This is the first PC I've built while in Boston, and it's the example I'll stick to as I market my ability to procure and build custom PC's. This machine started as just an NZXT H5 ATX case and an EVGA 500W power supply I bought from a guy moving out of Fenway for just 100$, urged by my partner who was buying an office chair from the same person!
Before I acquired the case, I already had a 2TB Samsung SATA drive, which I originally got as the storage volume for a Network-Attached-Storage device I was building. I also had an LG 144Hz Monitor gifted by my dad when I moved to Boston for school.
The next step in the process was to choose an ATX motherboard at a reasonable price. I settled on a factory refurbished MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus with an AM4 CPU socket, at 92$. From the motherboard I knew I needed an AMD CPU compatible with an AM4 socket, and that I would need to look for DDR4 RAM modules.
I chose a new AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Vermeer Zen3 6-Core 12-Thread AM4 CPU, which ran me 140$, and 2 Fury HyperX 16Gb DDR4 Modules at 212$.
Next I would need to choose a GPU, and I would have to be picky if I wanted to keep this build in the 'budget' category! I settled on a refurbished MSI Radeon RX 5700 8GB card, which cost $145.
To finish off with assembly supplies I also bought an AMD Wraith Stealth socket cooling fan and heat-sink for the CPU, and a tube of Arctic MX-4 thermal paste, both of which ran about 20$
The total cost for this build, excluding all equipment and peripherals I already had, was 709$! That's a STEAL for the current hardware market, and I couldn't be more pleased with the performance of this machine against my Windows laptops.
Over the process of assembly I did have to discover that my EVGA power supply was incompatible and that I probably wouldn't find compatible cables for it, since EVGA was essentially out of business. I was lucky that my dad was willing to help me out by sending me a slightly beefier and more up-to-date Rosewill 850W power supply.
On the first successful boot I installed Linux Mint, which saves 140$, bloat, and security concerns due to the state of Windows and Microsoft, and for the most part I have mirrored my document and software libraries on it. My only concern is that the motherboard occasionally hangs in the POST procedure.
I hope this is a helpful lesson in procuring and building a budget PC, or a strong advertisement for my ability to build such a PC for YOU! Here are some un-edited photos of the build:
