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If you’re looking to build a brand new budget-friendly and powerful gaming PC under $850, I’ve got you covered.
In this video I have put together a list of two gaming PCs that focus on excellent bang-for-buck. Whether you’re team Intel or team AMD, both of these PCs are neck-and-neck in terms of value and 1440p gaming performance.
Best Intel PC Build Under $850
- CPU – Intel Core i5-13400F
- Motherboard – Gigabyte B760M DS3H DDR4
- RAM – TEAMGROUP Vulcan Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18
- Cooler – Stock Cooler
- SSD – Crucial P3 Plus 1 TB
- Graphics Card – XFX Speedster SWFT 309 Radeon RX 6700 XT
- Power Supply – MSI MAG A650BN
- PC Case – Zalman S5
Intel made quite the comeback with their 13th and 14th gen CPUs. There are just so many great CPUs to choose from and after careful consideration, for this PC I went with the Core i5 13400F.
I was initially inclined towards the i5 12400F which is currently Intel’s best budget CPU, but the 13400F isn’t too far off in terms of price. Besides fitting nicely in our budget, the 13400F has significantly better single and multi-threaded performance compared to the 12400F because of the newer architecture. The 13400F also has 4 additional E-cores that are missing from the 12400F. This results in a superior experience in multi-threaded workloads and the smaller tasks and background apps don’t take up the more powerful P-cores. Overall, I’d argue that the 13400F is a much better value for gamers and up-and-coming content creators than the 12400F.
While I assigned a generous amount of the budget to the CPU, I decided to save up on the motherboard and choose a tried-and-tested budget option. I went with the Gigabyte B760M DS3H DDR4 as it is just what this PC needs. The DS3H lineup is always a safe bet if you’re ever confused about getting an affordable board on a tight budget. It isn’t going to turn anyone’s heads in amazement, but it will get the job done.
The VRM is a really basic 6-phase design which is fine for using up to an i7 14700K at stock speeds. Besides that, Gigabyte really hit it out of the park for such an affordable entry-level motherboard. What surprised me about this board is that it has both a CMOS reset button as well as a BIOS Q-Flash button. They are placed next to the front-panel header instead of the rear I/O, so reaching them isn’t as convenient. Still, I am happy that Gigabyte went quite all-out with this board by offering enough to get up and running with a fast PC by spending as little as possible on the motherboard.
Another reason why this board is so cheap is because it uses DDR4 RAM. This is the area where you’ll save the most amount of money. For this build, I went with a Vulcan Z 16 GB kit by TEAMGROUP that’s clocked at 3600 MHz at CL18. It’s plenty of RAM for gaming and daily usage and the bare minimum that I’d recommend anyone to get for a brand new PC.
Unlike the RAM, saving on the SSD still results in a pretty good deal. The Crucial P3 Plus is the most affordable PCIe 4.0 SSD and it actually performs like a respectable gen 4 SSD. Unlike other low-end gen 4 SSDs that get about 4 GB/s, the P3 Plus consistently operates at 6 GB/s for both reads and writes. All in all, it’s an inexpensive 1TB SSD from a reputable brand that doesn’t compromise on performance whatsoever.
Just like the SSD, when it comes to non-compromising gaming performance, the RX 6700 XT still stands as the best in class for budget enthusiasts. You simply can’t get a better GPU than the XFX Speedster SWFT 309 RX 6700 XT under $350 that has 12 GB of VRAM and plays all modern titles at 1440p without breaking a sweat. This GPU is sure to last a very long time and I suspect it’ll earn its legendary status in the future just like the GTX 1080 Ti.
The RX 6700 XT is also really power efficient and consumes only about 200 Watts of power under a full load. Combined with the 13400F, this PC will consume less than 300 Watts even after considering any inefficiencies.
Speaking of power consumption, for the PSU, I went with the MSI MAG A650BN as it’s just what we need. It’s a 650-Watt 80-Plus Bronze-rated fully-modular power supply and MSI is looking to shake up the PSU market with the A650BN. It’s really affordable and MSI has positioned this in the same price range as other 500 Watt units from other manufacturers. I feel other PSU makers need to either lower their prices or increase the wattage of their PSUs otherwise MSI will continue to dominate this space.
Just like the PSU market, it seems that Montech and Zalman dominate the cheap PC case market and honestly, it seems as though only they take cheap cases seriously. There are a lot of great cases at the $100 price-point but very few under it.
To house this entire build, I went with the Zalman S5. Even for a budget case, the S5 has a modern and futuristic design that would fool anyone into thinking it’s a much more expensive case. It even comes with a tempered glass side panel and has good airflow. Of course, being a budget case, it’s not the best when it comes to airflow, but it’s so far ahead in terms of quality for the price Zalman is asking that it’s hard to nitpick this case further.
