In this $1500 PC Gaming / Productivity PC Build. I’ll be going over all the parts you need to build this high-end computer system. This $1500 gaming / productivity computer is able to game at 4K or do VR along with all of your productivity needs. It is the best computer you can build for the gaming and productivity out there at $1500 budget price. With its specs you won’t need to upgrade for a very long time.
This will be an AMD Ryzen build. At this price point Ryzen is the king CPU for productivity and gaming. If you are strictly wanting the best gaming experience you might consider this same build but with a Intel Core i7 7700k CPU and supporting ASUS PRIME Z270-A LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI DVI M.2 USB 3.1 Z270 ATX Motherboard motherboard. The Intel has faster single core performance that allow games to perform faster. Currently most games don’t take advantage of the extra cores and threads on Ryzen chips. Hopefully this will change in the near future. But don’t get me wrong Rzyen is still amazing for games most users will barely see the difference in AMD and Intel CPU’s.
| Type | Component | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Case | NZXT S340 Mid Tower Case | $108.00 |
| Motherboard | ASUS Prime X370-Pro | $144.99 |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 1700 | $329.89 |
| RAM | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 3000MHz | $179.99 |
| Graphics Card | ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8GB ROG STRIX | $389.99 |
| SSD Hard Drive | Samsung 960 EVO 250GB M.2 | $168.00 |
| Hard Drive | WD Blue 1TB SATA 7200 RPM | $168.00 |
| Power Supply | EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G1 Modular | $69.99 |
| Computer | $1500 Gaming / Productivity Computer | $1475.00 |
CPU
Ryzen is AMD first high performance processor line redesign and release since bulldozer over 5 years ago. It utilizes AMD’s new Zen core micro-architecture. The Ryzen 7 series is designed to directly compete with Intel’s Core i7 line up.
The AMD Ryzen 7 1700 processor runs at 3.0 GHz base clock with a 3.70 GHz Precision Boost clock with its 8 cores and 16 threads to handle all your gaming and productivity needs. This Zen based AMD Ryzen CPU’s has an unlocked multiplier so it is ready to be overclocked out of the box. Running at stock speeds it is fast but will respond very well once you increase the clock multiplier a little bit. Ryzen 7 1700 is the best chose for gaming and productivity due to price, performance, overclocking head room and lower TDP than other Ryzen 7’s.
It comes with a Wraith Spire LED Cooler which performs quite well for a stock cooler but you may want to consider a better heat sink or water cooling if overclocking past 3.6 Ghz.
TECH SPECS
- 8 Cores / 16 Threads
- Frequency: 3.00 GHz (3.70 GHz Precision Boost)
- Cache: 4 MB/16 MB (L2/L3)
- Socket: AM4
- TDP: 65 Watts
MOTHERBOARD
I have went with the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII HERO for the motherboard. This is another quality ASUS motherboard with all the features you need. It uses the AMD X370 chip set which will allow overclocking the CPU.
TECH SPECS
- 4 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR4 2133 – 2666 Mhz, 2933-3200 Mhz (OC)
- 2 x PCIe slots 3.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8), 1 x 2.0 x16, 3 x 2.0 x1
- 8 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
- 1 x M.2
GRAPHICS CARD
The ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8GB ROG STRIX is one of the best graphics cards out there. It is faster and more powerful than the previous generations GTX 980, GTX 980 TI, and the Titan X. While consuming less power than they do.
With this Pascal based GTX 1080 graphics card you will be able to game at 4K with descent quality settings. If you are planning on playing VR games the card will be able to handle them as well. It supports NVIDIA G-SYNC and DirectX 12 OSD. To take advantage of the G-SYNC you will need a monitor that supports it. See my recommendations at the end of this blog build.
TECH SPECS
- 2560 NVIDIA CUDA Cores
- 1695 MHz Base Clock
- 1835 MHz Boost Clock
- 10010 MB, 256 bit GDDR5
- PCI-E 3.0 16x
- DVI-D, 2x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI 2.0
SSD
If you’re building a computer in this price range there is no reason not to include a SSD hard drive. They offer far superior booting loading times into windows or your OS of choice, load times of programs and games. For this build I went with the Samsung 960 EVO Series – 250GB NVMe M.2 SSD for this productivity / gaming system. This is an NVMe M.2 drive. It will mount nicely on the motherboards M.2 slot which will support NVMe.
With 250GB of storage you can run out of space quickly once you install windows, your applications and start installing all your favorite PC game titles. To make sure your not wasting space on your SSD drive store the applications and games that you want to load fast on the SSD. Use another regular old school spinning disk hard drive for everything else like your media (pictures, music, videos and other documents) that don’t require fast loading times.
