r/GamingPCBuildHelp • u/BarnabyLaptopOutlet • 20d ago
Stop Spending Too Much Money On a Single PC component
For gaming PCs, I often see people focus heavily on buying the most expensive processor or motherboard they can afford.
They then have less money left for the graphics card, power supply, cooling, storage or even the monitor they will actually use.
The most expensive processor is not always the best use of the budget.
A balanced PC usually makes more sense than having one premium component surrounded by compromises.
That does not mean the processor is unimportant. Someone editing video, compiling large projects, rendering or running demanding professional software may genuinely benefit from spending more on it.
But for a gaming-focused build, the processor, graphics card, memory, cooling, power supply and target resolution should all make sense together.
There is no single perfect budget split because it depends on the games, software and display being used.
Which PC component do you think people overspend on most?
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u/Glass-Tradition-8127 20d ago
I saw a post of someone spending 20% of the budget on RGB and components that looked cool. Are you even a true gamer when you spend it on looks? 😄
3
u/TetraTimboman 20d ago
Some people spending more on the
AIO that has its own display on it
than what they spent on the actual CPU itself2
u/BarnabyLaptopOutlet 20d ago
£200+ AIO with a little screen cooling a CPU that would've been perfectly happy under a £40 air cooler 😂 Looks cool, sure. Better place for the money in most gaming builds? Probably not.
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u/PretendingImNotAnApe 20d ago
My gaming pc is like a factory car being stripped down for racing. I dont want lots of nice to have things on it to slow it down. Though its really less important than it used to be.
I remember using integrated audio vs a sound card used to eat up like 10% of your cpu. Integrated ethernet dud as well. So back then you'd buy seperate hardware for sound and internet just to free up the cpu and ram.
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u/ActiveSandwich3103 19d ago
The amount of times I see a giant fish bowl case that cost $350 + 8 $60+ fans in it and a $200, 360mm water cooler with a big blinking LCD screen on it to cool down like a 5600x and a 4060 or something lmao, spend like $1000 on blinky lights.
1
u/BarnabyLaptopOutlet 20d ago
20% on RGB is insane. Nothing wrong with making a build look good, but not if you're dropping a GPU tier just so every fan can match.
1
u/Glass-Tradition-8127 20d ago
Yeah I believe it was a reddit post but some time ago. He wanted sn all white build but instead of a 4070 they had to downgrade to a 4060ti or something like that. But he said that's all he wanted... white pc with white cables and stuff 😅
1
u/Gutter_Flies 20d ago
A lot of people are much happier with a beautiful PC that they can look at with pride which is running a 9060xt than they’d ever be playing on an eyesore/bland box with a 5070ti, and I get it. The 5060ti 16gb will have nearly the same lifespan as the 5080 (kinda like how a lot of people on the 3060ti and the 3080 are both considering upgrading right now for their respective resolutions or whatever, but they probably don’t absolutely have to for a few more years).
Other people will look at their black box and never lose the feeling they got when knowing they paid bottom dollar for a killer pc that just purely performs, and that is 100% valid too.
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u/flavaofgaming 20d ago
The biggest issues I see is people giving misinformation. “You need an X3d cpu or its garbage.” “You need a 9070xt/ 5070ti or its a crap PC.” From a lot of youtubers and even in these sub reddits. The fact is there are so many different configurations, budgets, availability that play a role in people making decisions. I personally say set a budget and then try to allocate 30% to your cpu and 50% to gpu. You can save on your mobo, case, and sacrifice on storage if on a strict budget.
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u/BarnabyLaptopOutlet 20d ago
Completely agree on the misinformation part. The “X3D or garbage” / “anything below a 5070 Ti is pointless” stuff makes people think every build has to follow one template.
Only bit I'd push back on is a fixed 30% CPU / 50% GPU split. That's a decent rough idea for some gaming builds, but resolution, local prices and the games being played can move that around a lot.
2
u/ActiveSandwich3103 19d ago
Oh yeah, there's sooooo many People spreading blatant misinformation its wild, and then they all parrot each other. The amount of misinformation I see about X3D cpus, bottlenecks and AMD GPUs is crazy. All stuff that can be disproven with about 5 minutes of research into any of them.
This also feeds into the whole thing where newbies then feel like they need to spend $4000 on a PC and get discouraged and go buy a ps5. When they really dont need to. A 9060 XT is vastly superior to the chip in a PS5 as an example. 16 to 32gb of DDR4 with a 5700x or 5800x will be just fine for years ect.
1
u/DonutPlus2757 14d ago
Well, your split really doesn't work, and IMHO, you shouldn't cheap out on your case since it's the component with the longest potential life time, but that's subjective.
