Building a £200 Gaming PC in 2024...

Summary

This video details the process of building an entire gaming PC from used and bargain components for under £200. The creator sourced deals on eBay and AliExpress for the CPU, motherboard, RAM, SSD, graphics card, power supply, and case. After assembly, benchmark results show the PC runs modern games at playable framerates when settings are adjusted. Comparisons are made to a similar budget build by another creator. Despite limitations, this PC demonstrates what's possible on a tight budget through patience and luck.

Takeaways

• 😀 Built a sub £200 gaming PC from used/discounted parts to showcase budget building capabilities
• 💸 Saved money by buying used/discounted parts from eBay and AliExpress
• ⚙️ Core components: Ryzen 3 3100 CPU, B550M motherboard, RX 580 GPU, 32GB RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD
• 👾 Focused on gaming performance rather than looks with cable management limitations
• 🎮 Able to achieve 60+ FPS at medium/low settings in many modern games thanks to RX 580 GPU
• 🆚 Compared performance to a separate £200 build by Iceberg Tech YouTube channel
• 🔧 Overclocked the Ryzen 3 3100 to 4.2GHz on the stock cooler for extra performance
• 🔋 Questionable quality of the old 530W power supply but has not blown up yet
• 🛠 Upgradable platform with AM4 CPU support, mATX motherboard and case limitations
• 👍 Decent gaming capabilities achieved through patience and luck when buying parts

Q & A

What was the total budget for the custom PC build?

The total budget was less than £200.

What CPU did the build use?

It used a Ryzen 3100 quad-core CPU.

What graphics card was chosen?

An RX 580 8GB graphics card was chosen to fit within the tight budget.

How much RAM did the system have?

It had 32GB of DDR4 RAM, which was an unexpectedly good deal found on eBay.

What storage device was used?

A 512GB NVMe SSD was used for fast storage.

Could the CPU be overclocked?

Yes, the Ryzen 3100 CPU was overclocked to 4.2GHz using the stock cooler.

What case was used?

A cheap Vigland Genie case was spray-painted and modified for the build.

How did modern games like Red Dead 2 perform?

Red Dead 2 ran at 1080p with 60 FPS average and 47 FPS minimum at console equivalent settings.

What was the purpose of the collaborative competition?

The competition with fellow YouTuber Iceberg Tech challenged both builders to create the best £200 gaming PC.

What upgrade options does this PC have?

The CPU, RAM, motherboard and SSD could be transferred to a better case and power supply in the future.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introducing a Sub-£200 Custom Gaming PC Build

The video introduces a custom budget gaming PC built for under £200 using used/second-hand components from eBay and AliExpress. It features a Ryzen 3100 CPU, RX 580 GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD, and other parts in a spray-painted case. The goal is to showcase an affordable introduction to PC gaming that is upgradable in the future.

05:03

👾 Benchmarking the Budget Build's Gaming Performance

Various games are benchmarked on the budget build to demonstrate its capabilities. It can run many modern AAA titles at 60fps on lowered settings. Online competitive games like CS:GO and Fortnite exceed 120fps. The GPU is the primary limitation, but the overall performance is impressive considering the low cost.

10:04

🤝 Comparisons to a Rival £200 Build by Iceberg Tech

The video challenges fellow creator Iceberg Tech to build a comparable £200 gaming PC. Comparative benchmark results are provided, and viewers are encouraged to evaluate both builds side-by-side. The goal is a friendly competition showcasing what can be achieved on a tight budget.

Keywords

💡Budget

The budget refers to the limited amount of money, less than £200, that was available to build the custom PC. It is a key constraint that made the process very challenging, requiring bargain hunting and some luck to assemble capable components at such a low cost.

💡Build

The build refers to the process of assembling or configuring the custom budget gaming PC from individual component parts. Details of sourcing and fitting the various parts like the CPU, RAM, case, etc. into a working computer are provided.

💡Upgrade

Upgrade refers to the ability to replace certain components in the future to improve performance, without needing to build a completely new PC. For example, the CPU, RAM and motherboard could be transferred to a better case later on.

💡Capabilities

The capabilities relate to the performance and functions the budget build can deliver playing different games. Benchmark test results indicate it can run modern titles at playable framerates of 30-60 FPS at low to medium settings.

💡Limitations

Limitations refer to the restricted gaming performance resulting from the tight budget constraints, requiring cheaper/older components like the GPU. Demanding new releases may be unplayable or struggle even at minimum settings.

💡Competition

The competition refers to the rival £200 gaming PC build created by another YouTuber, Iceberg Tech. Comparative benchmarks determine which machine offers better capabilities and value for money.

💡Games

References to specific game titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2 demonstrate the real-world gaming performance that can be expected from the budget build.

💡Settings

Graphics settings within each game, from low to ultra, showcase the visual compromises needed to make them playable on such cheap hardware.

💡Performance

Performance metrics like FPS (frames per second) quantify the gaming experience delivered by the budget build. Targets are context specific based on game genre (60 FPS for AAA single player, 120+ FPS for competitive online).

