$500 Pure Performance Gaming PC Build Guide

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► Build Guide Cheat Sheet: http://zachstechturf.com/$500feb25  ► Buy my PC builds: https://zttbuilds.com  ► Free PC Building Help: https://zttbuildhelp.com  ► Check out the extended benchmark run on the @zttextras channel: https://youtu.be/_gXq6N8cUYo  ► Step-by-step build guide on the ZTT Extras Channel: https://youtu.be/UbFUdHh87v0  Build a high-performance gaming PC for under $500 with this easy-to-follow guide, featuring a full parts list, benchmarks, and a surprising GPU upgrade twist!  Affiliate Links: (I may earn a small commission at no extra charge to you)  CPU: https://geni.us/q3XAU Mobo: https://geni.us/cQjdFpM RAM: https://geni.us/Y00c GPU: https://geni.us/c9LKQ SSD: https://geni.us/xwWaux PSU: https://geni.us/JxdPgfm Case: https://geni.us/21VD1 Cooler: https://geni.us/dS9mK6P  Zach’s Peripherals: Monitor: https://geni.us/oDm1O Mouse: https://zeromouse.co/products/v35 Keyboard: https://geni.us/QoZd Headset: https://geni.us/nZ1QL Mousepad: https://geni.us/g0m7  ━━━━━━━━━━ Support ZTT!  🖥️ Buy ZTT Gaming PCs ➔ https://zttbuilds.com 💰 YouTube Membership ➔ https://www.youtube.com/zachstechturf/join 👕 ZTT Merch ➔ https://zachstechturf.com/merch 🎥 Production Gear ➔ https://zachstechturf.com/gear  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Follow ZTT!  📲 TIKTOK ➔ https://tiktok.com/@zachstechturf 🎙 TWITCH ➔ https://twitch.tv/zachstechturf 📱 DISCORD ➔ https://discord.gg/m72uv72 🐦 TWITTER ➔ https://twitter.com/zachstechturf 📷 INSTAGRAM ➔ https://www.instagram.com/zachstechturf/ 📧 EMAIL ➔ zach@zachstechturf.com 📽 VIDEOGRAPHER/EDITOR: https://www.youtube.com/user/TINSELTOWNINC  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Time Stamps  0:00 Intro 1:03 Parts List 8:28 Benchmarks 9:07 Conclusion  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #PCGaming #PCBuild #GamingPC

Transcript

00:00For literally less than $500, you can build a pure performance gaming PC like this,

00:04and I'm going to make this as easy to copy as possible.

00:07Not only will I show you the full component list with the reasonings for every part and

00:11benchmark the heck out of this PC, which by the way, it can put up some really good numbers.

00:16We kind of got reverse scammed on this GPU.

00:18I still can't believe it.

00:20We're going to talk all about it, but also link down in the description is a full step

00:23by step PC building video for this build, a full benchmarking video with way more games

00:28than we'll look at today.

00:29And of course, the totally free cheat sheet inside that link shows you all the juicy information.

00:34If you're trying to copy this bill, which may not be super interesting in a video like this,

00:38but it's vital information when you're trying to copy it, it's got further part explanations

00:42and even alternative parts in case you can't find what I'm using.

00:45It's got the bio settings and even a cable management guy.

01:01Let's start with the top of the parts list with the CPU.

01:04And for a $500 build, you got two main options.

01:07In my opinion, you can either go with a Ryzen 5 5500.

01:10If you prefer to shop from places like Amazon or Newegg,

01:13or if you're willing to go to AliExpress, you can get an even better 5600.

01:17This 5600 with six cores and 12 threads is still the peak of pure performance budget

01:21gaming right now.

01:22And on AliExpress, it's less than 75 bucks most of the time.

01:25Not only will this pair really well with our 1080P GPU choice, but it'll also work great

01:29with most 1440P GPUs if you decide to upgrade now or later on down the line.

01:34It also allows us to be on the affordable AM4 platform.

01:37And speaking of which, the motherboard I'm going to use is the Asus Prime B450M-A2.

01:42For whatever reason, the budget AM4 motherboard market is pretty much as bad as the GPU market

01:47right now.

01:48But this option continues to be one of the only ones available.

01:51This cost me $70 off eBay, but it's a brand new board that's just being sold from Best Buy

01:56through eBay.

01:57Stores like Best Buy and even Newegg will sometimes list their inventory over on eBay.

02:01So that's all this is.

02:02It's a totally legit brand new option for 70 bucks, which you cannot beat right now in

02:06early 2025.

