It looks like building a gaming PC in 2022 is starting to become far more approachable. The GPU-pocalypse is not done yet, but prices have indeed fallen and PC gaming is slowly getting back to business. As such, it's never been a better time over the last two years to build a capable 1080p 60 FPS machine, and you're going to get recommendations from this guide.
Bear in mind, however, that the prices you're about to see are accurate as of this writing and posting. This means that they might change without prior notice, so keep that in mind when you do your own shopping. Also, the gaming PC build here won't recommend a monitor and peripherals, so take that to consideration as well.
And without further ado, let's begin.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
The Ryzen 5 5600X from AMD is the current top-rated, price-to-performance king of CPUs from Team Red, writes PCGamer. At around $196.99 right now on Newegg, this chip will give you six fast Zen 3 cores with 12 threads to ensure that you won't bottleneck any capable GPU short of the RTX 3080 at 1080p.
With this CPU, you won't only get a very capable chip to run the latest games - but also one that could be a great overclocker (a topic for another time). Not to mention, it comes with a free cooler in the Wraith Stealth, which is perhaps the best stock cooler out there. The only cons is that it costs $50 more than an almost equally-performant Ryzen 5 3600X.
GPU: AMD RX 6600
For the graphics card, we're going for another AMD part with the RX 6600 non-XT, specifically the XFX Speedster SWFT 210 model ($299 on Amazon right now). Compared to its bigger brother in the 6600XT, the non-XT variant will be able to let your gaming PC run games at 1080p 60FPS no problem, with medium-high settings. The card can even be powerful enough to run games on Ultra.
Here's a video comparison of the RX 6600 against the RX 6600XT and the competing RTX 3060 from NVIDIA, where you'll see that it is able to handle modern games really well at respectable frame rates and visual quality settings. Not to mention, it typically costs $80 to $100 less than a 6600XT and 3060, while offering almost the same level of performance (give or take a few frames).
Read Also: How Many Cores Do You Need For Gaming In 2022?
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 3600 MHz (2x8GB kit)
For the RAM, you don't ned to go balls-to-the-wall because all you need is a solid-performing kit. That's it. So we're going with a basic 16GB DDR4 3600 MHz speed kit from Corsair, which is more than enough for the current gaming generation while not costing too much. $78.59 right now on Newegg.
Motherboard: ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS
Like the RAM, we won't go too fancy with the motherboard and will instead focus on getting the most important stuff. In this case, the ASUS TUF GAMING B550-PLUS board will give you PCIe 4.0, 2.5Gb LAN, USB 3.2 Gen 2, and a handy BIOS FlashBack feature all for $156.99 on Newegg. It's a no-frills board that will work as intended out of the box.
Power Supply: EVGA 600 BR 600-Watt 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply
They always say that you should never cheap out on your PSU, and that will always be right. But even if the EVGA 600 BR is pretty affordable, it is one of the most high rated budget PSUs out there. For only $44 on Newegg, you'll get a reliable power supply that you know will be efficient enough and won't blow your computer up.
Storage: Samsung 980 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD 2TB PCIe Gen 4
The Samsung 980 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD will have more than enough high-speed storage for your games, considering it's a PCIe Gen 4.0 part. You have a choice between a basic 980 PRO or a 980 PRO with a heatsink, but either way, you can't really go wrong with this choice. $269.99 on Amazon.
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow Tempered Glass Mid-Tower Case
Considering how AMD's Ryzen 5 5600X can run pretty toasty, you need a lot of airflow to not suffocate that Wraith Stealth cooler. Corsair's 4000D Airflow is more than capable for the job. It looks good and will have plenty of space for you to upgrade your graphics card as you move along. $94.99 on Amazon.
All in all, the grand total for our 1080p, 60FPS gaming PC build is $1,140.55. It's still pretty steep, but this price for this combination of parts is the absolute lowest you can get given the performance demands. You might be able to slash a few more dollars by going for a 1TB SSD too, instead of a 2TB.
Here is a video of how a similar 5600X + RX 6600 gaming PC build handles 55 modern games, courtesy of YouTube channel Jegs TV:
Related Article: Can You Use An Xbox Series S As A Budget Gaming PC?
Story posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce