Best Gaming PC’s Over $1000
Before the next-gen consoles even arrive, Gaming PC’s are outright blasting them away with the specifications. This isn’t anything new. PC Gaming has been considered the intense, glorious, most purified form of gaming. That’s because PC builds allow immense customization, better graphic options, and keep improving long after console releases (That can stick around for almost a decade!). With Xbox Game Pass, console exclusives are becoming less common as well-meaning more and more freedom to play everything on PC. Add to this that even Sony Exclusives have wandered over to enemy territory and you get a pretty bright future for PC Gaming! Here at World’s Best Gaming, we’ve created a list of the BEST PC’s you can buy over $1000. These are all pre-built but we go into building your own in our tech guide and would love to help answer any and all questions for those making a new rig! As usual, we don’t have hundreds of choices, we just have the best!
BEST BUDGET GAMING RIG – ABS GLADIATOR – i7 9700F
ABS Gladiator Gaming PC - Intel i7 9700F - GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER - 16GB DDR4 - 512GB SSD
- Fantastic 2K performance and great 4K playability
- A big enough SSD to actually use
- ABS is a solid builder
- In 3 Months the 3080 builds will be pretty amazing
Features
RTX 2070 Super
16GB RAM
512 SSD
i7 9700F
Windows 10
1 Year Warranty
Loads of fans!
Our Thoughts
This is a great build at a pretty low price. If you are a 2K gamer, it’s all you’ll need for a long-time and it still dabbles fairly well in the 4K space. The RTX 2070 Super with an i7 9700F is almost the top of the last generation (That makes it sound old but it’s maybe one or two years old part-wise at max). We love the value here. The price dropped recently with next-gen releases so you are getting a pretty awesome build for just shy of $1200. Honestly, this checks off the box for 2K Gaming full-stop and in one of the best values we could find! If you want a system now and aren’t willing to wait until the holidays die down and RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 builds are in great supply, this is an excellent build for that (It could be a long time if you know of the great crypto rush in the GPU space). The price right now for those builds is not as affordable as it will be in not too long, If you aren’t trying to eradicate 4K games right now though, have a 2070 Super is pretty freaking awesome.
back to menu ↑BEST MID-RANGE GAMING RIG – CLX SET GAMING i5 10400
CLX SET Gaming Desktop - Liquid Cooled Intel Core i5 10400 2.9Ghz 6-Core Processor, 16GB DDR4 Memory, GeForce RTX 3070...
- Fantastic build
- Amazing GPU
- Great CPU but could be better
- SSD worth using but may want a larger one
- Similarly priced models bump up CPU performance (At the cost of SSD performance)
Features
i5 10400 2.9Ghz 6-core processor
240GB SSD
16 GB of RAM
2 TB HDD
WiFi
Windows 10
RTX 3070
750 Watt PSU
Our Take
Woo boy! 2020 brought the worst to us but it did bring us some phenomenal builds in PC Gaming! This is an amazing build and will make you comfortable in the 4K space. Like for real comfortable. Not, Assassins Creed only crashes occasionally comfortably. The i5-10400 is great and most games won’t need an i7 or i9 option. Clearly those are more powerful but at most you’ll see a 10-20 frame difference. What makes this puppy sing is the RTX 3070! They’re a hot item, hard to find, but for a decent price you’ll find yourself annihalting content. The RTX 3070 is supposedly as powerful as the RTX 2080 Ti at a much lower price meaning games are going to run REALLY well. The biggest downside to this build is the SSD isn’t that large meaning you probably will want to consider an additional one. It has loads of HDD space and if you read our article on that, it affects loading time but games will generally play just as fast. Although ARK is ridiculously different with an SSD vs HDD. We love this build because it hits all the basics and while it isn’t full of frills, you can literally game at 4K with undreamt of power at such a cheap price point compared to even six months ago. It’s just unreal. Reviews are slowly pouring in on the various RTX 30-Series and AMD just announced new GPU options as well so do a bit of due diligence. Regardless, this is a great rig.
back to menu ↑THE HENRY CAVILL LEVEL – RTX 3090 CLX SET GAMING RIG
CLX SET Gaming Desktop - Liquid Cooled - Intel Core i7 10700K 3.80 GHz 8-Cores Processor, 16GB DDR4 Memory, GeForce...
- Incredibly powerful machine
- Insane performance
- Liquid cooling and all the trimmings
- Pricey
- Some compromises but at this price might be better to build on your own if you can
Features
I7 10700K 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor
16GB DDR4
RTX 3090 24GB GDDR6X
480GB SSD
2TB HDD
Wifi
Our Thoughts
The RTX 3090 is insane. Admittedly it’s probably overkill if you aren’t doing things like builds games or dabbling in 8K like some mad scientist. In light of the 3080 being hard to find though, some may opt for such madness. This is an incredible build but it is pricey. It’s hard to say definitively what the experience will be like until more 3090 builds are tested but it’s bound to blow the mind of most people. The RTX 3090 is the cornerstone of this build and ultimately the shining jewel. Boasting 8K gaming before people even have time to think about 8K monitors, it really is otherworldly. It’s the sort of GPU that performs similar to a Titan and makes us consider becoming an enthusiast. You’ll be future-proofed for a LONG TIME with this machine. At least until we have a significant jump in AAA performance demand or resolution leap to 8K but even then. This dabbles in that! The Ray-Tracing performance is incredible too meaning you don’t have to worry about it holding back performance but this seems pretty consistent across all the new RTX cards.
