Let's Build a £120 _ $150 Budget Gaming PC
# Building a Cheap Budget Gaming PC: A Step-by-Step Guide
## Introduction
Hello everyone and welcome to another video! It feels like forever since we've put together a cheap budget gaming PC here on this channel. From start to finish, today's video is all about building a budget gaming PC. I'll talk you through each individual component, why I chose it, and at the end, I'll benchmark it with a few modern titles to see how well it holds up. Let’s get into it!
---
## Choosing the Components
### The CPU: Intel Core i5-750
The heart of this build is the first-generation Intel Core i5-750 processor. While it may not be the best value for money system I've ever put together, it's cheap and perfect for what I want to achieve. This socket 1156 processor features 4 cores and 4 threads, making it a solid choice for gaming and general use. Unlike modern i5 desktop CPUs, first-generation ones weren't all quad cores, so keep that in mind if you're looking for an older Intel CPU.
To accommodate this processor, I found a cheap Xeon workstation motherboard pulled from an old Dell T1500. REM (Raspberry Enterprise) boards can be affordable, but they won’t always fit in after-market cases. After ensuring it would work with my chosen case, I had to remove the Dell heatsink brace from the underside of the board so that I could fit a standard 1156 fan.
### The Heatsink
For cooling, I opted for an aftermarket Arctic 11 assembly. While I could have purchased the stock Intel cooler, this one is cheaper and should keep the CPU even cooler. This was an obvious choice given its affordability and performance benefits.
### RAM
The build is finished off with 8 gigabytes of generic DDR3 memory. For those looking to upgrade their PC or build from scratch, matching sticks are recommended for stability, but any DDR3 kit will work as long as it’s compatible.
---
## Storage and Power Supply
Instead of just buying a hard drive, I found a very reasonably priced 32GB SSD that I'll be using solely for the operating system—Windows 10 Pro in this case. For those looking to sell their build on platforms like eBay, a nice case can make a difference in your final sale price.
The power supply is another Corsair CX-50, which I highly recommend investing in if you haven't already. These PSUs are modular and reliable, making cable management much easier.
---
## Graphics Card
My favorite part of this build is the AMD Radeon HD 7870 graphics card. When I found a good deal on this one, I just couldn’t resist. The reference-style cooler with the blower fan is perfect for my needs, even if it’s a bit louder than aftermarket options. Plus, the colors match the case and SSD, which adds a nice touch to the build.
---
## Assembly Process
### Installing the Power Supply
The first step is installing the power supply. This is a bottom-mounted, modular PSU, so it won’t get in the way as we assemble the rest of the build. It’s held in place with four screws.
### Installing the Motherboard and CPU
Next, I installed the motherboard. The first thing to do here is line up the gold arrow on the processor with the white marking around the socket on the motherboard. Once it’s seated properly, push the retention arm down gently.
### Adding RAM
For memory, each stick doesn’t have to be the same brand, but matching sticks are recommended for stability. Simply open the clips at the end of each slot and push them in until they click.
### Installing the Heatsink
If you’re using a secondhand heatsink, apply a pea-sized lump of thermal compound to the processor first. In my case, the new cooler came with a layer of decent compound already applied. Just like a standard Intel heatsink, it’s pushed into place until the pins click.
### Installing the Motherboard in the Case
Before installing the motherboard, ensure the backplate is fitted and screwed into place. I opted for a nearly new case (Cooler Master MasterBox) to keep the final sale price higher if I decide to sell later.
---
## Storage Installation
For storage, I had to remove a small enclosure in my case to slot in the HDD and SSD. After taking out a few sneaky screws from the bottom, both drives were installed and reconnected using SATA cables. If you have a modular power supply like mine, push and click the peripheral cable into place.
---
## Graphics Card Installation
Finally, it’s time for my favorite part: installing the graphics card. The HD 7870 fits perfectly without needing to remove any rib protectors. Connect the required power connectors from the PSU to the card, and you’re almost done!
### System Fans
One last thing is connecting system fans (like the black one at the back of the case) to the motherboard header using three or four-pin connectors.