💡Value

Value refers to the performance, capabilities and scope for future upgrades that this very cheap custom build manages to deliver compared to off-the-shelf options. It indicates that some patient bargain hunting can go a long way on a tight budget.

Highlights

This build cost less than £200 to put together

The build features a modern CPU, discrete graphics card, NVMe SSD and decent upgrade path

eBay listing said motherboard was b550m but was actually non-WiFi version which was still a good deal

Managed to find Ryzen 3100 CPU for £35 which is a decent budget CPU

Got an NVMe SSD for OS and games for under £30

Tried to get a decent older power supply to avoid cheap low quality options

Spray painted an old case and added some cosmetic modifications

Got very lucky with 32GB RAM for under £30 on AliExpress

Went with RX 580 GPU as more powerful options were out of budget

Overclocked the CPU to 4.2GHz on the stock cooler

Some AAA games like Starfield struggled but others like Spiderman ran well

Online games like CSGO and Fortnite ran at over 120fps

Red Dead 2 ran at 60fps on console equivalent settings

Single core CPU benchmark still impressive for the price

Shows what's possible with patience and luck on a tight budget

Transcripts

hello everyone and welcome to another

video now this super cheap gaming

machine cost me less than £200 to put

together it features a modern CPU a

discrete graphics card an nvme SSD and

there's even a decent upgrade path

normally I'd suggest an aging pre-built

as a solid starting point to any cut

price computer build but that's just not

as fun so let's give this old thing a

worthy send off before seeing what's

inside my Custom Creation now this build

may not look the part and it won't win

everyone over but I like to think of it

as a solid introduction to the world of

cheap PC gaming a lovely little ice

breaker if you will speaking of which a

200 custom PC build is no simple feat it

can be quite the challenge and what to

challenge without competition I asked

fellow content creator Iceberg Tech to

come up with something on the same

budget the link to his video will be in

the top line of the description the

rules were simple no pre-builts and no

peripher THS or operating systems had to

be included in the price please do head

over there after seeing what I'm calling

the HMS endurance in action yeah I can

make all the icebreaking jokes I like

but the truth is I'm not that confident

my build is going to be the better of

the two that said I'm pretty happy with

what I've gotten I think it's a decent

Showcase of what can be achieved with a

little bit of patience and perhaps a

sprinkling of luck but let's get into it

for some reason I was determined to

build something on a platform even

though the budget made that incredibly

difficult I ended up refreshing the

newly listed computer components page on

eBay and it was there I found this this

is a socket am4 motherboard it was

listed as a b550m pro vdh WiFi which was

probably just the result of eBay's Auto

listing suggestion as I could see it was

the non-wifi version from the pictures

for the price I didn't mind at all the

description said Bor only but it was a

nice surprise seeing the io shield in

the box too at a total of

2871 this was a bargain I couldn't

resist but now I had a problem this

board only supports 3,000 and 5000

series am4 chips so cheaper second or

first gen rizons were out of the

question 5,000 series chips would have

blown the budget but I managed to find

one of these for a total of

£35 it's the four core 8 thread ryzen

3100 it was a decent budget C puu when

it launched in 2020 and it's still

surprisingly good especially at this

price it can also be overclocked on a

stock cooler which we didn't get with

this but more about that later before

moving on to the AliExpress purchases

I'll run through the rest of the eBay

finds in this day and age I feel as

though an SSD is pretty important and if

your Bard and budget allows for it an

nvme Drive is even better a terabyte

would have been nice but 512 gigs was

more suited to our budget and this is

plenty of space for our operating system

and a few games a power supply is the

most important part of any build and

here I had to make sacrifices but I also

knew that we needed something half

decent even if it was quite old I think

it's probably better to go with

something old that was good at the time

rather than something new that's of poor

quality I won this 530 W Nexus unit in

an eBay auction for a total of

1329 for the case well you've seen it

already but this started Life as a

beaten up vigland Genie I got a bit

happy with the spray paint which I

didn't include in the price as I had it

already and this is of course an

optional cosmetic choice at just under

£2 it was a great deal though the

postage cost pushed the price up it came

with a PSU and I thought I could sell

this to claw back some money but no one

wants it so at the time of this video it

cost me the full £9 and 63 I would have

kept it but it didn't have the

appropriate connectors for this machine

this case also came with a rear fan and

USB 3 ports though these are really only

for show as the layout of the inside of

the case means we can't actually plug

any USB 3 headers in uh yeah I wish I

could remove this sort of Blocky hard

drive bay but it seems to be bolted to

the chassis I have to get some sort of

metal cutter in here at a later date oh

I also applied this cheeky little ryzen

9 sticker I found in the drawer that's

free performance right there for the

Express finds let's start with the ram

which I feel I was really lucky with I

selected the 3200 MHz ddr4 from the site

the listing said 16 gigs * 2 I thought I

was getting 2 8 GB sticks for a total of

16 but instead what I got was 32 GB of

ddr4 the Box even says 16 now I'm not

sure if this was a mistake generosity on

the part of the seller or I just didn't

interpret the listing correctly but I

can't complain 32 gigs of ddr4 for a

total of 2836 is pretty decent while on

AliExpress I got a stock am4 cooler with

