Build A Killer Gaming PC For As Low As $750 With These Hot Black Friday Deals
Now's actually a great time to build a gaming PC. Brand new CPUs from both AMD and Intel are out (beware of scam listings), but previous-generation parts are still readily available, really fast, and remarkably cheap. Meanwhile, we're expecting new GPUs within months from all three vendors, and that means that sellers are slapping discounts on discrete graphics cards in an attempt to move product.
We've parted out three separate builds at three general price points to illustrate what we mean. At just $750, we have a "Greatest Hits" Socket AM4 machine, at $1500 we have a shockingly potent Raptor Lake Refresh rig, and at $2,500 we have a truly top-tier gaming machine that really obviates the need to spend any more money on a PC built particularly for playing digital delights.
We're going to present the builds a little differently than we usually do this time around, and that's because we have three to offer. Rather than listing every single part with an image, we're going to present these as lists and then talk a bit about the specific component selections. So saying, let's start from the bottom, in terms of price:
A $750 Gaming PC To Smash 1080p Gaming
- AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D 8-Core Gaming CPU: $199.99 at Amazon (20% off)
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ID-COOLING SE-214-XT ARGB CPU Cooler: $15.19 at Amazon (16% off)
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Gigabyte B550M AORUS ELITE AX µATX AM4 Motherboard: $89.99 at Amazon (40% off!)
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TEAMGROUP T-Create 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory: $47.99 at Amazon (13% off)
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Addlink S70 1TB PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME SSD: $51.00 at Amazon (21% off!)
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XFX Speedster SWFT210 Radeon RX 7600 8 GB Video Card: $249.99 at Amazon (7% off)
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Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L µATX Mini Tower Case: $37.99 at Amazon (5% off)
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Apevia Galaxy 650W Semi-modular ATX Power Supply: $54.99 at Amazon (34% off!)
Sony's asking $700 for a PlayStation 5 Pro, and there's no arguing that the PS5 Pro can probably play games in higher resolutions than our machine's Radeon RX 7600. It won't play any games that our Radeon RX 7600 can't handle at 1080p, though, and the Ryzen 7 5700X3D at the core of this machine is much more capable than the Zen 2 CPUs in the PS5 Pro. Combine that with the 32GB of fast DDR4 memory and the advantages of PC gaming, and we're willing to call this a better value.
Standout parts here include the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, the Addlink S70 SSD, and the Cooler Master MasterBox case, with an honorable mention for the Apevia Galaxy power supply. The 3D V-Cache on the Ryzen 7 5700X3D allows this Zen 3 CPU to punch way above its weight class; there are Intel chips with higher clocks and more cores available for less money, but they all fall to the 5700X3D in game tests—sometimes by quite a bit.
Meanwhile, the Addlink S70 SSD is a competent PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD that makes use of Host Memory Buffer to achieve excellent responsiveness despite being an entry-level DRAM-less SSD. Our big 32GB of RAM will help with that. The Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L is a longtime favorite of this system builder thanks to its low cost, how easy it is to build in, and surprisingly attractive looks for a sub-$40 case. While we'd like a name-brand PSU, the Apevia Galaxy units are actually solid despite using an older design. That said, if you can go slightly over our $750 price point, you can substitute the fully-modular Corsair RM650 80 Plus gold PSU for $74.99 (on sale from $89.99).
Overall, for $750, this machine's only weak point is the relatively limited 1TB of internal storage. We'd like a larger SSD, but it just doesn't fit in the budget. Fortunately, it's very likely that you'll have extra storage laying around, either from older PCs, or possibly external units. The motherboard has four SATA ports, a spare M.2 socket, and a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot you can use for extra storage expansion when/if the need arises.
Stepping Into The PC Gaming Master Race At $1,500
- Intel Core i5-14600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor: $234.52 at Amazon (34% off!)
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Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120SE CPU Cooler: $35.90 at Amazon
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MSI PRO Z790-A MAX WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard: $199.99 at Amazon (23% off!)
- Silicon Power XPOWER 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory: $82.97 at Amazon
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HP FX900 Pro 4TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVME SSD: $199.99 at Amazon (27% off!)
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MSI VENTUS 2X OC GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB Video Card: $589.99 at Amazon (6% off)
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MSI MAG FORGE 321R AIRFLOW ATX Mid Tower Case: $69.98 at Amazon (13% off)
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MSI MAG A850GL PCIe5 850W Fully Modular Power Supply: $84.99 at Amazon (29% off!)
