Best gaming PC build under $300 of 2024

Built & Tested By Our Team

WePC experts that worked on this build

View the Team
Last Updated:

Trusted Source

WePC’s mission is to be the most trusted site in tech. Everyone in the WePC team is a dedicated tech-head and gamer, and we put every product we review through a rigorous testing process before recommending anything. Our editorial content is 100% independent and our hands-on reviews tell you what we think, not what the manufacturers would like you to know. Read more
WePC Editors Choice Badge
Our $300 Custom Gaming PC Build
Coolermaster Masterbox Q300L case
Order This Custom PC On Amazon
Order This Custom PC
Custom Gaming PC Details
Our Prebuilt Gaming PC Recommendation

WePC is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

Table of Contents

Build Overview

Building a gaming PC for under 300 dollars can be tough, but thanks to AMD’s impressive range of APUs, it’s incredibly possible while still achieving decent entry-level performance. This is the best gaming PC build under $300. At the heart of our build sits the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G. It comes equipped with Radeon Vega graphics, which is surprisingly good at handling low-intensive games such as CS2 and Fortnite.

Let’s quickly note what this build has to offer in terms of performance and features, and while we’re at it, let’s discuss some of the roadblocks we encountered and why we chose this hardware for our $300 gaming PC build.

$300 gaming PC build of the month

The $300 gaming PC might not be the be also and end all of gaming PCs, but it’s a fantastic start, or would even make a great gift to a child or someone just getting into PCs and PC building. The Ryzen 5 5600G carries 6 cores and 12 threads, with a maximum boost clock of 4.4GHz. This is plenty for gaming workloads on the CPU side, but what about the GPU? As we said, there is no GPU, but there is a GPU component in the APU we have chosen, the Ryzen 5 5600G has a Radeon Vega GPU core count of 7 with a max speed of 1900MHz, which again, isn’t bad for an APU. We;ve paired the 5600G with all the compatible hardware it needs, such as the ASRock A520m motherboard, and 16GB of 3200MHz memory. When it comes to the 5000 series Ryzen, the faster the memory, the better the CPU will perform.

AMD APUs

An APU, for those wondering, is an accelerated processing unit. What sets this apart from a normal CPU is the fact that comes with its own integrated graphics built-in. Unlike Intel CPUs, an AMD APU comes with Vega graphics, which is much more powerful than a comparable iGPU in Intel processors. The 5600G comes with Radeon Vega graphics that showcase similar performance levels to a GT 1030. Which is impressive for such a small form factor.

The integrated graphics of an APU fully depend on your system’s RAM when in use, as there’s no VRAM built into the CPU. For that reason, equipping your build with fast RAM is essential when trying to achieve maximum performance out of your APU.

The WePC experts that worked on this build

Benchmarking Specialist
Team Seb

Sebastian Kozlowski

Twitter Linkedin

Seb is a Mechanical Engineering Graduate who has always been passionate and involved in gaming and computers. Ever since tinkering with the family computer and being the tech wizard in the family, he’s had an interest in PCs and all things tech. So while at University build his own computer, became tech support for others and finally found a career working with them daily.

Benchmarking Specialist
Team Jack

Jack Howarth

Twitter Linkedin

Jack has has a keen interest in computers and video creation for a little over 10 years, and with a professional background in PC building, an education in cyber security and a life long love for gaming,
he really likes to not only play games but to know what makes the PCs driving them tick! The perfect pick for a Benchmarker.

Custom Build Specialist
Team Shaun

Shaun Conroy

Twitter Linkedin

Shaun is a gaming enthusiast and computer science graduate who has been working with computers for the last 15 years. He took a shine to competitive FPS back in the mid-2000s and hasn’t looked back since.

Our Best $300 Prebuilt Gaming PC Recommendations

You may have gotten this far and have decided you just aren’t quite ready to take the step into custom PC building. And that’s OK! For those people, we’ve scoured the web to find relevant prebuilt gaming PC options that will offer the same performance as our custom build. Wedo strongly encourage you to take the leap into PC building, as it’s not going to get much easier than a $300 build. You’ll save money in the long run building your own PCs, an that money you can put into making your PC more powerful.

