The just-about-average spec: ~$1,000

By jumping up another $200, you will finally enter the realm of high-refresh-rate 1080p gaming, as well as low-settings RTX gaming. Additionally, Windows is going to feel a lot snappier now that we can include a good SSD boot drive

The previous esport titles will run flawlessly (achieve monitor refresh rate) at almost any resolution you choose, at almost any setting. Emulation? No problem. You could even start to get into 1440p 60fps gaming on some triple-A titles. At 1080p, however, this tier will most likely hit at least 120-144fps on most games with medium settings at a minimum in triple-A titles. Warzone will most likely run at 120fps at 1080p minimum settings.

We're using a lot of the same parts from the previous tier, with a very important upgrade: jumping to a 30-series RTX GPU from NVIDIA. We're talking about a 25-40fps increase in most titles. At long last, we've upgraded the boot drive to an NVME SSD, which gives up to 3GB/s sequential read/writes. Windows really flies on an NVME boot drive. Lastly, the final change is an upgraded case. As is in all tiers, the case is subjective and one isn't necessarily better than the other.

To upgrade this tier between this spec and the next, you will again want to look for an NVME SSD of higher capacity. 2TB is a great amount of space to hold a lot of games. Additionally, you could look into an upgraded air cooler, like the Noctua NH-U14S. A better/higher-end case could also do the trick here.

The 2022 average spec: ~$1,200

After increasing the budget another $200, we find ourselves at the middle of the bell curve when it comes to parts. This tier will absolutely crush 1080p gaming at any refresh rate, ultra settings, RTX (with DLSS), and will be able to play almost any triple-A title at a great framerate (120-144+ fps on Warzone).

Increasing to 1440p, it will still hold respectable frame rates even at medium to ultra settings (although you may have to decrease settings to achieve your refresh rate). How does 50-60fps on Cyberpunk 2077 sound? Or 144+ fps on Doom Eternal?

At this spec, we've ditched the 6-core 12400F for the overclockable, 10-core 12600K. More cores means more multitasking ability and better framerates. The NVME SSD is kept here, to keep our fast read/write speeds up. Finally, we've jumped up to NVIDIA's RTX 3060Ti. That's an easy 30-40% improvement over the RTX 3050 in most games.

To upgrade this tier between this spec and the next, you have a ton of options. AIO liquid cooler for the CPU; higher-capacity SSD/additional SSD; case with more features; or even an Intel i7-12700K CPU (ignoring all other mentioned upgrades).

The "this is a great PC" spec: ~$1,500

Once you increase your budget to $1,500, the high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming sphere starts to be achieved. This tier of PC is almost not worth wasting on 1080p, but if you play games with a 240hz monitor, this tier would be the entry point for that. 

At 1440p you're talking 120-144fps+ in most Triple-A titles, even at high to ultra settings. You're still in respectable-frame-rate territory even with ray tracing enabled in some titles (games like Cyberpunk 2077 are an outlier, due to their poor optimization; this spec would get 50-60fps in that title with ultra ray tracing settings). Warzone likely runs at 100-144fps on medium-high settings at 1440p.

The Intel Core i5-12600k is still perfect for this tier, as well as the same CPU cooler. We've upgraded our motherboard to the Z690 chipset to include some more creature comforts. We also added 1TB of storage to our HDD, totaling 3TB just to hold some more games. As mentioned in the first paragraph of this spec, we can crush 1440p thanks to the addition of the NVIDIA RTX 3070. 20-40+ fps boost in most titles at 1440p over the RTX 3060Ti. Lastly, we've upgraded to a semi-modular 80+ Gold power supply from Seasonic, at 750W.

To upgrade this tier between this spec and the next, you have even more options: Intel Core i7-12700K; any tier of AIO liquid CPU cooler; jumping to a more expensive Z690 chipset motherboard; adding 16GB more RAM to total 32GB; more SSDs or HDDs; a better/nicer case; or a fully modular power supply.

The 1440p144 ultra-settings crusher spec: ~$2,000

This spec absolutely destroys 1440p in any game it encounters. Cyberpunk 2077 all maxed out, ultra ray tracing (with DLSS)? 65-80fps. Microsoft Flight Simulator, all ultra/maxed out? 55-65fps. Any other triple-A title that's not notoriously hard to run? Easily 120 to 144fps, without breaking a sweat, completely maxed out. Warzone will run at 144fps absolutely no problem at 1440p.

