How Much Does it Cost to Build A PC?

Are you considering building your own computer? Do you need an idea of how much it will cost to build a PC? In this guide, we cover everything you need to know in order to determine how much you should spend to build a gaming PC.

While a prebuilt gaming PC may offer you a convenient way to get a system that can run your favorite games, the reality is that opting for a prebuilt computer won’t give you as much performance as your budget warrants.

If you want to really maximize the performance you get out of the money you have to spend, you’re going to need to build your own PC. And, I’m assuming you’ve come to this guide because you’re interested in building your own system.

And, now you want to know how much it will cost to build your own gaming PC.

In this guide, we’re going to go over how much you should spend on a new gaming computer depending on your use-case and budget, give you advice on how much of your budget you should allocate to each part, and show you some example part lists you can use as templates to help you get started.

But, first, you’ll need to determine what your budget is and what your specific goals are for the system you want to build…

I. System Use and Budget

Obviously, the more money you have to spend, the better the components you can choose and the fewer limitations your system will have. On the flip side, the less money you have to spend, the more selective you will need to be when choosing parts.

Also, someone who plays Call of Duty at a competitive level will want to build a completely different type of system than someone who is looking to create content (gameplay videos/streaming, etc.) around a specific single-player AAA title.

So, there are two factors that will dictate how much you should spend on a gaming PC:

1. How much you have to spend
2. How you plan on using your system

And, really, you need to consider both of these factors together as they go hand-in-hand in determining what kind of a PC you can build. Because you may want to build a gaming PC that can run Starfield at 4K and maintain an average framerate of 60 FPS, but if your budget is only $500, you aren’t going to be able to do do so.

If you have an unlimited budget, you really won’t have to worry about how much you have to spend and instead you can focus solely on how you’ll use your system.

For the rest of us, we have to be budget conscious with each component we choose.

But, that’s part of the fun of choosing parts for a PC build…

II. Parts Needed to Build A Gaming PC

We’ve created an extensive video/written series titled How to Choose Components that details what you should look for in each component. We also have a quick primer on all the parts you’ll need to build a gaming PC that you can read here.

Those will give you a deeper-look at all of the components you’ll need and everything you’ll need to consider when choosing parts. But, for the purpose of this article, we’ll list all of the necessary parts below:

Partlist

• CPU (Central processing unit, or processor)
• CPU Cooler
• MOBO (Motherboard)
• GPU (Graphics processing unit, comes on a graphics card)
• RAM (Random access memory, or just memory)
• SSD (Solid state drive)
• Case
• PSU (Power supply unit)

Again, you can read either of the guides posted above for a deeper dive on what to look for on these components. In the next section, we’ll give you a rough guideline on how much of your budget you should allocate to each component for a gaming PC build.

NOTE: All of the components listed above will build the computer itself, but you will still need an operating system and peripherals (monitor, keyboard, and mouse) in order to actually use your computer. You download and use Windows for free, but if you don’t have the necessary peripherals, you will need to consider them in your total budget.

Budget Allocation for Parts

This is a general rundown, but if you’re putting together a part list for a gaming-specific PC build, the following budget allocations usually work out well enough:

These can be helpful for first-time beginners who don’t know how much to spend on each part, but again, these are just rough estimates that only consider users who are trying to get as much gaming performance as possible.

These allocations won’t work for users who need to balance their CPU and GPU performance for tasks like content creation or who will also use their PC for CPU-intensive workloads outside of gaming as well. For those kinds of use-cases, it would make sense to allocate more of your budget to your CPU and less to your GPU.

And, the reason why the allocations change for lower budgets is because there is a minimum that needs to be spent on certain components, and so the less you have to spend, the more of your budget those components will make up.

Next we’ll discuss how much it costs to build a gaming PC at a variety of performance levels.

III. Gaming PC Build Costs by Performance

You don’t have to spend $3,000 to build an RTX 4090 gaming PC in order to achieve an enjoyable experience. In fact, such a system would be overkill for the vast majority of gamers.

The reality is that you can build a decent entry-level 1080P gaming PC for $500. It won’t be perfect and it will struggle to max out more demanding games, but if that’s how much you have to spend, you can still get a solid system.

So, in this section we’ll go over a few different performance tiers and discuss how much they cost and what resolution they are best suited for. Of course, this guide assumes you are looking to build a PC optimized for gaming performance and so the content in this section doesn’t account for other needs that may require a different configuration of components.

Entry Level Gaming PC Build

Price Range: $300-$500

Resolution: 1080P

Even if you have $300-$500 to spend on a PC build, you can still put together something that will give you entry-level performance at 1080P resolution. With such a low budget you won’t be able to build anything that will be able to handle AAA titles on higher or even medium settings. And, you may not be able to play some games at all.

But, if you play games like League of Legends, Valorant, or Fortnite, you can build something in this price range that will allow you to do so. We put together a $500 build a few months back and it was able to handle pretty much any game at 1080P resolution with the exception of Starfield. You can see what parts we used and the kind of performance we got here (or watch the video below.)

It should also be noted that in this price range it makes a lot of sense to shop the used market. Even with a budget of as low as $300, you can build a powerful system by using used components.

