Ready to take the plunge on a new gaming PC but fancy building it yourself? You’ve come to the right place.
There’s nothing like the feeling of pressing the power button for the first time on your shiny new gaming PC, built by your own two hands, and watching it whir to life. There’s also nothing like when you hit the power button and nothing happens and you realise you’ve messed something up along the way—but less said about that the better.
If you’re new to this, don’t worry. I’ll make it easy for you. I’ve been building PCs for years and I’m going to use that experience and our expert reviews here on PC Gamer to pick out the best PC components from the Prime Day sales. I’ll make sure it all works together and will offer you top performance.
Below you’ll find my recommendations for a gaming PC build around the $1,000 mark (almost to the dollar) and targeting both excellent 1440p performance, longevity and dashing good looks. I’ll also post live updates to this page further down with recommendations for further deals on PC parts that catch my eye as I find them.
The $1,000 Prime Day gaming PC build
I’ve not cut corners on this PC build. I’ve chosen parts I would want in my own gaming PC. These are components that will deliver high frame rates today and overhead to deal with the next-generation of demanding games; that look fantastic together and should keep relatively quiet while gaming.
Processor
The first decision for any PC build is which CPU to go for: Intel or AMD?
I’ve sided with AMD here. The Ryzen 7 7700X is my chip of choice. There are a few reasons for that.
Firstly, it’s hugely discounted down to just $245 today. You can buy it at Newegg or Amazon for that price, though it’s a Prime only deal on the latter.
Secondly, AMD’s AM5 platform will have more room to grow with support for future generations of AMD chips. With eight cores and 16 threads of Zen 4 at its disposal, you won’t have to worry about replacing the 7700X anytime soon, but should you want to, you need only ensure your BIOS on your motherboard is up-to-date and replace the CPU with any other AM5 compatible chip.
We know the 9000-series will use the same AM5 socket as the 7000-series, so that’s one upgrade you could make. I’d wager future 3D V-Cache processors would also make for a tasty upgrade if you can spare the cash.
Graphics card
I’m also choosing AMD for the graphics card in this PC. The PowerColor Radeon RX 7700 XT at Newegg is an excellent price to pay for a modern GPU with 12 GB of VRAM. This card will roundly beat the similarly priced RTX 4060 Ti at 1440p and offers great bang-for-your-buck at 1080p, too.
Motherboard
For the motherboard, I’ve opted for the ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi. It’s a compact Micro ATX motherboard but it offers all I could ask for at this sale price. The VRM is a suitable 8+2+1 design, there are plenty of USB ports (including USB Type-C) and three NVMe SSD slots. One of which is also PCIe 5.0 compatible, though I won’t be taking advantage of that for this build.
This motherboard comes in a white and black colourway, which will be important once we talk about the chassis later on.
Cooler
You could opt for a cheaper cooler to save some cash here, though in the interests of noise levels under load I’ve decided to opt for the brand new BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 5. A chunky air cooler capable of dissipating up to 270 W, it won’t struggle to keep this 105 W Ryzen chip under control. There are two Silent Wings PWM fans included with this cooler and designed to keep noise to a minimum.
For the avoidance of doubt, I do like a liquid cooler. However, I have an air cooler in my personal PC and they’re often fantastic value for the performance on offer.
The Dark Rock Pro 5 offers 45 mm of clearance for the RAM and shouldn’t pose an issue with my 40 mm tall pick below. It’s also 168 mm tall, which will just slide in perfectly into the Fractal chassis (max cooler size for the case is 170 mm).
Memory
I’ve opted for 32 GB of genuinely fast DDR5 RAM for this build. In the interests of saving money, I had expected to go for 16 GB, though a Prime Day deal on Lexar’s 32 GB Thor OC DDR5-6000 kit was too tempting to resist. It is asking little more than some 16 GB kits, and yet it’s genuinely speedy memory at 6000 MHz (effective) at CL32 and officially certified for AMD Ryzen systems through AMD Expo.
SSD
For storage, I’ve chosen the 1 TB Lexar NM790 solid state drive. This NVMe SSD is currently discounted with a heatsink attached, though one is included on the ASRock motherboard. It might be an idea to use this Lexar drive in one of the non-heatsink slots on the motherboard and use the motherboard’s heatsink for an upgrade down the line.
I reviewed the massive 4 TB version of the Lexar NM790 and came away thoroughly impressed with the performance it delivers.
Power supply
Powering the lot is the Corsair RM750x power supply, currently on offer at Amazon. This fully-modular power supply is from a dependable manufacturer and rated to 80 Plus Gold and Cybenetics Gold standards. It also comes with a ten-year warranty for peace of mind.
Nothing makes me more uncomfortable than a thousand dollars worth of PC parts plugged into a no-name PSU with lacklustre electronics. Not on my watch.
Case
Lastly, the chassis into which it all slots in. The Fractal Design North case is held in high esteem by the PC Gamer team and further afield. You can pick it up in black or white for the same price in the sales, though I’m opting for white to match my pick of motherboard. Either way, it looks excellent with that wood finish up front. It also comes with two fans pre-installed for adequate cooling without spending any extra.
