Budget Gaming Build Guide
Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Gaming Zone
Forum Name: Gaming PC Build Advice
Forum Description: Need advice on your gaming machine? Discuss here
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=14199
Printed Date: 24 Nov 2024 at 5:15am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Budget Gaming Build Guide
Posted By: Xaltar
Subject: Budget Gaming Build Guide
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2020 at 1:01am
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Youtube is littered with "Budget Build" videos so clearly, there is a lot of interest in building affordable gaming setups. With that in mind I figured why not do a simple budget guide here using ASRock components, ASRock does afterall have some very appealing low cost products on offer. The first step is to determine resolution, what resolution is your monitor and if you don't have one, what will it be? It seems a lot of people are not aware that modern displays (panels) only really look good at their native resolution. While something like 720p looks like hot garbage on a 1080p or higher display, you would be surprised just how good it looks on a native 720p display. For those of you on a very tight budget it is an extremely good option. Why? Simply because the lower the resolution the lower the demand on your system. Where a GPU may struggle at 1080p and deliver unplayable FPS, even on low settings you often find it will do far better at 720p. I was able to pick up a used 720p TV for next to nothing and it makes a fantastic monitor for a budget build. Bare in mind however, TVs are not good for competetive online titles, you will have higher latency that will result in slightly slower response times in your online FPS titles. Nonetheless, on a very tight budget it balances out when you consider the much higher FPS you will get at 720p and the size of the panel, a 32" 720p display looks pretty impressive to the non tech savy and makes your gaming just that little bit more immersive. 1080p tends to be the desired resolution for most people on a budget and fortunately, there are currently some very good budget GPU options that will get you 60+ FPS in current titles (as of 2020). 1440p is best avoided on a tight budget. Once you have your resolution nailed down, it's time to look at the games you plan to play. Are you just looking at current, popular E-Sports titles or do you want to play AAA titles in single player too? Building an E-Sports oriented system is far cheaper than a full blown gaming rig, at least when all you are looking to do is actually play the games and have an enjoyable experience. Lastly, what other tasks would you like the system to be catered to? Streaming, video editing, photoshop etc, all these things have different needs and all can be better or worse catered for in a budget system. I am going to list 3 examples of potential builds: 1. An ultra budget gaming system that can handle basic every day tasks and gaming at 720p with low/medium settings. (also great as a media box) 2. A gaming setup with a discrete GPU capable of 1080p gaming and decent FPS in E-Sports titles using competetive settings. 3. An all rounder system capable of handling AAA titles and productivity tasks. ------------- 
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Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2020 at 1:01am
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Ultra Budget Build So you have very little to spend and are not willing to risk buying second hand parts. You want something that is cheap but can be upgraded as more funds become available to you. Maybe you already have a TV you can use as a display @720p or 768p (1280x720 or 1366x768, these are common resolutions for "HD" TVs). CPU: Athlon 3000g or 200ge Whichever is cheapest in your area, they are almost identical in performance when overclocked. Motherboard: a) On a very tight budget: ASRock A320M-HDV - https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/A320M-HDV%20R4.0/index.asp b) If you can manage a little more on the board for future upgrades: ASRock B450M Pro4 - https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B450M%20Pro4/index.asp RAM: An 8gb kit of RAM (2x4gb) rated at least DDR4 3000, if the budget is very tight and you can find a good deal on slower RAM make sure it is at least 2x4gb, you do not want to give up dual channel when using integrated graphics. Power Supply: Any 80+ Bronze or better certified PSU. If it has no certification you are being too cheap on the PSU and it will come back to haunt you. I cannot stress enough the importance of a certified PSU. Ideally, you want 450w or better with a single +12v rating of 30a or better. Do not buy units with multiple +12v ratings that split the amps into multiple +12v rails. This is fine for higher rated units (650w+) but not sub 600w units, I am referring explicitly to gaming systems here. Also bare in mind that you will likely need to upgrade to at least a 550w PSU if you upgrade your GPU to anything more power hungry later. Case: Anything with decent airflow and at least 1 included fan that will fit your motherboard (ATX, mATX, ITX etc). If your budget is extremely tight you can even forgo a case altogether and run the system without a case on your desk for a while until you can afford something. I don't recommend this but if it means being able to build a system vs not...... Storage: A 128gb SSD can be had for very little money these days. If you have the budget you can compliment this with a 1tb or greater mechanical hard disk. Alternatively, if you can find a decent deal, get a bigger SSD. SATA is fine, you don't need NVMe or M.2 drives at this price point. The Athlon 3000g and 200ge can both be overclocked, I would recommend 3.8ghz. That should be achievable with the included cooling solution. With this setup you will be relying on the iGPU portion of the CPU. It will perform decently well at 720p/768p with low settings in most games and at least let you actually play games. Later you can add a discrete GPU, a better CPU (GPU first) and more RAM etc. The beauty of this is that you will have a solid, usable base to build from component by component as funds become available. More so if you managed to get the B450 board. -------------
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Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2020 at 1:02am
