Although the desktop is geared towards gaming more than ever, the way modern PCs have evolved has arguably done much for normal stuff and work-related tasks. In fact, while PC gaming has been made expensive by the rising prices of good graphics cards, it's almost the opposite for a standard home or office PC, which doesn't require a graphics card in most cases.

In fact, for just around $450 you can build a really fast computer that's great for stuff like browsing the internet, writing up documents spreadsheets, photo editing, and more. This is all with brand-new hardware that gives you a great foundation to build off of and upgrade down the line. Here are the parts I recommend for a cheap home or office PC.

These are the best parts for budget home/office work PC build

12th Gen Intel Core i5
Intel Core i5-12400
Best CPU

Great or even overkill for a home/office PC

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a solid entry into the budget space. It's a great processor to consider for budget gaming builds in 2023.

Pros
  • Integrated graphics
  • Six P-cores
  • Included cooler
Cons
  • Price fluctuations might make it a little out of budget

Although Intel's 12th-generation CPUs are getting old, the Core i5-12400 is ideal for this kind of PC. Firstly, the lowest-end 13th-generation CPUs, the Core i3-13100(F) and Core i5-13400(F) actually use 12th-generation Alder Lake chips, so they're not actually newer. Plus, there's no 13th-generation chip between the $100 and $200 marks, while the 12400 at $160 fits nicely into the budget for this build. It might be a bit overkill for the kind of stuff you'd run on it, but that only means it'll last for a long while.

The 12400 isn't anything special, coming with six P-cores clocked at a medium frequency. It doesn't even have any E-cores, the big-ticket item behind Alder Lake and Intel's hybrid architecture. But Microsoft Office apps and web browsers don't really require anything fancy, and you might even consider the 12400 to be overkill for this sort of stuff.

What's important about the 12400 is the fact that it comes with an integrated GPU, which means there's no need to get an expensive graphics card. Of course, the iGPU inside the 12400 is really slow compared to even the cheapest of graphics cards from half a decade ago, but it'll do fine for non-gaming stuff. And if you do decide you want to do some gaming, it can handle lighter games like Terraria and Minecraft decently enough.

At the time of writing, the 12400 is $160, and although 12th-generation CPUs have mostly been supplanted by 13th-generation Raptor Lake models, it's likely we will continue to see the 12400 on store shelves for some time at a good price. If the 12400 increases in price either due to limited stock or typical price fluctuations, you might want the 13100 or 12100, whichever is cheaper since they're practically the same CPU. But if you can get the 12400 and stick to the $450 budget closely enough, it'll be worth it.

Gigabyte B660M Aorus Elite AX DDR4 motherboard.
Gigabyte B660M Aorus Elite AX DDR4
Best motherboard

A motherboard with a great upgrade path

Gigabyte's B660M Aorus Elite AX DDR4 is a low-end LGA 1700 motherboard with support for 12th- and 13th-generation CPUs, PCIe 4.0 SSDs, and DDR4 memory.

Pros
  • Uses cheap DDR4 memory
  • Supports PCIe 4.0 SSDs
  • 12+1+1 VRM stages for higher-end CPUs down the line
Cons
  • More expensive than other B660M motherboards

Although it's normal to pair these kinds of PCs with cheap motherboards, I would recommend against doing that. Since it's hard to guess what you're going to want to do with your PC like three years down the line, locking yourself into a bad motherboard can be both annoying and a waste of money if you need to buy a new board. That's why I recommend a lower-end gaming motherboard, Gigabyte's B660M Aorus Elite AX DDR4, which is cheap enough to be affordable but good enough to provide a good upgrade path.

One of the key points about this motherboard is the fact that it uses cheap DDR4 RAM instead of newer DDR5, and although DDR5 is faster than DDR4, it just won't make a difference here. There are also two M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs, and these slots support PCIe 4.0, which is what you want for some of the best M.2 SSDs. This board also has a 12+1+1 stage VRM, which basically means it can feed the CPU a decent amount of power, and more stages are better to get a CPU to perform as good as possible.

