Best gaming PC build under $700 in 2024

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Our $700 Custom Gaming PC Build
CORSAIR 3000D Airflow Case
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Best Gaming PC Under $700

Building the best gaming PC under $700 was not that long ago considered pointless, thankfully these days, $700 will happily get you a gaming PC more than capable of pumping out some significant framerates at 1080p and above. Is this the best Gaming PC build in the world? No, but then we’re running on a limited budget here, if you want something that can tackle the likes of 4K and beyond, we highly recommend checking out our Best Gaming PC under $2000 guide. That said, you could easily run any modern AAA game title today, at 60fps and beyond with this $700 gaming PC build.

As always, our goal with a build like this is to get you the best possible gaming experience we can, for just $700. Each component is carefully selected by our team of in-house experts, to maximize value and performance, while also ensuring that every part we pick is compatible with the rest of your system, making your build experience flawless. Speaking of, not a fan of the custom-build life? Perhaps just an off-the-shelf pre-built is what you’re after instead?

$700 gaming PC build of the month

This $700 is built to bring you the best possible performance at this price point. The I5-12400F may seem like an odd choice, but its 6 cores and 12 threads are plenty to offer very good gaming performance. Pair that with an RX 6600 for exemplary performance in 1080p, this combination also has the potential to game in 1440p on some less demanding titles. This is all thanks to AMD’s FSR, which renders games at lower resolutions and uses AI to upscale them. We chose to seat these components on the MSI PRO B760M-P, giving you all the connectivity you’ll ever need, along with PCIe Gen 5 storage and GPU compatibility. Our $700 gaming PC is probably the most future-proof PC you’ll find on the market.

Team Red or Team Blue?

So why Intel over AMD? Well honestly, there isn’t a huge amount of difference at this price point, at least, not at the moment anyway. Both AMD and Intel provide some seriously impressive budget options. Whether that’s the Intel Core i5-12400F featured in this build or the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, you’ll be more than set. It is down to preference. If we’re honest, both platforms are great, AMD does slightly pip Intel on its generation of processors and motherboards, but mostly for PCIe 5.0 SSD support, which we’re still waiting for SSDs for in general.

One slight caveat to bear in mind when building an AMD system is that they do prefer higher-spec memory. AMD’s Infinity Fabric (the interconnecting data medium that transfers data between its cores on the CPU) loves higher-frequency memory. There is a cut-off on that however (where the Infinity Fabric disconnects from the memory controller) For 5th gen AMD Ryzen processors and DDR4 that’s 3733 MHz, and for 7th gen Ryzen and DDR5, it’s 6000 MHz. Also remember, if you do opt for an AMD CPU in this build, you have to change to an AMD-compatible motherboard.

The WePC experts that worked on this build

Custom Build Specialist
Team Shaun

Shaun Conroy

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Shaun is a gaming enthusiast and computer science graduate who has been working with computers for the last 15 years. He took a shine to competitive FPS back in the mid-2000s and hasn’t looked back since.

Our prebuilt gaming PC for under $700

For those without the experience of building a custom PC or the necessary time to do so, a prebuilt option could be the best way to go. Custom PC companies often bring the advantage of warranties. Not only that, but the manufacturers will fully test your system before sending it. That being said, we always recommend you build your own, but either way; here are our best-prebuilt recommendations.

It’s important to note that all new parts you buy come with warranties themselves, so if ever you receive a defective part, you can always get your money back.

Our Recommended Custom Build Details

  • Last Updated - Mar 8, 2024

This $700 1080p Ultra Gaming PC is designed to play anything in its path. Let’s see what makes up the best gaming PC under $700.

CORSAIR 3000D Airflow Case

Our $700 Custom Gaming PC Build

The $700 price point is that prime sweet spot with custom gaming PCs where you’ll begin to see some impressive performance at 1080p. Combining powerful multi-threaded CPUs and a reliable graphics card will provide you with an exceptional gaming experience. This is the best bang for the buck build by far.

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The Core i5-12400F is a true beast of a CPU,  packed with some of the best budget tech Intel can fit into a chip of this size. With six cores, 12 threads, and a beefy turbo clock speed topping out at 4.4 GHz, this Alder Lake chip will be more than enough to support your GPU through all the latest 1080p games. All of which makes it the best CPU for our $700 budget-busting build.

MSI’s PRO B760M-P is admittedly on the smaller side when it comes to motherboards. For one, it’s built on the Micro-ATX form factor, and you will be placing this into a full ATX tower. Also, the number of ports this motherboard has is somewhat limiting. With that being said, this is definitely the best motherboard for this build.

It’s another area we’d recommend upgrading in the future, or even splashing out a little extra for in the beginning, as the lack of rear I/O ports could limit you later down the line. Alternatively, you could grab a cheap USB hub instead, but bear in mind that this could back up your USB bandwidth and cause slowdowns.

So why pick it for our $700 custom PC Build? A combo of price, and on-board features, easily mitigates that lackluster rear I/O. With support for DDR4 up to 4800 MHz, and 2x M.2 PCIe 3.0 slots, slot in your hardware and you’ll see performance on par with boards 4–5 times as expensive.

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The $700 PC build does not require a CPU cooler as the Core i5-12400F comes with a stock cooler.

At this price, the CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16 GB kit is just too good to pass up for our $700 custom PC build. With a frequency of 3200 MHz, and a CAS latency of 16, these sticks will sing through any application you can throw at them. We think this is the best RAM for the money right now.

16 GB of DDR4 is ideal if you’re just gaming at 1080p, however, it’s the one area we’d recommend upgrading later down the line. Fortunately, because the MSI B760M features 4x DIMMs, you could buy a second kit later on, and double your capacity.