It's at this tier we can even start discussing getting into playable 4k gaming at tolerable frame rates. Expect to see 60fps+ in most titles at 4k, although you may need to turn some settings down. In games that support DLSS, you may have to set that feature to "performance" to see good/more-playable frame rates.

With $2,000, we can now jump up to the Intel Core i7-12700K, a 12-core CPU that does way more work at once than the 12600k. We've also ditched the air cooler for an AIO (all-in-one) liquid CPU cooler. Our motherboard is still on the Z690 chipset. Our boot drive is the same, but we now have 4TB in our HDD (with faster 7200RPM speed). The NVIDIA RTX 3080 10GB makes its appearance at this spec; it's the enthusiast-class GPU that's built to crush 1440p gaming. Another 25-45fps boost over the 3070 in most titles. Lastly, our power supply has upgraded to an 850W 80+ Gold fully-modular unit from Seasonic to handle the power draw of the 3080 and 12700k. 

To upgrade this tier between this spec and the next, we're getting into the upper echelon of parts, so your options are plentiful: Intel Core i9-12900k; any tier of 360mm/420mm AIO liquid CPU cooler; RGB parts for everything; jumping to a more expensive Z690 motherboard; adding 16GB more RAM to total 32GB; more SSDs or HDDs; a better/nicer case; or an 80+ Platinum power supply.

The extreme enthusiast/productivity/streaming/VR spec: ~$2,500

Have a 4k monitor/TV and need a rig to play 4k games? Want to stream to Twitch/Facebook/YouTube all on one PC? Need an absolutely blazing-fast video-editing rig? This build will do all of that and more. 

At this tier, we can finally upgrade to the top of the line Intel CPU, the 12900k. Where you see a difference is in applications that utilize all/multiple CPU cores, like streaming+gaming/video editing/scientific/programming applications. This is a tier of systems that popular streamers most likely have.

The biggest change at this tier is the addition of the Intel Core i9-12900k, a 16-core beast of a CPU that's, unquestionably, a multitasking machine. You can probably have 300 chrome tabs open on this CPU.  Our motherboard has been upgraded to one with essentially every creature comfort you would need. At $2,500, we can finally splurge 32GB of RGB RAM. Our boot drive has been upgraded to a 2TB NVME drive with TLC NAND flash. The case has been upgraded to a roomier part from Corsair.

To upgrade this tier between this spec and the next, you can literally do whatever you want: any tier of 360mm/420mm AIO liquid CPU cooler; jumping to an even more expensive Z690 motherboard; adding 32GB more RAM to total 64GB (hugely overkill for 99.9% of people); more SSDs or HDDs; a better/nicer case; or an 80+ Platinum power supply. You have the money to spend, so do it. Might as well buy an RGB SSD, RAM, CPU cooler, PSU cables, etcl, whatever you need. Might as well switch to an RTX 3090 instead to be like me!

The "I am unbelievably filthy rich and you are not" spec: $infinite

Have your crypto gains padded your bank account? Trust fund account accessible with the touch of a button? Won the lottery? Mid-life crisis? Extra $100 bills burning holes in every pocket of every article of clothing you own? Stacks of money in your house falling over and blocking the pathways around your room? No problem, this build will satisfy all of those situations. This is the best PC money can buy, period, full stop. High refresh rate 4k gaming is a reality with this build. Hell, you could probably game on that Samsung 8k TV with this.

With infinite money, the only option for a CPU is the Intel i9-12900k as it’s at the top of Intel’s lineup. You could stream 1080p60, Play Crysis 3 Remastered, render a 4k video in Adobe Premiere, and have 300 Chrome tabs all open at the same time and still have CPU power to spare. Our motherboard is the most feature-rich and expensive X570 board available, the Asus Crosshair VIII Dark Hero. 

Our RAM is finally upgraded to DDR5 on this tier, and it’s likely THE best kit you can buy: 64GB of G.Skill's Trident Z5 RGB 6400MHz CL32. It’s an unbelievable $225 per STICK of memory. As of writing this, DDR5 is too expensive to justify for most builds. It’ll eventually come down in price, though.

