For many PC gamers, building a $1,000 gaming rig represents an important milestone. Building a gaming PC with this amount of money primarily means focusing on raw performance and power, as well as achieving ultimate gaming experience at 1080p resolution. This also means officially going out of the mid-range category, and finally entering the world of premium-class PC builds.
Read also: The Best 144 Hz Gaming Monitors Under $200 in 2022
These days, building a powerful gaming PC with a budget of $1,000 is fairly easy. There are several reasons for that. First, prices of high-end graphics cards have finally fallen down due to cryptocurrency craze winding down, and second, many supply chain issues have finally been ameliorated. All of this has caused PC components to become much cheaper and more accessible.
Our $1,000 PC build was built for one single purpose – to deliver stable 60 FPS in the latest PC games on high to ultra settings at 1080p resolution. This is why our build features NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card. Not only that this GPU is capable of delivering the targeted performance, but can also deliver pretty decent raytracing performance for a reasonable price. Our build also comes with a powerful hexa-core Intel Core i5-11400F processor, as well as with 16 GB of DDR4 RAM for snappy system performance.
Part List for $1,000 PC Build
| Processor | Intel Core i5-11400F 6-Core, 4.4 GHz Processor | View |
| Motherboard | MSI MAG B560 Torpedo, LGA1200, ATX | View |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200 MHz Kit | View |
| Graphics Card | Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8G | View |
| Solid State Drive | Crucial P1 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD | View |
| Power Supply | EVGA 500 BR 80+ Bronze Certified | View |
| Case | NZXT H510 Mid-Tower Case | View |
Grand Total: $990-$1,050
*The shown grand total price is purely informative and is subject to change.
**The estimated price includes only PC components. Costs of Windows operating system license, and other peripherals are not included.
Keep in mind that this build is designed to deliver enjoyable 1080p gaming experience, as well as provide enough power to perform heavy-duty office work, and even some content creation (e.g. Photoshop editing). If, however, you are looking for something more powerful, then be sure to check out our other custom PC builds.
$1,000 PC Build Gaming Performance
| 1080p Gaming @ Ultra Settings | Average FPS |
|---|---|
| Apex Legends | 118 FPS |
| Call of Duty: Warzone (DLSS) | 110 FPS |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (DLSS + RT) | 50 FPS |
| Fortnite | 82 FPS |
| Forza Horizon 5 | 92 FPS |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 (DLSS) | 55 FPS |
| Valorant | 360 FPS |
If you take a look at our $1,000 PC build gaming benchmark table, you’ll see that our rig is able to deliver great performance at 1080p resolution on ultra settings. In shooters such as Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone, our PC can deliver more than 100 FPS on average, and if you lower your graphics settings down to medium, you can expect hitting 144 FPS without any problems.
Even in very graphically demanding games, like Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2, our PC build can deliver more than 50 FPS on ultra settings with DLSS and raytracing enabled. This is pretty amazing performance, especially for a such mid-range PC. This means that without raytracing and extra graphics settings, this build can deliver stable 60 FPS, which is a golden standard for achieving enjoyable gaming experience.
PC COMPONENTS LIST
Processor: Intel Core i5-11400F
Cores/Threads: 6C/12T | Base Clock: 2.6 GHz | Boost Clock: 4.4 GHz | TDP: 65 W | PassMark Score: 17,100
The Intel Core i5-11400F is an underappreciated budget desktop CPU with an exceptional performance and a low price tag. In most CPU benchmarks, the Core i5-11400F is approximately 24% quicker than the last-gen Core i5-10400 and approximately 11% faster than the AMD Ryzen 5 3600. In gaming, it performs similarly to the considerably more expensive AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, making it one of the greatest budget gaming CPUs available right now.
The Core i5-11400F has 6 cores and 12 threads and features a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This CPU features a low power consumption of 65 W, however you can increase it to 100 W to give it a big performance boost. Overall, this is an amazing budget CPU that is able to deliver top-notch gaming performance for a low price.
Motherboard: MSI MAG B560 Torpedo
Form Factor: ATX | Socket: LGA 1200 | Chipset: Intel B560 | Memory Support: 4 x DDR4-5066 (O.C.) | Features: 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16, 1 x PCIe 3.0 x 16, 1 x PCIe 3.0 x1, 6 x SATA3, 3 x M.2
The MSI MAG B560 Torpedo is a great mid-range ATX motherboard featuring support for the 11th Gen Intel Core CPUs. The motherboard features a powerful 12+2+1 VRM design, meaning it is able to provide sufficient power delivery to the CPU, and it also features heatsinks with 7W/mK thermal pads for improved heat dissipation.