---
## Performance Testing
### Cinebench R15 Test
I started with a quick Cinebench R15 multi-core test to check raw CPU performance. While not as powerful as modern budget quad cores like the Ryzen 3 1200, the i5-750 holds up well for editing in Premiere Pro, which is very CPU-intensive.
### Gaming Performance
Let’s jump into a few games to see how this build performs:
#### Battlefield 1
Battlefield 1 was the perfect example of the performance I was aiming for. It maintained a solid close to 60 frames per second (FPS) at medium-high settings during the opening level.
#### Rise of the Tomb Raider
This one was a bit harder, but combining average one percent and point one percent low figures with hours of gameplay showed much better performance.
#### Dirt Rally
At medium settings with some things set to high, this game performed flawlessly. I completed solo races and multi-competitor events without issues.
#### Overwatch
The performance depended on the map, but it was impressive overall. The CPU and GPU were evenly paired, making it a great choice for 1080p gaming.
#### CS:GO
This game relies more on CPU power, and it performed very well despite my habit of getting eliminated every 30 seconds.
#### Fallout 4
The GPU held back the i5 processor in busier areas like Diamond City, so turning down settings in these areas is recommended.
#### Fortnite
The GPU was the limiting factor here as well, but you should still have no problem sustaining a smooth 60 FPS throughout any online match.
---
## Conclusion
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the price I paid for all these components. If you’d like to see more games being tested on this build, let me know—I’ll try to put together a list of 20 or 30 games and show you what this system can do in various titles.
Thank you for watching! If you enjoyed the video, feel free to leave a like, subscribe if you haven’t already, and see you all in the next one!
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone and welcome to another video now it feels like forever since we've put together a cheap budget gaming PC here on this channel from start to finish so in today's video I'm going to be doing just that without further ado let's get into it I'll talk to you about each individual component why I chose it and at the end of it all will be benchmarking it with a few modern titles to see how well it holds up so let's get into it and begin the video so I've decided to base this build around a first generation Core i5 processor it's probably not the best value for money system I've ever put together but it is cheap and I wanted to build something for a change instead of upgrading a prebuilt this socket 1156 I 5 750 features 4 cores 4 threads and is very cheap these days unlike modern I 5 desktop CPUs the first generation ones weren't all quad cores and this is important to remember if you're looking for an older ICS CPU yourself to accommodate the processor I managed to find a cheap X office machine motherboard pulled from an old Dell T 1500 workstation REM boards can cost less but it's important to remember that they won't always fit in after-market cases I made sure this one did before buying though I had to remove the Dell heatsink brace from the underside of the board so that I could fit a standard 1156 fan on here this was easy enough to do as it was only held on with adhesive tape speaking of heat sinks I decided to opt for an aftermarket Arctic 11 assembly I could have purchased the stock one but this one should keep our CPU even cooler and it actually cost me less than a generic intel one would have so it was the obvious choice here this combo has been finished off with 8 gigabytes of generic ddr3 memory before putting this thing together let's look at the storage choices I've gone for as well and the power supply in case instead of just buying a hard drive I also found a very reasonably priced a 32 gig SSD that I'll be using solely for the operating system in this case Windows 10 Pro now because I plan on selling this on afterwards hopefully for a small profit I opted for a nearly new case the cooler master master box lights one thing I've learned from selling the occasional PC on eBay is that a nice case will make a difference to your final sale price most modern cases have USB 3 front ports but this one has one of each and if you want to use an older motherboard like I did that doesn't have the necessary accommodating slots don't worry because you can pick up a very cheap adapter the power supply is another corsair cx-5 50 which I'm sure you've seen enough of by now I've said it before and I'll say it again a decent PSU is worth spending a little more money on and because I know these are good if I have the chance to buy one I always will they're modular too so that should help keep the cables a little neater as you only have to plug in what you need now for my favorite part the graphics card the HD 7870 is one of my all-time favorites so when I found a good deal on this one I just couldn't resist I love the reference style cooler with the blower fan too even if it is a little louder than aftermarket options not to mention the colors match the case and the SSD which is pretty cool I'm happy to see this one in such great condition too it'll work just fine on our 550 watt PSU requiring two 6-pin connectors with our components gathered it's time to put this machine together so let's get that done now before seeing how well it can play games to try and make this video enjoyable for all you longtime viewers out there as well as those of you new to PC building I'll be assembling this machine in a step-by-step fashion feel free