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- Building a powerful 2K gaming PC with a $1,000 is pretty easy without needing to make major sacrifices.
- The Ryzen 7 5800X3D, 7800X3D, and 9800X3D as well as the Core i5-13400F are great contenders for the best budget gaming CPUs.
- With respect to GPUs, carefully consider your preference between the Arc B580, RTX 4060, and Radeon RX 7600.
We’re at the end of 2024 and this year has proven to be a blockbuster success as far as PC Gaming is concerned. So while we’re at it, how about I discuss what kind of rig you could set up for yourself with a cool $1,000 bucks in hand? Spoiler alert – I have quite a few bang-for-the-buck options for you.
$1,000 in 2024: Let’s Look At CPUs And Motherboards
For starters, let’s talk about the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. It has continued to maintain its status as an evergreen AMD CPU that’s specially tuned to output the highest FPS count in even the most demanding of gaming titles.
Even though the Ryzen 7 7800X3D has been superseded by the Zen 5 ‘Granite Ridge’ Ryzen 7 9800X3D, the 7800X3D still manages to offer insane value for money.
So what’s the alternative? Well, in my honest opinion, if you want the absolute best CPU for gaming that money can buy, you’d be better off with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D for that little extra oomph of power.
That said, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D starts at $480, but scalping trends combined with this processor’s hyped-up demand pushed that price bracket to well past $550 to $600. Pricing has normalized since then, but don’t expect to see any steep discounts below MSRP values.
Speaking of ‘X3D’ CPUs, why not talk about the processor that started it all? Yes, I’m talking about the Ryzen 7 5800X3D which debuted AMD’s revolutionary 3D V-Cache layering technology.
If you’re into moderate 1440p gaming and want to splurge on your GPU, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D would spell out a wise choice as it should be found for below $300. However, availability of brand new units will vary by region, so expect to hunt used CPUs in the whereabouts of $200 to $250.
But what if you’re looking for the absolute best budget gaming CPU there is? In that case, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better offering than the Intel Core i5-13400F. Why, you ask? It’s globally available for just a shade over $150, approximately speaking. This could free up a lot of dough to allocate towards your GPU and RAM. Something to think about, eh?
$1,000 in 2024: GPUs – What Are Your Options?
Let’s talk about the previous generation Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 Series first.
You can find brand new units of the RTX 3060 for under $300, the RTX 3070 for under $400, and the RTX 3080 for well under $500.
But if you really want the best budget GPUs, I’d recommend the RX B580 from Intel, which can be had for a rough $250.
Feel free to expect to easily run the latest titles at medium to high settings in 1440p and maybe even 4K with the GPUs mentioned above, although you might have to turn down your settings a notch for 4K gaming.
$1,000 in 2024: RAM, SSDs, and HDDs
Since you’re on a budget, I’ll recommend 32GB of DDR5 RAM as being more than enough for your gaming needs.
You can easily find one of the best high-performance 32GB (dual channel) RAM kits with top-notch frequencies, low CAS Latencies, and tight memory timings for under $100.
Keep in mind that AMD’s AM4 CPUs are only compatible with DDR4 RAM while alternating motherboard variants of the Intel CPUs (excluding 15th Generation processors) are compatible with DDR4 and DDR5 memory.
As far as storage is concerned, you’ll be able to snag a decently fast 1 TB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD for $50 to $75, so I wouldn’t really recommend an HDD when SSDs are getting this cheap.
$1,000 in 2024: PC Cases, PSUs, and CPU Coolers
Regardless of the color palette you have in mind, you’ll be able to find a decent PC Case for under $50.
With respect to PSUs, you should never cheap out because an unsafe PSU could spell out a hazardous disaster regarding the electrical safety of your PC components, such as your CPU, GPU, and SSD/RAM.
Nevertheless, you needn’t worry. Satisfactory PSUs from the likes of Seasonic, DeepCool, and EVGA, to name a few, may be found for under $100.
Last but not least, CPU Coolers are of paramount importance if you want to sustain peak gaming performance. Now while I certainly love the idea of an AIO, it just isn’t practical for a budget build. Then again, you’ll find it quite easy to find a respectable CPU Air Cooler for roughly $50. That said, make sure you choose a CPU Cooler that’s adequate to handle the TDP (Thermal Design Process) of your CPU.
And there you have it. Even though a $1,000 may not seem like a lot of money, it’s more than enough to play around with, regardless of whether you want to game in 1080p, 2K, or even 4K. Cheers!
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[Wiki Editor]
Ali Rashid Khan is an avid gamer, hardware enthusiast, photographer, and devoted litterateur with a period of experience spanning more than 14 years. Sporting a specialization with regards to the latest tech in flagship phones, gaming laptops, and top-of-the-line PCs, Ali is known for consistently presenting the most detailed objective perspective on all types of gaming products, ranging from the Best Motherboards, CPU Coolers, RAM kits, GPUs, and PSUs amongst numerous other peripherals. When he’s not busy writing, you’ll find Ali meddling with mechanical keyboards, indulging in vehicular racing, or professionally competing worldwide with fellow mind-sport athletes in Scrabble at an international level. Currently speaking, Ali has completed his A-Level GCEs with plans to go into either Allopathic Medicine or Business Studies, or who knows, perhaps a full-time dedicated technological journalist.
Get In Touch: alirashid@tech4gamers.com
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