Rear I/O is also very important for home and office use, and here the Aorus Elite doesn't disappoint. There are eight USB ports (four of which are USB 3.2), Wi-Fi 6E, and 2.5 gigabit Ethernet. This amount of rear I/O is actually fairly hard to come by at this price point, making this motherboard a pretty good deal and one you won't want to get rid of too soon.

At $130, there are many cheaper motherboards out there but with worse specs. If the B660M Aorus Elite or similar boards ever go out of stock or get too expensive to fit into the budget (or if you just want to save even more money), I recommend just opting for a really cheap H610M board instead, like MSI's Pro H610M-G DDR4. These lower-end motherboards are worse across the board but have good bang for buck and should still be sufficient, just not quite as good as most B660M motherboards.

Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 RAM
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 RAM
Best RAM

Cheap and high performance

Corsair's Vengeance LPX DDR4 memory is affordable, reliable, has one of the lowest profile designs around, and XMP has a one-click setup. There are two different versions: one optimized for AMD and another optimized for Intel.

Pros
  • Super cheap
  • Very good performance
  • Low-profile
Cons
  • A bit ugly

What's interesting about Corsair's Vengeance LPX RAM is that it's both cheap and very fast, things that are usually mutually exclusive. At $40 for a 16GB kit, you're saving lots of money not only compared to DDR5, but also against many other DDR4 kits out there. There are cheaper memory kits you can buy, but they come with such low performance that there's very little point.

Rated for 3,200MHz and a CAS latency (or CL) of 16, LPX memory is pretty high-end overall. 3,200MHz isn't quite the highest frequency for DDR4, but CL16 is pretty close to the lowest latency out of the box you can find. Though, since this is just for a basic PC, this level of performance won't really matter; however, it is nice to have.

The only thing against this RAM is that it's not exactly the prettiest in the world, though it probably looks better than plain, green memory sticks with no heatsinks. Speaking of the heatsinks, the LPX's heatsinks are low-profile, meaning if you get a CPU cooler in the future, you won't have to worry about it not fitting because of the RAM.

The Solidigm P41 Plus SSD.
Solidigm P41 Plus
Best SSD

Not super fast, but offers a high capacity for the price

Solidigm's P41 Plus is a budget PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD that targets good bang for buck in respect to performance and capacity.

Pros
  • 1TB only costs about $40
  • Performance is sufficient
  • Custom software
Cons
  • If you do lots of data transfers, you might find the P41 Plus limiting

At the time of writing, storage has never been cheaper. In fact, it's cheaper to get an SSD than an HDD at the moment, which is why I recommend a PCIe 4.0 drive like Solidigm's P41 Plus. It's a budget SSD that focuses on bang for buck when it comes to capacity, and although its performance isn't amazing, it's good enough for this kind of PC.

In my review of the P41 Plus, I found that its sequential performance peaked at 4,000MB/s in reads and 3300MB/s in writes, which isn't anything special, but it is decent enough for the price. In random workloads though, the P41 Plus is on par with high-end PCIe 3.0 SSDs, which are an alternative you might consider instead of a low-end PCIe 4.0 SSD. The P41 Plus is a winner here, even if it's by a slight margin.

Although the P41 Plus has gone out of stock from time to time, when it is available you should expect to pay $40 for the 1TB model, which is what I recommend since the 2TB model is usually around $80 or so. If you can't find a P41 Plus, then Samsung's 970 EVO Plus could be a good alternative, with similar performance despite being PCIe 3.0 and usually selling around the same price. Crucial's P3 Plus is also a good option, though is a bit more expensive.

Thermaltake SMART 600W PSU.
Thermaltake SMART 600W
Best PSU

Cheap but with plenty of room for future upgrades

Thermaltake's SMART 600W power supply is cheap enough for budget PCs while offering plenty of power, enough to support even a GPU that requires two 8-pin power plugs.

Pros
  • 600 watts of power
  • Enough power plugs for even a higher-end GPU
  • Cheap
Cons
  • Not modular

While a better power supply won't improve the performance of a PC, it'll definitely help with future upgrades and reliability, so you definitely want a good one. Lots of cheap PSUs are pretty bad, but one exception is Thermaltake's SMART 600W, which is fairly overkill for the previous parts in this build guide but will be very useful in case you need to upgrade down the line. Plus, it's only $45, and most PSUs aren't cheaper than that, even ones with much less power.

