Cyber Monday Gaming PC: Build a 1080p Desktop for $600, 1440p for $750
Cyber Monday is a great time to buy components for affordable gaming PC builds. Usually, if you want to put together a desktop that can play games at very high 1080p or Ultra settings and smooth (60+ fps) frame rates, you’re going to spend a lot of money. And if you want to bump the resolution up to 1440p, you might expect to spend close to $1,000 or more.
But now, with Cyber Monday sales on PC parts dropping prices on CPUs, graphics cards, SSDs, even cases and power supplies, we’ve got a very practical 1080p gaming rig for $600, a 1440p capable gaming rig. can be built for less than $750. Either build could potentially save you hundreds of dollars off the price of prebuilt desktops with similar features.
Below we’ve compiled parts lists for both the sub-$600 Cyber Monday 1080p PC build and the sub-$750 1440p gaming PC build. These prices are based on the Cyber Monday sale at the time of publication, so your mileage may vary slightly depending on when you read this. It also doesn’t include the price of the OS (you can get Windows for free or cheap) or peripherals.
Cyber Monday Sub $600, 1080 Gaming PC Build
component | model | sales price | old price | Note |
---|---|---|---|---|
CPU | Risen 5 5500 | $94 | $99 | row 0 – cell 4 |
GPUs | XFX Speedster SWFT 210 Radeon RX 6600 | $229 | $239 | row 1 – cell 4 |
motherboard | Gigabyte B550M DS3H AM4 | $99 | $109 | row 2 – cell 4 |
sheep | TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 | $42 | $47 | row 3 – cell 4 |
SSD | Solidigm P41 Plus | $59 | $89 | row 4 – cell 4 |
case | Gamdias Argus M1 | $39 | $48 | row 5 – cell 4 |
PSUs | Enermax Cyberbron 500W, 80+ Bronze | $34 | $39 | row 6 – cell 4 |
row 7 – cell 1 | $596 | Row 7 – Cell 3 | row 7 – cell 4 |
Granted, Black Friday sales were a little better, and with more items in stock, we had to cut a few corners to reach the $600 price point and have smooth 1080p playback. Here are all the pieces we picked and why we chose each one.
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 ($94 at B&H (opens in new tab)) – The Ryzen 5 5500 isn’t one of the fastest CPUs out there, but it does offer 6 cores, 12 threads and a 4.2 GHz boost clock for under $100. In the graph below, we can see that the 5500 delivered a solid 129 fps in 1080p games, Windows 11 game suite. Benchmark your CPU with your top-of-the-line graphics card to make sure your GPU isn’t the bottleneck. Obviously lower numbers are to be expected for GPUs in this build.
However, we can see that the 5500 can deliver better and more consistent frame rates than AMD’s previous generation processors such as the Ryzen 5 3600X. The Ryzen 5 5600 (currently around $40 more expensive) is definitely much faster. go with 5600 (opens in new tab) instead if you can afford it.
- GPU: XFX Speedster SWFT 210 Radeon RX 6600 ($229 at Amazon (opens in new tab)) – At one point during this Cyber Monday deal season, you could pick up the RX 6600 card for just $189, and at the time of this writing, it was the cheapest we could find. The card features 8 GB of GDDR6 RAM and a boost clock of 2,491 MHz.
As you can see in the graph below, the RX 6600 averaged 72.3 fps running a suite of eight games at the 1080p Ultra setting. This makes the GPU lower than more expensive competitors like the RTX 3060 and RX 6600 XT, but it’s still a very playable frame rate and a great value.
- Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AM4 ($99 at Newegg (opens in new tab), was $109). In theory, any motherboard with a B550 or X570 chipset should be fine. However, many AMD boards require an update of his BIOS (see how to enter the BIOS) before they can recognize the Ryzen 5000 chip, and knowing the version of his BIOS shipped with the motherboard is you can’t.
If you’re using an old BIOS that doesn’t recognize the new CPU, you’ll need to upgrade the firmware before booting with the new CPU, but what if you don’t have an old CPU to update with? Gigabyte B550M DS3H AM4 has a feature called Q Flash Plus (on other boards known as BIOS Flashback) that allows you to update the firmware without using the CPU. With this, you just have to plug in your USB flash drive and hold down the button on the update. motherboard.
If you don’t mind waiting a few weeks for delivery, consider getting the Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC. $99 at Amazon (opens in new tab) Same board as but with Wi-Fi 5 built in. However, it will not ship for about two weeks.
- RAM: TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 ($42 for new eggs (opens in new tab), was $47). You need at least 16GB of RAM and a dual channel kit with two 8GB DDR4 sticks running at up to 3200 Mhz. This is the cheapest set we can find and comes from a reputable brand.
- SSD: Solidigm P41 Plus 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD ($59 at Newegg (opens in new tab)) – Saving $1 is important to keep costs down to about $600. That’s why I use the cheapest 1 TB NVMe SSD from a reputable brand. Haven’t heard of Solidigm? It’s the company that bought Intel’s SSD division, so they’re pretty good bona fides.
This drive uses the latest PCIe 4.0 interface, so it automatically steps up from most PCIe 3.0 SSDs. It is rated for sequential read and write speeds of 4,125 MBps and 2,950 MBps. We reviewed the Solidigm P41 and found the performance to be modest but acceptable. As you can see, in the 3DMark SSD Gaming test it scored considerably better than more powerful drives like the WD Black SN770 and SK hynix Platinum P41, but those competitors cost more. Definitely faster than PCIe 3.0 SSD.
