PC gaming has had a great year. You might think so, too. That’s probably why you’re here! You might also have a bit more spare change than our previous article suggested. So if you’re looking for something a bit more spicy, you’ve come to the right place. For less than $1,000, you can get yourself a pretty respectable gaming PC nowadays. You definitely don’t need to spend twice like you had to just ten years ago. These PCs, just like the ones in our previous article, are fully expandable and you can upgrade them in the future.
We’ll be covering two different builds here. The first is a build that you’ll put together from parts, and the other one will be a pre-built computer that you can grab off the shelf. Let’s get started!
This post was originally authored by Kyle Kreoll.
Best PC Build for Under $1,000
The Specs:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-AB350M-D3H Micro ATX (AM4)
- Case: Fractal Design Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower
- Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G3 550W 80+ Gold Certified (Fully-Modular)
- Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000
- Storage: Seagate FireCuda 2TB 3.5″ 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive
- Graphics Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GAMING X
- Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Burner
This build, which has a PCPartPicker link here, is $999.09 (including applicable mail-in rebates) at the time of this writing.
Let’s briefly talk about the parts you’re looking at in this build.
The AMD Ryzen 5 1600 is a much-hyped processor this year because it’s an affordable, high-end processor that has six cores. Now, not all games will utilize all of these cores (many only use four currently), but the ones that do utilize all cores will run notably faster. This also helps in situations where you want to multitask, which includes livestreaming and running demanding apps in the background.
This build doubles the storage space from the $500 build and adds a bonus feature. Not only do you get a 2TB drive, but you now get something called a “hybrid” drive. These drives, a combination of technologies from solid state and traditional hard drives, improve performance over your traditional 7,200 RPM hard drive.
16GB of memory is plenty for today’s games, and not only that but at DDR4-3000, it’s pretty fast memory, to boot. With 16GB of memory you can even do things like stream games on Twitch and use high-end video editing software. This will also help with loading times and reduce stutter in games caused by loading data.
EVGA’s high-efficiency 80+ Gold Certified power supply means your computer will use only what it needs to, which means you can end up saving on your electric bill. You can read an in-depth review of this power supply by PC Perspective here. 550 watts will be enough to power this build, as well as added storage devices.
The GeForce GTX 1060 6GB is an excellent card for the price. You can expect to max out games such as Overwatch, Dota 2, Witcher III, and DOOM 2016. The card also supports VR technologies, and with 6GB of video memory, it can even push some games to 2560×1440 (also known as “1440p”) resolution. This card has been very popular this year.
An added bonus of this build is that it’s a MicroATX case, which means it’s pretty small. 18.27″ x 8.07″ x 15.08″, to be exact. Ain’t it cute?
Check out the next page to see our choice for the best pre-built PC for under $1,000.
Best Pre-Built PC for Under $1,000
The Specs:
- CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor
- Memory: 8GB DDR4 Memory
- Storage: 1TB 7,200RPM 3.5″ SATA Hard Drive
- Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX 580 4GB
- Optical Drive: None
- Windows 10 Home Included
If you’re uneasy about building a computer yourself, the $1,000 tier of computers has much more to offer you than the $500 one. The CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme VR (that’s a mouthful!) configured as above is $929.99 at the time of this writing. Included in this eye-catching case is a pretty beefy computer that should serve you well in 2018 and beyond. This also comes with a keyboard and mouse, color-coded to match the striking black-and-red theme of the PC’s case. It’s important to note that this computer does not have an optical drive. If you need one, you can get a USB one on Amazon for pretty cheap. This one’s pretty good.
The Core i7-7700 included in this PC is competitive with the part-built PC on the previous page, and will remain strong for the foreseeable future. The Core i7 series of processors is generally considered along the high-spec tier, with excellent multitasking capabilities as well as great gaming performance.
The 1TB drive will hold a good 40 games comfortably assuming they’re about 20GB each, with space to spare for other things. There are additional drive bays if you need to expand your storage to additional hard drives or solid state drives.
8GB of memory will be more than enough for most games. CyberpowerPC states that this computer supports up to 64GB of memory, however, so expanding this should not be difficult.
AMD’s Radeon RX 580 4GB will give you very good performance. This is a card advertised by AMD as one that was built with VR support in mind, but in traditional gaming environments it runs like an absolute charm. You can expect to be able to run most games at high at 1080p or higher and get respectable frame rates. Even games such as Far Cry Primal and Witcher III should run without much trouble.
Published: Dec 20, 2017 5:33 AM UTC