The Best $900, $1300, and $2000 Gaming PC Builds! - Build Fix Ep09

[@paulshardware]

Thanks for watching guys! Just to clarify, when I talked about using an RTX 4080 in the third build I meant to say RTX 4080 Super. Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃🥧

[@mickbadgero5457]

Thank-you. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D processor for the $900 build is $200, not $100 in your links.

[@tetsu5878]

How does that fit in meshify c with the 360L on the third build?

[@robertcaya8888]

If you live anywhere within a few hours of a Microcenter, I cannot overstate how good of a deal you can score on Open Box items. ~11 months ago I was able to snag a 7600/32GB G.Skill 6000 (CL36)/B650 ASROCK PG Lightning for ~$300 out the door. The ram and MB were both open box and I ask if they would provide any additional open box discounts. They came back with that pricing. I stress the "live near" because open box inherently comes with a risk you'll need to come back and swap should something not work.

[@hi-friaudioman]

Damn, that's an insane deal! I scored a 5700X3D, 4070TI, Aorus master X570, 48GB DDR4 4000, 2TB Gen4 nvme, montech 360 ARGB AIO, 8bitdo ultimate controller for less than $800 by buying used/"broken" parts. I had to fix the 4070ti but for less than $350 it was worth it.

[@moej6014]

Has Microcenters website been bad lately? I cannot use it without an error

[@gh0stcat387]

I have the 6750 xt Fighter with a 5700x. Its plenty good for 1440p. 1800p is doable too if you can live with framerates below 100fps and high settings instead of ultra. It's been really stable too. The fans are annoying loud over 45% and it runs hot so I downclocked it to 2235mhz to keep it quiet and the temps under 80c. It still gets the job done. It offers a far better experience than the PS5 pro imo.

[@RobloxianX]

7900 XTX is going to be insane considering it’s already being sold for $800 right now. A $600 7900 XTX would be a better deal than waiting for a $600 5070

[@lfish21.]

I basically built the same pc as the second one with an x870 plus board and a NZXT Krakken elite 240 for right at 1600. I didnt have to buy a hard drive as I am salvaging the one from my current build. Shopped sales and got the board for 240 and it came with 32gb of DDR5 corsair 6400 memory. Full Build Ryzen 7700x-268 NZXT kraken elite 240-149 Asus x870 plus- 230 32gb corsair memory - free Gigabyte 4070 ti super - 769 Fractal north - 110 Be quiet 850w PSU - 89 Super happy with the parts and cant wait to get it built.

[@blank8941]

I am the second one! I agree with Paul I did pay a premium for my aio case and board just for the look but justified it to myself as in 4 years I’ll literally just be plopping in a then-gen x3d chip and maybe a new card. The amd cards are a better value but how beastly is the 4070ti super? I play on a 1440p 165hz monitor and coming from a ASUs 2070 g15 laptop it’s such an upgrade.

[@lfish21.]

​@@blank8941 I want to fiddle with ray tacing and if I want to do that I have to go nvidia. I built my last pc in 2017 with a 1070 and still using it to this day. So, if me paying a few hudred more toady keeps me a bit happier another year or two it was worth it for me. And for sure AIO was 100% purchased for looks. I was going to cheapen out on one to offset the extra I spent on the GPU. But, I decided to get the one I wanted. Again it cost me about $75 more today for something that I think will be a bit more fun for years. End of the day its our builds. I get building to maximize performance. But maximizing happiness is also a key point to hit. Enjoy your build! Im going to start building mine this morning before eating some turkey.

[@blank8941]

Hi Paul and Joe! Thanks for looking at my build! I will admit I’ve went from a run of laptops to this pc so all the rgb and the project zero stuff was a ‘just cause’ purchase. Kind of justified it to myself as in 4 years time I’ll just be plopping in a then-gen x3d chip so this basic combo should hopefully last me 8-10 years.

[@mybrotherjames8579]

That’s pretty much what I did 2 years ago. Got a 7700 and 6800xt which should perform reasonably well until near end of life for the am5 platform at which point I can just swap out the cpu/gpu, and if the 5800x3d is an indicator, get another 2-3 generations out of the build.