02:07The only thing I don't like about it is the lack of built-in WiFi, but beggars can't be

02:11choosers in this market.

02:12And we can fix that problem with a $6 dongle over on AliExpress or even Amazon.

02:16Next up, we have the RAM.

02:17And today I'm going with the G.Skill Ripjaws 5 2x16GB DDR4 kit clocked at 3200MHz with

02:23a CL rating of 16.

02:25I've been explaining this for a few weeks now, but 32GB is just now the sweet spot for

02:29DDR4, and I don't see myself going back to 16GB anytime soon unless it's a sub $400-ish

02:34dollar bill.

02:35These 32GB kits with good specs are now only like $15 more expensive than the 16GB, and

02:40that kind of price is definitely going to be worth it.

02:42If you can't find this exact kit, which is linked down in the description along with

02:45every other part I'm talking about, then just search on PCPartPicker for any 2x16GB

02:50DDR4 kit clocked at 3200MHz and CL16.

02:53I'll of course also have my top alternative picks down in that cheat sheet as well.

02:57Moving on, next up we have the SSD, and this is yet another Team Group MP33 1TB drive.

03:01At this point in time, the MP33, the Clev Crass, or the Silicon Power A60 could all

03:06be rocking the lowest price for the NVMe Gen 3 drives, and for ultra budget builds

03:10like this, I just get whatever has the best deal.

03:12This MP33 is not sporting crazy fast read and write speeds, but for a budget gaming

03:16PC like this, it's perfectly fast enough, and unless if you're video editing, most

03:20people probably won't even notice a difference.

03:22After that, we have the power supply, and this is another one that I use quite often

03:26in these videos, which is the MSI Mag A550BN.

03:29This is a 550W non-modular unit which is almost always sitting right at $50, but more

03:34importantly, it's rated Tier C on the PSU tier list.

03:36And speaking of which, there's a brand new tier list if you didn't already see my

03:40videos.

03:40This was created by my friend SPL, and it's officially replacing the Cultist list which

03:45we've known and loved for years, but unfortunately it's just been too outdated.

03:48This new list not only shows literally hundreds of more models including the newer ATX 3.0

03:54and 3.1 stuff, but it also includes all of the information about the tiering system.

03:58If you ever wanted to nerd out about what makes a power supply a good or a bad unit,

04:02I'd highly recommend checking that out, and it's actually hosted on the ZTDBuildhelp.com

04:06website which is always linked down in the description.

04:08What's also linked down there is this case, and oh my goodness, I think I accidentally

04:13found the new meta for budget builds.

04:15This is the DIYPC ARGB R1BK, and to be honest, this wasn't really accidental.

04:21I'm always trying to find the new case listings which are usually listed on Newegg, and this

04:25one caught my attention.

04:26This is a Micro ATX all black unit with four pre-installed ARGB fans for just $53.

04:32I just checked while writing the script for this video which is about a week after building

04:36and two weeks after ordering, and it's still there, actually for $52 which is even better.

04:40Yesterday I literally just ordered 20 more of these for an upcoming limited drop on ZTDBuilds.com.

04:46It's got a Versa H18 kinda looking front panel and a larger than normal PSU basement,

04:51but overall I can't really complain about this design.

04:53The kicker is that there's even a USB-C port up at the front, but that's of course

04:57one of the downsides of a super budget B450 motherboard like this, so we can't even use it.

05:01Now one thing I will say is that the front panel of this case does make it very tough

05:05to see the front ARGB fans, which probably won't affect most of you,

05:08and definitely not as much as it did me and my videographer.

05:11As you start to rotate the case, you can't see the color of those ARGB fans,

05:16and this happens way quicker with this case compared to everything else.

05:19The ARGB fans are perfectly fine and bright, but it's just this plastic front grill that

05:24makes it really tough to see the colors from any angle other than straight on.

05:27And speaking of those fans, the CPU cooler I bought to try to match them is the Vitro V5.

05:32This sub $30 cooler has been around for the better part of a decade and it's always rock solid,

05:36but they actually just did a refresh I think and it's looking pretty nice.

05:39This does have an ARGB port that you can easily daisy chain into the case fans,

05:43and then all 5 fans can be controlled from the one button on the front of the case.

05:47With all black parts, you can honestly go with any color combination that you want to,

05:51but I like how this light blue and purple matches with the ARGBs on this GPU.

05:55And speaking of which, for the last component in this $500 pure performance build guide,

05:59here's where things get a bit weird, but don't worry, I'll fully explain.

06:02This is apparently an Asus RX 5600 XT dual, and I copped this over on eBay used for $125.

