1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,720 The holidays are coming in hot, which means it's exactly the right time to get the gamer in your 2 00:00:04,720 --> 00:00:10,640 life their dream gift, especially if that gamer is you. But gamers, they're a fussy bunch, 3 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:15,840 and with infinite combinations that you could pick from for a gaming PC, it is easy to get 4 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:20,880 overwhelmed. Well, good news, everyone! By clicking this video, you've already gotten the hardest 5 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:27,360 part out of the way, so sit back as we unleash this blizzard of tech tips upon you. We're building 6 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:32,000 three PCs at three different price points, and when we're done, you're going to be equipped 7 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:37,600 to make an informed decision and to save some serious money along the way, just like this 8 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:39,760 serious segue to our sponsor. 9 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:55,600 First stop on today's Holiday Express is $500 station. Now, one option is to turn to the 10 00:00:55,600 --> 00:01:01,440 secondhand market like our PS5 killers. Craig's List and Marketplace are a great way to maximize 11 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:06,960 your dollar, but they also come with risks. No takebacks on person-to-person dealings could burn 12 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:12,240 you today, and no warranty could burn you tomorrow. So I don't blame anyone for choosing something 13 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:18,960 like our Game Today machine that includes discrete graphics at a very appealing price, but believe 14 00:01:18,960 --> 00:01:25,440 it or not, this isn't our recommendation either. At this price, we like the long-term value of 15 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:32,160 our Game Tomorrow machine. You may already know that an APU, or Accelerated Processing Unit, 16 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:39,280 combines a CPU and a GPU onto one chip, generally keeping both power consumption and costs down. 17 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:44,240 But what you might not know is that over the last couple of generations, their gaming prowess has 18 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:52,160 gotten very impressive, and the Ryzen 5 8600G is capable of playing even modern titles in HD 19 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:56,480 while leaving us with enough budget to build an upgrade-friendly platform that we can take with 20 00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:02,160 us for years to come. AMD's current AM5 socket has some really solid options for entry-level 21 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:09,040 motherboards these days. A-series chipsets used to be A for avoid, but now they come with support 22 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:14,960 for memory overclocking and PCI Express Gen 4, the latter of which is particularly important 23 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:21,680 because our APU limits any future GPU upgrades to just eight lanes. RAM is going to cost us around 24 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:27,760 $60 if we're targeting the DDR5 price-to-performance sweet spot, 40 bucks for an entry-level case, 25 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:34,320 around $40 for a 500-gig Gen 4 SSD, and then one area where we're going to need to overspend a little 26 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:41,200 is our power supply. We like these two units from Corsair and EVGA for around $65. Either one will 27 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:47,680 give us the headroom we need to add a performance-tier GPU later on down the line. But they both come 28 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:53,680 with some compromises. While every power supply we're recommending today was able to go from zero 29 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:59,920 to 110% load multiple times without issue, these particular units performed poorly for 30 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:05,120 output ripple. It's not likely to kill anything, and it probably won't cause problems for a system 31 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:09,840 at this price point. But if you want a little bit of extra peace of mind, you can spend an extra 32 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:14,880 $20 or so on one of these units that tested better while still fitting in our budget. 33 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:23,040 And here's the parts list. Upscaled gaming today, upscale gaming tomorrow once you slot in a GPU. 34 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:27,200 Maybe we should have called this the Merry Christmas. Now wait for your birthday machine. 35 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:36,880 Oh, you guys! It's not even my birthday. Which, wait, means there must be a secret bonus machine. 36 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:44,000 That's right, my friends. We've got an all-new price point for our holiday guide this year. 37 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:51,680 We've got the GameHard machine, an $800 rig that will run modern games at 1440p right now, 38 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:56,240 as long as you don't mind being locked out of some future upgrades. For our CPU then, 39 00:03:56,240 --> 00:04:04,960 we've gone with the 5700X3D on AMD's older AM4 platform. That means no future CPU upgrades. But 40 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:10,240 being honest, I think it's going to be a few years before that really starts to sting anyway, 41 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:16,160 and it frees us a lot of budget for our GPU. Rounding out the system, we settled on a BIOS 42 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:21,840 compatible B450 motherboard, 16 gigs of reputable 3,600 mega-transfer per second RAM, 43 00:04:21,840 --> 00:04:27,360 and a decent PCIe NVMe SSD. Ideally here, you want to find one with a DRAM cache, 44 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:32,240 but failing that, look for HMB support to ensure stutter-free operation. 