Cheap Gaming PC Under $300 – The Best Cheap PC Build

Budget PC gaming has always been a great thing for many users, and a lot of people simply can’t buy pricey components to enjoy high-end gaming. Check out the recommendation list below for Best and Cheap Gaming PC Under 300 Dollar. Fortunately, the market offers a lot of good cheap components that make it easy to make a good cheap gaming pc. In this article, we will be looking at various options for budget PC gaming that will make your selection a breeze.

Best Gaming PC Under 300 Dollar – Build Overview
Customs builds are the core of PC gaming, and most people prefer buying a custom PC instead of prebuilt ones just for the sake of peace of mind, upgradeability, and overclocking support. Moreover, custom builds are usually expensive than their prebuilt counterparts, for the most part. However, some elite-class prebuilt PCs cost more than custom builds, such as Alienware gaming PCs, etc.

Another great aspect of the custom build is that you can change the components over time, if you get bored with your casing over time, you can sell it and get a new one while there is a big chance that a prebuilt PC might not allow you to do the same due to proprietary components. There are a lot of things to be considered when building a custom PC, so let’s have a look at the details.

Budget – There are many strategies for building a custom PC when you are tight on the budget. A best pc builds under 300 dollar is the bare minimum, and you must spend at least this much money if you want to get something that you can enjoy for a while. Moreover, you can go for a low-end build first, which you can upgrade later, or you can buy a mid-end build that does not provide an upgrading path. For most people, it will be better to consider buying the low-end upgradeable build because you don’t know what are going to be the demands of the upcoming AAA games and it is always better to have an upgrade path ahead.

Aesthetics – We all want a gaming PC that provides top-notch aesthetics and getting an attractive good cheap gaming pc under $300 is a very difficult task. Still, we have managed to get something that not only looks cool but it also doesn’t compromise in the performance department.

Performance – As for the performance is concerned, the custom PC we are recommending, it is based on an APU, and APUs are not so powerful that you can play AAA games at high settings. However, you will be able to enjoy most games at smooth frames per second in low settings. Meanwhile, you can always upgrade your GPU for better performance.

CPU – AMD Ryzen 3 2200G
When it comes to processors, AMD Ryzen-series processors have stirred up the market, and these processors are extremely competent in the market right now. The first generation Ryzen processors gave a tough competition to the Intel Coffee Lake processors, and after that, the legacy continued with their 2nd generation and 3rd generation processors. The older Ryzen processors seem to have lower clock speeds than their Intel counterparts, but their IPC was the same as the Intel, which is why their performance was very close to the Intel processors. However, the latest Ryzen processors provide better IPC, and their clock speeds are better than older generation processors too.

The processor we have chosen for our $300 build is AMD Ryzen 3 2200G, which is a 2nd generation Ryzen processor and it is one of the most demanding budget gaming processors these days. There is a 3rd generation processor named, AMD Ryzen 3 3200G, which performs somewhat better than this processor but the budget did not allow us to use that processor for this build and this processor too, does a fine job at budget gaming.

Now, let us talk about the features of this processor. As the name of the processor indicates, it is a Ryzen 3 processor, which means that it is a low-end processor. Moreover, the first digit 2xxx indicates that the processor belongs to the 2nd generation Ryzen processors. A great thing about this processor is that it provides a great graphics processor, which is indicated by the letter ‘G’ at the end of the name of the processor.

When it comes to core capabilities, Ryzen 3 2200G is a quad-core processor that provides four threads too, which means that it does not support the SMT technology, which is the AMD counterpart for the Intel’s HyperThreading technology. Fortunately, the cores are unlocked unlike Intel processors, and the processor can be easily overclocked to 4.1 GHz, increasing the performance of the processor. The stock clocks of the processor are although configured at 3.5 GHz base clock and 3.7 GHz Turbo clock, where the turbo clocks are only for a single core.

Since the motherboard we have selected capable of overclocking this processor, we will advise you to overclock the processor to 4.0 GHz or 4.1 GHz. Another great thing about the processor is that it comes with an impressive stock cooler unlike Intel, the AMD Wraith Stealth cooler. The cooler is capable of handling the overclocking of this processor, and in fact, you can easily overclock up to Ryzen 5 2600 to 4.0 GHz on all cores without having a bad effect on the life expectancy of the processor.

