Best gaming PC build under $600 in 2024

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Our custom $600 gaming PC build
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Table of Contents

Best Gaming PC Under $600

What is the best gaming PC build under $600? We recommend what we believe is the best gaming PC build for under $600 and exactly what is needed to take it from a pile of hardware and components to a fully operating gaming rig. We update our builds regularly when new and improved hardware options become available to ensure the absolute best products are being recommended for the available price. At $600, you are still operating near entry-level, however, you have room for a better dedicated GPU. And that dedicated GPU makes all the difference, you can expect a massive improvement in performance over the $400 build we put together using an iGPU.

$600 Gaming PC build of the month

We have selected components that we think give you the best bang for the buck at this price point. It might seem like we’re putting all of our budget into a GPU, and we are. The RX 6650 XT is a fantastic budget choice here, it brings 1080p 60FPS potential all within our tight budget. Not only that, but you have access to AMD FSR to further help the GPU along. Although it seems like an odd choice, the Core i3 12100F is merely a stepping stone on your journey to better gaming performance. It still has plenty to offer for a budget CPU, with its 4-core 8-thread config at 4.30GH, it suits the 6650 XT nicely. Aesthetics isn’t something we worried too much about in picking the MasterBox Q300L to house our components, but it’s affordable and easy to build in, so it gets our seal of approval.

AMD or Intel for your $600 PC build?

You might be wondering why we’ve recommended an Intel CPU in this build. The 12100F is very affordable and while it is 2 generations behind now, it still offers decent performance. Of course, the processor is one of the compromises made to ensure you get a better-performing GPU in your build. This is merely a stepping stone into the gaming performance you’ve dreamed of for years. One thing worth mentioning whilst we’re talking about AMD vs Intel is upgradability. Right now, the motherboard we selected has the scope to include a much better CPU down the line, along with faster RAM too, making upgradability a breeze.

The WePC experts that worked on this build

Custom Build Specialist
Team Shaun

Shaun Conroy

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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.

Prebuilt gaming PC under $600

Most gamers opt to build their gaming PCs since it’s much more cost-effective, often with savings in the hundreds, because you don’t have to pay labor. That being said, not everyone can, or wants to build their machine. For those who don’t have the time or the confidence to tackle this custom-build project, we’ve come up with a list of the best-prebuilt gaming PCs under $600. However, we strongly recommend you try to build your own PC, the experience is rewarding in the sense that it gives you a working knowledge of your machine, and it gives you a better value for money in the long run.

All our prebuilt PC recommendations come from reputable PC custom-building companies, with good build quality and warranties.

Our custom gaming PC build for $600

  • Last Updated - Mar 12, 2024

Below is a more comprehensive look at some of the components we’ve chosen for the best custom build PC under $600, and why.

Coolermaster Masterbox Q300L case

Our custom $600 gaming PC build

If you’re looking for a 1080p gaming machine that showcases admirable performance,  great cooling, and at a very affordable price – then look no further. This $600 build offers budget-level performance, with older generation components that combine to deliver an enjoyable 1080p gaming experience.

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The Intel Core I3-12100F is the brand’s older-gen budget CPU offering.

The 12100F features 4 cores/8threads and comes with a base clock speed of 3.3GHz that can be boosted to 4.3GHz. This should be more than enough to handle most games at 1080p and will churn through med-high demanding workloads. You won’t be running into bottleneck issues anytime soon either, the processor pairs perfectly with the RAM and is ideal for those looking to create a budget gaming PC. It may not be the best CPU by a long stretch, but it offers superb value in this machine.

Not only is this a solid motherboard for the price but it also supports Intel’s latest generation of processors. So you can climb all the way up to Intel’s 14th generation should you wish.

The motherboard doesn’t impact gaming performance too drastically, but it is important to have a reliable and stable board that can support your components. That is exactly what this board offers. It might not be the best motherboard available, but for the price, you’ll do well to find anything more suited. Its robust power delivery system and its plethora of connectivity make a perfect pairing with the 12100F and the RX 6650 XT we have in this gaming PC.

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There is no cooler selected because the i3-12100F comes equipped with a stock cooler.