[@TomSaysStuff]

Can I ask why you bought all MSI products? Like are you historically just having good experiences with them or? I've had both good and bad with MSI over the years but wouldnt touch them now after hearing about their scummy practices on GN and issues with AM5 Mobos (bios and slow startup issues). Just asking, no flame.

[@Dobermanator]

Thumb's up for such a comprehensive subject list

[@Lenticular67]

Great video, Joe and Paul!

[@itsdeonlol]

Happy Holidays Paul & Joe!

[@shephusted2714]

even black friday can't wrest the industry out of the pc depression - it will continue until the bubble pops

[@Celis.C]

That... might take a while if tariffs will actually be applied. Enjoy another round of insane inflation next year, should that be the case. Say, a 40-60% markup.

[@zack9912000]

i did save some money, not a lot. I was able to budget in better parts for the same price

[@bradmcdaniel5468]

@@Celis.C Yeah, people dont realize this. Best time to build a pc is right now

[@nickwort123]

Just got that $60 750 watt MSI PSU today - seems solid! Amazon shipped it as is with no box though, which is a little unhinged

[@Sneaker_Net]

Great video Paul, thank you.

[@performa476]

Didn't know about the MSI PSU deals. Good to know. Happy Thanksgiving to Paul, crew and family.

[@blahorgaslisk7763]

One good reason to hold back on the CPU is if you are building a gaming rig but limit yourself to a GPU in the RTX 4070 price range. Thing is that with anything but a tope end GPU you are more likely to run into the GPU bottleneck than the CPU bottleneck. So a 7800X3D is most likely more than OK and if you are going 4K you can save even more. This might sound strange but the CPU load doesn't scale as much as the GPU load when raising the resolution. And so the GPU bottleneck becomes even worse.

[@kevinbourke6899]

Thanks Paul.

[@StevenKW]

Thanks @paulshardware built the $1300 for Black Friday / Cyber Monday.

[@waynestorton1875]

Great video 🙂

[@gr81matt]

Yes, that Phanteks XT Pro is a really nice, clean case. Comes with 4 fans as well.

[@BansheeBunny]

Nice build recomendations but I would spend an extra $11 for the PCIe 4.0 SSD from Team Group, for each of them. If the first build upgrades the socket later, they may get lucky and PnP the OS (backup before you try this) for twice the speed. The MSI MAG A850GL, Paul mentions towards the end, is what I would recommend for all the builds. A 10 year warranty on a 850W Gold power supply at that price is unheard of. This could last for many upgrades and several builds over those 10 years (+5 easy).

[@plumbthumbs9584]

excellent! gobble gobble!

[@hi-friaudioman]

The 5700X3D can be had on aliexpress for $150 or less if on sale. I bought mine for $146. It doesn't come with a cooler but i saved $60 in return for waiting 9 days from china.

[@jtd8719]

Paul, hafta call you out on the RAM for the 1st build. Should have spent another ~15 bucks and gone 3600 cl 16 to better match the infinity fabric for AMD 5000 cpus.

[@JamesRussoMillas]

We're just in such a weird time to build now. No new GPUs till after the new year, the latest best CPUs are overpriced or out of stock, and honestly there aren't many amazing new games currently.

[@PowellCat745]

4:23 PSU is the one thing I won’t cheap on. For $20 more, you can get a solid 750W Gold PSU, like MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5.

[@RyanS493]

I agree, never skimp on a psu. I was going to get the MSI but switched to Corsair because of numerous reviews about bad cables from MSI.

[@Tininppa]

Thank you. Waiting for Friday sales and hoping something good, other wise might look KZbin for 3 months and wait the new gpus . (in here the 7800X3D is 530€ and 9800X3d 590€ so it was easy pick. still wait for both quite long)

[@koob1413]

the animated intro is great.

[@goldenghostgod5333]

You don’t need 850w for 7900 gre. I use 850w for a 7900 xtx and it’s never had an issue.

