Budget PC build under $900?

Hey everyone. My old PC finally gave up the ghost—specifically the graphics card—so I’ve decided it’s high time for an upgrade. I'm really hoping to get this sorted before the school year kicks off.

I'm looking for a full build for under $2000, excluding peripherals. Most of my time will be spent gaming or just watching movies and media. An SSD is a non-negotiable for me, and if possible, I’d love to grab everything from a single shop like Best Buy (though I'm not too picky about that). Any advice or suggestions would be hugely appreciated!

Here it is, looks pretty cramped in there 😁

ASUS Prime H110M-E, s1151
Intel Core i5-6400 (6MB Cache, up to 3.30GHz), s1151
MS RAIDER Silver gaming case
PowerColor RX 480 8GB DDR5
500W FSP Fortron Hyper
Western Digital 1TB HDD, 3.5", 7200RPM
DDR4 8GB (1x8GB) 2133MHz CL15 Crucial

Total: $600 $14 Craigslist

Everything fits, though I think I've pushed it to the limit. 🙂

Reference RX 480, no SSD included 🤔 😬

Intel Core i5-6402p Processor
Kingmax 1x8GB DDR4 2133 GLJG, KIN-8GB DDR4 2133
MSI H110 gaming Motherboard (S1151, DDR4, USB3.1, USB2.0, SATA III, DVI, VGA, Audio, LAN) H110_Pro-VD_Plus
Zalman Z1 Neo Midi Tower case, black, no power supply P/N: ZAL-Z1 NEO
Western Digital P300 1TB, 64MB, 7200rpm HDWD110UZSVA
Seagate 1TB Zalman 500W PSU, ZAL-ZM500-GVM
MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GDDR5 6GB/192bit, 1544MHz/8008MHz, PCI-E 3.0 x16, 3xDP, HDMI, DVI-D
AMD Radeon R3 SATA III 120GB SSD, 2.5” 7mm, SATA 6 Gbit/s, Read/Write: 520 MB/s / 360 MB/s

Total: $1991 Centro

I didn't copy it over correctly; the SSD is included too 😬 As for the RX 480, reviews suggest it doesn't have any major overheating issues. Though, honestly, if you can fit a GTX 1060 in there, that’s probably the better move. You can find the cheapest $900... 😲

crimsonstag84 said:Reference RX 480, excluding the SSD🤔 😬

Intel Core i5-6402p
Kingmax 1x8GB DDR4 2133 GLJG, KIN-8GB DDR4 2133
MSI H110 gaming motherboard (S1151, DDR4, USB3.1, USB2.0, SATA III, DVI, VGA, Audio, LAN) H110_Pro-VD_Plus
Zalman Z1 Neo Midi Tower case, black, no PSU included P/N: ZAL-Z1 NEO
Western Digital P300 1TB, 64MB, 7200rpm HDWD110UZSVA
Zalman 500W GVM Series Retail, ZAL-ZM500-GVM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GDDR5 6GB/192bit, 1544MHz/8008MHz, PCI-E 3.0 x16, 3xDP, HDMI, DVI-D
AMD Radeon R3 SATA III 120GB SSD, 2.5” 7mm, SATA 6 Gbit/s, Read/Write: 520 MB/s / 360 MB/s

Total: $1991 Centro

Do you think it’s worth picking up this MSI H110 gaming board for $33 a bit more money?

Also, what's the actual difference between the GPU suggested here and the one from LINK?

One more thing—if I can snag an Intel Core i5-6600 LGA 1151 for basically the same price as the Intel Core i5-6402p, would that be a smart move? And should I be looking at a beefier power supply?

Forget Mbo; for roughly the same price, you can snag much better motherboards that offer features like four RAM slots, M.2 support, and superior voltage regulation.
As for the GPU—the real difference lies in $100 😁
I see what you did there—trying to match colors? In my opinion, it’s just not worth it. It makes way more sense to put that cash toward other components, like a larger SSD.
By the way, you won't find an i5-6600 for that same price, and honestly, you probably wouldn't even notice the performance jump anyway.

Timothy Kim60 said:Mbo, honestly, for roughly the same amount of cash, you could grab a much better board—something with four RAM slots, an M.2 slot, and better power delivery, etc.
Regarding the GPU—the difference lies in $100 😁
I see what you're doing there—trying to match colors? Personally, I don't think it's worth it. It’d be smarter to put that money toward other components, like a larger SSD.
By the way, you won't find a 6600 for the same price, and even if you did, you probably wouldn't notice the performance jump anyway.

Well, I was definitely thinking about the SSD; I just didn't explicitly mention it. I can pick up a 6600 for the same budget (doesn't matter how), so the real question is whether it's actually worth getting anything out of it.

You won't notice much of a difference (it would be just like switching to a GTX 1060 for gaming), but if the price is the same, go for it. You'll likely get a higher clock speed, which means better benchmark scores 😁. You might see some minor variations in games that rely heavily on single-core performance.

Timothy Kim60 said:You probably won't notice much of a difference (it would be pretty much the same experience if you were gaming with a GTX 1060), but honestly, if they're priced the same, go for it. You might get slightly higher clock speeds, which could give you a little bump in benchmark scores 😁. You might also see some minor improvements in games that rely heavily on single-core performance.

Thanks for the heads-up. Do you happen to have any recommendations for a slightly better motherboard if I'm willing to shell out maybe $100 more?

Maybe $100 you could lay it out a bit better like this:

https://www.newegg.com/motherboard-asus-prime-h110m-e/p/N82E16826836363
https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Radeon-Graphics-Card-Performance/dp/B07XJ8L7K4

1 x GIGABYTE GA-B150M-DS3H (S1151, 4xDDR4, DVI/HDMI/VGA, USB3.0, M.2, LAN)
1 x Intel Core i5-6400 (2.7GHz, 6MB,LGA1151) box
1 x Sapphire RX480 8GB GDDR5, HDMI, 3x DP
1 x Fortron Hyper 600W, 80+ - 60mj.
1 x SSD AD 120GB SP550
1 x HDD Seagate BarraCuda 1TB, 64MB, 7200rpm, High-Performance
1 x High-Performance 1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212, USB3.0 black, 3x120mm
1 x Kingston 8GB 2133MHz DDR4 Non-ECC CL15 DIMM 1Rx8

Total: $2049
Best Buy