The Not-so PC Breakdown on Budget PC’s: Part II

By Zach Crawford

In the second installment of our trilogy of gaming/ work setups. With the PC and peripherals, the price of the setup comes to just under $2,000. In this setup, we focused more on gaming performance and spent a lot of our budget on helping improve the capabilities of this powerful PC. 

Buying a new PC can be a big commitment and thus, I wanted to explain why the parts in the list down below are the right choice for you. I will go down the list from one part to the next so it is easy to understand for someone who might be new to building a PC.

PC Parts:

Central Processing Unit:

First, we went with the Intel Core i7 -9700K which is the most powerful gaming CPU you can get for the price point. It runs at 3.6 gigahertz and has 8-cores; like most intel CPU’s, it’s not the best for multitasking, however, when gaming, this CPU is a beast.

CPU Cooler:

For our CPU cooler, we went with a Noctua NH-D15. This choice is self-explanatory, it is one of the best CPU coolers, and we definitely need a good cooler as Intel CPU’s do run quite hot.

Motherboard:

The motherboard we decided to go with was the MSI Z390-A PRO. For the price point, this motherboard provides great intel support, however, it doesn’t provide much support for heavy overclocking. This motherboard doesn’t provide any support for WiFi, but for gaming, ethernet is a must.

RAM:

For our RAM, we decided to go with G.Skill Trident Z RGB, a reliable set of RAM sticks, that provides high speed and RGB. The speed is quite unnecessary for an intel CPU, however, it does help improve any multitasking, and if any of you are planning on streaming, this ram will definitely be a plus.

Solid State Drive:

Next for our SSD, we decided to pick a similar choice to what we chose for the last price point, we went with the Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB. This NVME SSD provides fast write speeds and it will help boot up your games and PC at rapid speeds. 

Graphics Card:

The graphics card that we decided to go for was the new and powerful GPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founder Edition. This graphics card is the best bang for buck card, as it over performs the 2080 cards while being $800 cheaper. The only problem that comes with this card is how fast it goes out of the sale, so you would need to be extremely fast with purchasing this card.

Case:

For our case, we went with the exact same case as the last price point. This case provides a sleek look while being quite cheap. Again, this case does come with some problems as airflow is sometimes an issue, but the Noctua CPU cooler should be a major help.

Power Supply Unit:

Lastly, for our power supply, we went with a Corsair RM 750 W Fully Modular Power Supply. This PSU will provide plentiful power, and it will take care of your GPU well, as the 3000 series cards are known for having random power surges, but this case should take care of you. Furthermore, this case is fully modular which means you’ll be able to remove any cables you don’t need to plug into any of your parts.

Peripherals:

Keyboard: 

The keyboard that was chosen for this build is the Logitech G PRO RGB Wired. This keyboard has RGB and is fully customizable through the Logitech G HUB app on your PC. The clicky blue switches on this keyboard sound nice and are very responsive. The build quality of this keyboard is something that you will not find in any other product for this price. 

Mouse: 

For the mouse, we went with the Logitech G703 LIGHTSPEED Wireless. This Bluetooth mouse is great for its price and was chosen due to its great synergy with the keyboard. The mouse can be controlled with the Logitech G HUB just like the keyboard. 

Headphones: 

The headphones we chose for this build are the HyperX Cloud II 7.1. This pair of headphones is perfect for this price of the build as they come with great sound quality and one of the best mics on a headset. 

Monitor: 

Finally, for the monitor, we chose the Asus VG278QR 27”. This monitor has a resolution of 1920×1080 and can run at 144hz normally. However, if you wish to, the monitor can be overclocked to 165 Hz for a smoother gaming and work experience.