INVESTIGATION DOSSIER
BUDGET PCS
Every euro carries weight.
Under 1,000 credits, allocation mistakes are expensive. We investigate whether a budget configuration spends on the right silicon — and flag the corner-cutting that cheap listings hide.
INVESTIGATE A BUDGET PCWHAT WE INVESTIGATE
- GPU share of total budget
- CPU platform longevity
- RAM channel configuration
- SSD vs DRAM-less storage traps
- PSU quality floor
- Case airflow basics
- Upgrade runway
- Price vs component floor value
COMMON MISTAKES WE CATCH
- No-name PSUs with fictional wattage ratings
- Single-stick RAM halving memory bandwidth
- DRAM-less SSDs that collapse under sustained writes
- Spending on RGB while the GPU is two tiers too low
RECOMMENDED CONFIGURATIONS
BUDGET PCS — REFERENCE BUILDS
True Budget 1080p
Core i5-12400F · RTX 4060 · 16 GB DDR4 · 1 TB NVMe
650–750 credits
Balanced Starter
Ryzen 5 7600X · RX 7600 · 16 GB DDR5 · 1 TB NVMe
900–1,000 credits
Stretch Build
Ryzen 5 7600X · RTX 5060 · 32 GB DDR5 · 1 TB NVMe
1,100–1,200 credits
PRIORITY ORDER
- 01 GPU takes the largest share
- 02 Two RAM sticks, always
- 03 Named-brand PSU
- 04 1 TB NVMe minimum
- 05 Plain case, good fans
COMPONENTS UNDER REVIEW
Every budget pc investigation inspects these components against the criteria above — then issues a verdict.
ANSWERS ON RECORD
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Around 700 credits buys a competent 1080p machine; 1,000 credits reaches comfortable high-refresh 1080p / entry 1440p territory. Below 600 credits, a prebuilt deal or used market often beats new parts.
The power supply. A failing PSU can take every other component with it. We treat PSU quality as a hard floor, not a preference.
DDR4 platforms still win below roughly 800 credits total. Above that, AM5/LGA1700 DDR5 platforms give a much longer upgrade runway.