[@TomSaysStuff]

That second build guy really bought the msi cool aid huh tf 😂😂

[@tomtomkowski7653]

Yesterday I ordered 7700 non-x for $200 as my old i7 6700k was getting really old now. As for the GPU, I will keep my 3060ti for now and will wait for new generations in Q1 and they will decide what to do. 7800x3d or 9800x3d are great but how many of you are using the 4090 to play at 1080p to see the difference? In real-life scenarios in most cases, GPU is the bottleneck.

[@dennisschastlivyy]

Thank You

[@Dyna1One]

What about prebuilds? Sure, you’re not getting the best of the best but there’s been some pretty big hitters this time around like the Bestbuy’s 1430 7800x3d 4070 super with 32gb@6000mhz just probably needs a new psu down the line and new ssd if you want some better storage

[@sysxtem]

Love u Paul

[@gtphil1489]

The MSI M482 2TB eco-pack (without box) is $90 this week, that's a 7300MB/s gen 4 SSD. It's 4 times as fast as that Teamgroup and also PS5 compatible if you add a heatsink.

[@LMFTechStudios]

I'm giving away my R7 7700X, 7700XT, 32GB DDR5 Rig and am planning on building a new one. Thanks for the helpful video!

[@Mr3ppozz]

Whoever gets that one is gonna be one happy camper! ;p 😊

[@LMFTechStudios]

@@Mr3ppozz True! if you are in the US you can participate in the drawing, it's scheduled for this Saturday!

[@Mr3ppozz]

@@LMFTechStudios I am not but its cool that you have a open drawing!

[@TheDragonfriday]

Nice where i can sign up?

[@B.I.G_BEAR]

I never had my first pc yet can I have it?

[@Mihnea729]

Cool !

[@ChengHorn9]

Is there a reason for the pcie 3.0 ssd? There is a huge jump in stuff like lower load times with pcie 4.0 and there isn't that much of a price bump. Plus you're not losing any bandwidth with am5 mobos.

[@bakamojojojo]

All praise the algorithm.

[@Zordonzig]

The 7900XTX is such a better deal than any 4080S. Effectively the same or better raster performance for a few hundred dollars less with 24GB of VRAM. No brainer nobody should be buying a 4080S.

[@lanegeisewite1436]

No the 4080super is far better. The xtx has garbage drivers and has the infamous amd frame dips. Especially in esports games

[@akiesa559]

​@@lanegeisewite1436 probably all fixed I looked at a recent bench the 7900xtx was on par or better on cs 2, cod bo6 and the finals power consuption has also been fixed a while ago

[@lanegeisewite1436]

@akiesa559 Is it? I know amd sent out driver updates u could download and install to "fix" the driver issue but they sent out the wrong update 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[@inafaniel]

Ray Traving and DLSS titles will do better with a 4080 Super than 7900XTX however the XTX is still a good card, it does not do good in ray tracing / DLSS titles + if I’m paying over $600 I might as well turn ray tracing ON

[@thillyard1]

I had so many issues with my lady two GPUs (6800 and 6900XT) that I switched to a 4080 and have never looked back. No doubt the XTX is amazing on paper but if you constantly have frame strutting/dips/crashes it doesn’t matter.

[@paynegarage6782]

i love Facebook deals just grabbed a 7700x and 1tb Samsung 990 and Thermaltake 3.0 atx 750watt psu and crucial ddr5 32gb for $220

[@PowGetRekt]

I feel like your pc should always have a mobo with wifi/bt support.

[@paulshardware]

I agree it's nice to have, but as long as you have an open USB port a good wifi/bt adapter is usually only $10-$20

[@dylans2669]

Microcenter is coming to Santa Clara nearby me. I want to do a 7700 (non-x) build. Should I do black friday deals or wait until microcenter opens in 2025. Are there regular deals good or similar to black friday deals. It seems right now you basically get free memory.

[@w0mblemania]

Given the crazy prices in Australia, I think I'll be staying with my 12GB 3060 for some years yet.

[@filipovicmilanparis]

NZXT H7 MSI 850g aorus ben 650 à élite AX V2\ice Ryzen 9600x Thermalright frozen notte 360 32 go lexar rgb 6000 cl 38 thermalright ventil 3 x 140mm rgb What do you think about that ?