We do weekly checks on our prebuilt recommendations to make sure they are in line with our custom build. If we find a more powerful prebuilt option or the current one goes out of stock, we will replace it with a like-for-like product.

Our Recommended Custom $300 PC Build

  • Last Updated - Mar 5, 2024

This entry-level gaming system is designed to be the best 300 dollar gaming PC money can buy. FPS may not be very high, but this system is as good as it gets for the price.

Coolermaster Masterbox Q300L case

Our $300 Custom Gaming PC Build

The best custom built gaming PC for under $300 does exactly what it says on the tin. It offers up low-end gaming performance for people with restricted budgets. At this price range, we’ve opted for one of AMD’s latest APUs – the 5600G. While this isn’t the most impressive CPU out there, it’s certainly one of the best for gaming on an entry-level budget. It will be able to play older generation games at playable frame rates, including CS:GO, LOL, and Rocket League. Despite most of the components within this build being fairly entry-level, you still get adequate storage and sufficient RAM.

Order This Custom Gaming PC Build
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

The Ryzen 5 5600G showcases excellent value for money and dominates the competition in this price bracket.  The impressive performance makes the 5600G one of the best value-for-money products available today. It comes equipped with Vega Radeon integrated graphics that showcase similar performance to that of the GT 1030. This, in turn, means you have the ability to run low-intensive AAA games at 50+FPS in low/med settings. Perfect for any entry-level PC build. It may not be the best CPU in the world, but it certainly is for this build.

The ASRock A520M motherboard is an entry-level board that offers excellent features at an affordable price point. It’s the perfect starter for any entry-level build and comes equipped with AM4 support, fast  RAM support, and the reliability that comes with buying products from this manufacturer. Overall, one of the best motherboards for gamers looking for an affordable, entry-level platform to build on.

No items found.

This $300 build has no cooler selected because the Ryzen 5 5600G comes with a stock cooler in the box.

We’ve gone for a Silicon Power DDR416GB 3200MHz RAM kit for our $300 build, as it offers excellent performance at a relatively low price tag. It’s pretty much the perfect pairing for the Ryzen APU. With 16GB at your disposal, you are in a great spot to begin with and won’t need to upgrade for a long time.

No items found.

This $300 build has no GPU selected because the Ryzen 5 5600G acts as both a CPU and a GPU.

We’ve decided to go for an SSD over the more traditional HDD in this build because it adds so much to the performance and overall usability of this system. Even though we’re losing roughly 750GB of storage capacity by going for an SSD, we’re making up for it with much faster boot/load times. If you want your OS and games to load lightning-fast, then an SSD is the way to go. If you want more storage and don’t care about speed, you should opt for a HDD.

The Cooler Master Q300L PC Case isn’t going to win any awards for style, but this entry-level case still has a lot to offer. Cooler Master is equipped it with one pre-installed 120mm fan, giving you some cooling straight out of the box.  You can’t ask much more from a case offering at this price, but if you do find yourself wanting something a little different, you can check out our best PC case recommendations.

A Thermaltake 500W PSU is more power than required for this PC, however, it gives you headroom to bring a lowe power-dedicated GPU into the mix. To meet the budget, we had to go for a non-modular, White-rated option but it is reliable and from a regarded brand. If you are curious to know which PSUs we recommend overall, you can find them on our best gaming power supplies page.

Coolermaster Masterbox Q300L case

Our $300 Custom Gaming PC Build

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada

What Games Can This $300 Custom Gaming PC Run?

This build will provide 60FPS in all competitive online titles, however, if you are looking to play more demanding titles, then you would have to look at the $500 build to achieve 60FPS and above. Additionally, the dedicated graphics card and a more powerful CPU would allow you to raise the graphical settings and resolution in all titles. Looking at demanding single-player games such as The Witcher 3, you would be looking at 30FPS at 900p, but well-optimized titles like Forza Horizon 4 allow for 50FPS at 1080p and still look incredible even on Very Low graphical settings.

Things To Consider

What you get for your $300

One of the main goals for the $300 custom build was to create a gaming PC that could handle some gaming in the short term. The idea behind an entry-level PC such as this is that you upgrade and save for a dedicated GPU later down the line – further boosting your in-game experiences. AMD’s APU range makes this far easier than it used to be. The 5600G is the best APU we could go for and remain under budget, but that wasn’t a bad thing. By opting for an APU, we no longer had to worry about the cost of a dedicated GPU. This means we could bolster other areas of this build like memory.

Let’s be honest, you aren’t buying this build to play AAA games in 4K/ultra settings, you’d have to invest in something like a $2000 gaming PC to do that. This build is tailored towards low-intensity games such as CS2, Fortnite, and Overwatch. The APU should be able to give you 60+FPS on these games on low-medium settings. One of the main things you need to consider at the start of your custom PC build journey is your budget. A lot of people come to us expecting to splash $300 on a custom build that can smash 4k games at 100fps. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Our $300 build has been custom-designed to play less intensive esports titles. Understanding the limitations of your budget at the start will save you time and frustration in the long run.

It’s worth mentioning that Amazon prices do fluctuate regularly. So, this means the builds might not always be under the intended target. Don’t worry, though; we check the builds daily to make sure the most up-to-date and best-value products are being selected.

Non-Gaming Performance

Another key area to consider is the non-gaming side of a PC build. A large number of gaming enthusiasts will design a build around both gaming and workstation tasks. You’ll be glad to hear that we’ve done the same. This build can handle small workload tasks thanks to its multi-threaded performance. Simple video editing and photo editing should be more than achievable, albeit slow. If you’re looking to stream, then you’d be better served with one of our premium builds instead.

Upgradability And Future-Proofing your $300 build

Another area to consider when building your PC is future upgrades. Let’s be honest; a PC won’t last you forever. At some stage, you will need to upgrade its components. Making sure you limit the number of products that need updating when that day comes is a major part of the hardware selection process. Luckily, we’ve already done that for you. This build comes with an up-to-date motherboard, which is perfect for future upgrades. The case is also a solid option that will allow for GPU and additional storage capacity upgrades, as well. Of course, you can upgrade to another AM4 CPU with ease, but if you want to switch to AM5 or Intel, you’ll have to get a new motherboard and most likely memory – so just bear that in mind.

Overclocking

Strong and stable Overclocks have become increasingly more achievable in the last few years, mainly thanks to the quality of the hardware becoming much more overclocking-friendly. It’s a great way of extracting additional performance at no extra cost. This build is set up for light overclocking and will respond if you choose to do so. However, it must be noted that Ryzen chips are extremely well-optimized out-of-the-box. Gaining significant performance increases is probably out of reach on this platform, simply because the APU handles both workloads of the CPU and the GPU, it’ll get too hot if you overclock them both. This might be something to look forward to when you get that all-important dedicated GPU. Remember though, Overclocking can be dangerous and will have a detrimental effect on your hardware in the long run.

Ease Of Building

As a first-time builder, it’s always a bit daunting having to assemble your rig, especially if the case isn’t builder-friendly. Always do your research on the case, making sure it’s the right size for your components. You can rest assured that all of the components we have chosen work incredibly well together, and you won’t have any trouble building in this case. We used a PC building toolkit during this build and recommend you do the same to help make the entire process go a bit smoother.

Build a gaming PC by price

Check out some of our price-focused custom PC build guides below.

Other Related Custom PC Guides:

Related Prebuilt Gaming PC Guides

Check out some of our related guides below.

 

Upgrade Options for $300 Custom Gaming PC

  • Last Updated - Mar 5, 2024

We know that this build isn’t supposed to be forever, so we’ve outlined a solid upgrade path for you to follow. Below are our most recommended upgrade options that will boost your in-game performance exponentially. The products below are fully compatible with the above build and can be swapped out with no ramifications. It’s worth mentioning, that you may have to change the PC’s power supply if you want to install a dedicated GPU. The PSU we have in place was the bare minimum to get the build going and keep us below budget.

