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Putting together a $500 gaming PC usually requires sacrifices. A creaky older graphics card is the big one, and often less memory and less storage, too. But not during Black Friday.
Building at this time of year is great. You can stack the deals to get nice parts at big discounts. The results put prebuilt desktops in the same price range to shame. Right now you can roll a system capable of 1080p Ultra at 60fps, with an easy path for future upgrades, for $500 or less. All the parts are new and are sold by first-party sellers only.
Have different needs? You can also move up to $700 for a 1440p build or scale down to under $400 for 720p, too. Just check out the example builds below.
This article is part of a series we’ve done on the cheapest Black Friday gaming PC you can build. For fun, you can compare this year’s results to 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016. If you’re a returning reader, this year’s take is a little different, as you’ll see. After a couple of years of pandemic-induced austerity, it’s party time.
The $500 1080p Ultra Black Friday gaming PC build
This build doesn’t cut corners unless you’re trying to stick tight to $500 or below (the latter is a possibility if you live near a Micro Center). In fact, drop the graphics settings and you can go up to 1440p. You also get a sweet bonus of three free games, thanks to two AMD promotions.
As typical for suggested gaming PC builds, the cost of a mouse and keyboard aren’t included in the list. But for the sticklers out there, you can mentally add another $33 for a budget mouse and mechanical keyboard to the total.
Build notes
- Also available from B&H at the same cost, or for $5 more at Newegg.
- This motherboard requires flashing to a newer BIOS before it will work with Ryzen 5000 processors. You can request a free loaner boot kit from AMD for this purpose. A local computer shop may also be able to perform this service for a fee.
- Price is after $20 mail-in rebate. MIR must be filed within 21 days of purchase.
- Promotion valid with purchase of a qualifying AMD CPU from AMD, Amazon, Micro Center, or Newegg.
- Promotion valid with purchase of a qualifying AMD graphics card from AMD, Amazon, Micro Center, or Newegg.
This system nets you a build with a solid 6-core, 12-thread processor, a micro-ATX Wi-Fi motherboard that supports RGB and ARGB fans, 16GB of DDR4-3600 memory (Ryzen 3000 and 5000’s sweet spot for RAM speed), our top recommendation for NVMe Gen 3 SSDs, a power supply rated as Tier B on this respected list, and a solid airflow case. And yes, the Windows 10 license is included—no cheating here. (Full disclosure: I was tempted to.) The key comes from PCWorld’s affiliated software store, so it’s above board.
Oh, and again, this build also includes three bonus games (technically four). This is a lot for a build between $500 and $600. Remember the prebuilt mentioned above? That has a weaker lower core count processor, much weaker graphics card, half the memory (and slower memory at that), and no free software. This build smokes it, even without any RGB fans.
The main caveats? You need to flash the motherboard’s BIOS to a newer version before the Ryzen 5 5500 will work in it. You can request a free loaner boot kit from AMD for this purpose. A local computer shop may also be able to perform this service for a fee. (Or a good friend for free, if they like you.) This build also only supports PCIe 3.0, but SSDs and graphics card running at that standard’s speeds will still be plenty fast for a long while.
Areas for improvement
- Storage: A 500GB SSD will fill up pretty quick, especially if you play big blockbuster AAA games. If you can afford it, buy the 1TB version of the Crucial P3 ($63) instead.
- Additional fans / alternative case: My original pick, this $53 DIYPC case, included several RGB fans but sold out by Black Friday proper. (This is why you should start monitoring deals at the end of October.) Its substitute only has one included fan. You can buy more fans yourself for optimal airflow, which will give you control over performance, or you can pay about $10 more for the Bitfenix Nova Mesh, which comes outfitted with four RGB fans.
Suggested upgrades:
- CPU Cooler: This build relies on the included stock cooler that comes with the 5500. But using a more powerful aftermarket air cooler will improve your temps and possibly performance if you live in a warm (or downright hot) location. There aren’t really any on sale, so our recommendation would be a well known solid performer like the be quiet Pure Rock 2 ($40).
- Memory: 16GB will hold work for many people who primarily game and don’t have a lot of things open at the same time. But if you’re a browser tab hoarder (hi), stepping up to 32GB of RAM ($80) isn’t much more expensive right now.
- Motherboard: An ATX motherboard will support more expansion cards, like an internal game capture card and/or a sound card. Newegg has these $100 Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite, $105 ASRock B450 Steel Legend, and $120 Gigabyte B450 Aorus Pro Wi-Fi models that are worth a look.
- Storage: Whether you stick with the suggested 500GB SSD or move up to a 1TB model as your boot drive, it doesn’t hurt to still have more storage available. This $47 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD runs at 7,200RPM, making it a faster option. (For a spinning platter drive, anyway.)
Alternatives
Micro Center variant – $483
- Swap in this $130 Ryzen 5 3600 CPU + Gigabyte B450M Wi-FI motherboard combo (available in-store only), opt instead for this $50 Montech X1 case, and ditch the Windows 10 license for Linux, and you’ve got yourself a very nice sub-$500 gaming PC.
Even if you keep Windows, you’ll still sit at $533 total, which is cheaper overall. That said—if you’re extremely lucky, your Micro Center may have this $80 2TB NVMe Gen 3 M.2 SSD in stock. Scraping Windows would pay for putting into your build instead of the Crucial P3 and quadrupling your space. Speeds are better on the P3, though.
