Posted on March 15, 2018 by quill
It’s September 2019 and we are revisiting our exercise in budget computing: Can we build a computer that will give acceptable gaming performance for under $1000 Canadian?
There’s a whole lot of new to look at compared to last year’s article. New video cards, new processors, cheaper SSDs and faster RAM. DDR4 RAM prices moderated somewhat, and the stranglehold that cryptocurrency mining had on graphic cards has faded away.
NVidia have introduced new GPUs, a range of RTX cards with additional real time ray-tracing hardware acceleration, but for budget gamers the value standouts are the GTX1660 and GTX1660TI series. You give up the proprietary ray tracing features but you get a reasonably priced card that can stand up in the ring with last year’s heavyweight cards at 1080p and 1440p resolutions.
AMD has replied with the Radeon RX5700 which goes head to head with last year’s GTX2070 for less money.
At the top end, the AMD RX5700XT and the nVidia RTX2060 Super and RTX2070 Super cards are excellent choices but are well off the top of our budget charts for this build.
One note: if you are buying up the pricing ladder do not be seduced by sales of the RTX20x0 Non-“Super” models which are sell offs of the year old design and are usually not discounted low enough compared to their replacements. The Super series of cards are, well, superior in every way. Hold out for the latest model.
As usual the component that has the most impact on performance in a gaming computer is the video card, so budget compromises have to be made between the relative costs of the video card (GPU) vs processor (CPU) vs SSD drives. As long as it is basically competent performer, CPU speed for games isn’t usually a limiting factor for most games until you have installed a high end video card.
Video card comparison:
Older cards
AMD R7 570 (Passmark GPU score 6,726)
AMD R9 580 4GB (8,284)
GTX1060 6GB (8,899 $430)
GTX 1060 3GB (8,872 $335)
GTX 1070 (11,369 $740)
RTX2060 (12,903 $480-550)
RTX2070 (14,118 $720)
Current cards and approximate entry prices, OC models may be more
GTX1660 6GB (10,761, $299)
GTX1660TI 6GB (11,552, $375)
AMD RX5700 (12,055 $480)
AMD RX5700XT (13,456 $550)
RTX2060 Super (13,829 $600)
RTX2070 Super (14,696 $715)
CPU Comparison
AMD RyZen 3 3200G (Passmark CPUMark score 8,147)
Intel Core i3-9100F (8,992)
AMD RyZen 5 3400G (9,984)
Intel Core i5-9500F (12,956)
AMD RyZen 5 3600 (19,980)
Low Price Left Field Winner: To get a lowest price machine, get a quad-core, 3.6 GHz/4 GHz boost Ryzen 3 3200G CPU based machine which comes with AMD Radeon Vega 8 graphics processor onboard and a competent cooling fan, 250 GB of SSD, 8 GB RAM and plan to upgrade to a video card later. This can be done for $600, or for under $725 with the better Ryzen 5 3400G quadcore with hyperthreading, and upgraded to 16 GB RAM. That is crazy good pricing for a machine that can handle most any office task, moderate video editing, and competent gaming at lower resolutions and detail.
The best bang for the buck on CPUs is the new AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-core / 12 thread CPU. Unfortunately, the more expensive motherboards for the Ryzen and increases in Windows, case and power supply costs, means that the 3600 breaks our budget. The alternative is the Ryzen 5 3400G which gives you 4 cores / 8 threads at 4200 MHz – plus a graphics core which will be ignored in favor of the video card, although it could be used for a 2nd or 3rd monitor. We have listed the Ryzen 5 3600 as an upgrade option.
The dark horse is the Intel Coffee Lake i3-9xxx series, which has 4 cores, no hyperthreading or overclocking, but delivers a decent base clock speed for the price compared to the Intel i5.