45 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:36,720 We settled on this case, but it's worth noting that deals in this price bracket 46 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:41,760 can tend to be pretty volatile, often changing on Tuesdays for some reason, so be ready to be 47 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:46,560 a little flexible on that. Now for this build, and all the ones that are still coming, you're 48 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:51,520 going to need to budget for a CPU cooler, and we feel that the thermal write phantom spirit is worth 49 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:57,840 the $10-15 premium over popular choices like the CoolerMaster 212. What isn't worth it at this 50 00:04:57,840 --> 00:05:04,880 budget is water cooling, because you want every possible dollar going into the right GPU. This 51 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:12,560 ASUS dual OC 7700 XT was the right GPU for us, because we got a great deal for it at $350. 52 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:18,080 But that might not always be around, so we'd recommend taking a look at Tom's Hardware's 53 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:23,120 super handy GPU hierarchy chart to help you understand how any prospective deals that you 54 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:28,240 find might match up at a glance. We'd also recommend you check out LTTstore.com for some 55 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:33,840 great gift ideas at much lower prices than any of the PCs featured today. We've got stocking stuff 56 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:37,760 like these stick locks or the tech sack for your favorite tech bro on the go. 57 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:46,080 Now it's time for our next up on the deal train, the game harder $1,000 balanced PC. Here you can 58 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:52,960 expect superior 1440p performance in new games and even 4k gaming for older titles that you'd love 59 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:58,400 to see look their best. Perhaps most importantly though, it does all of that while also providing 60 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:03,040 a well-rounded foundation for future upgrades. We'll kick off our parts list with a deal we 61 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:12,160 found on an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X CPU that comes with a free 1TB Kingston NV2 SSD. Now by the time you're 62 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:18,480 watching this video, that deal might have expired, but the mentality behind our pick won't. You gotta 63 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:24,000 be flexible, educate yourself on what you need, and then dig for the deals that are sometimes 64 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:28,960 buried in bundles. And most importantly, ask yourself, what games am I actually playing? 65 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:34,400 For example, if you're a competitive gamer and you use low graphic settings to get high frame 66 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:39,520 rates, you might want to look at an X3D chip, at least once the scalpers get bored with their 67 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:45,680 latest plaything. However, if you're building a machine for AAA 1440p gaming, you should stick 68 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:50,160 with our recommendation, which brings us to one of the hardest choices, our motherboard. 69 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:57,440 Let me break this down. The Ryzen 7600X is AM5 again, but we're no longer budget limited to 70 00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:02,640 just entry level boards. That means we need to choose between the nine available motherboard 71 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:07,280 chipsets. At least the naming scheme is somewhat useful, even if the first letter is redundant. 72 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:12,320 So for now, let's ignore the letter and jump to the first digit, which tells us the generation. 73 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:18,080 Either 6 or 8 is going to work for our CPU. So then, let's look at the next two digits. 74 00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:24,240 These tell us the tier of the chipset. Higher number means more tiers, and an E indicates 75 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:31,040 better connectivity with more PCIe lanes, but none of those things necessarily mean better board. 76 00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:34,720 The chipset informs the feature set, not the build quality. 77 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:39,920 So bottom line then, unless you know you need something else, a good B650 board, 78 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:45,280 like this one, is a great choice for about $100. It has good enough power delivery for a light 79 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:52,240 CPU overclock and support for a PCIe Gen 5 SSD, even if it lacks a Gen 5 GPU slot. 80 00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:58,000 The good news is that likely won't impact real-world GPU performance for quite a few years, 81 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:02,880 looking at how long it took for Gen 4 to matter. Now, we could go for a Gen 5 board, 82 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:07,520 but it would cost us twice as much, which at this price point, we don't think is worth it. 83 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:12,640 Our RAM and our cooler get carried forward. We've already got our SSD, and that leaves 84 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:18,640 us to sort out case and power. I like the Phanteks XT Pro, and we can comfortably afford one of the 85 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:24,720 good 750 watt power supplies from last time. That leaves us $450 for a GPU. 86 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:30,880 So let's have a look at our options. On the team green side, we can get a RTX 4060 Ti, 87 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:38,320 or on the team red side, this excellent XFX Speedster 7800 XT. Now, to be clear, 88 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:44,080 neither of these is a wrong choice, but it is worth noting that while the GeForce card includes 89 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:49,920 NVIDIA's excellent suite of