Bare-bones variant – $508
- If you must slash costs, you could switch to this $70 motherboard without Wi-Fi, drop to 8GB of memory, and install Linux instead for $70 in savings. Don’t nerf the RAM that hard, though. Saving that $10 isn’t worth it.
The $700 1440p Black Friday gaming PC build
Build notes
- This motherboard requires flashing to a newer BIOS before it will work with Ryzen 5000 processors. You can request a free loaner boot kit from AMD for this purpose. A local computer shop may also be able to perform this service for a fee.
- Promotion valid with purchase of a qualifying AMD CPU from AMD, Amazon, Micro Center, or Newegg.
- Promotion valid with purchase of a qualifying AMD graphics card from AMD, Amazon, Micro Center, or Newegg.
This 1440p build sports a 6-core, 12-thread processor that supports PCIe 4.0, an ATX board capable of powering RGB and ARGB fans, 16GB of DDR4-3600 memory (Ryzen 3000 and 5000’s sweet spot for RAM speed), our top recommendation for NVMe Gen 3 SSDs, and a solid airflow case. A Windows 10 license is included, too, and comes from PCWorld’s affiliated software store. Plus, it qualifies for three bonus games. Thank you, AMD.
At this price point, trimming corners with a cheaper CPU just doesn’t make sense. Better to invest a little bit more money to future-proof with PCIe 4.0 support. And cutting down on memory and storage capacity feels stingy.
The only caveat here is the power supply—if you have the money, upgrade to something with more longevity and a higher wattage, like this $80 Thermaltake GF1 80+ Gold model. It’ll survive this build (likely another one after, too) and support a beefier graphics card later on, if you so choose. Also, you’ll need to flash the BIOS before the Ryzen 5 5600 will work in the motherboard.
Suggested upgrades:
- CPU Cooler: A more powerful air cooler will improve your temps and possibly performance if you live somewhere warm. There aren’t really any good sales, so our recommendation defaults to a well-known solid performer, like the be quiet Pure Rock 2 ($40).
- Memory: Never met a browser tab you didn’t leave open? Stepping up to 32GB of RAM ($80) doesn’t cost much more.
- Storage: 2TB SSDs don’t cost too much more right now, and if you want go to for blistering speed, PCIe Gen 4 models have hit all-time lows.
The $390 Fortnite Black Friday gaming PC build
Build notes
- Was available on 11/22/22. Now available at Amazon for $120.
- This motherboard requires flashing to a newer BIOS before it will work with Ryzen 5000 processors. You can request a free loaner boot kit from AMD for this purpose. A local computer shop may also be able to perform this service for a fee.
- Price is after $10 mail-in rebate. MIR must be filed by 12/30/2022.
- Promotion valid with purchase of a qualifying AMD CPU from AMD, Amazon, Micro Center, or Newegg.
If you only need a computer for Fortnite and other lightweight games, the Ryzen 5 5600G and its beefy integrated graphics can shoulder that burden easily. It’s a much nicer APU-based system when compared to previous cheap Black Friday gaming PC builds, and has built-in Wi-Fi, too.
But as configured, it’s somewhat limited. The power supply will restrict you to budget graphics cards, should you want to upgrade to a discrete GPU in the future. And the amount of RAM and the storage drive are relatively low. Highly recommended upgrades would be the Cooler Master MWE 550W 80+ White Non-Modular ($35) and 16GB of DDR4-3600 RAM ($45). New total cost: $413, which is still very affordable for a system you can further upgrade down the road with little fuss.
The cheapest Black Friday gaming PC build possible
This one’s for my homies, who like to see how deep I can cut to the bone. UPDATE: My homies just pointed out that I goofed on this one! Oops. Fixed now.
Build notes
- Price is after $10 mail-in rebate. MIR must be filed by 12/30/2022.
- Promotion valid with purchase of a qualifying AMD CPU from AMD, Amazon, Micro Center, or Newegg.
This modest 4-core, 8-thread CPU build notably lacks a graphics card. Is this a gaming PC in the strictest of terms? Nope, but this is actually what the pandemic reduced us to back in 2021 and 2020. Think of this build as a reflection of how times have improved. Even if you can’t play it, you still get a free game with the Ryzen 5 4500.
Plus, GeForce Now is a great service (and one we’ve talked up many times elsewhere on the site). If you can game on a productivity PC for free because of it, who’s to argue with such cost savings?
Whoops! My original pick had one glaring error: No integrated graphics. At all. You would have had no signal out. I was a little too lost to APU land during my dive down the rabbit hole.
But hey, guess who just showed up in place of the 4500? That’s right, the 4600G, which—wait for it—is an APU with integrated Vega graphic cores. You know, the very same ones that showed up again in the 5600G, because AMD decided to break all our hearts. (In truth, the decision was likely a constraint of pandemic supply issues, etc.) So that means yes, you CAN game pretty decently on this machine, too. It just won’t have the same legs as the 5600G over the long haul, so frankly, I’d choose that one over this build’s 4600G.
And before anyone asks, yes, I could cut deeper. You can get under $300 by going down to 256GB storage and choosing a cheaper case with no front mesh panel. And giving up the Windows license for Linux gaming. But that’s asking people to suffer over the long haul, and I don’t believe in that.
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