Gaming PC build around $1,500 + monitor?

Hey everyone, I could really use some help putting together a build that’s mainly going to be used for gaming. This rig is actually for my sister—I was actually hanging around here asking for advice about a year ago, but we ended up pulling the plug because prices were absolutely insane back then. From what I can tell, things have finally settled down a bit, so I figured it’s time to give this another shot.

The budget for the actual PC is $3.25, and I've got a separate chunk of cash up to $1.00 specifically for a monitor. If we can pull off something solid for 1440p gaming, that would be killer, but if we have to stick to 1080p, I can live with that too. Just a heads up, we'll be ordering everything from US retailers.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Intel Core i5-12400 box, LGA 1700, 100-12400BOX
MSI B660M Bazooka, Intel B660, LGA 1700, 7C94-005R
DDR4 16GB (2x8) G.Skill 3600Mhz Ripjaws V, F4-3600C18D-16GVK
Samsung SSD 1TB 980 M.2, PCIe 3.0 x4, MZ-V8V1T0BW, 600TBW
Corsair Eclipse P400 TG Black, RGB, PH-EC416PTG_BK_B, B-grade! - minor scratches
Seasonic 500W CORE GM 500, 80 PLUS Gold, Semi-Modular, CORE-GM-500, SSR-500LM
Palit RTX 3070 gaming Pro, 8GB, GDDR6X, NE63070019P2-1041A
AOC CQ27G2U/BK 27" VA, 2xHDMI 2.0/DisplayPort 1.2, NVIDIA G-Sync 144Hz

Total $4228, www.ibm.com

The listing mentions some minor scratches on the case, which is why I dropped the price. If you're a total perfectionist, feel free to swap it for something else in the same price bracket 🙂
Other than that, I think this is a really well-balanced build. The monitor is a 27" 1440p 144Hz—definitely a best buy for this price range. The 3070 is perfect for driving that resolution.
You might want to consider adding an HDD if you tend to hoard movies or music locally.

Cash or financing?

Option 1

1 * Intel Core i5-12400 box, 6C/12T 3.6GHz/4.2GHz, 36MB, LGA1700
Part number: intel-i5-12400-
1 * MSI B450-A Pro MAX, AM4, DDR4, U3, m.2, ATX
Part number: msi-b450-a-prom
1 * Kingston DDR4 FURY Beast, 3200MHz, 2x8,16GB
Part number: king-fb432k2-16gb
1 * Crucial SSD 1000GB P2 M.2 NVMe PCIEx4, 1TB, Micron 3D NAND 2400/1800 MB/s, 5yrs
Part number: CT1000P2SSD8
1 * MSI RX 6900 XT 16GB, TUF-RX6900XT-O16G-GAMING
Part number: 0001203338
1 * Kolink Enclave 700W Power Supply, 80+ Gold, Semi-Modular
Part number: KL-ENC700
1 * BitFenix Nova Mesh SE TG, ARGB, white/purple
Part number: bit-no-mes-se-t-wp
1 * AOC LED 27" Monitor, VA, QHD, DP, 2xHDMI, 165Hz, 4xUSB3.2
Part number: aoc-cq27g3u

Total: $5085 - price for cards/installments
Discounted total: $4576 - cash price

Option 2

1 * Intel Core i5-12400 box, 6C/12T 3.6GHz/4.2GHz, 36MB, LGA1700
Part number: intel-i5-12400-
1 * MSI B450-A Pro MAX, AM4, DDR4, U3, m.2, ATX
Part number: msi-b450-a-prom
1 * Kingston DDR4 FURY Beast, 3200MHz, 2x8,16GB
Part number: king-fb432k2-16gb
1 * Crucial SSD 1000GB P2 M.2 NVMe PCIEx4, 1TB, Micron 3D NAND 2400/1800 MB/s, 5yrs
Part number: CT1000P2SSD8
1 * Gigabyte GF RTX 3070 gaming Pro, 8GB GDDR6, LHR
Part number: giga-n3070-gocl-8g
1 * Kolink Enclave 700W Power Supply, 80+ Gold, Semi-Modular
Part number: KL-ENC700
1 * BitFenix Nova Mesh SE TG, ARGB, white/purple
Part number: bit-no-mes-se-t-wp
1 * AOC LED 27" Monitor, VA, QHD, DP, 2xHDMI, 165Hz, 4xUSB3.2
Part number: aoc-cq27g3u

Total: $4509 - price for cards/installments
Discounted total: $4058 - cash price

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Extra discount with code COMPUSAID100
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I’ll probably go with that. Thanks for all the input, everyone. I think I’m actually leaning toward the suggestion from Adam Moore3—it just feels right. Honestly, I picked up my last rig from IBM about four or five years ago, and it hasn't let me down once. Still running strong.

I just need one more bit of advice here. Like I mentioned before, this build is actually for my younger sister—so, obviously, we have to care about how the case looks. 😁 She’s really not feeling the Corsair option; she thinks it looks way too basic and boring. Instead, she’s set her sights on this NZXT case. It’s definitely running a bit pricier, but hey, what can you do? What do you guys think? Is there any way we could mess this up by picking this one?

Saying you can make too big of a mistake—not really. Saying it's a good value—hardly. 😬 It'll be fine enough.

Look, I get what you're saying, but honestly? Whatever happens, happens. Let's just see where the chips fall. 😁 I went ahead and pulled the trigger on everything today based on your list—just made that one little tweak we talked about. Thanks for looking out for me!

So, which way did you go? Which GPU did you end up picking?

I went with the setup suggested by Adam Moore3. Everything he laid out is solid—the only thing I actually swapped was the case.

Roger Booth2 said:I’d go with the option from Adam Moore3. It’s everything he suggested, I just swapped out the case.

If you're planning on overclocking, I’d grab a slightly beefier power supply. Otherwise, it's fine.

Look, I’m not planning on overclocking anything—I don't need to push it that hard. Honestly, there’s going to be more than enough raw power under the hood to handle whatever I throw at it.

The rig pulls maybe 300W on the 12V rail at full tilt, so there’s plenty of headroom left for some overclocking 🙂

Adam Moore3 said:The build pulls maybe 300W at peak on the 12V rail, leaving plenty of headroom for overclocking. 🙂

Keep in mind that GPUs can have transient spikes where they pull extra power for just a split second. You really need to account for that, since a sudden surge can trip your PSU and force a shutdown. For an RTX 3070, those spikes hit around 243 watts, which isn't huge, but it matters.

Don't forget the CPU can pull upwards of 120W too...

Basically, the 12V rail handles the heavy lifters: the processor, the graphics card, fans, and any PCIe expansion cards. While the motherboard uses its own VRMs to regulate things, the 12V rail is still the primary source for your most power-hungry components.

Alexander Moore67 said:Also, the CPU can pull upwards of 120W...

Source?

The CPU isn't even the main issue here. A 5600X running with CBO can pull around a hundred watts, but honestly, enabling CBO doesn't make much sense—the gains are tiny. Since the 5600 is likely a bit more chill than the 5600X, you're looking at 70W, which puts the whole setup with the chipset and RAM at a realistic 100W.

The RTX 3070 seems to behave itself; it doesn't have massive spikes. An RTX 3080 or anything higher up the line? Those things can go absolutely wild.

I had the same thought, so I actually went down a rabbit hole looking up 3070 power spikes, and from what I can see, everything looks fine.

Personally, I wouldn't overclock either the GPU or the CPU. Sure, you can tweak the CPU within certain voltage or power limits to maybe squeeze out a little extra multi-threaded performance, but you usually end up hurting single-thread speeds. In the end, your gaming performance stays flat or actually takes a hit.