07/17/2020 $500 Black and Blue APU Build List

Today's $500sih Black Build Is a little Black and blue build in the Thermaltake Versa H18. The case itself has a thin blue led down the front of the case. I included 2 blue led 140mm fans to carry the look into the case. Even with the lights this build would be a conservative workstation suitable for any location. If you really don’t want the lights I put 2 black fans in the optional category.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3400G 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.90 @ Amazon*)

Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 ($99.91 @ Amazon*)

Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory ($56.99 @ Amazon*)

Storage: Patriot VPN100 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon*)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Amazon*)

Case: Thermaltake Versa H18 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($54.99 @ Amazon*)

Power Supply: EVGA 500 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.95 @ Amazon*)

Case Fan: (2) Thermaltake Riing 14 LED Blue 51.15 CFM 140 mm ($14.99 @ Amazon*)

Custom: Fan Splitter, 1 to 4 Converter 10 inches (2 Pack) ($9.99 @ Amazon*)

Total: $569.68**


Optional fans to replace the blue LED ones: ARCTIC P14 140 mm Fan ($10.99 @ Amazon*)

Write up:


CPU: I went with the 3400g because it is one of the best CPUs with integrated graphics on the market. Yes for this price point we may have been able to fit in a 3100 and a discrete GPU, But in order to do that we would have had to cut major corners which we refuse to do for these lists.


Motherboard: I went with theMSI because it is a premium mATX board for under $100..


Memory: A fox list wouldn’t be complete without at least 16GB of memory and the G skill is a great deal.


Storage: As Always for this price point I am pairing a 256 NVME with a 2TB HDD. Put your system and programs on the NVME and put your files and games on the HDD. And yes, The NVME SSD had DRAM.


Case: We are back to the Thermaltake cases today. I love the look they have while providing a full basement and cablemanagement.


Power Supply: Went with the budget option here. But with the basement and good cable management options you shouldn’t see the ketchup and mustard.

Case Fans: I went with the blue Thermaltake fans to bring together the black and blue look. However, there is a Black alternative in the optional section. Eitherway make sure to grab 2 fans and the fan splitter.


Conclusion: This is a solid little workhorse for Home PC, Light Shop Work, and Light Gaming. A $550 option for those who are tired of the big box stores $300 builds crapping out after a few months. Note that this build does not have a separate graphics card. The 3400g has Vega 11 graphics which is enough to get your foot in the door on PC gaming and strong enough of a CPU that once you add a dedicated graphics card down the line that you won’t feel like you compromised.

*Post contains Amazon Associate links.

**Based on the prices and availabilities at the time of writing. Pricing and availability changes minute by minute.