This Patriot Viper Steel 16GB RAM kit offers excellent price to performance. We’ve opted for 16GB of DDR4 3200MHz RAM in our $600 gaming PC build to make sure it has enough power to play the most demanding game titles.

With plenty of room in the budget for an entry-level graphics card, we have opted for the affordable AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT. The 6650XT will net you some decent results when playing in 1080p. It can even get some 1440p gaming done in older games with the help of AMD’s FSR technology. While you should limit your expectations when playing the odd modern game, this card thrives when playing esports titles. It’s often considered one of the best GPUs around when speaking of budget GPUs 

A solid-state drive is an essential hardware component and we highly recommend installing your OS (alternatively, you could use your SSD as a cache). This is because SSDs offer huge performance increases for desktop usage and boot times, alongside much faster loading times in games. This SSD only has a 500GB capacity giving you ample room for your media files and games but you may need to upgrade/ add to this before anything else if you have a particularly expansive library.

The Cooler Master Q300L PC case has been custom-designed to keep your system cool straight out of the box, with one included 120mm fan pre-installed. This case may not be ground-breaking but for the price, it’s a pretty good deal. While this case may not be the most aesthetically pleasing on the planet, it offers a robust airflow configuration and comes from a brand yu can trust. Cheap and cheerful.

At this price point, compromises need to be made to ensure the performance of the build meets our requirements. In the $600 build, we only managed to squeeze a 600W non-modular PSU. Cable management should be more than achievable thanks to the case used in this build. Here’s a comprehensive list of our best gaming power supplies. In case this one in particular doesn’t ticket your fancy.

Coolermaster Masterbox Q300L case

Our custom $600 gaming PC build

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Things to consider in this $600 gaming PC build

what you get for your $600 budget

We’ve already touched upon budgetary constraints, but something we didn’t discuss was the correlation between a PC’s price and the performance it can provide. Almost every build has a different level of performance, therefore, choosing the right PC for your needs should start with its price. We set a target of under $600 and we believe we’ve extracted the maximum amount of performance available at this price point. Our build has the ability to provide an immersive gaming experience at 1080p over the most popular AAA game titles, over 60FPS in a lot of scenarios. If you’re a seriously competitive gamer, and like to lower resolutions down to 720p to get the most FPS, you can probably expect at least 150FPS depending on the game. However, if you’re looking for a PC to smash 4k games, VR, and multi-tasking extremely heavy workloads all at the same time, you might want to consider one of our premium builds. It’s easy to overestimate a build’s capabilities, especially when it’s your own money. It’s important for your experience that you stay grounded and only expect this $600 build to do what a $600 build can do.

We had to make several compromises with this build to keep it within the $600 budget. An older CPU and GPU combination and smaller-sized SSD features to keep costs down. Despite this, the build currently offers the best performance we could find for under $600 and is very easy to upgrade should you wish in the future. (we highly recommend)

Non-gaming Performance

We have established that this build can perform pretty well in lesser demanding games, but what about your everyday use? This PC is perfect for office applications, if you’re a businessman who likes to game on a budget, then this PC would be perfect for you. Don’t expect it to be running any advanced simulations or anything, but it’ll do all your typical web browsing and document writing without skipping a beat. This is because entry-level builds don’t handle heavy workloads too well.

Upgrading this $600 PC build

We’ve left a lot of wiggle room when it comes to upgrading this $600 build. We’ve selected a CPU that stands well on its own but we’d have liked to have this system equipped with something a little more substantial. With that being said, the only reason we’ve chosen this CPU is to make way for a GPU that is very powerful for a $600 budget machine, if we were to recommend upgrading anything first it would be the CPU, and then the motherboard, then Memory or GPU.

Overclocking on a $600 budget

The components we have selected for this build can be overclocked, and the CPU, GPU, and Memory are all ready to be pushed further beyond their standard capabilities, however, this comes with a word of warning. Overclocking can be detrimental to your system if done improperly, it’s highly recommended that you take a look at our how-to overclock page and familiarize yourself with the methodology before attempting to push your system to the limit. Also, increasing performance also increases heat, so you’re going to have to make sure you have a powerful cooling solution

Finance and purchase options

now, we DO NOT recommend you get into debt, but a lot of PC component retailers now offer “pay in 3” or “0% finance” solutions to being strapped for cash. This can be a good way of getting an upgrade to the $600 PC build without having to worry about upfront costs. Similarly, there are a plethora of components available on the second-hand market, you can find plenty of used components there at a significantly discounted price. There are only a couple of components we recommend staying away from when buying second hand, these are HDDs and PSUs. Also, if you’re buying something like a GPU, it’s always best you ask for proof of working, or go to the seller and test the component yourself.

