construct a $1,000 gaming PC in 2026: Do not

PC gaming has by no means fairly been inexpensive, however you may all the time get monetary savings—and get a stunning quantity of worth and energy—if you happen to knew the right way to construct your personal desktop. That recommendation has held true by means of thick and skinny for the previous couple of a long time, however the RAM crunch is ruining issues.

I carried out just a little experiment and picked a quantity: one thousand US {dollars}. In my thoughts, that’s a mid-range gaming desktop that shades a bit into funds territory (relying by yourself tolerance for spending bucks on leisure). It’s undoubtedly a step up from console gaming, which at the moment ranges from $400 for the Xbox Series S to $750 for the PlayStation 5 Pro. On prime of that one grand, I believed in regards to the minimal specs I’d be keen to just accept for a brand new gaming PC that was meant to play no less than most new triple-A 3D video games.

Rémy / Unsplash

It’s an arbitrary distinction and fully subjective, however I did get some enter from my colleague Alaina Yee, an professional on PC gaming and funds builds specifically. Here’s the place I landed:

• 6-core CPU that’s no a couple of technology behind.
• 32GB of RAM. (Yes, I can see you wincing.) I contemplate 16GB to be the naked minimal for a present Windows 11 machine. But for gaming I need some additional respiratory room, particularly since I usually have one thing else working on a secondary monitor.
• 1TB of Gen4 SSD storage. Current PC video games are BIG.
• Recent-ish GPU with 8GB VRAM. Valve says this a lot ought to deal with the overwhelming majority of latest video games, and so they occur to be trying into this space for the time being.
• Adequate energy provide that may get all that achieved. One from a good model, on the very least.

I can compromise on numerous different issues. A motherboard with out all the additional trimmings like Wi-Fi. A generic PC case. No official Windows license. (Microsoft doesn’t appear to care if you happen to by no means register, so why ought to I?) But these are the naked minimums I would wish to hit earlier than I may contemplate this $1,000 PC acceptable, if not precisely a superb purchase.

So, I let my fingers do the strolling over to PCPartPicker. Here’s how I fared, with costs and availability as of February 2nd, 2026:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X — $176.99
• GPU: Gigabyte Eagle OC GeForce RTX 5060 8GB — $329.99
• Motherboard: ASRock B650M Pro RS Micro ATX — $99.99
• CPU cooler: Be Quiet BK047 — $24.88
• RAM: Crucial Pro 32GB (16GBx2) DDR5-5600 — $312.99
• SSD: Patriot P400 Lite 1TB — $134.99
• Case: Zalman T6 Mini Micro ATX — $28.99
• Power provide: Corsair CX750M — $59.99

Add in $10 for delivery the case from Newegg and that brings me to a subtotal of… drum roll please… $1,178.80. Sales tax for my residence in Pennsylvania takes me to a grand complete of slightly below $1,250.

Yeah, no. $1,250 is just too rattling a lot to pay for a gaming PC with that many compromises—particularly that case, which may simply barely match the GPU (208mm), can’t be upgraded with commonplace ATX motherboards, and consists of only one 80mm fan.

Also, enjoyable truth: once I went again to seize some screenshots the day after doing this experiment, that $330 RAM was out of inventory and the value of the GPU and the SSD had already risen. Woo.

PC Part Picker

Alaina instructed a change to a Ryzen 5500X CPU, which she admits is a fairly large step down from a Ryzen 7000-series chip, however has entry to cheaper DDR4 RAM. Combined with a Gigabyte A520M motherboard, this bought the value to squeak in at $1,003.62 together with taxes and delivery. But once more, that doesn’t embrace Windows (perhaps you’re okay with Bazzite?) and it wants some extra cooling. It’s additionally making some fairly huge compromises on my preliminary necessities. So, the middle can’t maintain… and my experiment ends with a failure.