Surprisingly it isn’t 32GB when it comes to RAM but it’s hard to see a purpose for that in most gaming applications. The SSD is good but again, this is an expensive rig and we would almost expect something a little nicer. These concessions while minor are a tad disappointing and there isn’t much above this in terms of quality that can justify added price. This is a fantastic build! But the value will probably be a bit higher in two months. This is a powerful machine and it begs the question, should I build my own? Truth be told getting a new RTX 30-Series GPU might be a bit challenging making building your own just not an option. I think though that you could see some modest savings if you were able to do that.
Y U NO RTX 3080 Builds?!?
The 3080 has been freaking popular! You won’t find many builds with them currently but give it a few weeks or months and you’ll probably see some hit the market. It’s a strange time for GPU’s!
Tech Guide
Should You Build Your Own PC?
ABSOLUTELY! It’s the best value. Pre-built machines just cannot compare when it comes to value or customization. That being said, it’s a bit more difficult than legos (Although not much) and things can go wrong. If you value convenience and would pay extra, a nice pre-built machine is awesome. The wiring is always placed well so you don’t have to ziptie the insides. They test them for problems before you get it. And they also make sure everything is compatible. I have had numerous problems building over the years due to a variety of factors (I built seven custom PC’s last year). Normally, even a lot of experience won’t make you aware that this one random motherboard needs a firmware update to work with this part. They can make for trying and painful times. We love it though and if you are brave and bold, give it a go! Most of our part guides have loads of helpful technical information for those who want to dive in!
Technical Features
What do I need to get an amazing mind-blowing gaming machine?
There are a few absolutely critical decisions when it comes to the parts inside your new rig. There are also some fun ones that don’t matter as much. We break them all down right here. Above $1000 can get you some sweet rigs although custom-built machines really start to shine at $1200. So what do you need to know?
The Bottleneck
This is without a doubt the most important facet of buying and building a gaming PC. Understand your bottlenecks! So a bottleneck is simply a metaphor for the ability of a bottle to only pour a certain amount of liquid out because the neck of the bottle limits the pour rate. Every PC contains different parts that bottleneck your build. Once you pass this bottleneck, it’s wildly more effective to put your money in the next bottleneck.For example, your CPU generally wastes a lot of power after the mid-range when gaming. So spending $500 extra on the top-tier model may see an FPS boost of a small amount like 10 FPS. While $500 extra on a GPU may see 70 or 80 FPS. The reason is that the bottleneck where the CPU held your gaming experience back is long and gone while the GPU often can keep pushing in terms of power indefinitely. This brings up the second most important factor!
Diminishing Value
As technology increases in price you’ll find there is this balanced fantastic point where you get some of the best value per dollar. Eventually, though you hit the high-end side of things and may see an increase in price of twice or more for maybe 10-20% improvement in performance. This is fairly common with your GPU. For instance, the current RTX-3090 is incredible. It’s a gorgeous card (If you can get past some initial problems in the launch build). Ultimately though it costs twice as much for the performance bump. If money isn’t an issue, it’s great, but it’s not always the best value. The difference between the 3070 and 3080 is pretty great for the price though! It takes a lot of research and understanding to balance this which is why WBG does a lot of the heavy lifting for you guys.
What Matters in a Gaming PC?
The GPU
The big Kahuna, this is your part. The thing that will make your system sing. And fortunately this is one of the easiest times to decide on what GPU you need. Nvidia has killed it with the RTX Series-30 launch. So much so that people have conspiracies that they’ve been holding onto secret technology and waiting for the market to saturate. While all launches have issues, the cards released simply kick everything else in the teeth. Full stop. If you spend only $1000 and put a massive RTX-30 GPU in with some decent parts, it’ll still be the prettiest girl in the room. The 30-series is just phenomenal!
So what does a GPU do? The Graphics Processing Unit, processes graphics. I know, I know. That may seem obvious. But it it literally the visual component of your machine. The ports on it show how many devices can connect, it’s the largest factor in graphically fidelity, framerates, and newer ones allow you to use new stellar technology like Ray-Tracing in realtime without a significant performance loss. If you had to spend $200 extra ANYWHERE in your build, you’d be looking at the GPU as the thing you need.
Look For: Any RTX 30-series card if you are spending over $1000
The CPU
The Central Processing Unit, or CPU is responsible for allowing your computer to perform calculations that are not on the graphical side of things. In other words, using Chrome, cruising the OS, or more complex tasks like producing Media through Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve. For the gamer, you only need something mid-range to have amazing gaming performance. A current generation i7 is usually the point where framerates won’t improve past, even with some insane CPU like thread ripper. This is because most games aren’t optimized to use all that insane frame-crushing power. That being said, if you stream or do Media production, a little more power doesn’t hurt and you’ll want a higher tier CPU.
