I put together a 4K gaming PC for $1,200 (or 2K for $1,000) using Cyber Monday hardware deals
You can buy the parts to put together a very powerful gaming PC for cheap.
This isn't the best Cyber Monday we've seen for GPU and CPU deals, but still, if you know what to buy, you can put together a powerful gaming PC for cheap. Based on our knowledge and testing of GPUs and CPUs, I've put together a parts list for a PC that could comfortably play games at 4K ultra settings for just $1,285 (this price is a moving target as parts sell out and was as low as $1,231 on Friday).
If you take the GPU down a level, you can get this rig down to just over $1,000. That less-expensive build can still play games at 2K resolution (2560 x 1440) and ultra settings really well. Here's our parts list.
| Component | Name | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Ryzen 7 5700X3D + MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus | $229 |
| Motherboard | MSI B550 Gaming Gen 3 | $99 |
| RAM | Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) | included in bundle |
| SSD | WD Black SN850X (2TB) | $129 |
| PSU | Raidmax Cobra 750W | $54 |
| AIO | ID-Cooling Frostflow | $46 |
| GPU | XFX Speedster MERC310 Radeon RX 7900XT | $659 |
| Case | Phanteks XT Pro Ultra | $69 |
| Total | Row 8 - Cell 1 | $1,285 |
So at the heart of our configuration is a solid bundle deal from Newegg that combines the Ryzen 7 5700X3D and 32GB of Corsair DDR4-3200 RAM for $229. The 5700X3D is an excellent CPU for gaming, because it has 96MB of L3 cache, which means that, for games where the CPU might be the bottleneck, it won't be.
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D + 32GB Corsair RAM: was $302, now $229 at Newegg
This bundle includes an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D CPU, an MSI MPG B550 motherboard and 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 RAM.
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Our GPU of choice is the XFX Speedster RX 7900 XT with 20GB of VRAM. According to our tests, the 7900 XT can exceed 60 fps at 4K ultra on most titles.
XFX Speedster Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB: now $659 at Best Buy (was $749)
For 4K gaming, the RX 7900 XT packs 20GB of VRAM with a no-frills design that can easily break 60 FPS in most games at native resolution — with upscaling and frame gen as potential performance boosters if needed.
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If we wanted to save about $200 and settle for gaming at 2K, we'd go with a Radeon RX 7800XT which can crack the 60 fps mark at 2K ultra.
ASRock Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB OC: now $449 at Newegg (was $469)
ASRock gets our second pick as well, with an excellent value for 1440p gaming leveraging AMD's Navi 32 RX 7800 XT GPU. It delivers solid performance at native 2560x1440.
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We didn't skimp on the SSD here. It's a WD Black SN850X at 2TB capacity. With 7,300 MB/s reads, this is very fast.
WD Black SN850X (2TB) SSD: now $132 at Best Buy (was $199)
2TB of fast storage for $124 represents the best of both worlds. Low price and high capacity storage. The SN850X is a speedy PCIe 4.0 SSD for PCs, laptops, and the PlayStation 5. The drive boasts a sequential performance that peaks at 7,300 MB/s reads and 6,600 MB/s writes. See our review of the WD Black SN850X for more information.
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Our case is a Phanteks XT Pro Ultra, which is one of the best PC cases you can buy and now available for just $69. This case comes with four RGB fans and has plenty of room for our motherboard, GPU, 240mm AIO and other goodies.
Phanteks XT Pro Ultra Case: was $79, now $69 at Newegg
This case comes with four RGB fans, supports up to a 360mm radiator, has a tempered glass die panel and a USB-C port on the front panel.
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Our power supply and cooler are nothing to type home about, but they are cheap. We went with an ID-Cooling Frostflow 240mm to keep the CPU cool and a Raidmax Cobra 750W Gold PSU.
ID-Cooling Frostflow X 240: was $54, now $46 at Amazon
This highly-capable AIO cooler has 2 x 120mm fans. Instead of RGB, it has white lighting.
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Raidmax Cobra 750W: was $69, now $54 at Newegg
This 750W PSU is 80_ Gold certified and has ATX 3.1 PCIe Gen 5 support.
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We are working hard to find the best computer deals for you this Cyber Monday . If you're looking for more savings, check out our Cyber Monday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals Live blog, Monitor Deals Live, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.
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Avram Piltch is Managing Editor: Special Projects. When he's not playing with the latest gadgets at work or putting on VR helmets at trade shows, you'll find him rooting his phone, taking apart his PC, or coding plugins. With his technical knowledge and passion for testing, Avram developed many real-world benchmarks, including our laptop battery test.
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Lucky_SLS You know, you can get a cheaper cooler like this ID cooling A620 for 30 bucks and invest more into a quality PSU like this MSI A850GL for a budget build.Reply
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/MFvD4D/id-cooling-frozn-a620-pro-se-58-cfm-cpu-cooler-frozn-a620-pro-se
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/zF4Zxr/msi-mag-a850gl-pcie5-850-w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-mag-a850gl-pcie5
savings from cooler -> 46-30 = 16
PSU price increase -> 85-59 = 26
Total price increase -> 10 USD
You are using a 350W card and suggesting a tier B bronze PSU :confused: -
Alvar "Miles" Udell I'd suggest splurging more on a quality brand name PSU like SeaSonic, a PSU is something you want to spend money on to not have to worry about it for a decade or longer, and the phrase "buy this PSU because it's cheap" should -never- come from the mouth (or keyboard) of anyone, especially not chief editor of a supposedly reputable tech site. The SeaSonic Focus Gold 850w is $99 at Newegg, and I'd spend $40 more any day of the week over that questionably made MSI. Granted it's been almost 15 years since TH did an article on PSU OEMs, but the last time it was updated MSI just rebadged a Solytech unit without any design input at all.Reply
https://www.newegg.com/seasonic-focus-gm-series-focus-gm-850-750w/p/N82E16817151231
Especially in this age when you're talking about a GPU costing in excess of $600.
Also for cooler, I'd pick the Corsair H100i for $80.
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-liquid-cooling-277mm-intel-lga-2066-2011-1700-1366-1200-115x-amd-am5-am4-strx4-str4-black/p/N82E16835181317
Again it may be $34 more expensive, but the Corsair H100i is superior to the ID Cooling X240.
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Colif Reply
I agree with this message.Alvar Miles Udell said:I'd suggest splurging more on a quality brand name PSU like SeaSonic, a PSU is something you want to spend money on to not have to worry about it for a decade or longer, and the phrase "buy this PSU because it's cheap" should -never- come from the mouth (or keyboard) of anyone, especially not chief editor of a supposedly reputable tech site. The SeaSonic Focus Gold 850w is $99 at Newegg, and I'd spend $40 more any day of the week over that questionably made MSI.
Unless you have 1200 to throw around on spare parts you might need to replace since PSU killed them.
The PSU is in top 3 of things I look at for a new PC. Not last to save money... -
Syntaximus As others have stated that PSU is bad, and pairing it with a 7900XT is even worse...Reply
Could have done better with cooling as well, PA-120s go on Amazon for about ~$35 on the lower end.