Best gaming computer in 2021

Best gaming computer in 2021.The best configurations for Intel and AMD for every taste and wallet

High cryptocurrency prices, a shortage of semiconductors, a pandemic, speculators … but PC gaming has survived! By the end of the summer of 2021, video cards finally returned to stores, and prices fell, albeit not to ideal values, but at least to the level when you can start thinking about assembling a gaming PC (if, for example, your current assembly does not pull anything at all) …

So keep our new material with recommended gaming PC builds from budget to high end. Keep in mind that prices are for August 2021, when the price in stores continues to change unpredictably almost every week. So be sure to check the current price tag – we hope that prices will fall in the coming months.

Budget build (up to 55 thousand rubles) – 1080p @ 30 FPS

Not everyone needs flagship hardware. The same World of Tanks and numerous e-sports games, even at maximum settings, run well on budget video cards. The main thing is not to assemble a PC from the cheapest components. Then there will be a small margin for the upgrade.

For example, the iconic six-core Ryzen 5 1600 today will cost only a couple thousand more expensive than the dead quad-core Ryzen 3 1200. And from Intel’s range, we would recommend the Core i3-10100F – in terms of power it is comparable to the top-end processor of 2017 i7-7700K, and costs only 7000 rubles ! It is also better not to skimp on cooling – a compact recumbent tower from Xilence for 1,500 rubles will provide low temperatures for many years and will survive a couple of upgrades.

Both of the aforementioned processors are relatively powerful and in the future they will be able to work in tandem even with some GeForce RTX 3060. But since we have a budget assembly, for now let’s stop at the GTX 1050 Ti in the compact StormX version from Palit.

For the rest of the money, we take motherboards based on mid-range chipsets, 16 gigabytes of RAM (in dual-channel mode), an inexpensive 480 gigabyte SSD, a proven budget power supply from DeepCool, and we put everything in a compact and stylish Zalman T7 case.

How to save money? Look on Avito for video cards with verification. For the same 20 thousand or less, you can buy something of the level of the GeForce GTX 1060 or RX 580. These video cards are enough for high settings in most new products in a resolution of 1920×1080.

Gaming PC for $ 1000 (up to 75 thousand rubles) – 1080p @ 60 FPS

2021 dealt a fatal blow to the popular formula that a good gaming PC can be built for a thousand dollars. Alas, in the current realities we only managed to slightly upgrade the previous build. We put in a GeForce GTX 1660 graphics card, replaced the motherboards with better network and sound chips, and selected a slightly more expensive case.

How to save money? Again, on Avito you can pick up something like an RTX 2060 in the region of 40 thousand. Then in 1080p you can play anything at maximum settings, and even with ray tracing!

Optimal build at the end of 2020 (up to 200 thousand rubles) – 1440p @ 60 FPS + ray tracing

Unfortunately, even taking into account the reduced prices for video cards, the optimal assembly in the second half of 2021 came very close to 200 thousand rubles!

Initially, we wanted to put the GeForce RTX 3070 here, but now it is sold more expensive than the more powerful new RTX 3070 Ti … Therefore, we settled on the latter. In overclocking, it catches up with the stock RTX 3080, although the memory is 2 gigabytes less – only 8. But so far this is enough for confident play in resolutions up to 1440p (and even a 4K card like this will pull a lot).

In games today, the requirements for the processor have increased significantly. Therefore, if you are collecting PCs for a six-figure amount, then it is better to take a reasonable maximum. The best option would be eight cores of the latest generations. We settled on Ryzen 7 5800X and Core i7-11700KF for 36 and 33 thousand rubles, respectively. Their performance is enough for at least one graphics card upgrade. It is better to cool them with something more serious, for example, the legendary cooler Noctua NH-D15, designed for 220 watts – this is enough even for overclocking.

We decided to take motherboards with PCI-E 4.0 support. This will allow you to install a fast SSD from Samsung with write speeds of up to 5000 megabytes per second (a good headroom considering the upcoming games with a mandatory requirement for SSD). We also take RAM from G.Skill with low latencies and good overclocking potential. We’ll power it up with a powerful 750-watt Corsair gold-certified power supply. And as a case will serve as a brand new MPG GUNGNIR 110M from MSI. It comes with 4 fans, dust filters and a tempered glass side window.

How to save money? If you do not need four-digit SSD speeds, then you can take a regular one for the same terabyte for almost half the price. In addition, motherboards for the previous generation of processors will cost significantly less. And the processors themselves can be replaced with R7 3700X and Core i7-10700K, respectively. True, the final price will still exceed 150 thousand.

Dream computer (unlimited price) – 4K @ 60 FPS + ray tracing

Traditionally, in the last assembly, we release the brakes and put on the flagship hardware in all categories. Therefore, if a video card, then be sure to RTX 3090 or an analog from AMD (here, however, there will be reservations – see the end of the chapter). The processor is by all means cooled by a liquid system, the motherboard is taken in the maximum configuration, as well as a kilowatt power supply with platinum certification and a spacious Full Tower case.

We did not skimp on storage either – we take two terabyte Samsung 980 Pros at once and combine them into Raid 0! This will force them to work in dual channel mode and further increase the throughput.

Also note the fast RAM from the new Kingston FURY Beast line. It has not only a high frequency with good overclocking potential, but also record low latency. The volume of 32 gigabytes for games is enough with a margin, but if you wish, you can put 64.

How to save money? Unfortunately, the price tag on the RTX 3090 is almost twice the price of the RX 6900 XT, which made the Intel + NVIDIA variant more than 100 thousand more expensive. So if you don’t need 24GB of VRAM, then you can look at the 12GB RTX 3080 Ti. The performance in games is practically the same, but it will cost as much as 80 thousand less.

While the article was being published, the price tags for some items could be adjusted. Someone predicts a further reduction in the cost of video cards, but cryptocurrencies just recently began to grow up again. We will be monitoring the situation and will update the material before the end of the year.