Best Gaming PC Build Under $700 in 2021 (Ultra 1080p): Custom & Prebuilt Systems

Before we break down the individual components of our AMD build path, let’s discuss what you can expect from a $700 gaming PC build. This was once considered the mid-range, however, due to stock issues and price hikes, you are looking at a gaming PC closer to budget but you can still expect a really good gaming experience. These components are sure to cope with any AAA game titles you throw at them, especially in 1080p.

Our main goal with our build is to give you the best gaming experience we possibly can for the under $700 target. Each component is carefully selected to maximize value and performance, while also ensuring there are no compatibility issues and your building experience is a great one.

VIDEO: $700 GAMING PC BUILD!

What You Get For Your $700

As you go further down the price ladder, more and more compromises have to be made. Despite this, we have managed to create a build you can be proud of, and to stay on track and keep this under $700, compromises were made in areas that affect your gaming less. The build includes CPU and GPU combinations that can handle most games to a certain point,  with more recent AAA titles needing the odd graphical tweak.

At this price category, we have had to sacrifice SSD space and this should be the first area you look to upgrade in the future. That being said, there is still plenty of room here for your operating system and favorite games to get you going. This mid-level PC not only handles games in 1080p with ease but it looks good too!

Performance

Regardless of whether you go for AMD or Intel, you are going to get surprisingly good gaming performance from our $700 gaming PC. This PC handles 1080p gaming in max settings with some titles, however, is most optimal when playing in medium settings.

The AMD CPU brings multithreading into this build, giving it excellent multitasking performance and improving your system overall.

To bring you better gaming components, an area we compromised on was SSD storage. Despite this, the 480GB SSD we recommend is more than enough to get you started and it will actually enhance your gaming too. This SSD boots the operating system much quicker than an HDD and will even give you extra FPS in some games. To improve performance and further future proof the system we have included 16GB of fast RAM, which when tested, brought an increase in the FPS count.

AMD Vs Intel

As you get closer to the lower end of the spectrum you start to see the value in AMD’s impressive 3rd-gen CPUs. Now while gaming performance is fairly similar between both the AMD and Intel build paths, your other general computing tasks like video editing and streaming are going to want the AMD CPU backing them up. Other than a faster clock speed the AMD build path also comes multithreaded, giving you greater flexibility for multitasking. It is worth noting as well with the AMD build path you are going to get better results out of the fast RAM and have a stronger PC in general.

How We Choose

Our team has years of experience behind them building PCs for a range of needs and budgetary requirements. All this knowledge combined with hours of research, user feedback, and onsite benchmarking is what goes into choosing the best components for our builds.

We look for value for money, how the components perform together and focus on gamer’s needs to make sure our builds are the best bang for your buck.

We build all these PCs ourselves, in-house, so trust us when we say we want to make them as good as possible. We actually use all these builds ourselves day-to-day in the WePC offices.

How We Test

We build each of our selected PC’s from scratch to make sure all the parts we recommend work well together, fit into the selected case, and provide the best performance possible for the price range.

Once built, the PCs are used in the office for everyday work as well as a range of games from light to heavy-duty. While we test, we also run benchmarking tests to see how well our builds perform, all while keeping an eye on the temperature of the components themselves.

We know how much some of our readers enjoy overclocking their PCs, so we made sure to test that out too. So, you can feel safe knowing that these machines can be pushed beyond their basic capabilities. But, please make sure you know how to overclock before trying to over-task your builds.

NOTE: Due to the ongoing effects of the global coronavirus pandemic, some retailers are experiencing stock issues. WePC constantly updates our pages to reflect current availability, so if the PC or part you want shows as out of stock, check back later or check out these alternatives.