[@tylerip7039]

Can a GIGABYTE GA-AB350N-Gaming WIFI run a Ryzen 7 5700X3D? I have the motherboard from a build in 2018 using Ryzen 5 2400G. Then pair with a RTX 4070. Any thoughts on this?

[@T.K.9]

I am itching for a 4080S. Amazon UK got one for £989. But the 50 series are right around the corner.

[@WatcherKoops4677]

and whats the chance of 5000 series being merely the same as 4000s

[@AdventuresWithRich]

UK Amazon has the Zotac 4080S for £899 rn

[@StarFox85]

@@AdventuresWithRich euro or pounds`?

[@AdventuresWithRich]

@@StarFox85 £ Pounds

[@BaronCAD]

Pea-can-pie FTW

[@amarzaudi]

hi paul. need your opinion. currently i'm using ryzen 5 5600. just want to know which gpu do you suggest to pair with this cpu.

[@mikep9418]

A 4060ti 16gb would be a good match.

[@its_me_sam9226]

What card should i buy if i can get the rtx 4080super or the rx7900 xtx for pretty much the same price? Help guys im really stuck with what card i should take

[@kristoffer3000]

4080 without a doubt, DLSS and way better ray tracing performance. the 7900 xtx only makes sense if it's cheaper, it is a better card for raster performance but those other two things are fairly big, especially since games are starting to implement ray tracing you can't turn off.

[@Carnados]

i got the r5 7600 and a 7800xt, no real sale but i ended up buying anyway.

[@aguyandhiscomputer]

I bought the same combo this week. I'd rather be gaming than waiting for deals that may not happen or sell out right away.

[@KeradSnake]

damn, for the first one you could pick AM5 with Ryzen 5 7500F since they live in Taiwan and 7500F is a really solid AMD CPU that is Asia exclusive. It's basically R5 7600 without its igpu

[@kristoffer3000]

and get...far worse performance lmao

[@KeradSnake]

@@kristoffer3000 good to know there's still someone on YT comments that doesn't know what they're talking about

[@kristoffer3000]

@@KeradSnake Are you seriously trying to claim a 7500f is better than a 5700x3d? Did you suffer major head trauma?

[@mightymartin6290]

The best one is gonna be the one you build yourself.

[@BigDoggTheDon]

I got Ryzen 7700 for £145 from Ali express, delivery took 8 days. No need to be fleeced now. Just do your research on good sellers

[@ThomasMTube]

i got a 5700x3d for £120 from AliExpress - happy with that. A 7800xt for £400 Upgrading from a i5 6500 and gtx970. Things gonna rip

[@marshallhughes4514]

I am kind of new to the channel but shouldn't he have added a copy of Windows 11 for an additional $130 or so?

[@aguyandhiscomputer]

Buy a Windows key with a discount code. Pretty much any computer builder KZbinr will have one in their video descriptions. I bought Windows 11 Pro for $21 this morning for my new build.

[@kristoffer3000]

@@aguyandhiscomputer People buy windows? lmao

[@aguyandhiscomputer]

@@kristoffer3000 For a couple years, I used an unregistered Windows 10 install. Worked fine.

[@justatim8143]

The high end build would have been better with the Gigabyte Aero as like almost all Gigabytes line up on ALL the new motherboards are not worth the price they are charging. They lowered to a 6_layer PCB and charge more and also lowered their VRM power stages to lower amps and charge more then almost all others except Asus who charges 25% more for their name and Gigabyte thinks they can also.

[@dwdx4042]

Why you keep recommending 7700 cpus for gaming when there are 7600 available?

[@blank8941]

Cause on sale there can be as low as a $30 difference and with current gen consoles being 8 core for some game ports it does make a difference.

[@dwdx4042]

@@blank8941 thank you

[@ThatBenKraft]

I feel like a lot of folks ignore the 4060-ti 16GB version, since most of the complaints for the 4060 talk about the low vram. I'm considering it for use in Blender, where Nvidia chips/firmware outperform any day of the week. Am I crazy for pulling the trigger on a ~$400 4060?

