Today, we are showcasing the best gaming PC build for under $1000 built for the best gaming experience in 2020. Our top version will maximize gaming performance with an Intel CPU, while we are also offering a minor version of PC for Ryazan games and even a selection of pre-built PCs with comparable performance.  

Speaking of this PC in general, you can expect gaming performance far beyond the capabilities of modern consoles. Even consoles like Xbox One X and PS4 Pro can’t reach true 4K resolution; instead, they have to fall back to 1440p or 1800p and upscale to 4K, which isn’t the same as gaming in true 4K resolution.  With this PC version, you’ll be able to play games at 1080p and 1440p at super high frame rates, meeting the capabilities of 144Hz monitors. If graphics are your priority, you’ll have no problem pushing games at 1440p and 1800p on configurations beyond the quality of the console. Even true native 4K will be possible with the right settings. Plus, you’ll also enjoy a great hybrid storage setup. With an SSD and an HDD, you get the best of both worlds, but no more pretense.  Let’s dive into the components that make this the best gaming PC under $1000.

What Builds The Best Gaming PC Under $1000

In Apex Legends, this build should hit over 40 FPS on low settings and 4K. At 1440p and low settings, it runs at over 70 FPS, even during pulldown, and approaches 110 FPS during proper gameplay. Taking Apex’s resolution scaling features into account, this means you can push a high-fidelity experience at any resolution of your choice, but if you want to push graphics too, you’ll need to commit to 1440p to maintain 60+ FPS maxed out. settings.

Max out games like Fortnite and PUBG, the same trends hold true. While native 4K at high settings and 60 FPS is not yet achievable, 1440p and 4K at upscaled/lower settings are absolutely achievable with the RTX 2060 and i5 8400. Even intensive single-player experiences like Resident Evil 2 Remake, The Witcher 3, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey maintain 60+ FPS, on max settings, at 1440p. If you’re willing to compromise on 1080p, you’ll even be able to push many of these games to match a 144Hz refresh rate, delivering the smoothest gaming experience possible.

Gaming PC Built parts details

Caja: Fractal Design Focus G

Powerful intake fans. Behind a windowed side panel, you’ll find a fairly open layout inside the case, allowing plenty of room for cable management, GPU mounting, and drives. The build experience and cable management should be a breeze within this chassis. The only real drawback worth noting here is that there are only two fans included… or both are intake fans. An ideal airflow scenario will have at least 1 exhaust fan and at least 1 intake fan, and this case interestingly enough shipped with dual intake fans and no exhaust fans to speak of. While this will ensure that cool air is regularly drawn into the case, the lack of an exhaust fan means that hot air will take longer to exit.

We recommend looking at our fan in the upgrade section to add it as an exhaust, or just move the bottom intake fan to the back of the case while assembling.

CPU: 8-core Intel Core i5-8400 processor

Core performance, which is the most important CPU metric to measure gaming performance. This is one of the best gaming CPUs released. High-end i5s offer marginal performance gains in this area, so thankfully you’re not sacrificing performance by opting for a non-K i5 processor. In fact, the 8400 has a very generous turbo mode out of the box. …although you’ll want to replace the stock cooler to get the CPU to turbo more often. (We’ll cover that next.)

As far as this build is concerned, the i5 should be more than enough to push games over 60 FPS, regardless of resolution. The resolution will be the job of our graphics card, which we’ll also cover later. Tasks like streaming and video playback should also be quite workable, though the Ryzen build will be better for you if you plan on doing those things frequently.

Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo

When it comes to air coolers, you really can’t go wrong with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo. This has become a favorite with the enthusiast community for a number of good reasons, but the most prominent of those reasons is one simple fact: it works. The high-quality fan and huge heatsink ensure that the heat from the processor is always distributed and cool. This cooler will offer all the cooling capacity we need, even for overclocking the alternate version of Ryzen.

