Used gaming PC for $535: Plenty of power, but with one catch

These are tough times for gamers. With storage and memory prices rising, buying hardware is currently especially painful for the wallet, particularly when it comes to RAM, SSDs and graphics cards. Still, anyone willing to put in some effort and accept a few compromises can get a gaming-ready PC for comparatively little money. A recent experiment by HardwareDealz shows exactly that. The goal was to build the most powerful PC possible from used parts on a very tight €500 ($535) budget.

The result is a gaming PC that can certainly be placed in the upper mid-range performance class. It includes the following components:

• CPU, motherboard and RAM: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming and 32 GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 – €175 ($187)
• Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti – €190 ($203)
• SSD: Kingston KC3000, 1 TB, PCIe Gen 4 – €75 ($80)
• Power supply: 550 W Gold PSU – €28 ($30)
• CPU cooler: Used cooler – €5 ($5)
• Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX – €20 ($21)
• Total: €493 ($527)

The most important find was probably the used bundle consisting of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming motherboard and 32 GB of G.Skill RAM for €175 ($187). Buying all of these components separately would likely have made it difficult to stay within the €500 limit. A bit of luck is therefore part of buying used hardware.

Strong performance, but with a catch

In terms of performance, the used PC should be able to handle most current games. According to HardwareDealz, it reaches around 65 to 70 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p with DLSS Quality, Ultra settings and no ray tracing. In Fortnite, the system reaches around 150 FPS at WQHD with the Epic preset and DLSS Quality. Even demanding titles such as Crimson Desert and Resident Evil Requiem reportedly run smoothly at high settings. The system’s bottleneck is likely the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB of VRAM, which can quickly reach its limits at high graphics settings. However, this is a common issue with mid-range graphics cards.

The GPU test shows an important lesson for anyone considering a used gaming PC: the used RTX 3070 Ti initially ran very hot, became loud and clocked down. After opening the card and replacing the thermal paste, temperatures dropped significantly. Hardware defects are difficult to predict, especially when buying online. In this case, the problem with the used RTX 3070 Ti was easy to fix. Damaged VRAM or worn fan bearings, however, are much harder to repair. This risk has to be factored in when buying used hardware, especially given the lack of warranty claims in private sales.