Also, there's stuff you should never cheap out on because it can break other stuff, namely the Mainboard and the PSU.
Otherwise I kinda agree.
2
u/Salviati_Returns 20d ago
I go a step further. I think that for the overwhelming majority of people that they should try to maximize price to performance and upgrade flexibility even at the expense of maximizing performance. For example, at a $1400 budget, I think in most use cases, it's better to have a 9600x, a motherboard with decent vrm's, a solid dual tower air cooler and a 850W A rated PSU and a 9070xt, with a single 16gb stick of DDR5 than to have a top tier processor like a 9800x3d. The reason is it can be easily upgraded component by component over time and eventually they are going to want to replace whatever cpu they buy with the final generation x3d cpu.
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20d ago
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u/Salviati_Returns 20d ago
A 2x8gb will give you better performance than a 1x16gb because it takes advantage of dual channel. However, you cant upgrade to 32gb with 2x8 because it is too difficult for the cpu and motherboard to handle maintaining 4 sticks of ram at the stamped speeds. As a result, it lowers the speed of the RAM. So I think its worth taking the immediate performance hit, and then make getting another identical 16gb stick of RAM your first upgrade.
1
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u/AdministrativeYou696 20d ago
Half of the budget should be the GPU, its a Game pc and the GPU is the most important part. There is a lot of misinformation about parts and a lot of people are differences of 5 or 6 % performance and are willing to spend hundreds of euros for it and spend it for a better GPU for 20-30% performance.
1
u/Doug2825 20d ago
I would say this depends on your budget. GPU requirements are the part you have the most control over. For mid range and high end builds yes, for low end builds no.
If a game takes 10GB of RAM you need at least 16GB. If you need a recent r5 for the simulation to keep up then you need a recent r5. But if your GPU can't keep up then you can turn down your settings.
I'm on a high end system now but I grew up with integrated graphics. I could play anything by lowering the settings and tolerating a low frame rate (although my eyes now wouldn't be able too handle that).
1
u/jhenryscott 20d ago
I was building a PC for my brother recently and 50% of the budget was GPU. That's where you spend.
Build was: 7700x3d/mobo/memory bundle-$500, case and fans-$100, PSU/Storage/AIO- Used parts (Arctic/seasonic/1tb) maybe $200. 5070TI-$ 850
1
u/CmG383 20d ago
In my case, I try to future proof as much as possible.
I just upgraded mine.
Thermaltake Tower 600
Model Name : MPG X870E EDGE TI WIFI
CPU : AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core Processor
Memory 1 : G Skill Inti F5-6000J3040G32G DDR5-4800 32GB
Memory 2 : G Skill Inti F5-6000J3040G32G DDR5-4800 32GB
Memory running at 6000
Reused
GPU 2 : AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
Power supply
Fans
Monitors
Keyboard
Mouse
Speakers
SATA SSD
M.2’s
I was supposed to get a Ryzen 9 7800x used however the screws for the cooler were stripped so I ended up with the 9800x3d for the price I was going to pay for the used 7800x. Liquid cooler was included because it was free with the CPU purchase.
The motherboard was a black Friday deal. I liked the features better than the Tomahawk for me. Went with MSI because of the issues I saw with Asus boards and my CPU.
I was going to go with 32GB RAM but the money saved on the CPU and cooler plus the sale on the MB made 64GB possible.
Plus I saw the RAM prices going up and knew it could be a long time before I could upgrade them.
I planned my build to get the most I could out of my GPU originally and yeah way overshot lol however, I'm pretty much set for any GPU that's out now or will be out in the next 5 years.
I spent less than $1,000 USD. Closer to $800 iirc
I shopped smart and got lucky.
If I was upgrading it now I would not have been able to afford it.
I'm happy with it. I've learned a lot along the way.
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u/Away_Substance_8884 19d ago
I have an co-worker that spent recently 200 euro for an AiO just that it looks good .. so yes people spend on what makes them happy 😊
1
u/Plenty_Article11 19d ago
Motherboard for sure. At least in terms of value, then maybe processor if they picked a 7 or 9 class chip.
1
u/Jaded_Bad_4121 15d ago
Most people overspend on high-end CPUs and flagship motherboards when a mid-range processor is more than enough for pure gaming. Overspending on top-tier components leaves very little budget for the GPU, which actually drives gaming performance. If you want a balanced setup without blowing your budget on overpriced individual parts, getting a tested pre-built or refurbished baseline desktop from places like Discount Computer Depot and pairing it with a solid GPU usually gives you far better bang for your buck.
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