Best Gaming PC Build Under $1500

The PC Parts

The PC Parts Details

Now, we’re going to dive into each of the components in detail.

Case: Thermaltake V200 Tempered Glass RGB Edition

The Thermaltake V200 Tempered Glass RGB Edition is our choice of case.

It’s a larger ATX Tower from Thermaltake, boasting 3 RGB fans on the front and 1 pre-installed exhaust fan in the back. There is also an RGB controller included inside the case, which means that out of the box you’re getting the following features:

• Fully-fledged RGB lighting
• An amazing airflow solution
• A large, high-quality case to build in

It’s pretty hard for us to fault that, and to be honest we really can’t. Add in the tempered glass panel for improved durability and presentation and you have a truly flashy case without breaking the bank. That’s not even taking into account the plentiful drive bays, PSU, and cable management compartments built into the case, ensuring an easy building experience.

The only real downside of a case like this is its size and weight- it’ll be a bit tougher to move around. In exchange, though, you’re getting a truly amazing experience for the money.

CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K

The Intel Core i5-9600K is our pick for this PC build, thanks to its best-in-class single-core performance and strong multi-core performance. For gaming purposes, this baby is only marginally beat by its i7-K and i9-K older brothers…when those CPUs both cost hundreds of dollars more, the choice becomes obvious. The i5-9600K here has all the power you need for gaming, and will have it for years to come.

Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler

Since the i5 doesn’t include a cooler and we’ll want to achieve some overclocking, we opted to include a high-quality Noctua air cooler with this PC build. The Noctua NH-U12S will provide all the cooling performance you need to keep the i5 cool, and even with some heavy overclocks you shouldn’t find yourself being pushed into dangerous temperature zones.

You also have the benefit of Noctua’s included fan, which is powerful and pretty quiet. Combined with our RTX 2070, you should have a surprisingly quiet PC build once all is said and done.

RAM: ADATA XPG GAMMIX D10 16GB DDR4-2666

We’ve included 16GB of DDR4 RAM in this build- specifically, the ADATA XPG GAMMIX D10 kit. With a nice 2666 MHz speed and more than enough capacity for gaming and multitasking purposes, ADATA us covered well without overspending on RAM. While we could’ve spent a bit more on RAM in this build, opting for higher RAM speeds and capacities would’ve provided diminishing returns at best, so we stuck with what works.

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 UD

The Gigabyte Z390 UD motherboard offers pretty much everything you need for a build like this. High-speed NVMe SSD support…overclocking support with the Z390 chipset…plenty of PCI Express slots…and even some nice extra software features, like Smart Fan 5. The general build quality here is fairly high, and (in our opinion) the aesthetic is sleek and refined, perfect for any PC build.

GPU: EVGA Nvidia RTX 2070

The real star of the show in this build is the EVGA Nvidia RTX 2070. This is where all of that stellar 4K, VR, and 1440p gaming performance is going to be coming from. We went with an EVGA card thanks to their stellar build quality and customer support- on the infinitely slim chance you encounter an issue with this GPU, EVGA is the most likely manufacturer to make it right, so long as you don’t toss any receipts or warranty information.

If you want a more detailed breakdown of how this card will perform in your favorite games, scroll on down to our dedicated performance section. Otherwise, rest assured: this card is equipped for tackling modern games at max settings and high resolutions, and it will be for years to come.

SSD: Crucial M.2 P1 1 TB

Let’s start with the bombshell: the Crucial P1 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD offers a whopping 2 GB/s in read performance. Its 1.7 GB/s write performance is a little bit slower, but this is still eons beyond anything a SATA SSD could pull off. (Those usually cap out at around half a GB/s.) The reason this is possible is because NVMe M.2 SSDs use PCI Express bandwidth, allowing them to access the same high-bandwidth capabilities as a graphics card.

While ~$150 may seem like a lot to spend for 1TB, you’re getting storage here that will load everything just about instantly. That means your operating system, your browser, and your favorite games will load up faster than ever. With 1TB of storage to spare, you’re unlikely to hit a wall too quickly but in case you do, we’ve also provided an HDD.

HDD: Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 3TB HDD

The Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 3TB HDD speaks for itself. It is a massive 3TB HDD, which you can use to store everything that doesn’t fit on your SSD. Namely, you’ll be slapping movies, music, and your less-played games on this one. Even 4K media won’t suffer on a hard drive, and games won’t load too slow either, they just won’t load very fast.

PSU: Corsair TXM 550W Semi-Modular Power Supply

Last but not least is the Corsair TXM 550W Gold-Certified Semi-Modular Power Supply. That’s a bit of a mouthful, but truth be told it tells you pretty much everything you need to know about this PSU.

Its Semi-Modularity means it will be significantly easier to build with than a Non-Modular power supply. Combine that with our massive chassis, and you’ll have all the room for building and cable management your little heart could ask for.

The 80+ Gold certification means it will have a high level of power efficiency. This means lower power consumption, less heat exhausted into your case, and less noise generated when the PSU isn’t under heavy load.

The 550W capacity may seem low, but it’s more than enough for a gaming PC like this one…and finally, the Corsair name means high quality and a 5-year warranty.

What This Build Plays

Above, we’ve embedded two videos you can use as a resource to find out how this gaming PC should perform.

To summarize our findings, though, the RTX 2070 should be more than capable of playing most games at 4K and maximum settings at 60+ FPS for second. At 1440p and 1080p, you should be able to push as high as 144+ FPS without any significant settings decreases, though a few particularly heavy games may prove problematic.

In games that have RTX features enabled, like Battlefield 5 and Metro Exodus, expect solid 1440p and 60+ FPS performance at max settings. You aren’t going to push 4K with ray-tracing enabled on this card, though- even with the 2080, that’s a hard sell sometimes.

Our Selection Process

Our selection process is fairly simple: take a look at what competitors are doing, then find a way to do it better using our own skill and experience. The focus here is on providing the best possible gaming PC experience to our readers, not shilling any particular manufacturer or brand. We want to make sure you’re getting the best PC build for your money, with balanced components, and we feel like we’ve accomplished that goal here.

Recommended Upgrades

If most of this build seems fine to you but you don’t want to jump up to our $2000 gaming PC build, then we recommend one upgrade to make a difference, especially if you plan on streaming or rendering.

CPU: Intel Core i7 9700K

The Intel Core i7-9700K won’t improve your gaming performance by very much. This is already a fairly high-performance gaming PC build, and the i5-9600K is among the best gaming CPUs on the market. In terms of gaming, the improvement here will be marginal.

What will improve is your headroom for streaming and rendering. If you’re a Twitch streamer or video content creator who doesn’t want to sacrifice any gaming performance for streaming power, then the i7-9700K is a great option for you, since it has strong multi-core performance, too. This will add another $100 and some change to the total cost of your PC though, so keep that in mind before buying.