Under 500$ gaming pc

[gabada]

An intel i5 would be a bit better for gaming but that's probably out of your budget.

Yea it raise with 100$ min

 

[jboydgolfer]

That Pentium clocks up to decent gigahertz ,it's no slouch, and it's got 4 threads ,it's absolutely 100% acceptable and beyond for gaming. Is it the best CPU money can buy? No of course not but we're doing a PC on a $500 budget here

 

[StrayKAT]

I play games fine with an HDD (I use an SSD for the OS though). And the 1060 6GB is still great (for 1080p at least).

 

[jboydgolfer]

not to mention down the road you could buy a Small SSD, and run primocache or something along those lines to get a Nice SSD cache for System temp files, etc.

just a small "fwiw"

my nephew runs a i3 4170, with a 6970 (yeah a MANY years old GPU) and it runs all the games he loves just fine. is it running @ high res @ high FPS? nope, but it runs what he likes, and it does it well enough. keep in mind, OP could always go AMD and possibly save more $$, im not familiar with modern AMD chips though.

 

[Aquinus]

Is there any reason why you're not saving a little more money to get something a little more capable? 500 in my opinion is penny-pinching territory and you're going to have to skimp somewhere with something that you probably shouldn't (like the PSU for example.) If I were in the OP's position, I would save another couple hundred dollars which would open up a lot more options.

 

[jboydgolfer]

Is there any reason why you're not saving a little more money to get something a little more capable? 500 in my opinion is penny-pinching territory and you're going to have to skimp somewhere with something that you probably shouldn't (like the PSU for example.) If I were in the OP's position, I would save another couple hundred dollars which would open up a lot more options.

I agree that there's things I would do differently ,but I i'm guessing that OP has thought this out, and is asking what he wants an answer to. Personally if I was forced to buy only from online stores I would want a budget from $600 to $700. If a Micro Center was nearby ,you could maybe do it with $500 or less.

 

[IceScreamer]

Here is another option. The GPU is slower but the CPU is a nice quad core with a good upgrade path. It's not the best, but certainly good for an entry level gaming PC.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7Yrxpb

 

[thebluebumblebee]

A SSD/HDD setup is the often recommended setup, but there is actually very little benefit to gaming performance unless you can play the game from the SSD. I recommend the Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSHD 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" drive, with its 5 year warranty, and it happens to be on sale right now. For a $500 build, there are much better places to put your money than in a SSD.

GPU is more important than CPU.

 

[silentbogo]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7rLrNN

Under $500 at US prices. You can put that change away for another 8GB DDR4 stick or an SSD.
1050Ti can play most modern games at 1080p, no problem.

Motherboard includes M.2 NVME slot, so you can later stick a 128GB Intel 600p in it as a boot drive.
If you can spare another $100, then you should definitely add it to your shopping list and replace that 8GB stick with a dual-channel G.Skill Ripjaws V kit.

 

[Papahyooie]

I'm super surprised nobody is throwing out a low end Ryzen setup here! A Ryzen 3 1200 would destroy that Pentium for just a few dollars more. True quad core, better IPC. He's said he can reuse his power supply and case, so most of the builds presented here could lose the power supply/case to save enough money for that.

EDIT: Nevermind, didn't see silentbogo's build above. Touche.

 

[silentbogo]

I'm super surprised nobody is throwing out a low end Ryzen setup here! A Ryzen 3 1200 would destroy that Pentium for just a few dollars more. True quad core, better IPC. He's said he can reuse his power supply and case, so most of the builds presented here could lose the power supply/case to save enough money for that.

Mine is exactly that. Wonderful little chips!
I've finally convinced one of my larger customers to start replacing older PCs with Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5 instead of KabyLake. The whole thing was a "miracle" to the manager, because he couldn't grasp the concept of saving $200-250 on a slightly faster PC.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7rLrNN

Under $500 at US prices. You can put that change away for another 8GB DDR4 stick or an SSD.
1050Ti can play most modern games at 1080p, no problem.

Motherboard includes M.2 NVME slot, so you can later stick a 128GB Intel 600p in it as a boot drive.
If you can spare another $100, then you should definitely add it to your shopping list and replace that 8GB stick with a dual-channel G.Skill Ripjaws V kit.

I'd much rather see a motherboard like the MSI B350M Gaming PRO than one of those workplace DGS motherboards. Also, no OC'ing with DGS.

 

[silentbogo]

I'd much rather see a motherboard like the MSI B350M Gaming PRO than one of those workplace DGS motherboards. Also, no OC'ing with DGS.

At $500 you probably don't want to overclock anyway. Stock cooling is only as good as you can do in 65W power constraint.
But if that's the case, you don't want that MSI for overclocking or even for daily use either: it has 3 CPU phases + 2 SoC phases, while AsRock A320 has 4+3 configuration. Knowing both MSI and AsRock component quality, I can say with certainty that they are equally bad and both may fail before warranty ends.
Something like AsRock or Biostar x370 is a nice non-expensive option. I would personally take ASRock X370 Gaming-ITX/ac for my SFF rig, but it's definitely going to be too expensive for OP's budget.

