I'm putting together a PC in India for about ₹58,000 (roughly US$610), excluding peripherals. It will mainly be used for everyday tasks and video editing, with gaming planned later. The current parts list is an Intel Core i5-14400, Gigabyte B760M K V2 DDR4 motherboard, 16GB ADATA DDR4-3200 memory, a 480GB Crucial E100 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, Cooler Master 550W V3 ATX 3.1 Bronze power supply, and a Zebronics Nexo case. I'm not buying a dedicated graphics card immediately, but I may add one in around three months. I also plan to upgrade to 32GB of RAM later. Is this a reliable and reasonably upgradeable build, or are there better alternatives around the same budget? The target display is 1080p, and ideally the system should eventually handle games at medium settings around 60 FPS.
4 Answers
The i5-14400 is a capable processor for editing and should pair well with a future graphics card, but make sure the motherboard BIOS supports it and verify the board’s power delivery and cooling are adequate. Since you’re using a 1080p monitor, choose the future GPU based on the games you actually want to play and the target frame rate. A cheaper motherboard and SSD could make room for 32GB RAM now, which would be more useful for editing than waiting for a later upgrade.
If you’re planning video editing, 32GB of RAM should probably be a priority rather than a later upgrade. A 480GB SSD can also fill up quickly once you add video footage, editing software, and games, so consider a 1TB drive if the price difference is reasonable. You could save money with a less expensive motherboard or a PCIe 3.0 SSD and put that budget toward memory or storage. The 550W power supply may be enough for a modest future GPU, but check the exact graphics card’s power requirements before upgrading.
At this price, spending the entire budget on a system without a graphics card is not ideal if gaming is important. A used or lower-cost dedicated GPU now could provide a much better experience than the i5’s integrated graphics. If the GPU definitely has to wait, the build is usable for everyday work and editing, but treat gaming as a temporary limitation rather than expecting good performance from the integrated graphics alone.
The integrated graphics on the i5-14400 are fine for basic display output, but they are very weak for modern gaming. They may handle older games at low settings, but you should not expect 1080p medium-quality gaming at 60 FPS without a dedicated GPU. An AMD Ryzen 5 5600G or Ryzen 7 5700G would provide stronger integrated graphics, although you would need an AM4 motherboard and the upgrade path is more limited.
The graphics card will probably be added after about three months. For now, the priority is building a system for my younger brother’s video-editing work, with gaming support later.