RAM and SSD prices are the one thing that brings a smile. Not only have they dropped substantially compared to last year, there are now choices for M.2 PCI-e SSDs which mount on the motherboard and offer twice the data throughput compared to SATA connected SSD drive. So we can invest in a faster and larger 500 GB flash based primary drive in our build. A spinning hard drive in a desktop computer is now the place for system backups, and for massive storage of non-interactive data such as music and movies.
Here are suggested configurations at about the $1000 price point (before tax, Canadian dollars, current to Sept 10 2019).
In all of the configurations, we have gone with motherboards that have:
- one PCI-e video card slot x16
- USB 3.1 on board
- SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) on board
- Gigabit Ethernet (1000BT), no WiFi
- On the AMD build we have gone to a micro-ATX board with 4 RAM slots for a max of 64 GB of memory, a single video card PCI-e x16 slot, and a single M.2 SSD socket on the motherboard.
- SLI and Crossfire are fading in popularity, so the advantage of two video card x16 slots is diminishing, so we have settled for a single x16 slot.
- Optical drive has been dropped this year, because the majority of installations are now done with downloads and USB sticks.
- We have moved RAM up to the 2666 MHz level because the Zen architecture is sensitive to RAM speed
- We have moved up to a 500 GB SSD drive as a primary drive on the main machine, for the speed of booting and loading. Its easy to add an extra hard drive if you need the space for file storage
Please note that we have costed-in a System Builder Windows 10 license which is necessary unless you have a retail license of Windows 10, (since manufacturer-bundled Windows versions can’t be transferred from one machine to another), or unless you run with Linux
So here are our contenders:
AMD Ryzen 5 – 4 core system – By dropping to a cheap case and powersupply, a single RAM DIMM we can get it to $1010. Of course if you already have a keyboard and mouse and a retail version of Windows, you can save there. The downside of this is that you should plan to invest in more RAM later, and a new power supply if you upgrade to a higher end video card.
| Case | Epower Case Mid Tower with 450W PSU | TP-2001BB-450 | 67 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte Motherboard B450M DS3H | AMD AM4 B450 4xDDR4 up to 64GB , SATA, 1xM.2 socket NVMe PCI-e x4, USB 3.1/3.0, mATX, HDMI, DVI | 103 |
| Power supply | included with case | ||
| SSD drive | Kingston 500 GB | 500G A2000 M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 | 91 |
| Memory | DDR4-2666 8 GB | KINGSTON 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 Non-ECC CL19 DIMM 1Rx8 | 49 |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 3400G 4Cores/8 Threads 4200MHz | 6MB cache 65W TDP AM4 Radeon RX Vega11 graphics and Wraith Spire cooler | 199 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Thermaltake Keyboard USB COMMANDER Gaming Gear Combo | KB-CMC-PLBLUS-01 | 38 |
| Additional Fan | 120mm (one 80 mm included with case) | 15 | |
| Video card | GTX1660 6 GB | Asus Phoenix Overclock PH-GTX1660-O6G | 299 |
| OS | Windows 10 OEM | KW9-00140 | 140 |
| Cooler | Stock cooler | Included with CPU | |
| PCI-eG Power | Power cable for Video card | 8 pin adapter cable | 9 |
| TOTAL | before tax, shipping and assembly | $1,010 | |
| Options / substitutions | Add a second RAM DIMM | to a total of 16GB and dual channel mode | Add $49 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6 cores 12 threads with fan | Larger cache and more cores for multi-threaded apps | Add $78 | |
| GTX1660TI Overclocked Asus PH-GTX1660TI-O6G | Higher performance GPU | Add$76 |
AMD No Graphics Card Ryzen 3 G
