Gaming PC for 800 euros vs. self-made: what brings more power for the money?

New year, old sorrow: Prices for hardware and the inflation of money are still upsetting gamblers. In the new year you will get less service for the same money than three years ago. Sounds absurd, but unfortunately it is a bitter reality. The shortage of chips triggered by the corona crisis and crypto hysteria will also keep the tech industry busy in 2022.

Graphics cards in particular remain an expensive rarity and quite a few gamers pray to the Lord to let their beloved GTX 1070 or Vega 56 live on a little longer. But what do gamers get who have been denied such luck by their creator and are forced to search for a gaming PC under 800 euros in January 2022? First the disappointing answer: not much. Three devices in comparison.

Lenovo IdeaCentre Gaming 5 Desktop PC

What all gaming computers under 800 euros have in common is the graphics card. Unfortunately, for the price, you can’t get more than a GTX 1650 from Nvidia, which you definitely want to attach to a monitor with Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels). Anything above that could cause the card to run into problems in games. The GTX 1650 rendered simple titles such as “Fortnite”, “Counter Sttrinke – Global Offensive” or “League of Legends” smoothly, even in high details. With triple-AAA titles like “Cyberpunk 2077”, gamers prefer to turn down the graphics settings if they want the game to run smoothly.

Donated as a processor Lenovo the IdeaCentre Gaming 5 an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G. The six-core is significantly more powerful than its graphics card and should make gamers happy for the next four to five years without any problems. the 512 gigabytes (GB) large SSD, on the other hand, should run out of steam sooner. With the size of current games, gamers sometimes want an additional SSD installed in the computer. After all, the memory sticks are price-stable, so you can easily retrofit them when the lack of space becomes unbearable. The same applies to the main memory: 16 GB slumber in the IdeaCentre. That’s enough for most gamers for the next few years.

Tip: The same computer is available from Lenovo for 899 euros with the GTX 1660 Super. A surcharge that is really worth it in the current situation, because compared to the GTX 1650, the 1660 Super offers around 40 percent more performance at “only” 22 percent more price.

Same price, less memory: memory gaming PC

Memory Gaming PC at Saturn to buy

For the same price, Saturn offers the memory gaming pc at. But only with the Ryzen 5 3600X and not like Lenovo with the somewhat newer Ryzen 5 5600G processor. In terms of performance, the 3600X is slightly below the 5600G with slightly more power consumption. However, the difference on the electricity bill and in games should not be really noticeable. Nevertheless, the point victory here clearly goes to the Lenovo computer.

When it comes to the internal memory, the memory gaming PC is even more timid: only one 256GB large SSD does its job in the computer. There’s really only room for your absolute favorite titles. After all, the 16 GB RAM is also big enough to leave it untouched for the next few years. The manufacturer naturally uses the Nvidia GTX 1650 for the graphics card.

The Intel alternative: Acer Aspire TC-1660

If you trust Intel more than AMD, grab it Acer Aspire TC-1660, whose central processing unit is an Intel Core i5-11400F processor. In terms of performance, the chip is at the top for gaming computers under 800 euros. Unfortunately, the Acer saves on working memory. The manufacturer only installs 8 GB in its ready-to-use computer. With a 1 terabyte SSD, it offers enough storage for many games. And of course an Nvidia GTX 1650 again calculates this onto the screen.

Do-it-yourself as a solution?

So far, so sobering the yield of a prefab gaming computer under 800 euros. Now the question arises whether it makes more sense to build the gaming computer yourself. The simple answer is yes, it is. At least in normal times. Currently, this question is not so easy to answer.

However, there are two advantages to self-builders: You enjoy more freedom when choosing the mainboard and the power supply unit. The manufacturers of ready-made computers are only too happy to save on both components. And that can lead to problems in the future, for example if you want to upgrade the graphics card but realize that the built-in power supply is too weak for the new card. Greetings from the phrase pig: If you buy cheap, you often buy twice.

However, there is still one disadvantage for self-builders: cheap mainboards usually offer neither WLAN nor Bluetooth. Both must be retrofitted via a PCIe card. Most ready-to-use computers, on the other hand, offer the radio standards by default. Manageable for gamers who do not need Bluetooth and connect the computer to the network via cable.

Gaming PC under 800 euros to build yourself

All the computers presented offer a six-core processor. We also want to equip our home-made PC with the same. Due to the lack of availability of newer processors, our selection is so limited that we only have the choice between a Ryzen 5 5600X and a Core i5 11400F. The price difference between the two processors is around 150 euros, which is why we opt for the Intel chip, although it is slightly less powerful.

The cheapest mainboard for the processor is a Biostar B560MX-E PRO for around 100 euros. It offers space for four RAM bars with up to 128 gigabytes of memory, two M.2 SSDs and two graphics cards. For the do-it-yourself PC, we also buy 16 gigabytes of DDR-4 RAM from Thermaltake, a Sharkoon Silent Storm Cool Zero power supply with 650 watts of power, the WDBlue SN550 SSD with 1 terabyte of memory and the Thermaltake H330 -TG housing. Close together 494 euros.

The GTX 1650 costs at least individually 259 euros – we’re undercutting the target of 800 euros 37 euros, if we calculate shipping with 10 euros. A GTX 1660 Super is not recommended. It currently costs around 500 euros. An AMD RX 6600, which is available at a similar price, is worth more. However, both cards exceed the target of undercutting 800 euros.

The construction of the computer is then added to the costs. Assuming you already have Windows, there are no costs for this – otherwise you have to add another 100 euros (if you don’t use an OEM key for only 10 euros).

Conclusion:

If you already have a key for Windows, the self-made computer solves the problem 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD storage both problems of the finished computer at a better price, but suffers from the graphics card like all gaming computers under 800 euros.

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