features, it's a less-performance card to begin with, and it's 90 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:55,840 going to rely on AI upscaling in order to deliver comparable in-game performance. So I leave that 91 00:08:55,840 --> 00:09:01,200 up to you. Now it's time to open the throttle a little. If you're after a superior PC gaming 92 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:06,640 experience, the kind of 4K horsepower your console locks friends can only dream of, 93 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:15,120 we have finally arrived at the best without wasting money station. This $2,000 PC is stacked, 94 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:20,080 and without throwing away some serious extra money, I don't think you can get a much better 95 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:26,320 experience. To kick things off then, this behemoth starts with the absolute best gaming CPU the 96 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:35,200 world has ever seen, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800 X3D. Oh, that's right, those are out of stock everywhere. 97 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:42,640 What I meant to say was the second best, the 7800 X3D. No, all the deals are bad. 98 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:50,240 Oh right, we went with the 9700 X. Now, I get it. Those first two would outperform our 99 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:57,280 practical pick here, but at the cost of how you say, more money. And as we discussed in our 100 00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:04,240 recent 9800 X3D review, once you go above 1080p low settings, you're better off spending that extra 101 00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:12,960 money on a better GPU. Besides, we've still got eight fast Zen 5 cores, and AMD's mismanaged 102 00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:17,360 launch of this thing has resulted in some aggressive deals to help clear inventory. 103 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:22,960 Which is good, because motherboards have gotten pretty expensive these days. We've got yet 104 00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:29,600 another AM5 chip, so let's buy the most expensive thing. Not, I know we could afford it, but guys, 105 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:35,520 if you look closely, the main difference for the eboards is more PCIe lanes, which unless we know 106 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:40,720 we need them, we don't need them. And there's no performance difference between 600 series 107 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:46,160 or 800 series, at least not on the chips that are available today. So we'd recommend going for 108 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:52,000 whatever you can find at a good price. We ended up with this one, but after procuring it, we found 109 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:57,760 this great deal that includes a 32 gig kit of G-Skill Flare X5, which is a good reminder that 110 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:02,320 we should always be flexible if we want to get the best value. It's too late for us, but hey, 111 00:11:02,320 --> 00:11:07,280 our loss is your gain. By the way, it's worth noting that during the holiday season, a lot of 112 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:11,840 retailers will extend their return window on select items so that you can shop with a little bit of 113 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:16,560 extra confidence when you see a good deal. That's something that might be especially important this 114 00:11:16,560 --> 00:11:21,760 year with the looming threat of new tariffs on overseas manufactured electronics. We're not 115 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:26,160 going to say that things are definitely going to be more expensive next year, but we also can't say 116 00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:30,960 for sure that they won't be. And this will especially impact you if you're splurging on some 117 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:37,840 style points with an AIO cooler and a very glass forward case. We've doubled the capacity of our 118 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:43,760 RAM and SSD, and we've jumped up to a 1000 watt platinum efficient power supply to keep our power 119 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:50,960 hungry GPU fed. Realistically, we probably could still get away with a quality 750 watt unit, 120 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:56,960 but 1000 is such a nice round number. And at this budget, we can afford to spend extra on 121 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:01,520 something that we can hopefully bring forward to our next upgrade. We can also afford to spend 122 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:08,560 a thousand dollars on our GPU, which gives us a choice between AMD's 7900 XTX and NVIDIA's 123 00:12:08,560 --> 00:12:15,440 RTX 4080 Super. Now on the one hand, we've got better rasterized performance and more than $100 124 00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:20,800 in savings. But on the other hand, we've got better ray tracing and upscaling hardware 125 00:12:20,800 --> 00:12:25,600 not to mention NVIDIA's long history of solid software support. I don't think either of them 126 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:30,240 is a bad choice. So I'm going to leave this one up to you. But we ended up going team green for 127 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:34,560 this one. We also ended up leaving all the links to everything that we've talked about down below. 128 00:12:34,560 --> 00:12:40,240 Just remember that because of the nature and timing of sales, the prices will be different every week. 129 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:44,720 But if you were to start with any of these builds as a springboard, we're confident that you should 130 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:50,320 end up with an amazing PC. And I'm also confident you'll end up with an amazing segue to an amazing 131 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:54,960 sponsor. If you guys are buying the parts for a new PC, but you want some help putting it together, 132 00:12:54,960 --> 00:13:00,320 why don't you check out our ultimate guide on how to build a PC. It really is the last one you will 133 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:01,120 ever need.