In the following build article, we’re going to be doing what we do best; more precisely, we’re going to suggest an updated ~$2000 Gaming PC build that we believe is best for the price range.
Yes, we know that $2000 may be a bit steep for many in the community and that not everyone needs such a machine to game on – the job can usually be done on less expensive components as well – but we’ve been requested to keep an updated database of builds at all price ranges so here it is!
As always, we are focusing on giving the potential buyer and builder a great component list to just go ahead and buy without all the fuss of doing the research; we’ve already done it extensively for your ease. If this list is out of your price range, you don’t need to worry because Premium Builds has you covered on many other competitive builds, just check out the other articles because we are constantly updating them.
Performance and parts compatibility is a top priority for us so expect that the following build will be the best performing one in this ~$2000 budget.
After finishing reading this building guide you will know exactly what to buy and what to expect out of this dream machine so let’s get right into it!
$2000 Gaming PC Build – The Parts List
One of our other primary focuses here at PremiumBuilds is to also make you understand the decisions we took in each and every one of our building lists. We’re not leaving you in the dust with some scattered information that you may or may not find informative; we’re here for the whole journey of helping you plan and accomplish your dream build so stick with us further!
| Component | Design | Selection | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU |  | AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | $289 |
| Motherboard |  | MSI B450 Tomahawk Max | $114 |
| Memory |  | G.Skill Ripjaws V 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 | $124 |
| Storage |  | Crucial P1 1 TB NVME SSD | $119 |
| Video Card |  | MSI RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio | $1209 |
| Case |  | Phanteks Eclipse P360X Mid Tower Case | $79 |
| Power Supply |  | Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 W | $119 |
| Case Fan (x3) |  | Corsair AF120 LED (x3) | $30 |
| Total | $2083 |
Selecting the components for our $2000 Gaming PC build
You may be an experienced builder or someone that is doing this for the first time, it doesn’t matter because we’ll take the easiest route anyway. A gaming PC will need both CPU and GPU horsepower in order to function properly in the most intense situations. Getting too much processing power will overwhelm the graphics card and we will get what is called a GPU bottleneck; we don’t want that because it means we needlessly spent too much on the CPU. The other way around is also true; spending too much on a very high performance GPU and not backing it up with a powerful CPU will result in the processor sweating during the gaming process, an issue that grows into an overall system processor bottleneck.
This is why its best to plan ahead of time and have knowledge about what you will be doing with your system. The build we’re trying to do here is ready for the highest levels of gaming performance in the most modern and recent titles. We are constantly researching and collecting numbers from the most popular game engines in order to make sure our builds are indeed prepared to handle any load in those titles. Its also a great idea to make sure the CPU will have leftover resources for running the background applications in your system, resources that are not used during gameplay; this way, your experience is going to be smooth and stutter-free.
CPU
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
We’ll start with the primary component in this build that is going to be the firm ground of the PC. This 8 core and 16 threads CPU is worthy of this build because of all the previously outlined reasons; it has enough horse power for the chosen GPU, its easy to cool thanks to its cutting edge 7nm (nanometers) fabrication process and the majority of newly released titles are already taking advantage of these many cores and threads. This CPU is able to easily power through even the most intensive game scenes also thanks to its stellar single core performance coming from its high 4.4GHz clock speed and class-leading IPC (instructions per clock).
If this was 2016 and we still had game engines not knowing what to do with more than 4 cores, we’d be using a cheaper CPU but this is 2020 and the value the Ryzen 7 3700X brings to consumers in undeniably fascinating; a behemoth of a CPU that comes for under $300 with an included cooler and an unlocked multiplier that allows overclocking, all in a price segment that not many years ago only had 4 core CPUs. 6 core/12 thread CPUs are the norm in 2020 but if you plan on having that extra performance for the future then the 3700X is the way to go.
It may not hold the crown for the fastest FPS numbers in games but its within 5% of the best and its the best processor for a gaming build that you can buy together with a NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti in order to have budget for the remaining parts of the build without cutting any corners. If we were to choose the 9900K over the 3700X, we couldn’t have afforded the RTX 2080 Ti which would result in a slower gaming build with the next best graphics card, the RTX 2080 Super.
While the Ryzen 7 3700X is great in a gaming environment, it can also handle rendering, streaming and multitasking better than any CPU in its price range and far better than the competition. The system you’ll be getting will not just be just another gaming build; you’ll be able to easily stream to your favorite platforms with high quality, edit your game play footage and render to your hearts desire if you wish to become a content creator or just someone who wants to remember his/hers gaming adventures.