Budget Gaming PC Build

Price Range: $500-$800

Resolution: 1080P / 1440P

If you have a budget of between $500 and $800 you can build a solid PC for 1080P gaming and, at the higher end of this budget range, you can even put together a system that is capable of running games at higher settings on a 1440P display.

We put together this $800 build a couple of months ago. It had a Ryzen 5 5600X processor and a Radeon RX 6750 XT GPU in it. The combination was able to deliver really good results at 1080P resolution, averaging over 100 frames per second at 1080P resolution at maxed out settings in even more demanding titles. And, it ran games at 1440P resolution well, too, easily averaging over 60 frames per second in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

You can check out the full part list and benchmarks for that build by following the link above.

Mid-Range Gaming PC Build

Price Range: $800-$1,250

Resolution: 1080P / 1440P

The $800-$1,250 price range is really where you start having to make less sacrifices and where you can really build a well-rounded system. This price range is the sweet spot in terms of price-to-performance, as once you move beyond this price range, you’ll start to pay a lot more for GPUs that won’t necessarily return the same dollar value on the extra gaming performance they offer.

We built a $1,000 gaming PC with a Ryzen 5 5600X and Radeon RX 7800 XT at the beginning of the year and, when compared to the $800 build mentioned above, we were able to average 30% more performance across the games we tested. In fact, where the $800 build could only maintain just over 60 frames per second at 1440P resolution in some games, the $1,000 build could get closer to 100 frames per second.

So, in this price range you truly have the opportunity to build a dedicated 1440P gaming PC.

On the other hand, if you will mainly be playing competitive titles where having as high of a framerate as possible will be advantageous for you, then you can also stick to a 1080P display in this budget range.

Either way, this budget range offers a lot of performance and flexibility without getting to a point to where it will be an extreme hit to your wallet.

High-End Gaming PC Build

Price Range: $1,250-$2,000

Resolution: 1080P / 1440P / 4K

As you approach the mid-$1,000 price range for a gaming PC build, you have a couple of options…

You can either spend more money on your non-GPU components to build a more well-rounded system for 1080P or 1440P gaming…

Or, you can continue putting as much as possible into your GPU in hopes to get a system that will deliver a good experience on a 4K display.

Because, remember, even our $1,000 gaming PC build that had an RX 7800 XT in it was able to provide a solid 1080P and 1440P gaming experience. So, with the extra money available, do you really need to keep putting money into your GPU, when something like the 7800 XT (or even some more moderately-priced upgrade options, like the RX 7900 GRE or RX 7900 XT) will work for your needs?

Of course, if your goal is to game at 4K resolution, then you will definitely need to put as much of your budget into your GPU as possible and this is really the budget-range where you will have enough to where 4K gaming becomes feasible.

Just note, though, that even with a $2,000 budget, you still won’t be able to build an ideal 4K gaming PC. That’s because the best GPU currently available, the RTX 4090, costs over $1,500 on its own—and even it can’t deliver over 100 frames per second on maxed out settings in today’s most demanding titles at 4K resolution.

Extreme Gaming PC Build

Price Range: $1,250-$2,000

Resolution: 1440P / 4K

If you’re working with a budget of over $2,000 you have the option to build a really powerful PC for 4K gaming. On the low-end, with a $2,000 budget, you should be able to fit a GPU like the RX 7900 XTX or RTX 4080 into your build. And, both of those GPUs should offer at minimum a 60-frame-per-second experience in even more demanding games at 4K resolution.

For the most ideal 4K gaming experience currently possible, you’ll want an RTX 4090. And, since an RTX 4090 currently comes in at no lower than ~$1,500, you’re likely looking at a minimum of ~$2,500 total on your gaming PC.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with building a $2,000+ gaming PC and using it play games at 1440P resolution. As we mentioned above, for competitive gamers, it makes more sense to game at lower resolutions in order to achieve as high of a framerate as possible.

And, with such a large budget, you can have the best of both worlds, gaming at a higher-than-1080P-resolution, and still getting that extreme framerate.

Ultimately, with such a large budget you have a lot of different routes you can go with your build. Just know, though, that there is a premium on higher-end components, and that premium doesn’t always equate to getting the same dollar value in performance back.

IV. Example PC Builds

If you want to get an idea of what the part list looks like for a gaming PC build, we have a bunch of part list guides for a handful of pricepoints.

You can check them out using the links below:

• $300 Gaming PC Build
• $400 Gaming PC Build
• $500 Gaming PC Build
• $600 Gaming PC Build
• $700 Gaming PC Build
• $800 Gaming PC Build
• $1,000 Gaming PC Build
• $1,500 Gaming PC Build

Conclusion

There is no one correct answer to how much it costs to build a gaming PC. The cost of a gaming PC is going to depend on how much you have to spend and what your personal needs are.

One person could spend $500 on components and build something that will offer an ideal in-game experience in League of Legends and another person could spend $1,500 on parts to build a system to run Starfield at 4K resolution and come away unsatisfied with the average framerate they get.

So, there are just too many variables to specify a specific amount that needs to be spent to build a PC.

But, hopefully the information in this guide gave you a good idea of how much you should spend to meet your needs. The next step will then be to start researching what you should look for in each individual component so that you choose a compatible set of components that will meet your performance demands. You can check out our How to Choose Components series to help you with that.