Look for: Current or last Gen Ryzen 5, i5, or greater
RAM
Random Access Memory is not, contrary to popular belief, like injecting steroids into your build. Without getting two technical, most games can’t use anything above 16GB effectively. Additionally, it’s better to buy 2 8GB sticks and have them run in what is known as dual channel mode than buy one 16GB stick. If you have to choose between RAM and a better GPU, the GPU is usually the better choice because RAM is cheap and easy to install. Just save up a little cash and you are upgraded, but to buy another GPU for a modest improvement is going to cost HUNDREDS.
Look for: 2 8GB sticks
Storage Drive
The fourth most important thing to know about is your storage drive type. The SSD is an amazing invention, it will shave literal minutes of load times off of many games. Especially poorly made ones like ARK. That being said, it won’t make games run faster (With the exception of cut-scenes or things requiring a lot of loaded world space in a quick period of time). So we recommend an SSD. It’s so convenient and fantastic for gaming but it isn’t necessary yet. We say yet because new SSD technology may start to use them differently and more effectively in the future. Always buy above 256GB, preferably 512GB, because you’ll want to put the OS on it as well.
Look for: 480 GB or more
Parts that matter but aren’t game-changers
Motherboard
This dictates features of your build like how much RAM can fit in it, what type of CPU you use, how many GPUs. Ultimately though a really nice $500 motherboard isn’t going to wow you more than $100 motherboard unless you are really deep into overclocking and tech stuff.
Power Supply
For most builds, your power supply isn’t a huge deal. The exception being that the latest GPU generation has some steep requirements. Still, a really nice $400 PSU isn’t going to make your PC run faster. If power is a concern or you want stability, then by all means invest, but a decent quality cheap PSU is fine. The RTX 3080 DOES need a 750 Watt PSU so keep that in mind.
Excessive Cooling Components
You need fans. You need cooling. But most of us don’t need fancy liquid cooling setups that cost hundreds of dollars because we aren’t overclocking to unreasonable lengths. If you find your build is running too hot or needs to be cooled down, than solve that with some fans or change the environment. But these fancy cooling solutions are usually a big money-sink until you are convinced you need to squeeze more strength out of that GPU by upping the voltage and endangering your build for 6 more frames per second.
Frequently Asked Questions
But WBG, I want to overclock, it sounds so cool!
Great. I don’t recommend it unless you are really an enthusiast for a variety of reasons. The first being you could destroy your PC pretty quickly with some wrong moves. The second being that most of the improvement you see is minimal compared to just buying a better GPU. Spend hours cooling and getting your machine perfect, hundreds on cooling, and just going with the model up can annihilate all those gains. Modern GPUs are fantastic too and even entering 8K territory so it shouldn’t be a problem. That being said, competitive builders, those who test systems, or those really tech-minded people who love tinkering would love overclocking. By all means, do it, just don’t dive in if you aren’t really dedicated to the lifestyle and tech hurdles of it.
I don’t need to overclock because for $200 extra I can get the super powerful micro-XoTic GPU from such and such…
Buying a GPU is like walking into a store that sells the same cereal in 100 different boxes. While there are huge differences between some GPU builds (Such as the founders edition cooling system and other cooling systems). GPU come from a manufacturer who was give the blueprint by Nvidia. To stand out they add weird features, software, and claim to overclock them by this or that amount. These overclocks are generally fairly safe, so that’s cool, but they might charge $150 extra for minimal performance. Avoid that. Buy the best GPU you can find for your budget but be aware that a super-overclocked-to-the-max 3070 is just going to cost a lot more money for less performance than a 3080. Again, it’s more nuanced than this but it’s not as big of a deal as getting the best core parts for your build that you can.
Dude, I can save so much money! This build is cheap and from some unknown factory in Asia!
Don’t go the Wish or Alibaba route. There are even cheap builds on major websites like Amazon and Newegg. Builds are all about components but if something is ridiculously cheap… PLEASE READ REVIEWS. There are companies out there making fakes, bad builds, and factory orders that just SUCK! Don’t get bamboozled. WBG hates bamboozlers.
You said brand doesn’t matter!
It really doesn’t but it doesn’t mean it’s useless. Dell and HP build desktops the same way we would. You buy parts, slap them in, and send them to the frontlines. But they also have great customer service, warranties, and more. Buying a Dell or HP does not mean they used good parts, so don’t brag about it. It does though mean you get some semblance of accountability if things go wrong.
Thanks for joining us!
Us here at World’s Best Gaming always try to be honest (To the point it can hurt a bit) and 2020 has brought a REALLY unique market to the PC Gaming world. Amazing mind-blowing GPU units are out there but pretty difficult to actually get. That’s why some concessions might need to happen if you wanna be gaming for the holidays. On the bright side, it’s never looked better for 4K gaming and the top builds here are a dream. They easily would have cost twice as much for similar performance during this summer. It’s a great time to be a PC Gamer! As always, comment, like, subscribe, and keep coming back for more of the best!
