If you want to build a budget-friendly PC on Black Friday, spiraling RAM prices and GPU shortages might make you think twice about trying to put together a cash-conscious gaming rig. Fear not. Tom's Hardware is back with its iconic budget build, as made famous by Amazon Prime Day.
Pleasing everyone is impossible when it comes to building a PC, so consider this a helpful guide as you get started. It includes an 8-core processor, 32GB of DDR4 RAM (DDR5 is simply not an option at this price), a 1TB M.2 SSD, and the potent RX 9060 XT with 16GB of VRAM.
We've previously done builds of this caliber for $800 to $850, but crippling price increases on RAM and SSDs mean that $950 is the best you'll get, even with Black Friday discounts. We've optimized this build to the bone, but price increases have been unavoidable. For example, our RAM was $69 the last time we put together this parts list; it's now $140. Likewise, the SSD is $20 more.
At worst, let this serve as a guide as to what you can expect to pay for a budget-friendly enthusiast PC, or the individual parts contained therein, as we close out the year.
$950 Prime Day gaming PC: Quick list
$950 Prime Day gaming PC
AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT 8-Core Processor: $183 at Amazon Read more Read less ▼ This is the same processor we chose the last time we built this. The dynamite Ryzen 7 5800XT comes with 4.8GHz peak clock speeds and eight cores of Zen 3 power. Grabbing this CPU from Amazon is now cheaper than Newegg. This CPU comes with AMD's capable Wraith Prism cooler, saving us vital cents on our build. If you insist on a third-party cooler to keep things quieter, grab this $20 Thermalright Assassin Spirit.
Save 25% Gigabyte B550 Eagle Wi-Fi 6: was $119.99 now $89.99 at Amazon Read more Read less ▼ This Gigabyte Eagle board is a solid foundation for our 5800XT and the DDR4 RAM we've chosen for this build. It comes with Wi-Fi, a decent array of connectivity, and at just $89.99, is extremely affordable.
Save $20 PowerColor Reaper AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB GDDR6: was $369.99 now $349.99 at Amazon Read more Read less ▼ While the discount here is modest, the star of our show is actually cheaper than it was the last time we recommended it at just $349. AMD wins again in our budget build for GPU, as it does for CPU. Get $20 off this card with 3290 MHz clock speeds and crucially, 16GB of VRAM. If you want a 16GB card from Nvidia, you won't find one for less than $400, more than half our entire budget.
PNY 32GB XLR8 3200 MHz DDR4: $139.99 at Newegg Read more Read less ▼ 32GB of RAM is a non-negotiable for us at this price point, but recent increases have more than doubled our preferred kit's price compared to just a couple months ago. Still, this is the best you can do for a large, low-latency DDR4 kit.
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