to skip ahead if you just want to see the benchmarks the first thing I like to do is install the power supply this is bottom mounted and of course modular so the unit and cables won't get in the way as we assemble the rest of the build this is held in place with four screws if you've never built a PC before don't worry because it's all nearly that simple we'll put that to the side for a moment and put together the motherboard combo the first thing to do is install the processor just make sure you line the gold arrow in the corner up with the white marking around the socket on the motherboard before lifting the retention arm sitting the processor gently in there and pushing the arm back down next up is the memory each stick doesn't have to be the same brand but I would advise getting matching sticks if you can just to ensure that any possibility of error is at its minimum you can find some pretty good deals on used ddr3 kits these days and to install just open the clips at the end of each slot and push them in till they click now for the heatsink if you have a secondhand one you'll have to apply a pea-sized lump of thermal compound to the processor first like so but because I bought a new one it comes with a layer of decent compound already and it byxis to the board just like a normal intel heatsink using the push the pins until they click system there's a lot of pushing and clicking in PC building don't forget to plug the CPU fan into the motherboard too before installing the motherboard in the system be sure to fit the backplate in place again push it in until it clicks because I opted for a nearly new case I also got some goodies included like these cable ties and motherboard standoffs make sure you screw these into the holes inside of the case first ensuring that they match up with the holes in the motherboard the board sits on these to prevent it from touching the bare metal and shorting out with those in place we can install the motherboard by sitting it on the standoffs and screwing it into place as we connect all the wires up I'm not going to talk too much about cable management as it may not be a big concern of yours if it's your first build but I will be needing things up off-camera this is more about showing you where everything goes and hopefully inspiring any of you aspiring system builders out there to give it a go for yourselves first of all the 4 pin connector from the power supply connects to the square 4 pin connector usually located in the top left hand corner of your motherboard the 24 pin power connector can also be attached here using the good old push till it clicks method once that's in we're pretty much halfway done the other cables attached to the case are pretty much self-explanatory and line up with their labelled counterparts on the board if they're not labeled the pin layout will always be a dead giveaway the HD audio cable goes to the audio port on the board and the USB cable goes to you guessed it the USB connector the hardest and most fiddly bit of a PC build is probably the front panel cables these little individual cables will always likely connect in a different order depending on your motherboard but all you have to do is to Google your boards model name followed by the words front panel connector layout to find what you're after it should then be easy enough to find out what goes where now it's time to install the storage each case is different of course but in this case yet it I had to remove this little enclosure here so that I could slot the each hard drive and SSD in place there were also a few sneaky screws in the bottom which so had to be taken out a few screws later and I had both the HDD and SSD in place and I then reinstalled the enclosure before connecting these two up if unlike me you have a non modular power supply then all the cables you need will be pre attached but if you have a modular unit like mine then it's time to push and click the peripheral cable into the unit and attach the SATA connectors to the other end of the hard drive and solid-state drive once the necessary SATA power cables are connected be sure to connect the SATA data cable was usually in red to any drives with the other ends attaching to the motherboard Saturday 2 cables will come included with any new board but can be bought online separately for pennies once again we're back to my favorite part the graphics card this time we're installing it again this involves the push and click method but be sure to remove as many of these little rib protector gate things as necessary to accommodate the width of your GPU and connect any required power connectors from the power supply unit to the card with that we're just about finished one final thing though connects any system fans like the black one at the back of our case here as well to the matching motherboard header whether this be three or four pin so well I don't think this is the best system I've put together in terms of value for money I'd really wanted to build a system as I haven't done so in what feels like forever hopefully the little mini build tutorial will help any of you new PC builders out as well but now in regards to performance it's time to check out how this thing handles some modern games as well as a quick Cinebench r15 multi-core test now I tested Cinebench first of all because I wanted to check out the raw CPU performance and whilst it isn't as powerful as some modern budget quad cores like the Rison 3 1200 for example which is perfectly reasonable considering the age of this CPU it will still put up a pretty good fight and I have to say that for editing in Premiere Pro something that is very