Besides featuring three M.2 SSD slots, and two PCIe x16 slots, this motherboard also comes with liquid cooling pump fan support and onboard DisplayPort connector. Although it doesn’t have an integrated Wi-Fi, this board comes with 2.5G LAN, meaning it can offer ultra-fast data transfer speed. The MAG B560 Torpedo also features a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 controller, and can offer USB speeds of up to 20 Gb/s with USB Type-C. The board also supports DDR4 memory speeds of up to 5,066 MHz, and it features native support for 2-Way AMD Crossfire multi-GPU configurations.
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX (2x8GB) DDR4 3200 MHz Kit
Speed: DDR4 3200 MHz | CAS Latency: CL16 | Timings: 16-18-18-36 | Operating Voltage: 1.35V | Capacity: 2 x 8GB
With CAS latency of 16, the Corsair Vengeance LPX kit is one of the best budget high-performance memory kits out there. With each stick running at a frequency of 3,200 MHz, this kit can provide enough speed to ensure that the Intel Core i5-11400F’s cache is filled up as soon as possible. Featuring aluminum heat spreader, this kit not only has an awesome low-profile look, but it also features improved cooling. Lastly, the Corsair Vengeance LPX memory modules come with support for XMP 2.0 profiles, meaning you can easily overclock them with only one click via your UEFI control panel.
Graphics Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3050 Gaming OC 8G
Boost Clock: 1,822 MHz | Memory: 8GB GDDR6 | Power Connectors: 1 x 8-pin | Outputs: 2 x DP, 2 x HDMI
The new GeForce RTX 3050 proves to be an excellent graphics card for 1080p gaming. It is fairly inexpensive, it features 8GB of VRAM, and supports both raytracing and NVIDIA DLSS. All of these things make the RTX 3050 a great budget graphics card, especially if you are aiming for 1080p @ 60 fps gaming on high to ultra settings.
The GeForce RTX 3050 is also a very energy-efficient GPU, as it consumes only around 130 W under full load, and requires one 8-pin connector to run. The card can easily deliver more than 100 fps in games like Forza Horizon 5, and Call of Duty: Warzone on ultra settings, or up to 60 fps in more graphically demanding games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla or Cyberpunk 2077. To be fair, this card is not dirt-cheap, but is by far the most affordable graphics card featuring raytracing support and great shading performance.
Solid State Drive: Crucial P1 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD
Capacity: 1 TB | Interface: M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 | Max. Read Speed: Up to 2000 MB/s | Max. Write Speed: Up to 1700 MB/s
From applications to games, and even file transfers, the Crucial P1 M.2 NVMe SSD will ensure that everything loads as fast as possible. Being an M.2 NVMe SSD, this device offers significantly faster read and write speeds compared to the classic SATA3 hard drives, as well as ordinary 2.5″ SSDs. Featuring Micron’s 3D NAND memory modules, this drive can boast with great performance and reliability, as Micron has been developing this kind of technology for the past 40 years. The Crucial P1 offers very good read and write speeds for a reasonable amount of money, and offers enough storage to accommodate an operating system, as well as a multiple PC games and applications.
Power Supply: EVGA 500 BR 80+ Bronze Certified
Form Factor: ATX | Capacity: 500W | Efficiency rating: 80 PLUS Bronze Certified | Modularity: Non-modular
The EVGA 500 BR power supply unit is capable enough to deliver all the necessary power to our PC build, as its 500 watt output is able to ensure stable system performance, even with potential upgrades that we’ve not yet included. Featuring 80 Plus Bronze certification, this non-modular PSU features 85% efficiency under typical loads, and its multiple voltage and current spike protections guard your PC from potential electrocution. Overall, the EVGA 500 BR is a great high-quality power supply unit that will be more than enough useful to most mainstream users.
Case: NZXT H510 Mid-Tower PC Case
Form Factor: Mid Tower | Motherboard Support: ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX | Dimensions: 460 × 210 × 428 mm | Radiator Support: 1 x 280 mm, 1 x 120 mm | I/O Ports: USB 3.2 Gen 1 x 1, USB Type-C x 1, Audio x 1 | Drive Bays: 3.5″ x 2+1, 2.5″ x 2+1
The NZXT H510 is a stunning mid-tower gaming computer case that effortlessly combines a variety of features that most hardcore gamers demand. This very spacious PC case can house up to two AIO cooling radiators, and up to four fans. It can also accommodate up to five internal hard drives, and provides enough clearance to install graphics cards that measure up to 381 mm in length.
The NZXT H510 comes with two pre-installed 120 mm fans, a USB Type-C front panel connector, and cable management bar. Inside the case you’ll also find a separate PSU and HDD compartment, as well as pre-installed dust filter. Last but not least, this case also comes with a tempered-glass side panel, which means you’ll be able to show-off your gaming rig to your friends.