The Ryzen / Radeon Vega system makes use of system RAM for the graphics, so its important to have enough RAM. But also, it makes the performance of the graphics more than usually dependent on the memory speed, so this is one instance where you’d consider dropping some extra memory into DDR4-3000 or even 3200 MHz RAM. Here is a list of high performance DDR4 memory
| Case | Epower Case Mid Tower with 400W PSU | TP-2001BB-400 | 62 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte Motherboard B450M DS3H | AMD AM4 B450 4xDDR4 up to 64GB , SATA, 1xM.2 socket NVMe PCI-e x4, USB 3.1/3.0, mATX, HDMI, DVI | 103 |
| Power supply | 400W | included with case | |
| SSD drive | Kingston 250 GB | Kingston 250G A2000 M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 | 60 |
| Memory | DDR4-2666 8 GB | KINGSTON 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 Non-ECC CL19 DIMM 1Rx8 | 49 |
| CPU | Ryzen 3 3200G 4C 4000MHz | 6MB cache 65W TDP AM4 Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics and Wraith cooler | 132 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Thermaltake Keyboard USB COMMANDER Gaming Gear Combo | KB-CMC-PLBLUS-01 | 38 |
| Additional Fan | 120mm (one 80mm included with case) | 15 | |
| Video card | None | ||
| OS | Windows 10 OEM | KW9-00140 | 140 |
| Cooler | Stock cooler | Included with CPU | |
| TOTAL | before tax, shipping and assembly | $598 | |
| Options/ Substitutions | Add a second 8GB RAM DIMM | For 16 GB total | Add $49 |
| Ryzen 5 3400G 4C 8T 4200MHz | 6MB cache 65W TDP AM4 Radeon RX Vega11 graphics and Wraith Spire cooler | Add $67 |
Intel 4-core system – This combo is interesting. Last year’s build had an i3-8100 in a fairly expensive Z370 motherboard. For today’s system we are moving to the Coffee Lake i3-9100F at 3.6 GHz (4.1 GHz Turbo boost) which is a similar CPU but without the integrated graphics. As of Sept 10 2019 it is also on promotional pricing with a substantial discount (which is subject to change). With this discount and availablity of moderately priced B360 chipset motherboards, we can choose a bit better case and power supply and still bring the Intel system in under $950. (The H310 motherboard are even cheaper, but do not support 4 RAM DIMMs so they didn’t make the cut).
Upgrading to the Intel CPU BX80684I59500F Core i5-9500F with 6 cores / 6 threads and 3.0 GHz / 4.4 GHz Turbo would add $126
| Case | CoolerMaster Case Elite 350 ATX Mid Tower 500W Power Supply 4/1/(6) Bay USB Audio Black | RC-350-KKR500-GP | 88 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte B360M DS3H | B360 4xDDR4 up to 64GB , SATA, 1xM.2 socket NVMe PCI-e x4, USB 3.1/3.0, mATX, HDMI, DVI | 103 |
| Power supply | 500W included with case | ||
| SSD Drive | Kingston 500 GB | 500G A2000 M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 | 91 |
| Memory | DDR4-2666 8 GB | KINGSTON 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 Non-ECC CL19 DIMM 1Rx8 | 49 |
| CPU | Intel CPU BX80684I39100F Core i3-9100F Box | 6M Cache 3.6 GHz 4.1 GHz burst 4 Cores/ 4 Threads LGA1151 No integrated graphics, no overclocking | 118 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Thermaltake Keyboard USB COMMANDER Gaming Gear Combo | KB-CMC-PLBLUS-01 | 38 |
| Additional Fan | 120mm (one included with case) | 15 | |
| Video cardOverclocked, 2 GB of video memory | GTX1660 6 GB | Asus Phoenix Overclock PH-GTX1660-O6G | 299 |
| OS | Windows 10 OEM | 140 | |
| TOTAL | before tax, shipping and assembly | $942 | |
| Options / substitutions | Add a second RAM DIMM | to a total of 16GB dual channel | Add $49 |
| Upgrade Video card | GTX0660TI Overclocked Asus PH-GTX1660TI-O6G | Add $76 |
Other upgrades:
Gaming Mouse: (note that you don’t want a wireless mouse or keyboard for gaming)
Keyboard: Mechanical keyboards go for $120 and up
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