- Case: Gamdias Argus M1 ($39 at Newegg (opens in new tab)was $48): This case works well for under $40. With tempered glass side panels, his RGB light strip on the front, and three illuminated USB ports on the front panel, it’s very attractive considering the budget situation. It includes an RGB rear fan and has space for radiators up to 280mm (two 140mm fans or two 120mm fans) on the top or front.
- PSU: Enermax Cyberbron 500W, 80+ Bronze ($34 at Amazon (opens in new tab)) – To keep costs low, you need reliable, very cheap CPUs. Enermax is a well-known brand and this 500W capacity of him will provide plenty of power for the components in this build. You also get 80+ Bronze power efficiency, which not all cheap PSUs offer.
The only real drawback is that the PSU is not partially modular. However, it doesn’t hurt much to have all the cables inside the power supply. you will never lose them.
Cyber Monday Sub $750, 1440p Gaming PC Build
component | model | sales price | old price | Note |
---|---|---|---|---|
CPU | Risen 5 5600 | $137 | $135 | row 0 – cell 4 |
GPUs | XFX Speedster Radeon RX 6700 | $319 | $349 | row 1 – cell 4 |
motherboard | Gigabyte B550M DS3H AM4 | $99 | $109 | row 2 – cell 4 |
sheep | TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 | $42 | $47 | row 3 – cell 4 |
SSD | Solidigm P41 Plus | $59 | $89 | row 4 – cell 4 |
case | Cooler Master MasterBox MB511 | $39 | $74 | After mail-in rebate |
PSUs | Thermaltake Smart BM2 650W 80+ Bronze | $39 | $ | Use promo code BFDBY2A335 to get this price |
total | row 7 – cell 1 | $734 | Row 7 – Cell 3 | row 7 – cell 4 |
Now let’s talk about why we chose the parts we did and what you can expect from each.
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 ($137 at Newegg (opens in new tab)) – as mentioned elsewhere (opens in new tab), AMD Ryzen 5000 series chip prices are incredibly low right now due to the recent arrival of the very expensive new 7000 series. The Ryzen 5 5600 has 6 cores, 12 threads and a max boost clock of 4.4 GHz, more than enough for gaming at 2K, especially when paired with a powerful graphics card. There is an ice pack in the box, so you don’t have to buy it. Newegg has this part backordered, but currently he expects it to ship by December 2nd.
Our review of the Ryzen 5 5600 returned an average frame rate of 156 fps in a suite of 1440p games, and that number jumped to 159 fps with Precision Boost overdrive (kind of like an overclock) enabled. To see what the CPU is capable of, we tested it with a high-end GPU in the form of the RTX 3090, so you won’t get those frame rates with the graphics card recommended for this build, but you can rest easy with the Ryzen 5. The 5600 is never a bottleneck.
- GPU: XFX Speedster Radeon RX 6700 ($319 at Amazon (opens in new tab), was $349) – In this price range, AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 offers better performance than Nvidia’s RTX 3060, which costs over $350 and usually approaches $400.
On the GPU benchmark tier, the RX 6700 is actually eight orders of magnitude ahead of the RTX 3060, delivering an average frame rate of 87.7 fps on the 1080p Ultra setting in our test suite compared to 70.2 fps on Nvidia’s card. . At the 1440p Ultra setting, the RX 6700 delivers an average of 63.5 fps. This is very smooth and matches the 3060 mark of 52.6 fps.
- Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AM4 ($99 at Newegg (opens in new tab), was $109). I’m sticking with the $600 1080p Cyber Monday gaming PC build of the Gigabyte B550M. To get the version with Wi-Fi 5 built in, you’ll have to wait another two weeks for shipping delays. $99 at Amazon (opens in new tab).
- RAM: TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 ($42 for new eggs (opens in new tab), was $47). Since we don’t need faster than DDR4-3200 speeds and can’t afford to go up to 32GB and keep the price in range, we’re sticking with RAM from the $600 build here.
- SSD: Solidigm P41 Plus 1TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD ($59 at Newegg (opens in new tab)) – If you want to keep the cost under $750, you should save your SSD and stick with the 1080p build Solidigm P41. But if you’re willing to pay the extra $17 (which makes the total cost just over $750), get the WD Black SN770. $79 at Amazon (opens in new tab).
The WD Black SN770 promises sequential read and write speeds of 5,000 MBps and 4,000 MBps respectively. The game also had much lower latency in our tests.
- Case: Cooler Master MasterBox MB511 ($39 at Newegg (opens in new tab), after the rebate) – This case doesn’t have the built-in RGB bling of the cases we chose for our 1080p gaming rig builds, but it does have better cooling due to the mesh front panel. There is room for up to three 120mm fans (or 360mm radiators) in front and two 120mm fans (or 240mm radiators) on top. It has tempered glass side panels that allow you to see everything inside.
- PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600W 80 Plus Gold ($38 at Newegg (opens in new tab), was $69). A name brand 600 watt gold rated power supply for less than $40? What’s not to love? His PSU from Thermaltake is non-modular, but it has a 120mm silent fan and can achieve over 90% efficiency.
As you can see, I made some compromises to get a 1080p gaming rig for $600 and a 1440p gaming rig for under $750. If you want to step up and spend more, you can go with more expensive CPUs, GPUs, and SSDs, but I hope this parts list gives you some ideas. There is a more complete set of parts lists on the page.