We got the CPU part sorted out and explained, let us go ahead and discuss what motherboard we’ll be pairing this processor with!
Motherboard
The MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX
The motherboard we decided to pair the Ryzen 7 3700X with is coming from MSI, a company that reportedly produced one of the best quality motherboards for Zen processors. Great compatibility all around, quality VRMs for extensive over clocking, good BIOS updates and stellar I/O; this is the recipe on what the MSI B450 Tomahawk was born.
Even if this motherboard debuted for the previous generation Zen+ processors, MSI updated it for the current Ryzen 3000 lineup with the B450 Tomahawk MAX edition; it features a larger storage for the updated BIOSes and comes compatible out of the box with any 3rd generation Ryzen CPU.
This ~$115 board punches well above its weight in the performance category because it is all you need in order to run a Ryzen 7 3700X with all its features; sure, other more expensive X570 motherboards might look better and have some fancy lighting but we’re telling you, the Tomahawk MAX is all you need in order to get maximum performance of the chip. MSI is saying support for this board continues, thus making the board suitable even for future upgrades.
Memory
32 GB of Fast, Dual Channel RAM
You may have heard other articles or talk around that 16GB is enough for gaming today and that’s partially true; it is indeed enough for gaming and daily activities but we are building something elite at a $2000 price point that will hold its class-leading performance many years to come.
DDR4 RAM is cheap nowadays and it makes no sense to limit yourself at 16GB if you have the budget for more. Besides other component areas where being overkill is not a brilliant idea, RAM capacity will only come with advantages for the system. The PC we are recommending comes with substantial power in other areas besides gaming and the 2 x 16GB of fast 3200 MHz memory, the G.Skill Ripjaws V, will certainly help with keeping a system smooth while doing heavy tasks such as gaming + streaming + rendering at the same time.
We are also certain everyone forgets closing browser tabs and small background applications and those can eat a lot of precious RAM, impacting your smooth gaming experience; 32GB of memory will make sure none of that will happen and it will certainly help in other areas such as editing/rendering large files, virtual machine resources and software developing.
We are going for 3200 MHz RAM because we believe it is worth the price premium over the lower clocked modules. Yes, slower RAM can be overclocked to such speeds with higher voltage but stability problems may interfere during system use and you don’t want that; out of the box performance is amazing with these and your 1% and 0.1% minimum FPS values in games will thank you for this kind of memory. In addition, we went for the CL16 timings as we found it to be the optimum memory setup for Ryzen 3000.
Also, a single 32GB stick for the memory should be out of the question since it compromises the performance of your build. You may find a cheap offer for these but we testify for the superiority of a Dual Channel memory setup. Single-channel RAM causes frame rates to be all over the place because you’re sacrificing half the bandwidth; while in cheap $500 builds, Single Channel can be acceptable, Dual Channel memory is a must in this build and especially at this price point.
Storage
The Crucial P1 – 1Tb of very fast read and access storage
We will be using an M.2 drive that is popular among PC builders thanks to its amazing speeds and great price. The Crucial P1 provides excellent value for everyday use in its price range if you are not looking to do transfers bigger than 50GB at a time; that’s when this M.2 drive slows down during the transfer because of its limited QLC cache. But don’t let that worry you, only professional video editors who move a lot of large files may have this problem and may need to look for a different primary storage device – for everyday use, the drive is lightning fast and won’t slow down featuring speeds of up to 2,000MB/s read and 1,700MB/s write which is much faster than your usual mid-range SATA SSD.
If you are in need of extra storage for your system, you may want to add some cheaper SATA storage besides this M.2 SSD. Go ahead, your case and motherboard certainly supports it. For this build though, the generous 1TB of space and great speeds that this drive offers will be sufficient for most people.
Graphics Card
Yes, you heard it right! This build features a NVIDIA RTX 2080Ti with a great cooler implementation!
No one can argue about the current best consumer GPU on the market right now, its certainly the RTX 2080 Ti and it will stay that way until the new generations from AMD and Nvidia will drop later this year. Until then, no SLI configuration or other will beat it at sustained gaming performance. Of course, you need to be prepared to pay a lot of money for it but this build that we’re planning here certainly affords to pay the premium price for it. Its a perfect fit here because our chosen CPU, the Ryzen 7 3700X is able to handle it in any current fast paced or Triple A game.
The RTX 2080Ti is a card for setups that focus on 4K 60+, 1440p 144+ fps and VR in the heaviest of titles so the performance is enough to provide the most immersive of gaming experiences across the board. Later in the article we will compile a list of games with their respective FPS averages, 1% minimums and 0.1% minimums so stay tuned!