In conclusion, for around $850, it is really easy to build a strong and capable 1440p gaming PC. The i5 13400F and RX 6700 XT are a great combo and remind me just how amazing it is that we can now fit a proper 1440p GPU and a fast 6+4-core CPU under $900!
Best AMD PC Build Under $850
- CPU – AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
- Motherboard – Gigabyte B550 UD AC
- RAM – TEAMGROUP Vulcan Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18
- Cooler – Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE
- SSD – Crucial P3 Plus 1 TB
- Graphics Card – XFX Speedster SWFT 309 Radeon RX 6700 XT
- Power Supply – MSI MAG A650BN
- PC Case – Cougar MX331 MESH-X
When it comes to building a great budget PC, nothing beats the flexibility of the AM4 platform. Many people around the world are still using it for just about everything – from gaming, to daily office work, to serious production-level workloads.
AM4 has a broad portfolio of CPUs to choose from, but in my humble opinion, the Ryzen 7 5700X stands out as the most balanced AM4 CPU. It isn’t the absolute fastest gaming AM4 CPU as that title is reserved for the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and it’s not the most powerful AM4 CPU either, as that is obviously the Ryzen 9 5950X. However, the 5700X is one of the most affordable 8-core CPUs that has the performance even for 4K gaming. Usually for budget builds,the Ryzen 5 5600 is the first choice, but for a little bit more money, the 5700X offers 2 additional cores and faster clock speeds.
The Ryzen 7 5700X doesn’t come with an included heatsink so to cool it, I recommend the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE. It’s a powerful air cooler that can keep the 5700X under 60 degrees celsius with no trouble whatsoever.
The Gigabyte B550 UD AC has to be one of the best finds of all the AM4 motherboards that I have reviewed. There’s a lot of great things to talk about on this motherboard and I’m not even sure where to begin. For starters, it has a powerful 10-phase VRM design that is properly cooled with a heatsink and the power is fed through an 8+4-pin CPU configuration. This is impressive considering this motherboard costs just $100. Of course, when you look at it, you immediately notice the 5 full-sized PCIe slots. This, sadly, is merely for show as only the first slot is a real PCIe 4.0 x16 slot while the rest are x1 slots. I’m not sure why Gigabyte chose this design as it does nothing but look nice and uniform.
The rear I/O is quite balanced and has just about everything you’d need. It has 4 USB 2.0 type-A ports for peripherals, WiFi 6, HDMI 2.1, 2 fast USB 3.2 type-A and one type-C ports, and a BIOS Q-Flash button. Needless to say, this is quite a jam packed motherboard for a very low asking price.
Since this motherboard needs DDR4 RAM, I went with a safe and sound option – the TEAMGROUP Vulcan Z 16 GB kit. I usually do recommend going with 32 GB, but it would cross our budget and 16 GB is still enough for gaming. This kit is also fast and runs at 3600 MHz CL18 so don’t expect it to slow down anytime soon.
The SSD has a much bigger impact on the overall speed of the PC any way and luckily there is almost no bad option here. The best SSDs perform their best and cost less which is why I went with Crucial P3 Plus 1TB. It’s always my first choice when it comes to PCIe 4.0 SSDs because it is actually a great drive that is always available for cheap.
For the GPU, I went with the XFX Speedster SWFT 309 Radeon RX 6700 XT as nothing else quite signifies what it means to be “fast and cheap”. It is hard to choose anything else when an ultra-fast 1440p GPU like the 6700 XT is consistently available at a low price all the time. I won’t be surprised if the RX 6700 XT lasts for much more than the current generation of consoles as it certainly has the potential too. It’s also a really efficient GPU that consumes only about 200 Watts of power under a full load.
Combining the total power of the PC results in around 300 Watts so to power this PC, I went again with the MSI MAG A650BN which will get the job done perfectly. It’s a cheap 80-Plus Bronze PSU that gives other PSU makers a run for their money. For the price of a 500-Watt PSU, MSI is the only one with a high-quality 650-Watt unit.
Lastly, for the case, I went with the Cougar MX331 MESH-X. If I could criticize this case for any reason, it’s that it is slightly oversized and looks old-fashioned, but that doesn’t stop it from being an absolutely incredible case. The build quality and cable management room at the back is some of the best in any case, even if that case happens to be three times more expensive. The airflow is also quite good and can keeps the CPU and GPU cool thanks to support for 6 120 mm fans. All in all, it’s a remarkable PC case and the only thing letting it down is its awkward design.
In conclusion, if you’ve got a limited budget of $850 and want a powerful gaming PC, then you cannot go wrong with the AM4 platform. The Ryzen 7 5700X is already quite enough for anything, but the upgrade path of the AM4 platform ensures that you can get something more powerfull if you want later down the line.
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