A Gaming PC Under 300 Euros
It was nearly 2 years ago that I’ve written a similar post, and things changed so much since, that I’ve thought it’d be great to help people buy an entry level PC able to do pretty much everything, including gaming.
Budget Goal: €300
A dear friend of mine asked me if it was possible to have a computer powerful enough to handle some 2016 game he’s in love with, but without breaking the bank.
When I’ve asked him how much was he willing to spend, he had literally no idea and just some basic requirement.
This is what he told me:
I’d like to play on Steam this specific game but also use the PC to surf the Web, watch Netflix, and do pretty much everything else I’ve been doing until today.
And so I’ve proposed these specs.
- CPU AMD Ryzen™ 3 2200G with Radeon™ Vega 8 Graphics GPU
- Motherboard ASRock A320M-HDV
- RAM Crucial 8GB DDR4–2400 UDIMM
- HD Kingston SSD A400 120GB
- Case VulTech GS-2688N with 500W PSU
Optionally, I’ve ended up suggesting Tp-link TL-WN881ND WiFi PCI-E card that works out of the box in both Linux and Windows.
AMD Ryzen™ 2200G
This is the key to have an entry level gaming PC, with the 2400G alternative option in case you’d like to have better performance.
You can read about this great CPU and its integrated GPU everywhere online, and I can confirm it delivers, and outperform, its price.
ASRock A320M-HDV
It’s a minimalistic motherboard with all the essential to migrate from an old system to a modern one. It has VGA, HDMI, audio, and good old keyboard slot so you can use your old stuff, monitor included.
Even if declared AMD Ryzen 2 Ready, 2 out of two motherboards I’ve tried already had updated bios and recognized latest CPUs without issues.
Crucial 8GB DDR4
The moment you’ll need more RAM it’s the moment you’ll need to spend more in everything else. However, 8 GB of DDR4 RAM, even if not super fast, are more than enough for every day tasks, gaming included.
Kingston SSD A400
Cheap but fast and reliable, I’ve never had issues with Kingston HD so far, despite their super competitive price.
What … only 120GB ?
To run an Operating System that’s always updated and full of daily software you’ll rarely need more than 64GB so that 120GB is already a good compromise.
Like me, and many other people I know, my friend also had an external drive with terabytes of space so spending more for a SATA 3 compatible HD wouldn’t have made any concrete difference.
VulTech Case + PSU
This was the first time I’ve assembled a PC with this case, but it went up buttery smooth. The case is solid, with a good build quality, and all the cables needed to run any motherboard, with an extra speaker included.
I would recommend when 500W are enough, ’cause the PSU looks well ventilated and built with reasonable quality.
AntergOS + Steam & PlayOnLinux
This Operating System went up super smoothly too.
The only changes I’ve made during installation are:
- enable advanced installed options to select AUR
- change the slow-old ugly Grub boot loader into Systemd
- remove xf86-video-ati to install xf86-video-amdgpu and vulkan-radeon
As result, the system boots in seconds and everything works like a charm.
What about Windows ?
If you desperately need to spend 90 extra euros for an Operating System that despite its cost bothers you with advertisements of its own products and won’t offer much more than what AntergOS does already, I can promise you every mentioned HW on this post will work out of the box on Windows 10 too.