Remember to be safe when meeting strangers.

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Upgrade options

  • Last Updated - Mar 12, 2024

By now you should have a pretty good idea of whether or not this build is right for you and your needs. However, if you aren’t quite impressed by the performance power of this build, we’ve decided to create these upgrade paths which should improve performance exponentially. These represent an “ideal world” scenario, which helps get the $600 up to a modern performance standard. Don’t worry if you don’t have the funds to purchase these upgrades right now, these are simply a target to aim for.

All upgrades have been considered based on the performance and price of the custom build. Let’s waste no further time and dive into the upgrades.

NOTE: These will raise the price of the build significantly!

By now you should have a pretty good idea of whether or not this build is right for you and your needs. However, if you aren’t quite impressed by the performance power of this build, we’ve decided to create these upgrade paths which should improve performance exponentially. These represent an “ideal world” scenario, which helps get the $600 up to a modern performance standard. Don’t worry if you don’t have the funds to purchase these upgrades right now, these are simply a target to aim for.

All upgrades have been considered based on the performance and price of the custom build. Let’s waste no further time and dive into the upgrades.

NOTE: These will raise the price of the build significantly!

14600k

Intel Core i5-14600K

Cores:

14 (6+8)

Threads:

20

P-Core Speed:

5.3GHz (boost) 3.5GHz (base)

E-Core Speed:

4.0GHz (boost) 2.6GHz (base)

DDR5 support:

Yes @ 5600MHz

TDP

125W base 253W PL1 & PL2

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14600k

Intel Core i5-14600K

Cores:

14 (6+8)

Threads:

20

P-Core Speed:

5.3GHz (boost) 3.5GHz (base)

E-Core Speed:

4.0GHz (boost) 2.6GHz (base)

DDR5 support:

Yes @ 5600MHz

TDP

125W base 253W PL1 & PL2

Read Hands on Review
CHECK PRICE

Operating System & Peripherals

Building your PC doesn’t end there. If you want to really make the build more worthwhile in terms of money and performance, you should consider getting the following peripheral picks.

NOTE: These will raise the price of the build!

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Building Tips

If this is your first time building a PC, or it’s been a while and you’re feeling rusty, then make sure you utilize the great information that’s available so that both you and your PC are safe.

In fact, we’ve compiled a list of common mistakes newbie PC builders should avoid as well as questions you might have when building a PC to iron out any lapse in your knowledge.

FAQs

How long will this $600 build last?

In terms of longevity, we’ve seen PCs last 10 years or more, although this isn’t a guarantee. It all depends on how the PC was treated during its life. If we’re speaking to the relevancy of the $600 build, it’s already in danger of falling a little behind thanks to the CPU. The GPU offers reasonable future-proofing by belonging to a generation that’s only one behind the current. But the CPU will eventually begin to hold this system back.

Is the $600 PC worth it?

If you ask us, you’re better off saving up a much as possible and splurging on a CPU and GPU combo that’s going to give you a little more future-proofing. however, we do think this system is worth it for the price if you’re just getting into PCs and building and you want something for $600 specifically. We do recommend shopping around on the second hand market if you want something with a little more powerful, but you’re also stuck on the $600 budget.

Closing Thoughts

That was our comprehensive guide to the best custom PC for under $600. This build should have everything a young budget gamer needs to get them onto the battlefield in 1080p, and last for a few years to come. You might even be able to get away with some 1440p gaming on older titles, with the help of AMD’s FSR. Our build showcases superb value for money and offers excellent performance, with a very straightforward upgrade path as well. We’ve even recommended a prebuild option for those who don’t feel up to tackling this project and getting hands-on with their components. Although we do highly recommend just that.

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