$500 Gaming PC
Last Updated: 11/16/2024
Here is a budget friendly $500 custom gaming pc you can build yourself designed for high frame rate 1080p gaming! Boasting the Ryzen 5 3500X, an excellent 6 core budget gaming CPU, and the Intel ARC A750, the most effective inexpensive 1080p gaming gpu you can get, this is sure to handle all of your favorite pc games at 1920x1080 from 60-240fps.
The Parts
https://pcbuilds.gg/b/e2xuDFBest Price
This $500 gaming pc build is designed to handle as much 1920x1080 gaming as possible while not being too expensive! If you're looking for a capable gaming pc without cutting too many corners then this is it.
This entire $500 custom gaming pc build is all possible thanks to the Ryzen 5 3600. This is a budget conscious 6 core 12 threaded CPU from AMD that still can perform quite well in 2024 compared to other gaming CPUs in it's price range. This CPU can handle up to a RTX 4070/RX 7800 XT without bottlenecking at 1440p and up to a RTX 4060Ti/RX 6750XT at 1080p without bottlenecking.
Given we're using a Ryzen 3000 series CPU, we can get away with using an older yet more affordable B450 Micro ATX motherboard. That said, there isn't a performance penalty going with an older B450 motherboard versus a more expensive B550 motherboard, but your future CPU upgrade options may be limited to at most a Ryzen 7 5700X3D if you choose B450.
Once again, 16gb of DDR4 RAM is still enough for pc gaming in 2024, and at it's rated speed of 3200mhz with a CAS latency of 16, this will be enough provide us fast memory that isn't too expensive for this $500 gaming pc.
Now unfortunately given the budget, you'll have to settle with getting a smaller 512gb PCIe Gen 3.0 M.2 SSD, and a dramless one at that, to make budget for this $500 gaming pc. If you have any additional budget to allocate to this PC build above $500, then I recommend picking up a 1TB PCIe gen 4.0 M.2 SSD with a dram controller. See my more expensive pc builds to see my recommended options for that.
Onto better news, the heart and soul of this $500 gaming pc is the graphics card choice, which is the Intel ARC A580. Coming in at an aggressive price point, this affordable gaming GPU comes with 8gb of VRAM (with a 256bit memory controller), support for Ray Tracing, the AV1 codec for video editing, and some of the best bang for your buck graphics performance. The Intel ARC A580 is what will deliver those high framerates at 1920x1080 for any pc game you throw at this $500 gaming pc.
For the power supply needed to power everything, a standard 550W 80+ bronze is all you'd need for the Ryzen 5 3600 and Intel ARC A580 combo for this $500 gaming pc and fortunately, the model chosen for this $500 gaming pc has been proven to be reliable yet affordable.
Wrapping things up, a value focused Micro ATX pc case is needed since we're using a micro atx B450 motherboard, so the one choosen for this build will suffice for now, and into the future if you ever decide to upgrade any of the components inside this $500 gaming pc!
The recommended monitor for this $500 gaming pc is a 1920x1080p IPS gaming monitor, like the one linked above.
Author
Marc Aranibar,
Content Creator
Hi! My name is Marc Aranibar, and I'm a content creator, CSCE graduate, amateur filmmaker, and aspiring race car driver.
I'm well known for my pc gaming and tech content on Youtube through my Youtube channel called ScatterVolt.
