Budget gaming PC build under $4k

Hey everyone, I could use some help putting together a budget gaming rig for under $600. Ideally, I want to grab everything from Best Buy or The Bluebird Cafe—basically any local shop in Indianapolis where I can just walk in and pick up the parts tomorrow without waiting on shipping.

I was thinking maybe a GTX 1660 paired with a Ryzen 3 or something along those lines... honestly, I’m not exactly a genius when it comes to this stuff since I haven't kept up with hardware specs for a few years now. Any advice would be appreciated.

2x DDR4 8GB (1x8) G.Skill 3000MHz AEGIS, F4-3000C16S-8GIS
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 1600 BOX, s. AM4
Kingston SSD 480GB A400 2.5" SATA, SA400S37/480G
Napajanje Fortron 500W Hyper K, 85% efikasnost, PPA5005810
Zalman T6 Midi tower Black
XFX RX570 8GB RS XXX Edition, RX-570P8DFD6
Asrock B450M-PRO4 F, µATX, AM4, 90-MXBAB0-A0UAYZ

$1.25 - ADM

I guess it might be better to base the build on the R5 1600; a quad-core probably won't cut it for upcoming games.

P.S. Best Buy and The Bluebird Cafe are out of stock on CPUs, so...

Alright, this looks pretty solid. Could you put together something similar for those retailers if my budget was, say, 200-$100 higher?

Intel Core i3 9100 f processor, LGA 1151 socket, 3.6GHz clock speed, 6MB cache, quad Core
ASUS Prime B360M-A motherboard, featuring an Intel B360 chipset
PCI-E ASUS AMD Radeon RX 580 dual OC graphics card, 4GB VRAM
PC-19200 RAM, 8 GB total, GEIL EVO Spear, DDR4 2400MHz, 2x4GB kit
500W power supply, BE QUIET System Power 9, 120mm fan, 80+ Bronze certified
480 GB KINGSTON A400 SSD
ANTEC NX100 Gray chassis, MIDI tower, ATX, side window, black, excludes power supply

$1350
Links

silvercanyon65 said:Alright, this looks pretty solid. Could you put together something similar for those big retailers if the budget was maybe 200-$100 higher?

For an extra 200-$100, you won't feel much of a difference. You could swap in a slightly better power supply, but it's not strictly necessary, or maybe a faster/larger SSD.

Personally, I'd just toss in an HDD for storage. This build hits that perfect price-to-performance sweet spot; the only compromise is the lack of an HDD.

https://www.amazon.com/product/example

Ryan Hayes82 said:Intel Core i3 9100 f processor, LGA 1151, 3.6GHz,

$1350
Links

It makes zero sense to pick up a 4-core/4-thread CPU in 2019 when demanding games are already choking them out. The setup mentioned above has 6-core/12-thread and way more headroom for future upgrades.

Plus, you went with 8GB of RAM and a card with 4GB VRAM, while crimsonstag84 managed to squeeze in 16GB.

crimsonstag84 absolutely nailed this build. Honestly, if you're itching to spend an extra 200-$100, you’d be way better off just slapping an RX 580 8GB into his setup instead of getting ripped off by overpriced parts at Best Buy or Micro Center.

Look, I get that the setup is top-tier, but the real headache is they don't have any physical storefronts around here. I'm totally in the dark about how their installment plans or credit card processing actually works. I sent them an email to figure it out. Either way, huge thanks to Smartik.

Peter Green said:crimsonstag84 really nailed this build. If you're itching to spend that extra 200-$100 I'd much rather swap in an RX 580 8gb into his setup than overpay for parts at Best Buy or Micro Center.

The gap to an RX580 is $100 for another 8GB model, and honestly, that difference seems too steep. I'd just throw in an HDD instead.

As for the cards, shouldn't be any issues there. It's like when you buy something online and get the option to pay in installments through your service provider on their site (like using a T-Com Payway or whatever they call it).

I’d much rather go with 8GB of RAM for now if it means I can drop the $33 PCI-E ASUS AMD Radeon RX 580 dual OC in right away without going 🙂 over budget. Upgrading the RAM later is a breeze anyway...

The issue is that this RAM only comes in 8GB $77, so I guess it isn't really worth trying to cut corners there 😛

Plus, the RX 580 is only about 15% faster...

crimsonstag84 said:The issue is that this 8GB RAM stick is $77, so there's no point trying to cut corners here 😛

And an RX 580 is only about 15% faster...

Look, if that's how you're weighing it, just grab the RX580. You get that 15% performance boost right now, and honestly, jumping from 8GB to 16GB of RAM won't change much in terms of actual performance.

BTW, you're absolutely sure about that 15% difference?

In my humble opinion, bumping the RAM up to 16GB won't offer much tangible benefit in this specific scenario; I truly believe his resources would be far better spent investing in an RX 580 instead. Furthermore, if he were to allocate a little extra $100 toward adding an HDD, he would walk away with what I consider to be an absolutely stellar deal.

If you're playing titles like PUBG or Battlefield V, I’d say it’s definitely worth opting for dual-channel memory. It makes a noticeable difference, especially on an RX 570 paired with CPUs that really lean on RAM performance—think first-gen Ryzen chips or those lower-resource processors like an i3 or i5. Honestly, the price gap between single and dual-channel setups is so negligible these days that it's probably a no-brainer. $33.

@wiredotter14

It’s basically the same story we saw with the RX 5700 and XT models—you're looking at maybe a 10% bump in stream processors and slightly higher clock speeds, I guess.

crimsonstag84 said:If you're running titles like Call of Duty or Battlefield V, you really should stick to dual-channel memory. Even on a GTX 1060 paired with CPUs that crave RAM speed—like those early Ryzen chips—or lower-end processors with fewer cores (think an i3 or i5), it matters. Besides, the price gap between single and dual channel is barely $33.

@wiredotter14>

It’s the same deal with the RX 5700 and XT models: about 10% more stream processors and slightly higher clock speeds.

So, would it actually make sense to go with 2x4GB given this budget?

Fine, let's call it a 10-15% difference.

That isn't nothing. We're talking about a 10-15% swing in actual FPS, whereas the total cost impact on the whole build is less than 10%.