Speaking of upgrading, you should find plenty of room to increase your performance from this point. You’ll certainly find no shortage of games that’ll run on the machine, and it’s a good place to start with the intention of upgrading incrementally as you go on. You’ll be able to play a lot of games at 1080p with capped framerates, and of course the past 30+ years of PC history should also be available to you too thanks to places like GOG. If you’re comfortable with an adequate entry-level PC gaming experience, then $400 is a good amount of money to spend on your first build. If you’re looking for a high-end PC gaming experience then you’re going to need to spend more than $400. You can even manage some more intense games like The Witcher 3 if you don’t mind capping your FPS to 30.īefore you consider buying any parts for your machine, you should pin down exactly what it is that you want out of the build. Any low-impact games like Fortnite should run at respectable frame rates in medium graphical settings without any major hiccups.

Realistically, even with our expert advice you should realize you’re not going to get top-tier performance from this build. Similarly, you can get much better performance out of a build with a dedicated CPU and GPU, but going for one of AMDs APUs to handle both means you can afford to spend a bit more on other areas like the motherboard which gives you a strong foundation to build and upgrade from in the future. At this price point, it’s tempting to go for the cheapest option in every area, but to have the best experience it is worth splurging on one or two of the components.Īn SSD is certainly pricier than a HDD, and comes with less space too, but the increased boot and loading times are worth it. When you’re only spending $400, you need to be sure you know exactly where you need to spend your money.

Custom small gaming laptop