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Sure, you can buy a PC in any configuration you want, but by building one for yourself, you can be sure that you’re getting the most value for money.
But with prices rising across the board, every buying decision counts: Don’t waste your money on PC components that won’t contribute to your system’s overall performance.
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To help, I’ve assembled this $550-ish hardware build; All you’ll need to do is connect your peripherals and operating system of choice. If You Want Windows, You Can Buy One windows 11 license here,
Why $550-ish?
First, prices fluctuate daily, sometimes hourly, and whereas once upon a time I could list parts together and that was the only way to drop prices, nowadays prices can skyrocket.
A reader contacted me with a $1,000 build, and by the time I got back to tell them it looked cool, the parts price had skyrocketed to about $150 (I suggested they wait a few days, And sure enough, prices fell again).
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Another problem is availability.
Products come in and out of stock, so I always have a few backups. But again, price variation means that whatever target price I set could bust a few – or even a few tens of – dollars.
Finally, I’m also going to start giving some options.
Think 16GB of RAM is better for you than 8GB? Go for it!
Want a discrete graphics card? Sure.
Slightly faster CPU? That would be more money!
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Be prepared for that $550-ish PC to be $700.
Building a PC “How fast do you want to do it?” More “How fast do you want to spend the money?”
Another factor that affects price is that I’m going to point to components that are in good availability from brands and retailers that I’ve had excellent experience with. You can find cheaper options by shopping around or choosing more budget brands.
Good luck to you!
Finally, I want to cover the issue of “used,” “refurbished,” or “second-hand” parts.
Sure, you might be able to save money by going this route, but in my experience, it’s a route that’s fraught with weeks of headache-inducing hassles. Mislabeled parts (almost always mislabeled as higher-model, higher-priced versions), counterfeit parts, busted or blown parts, and even empty boxes. If you want to go this route, you might be better off buying a secondhand PC, as it’s easier to argue that a complete PC is dead on arrival than to manage all the bits separately or missing.
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I recommend making a video of all your unpacking/unboxing/initial examination of the parts (as it makes dispute resolution much easier), and documenting everything.
Oh, and familiarize yourself with your bank or credit card company’s chargeback policies and PayPal’s dispute feature. Because you’ll need them. Now, with my recommendations!
It’s a solid performer, offering a maximum boost power of 4.1GHz and 11MB of cache. It comes close to what you’d expect from the 5600X but at half the price!
You get a 6-core CPU and a cooler for this price, which makes this a great sub-$100 deal.
Want to spend more? AMD Ryzen 5 5600G Offers more performance, more cache and a built-in GPU.
The graphics card is where it’s possible to spend the entire $500 budget on a single component, so we need to be smart about keeping the build price manageable.
This GPU from PowerColor is a great option for a little over $200, offering 8GB of GDDR6 RAM, support for two monitors with HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, and dual cooling fans.
Want to spend more? i will go for it Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 6700An overclocked graphics card with 10GB of RAM, but $120 more.
This is where it’s easy to spend a few hundred dollars and not see much return. Here I went for the Gigabyte B450M DS3H WiFi as it supports the AMD CPU I went for, can accommodate both SATA and M.2 storage drives and up to 128GB of RAM, and its reasonably priced price is.
Oh, and there’s built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, so you’ll save some money on adapters and dongles.
There are a lot of RAM brands out there, and Corsair is one of the brands I find myself using a lot in gaming systems because it’s a company that offers a good balance of quality, reliability, and affordability when it comes to memory. .
And for $40, it’s a deal that’s hard to beat!
Installing an SSD (solid-state drive) instead of the older HDD (hard disk drive) makes sense as it will unlock more power than any build. But here I’ve found a 500GB M.2 drive that offers better performance for only $35.
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Sure, you can get a lot more storage for your money with an HDD (about 2TB, or four times what you’re getting here), but there’s a big performance hit. In this case, sequential read speeds go up to 3,500MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 3,000MB/s, and a really long lifetime of 600 TBW (terabytes written).
This drive is an absolute steal.
want more? 1TB version is only $45,
This power supply unit has enough power to keep everything running, and a large, quiet cooling fan to blast away the heat.
This is not a modular power supply, meaning all cables are attached and cannot be removed and adapted to your needs. This can result in unhygienic construction and poor air flow. If you want a modular PSU, it’s going to cost you, and I recommend MSI MPG A850G,
Here’s an affordable yet funky case that will hold all the components of this build. For around $60, you wouldn’t expect any fancy lights or fans on this tower, but think again! The case comes with four cooling fans along with RGB LED strips on either side and awesome RGB lights. There are also plenty of vents for heat management.
