Build A Great Ryzen 7000X3D Gaming PC For $2000 With These Quality Components
They're brand-new, so they're extremely expensive, right? Well, not necessarily. You can actually put together a brilliant 3D V-Cache gaming PC for less than you might think. Prices on NVMe storage, Socket AM5 motherboards, and especially the required DDR5 memory have come way, way down, and graphics cards are cheaper than they've been in a while too.
Starting off with the most important component for this build, the processor, there are only two options right now. You've got the twelve-core Ryzen 9 7900X3D at $599, and the sixteen-core Ryzen 9 7950X3D at $699. Aside from the core count, these two processors are nearly identical, including the L3 cache total. Both are frankly overkill for gaming, but the eight-core Ryzen 7 7800X3D (with SEP $449 USD) won't be available until April. If you're someone who does a lot of production tasks, you might want to grab the top-end 7950X3D, but we'd recommend most gamers to stick with the twelve-core part for now.
Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB CPU Cooler: $39.90 at Amazon
To keep the CPU cool, well, you don't have to spend a bundle, and you don't have to mess about with annoying liquid coolers, either. That's because the X3D processors have a lower, 120-watt TDP that is easier to cool. We won't skimp on the cooling either, though; the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE offers two fans to cool two radiators in a compact package that's stylish and includes RGB LEDs, too.
ASRock X670E PG Lightning Socket AM5 ATX Motherboard: $242.45 at Amazon
G.SKILL Trident Z5 NEO Series 32GB DDR5-6000 CL30 RAM Kit: $154.99 at Amazon
We'll go with just 32GB of memory, for now. That's plenty of RAM for games, and it allows us to get slightly-fancy 6000 MT/s DDR5 with a relatively-low 30 cycles CAS latency at a reasonable price. This two-stick kit doesn't have the visual fancy of some of G.SKILL's other offerings, but it should serve admirably as our system RAM.
WD BLACK SN850X 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD: $159.99 at Amazon
ZEUS GAMDIAS Apollo E2 Elite ATX Mid Tower Chassis: $59.99 at Amazon
All of our hardware is going to get crammed into a reasonably-priced Gamdias Apollo E2 Elite ATX mid-tower chassis. This case offers everything you expect in a modern computer case: a power supply shroud and cable management area, a tempered-glass side panel, RGB LED fans, and oodles of airflow thanks to the paired 200mm intake fans. And all for just $60!
ADATA XPG Cybercore 1000W 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supply: $209.99 at Amazon
For our power supply, we could save a little more than we did, as the most power-thirsty part we've selected for this system expects a power supply of just 750W peak rating. However, power supplies age over time, and a quality unit can save you countless headaches down the line. It doesn't get much higher-quality than this ADATA XPG Cybercore unit, with 1000 watts of power and 80+ Platinum certification. It's fully-modular, and ADATA offers a ten-year warranty on the unit.
Which Graphics Card To Buy?
Finally, the pièce de résistance for any gaming rig: the graphics card. We've made three selections for you based primarily on cost, but also on capabilities. Right now, the graphics card market is in a bit of a weird place. The only current-gen hardware available is pretty expensive due to being exclusively upper-midrange and high-end parts.
Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 6800 16GB Graphics Card: $536.99 at Amazon
If you'd like to get some killer gaming performance (including in 4K resolution) without spending a bundle, your best value option is going to be this Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 6800 card. This graphics adapter is based on the same GPU as the Radeon RX 6900 XT, just clocked lower. That lower speed means that it's hilariously-efficient, and yet still offers excellent gaming performance. You also get 16GB of GDDR6 memory, and it's only $537 right now.
Powercolor Hellhound AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB Graphics Card: $883.92 at Amazon
ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Trinity OC 12GB Graphics Card: $829.99 at Amazon
On the other hand, this Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Trinity OC model is about $50 cheaper, and it uses the extremely-efficient Ada Lovelace architecture from NVIDIA. That gets you support for the latest NVIDIA technologies, including DLSS 3 Frame Generation. True, it only has 12GB of memory on board, but that will serve you just fine in most games—and the RTX 4070 Ti is frequently faster in lower resolutions, like 2560×1440. If you're not replacing your monitors with this rig, this could be the better option.
Obviously, if you wanted, you could pair your top-shelf gaming CPU with a top-end graphics card: a GeForce RTX 4080 or RTX 4090, or a Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The power supply we've selected should handle any of those graphics cards with aplomb, so if you spot a deal on a super-powerful GPU, feel free to select it (and let us know what you found!)
So, you've got a few options here, but no matter what you pick, you're going to end up with a powerful PC. We've made the handy-dandy chart above that shows you what kind of pricing you're looking at, depending on the components you pick. With the Ryzen 9 7900X3D and that Sapphire Pulse RX 6800 card, you're coming in right at $2,000—an incredible price for a machine with that kind of performance. However, none of these parts are really a poor value, and you should be pleased with whatever you purchase.
Obviously, DIY is going to come out a little cheaper than a pre-built, but it must be said that that's also an option. Our friends at Maingear, Falcon Northwest, Origin PC, and Alienware are all offering brand-new turn-key solutions for Ryzen X3D systems. We wouldn't fault anyone who feels like an extra couple of hundred bucks is worth the time of not having to route wires and plug in persnickety connectors.
Do you know of any killer deals on components that we missed? Let us know in the comments if you've found an awesome offer that we overlooked.
