Building your own gaming PC allows you the freedom to customize every aspect, from the motherboard to the case design. While pre-built options are available, constructing your own system can save you money and offer better performance. For instance, a $1,000 pre-built PC can cost $200 more than a self-built equivalent. To help you navigate the process, we’ve curated lists of recommended parts for budgets ranging from under $500 to $4,000 or more.
Expert reviews and testing form the basis of our recommendations, ensuring that each component meets performance standards. The current PC market is experiencing significant shifts with new releases from major manufacturers like Nvidia and AMD. Availability of certain GPUs may be limited, affecting our component choices. For systems under $2,000, we suggest readily available cards, while higher-tier builds recommend newer models that may be scarce.
Operating systems and peripherals are not factored into our price lists, as Windows 11 can be obtained inexpensively or for free. Additionally, we focus on key components like CPUs, GPUs, and SSDs, providing insights into their performance and compatibility. Our expert, Avram Piltch, brings decades of experience in PC building, ensuring that each build strikes a balance between cost and performance.
Starting at the entry-level $500 build, you can create a system capable of 1080p gaming with a discrete graphics card like the Intel Arc A380. Moving up to the $800 range, the Intel Core i5-14400F and AMD Radeon RX 7600 offer improved performance for more demanding games. The $1,000 build introduces the powerful AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D and Nvidia RTX 4060 for enhanced gaming experiences at 1080p and 1440p resolutions.
For enthusiasts with a $1,500 budget, the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti deliver exceptional gaming capabilities, including support for ray tracing. Stepping into the high-end territory of $2,000 and above, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti or 5090 promise top-tier performance for 1440p and 4K gaming.
Each build is meticulously curated to ensure compatibility and performance, with considerations for factors like RAM speed, motherboard features, and storage capacity. While GPU pricing and availability may fluctuate, these builds serve as a guide for creating a personalized gaming PC tailored to your needs and budget.
🔗 Reddit Discussions
- I just picked up this $12 pc from Facebook marketplace. It has a Lga 1155 socket motherboard with a unrecognisable Company, With 4 gb ram and a 500W Power supply. It has a Pentium g630 CPU and a 250gb harddisk. How Can I Turn this into a gaming pc/Usable pc? Im willing to spend $50-$100.
- Why MSI X870E Carbon motherboard is so bad at gaming?
- Replied “Keep your eye on GameStop” on another sub to the question of where people can buy PC parts if they don’t want to shop at Amazon/etc. Got down-voted to oblivion. Do people really not know? GameStop sells SSDs, CPUs, Monitors, RAM, Motherboards, Cases, PSUs, Cooling, Keyboards, Mice, Headsets