If you're a gamer or computer person, you've probably seen that the Xbox Series X will be a solid $500. We at Tech Advantage Blog thought that that is a ridiculous price for that machine, and decided to create $480 "console killer" PC that will beat out the Series X while also providing all the benefits of PC.
Processor - $100
With a console killer build these days, can you really justify using any other processor than the Ryzen 3? In our case, the Ryzen 3 3200g, which packs four cores and eight threads running at 4Ghz. For comparison, this processor is more powerful than the Intel i5 on the Macbook Pro $1300 base configuration.
Motherboard - $75
We're using a motherboard we recently posted about, which is the Gigabyte A520M DS3H. This is an mATX motherboard that is as cheap as a B450 but has a great future-proofed chipset. I like Gigabyte's DS3H line because it is reliable, inexpensive, and practical, coming with four DDR4 slots and an extra PCIe gen 3 4x slot.
Graphics Card - $160
In terms of price to performance, it's hard to beat the XFX Radeon RX570 8GB. This card packs a lot of power, matching that of a GTX 1070, and it only costs $160! It comes in a dual fan configuration, and surprisingly only needs a six-pin power connecter. I like efficiency.
Memory - $22
Memory prices are getting very low nowadays, and we wanted to take advantage of that. We went with the OLOy CL19 kit, which is one stick of 2666 MHz DDR4 RAM. Not bad, for $22.
Storage - $46
Our storage is a 500gb SSD from Silicon Power, a brand that offers great dollar-to-gigabyte ratios. The SATA 3.0 connection is also pretty speedy, enabling fast boot times. I've used these SSDs over five times in my personal/commissioned builds, and they've never failed me.
Case - $30
Our case is the Matrex 30. This is a high airflow, low-budget case that packs a lot of features. It has a glass side panel, space for three fans, and looks great. We wrote a review on this case recently, where it was dubbed the best super-budget case. It has everything we need at a low pricepoint.
Fans - $15
The Matrex 30 comes with a fan already, so we decided to add on three white LED fans from Amazon. But while we're messing with fans, we might as well change them all to LED! The fans we chose are from upHere, a lesser-known brand that delivers decent fans for good prices.
Power Supply - $45
Lastly, we needed to save some money, but still stick with a reliable brand. This is why we went with a fairly low-wattage 500W PSU from EVGA. For $45, it's very solid. It's also 80+ white certified, which is quite efficient, and comes with a three year warranty to show EVGA knows what they're doing.