CPU intensive this handled it like an absolute champ and I edited this entire video on this machine let's jump into a few games as well to see how it performs and how these two components work together we'll the i-5 bottleneck the 7870 or will it be a completely different situation with the 7870 bottlenecking the cpu let's find out first of all I start off with battlefield 1 and my intentions with this build were to be able to run games at 1080p with sort of medium to high settings and sort of get somewhere near 60 frames per second battlefield 1 was the perfect example of the dream performance I was aiming for with this machine and it maintained a pretty solid close to 60 frames per second most of the time at medium high settings during this opening level in rise of the Tomb Raider again it's a little harder to run once again we chose the medium preset stuck a couple of their settings on high and I did see a few issues with the benchmark run in terms of stuttering but I combined the average one percent and point one percent low figures with a couple of hours of gameplay as well during which the performance was quite a bit better and dirt for one of my favorite modern races medium settings once again with a couple of things set to high at full HD and the game performed flawlessly I was able to complete not only this solo race here during the opening tutorial but a couple of multi competitor events as well and still retain a pretty solid overall frame rate throughout my half-an-hour gameplay period with this game now the performance of overwatch will depend on the map that you're playing on but here on this specific map forgive me I can't quite remember the name the game performed very well once again with a mix of high and medium settings with the game set to 100% resolution scaling this means it was running at an untouched 1080p and I have to say I was very impressed with the performance the CPU and GPU actually seemed pretty evenly paired but I wouldn't recommend using anything higher than a 70 80 70 with an i5 750 though something more modern like a gtx 1050 TI for example would be absolutely fine csgo is a game that relies more on CPU power and here it performed very well although this benchmark run didn't last too long because I have a habit of getting eliminated every 30 seconds but as you can hopefully see here the performance of this game was pretty good on this build fallout for the GPU actually held our I 5 processor back which was quite interesting so in this case you probably could get away with using a slightly better graphics card though there will be a few instances of stutter as you explore the open world feel free to turn down the settings on a configuration similar to this one in some of those busier and more Hardware intensive areas like Diamond City for example and finally in fortnight you should have no problem with sustaining a smooth 60 frames per second throughout the entirety of any online match as I did so here once again the GPU was actually the limiting factor which was quite surprising so it may be fair to ignore my earlier statement of don't pair anything more powerful than a 78 70 with this I 5 all in all I'm pretty happy with the price I paid for all of these components if you'd like to see more games being tested out on this build please let me know because I'll try to put together a list of 20 or 30 games run through them and let you see what this can do in a variety of other titles as well as for this video though I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope you've enjoyed what is probably the first budget build in a very long time so if you did leave a like on it down below leave a dislike if you didn't subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already and hopefully I'll see you all in the next onehello everyone and welcome to another video now it feels like forever since we've put together a cheap budget gaming PC here on this channel from start to finish so in today's video I'm going to be doing just that without further ado let's get into it I'll talk to you about each individual component why I chose it and at the end of it all will be benchmarking it with a few modern titles to see how well it holds up so let's get into it and begin the video so I've decided to base this build around a first generation Core i5 processor it's probably not the best value for money system I've ever put together but it is cheap and I wanted to build something for a change instead of upgrading a prebuilt this socket 1156 I 5 750 features 4 cores 4 threads and is very cheap these days unlike modern I 5 desktop CPUs the first generation ones weren't all quad cores and this is important to remember if you're looking for an older ICS CPU yourself to accommodate the processor I managed to find a cheap X office machine motherboard pulled from an old Dell T 1500 workstation REM boards can cost less but it's important to remember that they won't always fit in after-market cases I made sure this one did before buying though I had to remove the Dell heatsink brace from the underside of the board so that I could fit a standard 1156 fan on here this was easy enough to do as it was only held on with adhesive tape speaking of heat sinks I decided to opt for an aftermarket Arctic 11 assembly I could have purchased the stock one but this one should keep our CPU even cooler and it actually cost me less than a generic intel one would have so it was the obvious choice here this combo has been finished off with 8 gigabytes of generic ddr3 memory before putting this thing together let's look at the storage choices I've gone for as well and the power