Thermaltake isn't quite as big as brands like Corsair and EVGA when it comes to PSUs, but the company has proven trustworthy, which is a very important aspect of PSUs. The SMART 600W isn't too special: It offers 600 watts, is rated at 80 Plus White, and has non-modular cables. However, for a $450 PC, these are some pretty good specs, and while 80 Plus White isn't amazing, it's still much better than some of the PSUs that are being sold without 80 Plus certification at all.

PSUs tend to fluctuate in price the most out of any component, so don't sweat it if you can't find this one for $45; you may just need to wait a little for the price to come back down. However, if you don't want to wait, you can select a lower wattage PSU from Thermaltake's SMART series, which will reduce your flexibility for future upgrades, but might not be such a bad thing, especially if you don't plan on adding a new GPU.

Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L.
Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L
Best PC case

Good build quality despite a low price

Cooler Master's MasterBox Q300L is a budget PC case for micro-ATX motherboards, featuring a tempered glass side panel, a 120mm rear fan, and magnetic dust filters.

Pros
  • Tempered glass side panel
  • Dust filters
  • Decent I/O
Cons
  • Kind of gamery

The last part to consider is the case, and this is where you can basically get whatever you want as long as you know all the components will fit. However, one case I definitely recommend for this build is Cooler Master's MasterBox Q300L. This $40 chassis offers some of the best features and build quality for its price point, and looks more like a $60 case than a $40 one.

Besides the price, one of the big-ticket items for this chassis is the tempered glass side panel. It's a very simple thing that really helps make a PC seem nicer even if you're not getting to look at high-end components. Another really useful thing this case brings to the table are its three dust filters, and I don't think I've even seen another $40 case include one dust filter, let alone three. PCs suck up tons of air and can get quite dusty, so having air filters installed on all of the air intakes is really nice.

You also get some pretty decent front I/O, including two USB 3.2 ports and your standard audio jacks. Otherwise, this is a pretty normal budget case and comes with a single 120mm fan installed at the rear for exhaust. With just a single lower-end CPU, that single fan is going to be enough to keep everything cool, but you eventually might want to pick up some extra fans if you ever upgrade the CPU or get a GPU.

Budget home/office work PC build: Price summary

Here's a quick look at the price summary of the budget home/office work PC based on the parts that I've picked for this build. It goes without saying the prices are subject to change based on the stock availability. You can definitely expect the PSU to fluctuate in price but in a pretty regular manner. The CPU and motherboard on the other hand could be more expensive for longer periods of time before falling back down, in which case you might want to get lower-end parts.

The RAM and SSD are kind of important here because their low price points are what makes the better CPU and motherboard affordable, but in the near future we should expect RAM and SSDs to get more expensive. When exactly this will happen is hard to say, but memory and storage is only cheap because demand is low and supply is high, and it's only a matter of time before manufacturers change that.

Component

Listed Price

Intel Core i5-12400 Processor

$160

Gigabyte B660M Aorus Elite AX DDR4

$130

Intel Laminar RM1 Cooler (included with CPU)

$0

Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200 2x8GB RAM Kit

$45

Solidigm P41 Plus 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD

$40

Thermaltake Smart 600W

$45

Cooler Master Masterbox Q300L

$40

Total

$460

At $460, we're pretty much within budget, though this of course doesn't include peripherals like keyboards or mice. You can get those for pretty cheap if you don't already have them though. If you want to save money however, I'd start by opting for a Core i3-13100 instead of the Core i5-12400 and a cheaper H610M motherboard instead of the B660M Aorus Elite. Downgrading probably won't impact your experience, though the cheaper motherboard could complicate future upgrades.

For future upgrades, I'd probably recommend a budget GPU, which is usually useful for gaming but also has use for professional work in apps like AutoCAD and Blender. If you know you won't want a better GPU, then more storage would also be a good thing to prioritize, and since you have an extra PCIe 4.0 slot on the motherboard, you can just get another NVMe SSD instead. A better CPU could come in handy for certain tasks, but it's usually not necessary for office work and other general use cases.