[@wal197731]

just wait for the 50 cards to drop

[@phprofYT]

By heavy metals.

[@dtjrealmc]

I ripped myself off and bought a 2 yr old pre-built for 793 from microcenter

[@Mr3ppozz]

The 4080S i bought for 1100 euro is now on black friday sale for only 1125!! A massive 25% discount on their fake boosted price xD xD xD

[@BobMotster]

Exactly $1337. Not a single cent more or less.

[@gertjanvandermeij4265]

Pffff PAUL ...... COME ON MAN !!! *Where is our $500,- Black Friday Deal, with an Radeon 7900XTX , Ryzen 9800X3D , ASRock X870E TAICHI motherboard , 96Gb Corsair DDR5 Dominator Titanium CL32 ram , Corsair Force MP600 PRO NH 8TB M.2 SSD , ASUS ROG THOR 1200W Platinum II PSU , and Corsair iCue 5000T RGB Tempered Glass Black Case ?!?*

[@mikepreston3873]

Love the content Paul But I have been missing the Awesome hardware podcast. Hope you guys can figure out a schedule to do it more often. You guys and Linus inspired me to get into Personal Computers and tech. Been buying parts for the better part of a year for my next build going from 5700x and a 6750xt to 7800x3d and 7900xtx just getting last little things (better thermal paste) xtra case fans doing a full corsair link (360) aio and case fans and some case flair items. Been thinking about doing a custom hard loop in place of the Aio? Have a wonderful Thanksgiving brother god bless.

[@FallenStarGamingX]

Hopefully the 5060 is $299 bc im B-R-O-K-E

[@Mr3ppozz]

@@FallenStarGamingX I doubt nvidia is gonna sell it below 450 but we can always hope they are actually going to be reasonable

[@T.K.9]

Chances are, the 5050 will be the new 5060 and the 5060 is the new 5070 😅 etc.

[@Kapono5150]

Don’t be poor, always buy the fastest

[@JamieStuff]

Always buying the fastest will insure that you ARE poor.

[@Kawiza]

Second!!

[@gertjanvandermeij4265]

*I'M not an sucker for BLACK Friday !* I will ONLY wait, for *FREE Friday* ! So I can spend, an TOTAL of $0,00 on all new shiny PC parts !

[@fischertanks3347]

First one

[@gertjanvandermeij4265]

PEOPLE PLEASE ! *There is ONLY one good motherboard brand , And that is ASRock !!* Just forget about Gigabyte , MSI , an certainly ASUS !

[@JJFlores197]

Good to know!

[@lanegeisewite1436]

Better yet don't waste your money on amd gpus, except the 7900gre, because they have garbage drivers. And get a 12th or 13th Gen intel cpu to. A 12700k is $187 right now and is far better than it's amd counterpart

[@raeshalgoul8505]

👍✌

[@jossycj7295]

2000 likes he builds me a pc

[@account2292]

No GPU? Ya lost me right there.

[@HamsterHearthstone]

What's up with all these weak sauce builds? Please make one for the all best work station aiming at the upcoming 9950X3D and RTX 5090.

[@Moose_rs]

Does anyone have an extra pc that they can give me for gaming? Please help me someone. I need to escape. 😢

[@ReadyMack-g]

YAWN

[@rangerange1427]

comment

[@-INFERNUS-]

No one cares about sound cards anymore 😂 I have a sound blaster AE-7 it's beyond anything on what audio you get from a mobo. I will always use one in builds.

[@TehNSF]

Most people recommend external DACs instead of sound cards these days if someone cares that much about their audio.

[@-INFERNUS-]

@TehNSF A DAC I don't want, too much crap on my desk now 😂 Plus the AE-7 is just as good , Sound Blaster cards were always one of the best🎮

[@Pauliepsi]

I give you a controversial build, what's a PC parts vector controversial build, and you chose to go European or outside North America, because your pants are into your audience

[@hermanmunchther3082]

These are poor people dollar amounts. Wheres the $4k builds? A gpu is $2k by itself

[@mybrotherjames8579]

Why not get a 7980x to play cities skylines 2 at peak performance?