Here at MCC, we love working with people who want to get into PC building themselves. Often, these customers don't have the budget for a super high-end system, so we work with them to build a decent computer on a budget.

Here you will find our recommendations for a sub-£500 gaming PC build. We will outline all the parts you'll need and provide links (external) to buy them. This isn't going to be the most powerful system in the world, but games such as Fortnite, Dota 2 and League of Legends will run at 1080p resolution, even at high graphics settings.

The colour theme of this gaming PC is black with white accents. This has influenced some component choices, but without making things overly expensive. We believe that making a machine look good is important, even on a budget.

Obviously, we will be more than happy to help you at any stage of your build; just get in touch.

This CPU is incredible value for money. The Ryzen 3 3200G is a solid performer for all general day-to-day task and also boasts integrated Radeon Vega 8 graphics, meaning you could run this system without a dedicated graphics card (although we don't recommend this if you want decent gaming performance).

The chip runs at 3.6GHz, but can be overclocked to 4GHz if you fancy squeezing a little extra juice out of it. The 3200G also comes with AMD's Wraith Stealth Cooler, which saves buying a separate cooling unit (important when working to a tight budget).

At the time of writing (July 20), this CPU only costs £70, which, in our eyes, is a bargain.

You can get the 3200G here.

Like most things in this build, this MOBO isn't packed with the some of the fancy things you'll find in higher end systems, but it does offer great value for money, at around the £50 mark.

This is a Micro ATX board, which are smaller and cheaper than ATX boards, but this still does all the basics well.

It supports dual channel DDR4, with 2 DIMM slots. You can pack 32GB of RAM into this with a max clock speed of 3200Mhz.

There are 4 PCIe Gen 3 slots, so you can support your graphics card and other accessories (wireless card, capture card etc). It also has space for and M.2 SSD, if you want to upgrade to the fastest storage possible.

You can't really go wrong with this for £50.

The graphics card is usually the most expensive part of any build, so getting this right in a budget gaming PC is essential. At around £140, this card really packs some punch, enabling 1080p graphics @ 60fps on a lot of top games. You will also be able to dabble with 1440p if you want to try pushing it a little.

The dual fans run quietly, even under heavy load, thanks to the TORX fan design. This is important if you are planning to overclock the card, which you can do with the MSI Afterburner software.

There are plenty of connections (3 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI and 1 x DVI-D) so you can easily run multiple screens.

You can pick on of these up here.

The case is sometimes an area where people decide to penny-pinch. All cases are created equal, right? WRONG! There are plenty of cases on the market between £25 to £35, but spending an extra tenner can go along way.

Fractal Design make some of my personal favourite cases. They are all solidly built and include excellent cable management features (which will make your life easier if you are building for the first time).

The Focus Mini G is a Micro ATX Tower and comes with 2 x white LED 120mm case fans, which fits nicely with our theme. A great feature about this case is the full mesh front panel, which is a perfect for airflow and keeping the innards cool. There is space for 6 fans in total, if you want to add more. The air intakes at the front, top and base all have dust filters, keeping the inside cleaner for longer.

This case fluctuates between £45 and £55, but even at the top end, it's a great option.

This is the final part in the list; hurrah! The PSU is another component that some people cut corners with. But, be warned; cheap PSU's blow up! Not like cars in a Hollywood blockbuster, but they can certainly fry your system.

At the time of writing, getting hold of a decent PSU is hard work, due to shortages brought on by COVID-19. This has made it hard to find anything I would recommend.

I have settled on the Corsair CV450, which is excellently priced at £40. The 450W power supply is plenty for the above mentioned components and has an 80+ bronze efficiency rating.

There are a couple of drawbacks. Firstly, it is a non-modular unit, meaning there will be way more cables than you will need, which might make cable management a little bit harder than a semi/fully-modular unit. Secondly, the cables themselves are the ugly "ketchup and mustard" kind. These can really detract from the final look. If you want to avoid this, you could consider buying some sleeved cable extensions, in white (see below), to match the overall theme.

GET IN TOUCH

MAJOR CUSTOM COMPUTING

Custom PC Builds and Computer Repair Services in Chester

THE MCC GUIDE - The budget GAMING PC you should build For UNDER £500

CPU: Ryzen 3 3200G

MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-A320M

GRAPHICS CARD: MSI RADEON RX570 8GB OC Edition

MEMORY: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 8 GB

STORAGE 1: Kingston A400 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

STORAGE 2: Seagate BarraCuda 1 TB Internal Hard Drive

CASE: Fractal Design Focus Mini G

POWER SUPPLY: Corsair CV450

COMPLETE OVERVIEW:

There we have it; all you need to get into 1080p PC gaming. Here are all the components in our recommendation, which comes to a grand total of £460! Well under £500, as promised.

HAVE YOU BEEN INSPIRED?

If you are interested in building your own budget gaming PC, we would be happy to help. We can assist you with a custom parts list, or build the whole thing for you.

Get in touch to see how we can help.

Major Custom Computing

4 Dennis Drive, Chester, CH4 7RG

major-customs@outlook.com