Black Friday is the best time to pick up new tech, and right now you’ll find hundreds of exciting deals for hardware components. You don’t need to spend too much money to build a new gaming PC, and to illustrate the point I’m highlighting a budget gaming build that comes in at under $800. Most of the components you’ll need are on sale right now, so let’s get started with building a gaming PC using Amazon’s Black Friday PC deals.
Runaway value
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT CPU
$264 at Amazon
AMD dominates the value charts, and for good reason. The Ryzen 3600XT is a stellar offering with six cores, 12 threads, 4.50GHz boost clock, and PCIe 4.0, and overall it is a fantastic choice for gaming. The bundled cooler does a great job on its own, negating the need for an aftermarket solution.
Rock-solid reliability
Gigabyte B550M DS3H Micro-ATX Motherboard
$95 at Amazon
The most affordable Micro-ATX motherboard has plenty to offer. The B550 DS3H works on the AM4 socket, making it ideal for the Ryzen 3600XT and even the current-gen Ryzen 5000 chipsets. You also get dual M.2 slots, four DIMM slots for RAM, Gigabit LAN, eight USB ports in total, and a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot for a video card.
The right balance
XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS XXX Edition GPU
$200 at Amazon
The RX 580 isn’t on sale, but the fact that it’s selling for retail is a big deal in and of itself. The XFX variant is overclocked to 1,386MHz, giving you a little extra boost, and you get 8GB of GDDR5 video memory. The value on offer combined with the sheer performance makes this a truly amazing card in 2020.
The gold standard
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB RAM
$64 at Amazon
Corsair’s Vengeance LPX is the de facto value leader in memory, and this bundle includes two 8GB RAM modules. The low profile of the memory modules ensure they don’t interfere with other components, and the aluminum heatspreader dissipates heat effectively.
Turbocharged
Crucial MX500 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD
$44 at Amazon
The Crucial MX500 is a stalwart in this category, offering reliable performance and great value. The M.2 SSD has sequential reads of 560MB/s and writes of 510MB/s, is built on Micron’s 3D NAND tech, and has a five-year warranty. With 500GB of storage, you’ll have enough room to install a lot of programs.
Affordable elegance
Lian Li 205 Mid-Tower ATX Case
$56 at Amazon
Lian Li’s mid-tower ATX case has a clean design with a glass side panel that lets you show off your gaming PC. The case includes two 120mm fans, comes with a nifty cable management solution, and has great airflow with magnetic dust filters at the top and front. The value you’re getting here is astonishing, making it an easy choice.
A decent budget option
GAMEMAX VP-600 Semi Modular PSU
$56 at Amazon
This 600W PSU has a semi-modular design that lets you optimizing cable routing, and you get 85% efficiency under heavy load. You can set it up to run silent when under low load, and it is backed by a three-year warranty.
Build a new gaming PC this Black Friday
The combined total of all the components in this budget gaming PC build comes down to $779. The two key components — the AMD Ryzen 3600XT and the Radeon RX 580 video card — make up a bulk of the cost, but they deliver incredible value for what you’re effectively paying here.
The best part about using a B550 motherboard is that it accommodates the latest Ryzen 5000 series designs as well, so if you want to upgrade in the future, you won’t have to get a new motherboard. The same goes for the RX 580 — you can just slot in a new card if you want to play games at QHD or 4K. This particular build holds up just fine for 1080p gaming in 2020.
You don’t really need to pay a lot to get started with a new gaming PC, and if you’re considering building your own, now is the best time to do so.