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E-Sports Gaming setup Again, assuming a small budget but a bit more than the build above: CPU: Ryzen 3 1200 Where I live at least these cost only a fraction more than the Athlons, they have 4 logical cores instead of 2 cores and 4 threads on the Athlons. As we will be going with a discrete GPU here, there is also no need for the iGPU portion of the Athlons. Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4 - https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B450M%20Pro4/index.asp GPU: ASRock Phantom Gaming X Radeon RX570 4G OC: https://www.asrock.com/Graphics-Card/AMD/Phantom%20Gaming%20X%20Radeon%20RX570%204G%20OC/ Other components: As in the Ultra Budget build except you will absolutely want a 550w or better PSU with at least 35a on a single +12v rail. With the prices of the RX 570s so low, there is absolutely no point in purchasing anything less. If you can not afford a new one, get a used one. You will regret getting lower tier cards when you could have had RX 570 performance for near enough the same price. Currently on newegg, the RX 550 is only $30 cheaper than the ASRock RX 570. Used prices are even lower and this is one of the few occasions I would recommend a used GPU over a new, lower tier one. For the price of a used RX 570 you can barely manage an RX 550 or Geforce 1030gt, the performance is not even remotely comparable. This system will handle E-Sports titles well at 1080p with competetive settings. You will be able to be competitive (hardware wise at least) and enjoy the experience. -------------
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Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2020 at 1:03am
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All rounder build: This is for people looking to extract the maximum value from their limited budget. For those of you with a bit more to spend that want a solid, all round, decent system. CPU: Ryzen 5 1600 AF or AE, whichever is cheaper where you live though the AF is actually a lower clocked R5 2600 so try and get one of these if you can manage it, it will be faster and have slightly better RAM support. Most sellers list the AF as (AF) in the listing but if not, it is simply the last 2 letters of the part number. AE = First gen Ryzen AF = Second gen RAM: 16gb (2x8gb or 4x4gb, whichever is cheaper for you) All other components as with the E-Sports build. These two deviations from the E-Sports build will give you 6 cores/12 threads and enough RAM to handle just about anything you would want to throw at the system. Add more storage if the budget allows. Naturally you can keep scalling up, but with these 3 examples I think I have illustrated how to scale. Never cheap out on the PSU or important components to cram a slightly better GPU into your system. Better to get an APU and a decent PSU then buy a decent discrete GPU later when you have the money than risk frying the entire system, including your marginally better GPU because you cheaped out on the PSU. I also would not recommend an A320 board unless the budget is exceedingly tight. Important notes: CPU compatibility: ALWAYS check to make sure the motherboard you are getting will support the CPU you are getting. If you get an a320 board, make sure it supports the Athlon 3000g or 200ge you plan to get with it. It needs to be Ryzen 2000 ready for the 200ge and Ryzen 3000 ready for the 3000g. There should be a sticker on the box indicating this. The Ryzen 1600 (AF) will also need a recent (3000 ready) BIOS version. You can also inquire with the retailer. RAM: Ever a problem with AM4, on a tight budget, picking and choosing RAM may be a luxury you can't afford. As a general rule, most RAM manufacturers have RAM designed for AMD systems, make sure you get RAM certified for Ryzen, even if it costs a bit more. For example; Gskill has Fortis on the budget end for AMD, you do NOT want Aegis, that is for intel and frequently either won't work at all on AM4 or is unstable. -------------
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Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2020 at 1:05am
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I have not recommended any intel setups here, not because intel is bad but simply because intel will typically cost more for similar performance at this time (April 2020). AMD offers the best value on the low end for gaming systems at this time and this is a budget guide. -------------
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Posted By: smeluketonk34
Date Posted: 03 Sep 2020 at 8:03am
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The $1,000 financial plan for our primary gaming PC assemble direct is as yet a mess of cash to spend on, well, anything truly, so in case you're after a more moderate arrangement you've gone to the ideal spot. Yet, regardless of whether you're figuring how to manufacture your first gaming PC or simply hoping to redesign your old gaming set-up, setting out on a careful spending plan gaming PC fabricate can be truly overwhelming. Assembling an apparatus that can play the most recent games at the most noteworthy settings, while as yet holding the expense down, is without a doubt a test. It's anything but difficult to construct a very good quality apparatus, simply toss everything at it and hang the cost, however it takes significantly more idea on the off chance that you need to get the expense down. And keeping in mind that it's commonly very easy to discover bargains on numerous segments, the precarious piece is realizing which parts function admirably together and where you should center your money to take advantage of your limited financial plan. In the event that everything appears to be excessively, don't stress over calling a companion either. There are a lot of modest gaming PC bargains accessible, and they come pre-collected, as well. The financial plan for this assemble is $750, and we've tried it completely to ensure it offers the most ideal presentation for your cash. This machine can run most of new games on high settings with 60fps at 1080p. Similarly as with any PC manufacture, research is essential. Getting a decent arrangement on an ordinarily expensive segment is brilliant, however on the grounds that it accommodates your financial plan, it doesn't really mean it will function admirably with the remainder of the machine. For this construct, we've burned through the majority of the cash on the CPU and GPU on the grounds that these will have the most effect to the general presentation. That doesn't mean we've settled for the worse of the worst for different parts, however. While we haven't really utilized the best Slam for gaming, it despite everything flaunts a high base clock speed. Like our other form controls, the $750 we've took into consideration this spending gaming PC assemble does exclude whatever carries on with outside of the case. In case you're updating, this shouldn't be a lot of an issue, however in case you're beginning without any preparation, you'll have to ensure you saved additional money for a Windows permit, a screen, and a console and mouse. In case you're battling with those extra costs, you can pick a littler SSD or memory unit?�the two of which are anything but difficult to redesign later on when you have more money available to you. |
Posted By: Headingly33
Date Posted: 11 Apr 2021 at 10:22am
| Thank you so much for the updates. Glad to know more about it. |