If you are looking to build a gaming PC that costs less than $300 but can play your favorite games smoothly, you are at the right place. We understand that not everyone has several hundred or thousands of dollars to invest in a gaming PC. This does not mean you can not enjoy your gaming hobby if you don’t have that amount of money.
In 2025, we have countless options for each component for different budgets and the technology evolution is not stopping here. Fortunately, we can build a gaming PC for as low as $300 that can play most of the latest titles at 720p to 1080p resolutions. However, everything depends on what game and settings you are aiming for. We won’t promise you something that is currently impossible which is playing AAA titles on high to ultra settings.
Therefore, keep in mind that this $300 gaming PC is for those who want to play less graphically intensive titles, especially esports games like Fortnite, CSGO, Valorant, etc. With time we update this guide in order to serve you the best gaming PC for the money and we are here to assist you in the best way possible.
Is $300 Good For A Gaming PC?
A $300 gaming PC in 2025 will play a lot of games but modern titles won’t run as smoothly as the older titles. The fact that video games are evolving at a fast pace too, makes it more difficult to run newer graphical-intensive titles on a budget PC. However, a $300 PC build can still run these games with low to medium settings on resolutions ranging from 720p to 1080p.
I recommend that you should build this PC to play casual games, older titles, and esports games that don’t require a lot of horsepower from the CPU and GPU. Playing these three categories of games is totally possible at 1080p resolution with low to medium settings. Framerates will vary from game to game and on the settings you choose for those games.
It is important that you understand what components you can get for under $300 right now and what we recommend.
Things To Consider for a $300 Gaming PC
CPU: For a budget of $300, you have limited options for the CPU. You can either get one that costs less than $100 or I recommend going with an APU that features both CPU and GPU inbuilt. This way you can cut the cost down by not getting a discrete GPU. A four-core processor is recommended for this PC and we have some good options from both Intel and AMD.
Motherboard: It’s best to get a motherboard that costs the least as possible but provides all the necessary ports and slots for installing your components. I generally recommend going with a Micro-ATX board with a locked chipset to avoid a cost increase.
RAM: The least system RAM to go with is 4GB DDR4. 8GB is better and sufficient for gaming purposes. In case, the cost is way over the $300 mark, I suggest settling with 4GB RAM.
Graphics Card: There are very few graphics cards you can buy for a $300 build as most sub $100 GPUs don’t provide good enough gaming performance and increase the overall cost to much more than $300. If both the processor and GPU are good enough to play games on low to medium settings and cost less than $180 together, I recommend going with a discrete GPU rather than the APU.
Storage: Storage capacity starts from 120GB and it is recommended to go with at least 250GB of storage. Going above 250GB will increase the cost significantly. Also, an SSD is way better than going with a traditional hard drive.
Power Supply: At this price, getting a premium power supply is very difficult. However, a reliable power supply with at least 350W of wattage capacity is a must. The higher, the better. Also, the PSU should come with at least one or two 6-pin power connectors to power a discrete GPU.
Case: As we are most likely going to use a micro-ATX motherboard, it is logical to get a micro-ATX tower that is cheap but spacious enough for installing the components and for upgrades in the future. We are not going to prioritize good aesthetics over functionality.
Parts List For $300 Gaming PC
Processor and GPU
- Includes advanced Radeon Vega 8 graphics, no…
- Can deliver smooth high definition performance in…
- 4 processing cores, bundled with the quiet AMD…
- 4.0 GHz max boost, unlocked for overclocking, 6 MB…
For this build, we will be using an APU called AMD Ryzen 3 3200G. Even though it’s quite old for now, it’s still a decently capable budget APU with 4 cores and 8 threads clocked at 3.6GHz/4.0GHz. As using a dedicated GPU with a CPU will increase the expense much higher than $300, I am suggesting going with an APU if you are really tight on the budget. This APU brings the right amount of cores for the latest titles and is sufficient for CPU-intensive tasks as well.
This CPU is overclockable and therefore, you can squeeze out more performance for absolutely free if you do some overclocking. The iGPU on Ryzen 3200G is Radeon RX Vega 8 which features 8 graphics cores and a frequency of 1250MHz. Not very impressive but surely enough to play a lot of games at 1080p resolution on low settings with around 30 fps.
Do keep in mind that this is only capable of playing esports, casual, and non-intensive titles, and in no way you should expect it to play modern triple-A titles. Once you have some cash, you can always upgrade to a discrete GPU later but for now, it will be okay considering our low budget.
RAM
- Capacity: 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4 Module
- Aluminum heat spreader with unique and specific…
- Feature Overclock: XMP 2.0 Support for Automatic…
- Compatibility: Tested across the latest Intel and…
Fortunately, we can use 8GB of DDR4 RAM as currently, RAM prices are lower as DDR5 is struggling to become mainstream. With 8GB RAM, you won’t see any major dips in games as there won’t be any bottlenecking due to sufficient RAM. The Patriot Viper Steel RAM is a single 8GB memory module clocked at 3200MHz.
