Watching RAM prices skyrocket in recent weeks has been painful for my PC-building soul. 64GB of DDR5 has gone from around $500 to over $900 in just days, eclipsing the cost of entire builds. So Newegg’s B650 motherboard and 16GB DDR5-6000 combo got me thinking: How cheap can you go on a build this deals season without sacrificing single-threaded CPU performance or gaming prowess?
Using that combo deal as a foundation, we put together a $650 build that doesn’t suck. It’s impossible to go any cheaper for a DDR5 platform right now, and moving back to DDR4 platforms is shockingly constraining. Many once-attractive CPUs and compatible motherboards have gone NLA, stopping us cold.
Quick list: $650 suck-free gaming PC build
I’m not sure it’s possible to build or buy a cheaper modern PC than this right now. You can swap out the RTX 5050 for a $199 Arc B570 if you want, but you’re giving up valuable performance and DLSS support to get there.
The cheapest RTX 5050 prebuilt on Newegg is $100 more and isn’t specced any better than this, and similarly priced prebuilts have ancient GPUs that sometimes don’t even have 8GB of VRAM.
In any case, act fast on this parts list if it tempts you, because Newegg won’t be running that free mobo + RAM combo forever, and that’s the life preserver that’s keeping us afloat as the DDR5 pricing waters threaten to drown PC builders at every price point.