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I was on my morning scroll looking for news today when I stumbled upon a Reddit thread by someone who was about to build their next gaming PC. The post grabbed me almost immediately, because I think it's something we can all relate to: "I want to build a computer but I'm also in complete shock", the title read. This person hadn't upgraded their rig in a hot minute, and the price of the best gaming PCs today had taken them by complete surprise.
"What... happened?" they asked. "Is there no way to get in the price point of $2,000 anymore to be able to play a highly intensive game while streaming it and get a good FPS?"
Now, the cost of gaming PCs has become a bit ludicrous since 2020, but a $2,000 budget should be more than enough to get a powerful rig. The real problem here is that the person has set their sights a little too high, and that's an easy mistake to make. The poster was looking to upgrade to an RTX 5080, a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 64GB of DDR5, and a new M.2 SSD, PC case, and PSU. They were upgrading from a Ryzen 7 2700x, an RTX 2080, 16GB of DDR4, and an 800W PSU that apparently cost them $1,800 back in the day. By their calculations, the new rig they had their heart set on would cost $4,000.
As you can imagine, this Reddit thread has picked up a fair few comments, and for anyone reading this who might want to jump into the thread, remember to be nice. Some commenters have already asked why this person needs some of the highest-end parts available; others have questioned how, even with those components, they've come to an almighty $4,000 sum. Other comments just sigh in agreement about GPU prices, which is understandable.
To be clear, I don't blame this Redditor at all because they've made some of the easiest mistakes to make when building a PC in 2025. In fact, when I helped my friend build a PC recently, they had done the exact same thing - sometimes we all just need a few pointers before wasting our money on overly expensive components.
Sometimes, when looking for the highest-end components, going for a prebuilt machine can actually be a better investment overall. For instance, this RTX 5080 build from iBUYPOWER is well under that $4,000 line:
iBUYPOWER Y40 Pro | $2,499.99 at Best Buy
The first mistake is that they've set their sights on the highest-end components because back in the day, that's what was needed to do the intensive gaming, content creation, and streaming that they plan on. But today, mid-range really doesn't mean mid-range anymore. A Ryzen 5 8600G processor might seem way too cheap to rely on for intensive workloads, but my testing showed me that it's more than capable of running intensive games at 4K.
The second easy mistake to make is overestimating how much RAM they need. DDR5 is fast, and it makes 16GB feel like 32GB of DDR4. 32GB used to be the sweet spot when it came to the best RAM for gaming, and now, 16GB is more than enough for what most people need.
Lastly, but certainly not least, is the mistake of not doing enough research on the best graphics cards. Again, I don't blame them for this; a lot has changed in the GPU market since the 2080 was the go-to choice. The current equivalent, the RTX 5080, is a monster of a GPU, but unless you're striving for the highest frame rates in 4K, ray-traced games, it's just not necessary, and to be honest, prohibitively expensive. You don't need to spend that much on a graphics card to do the tasks this Redditor is looking for, so I've decided to pull together a list of cheaper alternatives.
Down below, you'll see a list of components I've picked from today's markets that you'll see, add up to less than the $2,000 mark the Redditor was hoping for, and I know that the parts will absolutely be able to live up to their expectations because I've had hands-on time with all of them. In fact, the full build comes to $1,774.97, which still leaves plenty of room in the budget for the extras you might need, like screwdrivers or thermal paste. In fact, I've managed to find alternatives to most of the components below, and even if you go for those, you'll still come in under budget.
If you have room in your budget, why not take a look at the best gaming monitors, the best gaming chairs, and the best gaming mice?