Remember, the upgrades will increase the base price of your custom build.

We know that this build isn’t supposed to be forever, so we’ve outlined a solid upgrade path for you to follow. Below are our most recommended upgrade options that will boost your in-game performance exponentially. The products below are fully compatible with the above build and can be swapped out with no ramifications. It’s worth mentioning, that you may have to change the PC’s power supply if you want to install a dedicated GPU. The PSU we have in place was the bare minimum to get the build going and keep us below budget.

Remember, the upgrades will increase the base price of your custom build.

MSI Gaming Radeon RX 7600 Mech 2X
MSI logo

MSI Gaming Radeon RX 7600 Mech 2X

Core Clock Speed

1,720MHz base, 2,695 MHz OC boost, 2,280 MHz game

Stream processors

2,048

Memory Size

8GB GDDR6

Dimensions

235 x 125 x 47 mm

PSU Required

500W

TBP

165W

Read Hands on Review
CHECK PRICE
CHECK PRICE
CHECK PRICE
CHECK PRICE
MSI Gaming Radeon RX 7600 Mech 2X
MSI logo

MSI Gaming Radeon RX 7600 Mech 2X

Core Clock Speed

1,720MHz base, 2,695 MHz OC boost, 2,280 MHz game

Stream processors

2,048

Memory Size

8GB GDDR6

Dimensions

235 x 125 x 47 mm

PSU Required

500W

TBP

165W

Read Hands on Review
CHECK PRICE
CHECK PRICE
CHECK PRICE
CHECK PRICE
Noctua NH D15 Chromax Dual Tower CPU Cooler

Noctua NH-D15 Chromax Dual Tower CPU Cooler

Item Dimensions LxWxH

5.31 x 5.91 x 6.5 inches

Brand

Noctua

Cooling Method

Air

Compatible Devices

Desktop

Noise Level

24 dB

Read Hands on Review
CHECK PRICE
Noctua NH D15 Chromax Dual Tower CPU Cooler

Noctua NH-D15 Chromax Dual Tower CPU Cooler

Item Dimensions LxWxH

5.31 x 5.91 x 6.5 inches

Brand

Noctua

Cooling Method

Air

Compatible Devices

Desktop

Noise Level

24 dB

Read Hands on Review
CHECK PRICE

Operating System & Peripherals

Note: These will raise the price of your build!

No items found.

Building Tips

That’s pretty much everything you need to know about the custom build and the hardware it comes with. One thing we haven’t really discussed, however, is the physical building of this PC. If you’re new to the PC building game, then I would recommend checking out our 12 Mistakes that Every Newbie PC Builder Makes article. Furthermore,  our 15 Common Questions About Building a PC should answer the most frequently asked questions first-time builds have.

Below are some of our best building tips for new and old builders alike.

FAQs

How long will the $300 build last?

In terms of physical longevity, we’ve seen PCs last 10 years depending on the build quality, how much it’s used, and the conditions in which it is kept. Although, 10 yours is not a guarantee. If we’re talking relevancy, it’s already lagging behind the industry baseline in terms of processing power. You might want to look into upgrading to a dedicated GPU as soon as possible.

Is the $300 build worth it?

The $300 build has many applications, you might just be starting out, or want to give this PC as a gift to someone who is just starting out, either way, this PC build has its uses. If you’re a seasoned PC builder looking to replace a rig on the cheap then we might recommend you wait and save up a couple hundred more dollars to get yourself a dedicated GPU. Dedicated GPUs make all the difference when it comes to gaming performance, and you’ll absolutely thank yourself later.

Closing Thoughts

So, there you have it, our comprehensive guide to the best $300 custom PC build. We’ve done our best to stick within the strict set price boundaries and still provide a PC that offers an immersive gaming experience. Remember, this build isn’t going to blow anyone away with incredible graphics. It will, however, provide first-time gamers with the opportunity to play low-intensive games without breaking the bank.

Related Custom PC Builds

Share this article