Doubling our budget allows us to move to a newer platform with many upgrades. It was honestly complete coincidence that this system ended up being heavily MSI-flavored, but we're not complaining, and we doubt MSI will either. The combination of Core i5-14600K CPU and GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER GPU gives us nearly optimal bang-for-the-buck in terms of gaming performance, and this machine will dominate at 1440p.
Big wins in this build include the Core i5-14600K itself, the amazing value of the 4TB HP FX900 Pro SSD, and the excellent discount on the MAG A850LG PCIe5 power supply. The Core i5-14600K offers outstanding gaming performance as well as much better productivity results versus the similarly-priced Ryzen 7 7700X. It'll stay cool under our Thermalright dual-tower CPU cooler.
Some may question the choice of cheap Silicon Power memory, but Raptor Lake's large caches minimize the need for super-speed RAM. Unless you're willing to spend hours tweaking and tuning your memory, the convenience of a kit like this that offers relatively low latency in an integrated XMP profile at a bargain basement price is hard to beat. Meanwhile, the FX900 Pro is a shockingly fast SSD for the money; we've tested the 2TB version at over 6.5 gigabytes per second in real-world workloads. Having 4TB of super-fast PCIe 4.0 storage is a real luxury.
MSI's only recently started shipping self-branded power supplies, but they're high-quality units. The MAG A850GL comes with a 12+4-pin 12V-2X6 cable that means you don't have to use clumsy adapters to drive the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER card. This power supply is normally $120, so this is a deep discount. Overall, this machine is primed and ready to play the latest PC games on ultra settings.
PC Gaming Doesn't Get Much Better Than This $2,500 Build
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core Gaming CPU: normally $479; currently $669.90 at Amazon
- Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120SE CPU Cooler: $35.90 at Amazon
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Asus Prime X670E-PRO WiFi ATX AM5 Motherboard: $229.99 at Amazon (28% off!)
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Silicon Power Storm RGB 64GB (2x32 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory: $175.97 at Amazon
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HP FX900 Pro 4TB PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME SSD: $199.99 at Amazon (27% off!)
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Acer Predator GM7000 512GB PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME SSD: $44.99 at Amazon (15% off)
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XFX Speedster MERC310 Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB Video Card: $829.99 at Best Buy ($170 off!)
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Corsair 3500X ARGB ATX Mid Tower Case: $89.99 at Amazon (18% off)
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Corsair HX1000i 1000W 80+ Platinum Modular ATX Power Supply: $181.99 at Amazon (30% off!)
This build is about the best you're going to do without breaking the bank: the fastest gaming CPU in the world paired with the fastest GPU that AMD has ever made. And yet, there are a few things we probably have to caveat here. First and foremost is that we didn't go for NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 because those cards have become rather rare below $2000; considering our whole PC is only $2500, well, you can imagine. Of course, if you've got the dosh, be our guest and grab the greatest gaming GPU of all time.
It's not as if the Radeon RX 7900 XTX in this build is slow, though; it offers superior raster graphics performance versus the next-step-down GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, it has an additional 8GB of VRAM over that card, and it's cheaper to boot. Of course, you could swap the GPU for that NVIDIA part; you'd get better ray-tracing and overall lower power consumption in exchange for the loss of DLSS upscaling, some raster performance—and $170. If you're so inclined, we recommend this Zotac Trinity part that will run you a cool thousand smackers.
We have to caveat the CPU, too; right now it's being scalped on Amazon for a substantially inflated price; obviously, we don't recommend paying that for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Then again, it is absolutely the best gaming CPU in the world, bar none, and that's not likely to change anytime soon, so once again, if you have the cash, be our guest. We'd recommend waiting until it's available at a reasonable price, though; AMD has been aggressively pushing stock into the channel so it should appear at MSRP again soon. You might be able to find it at other vendors, too, like Best Buy.
Other notable qualities of this build include the dual-SSD configuration that uses a smaller Predator GM7000 SSD for Windows so that the big 4TB FX900 Pro can be exclusively for games. We also have to call out the killer deals on the beautiful case and potent power supply, both from Corsair. The 3500X proves that cases with wrap-around glass panels don't have to sacrifice airflow, and while 1,000W is overkill for a machine like this, it also helps ensure that the unit will stay cool and last a long time.
So, what did you think of our part selections? Did you find a Black Friday deal that's better than what we chose? Let us know about any killer bargains in the comment section below.