When it comes to graphics, the processor supports Radeon Vega 8 graphics, which provides eight cores and runs at a frequency of 1100 MHz. This GPU is not a very good one, but it will allow you to play most games at stable 30 FPS at low to medium settings in combination with 720P resolution. Moreover, you can play older games at a stable FPS using the 1080P resolution.

Upgradeability – Having an upgradeable path is a great concern for most PC gamers and that is why we have gone with a build that provides an extensive upgrade path for you. You will be able to upgrade the processor to a high-end one and the same can be said about the graphics card.

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Cheap Gaming PC Under 300 – Build Components

300 Dollar Gaming PC – Build Details
Now, these components are selected very precisely and a lot of time was spent on analyzing the performance and value of these products. The price of the build does exceed $300 but we doubt that such a small difference is going to matter to anyone.

Now, we will be discussing each of the components one by one, so stay tuned.

Motherboard – GIGABYTE B450M DS3H

Since we have selected the AMD platform and there are lots of motherboards available in the market, the selection of a motherboard was quite time-taking. We have selected GIGABYTE B450M DS3H for the build, and it is surely a great motherboard. First of all, GIGABYTE is a renowned company that designs some of the most attractive motherboards of all time while not ignoring performance factors by any means. The looks of the motherboard are beautiful, and it looks like a high-end motherboard unless one reads its model. The motherboard also provides RGB lighting, which in turn, is compatible with the GIGABYTE RGB Fusion technology, which means that you will be able to synchronize the RGB lighting of the motherboard with other components that support RGB Fusion.

B450 is the mainstream motherboard chipset for the 1st and 2nd generation Ryzen processors, that also provides support for Ryzen 3rd generation processors by BIOS updates. It provides noticeable improvements over the B350 chipset when it comes to memory timings and clocks, which is why you will be able to use even 3600 MHz memory with some of these boards. At the same time, most of them easily provide support for 3000 / 3200 MHz memory. A particular thing to note here is that B450 motherboards do not support SLI or Crossfire technology and only the X-series AMD Motherboards provide this feature. But then again, this feature is quite irrelevant to budget gamers and the high-end single graphics cards seem to be more than enough for even the enthusiast community.

Now, in terms of memory support, the motherboard provides four RAM slots, and B450 chipset can provide dual-channel support, which means that it will be better to use at least two memory sticks to maximize the potential of the memory.

The power delivery of the motherboard is quite impressive and it provides 4 + 3 phase power delivery. You can do decent overclocking on this motherboard too, and if you later upgrade to processors like Ryzen 5 2600 or 3600, you can easily overclock them to 4.0 or even 4.1 GHz. The power components are coupled with good heat-sinks and you don’t have to worry about the high temperatures of the VRM.

As for the I/O, you get four USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, a LAN port, three audio 3.5 mm jacks, a Dual-Link DVI-D port, an HDMI port and the legacy PS/2 port. As for the slots, you get two PCIe 3.0 X16 slots and one PCIe 3.0 X1 slot. Moreover, you get an M.2 slot, although we will advise you to use SATA storage devices if you are tight on budget.

As for the price of the motherboard is concerned, it is one of the cheapest B450 motherboards in the market, and even then it often goes on sale, which makes it a beautiful product.

Overall, the capabilities of this motherboard exceed the requirements of most budget gamers and you will be fine using this motherboard for even high-end builds.

Memory – XPG Z1 DDR4 3000MHz 16GB
Selecting the perfect memory for AMD Ryzen systems is essential because the performance of the Ryzen-based systems is greatly dependant on the memory. That is why we have selected XPG Z1 DDR4 memory that is clocked at 3000 MHz. The kit contains two memory sticks of 8 GB memory size each, which makes a total of 16 GB. It is to be noted that 16 GB of RAM is more than enough for the next couple of years and you won’t have to upgrade your memory.

As for the clocks, the memory is clocked at 3000 MHz, and Ryzen, 2nd generation processors, support 3000 MHz by default. Moreover, you can push the memory to up to 3200 MHz or even 3466 MHz if you are lucky with 2nd generation Ryzen processors and up to 3600 MHz with 3rd generation Ryzen processors.

The memory sticks have memory timings CL16-20-20, which is impressive, as most of the 3000 MHz memory sticks have CL17 or higher latency. The memory is rated at 1.35 volts and if you are into overclocking, make sure to increase the voltage of the memory. Moreover, the sticks have copper heatsinks on them, which means that you won’t have to suffer from high temperatures on the sticks. Also, the memory sticks come with a lifetime warranty, which is just perfect.

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