I'm building my first PC in the United States and need to keep the budget as low as possible. I already have a 500W power supply, a 256GB M.2 SATA SSD, a 2TB hard drive, and an ATX case, although I'd prefer to switch to a micro-ATX motherboard. I still need a CPU, graphics card, 16GB of DDR4 memory, and a micro-ATX motherboard. I'm considering a Ryzen 5 2600, RX 580 8GB, and DDR4-3200 RAM. I might use an older TV as my monitor for now, and I also need an Ethernet cable and Wi-Fi router. The games I'm likely to play are Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, and Counter-Strike 2. What would you change, and what parts would give me the best value on a tight budget?
3 Answers
The Ryzen 5 2600 and RX 580 will run those games, but both are fairly old. A Ryzen 5 5500 with a basic B550M board would be a much better starting point if the prices work for you. Keep the 16GB as two 8GB sticks, and DDR4-3200 is a good target. A modern budget GPU with current driver support is preferable, though a cheap RX 580 can still make sense if your budget is extremely limited.
Your 500W supply may be enough, but check its brand, age, PCIe power connectors, and overall condition before using it with a used graphics card. The motherboard only needs to be micro-ATX, use the same CPU socket, and fit your case; Wi-Fi built into the board is convenient, but a separate adapter is fine if it saves money. An old TV should work for testing, although its input lag and resolution may not be ideal for competitive games. For networking, Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet cable is plenty, and the router matters more than the cable.
The exact budget would help a lot, but buying used is probably the best route here. Look locally for a Ryzen 5 3600 or 5500 and a graphics card such as an RX 5700 XT, GTX 1660 Super, or RTX 2060. Those can offer a big improvement over an RX 580 if you find one at a reasonable price. Just test used hardware carefully and avoid spending most of the budget on a flashy new part.
If you choose a B550 board, check that it supports your specific M.2 SATA drive. Some M.2 slots accept only NVMe drives, so the existing SSD may not work even though it physically fits.