06:10For a $500 gaming PC, you're gonna be sitting with anywhere from $100 to $130 for the GPU,

06:16and at the time of filming, I think this is probably the very best option.

06:20If you head over to ZTTBuildhub.com and click on those 1080p ultra comparison charts,

06:24you'll see that some of the other competition is the RTX 2060,

06:28and also the GTX 1660 Super, which is the one I was heavily considering.

06:32You can find those Supers for around $100 on eBay fairly easily,

06:35but the 5600 XT consistently beats it in performance.

06:38The RTX 2060 is also a solid option, but that card hovers closer to $150,

06:43and again, the 5600 XT usually beats it.

06:45The only other GPU that I really consider to replace the 5600 XT

06:49is one of my all-time favorites, the 5700 XT,

06:51but unfortunately, that's just become pretty difficult to grab in this price range.

06:55Now, if you can find one for about $130, then I absolutely recommend going for it,

07:00but realistically, you're probably gonna have to settle for the 5600 XT.

07:04Now, where the real weirdness starts is that we found out that the previous owner,

07:07or at least one of the previous owners of this 5600 XT,

07:11actually swapped the cooling assembly,

07:13and underneath the hood is in fact a much better 5700 XT.

07:17I talk all about how you can sometimes get scammed

07:20whenever you buy a used graphics card or any component,

07:22but every now and then, you'll actually get reverse scammed.

07:25We originally thought that someone BIOS flashed this from a 5600 XT to a 5700 XT,

07:31but Sam physically tore down the GPU and discovered that the PCB does in fact say 5700 XT,

07:36and there's also 8GB of VRAM.

07:38The thing that threw us off, and probably the person that sold it to us,

07:42was that the sticker on the cooling assembly says 5600 XT.

07:45This GPU is working flawlessly though as a 5700 XT,

07:49and all of the software like GPU-Z and 3DMark confirms it's a 5700 XT.

07:54We just have a 5600 XT cooler on here, which isn't a big deal.

07:57During gaming, the temperatures of it were actually really nice.

08:00So yeah, after totaling up our total build price,

08:02I'm actually at right under the $500 target.

08:05This of course will have some fluctuation if you try to copy this,

08:08depending on where you buy the CPU,

08:10what kind of motherboard and GPU deal you can find, and all that.

08:13And just as a reminder, if you do need a step-by-step PC building video of this PC,

08:17we condensed down the Twitch livestream of me building it into only the actual building steps.

08:21There's no donation messages, ad breaks, or beer reviews in this shorter version.

08:26It's nothing but me building this PC.

08:27But now let's check out some benchmarks, and first we'll start with Marvel Rivals,

08:30and here in 1080p with high settings, we've got an average FPS of 95, which you love to see.

08:34Next up we have Fortnite, because everyone still wants to see this result,

08:38and in 1080p with pro settings, we'd definitely be taking advantage

08:40of a competitive gaming monitor with an average FPS of 235.

08:44And finally, here's Delta Force, and we put the settings back up to 1080p high and got 116 FPS.

08:49Here's the rest of the games that we tested, and I actually wasn't expecting this,

08:52but yeah, these are basically all RX 5700 XT numbers,

08:56with most of the games running very well at 1080p high level range.

08:59And yeah, just as a final reminder, if you want to see those longer benchmarking clips

09:02and a ton of extra games, we just uploaded a dedicated video for that over on the ZTT Extra

09:07channel.

09:07And real quickly, let's look at the cooling,

09:09because that's usually where we have to worry about not just older hardware,

09:12but especially a GPU that had its fan and cooling assembly replaced.

09:15First up, we fired up Cinebench 2024, and the GPU stress test only peaked at 66 degrees.

09:21Crazy.

09:22Here's Black Myth Wukong running its built-in benchmarking tool,

09:24which does indeed keep that GPU pressed around 95 to 100% utilization,

09:29and that GPU is still barely even touching 65 degrees.

09:32So yeah, I don't know what we did to deserve this lucky of a free GPU upgrade,

09:36but I'm pretty sure we just got extremely lucky on this one.

09:39If you're following this at home, then again, you probably have to shoot for a 5600 XT,

09:43but if you do want to pay just a few bucks more for a 5700 XT,

09:46then you'll get the same results that I did.

09:48But yeah, hopefully you enjoyed this $500 pure performance gaming PC build guide,

09:52and that cheap cheat in the description brought value to you.

09:54If you want to check out my other somewhat recent method of building a $500-ish gaming PC,

09:59then that video is on the screen now.

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