supply in case instead of just buying a hard drive I also found a very reasonably priced a 32 gig SSD that I'll be using solely for the operating system in this case Windows 10 Pro now because I plan on selling this on afterwards hopefully for a small profit I opted for a nearly new case the cooler master master box lights one thing I've learned from selling the occasional PC on eBay is that a nice case will make a difference to your final sale price most modern cases have USB 3 front ports but this one has one of each and if you want to use an older motherboard like I did that doesn't have the necessary accommodating slots don't worry because you can pick up a very cheap adapter the power supply is another corsair cx-5 50 which I'm sure you've seen enough of by now I've said it before and I'll say it again a decent PSU is worth spending a little more money on and because I know these are good if I have the chance to buy one I always will they're modular too so that should help keep the cables a little neater as you only have to plug in what you need now for my favorite part the graphics card the HD 7870 is one of my all-time favorites so when I found a good deal on this one I just couldn't resist I love the reference style cooler with the blower fan too even if it is a little louder than aftermarket options not to mention the colors match the case and the SSD which is pretty cool I'm happy to see this one in such great condition too it'll work just fine on our 550 watt PSU requiring two 6-pin connectors with our components gathered it's time to put this machine together so let's get that done now before seeing how well it can play games to try and make this video enjoyable for all you longtime viewers out there as well as those of you new to PC building I'll be assembling this machine in a step-by-step fashion feel free to skip ahead if you just want to see the benchmarks the first thing I like to do is install the power supply this is bottom mounted and of course modular so the unit and cables won't get in the way as we assemble the rest of the build this is held in place with four screws if you've never built a PC before don't worry because it's all nearly that simple we'll put that to the side for a moment and put together the motherboard combo the first thing to do is install the processor just make sure you line the gold arrow in the corner up with the white marking around the socket on the motherboard before lifting the retention arm sitting the processor gently in there and pushing the arm back down next up is the memory each stick doesn't have to be the same brand but I would advise getting matching sticks if you can just to ensure that any possibility of error is at its minimum you can find some pretty good deals on used ddr3 kits these days and to install just open the clips at the end of each slot and push them in till they click now for the heatsink if you have a secondhand one you'll have to apply a pea-sized lump of thermal compound to the processor first like so but because I bought a new one it comes with a layer of decent compound already and it byxis to the board just like a normal intel heatsink using the push the pins until they click system there's a lot of pushing and clicking in PC building don't forget to plug the CPU fan into the motherboard too before installing the motherboard in the system be sure to fit the backplate in place again push it in until it clicks because I opted for a nearly new case I also got some goodies included like these cable ties and motherboard standoffs make sure you screw these into the holes inside of the case first ensuring that they match up with the holes in the motherboard the board sits on these to prevent it from touching the bare metal and shorting out with those in place we can install the motherboard by sitting it on the standoffs and screwing it into place as we connect all the wires up I'm not going to talk too much about cable management as it may not be a big concern of yours if it's your first build but I will be needing things up off-camera this is more about showing you where everything goes and hopefully inspiring any of you aspiring system builders out there to give it a go for yourselves first of all the 4 pin connector from the power supply connects to the square 4 pin connector usually located in the top left hand corner of your motherboard the 24 pin power connector can also be attached here using the good old push till it clicks method once that's in we're pretty much halfway done the other cables attached to the case are pretty much self-explanatory and line up with their labelled counterparts on the board if they're not labeled the pin layout will always be a dead giveaway the HD audio cable goes to the audio port on the board and the USB cable goes to you guessed it the USB connector the hardest and most fiddly bit of a PC build is probably the front panel cables these little individual cables will always likely connect in a different order depending on your motherboard but all you have to do is to Google your boards model name followed by the words front panel connector layout to find what you're after it should then be easy enough to find out what goes where now it's time to install the storage each case is different of course but in this case yet it I had to remove this little enclosure here so that I could slot the each hard drive and SSD in place there were also a few sneaky screws in the bottom which so had to be taken out a few screws later and I had both the HDD and SSD in place and I then reinstalled the enclosure before connecting these two up if unlike me you have a non modular power supply