DDR4 | Amazon
3. HDD: WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive | Amazon
4. Optical Drive: Asus 24x DVD-RW | Amazon
5. Computer Case: ROSEWILL Micro ATX Mini Tower | Amazon
6. Power Supply: EVGA 500 W1, 80+ WHITE 500W | Amazon
The total amount required to buy these components is around $550 (for Intel rig) and $575 or $540 (for AMD rig) depending on which processor-motherboard combo you choose. If it still crosses your budget, you may want to buy the Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 2GB GDDR5 for around $115. It will reduce the total cost by $30.
We hope that you find this gaming rig helpful. For a more powerful gaming rig, read our post on Latest Intel or AMD gaming rig under $1 1000.Happy Gaming!