The Best Budget Gamming PC 2025

For whom is this PC intended?
#

For people who want the most for their money. It may sound strange, but PC technology has made fewer and fewer big leaps in performance in recent years. It is therefore not always worth buying the latest technology.

It also has the advantage that drivers and BIOS versions of motherboards are more mature and thus lead to fewer crashes.

Anyone expecting the most powerful PC will be disappointed. I don’t want to suggest a PC that costs the same as a new car.

The PC components
#

Here is a quick list of all parts. But I will also go into more detail about the individual parts.

CPU: https://amzn.to/3Em9H93
Mainboard: https://amzn.to/4gpeS5d
RAM: https://amzn.to/42HZX34
PSU: https://amzn.to/4gsK8jG
CPU Cooler: https://amzn.to/4jND1p9
SSD Drive: https://amzn.to/40ZYlA8
GPU: https://amzn.to/3EpMKSk
Case: https://amzn.to/40JnvBZ

At the time I wrote this, it was about 1380$ Not bad at all for the performance.

Why these components?
#

CPU
#

The Ryzen 5 5800X is an older model but still has more than enough power with its 8 Cores and is readily available. The 5800X3D would be better. But is no longer available.

The new Ryzen processors that use DDR5 and AM5 as a socket are simply too expensive for the increased performance to be worth it.

Therefore, I recommend using the old AMD CPUs if you want to save money.

Unfortunately, I don’t recommend Intel at the moment. Since it had problems with instability and corrosion with the 13 and 14 gen.

Mainboard
#

ASUS builds very good motherboards and this one has virtually everything you need in a modern motherboard.

You have BIOS Flashback, diagnostic lamps for boot errors, a metal reinforced PCIe slot and so on.

RAM
#

The kit has 32GB RAM, more than enough to play everything you want. What’s more, DDR4 is still more than fast enough for day to day tasks. DDR5 is still too new at the moment and is sometimes even slower than DDR4. You also have to pay a lot more money for the same amount of GB. Therefore DDR4 is enough for now.

PSU
#

Seasonic builds good power supplies with a 10-year warranty. What more could you want.

CPU Cooler
#

Noctua builds the best CPU coolers on the market. They are a bit expensive but believe me they are very good. Especially the fact that they have springs built into the screws when mounting the cooler, so that the contact pressure of the CPU is just right, is fantastic.

I would not recommend water cooling unless it is a PC that is frequently transported.

Water coolers are very expensive often over 100$ and if the pump breaks you can directly replace the whole cooler.

With air coolers this can’t happen, the only thing that can break is the fan and it’s cheap to replace.

Also Water coolers are not better at cooling. At first they are, but after a while when the water is warm they are no longer. This has to do with heat capacity, but I don’t want to explain physics now.

SSD Drive
#

The 990 Pro is currently the fastest NVME SSD on the market. Not in sequential read/write performance but in IOPS and these are much more important.

I have this SSD myself and my PC starts up in 10 seconds and 2TB should be enough for most people.

GPU
#

I know that Nvidia is very popular. But Nvidia saves on VRAM. The 4070 has 12GB VRAM for 590$ which you can see on this card https://amzn.to/3WMJR4p.

The 7800XT has 16GB VRAM for 490$. 100$ less, but 4GB more.

16GB is more future proof when it comes to modern games. More and more is needed and 12GB is already hard on the limit for 4K.

I know the speed is also crucial but there is not much difference between the cards. But if you want you can also take the Nvidia card.

Case
#

The 4000D is one of the best cases I know, especially with modern computers it is important that the airflow is very good. As modern PCs often consume over 1000W.

Final words
#

You could go even cheaper with the components, but then you run the risk that you saved money but having to upgrade again too quickly. In the end you would have saved nothing.

I was looking for a good average value here. Not too expensive, not too cheap. So that you still have 5-6 years with your new PC. In the end, it’s all a matter of what you value or need in a PC. I made sure that it is an all-rounder that you can use for a long time.