thermal paste pre-applied a back plate

and a little box of screws as nothing I

had purchased so far came with any all

that I needed now was a graphics card

and because anything more powerful would

blow the budget I went with the Elsa

rx580

20488 gig after tax this came to just

over 50 Quid there are slightly better

cards available for not much more but

even if I hadn't need did the extras

like the heat sink back plate and screws

I still wouldn't have had enough money

for say the 5500 instead what I didn't

think about was whether or not this

would actually fit in our cheap and

cheerful case but luckily or should I

say with a slight bit of force I managed

to squeeze it in and I mean really

squeeze it in in total then I had spent

just less than £200 for something that

should be somewhat capable now as well

as upgradeable I wouldn't necessarily

keep the PSU in case but the core

components like the the CPU RAM and

motherboard could easily be transferred

to another enclosure at a later date if

you wanted to as a side note there is a

link in the description to a screenshot

of all the orders placed for this video

so check that out if you want to see the

prices for yourselves so what can this

Beast do let's find out the first thing

I did was overclock the CPU to 4.2 GHz

no special equipment was needed here as

it's possible on the stock caller simply

by setting the clock multiplier to 40 to

in the Bios it'll help in CPU intensive

tasks But ultimately our GPU is the

limitation and overclocking that in our

small enclosure wasn't a good idea for

the sake of temperatures obviously at

this price point some games are off the

table I didn't even need to hit the

Benchmark key to tell you how bad Alan

Wake 2 ran and when it came to Starfield

well it'll hit 30 FPS with some heavily

reduced settings and thanks to our SSD

the plethora of loading screens aren't

all that off-putting but overall it's a

bit of a struggle for this thing not all

AAA games run badly though far from it

especially with a bit of help from FSR

Spider-Man at medium hit at least 60 FPS

and the percenti lows were pretty solid

swinging through New York City was a

pleasure even with this CPU which I was

sure would cause more issues than this

even if you were to tell me this motherb

does support first and second gen am4

CPUs I'm not really that concerned

because it's our graphics card that is

the primary limitation here the next gen

version of the Wich 3 also ran well at

medium this time with no help from FSR

the busy streets didn't do too much to

upset our percentile performance with

decent one and 0.1% lows yet again I'm

not entirely sure the temperature

reading for the processor is accurate it

could just be that the limitation our

graphics card is imposing means that the

ryzen 3 isn't actually doing that much

work GTA 5 as you might expect pose no

threat to our four core 83 3100 or the

RX 580 with the high settings we saw

over 100 FPS with percentile lows that

also sat well above 60 we could have

cranked up the resolution or perhaps a

few of the settings but that is all down

to personal preference I also tested

cyber Punk at low with FSR and we'll be

looking at this again as part of the

head-to-head benchmarks in a minute but

for now and with these visual options 60

FPS was achievable even though we did

experience a few drops here and there

especially in busier parts of the city

where this build is at its best is with

online competitive games CS2 will run at

over 120 FPS and even at the low

settings I think it looks pretty good

not that visuals are all that important

here the same can be said for fortnite

which with the low settings will also

achieve over 120 FPS we could turn

things up for sure but this looks fine

and they more frames the better I was

using dx12 mode with 100% res scale but

for those wanting to squeeze even more

frames from this game then there is a

performance mode which lowers the

visuals further the rivals I mean the

finals was the most demanded of all the

online FPS titles this one required FSR

in my opinion and the low settings but

it was definitely playable and the

performance numbers remain fairly

consistent the next set of results are

the challenge benchmarks the results

that will be used to compare the

performance of this PC to the one built

by Iceberg I was going to run

comparative results on screen and borrow

some footage from his video but I

recommend opening another Tab and seeing

for yourself how things stack up side by

side I'm not just saying that because I

think I've lost and I don't want to run

winning comparisons in my video I swear

for Red Dead Redemption 2 we are using

the digital Foundry console equivalent

settings at 1080p running The in-game

Benchmark gets us exactly 60 frames per

second with a minimum of 47 not too bad

Vol Horizon 5 probably could have

benefited from a lower preset but to be

honest outside of the more demanding

Benchmark run it is more common to see

at least 60 FPS that said this segment

was quite challenging for our graphics

card which didn't quite make it past

this 60fps barrier at these VIs visual

quality settings it's a good effort

nonetheless finally we're back in

cyberpunk which is best played at low

with FSR but without it this 60fps

target is just Out Of Reach still for

the money spent I can't complain and I

think it's a good effort for both

components the PSU hasn't blown up

either so what more could we ask for

right to finalize we have the time spy

and cinebench numbers the single core

result for the 3100 is still pretty

impressive in my opinion and I'd like to

revisit it at some point with a more

powerful GPU but there we have it £200

isn't a lot when it comes to a PC build

and there are definitely simpler ways to

go about it but where's the fun in that

be sure to check out Iceberg Tech's

video and his other content as well I

will leave a link in the description all

that's left to say is thank you for

watching kindly do the usual YouTube

things if you feel so inclined and I'll

see you next

time