I'm planning to buy a gaming PC for around $500 in the near future. I'll probably build it with help from a local computer technician rather than buying a prebuilt. I was considering a Ryzen 5 5500, but I'm unsure which graphics card would make sense. Since memory is expensive, should I buy 8GB of new DDR4 or 16GB used? Around $200 would need to cover the case, motherboard, power supply, fans, and thermal paste, so I'm mainly looking for advice on where to save money and which used parts are worth considering.
5 Answers
The Ryzen 5 5500 is a reasonable budget CPU, but remember that it uses PCIe 3.0. Pair it with an affordable used graphics card rather than spending heavily on the case, fans, or other accessories. A used Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB or something similar could fit a roughly $100 graphics-card budget, depending on local prices.
If you don’t need a dedicated graphics card immediately, consider an APU such as the Ryzen 5 5600G. It includes integrated graphics and could be a better starting point than trying to squeeze a CPU, GPU, power supply, motherboard, case, and memory into $500. You could add a proper graphics card later.
At this budget, used parts are probably the best route. Buying everything new leaves very little money for a graphics card, so look for motherboard, CPU, and RAM bundles from people upgrading to a newer platform. Prioritize 16GB of RAM over 8GB, even if the kit is used—8GB will be limiting in many modern games.
My current computer barely runs Minecraft, so I’m trying to upgrade as soon as I can.
Don’t automatically rule out prebuilts. A used business desktop or gaming prebuilt can offer more performance for the money than buying every component separately. Just check that it uses standard parts, has enough power for the graphics card, and doesn’t rely on proprietary components that make upgrades difficult.
Would online marketplaces be a reasonable place to look for a used system?
Be careful not to cut costs on the power supply. It’s fine to choose a basic case and use fewer fans, but the PSU should come from a reputable brand and have enough capacity for the graphics card. Also check used office towers carefully, since some require a low-profile GPU or a replacement power supply before they can handle gaming hardware.
Another option is an AMD processor with integrated graphics. It would let you build the system now and save for a dedicated graphics card later, though gaming performance would be more limited in the meantime.