Of course, my theoretical budget-minded PC gamer has extra choices. Maybe they’ve some elements they’ll scrounge from a earlier construct, as I’ve been doing for nearly 20 years. Maybe they’re okay with refurbished or used. Maybe they’ve bought graded Pokémon playing cards sitting round.

But for my imaginary cash, I’d surrender at this level. Though it might damage my PC gamer soul, I’d suggest a PS5 or Switch 2 as a substitute, particularly since Microsoft has now dug its publishing gap deep sufficient to place its greatest franchises on PlayStation.

There are options for taking part in PC video games, if you happen to insist. Xbox Game Pass—although not pretty much as good a price because it was—can nonetheless get you tons of video games and a few model new titles for (sigh) one more streaming subscription. Nvidia’s GeForce Now is a greater different if you have already got an enormous library of Steam video games… although I’m detest to present cash to an organization that’s no less than complacent and at worst actively contributing to the issue. Neither of those choices is nice if you happen to don’t have entry to a superb web connection.

You can get a Steam Deck, which is additionally much less of a deal than it was, however nonetheless a good way to expertise PC gaming with elective portability. Alternatives just like the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion collection are on the market, too… although you must search for a sale and quit on securing the newest and biggest {hardware}. At $1,000 retail, the ROG Xbox Ally X is nearly as costly because the imaginary desktop I specced out, and it received’t be anyplace close to as highly effective.

Chris Hoffman / Foundry

The hows and whys of this abysmal state of affairs are well-documented elsewhere, however the fast reply is “AI.” The costs for consumer-packaged RAM are probably the most seen situation, with DDR5 and even DDR4 completely skyrocketing in the previous couple of months… and seemingly unlikely to enhance inside a 12 months or two. That will have an effect on the costs of all completed electronics, however shoppers get the brief finish of this explicit reminiscence stick, getting the knock-on results of output for the whole lot besides industrial RAM slowing to a crawl. The identical factor is affecting client graphics playing cards, with Nvidia reportedly slashing manufacturing in favor of commercial “AI” playing cards, and even the playing cards we can get hold rising in value due to their costly reminiscence.

The immutable forces of provide and demand are hammering PC players from each course. But it does create a wierd state of affairs: this is likely one of the only a few market situations wherein a pre-built PC is sensible, even you probably have the talents and inclination to construct a PC your self.

Let’s take my record of mandatory elements for instance. For across the identical value as my unhappy $1,250 construct, I discovered this Thermaltake pre-built on Amazon with nearly equivalent specs besides the RTX 5060 is traded out for an RTX 4060. Not unhealthy, contemplating it additionally consists of Windows 11 and a way more versatile ATX case. Another instance is that this ABS pre-built with a Core i7-14700F and an RTX 5060 on Newegg for $1,179.99.

MicroCenter

If you may have a Micro Center close to you, properly glory be, you may get a toned-down Dell Tower Plus with a brand-new Core Ultra 7 265 processor and 32GB of DDR5 RAM. It even has an RTX 5060 Ti, although it’s the much less highly effective 8GB model of that card. You additionally get a couple of creature comforts like Wi-Fi and an SD card reader. With a miraculous $800 low cost and an entire lack of RGB or tempered glass, that Dell desktop goes for simply $999.99. Damn, this should be what Gimli felt like.

Warner Bros.

There’s no two methods about it: PC gaming in 2026 kinda sucks. If you don’t have already got a gaming PC, you’re taking a look at some huge compromises—in value, in functionality, presumably even in format. I’m searching for a optimistic word to finish this text on… and I can’t discover one. Why? Because costs for RAM and different PC elements will stay excessive for an additional 12 months or two no less than, presumably for much longer.

And in the event that they don’t, it’s as a result of the “AI” bubble could have burst. At which level a stick of DDR5 would possibly as soon as once more be inexpensive, nevertheless it’ll be price much less in commerce once you’re making an attempt to afford groceries. Hooray.