Is $800 enough for a decent gaming PC (tower only)?

Posted by Meri_Rookie@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 30 comments

I’m planning to build my first PC and my budget is around $800 for the tower only (no monitor, keyboard, etc.).

I’m aiming for a solid 1080p gaming setup, nothing ultra, just smooth performance on most modern games.

For those who’ve built recently:

Is $800 still enough for a good build right now?
What brands are reliable for parts (GPU, PSU, motherboard, etc.)?
Would it be worth buying a used GPU with this budget?
Any CPU/GPU combos you’d recommend?

Just trying to get a better idea before I start buying parts. Appreciate any advice 🙏

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OldOne999@reddit

$800 is too low for a system build with new parts. Cheapest system with new parts is around $1100 USD before taxes. I would say just save more money. If you are interested, here's a parts list for a decent AM4 socket system that will play 1080p games well.

To answer the other questions:

Generally reliable PSU brands: Corsair, Seasonic, Asus

Good GPU brands: MSI/Asus

Motherboard: Stay away from Asrock if you are buying a modern Ryzen 9000 series CPU. For a limited budget AM4 system...you wouldn't care about this because Ryzen 9000 CPUs are AM5 sockets.

As for used GPUs...I would not build a system using used parts...too many unknowns.

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Meri_Rookie@reddit (OP)

That's understandable, I was considering at least $800 if I could find one from where I live.

Will that be able to run games like Crimson Desert?

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OldOne999@reddit

That system will run Crimson Desert on 1080p ultra detail at average 77 fps. Here's a link showing how Crimson Desert runs at 1080p on different detail settings with ryzen 5600 CPU and an RTX 5060 GPU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FMhi7qPejM

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Meri_Rookie@reddit (OP)

This is actually really helpful. Thank you~ 🙏

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Rhemyst@reddit

Obviously, it depends on what "decent" means.

Took a quick look in my area. 600€ would give me: Ryzen5 3600X, 16gb ram, Radeon 5600XT 6G. With keyboard, mouse and screen too.

Which looks okay.

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Meri_Rookie@reddit (OP)

Would heavy games work on that?

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Rhemyst@reddit

The above build would be a solid 2021 build. So it depends on what you call "heavy" and what you call "working".

When I realized that playing solo action/adventure games at 30fps was totally fine, I pushed my old gtx970 very far.

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ThunderKats351@reddit

In the second hand market sure, I be happy with a Intel 8700K 16GB of RAM and a 2080/3070 at that price. You can find motherboar/cpu/ram kit all together for a great price, I seen it been build in person on a channel I follow.

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AH_Ethan@reddit

I sold a i7-9700k/3080/64gb of ddr4 for about 750 a few month ago, and felt like we both were happy with that price.

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Lord_Hector_Bear@reddit

Get a 4070 for $650 and the rest goes into everything else

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ATFYF-@reddit

I used my Asus Prime 5070 for two months. I offered to sell it to my niece for $500 WITH the Corsair Shift RM750x for free and she passed up on it.

$650 for a 4070 seems high?

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Lord_Hector_Bear@reddit

For a new 4070 in my region, it's a good price.

Maybe it's even better in your place. But $500 for a 5070 is basically a giveaway.

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ATFYF-@reddit

Mine is US Dollars by the way.

I upgraded to a ASUS TUF 5070ti so, I no longer needed the 5070 Prime. Paid $550 for it back in September so, I figured $500 after two months use is fair price.

Just sits in my closet now

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Lord_Hector_Bear@reddit

How much did you buy it for?

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ATFYF-@reddit

$550 for the 5070 back in September. I work a lot so I only got a couple of months use out of it. It was during the Borderlands 4 promotion thing on Newegg where if you buy a GPU, you get a Borderlands 4 game code and it came with my GPU.

In December I paid $910 for my 5070ti TUF but it's also white so, I'm sure that added to the price. I'm using it now.

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Lord_Hector_Bear@reddit

5070ti in here is around $1.1k all the way up to $1,376.

The price is very good in your region.

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ATFYF-@reddit

This was back in December though, I'm sure the 5070ti is more now. Especially in white (mine is white).

I just check Amazon and it's almost $1,100 for it and Newegg has them at $1,000. Both models are black in color. So, the white one is probably $1,200++++

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solid_cake20@reddit

You can absolutely. You could go AM5 providing you go used on a SSD and a GPU.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

This is all new parts and it's a solid and very upgradable pc. It's $930 so you would have to shave off $130 some how. I would deffinetly try and see if you can grab a 500GB or if your lucky a 1tb m.2 SSD for $50. For the GPU maybe look and see if you can grab a 3060 or 4060 or 270 for $150-$180. You can also try and save a bit of cash on the RAM if you can find someone selling 16GB for $150 hopefully.

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Destructo-Bear@reddit

Used? Absolutely. Keep an eye on Facebook marketplace. $800 can get you an am4 platform computer with a 3070 in it at minimum, but if you're patient and don't mind lowballing people, you can get much more.

I have bought and parted out computers with a 3080/4070, am5 CPU, and ddr5 RAM that I purchased for $700-$800

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Ok-Squash836@reddit

I’m sure nowadays yes. I spent $1100 on mine in 2021 and have no issues running games on relatively good graphics. There’s certain parts you definitely don’t want to cheap out on though. I would either keep saving for a nice modern build, or get older parts. Ddr4 is relatively affordable compared to ddr5 now. Really it’s about the right combination of parts for performance. (That’s not saying that old stuff holds up against new stuff, it absolutely doesn’t, but in terms of cost for function you can get a “decent” build using older stuff. My build was this and it runs games great, I’m only looking to upgrade because I 3d model and render cloth.

B660 mobo chipset (I think, this is the only one I’m not too sure about) Intel I5-12600k Nvidia 3060 TI 64 gb DDR4 ram (2x32) 1000w psu - much cheaper now than then And the most expensive part for me was the SSD, the Sony I got was new and I have several internal Tebi bytes of storage on one, you can certainly get this cheaper now. Also, you can save quite a bit by choosing a fan radiator cooler than an AIO cooler.

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the_publix@reddit

Start with the cheapest motherboard bundle available at microcenter or prebuilts and parts at Costco. If you're gonna make it work with new parts, that's the way. You could also find a used gpu and save a ton of money on what is probably the most expensive component

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tiga_94@reddit

yes it's enough for your low requirements

in fact too many different ways you can go about it with $800, you can buy a used gaming PC, you can buy a used office PC and buy a GPU separately if you want to really go on a budget..

brand doesn't matter all that much, when you buy used you don't have many options and you just search reviews for the particular product you've found

a new PC will not be very good at this price, a decent CPU alone is 150+, a decent GPU is 300+, SSDs now cost 130 bucks for a 1TB drive, etc., maybe if you find deals it's doable but idk

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clone2197@reddit

It was very doable if it was like 2-3 years ago. Now with this RAM and SSD price... It's gonna be a lot more difficult, even on the 2nd hand market. One of the rare time a used console might actual has more value.

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Exazbrat09@reddit

Look at fbm or other like places in your area. Check at Costco and other retailers. Sometimes the floor model are discounted well into your price range and will have hardware that will easily handle 1080p.

Unfortunately because of the current situation, a prebuilt PC will be a good chunk less expensive than building your own. If you want to build your own AND you are near a micro center, they have had insane deals lately for mobo/cpu/ram/ssd combos and this might be the other way to go although you will need to source a GPU.

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