Building a Gaming PC Just Got Trickier — Here’s What You Can Actually Skimp On Right Now

The ongoing price hikes on memory and SSDs keep squeezing the component market, so picking hardware for a new gaming rig takes more caution than it did just a couple of years ago. In the latest episode of Best Builds, the YouTuber behind PC Centric took a closer look at three setups across different budgets and explained why chasing flagship graphics cards doesn’t make much sense at the moment.

The gist of it is this: DDR5 and drive prices have shot up largely because AI companies are gobbling up memory for data centers. Manufacturers can’t ramp up production fast enough, so the shortage sticks around. Under these circumstances, the blogger suggests either going with a DDR4-based platform for budget builds to save money, or just accepting the premium you’ll pay for memory in mid-range and high-end rigs. For an entry-level system, he calls the Intel Arc B570 the most well-rounded GPU option. In his assessment, it beats the GeForce RTX 5060 and RTX 5050 in price-to-performance, and it has enough headroom for 1080p gaming. Pair it with the 10-core Core i5-14400F on a B760M board, 16 GB of DDR4, and a 500 GB SSD, and you’re looking at roughly $848 before taxes, per his calculations – not exactly cheap, but noticeably easier on the wallet than trying to go all-DDR5.

For the mid-tier, he recommends a combo of the Radeon RX 9070, Ryzen 7 9700X, and a B850 motherboard. That setup handles 1440p with room to spare. Memory is 32 GB of DDR5, storage is a 1 TB drive, and here you’re definitely paying a premium for the RAM. In the high-end segment, he advises against picking up a GeForce RTX 5090 or RTX 5080, and instead suggests settling on the Radeon RX 9070 XT. In his view, with upscaling tech in the mix, these cards are more than capable for 4K gaming, and the price gap versus NVIDIA’s flagships just doesn’t justify itself for the average gamer. Pair that with a Ryzen 9 9850X3D, another B850 board, 32 GB of DDR5, and a 2 TB SSD. The final build ends up significantly cheaper than systems with an RTX 5090, even accounting for pricey memory.

PC Centric also points out that you don’t necessarily need to swap your B850 board for an X870 unless you have very specific use cases, and that a DDR4 build is more of a stopgap – future upgrades will be held back by the older platform. For those who already have a DDR5 kit on hand, things are simpler: CPUs like the Core Ultra 5 250K or Ryzen 7 9700X currently deliver solid performance for their price.

The market isn’t in the best shape right now, but thoughtfully picked configurations can still offer a perfectly good gaming experience without going for flagship parts. The biggest hit to your wallet right now isn’t graphics cards – it’s memory and SSDs, so it’s worth checking local prices on both DDR4 and DDR5 separately before you commit to anything.

Are you planning to upgrade your PC this August, or are you waiting for memory prices to stabilize? And which of the three builds seems the most sensible to you – drop your thoughts in the comments.