I'm putting together my first gaming PC and would like a complete parts list for roughly $500–$900 USD. I mainly play Minecraft, Palworld, CS2, Marvel Rivals, Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive, Marvel Tokon, and similar games. Ideally, I'd like around 100–150 FPS in the less demanding titles. I already own most peripherals, but I still need a 1080p or 1440p monitor. I'd prefer an AMD CPU and GPU, and the case needs to be a compact mini- or mid-tower because I have limited desk space. Any build suggestions or questions about the requirements are welcome.
2 Answers
If you can stretch toward the upper end of the budget, a 1440p-focused build may be worthwhile for future upgrades. A Radeon card with 16GB of VRAM gives you more room for newer games, although competitive games may not run quite as fast as they would at 1080p. For a first build, I’d prioritize 32GB of memory, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and a reliable power supply rather than overspending on the cooler.
With this budget, 1080p is the safer choice, especially if the monitor is included. A balanced AMD build with a Ryzen 5 processor and a midrange Radeon card should handle your games well and make 100–150 FPS realistic in lighter or competitive titles. 1440p is possible, but it will require compromises elsewhere, such as less storage, 16GB of RAM, or a less powerful CPU. Make sure the case has good airflow and supports the graphics card length.
Do you really need an aftermarket CPU cooler if the processor already includes one? For a tight budget, the included cooler can usually be used initially, then upgraded later if temperatures or noise become a problem.