You’re also not getting the cheapest 2080Ti out there because the MSI RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio is actually regarded as one of the best put together graphics cards out there and the performance is there to show it. Featuring a higher boost speed and much improved VRM modules over its competitors, this 2080Ti is actually around 7% faster than a Founder’s Edition 2080Ti; all this performance is consistent and the card’s temperature is kept in check thanks to its fantastic cooler setup. You probably also won’t mind the RGB lights and controls of this graphics card and even if you don’t like them at all, they can all be turned off.
The only small downside of this graphics card is the fact that it is huge which may prove to be an advantage in the cooling department but not many cases can comfortably fit it. We made sure the PC case and case fans of this build can easily and silently handle the RTX 2080 Ti. The rather big power consumption of this card requires a beefy PSU and that’s what we’ll be talking about in the following section.
Power Supply
The Cooler Master MWE 750W
This build may reach a peak power draw of 500W in the heaviest rendering and gaming situations and most of that is due to the beefy RTX 2080Ti that we’re using but that is rarely hit and usually the build will pull around 200-300W in most gaming situations. Because of this, we need a good PSU that is able to handle this beastly build during both its best and worst so we chose the Gold Rated Cooler Master MWE 750W.
The power supply is a top tier piece of hardware that can consume as little as 0.5W during standby but at the same time provide constant power to a powerful build while staying silent at the same time. The price also fits very well with the type of build we’re planning out here.
Together with the great warranty Cooler Master offers, the elegantly braided cables and full modularity of the PSU (allowing you to use only the cables you need), the CM MWE 750W has its rightful place in our build. Its overall color scheme is also perfect for the case we chose.
PC Case
The Phanteks Eclipse P360X
Essentially one of the most beautiful and easy to build in ATX mid tower cases. We can recommend this P360X for a wide array of builds thanks to its excellent building room space, air filters, integrated PSU shroud and slick looks. In our experience, the case has a very sturdy build while leaving enough space for RAM clearance and even radiators to be mounted frontally or at the top. Cable management is also an easy task thanks to the multiple tie down points present behind and on the side of the bays. Airflow is excellent even if the front panel is not a mesh design thanks to its well thought out air intakes.
The only minor downside of this case may be the presence of only one included case fan but that can easily be fixed with the three 120mm silent fans at the end of the list thus resulting in a very capable two for intake / two for exhaust fan setup which is a rightfully popular cooling composition for such a build.
Expected gaming performance from this $2000 Gaming PC build
All around smooth gaming experiences should be the norm for this build. The Ryzen 7 3700X CPU is one of the best consumer processors out there handling everything thrown at it while asking for more; it will pair very well with the Nvidia RTX 2080Ti GPU and will certainly make the GPU work for those precious framerates!
As promised, we compiled a short list of games that we benchmarked with this system in order to provide you with solid performance numbers. We will be looking into average FPS, 1% lows and 0.1% lows which are stellar as you’re probably already guessing based on how we’ve planned this build. Here we go:
| Game Title | Graphics Quality | Resolution | Average FPS | 1% Low FPS | 0.1% Low FPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battlefield V | Ultra | 1080p | 156 | 113 | 102 |
| Battlefield V | Ultra | 1440p | 130 | 107 | 98 |
| Gears Tactics | Ultra | 1080p | 125 | 92 | 86 |
| Gears Tactics | Ultra | 1440p | 106 | 85 | 80 |
| Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege | Ultra | 1080p | 266 | 227 | 179 |
| Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege | Ultra | 1440p | 190 | 172 | 151 |
| Ghost Recon Breakpoint | Ultra | 1080p | 131 | 108 | 92 |
| Ghost Recon Breakpoint | Ultra | 1440p | 105 | 91 | 81 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | Ultra | 1080p | 124 | 99 | 91 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | Ultra | 1440p | 99 | 83 | 79 |
Keep in mind that this is a very strong showing since all these games were tested with all their settings cranked up to the highest possible.
Conclusion
We very much love how this build turned out and we vouch for it as a high performance system that is going to hold its own in many years to come. For $2000 you are getting both the experience of building something that you feel like you own and a PC that not only games with no compromises but also holds its own in all rendering and streaming scenarios. The build is also a sweet spot for high gaming performance because you’d need to pay much more money to get systems that will only prove to be 5 to 10% better in most extreme gaming cases.
We hope that the sections in this article have been informative enough for you to go ahead and make your dream PC come true. Any further questions can be easily addressed in the comment section below.
We will also be doing complete building video guides in the future so stay tuned for that!