then all the cables you need will be pre attached but if you have a modular unit like mine then it's time to push and click the peripheral cable into the unit and attach the SATA connectors to the other end of the hard drive and solid-state drive once the necessary SATA power cables are connected be sure to connect the SATA data cable was usually in red to any drives with the other ends attaching to the motherboard Saturday 2 cables will come included with any new board but can be bought online separately for pennies once again we're back to my favorite part the graphics card this time we're installing it again this involves the push and click method but be sure to remove as many of these little rib protector gate things as necessary to accommodate the width of your GPU and connect any required power connectors from the power supply unit to the card with that we're just about finished one final thing though connects any system fans like the black one at the back of our case here as well to the matching motherboard header whether this be three or four pin so well I don't think this is the best system I've put together in terms of value for money I'd really wanted to build a system as I haven't done so in what feels like forever hopefully the little mini build tutorial will help any of you new PC builders out as well but now in regards to performance it's time to check out how this thing handles some modern games as well as a quick Cinebench r15 multi-core test now I tested Cinebench first of all because I wanted to check out the raw CPU performance and whilst it isn't as powerful as some modern budget quad cores like the Rison 3 1200 for example which is perfectly reasonable considering the age of this CPU it will still put up a pretty good fight and I have to say that for editing in Premiere Pro something that is very CPU intensive this handled it like an absolute champ and I edited this entire video on this machine let's jump into a few games as well to see how it performs and how these two components work together we'll the i-5 bottleneck the 7870 or will it be a completely different situation with the 7870 bottlenecking the cpu let's find out first of all I start off with battlefield 1 and my intentions with this build were to be able to run games at 1080p with sort of medium to high settings and sort of get somewhere near 60 frames per second battlefield 1 was the perfect example of the dream performance I was aiming for with this machine and it maintained a pretty solid close to 60 frames per second most of the time at medium high settings during this opening level in rise of the Tomb Raider again it's a little harder to run once again we chose the medium preset stuck a couple of their settings on high and I did see a few issues with the benchmark run in terms of stuttering but I combined the average one percent and point one percent low figures with a couple of hours of gameplay as well during which the performance was quite a bit better and dirt for one of my favorite modern races medium settings once again with a couple of things set to high at full HD and the game performed flawlessly I was able to complete not only this solo race here during the opening tutorial but a couple of multi competitor events as well and still retain a pretty solid overall frame rate throughout my half-an-hour gameplay period with this game now the performance of overwatch will depend on the map that you're playing on but here on this specific map forgive me I can't quite remember the name the game performed very well once again with a mix of high and medium settings with the game set to 100% resolution scaling this means it was running at an untouched 1080p and I have to say I was very impressed with the performance the CPU and GPU actually seemed pretty evenly paired but I wouldn't recommend using anything higher than a 70 80 70 with an i5 750 though something more modern like a gtx 1050 TI for example would be absolutely fine csgo is a game that relies more on CPU power and here it performed very well although this benchmark run didn't last too long because I have a habit of getting eliminated every 30 seconds but as you can hopefully see here the performance of this game was pretty good on this build fallout for the GPU actually held our I 5 processor back which was quite interesting so in this case you probably could get away with using a slightly better graphics card though there will be a few instances of stutter as you explore the open world feel free to turn down the settings on a configuration similar to this one in some of those busier and more Hardware intensive areas like Diamond City for example and finally in fortnight you should have no problem with sustaining a smooth 60 frames per second throughout the entirety of any online match as I did so here once again the GPU was actually the limiting factor which was quite surprising so it may be fair to ignore my earlier statement of don't pair anything more powerful than a 78 70 with this I 5 all in all I'm pretty happy with the price I paid for all of these components if you'd like to see more games being tested out on this build please let me know because I'll try to put together a list of 20 or 30 games run through them and let you see what this can do in a variety of other titles as well as for this video though I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope you've enjoyed what is probably the first budget build in a very long time so if you did leave a like on it down below leave a dislike if you didn't subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already and hopefully I'll see you all in the next one\n"