Motherboard
- Supports 3rd Gen AMD AM4 Ryzen / Future AMD Ryzen…
- 6 Phase Power Design
- Supports DDR4 4733+ (OC)
- 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 x PCIe 3.0 x1
For the motherboard, we need something that is cheap and gives us all the necessary ports/slots for our components. As Ryzen 3200G is now officially supported on the A520 chipset motherboards, it will save us a good amount of cash.
We are going to use the ASRock A520M-HDV as it is cheaper than other boards while bringing onboard Wifi that is hard to find on a sub $100 motherboard. This is a Micro-ATX board that features dual DIMM slots that support up to 32GB of RAM clocked at over 4000MHz and for expansion cards, it gives you a single PCI-E x16 slot and a single PCI-E x1 slot for wifi/sound card.
The board has 4x SATA slots for adding up to four SATA drives and features the entry-level A520 chipset that won’t allow overclocking of your CPU. This might seem a CON as Ryzen 3200G is an overclockable chip but we will need at least a B450 or B550 chipset motherboard if we want to overclock this CPU and the motherboard will cost nearly $100. Therefore, the A520 chipset is fine for now.
Storage
- Upgrade your laptop or desktop computer and feel…
- Exceptional performance offering up to 535MB/s…
- Superior performance as compared to traditional…
- Ultra-low power consumption
I chose the PNY CS900 SSD for the storage which gives you 250GB of space to store your OS and games. It is not a lot for having everything on your drive but decent for starting off. With this SATA SSD, you will get a good Read/Write speed of around 500MB/s which is much faster than a traditional hard drive and at the same time, costs less than 30 bucks which makes it a good choice for this build.
Power Supply
- Delivers 500 Watt Continuous output at plus 40…
- 80 PLUS Certified, 80 percentage efficiency under…
- Supports (2) PCI E 6plus2pin Connectors. Active…
- Industry Grade Protections: (OPP) Over Power…
Thermaltake produces some of the best budget PSUs and I chose the Smart 500W which is available for less than $39. It is an 80-plus rated power supply that gives you more than 80% of power efficiency on Typical loads. With 500 Watts, you can not only power every component on the list but also add more components in the future.
It comes with dual 6+2 pin power cables for graphics cards which makes upgrading to a discrete GPU easier and you can add any budget to a mid-end GPU without any need for changing the power supply. Thermaltake is providing a 5-year warranty on this PSU and this particular unit has received several thousands of positive reviews for its good performance.
Case
- Magnetic Dust Filters: The unique pattern of the…
- Components Clearance: Accommodates CPU coolers…
- Versatile Cooling: Maximize cooling performance…
- Modular I/O Panel: You have the flexibility to…
Finding a cheap but good case is very difficult. However, the Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L is surprisingly still one of the cheapest micro-ATX cases you can buy, which is going to minimize the total cost of your build while giving full support to your components. Although it does not feature a very high-quality build and boasts an old design, it is still reliable and fits into our budget easily.
It can support both Micro and Mini ITX motherboards, has good GPU clearance of up to 360mm, and supports CPU coolers up to 159mm in height. It has a few drive bays for installing hard drives/SSDs and a fantastic cable management system for managing cables without hassles. It is a lightweight chassis that is easier to carry around and comes with a pre-installed 120mm fan at the rear. Again, it’s not the best but nothing could be better as it costs only 40 dollars.
Links to Amazon UK and Amazon CA may contain different components depending on the availability and pricing. Most of the time these components will be RAM and Power Supply.
Is $300 Gaming PC Upgradable?
Definitely. From CPU to Case, you can change whatever component you like but you should always do it in a way that doesn't make it look like a $1500 iPhone with a $20 back cover. Keep in mind that whatever upgrade you do in the future, adding another 1TB SSD storage is a must before everything. As for other parts, we used the Ryzen 3200G for both CPU and GPU, and therefore, the very first upgrade should be your GPU. I don't recommend going with another APU in the future as that will hardly have any significant impact on gaming performance.
The Ryzen 3200G is an ok APU and I recommend going with a CPU-GPU combo that multiplies the fps you are currently getting with the 3200G. In order to do that, you at least need a GPU that costs $150 or above. At this price, you can have the GTX 1650, RX 6400, or 6500 XT. All of them are good for high settings at 1080p.
Therefore, if you are looking to max out games at 1080p resolution with 60+ fps, I recommend upgrading the CPU first. Get something like a Ryzen 5600X or higher to ensure your GPU isn't bottlenecked. That said, the next better upgrade is your RAM. Simply adding a 16GB memory module will do wonders. With that size of RAM, you can open multiple tabs in the background while you do some game or other office-related work. These days, 16GB has become the norm as startup applications and Chrome browser eats up a lot of gigs.
Finally, if you feel the urge to overclock and add NVME SSDs, more RAM, etc., upgrade your motherboard to at least a B450 or a B550 chipset motherboard(Micro-ATX form factor). This will give you more PCI-E lanes for accessing more bandwidth for the expansion slots and you will have multiple USB ports for connecting the peripherals at the same time. The best part, however, is the VRM. Getting a board with a powerful VRM cooled by big heatsinks will let you overclock your CPU without worrying about thermal throttling and you can squeeze out more performance absolutely free of cost.
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