With the PC component market in an overall great state, there’s rarely been a better time to build a PC than 2023. In this parts list, we’ll be putting together a budget-friendly 1080p Ultra, 60FPS gaming PC that will be able to run most games at high-to-ultra graphical settings.
A lot of folks are understandably looking for higher refresh rates than 60FPS. In fact, we made a similar article covering the best 144FPS budget gaming PC. On the other hand, if you’re on an even tighter budget than this article allows you might want to see our sub-$500 60FPS RX 580 build instead.
Today’s Deals
- 55% OFF: Nextorage 2TB NVMe SSD 7300MB/s Write 6900 MB/s Read |
$249.99$109.99 - STGAubron ABR0522 Tower with GTX 1660 Super and Core i3-10100F |
$550$495 - HP Victus 15L with RTX 3060 and Core i7-12700F
- Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core, 24-Thread CPU |
$550$349.99 - ABS Stratos Aqua with Core i5-13400F, RTX 4060 Ti, 16GB DDR5 |
$1499.99$1199.99
If you’re one of the many people who’s willing to lose a few frames per second for a few hundred dollars, a mid-range 1080p 60FPS PC is probably the sweet spot if you want to get a cheap rig that balances a smooth gaming experience with a reasonable cost.
See also: Is 60hz Good Enough for Gaming?
In addition to our primary parts list, we’ll offer an alternative for some components. These will offer greater customization of the build.
For example, if you want to save a little bit more money and don’t care about fast boot times, you may want to get a cheaper SATA SSD or even a hard drive.
Now, let’s get into the build.
Sub-$800 1080p 60FPS Ultra Gaming PC Parts Overview
How much will this PC cost?
At the time of writing, the total sum of parts (not including peripherals like a monitor, keyboard, mouse, or headset) came to $772. You should certainly be able to buy this rig for $800 or less as long as you opt for the best-priced option at the moment.
For example, if an RX 6600 XT (which is the recommended video card for this build) is selling for less than the MSI model we recommended, choose that one instead. The brand isn’t nearly as important as the type of GPU, memory, SSD, etc.
CPU: Intel Core i3-13100F
Intel’s Core i3-13100F is debatably the best budget CPU on the market. This 4-core, 8-thread chip hits closer to the 144FPS mark in most games, and can handle 60FPS in virtually anything. It comes with an air cooler that gets the job done, so you don’t need to worry about buying one.
Add to that the fact that it’s the cheapest Intel CPU 13th-gen CPU, and you can see why we chose this one. We chose the 13100F in particular, rather than the 13100 with an iGPU, since this build features a discrete graphics card. The i3-13100F is ever-so-slightly cheaper than the standard 13100, so it’s a nice way to save a bit of money.
In short, the i3-13100F easily checks all of the boxes for an excellent budget processor that can run almost any title at 60FPS at 1080p.
Graphics Card: RX 6600 XT
AMD’s Radeon RX 6600 XT is probably the best mid-range graphics card available right now in terms of value. Quite honestly, it’s borderline overkill even for maxed-out settings in 1080p at 60FPS.
We chose it anyway because it’s 72% more powerful than the 1660 Super (which was the other video card in contention to make this list), while selling at roughly the same price.
For this reason, it’s hard not to love the RX 6600 XT for a budget-friendly gaming PC. We chose MSI’s Mech 2X model in particular, however we highly recommend shopping around. GPU prices are always in swing, so you’ll likely be able to find a better deal on a different 6600 XT model on Amazon or Newegg.
Alternative: GTX 1660 Super
It should be noted, we strongly urge against opting for the 1660 Super, as the 6600 XT is substantially better in just about every way. However, if you’re simply a die-hard Nvidia fan, the 1660 Super will perform admirably in a 1080p 60FPS gaming PC.
Note that you might have to settle for high settings rather than ultra with the 1660 Super, since it’s not as potent as the 6600 XT. At these thresholds it will push a consistent 60FPS in just about any title, and it offers solid performance for the cost.
Motherboard: Gigabyte B760M DS3H DDR4
Gigabyte’s B760M DS3H is nothing fancy, but it comes with everything you need at an affordable price. It supports Intel’s i3-13100F with an LGA 1700 socket and has plenty of PCIe slots and M.2 slots for NVMe support.
Additionally, the DS3H V2 has four RAM slots, so there’s room for expansion down the road if you so desire. You’ll definitely want the DDR4 version, as we’re using DDR4 memory in this PC build. Regardless, you won’t see much performance improvement with DDR5 RAM, so it isn’t worth the extra cost in this scenario.
RAM: TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200MHz C16
This DDR4 RAM kit is fast 3200MHz RAM with low latency and a great price. It’s compatible with both the Core i3-13100 and B760M DS3H DDR4 and is dirt-cheap.
The RAM modules come fitted with a slick gunmetal-gray heatsink that make for solid aesthetics, and their 16GB of total memory capacity will be plenty for your budget gaming PC.
We chose TEAMGROUP’s kit in particular because it’s some of the cheapest high-quality memory available, but if you prefer a name-brand such as Corsair, kits are available for a few dollars more. Read our TEAMGROUP brand review for more information.
SSD: Silicon Power A60 1TB
If you want fast boot times and file writes, look no further than Silicon Power’s 1TB A60 NVMe drive. It offers respectable read and write speeds of up to 2200 MB/s and 1600MB/s, 3-4 times faster than the best SATA SSDs.
Like memory and graphics cards, SSD prices change on a daily basis and you might easily find a better deal on any given day. The brands that tend to offer the best value are TEAMGROUP, Fanxiang, Silicon Power, and Crucial, although it’s not unheard of for other brands to undercut these from time to time.
The A60 is currently one of the cheapest 1TB SSDs, NVMe or SATA, so it’s hard to go wrong with this one.
HDD: Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 7200RPM HDD
If you prefer capacity over speed, you might be better off purchasing a HDD. Both Seagate’s BarraCuda 2TB and Western Digital’s competing WD Blue 2TB are a good bit cheaper than any 2TB SSDs at the moment, so they’re the most cost-efficient way to reach capacities of 2TB and up.
Alternatively, buy one of these slower drives as a backup for your NVMe SSD. It’s cheaper per gigabyte, and the main benefit of an SSD is to boot and load times. You don’t need to store all of your files on an SSD, just games and your OS.
Power Supply: Segotep GM750W
It is with great pain that we recommend Segotep’s 750W 80-Plus Gold certified power supply for a budget 60FPS gaming PC. However, there doesn’t seem to be any way around it at the moment.
The 6600 XT should ideally be paired with at least a 550W power supply, and there aren’t really any good options from that wattage at the moment. The only decent option in the 550-700W range at the time of writing is Thermaltake’s 600W Toughpower GX2, but that’s non-modular and nearly 70 bucks.
At that point, it makes sense to just pay the extra ~$20 for an extra 150 watts of juice and full modularity. While the extra wattage doesn’t make much of a difference in this system (you’ll never come close to maxing out even 600W with a Core i3-13100F and an RX 6600 XT), it leaves headroom for future system upgrades.
For this reason, Segotep’s GM750W ends up being a strange yet solid choice for this budget rig.
Case: Antec NX200 M
In addition to looking great, the Antec NX200 M comes at a fair price. It has a PSU shroud and solid cable management features, and comes with a case fan installed in the rear.
Most importantly, it has a mesh front panel and top for optimal airflow. At around $60, it’s one of the best cases at this price point.
Monitor: Sceptre 24″ 75hz 1920×1080 5ms
While this is technically intended to be a 60FPS gaming rig, there’s no downside to buying a 75hz monitor and cashing in on an extra 15FPS. The 6600 XT can certainly push those framerates, so you might as well enjoy them.
This monitor by Sceptre is fairly priced, has a fast 5ms response time, and has a 24″ size that’s pretty standard for a 1080p monitor. The picture quality is good as well (it has a 99% sRGB color gamut)
The one downside is that it has neither adjustable height nor tilt. This is unfortunately standard for 60hz monitors, and you’ll probably have to pay at least a little extra for these features.
Alternative: Asus VA24DQSB 75hz 1920×1080
Asus’ VA24DQSB is another 75hz 1080p monitor, but this one comes with adjustable height and tilt. At the time of writing it’s around $20 more than the Sceptre option listed earlier, which is well worth the money if you care about ergonomics.
Prebuilt Equivalent: HP Victus 15L
If you’d prefer to buy a prebuilt gaming PC, HP’s Victus 15L is about as close as you’ll get with a prebuilt PC. Of course, it features a more powerful CPU in the R7 5700G, but it has the same RX 6600 XT and 1.5 terabytes of storage (including a 512GB SSD).
It currently runs at right around $1000, so it’s certainly cheaper to build your own PC. However, if you’re willing to spend more to save time sourcing parts and assembling your PC, a prebuilt may be the way to go.
Peripherals
We won’t go into too much detail with peripherals, as an argument could be made for just about any decent gaming mouse, keyboard, mousepad, or other peripheral. Still, we’ll at least mention our top picks.
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder v2
The DeathAdder line has become more or less the generic gaming mouse, and for good reason. It’s not too expensive and super comfortable with two customizable side buttons in addition to the scroll wheel and two DPI buttons. You can’t go wrong with this one.
If you’re into lighter gaming mice the Glorious Model D is our favorite. It’s 61 grams and has an ergonomic right-handed design (if you’re a lefty the similar but ambidextrous Model O will suit you better.
Keyboard: Razer Huntsman Mini
If you’re looking for the best switches known to man, look no further; the Huntsman Mini has them (in fact, this entire article was typed on those glorious clicky optical switches). Customizable RGB lighting is also nice.
Of course, if you’re a big fan of arrow keys or otherwise dislike 60% keyboards the Huntsman Mini simply won’t do. In that case, the more-expensive but arrow-key-equipped Razer Huntsman v2. For best results make sure to get the model with clicky optical switches (as opposed to linear).
Mousepad: Glorious 3XL
The aptly-named Glorious 3XL is truly closer to a tablecloth–it’s 2 feet by 4 feet. If you don’t have that much space they make more traditionally-sized mousepads as well. All of these are machine-washable and very durable. Also, if you get one in black coffee stains barely show up.
Headset: Corsair HS60 Pro
It’s hard to go wrong with any name-brand headset and Corsair’s HS60 is no exception. We aren’t audio snobs but the sound quality is seemingly up to par with any other headsets in its weight-class, and memory foam ear cups make for a comfortable gaming experience.
Mouse Bungee (if you’re into that sort of thing): Razer Bungee V3
Truth be told, we’ve never demoed this specific mouse bungee; we use Glorious’ make. That being said, it’s hard to screw up a mouse bungee and this product evidently has two revisions’ worth of improvement. That’s enough to earn this bungee our vote of confidence, and we’re choosing it over Glorious’ model since it has a cleaner look and takes up a tiny bit less desk space. Still, do your own research on this one.
Conclusion:
This is our take on the best 1080p 60FPS budget gaming PC, but we know everyone’s opinion is a little bit different. If you think you’ve found a better component for the job, let us know. We’d love to hear your feedback.
If you’ve decided you want to build a PC but don’t know where to start, check out our PC-building beginner’s guide. It’s a step-by-step guide through the entire process, from part selection to building and troubleshooting.
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