Research-based guide. Prices and specs are sourced and dated, not tested by us.

A budget build looks simple until the prices move under it. In June, Tom’s Hardware put together a $1,000 gaming PC around a Core i5-12600KF and an RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, using Prime Day deals. Graphics cards have gone up since. This article keeps that parts list as a base, shows what each part cost, and then swaps in the graphics card prices from Tom’s Hardware’s tracker of 26 October 2026 to show what the same build costs now. The graphics card is the only part we re-priced. We did not re-check the other parts for October, so treat the totals as a floor, not a quote.

The parts list (June 2026 deal prices)

Part	Model	June price (US)	Why Tom’s Hardware picked it
CPU	Intel Core i5-12600KF	$179.97 (Newegg)	10 cores, up to 4.9 GHz. It lets the build use cheaper DDR4. Described as getting up there in years.
Cooler	Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE	$17.90 (Amazon)	Cools the CPU quietly for under $20, per the author’s own use.
Motherboard	Asus B760M-AYW WiFi D4 II	$89.99 (Newegg, with promo code)	One of the few new LGA 1700 DDR4 boards. Includes Wi-Fi 6.
Memory	Silicon Power 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3200 CL16	$198.97 (Amazon)	32GB as a no-compromise position.
Storage	Silicon Power UD90 1TB PCIe Gen4	$144.79 (Silicon Power, promo code)	Gen 4 speeds at a reasonable cost per gigabyte.
Case	Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L (micro-ATX)	$32.99 (Amazon)	Good airflow, a long-time favorite for cheap builds.
Power supply	ASRock PRO-750G 750W, 80 Plus Gold	$54.99 (Newegg)	Enough PCIe connectors and headroom for a future card.
Graphics card	MSI Ventus RTX 5060 Ti 8GB	$309.99 (Newegg, promo code and mail-in rebate)	15% faster than an RTX 5060 at 1080p and cheaper at the time.
Total		$1,029.59	Sum of the listed prices. The parts other than the card add up to $719.60.

Source: Tom’s Hardware, $1,000 Prime Day gaming PC (June 2026). The parts list does not include a Windows license. Several prices depended on promo codes or a mail-in rebate.

What the same build costs with today’s graphics card prices

We kept the $719.60 of non-GPU parts and added the lowest US price for each card on Tom’s Hardware’s GPU tracker (updated 26 October 2026).

Graphics card	Lowest US price, 26 Oct	MSRP	Build total (floor)
Intel Arc B570 (10GB)	$289	$219	$1,008.60
RTX 5060 (8GB)	$449	$299	$1,168.60
RX 9060 XT 8GB	$459	$299	$1,178.60
RTX 5060 Ti 8GB	$529	$379	$1,248.60
RX 9060 XT 16GB	$599	$349	$1,318.60

Two changes stand out. First, the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, which Tom’s Hardware picked in June because it cost less than the plain RTX 5060, now costs $80 more than the RTX 5060 ($529 against $449). The reason to choose it has reversed. Second, the card that Tom’s Hardware offered as a 16GB upgrade for about $100 more in June, the RX 9060 XT 16GB at $419.99, is now $599, a rise of $179.01 or 43%. The 16GB option has become a different budget.

A caution on reading these numbers: the June GPU prices were sale prices with promo codes, and the October prices are the lowest listed by a tracker, not guaranteed to be in stock. Some of the gap is Prime Day discounts ending, not only a market move.

Which graphics card to choose now

If you…	Choose	Why
Want to stay close to $1,200 and play at 1080p	RTX 5060 or RX 9060 XT 8GB	The two cost within $10 of each other. Our RTX 5060 vs RX 9060 XT comparison covers the difference.
Want a card that will cope as games ask for more VRAM	RX 9060 XT 16GB	A $140 premium over the 8GB version of the same card on 26 October (30%). The build floor becomes about $1,319.
Want the lowest possible total	Intel Arc B570	Cheapest on the list at $289. We did not find a trustworthy performance comparison to place it against the others, so we do not rank it.

Why this build is balanced, and where it is not

• Balanced for 1080p. A six-core-plus-four-efficiency-core CPU with an RTX 5060-class card suits 1080p gaming. For how to tell if a pairing is wasting your card, see CPU or GPU bottleneck.
• 32GB of memory. See how much RAM for gaming for why that is the safe amount.
• The platform is a dead end. LGA 1700 with DDR4 is a cheap way in, but it leaves little room to move to a newer CPU later. If you plan to keep this PC for many years, check what a DDR5 platform costs before you commit.
• No operating system in the list. A Windows license is a separate cost. Prebuilts include it, which matters when you compare totals.

Build or buy?

Tom’s Hardware tested the CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme, an RTX 5060 PC with 32GB of DDR5 and a 2TB SSD, at $1,099.99. Our build floor with an RTX 5060 is $1,168.60, with DDR4, 1TB of storage and no Windows license. The prices are from different dates, so this is not a clean comparison, but it shows why a prebuilt deserves a look before you buy parts. See Best Prebuilt Gaming PCs and our earlier guide Build, buy a laptop or wait.

Last checked 29 October 2026. We update this guide when graphics card or memory prices move noticeably, or when we can re-price the other parts. How we source our guides is explained on the About page.

Sources

• Tom’s Hardware, You can still build a great $1,000 budget gaming PC with Amazon Prime Day parts (June 2026)
• Tom’s Hardware, GPU price tracking 2026 (updated 26 October 2026)
• Tom’s Hardware, Best Gaming PCs of 2026 (updated 5 October 2026)