The storage situation on this build would make a data-hoarder's mouth water. Want a shiny, new PCI-E Gen 4 SSD? With 4TB, and 4.9/3.5 GB/s sequential read/write speeds? Sure, let's do it. Actually, let's do 2 of them, because we can. Wait. YOLO. Let’s do 4, we have too much money lying around. Have a ton of memes about rich people being better than poor people? You can store them on the 20TB HDD from Seagate that's included on this build.

The most expensive part on this build is the NVIDIA RTX 3090Ti GPU. Its eye-watering price easily justifies its "best graphics card money can buy'' moniker. This graphics card costs more than most of the builds on this page. This card just came out in Q1 2022 and it's SO unbelievably overkill for basically everyone.

To finish up with the standard stuff, we increased our power supply to an incredible 1600W 80+ Platinum unit, and then upgraded our case to an insanely roomy part from Phanteks in order to have a ton of space for our...

...fully custom watercooling loop from EK Water Blocks. When you get to the infinite-money level of PC building, you can cool your CPU and GPU on the same loop of water. It comes with a waterblock for the GPU (you will have to disassemble your 3090's cooling shroud and install the block), a waterblock for the CPU, custom soft tubing, and a pump. It's also RGB. This is super advanced stuff, not recommended for people new to PC building.

So, where to go from here? It's hard to say. You have infinite money. Buy some higher capacity RAM when it comes out, or some more SSDs. Maybe a 2nd 3090 to SLI (although gaming on SLI isn't always a great experience in 2021). Buy custom RGB lighting. Or, even, buy your friends/family this same PC as a gift, or maybe purchase 15 of a cheaper tier and donate them to a LAN center in your town. The edge of the atmosphere isn't even the limit!

The "I want to buy a pre-built system and not build a PC" spec

You've finally made it down to the pre-built systems. To start, it's important to note that in most cases, you are probably going to pay what's called the "pre-built tax" when choosing to not build your own system. This is an upcharge on a computer that a company charges on a prebuilt PC. Usually, it's a few hundred dollars over buying separate parts and building it yourself. But sometimes, that difference really isn't that much. 

The main reason folks buy a prebuilt system is for the convenience. You won't have to spend an entire evening putting together a system if you haven't done it before. It shows up to your door, you plug it in, you plug your keyboard/mouse/monitor in, and it just works. No driver issues, no BIOS issues, etc., everything works out of the box. Additionally, in early 2022, the other big reason to buy a prebuilt is to actually buy NVIDIA 30-series GPUs, or AMD 6000-series GPUs. System integrators get access to those parts and include them in prebuilt systems, while consumers buying them separately are out of luck.

One very crucial point about pre-build PCs is that some manufacturers cheap out on certain parts to keep costs as low as possible. That prebuilt you found that includes an Intel i7-12700k and 3060Ti for a decent price? It may have a 550W 80+ White power supply from a company you've never heard of before, or a cheapo mini ITX sized H610 motherboard in a full ATX case (usually the cheapest motherboards you can find, with the least amount of slots/ports/features). 

In our opinion, if you really have your mind set on a prebuilt system, you will want to look for a few things. First, if the power supply in the specs mentions "80+ white" or "80+ efficiency", without including the words "bronze" or "gold", it is almost certainly a garbage tier power supply. Going along with that, if your parts are similar to the more expensive tiers listed above (including a GPU like an RTX 3070 and above) and the power supply on the prebuilt is 500W-600W, it is absolutely too small of a wattage amount. One other thing to watch out for is the use of a "mini ITX" form-factor motherboard being used in an ATX form factor case. Mini ITX motherboards are tiny, and have minimal or no room for further expansion. It's a cost-cutting measure that the consumer bears in the end.

With that all said, here's a list of some reputable prebuilt manufacturers where you can price/customize a system. Each link should take you to the place to start configuring a system. We recommend sticking to the parts we've identified in the tiers above; in early 2022, Intel really has the edge over AMD at almost every price point for CPUs.

• NZXT
• iBuyPower
• CyberPowerPC
• Maingear
• Origin PC
• Xidax
• Digital Storm

With the tiers all out of the way, I want to thank you for reading my guide about PC builds/parts. And thank you to Alex and Brock for spending the time to compile all of this info for me and help organize everything for you guys to digest. I hope you're able to learn something from this guide!