 

[Gasaraki]

I'm super surprised nobody is throwing out a low end Ryzen setup here! A Ryzen 3 1200 would destroy that Pentium for just a few dollars more. True quad core, better IPC. He's said he can reuse his power supply and case, so most of the builds presented here could lose the power supply/case to save enough money for that.

EDIT: Nevermind, didn't see silentbogo's build above. Touche.

That's not even true. The Pentium is faster in games than the Ryzen 3 1200.

 

[Gasaraki]

At $500 you probably don't want to overclock anyway. Stock cooling is only as good as you can do in 65W power constraint.
But if that's the case, you don't want that MSI for overclocking or even for daily use either: it has 3 CPU phases + 2 SoC phases, while AsRock A320 has 4+3 configuration. Knowing both MSI and AsRock component quality, I can say with certainty that they are equally bad and both may fail before warranty ends.
Something like AsRock or Biostar x370 is a nice non-expensive option. I would personally take ASRock X370 Gaming-ITX/ac for my SFF rig, but it's definitely going to be too expensive for OP's budget.

However you can get a B350 board for the same price as the A350 board.

 

[IceScreamer]

However you can get a B350 board for the same price as the A350 board.

B350 and AB350 are the same thing, it's just a naming scheme, A is for AMD.

 

[phanbuey]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7rLrNN

Under $500 at US prices. You can put that change away for another 8GB DDR4 stick or an SSD.
1050Ti can play most modern games at 1080p, no problem.

Motherboard includes M.2 NVME slot, so you can later stick a 128GB Intel 600p in it as a boot drive.
If you can spare another $100, then you should definitely add it to your shopping list and replace that 8GB stick with a dual-channel G.Skill Ripjaws V kit.

Nice build.

I would go for dual channel ram tho... even 16 gb of the crappiest you can find.

 

[Toothless]

OP might want to stop double posting before a mod comes around.

 

[silentbogo]

I would go for dual channel ram tho... even 16 gb of the crappiest you can find.

I would too, along with 600p, but OPs budget restraints won't allow it, unless you drop the chassis(and put it in a cardboard box) and quit coffee/beer/smoking/vaping/cookies or whatever kids do nowadays, at least for a month.

 

[Papahyooie]

That's not even true. The Pentium is faster in games than the Ryzen 3 1200.

TPU's benchmarks show that they are pretty much even within the margin of error.

This shows the Ryzen 3 1200 next to a 4560 (a very comparable CPU to the 4600, +-~5% in real world performance) https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Ryzen_3_1200/12.html

For gaming, they're almost equal. But for everything else, and multitasking, as well as games that use more than 2 threads, the additional true cores will be invaluable.

 

[silentbogo]

For gaming, they're almost equal. But for everything else, and multitasking, as well as games that use more than 2 threads, the additional true cores will be invaluable.

Don't forget upgradeability. LGA1151 is currently migrating towards 300-series chipset, so if you go with G4560 or 4600-series, you are limited only to whatever is available today(e.g. Skylake && KabyLake i3/i5/i7 at most with 4 cores 8 threads).
In case of AM4 you are open to any currently available upgrade, from 4c/4t to 8c/16t, and whatever is coming next, if AMD decides to keep going with the same AM4 socket for another few years (at least two more revisions between now and 2019 are rumored, with a platform lifespan of 4 years or more).
There's also an aspect of overclocking, which is quite painful and expensive if you go with Team Blue.

 

[jboydgolfer]

i think regardless of specific build types, chipsets, Ram configurations ,etc we can all agree on the following. Putting certain components at the top of the "must have" list is important. Items that cheaping out on can cause system wide devastation. For instance, Power supply would be at the top of my list of things to not skimp out on regardless of budget....so any builder would best be suited by buying a PSU that has a good solid track record of performance, and quality. then considerations of performance in gaming can come into the picture, what CPU/GPU to get, Ram MoBo etc.

this is my recommendation OP, put a GOOD Power supply right at the top of your list, and dont try and save a few bucks on a cheaper unit, unless its a top quality cheaper unit....im not saying top "brand" but rather "top quality" because NO brand has ALL good units. good luck with Your build OP

 

[Vario]

Here is another option. The GPU is slower but the CPU is a nice quad core with a good upgrade path. It's not the best, but certainly good for an entry level gaming PC.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7Yrxpb

1050ti is pretty weak. It has same performance and in some cases worse performance than a 770.

 

[IceScreamer]

1050ti is pretty weak. It has same performance and in some cases worse performance than a 770.

Yea as I said, not the best but good entry level GPU. Something has to give.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

Jayztwocents recently did a $500 compare build between Intel and AMD addressing many of the items discussed here, and he used the GTX 1050 (non Ti). He ended up doing 2 more videos addressing some of the things that he discovered.
I don't want to put the videos here, so search Youtube for the following:
#1: Ultimate Low Budget Gaming PC Builds BENCHMARKED! AMD vs Intel
#2: My tests were FLAWED! $500 Gaming PCs re-tested
#3: Two identical GPUs... Two very different results.