Two reasons:

1. To make sure the i5-8400 runs at its full speed as often as possible.
2. To make sure our alternate version of Ryzen (discussed later) has headroom for overclocking.

RAM: XPG Gammix D10 16GB 3200MHz

made up of two 8GB DDR4 RAM running at 3200MHz. While no RAM speed records are being broken here, what matters is that you get 16GB of RAM from quality for a fair price. This is in line with other PC builds in this price range, and double the RAM you can usually expect from pre-built gaming PCs in this price range.

While 3200 MHz isn’t the fastest RAM on the market, it’s still pretty good in most scenarios, certainly better than any latest-gen DDR3 RAM. The main benefits of higher RAM speeds lie in a higher minimum FPS in games (meaning less severe lag spikes), and even the initial DDR4 spec will ensure a more responsive experience than any DDR3-based PC.

In terms of capacity, 16GB of RAM will be more than enough for gaming and multitasking alike. Outside of the truly extreme situations seen in professional industries, users and gamers don’t come close to maxing out a 16GB RAM capacity.

Placa base: ASRock H370 Pro4

Motherboard at a great price, but unfortunately there is one key downside that we need to mention here:

Sin overclocking:  When planning the best gaming PC under $1000, we hoped to put an overclockable CPU and motherboard into it. Unfortunately, Intel’s i5s K-series and Z-series motherboards are simply too expensive to allow for a balanced gaming experience in this price range, so only the alternative version of Ryzen has overclocking capabilities. However, despite the lack of overclocking, you’ll find that there are plenty of other things to enjoy about this motherboard. High-speed dedicated M.2 slots, plenty of heat shields, and stellar build quality make this a worthwhile purchase.

GPU: ASUS Nvidia RTX 2060

RTX 2060, specifically, the card version from ASUS. This version of the card features a robust dual-fan cooler with a large heatsink, ensuring low temperatures during gaming and a fairly respectable overclocking headroom. Heck, this GPU even starts with a factory overclock!

If you’re interested in learning more about how this GPU will perform, scroll down to the performance section below. However, if you want a short version, the RTX 2060 should be able to play:

• 1080p gaming at max settings and 120+ FPS
• Gaming 1440p at maximum settings and 80+ FPS
• 4K gaming on mixed settings and 40-60+ FPS
• VR gaming via HTC Vive and Oculus Rift

SSD: 480 GB internal professional SSD

Professional SSD. You’ll be using this to store your operating system, as well as your top favorite apps and games. While this drive is much smaller than your typical hard drive, it’s also much faster – anything installed on this drive will have much faster load times.

Using an SSD as a “boot drive” (i.e. installing your operating system on it) will ensure fast boot times. We are talking about a matter of seconds, which you are probably not used to since most PCs are based on HDD. While your SSD will also reduce load times in games, it’s generally recommended to keep multiplayer titles and frequently played games on the SSD, and media/everything else on the HDD.

Hard Drive: 2TB Seagate Constellation ES Hard Drive

As far as the HDD is concerned, this is a fairly simple 2TB HDD that you can use to store your game build, a variety of media, etc. HDDs are much cheaper per gigabyte than SSDs, but the speed loss makes them less ideal for boot drives and multiplayer games. Since faster loading first choice of your favorite hero or class in most games.

PSU: Corsair CX550 Semi-Modular Power Supply

Last but not least is the Corsair CX550, which is an 80+ Bronze Certified 550W PSU. This will provide more than enough power for the components of this version of the PC, even after a few upgrades of your choosing.

However, more important than raw power or certification is modularity. This is a semi-modular power supply, which means that only the motherboard power cable cannot be disconnected. This will make installing and routing power cables inside your PC much easier than it otherwise would be, which is a dramatic improvement in the build experience compared to a non-modular power supply. Full modular PSUs are also good, but only if you plan to replace your PSU cables with shorter ones. These are great for SFF PC builds, but not one like this, which is full ATX.