TECH SPECS
- Sequential Read/Write: Up to 3200MB/s and 1500MB/s
- Random Read/Write IOPS Performance: Up to 330,000K and 14,000K
- NVMe M.2
HARD DRIVE
The WD Blue 1TB SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM(WD10EZEX) to handle the bulk of your storage requirements. Nothing special here basic hard drive technology hasn’t changed much in years with the exception of increased storage capacity.
TECH SPECS
- Spindle Speed – 7200 rpm
- Buffer Size – 64 MB
- Interfaces – 1 x SATA 6 Gb/s
If you require more storage than this you could go with a bigger drive or maybe consider building a NAS build like one of these -DIY NAS $1000 Budget Build 2016 or 2016 NAS System Build for Home or Small Business.
CASE
I went with the NZXT S340 Mid Tower Case for this build. It is a nice clean simple mid tower case with a side window. It has plenty of room for water cooling radiators if you ever decide to go with water cooling.
The cons to this case are there is not a 5.25 bay for a DVD/Blu-ray drive and there are only three 3.5 in and two 2.5 in drive bays.
TECH SPECS
- Fully Filtered Fan Intakes
- Radiator Support: Front 2 x 140 or 2 x 120mm / Rear 1 x 120mm
- Fans Included: 1 Rear: 120mm x 1 Top: 120mm
- Expansion Slots: 7, 4 x 3.5″, 2 x 2.5″
RAM
I selected Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000 for the memory for this build. It will be enough RAM to keep it running well for the foreseeable future and DDR4 is the latest standard. Unfortunately right now RAM prices are through the roof due to supply shortages. Most computer gamers will not require more than 16 GB at this time but so productivity related task you may benefit from an upgrade to 32 GB for such things as 3D rendering or video content creation and editing.
TECH SPECS
- 16GB (2 x 8GB)
- Speed: 3000MHz
- Latency: 15-15-15-36
- Voltage: 1.2V
- 288 Pin
POWER SUPPLY
This EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G1, 80+ GOLD 650W, Fully Modular is enough to keep your gaming system running with no problems. It has 650 watts of power and is 80+ gold certified. It is fully modular.
TECH SPECS
- Fully Modular
- 80 PLUS Gold efficiency
- 120 mm Fan
BUILD PARTS SUMMARY AND PRICING
Here is a complete listing of all the computer hardware parts I used for this $1500 Productivity / Gaming computer build.
| Type | Component | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Case | NZXT S340 Mid Tower Case | $108.00 |
| Motherboard | ASUS Prime X370-Pro | $144.99 |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 1700 | $329.89 |
| RAM | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 3000MHz | $179.99 |
| Graphics Card | ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8GB ROG STRIX | $389.99 |
| SSD Hard Drive | Samsung 960 EVO 250GB M.2 | $168.00 |
| Hard Drive | WD Blue 1TB SATA 7200 RPM | $168.00 |
| Power Supply | EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G1 Modular | $69.99 |
| Computer | $1500 Gaming / Productivity Computer | $1475.00 |
The total cost of this gaming computer system build comes in at $1475 (as of 6 Nov 2017) just below the $1500 budget. This system will be an outstanding performer with the combination of AMD Ryzen 7 1700 and the GTX 1080. You’ll be able to game at 1080p, 1440p and 4K. This system can handle VR if you decide to buy a VR headset like the HTC VIVE.
Check link below for current pricing for the $1500 Productivity / Gaming Gaming PC build.
Recommended/Optional Components and Accessories
OS
Recommended Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 Home USB Flash Drive. I did not included in the build because you may want to go with something else like Windows 7, 8, Ubuntu or some other Linux distro.
Virtual Reality (VR) Headset
You will be able to use the HTC VIVE VR headset on this gaming computer. The GTX 1080 will be good for it.
Monitors
Here are choices for monitors. They are all compatible with NVIDIA G-Sync which prevents screen tearing and delivers a smooth gaming experience.
4k Monitors:
Acer Predator XB271HK 27-inch IPS UHD (3840 x 2160) NVIDIA G-Sync Widescreen Display .
Acer XB280HK bprz 28-inch Display Ultra HD 4K2K NVIDIA G-SYNC (3840 x 2160) Widescreen MonitorBoth of these are good choices for a 4k Gaming monitors that support NVidia G-Sync.
1440p Monitor:
Acer Predator XB271HU bmiprz 27-inch WQHD (2560 x 1440) NVIDIA G-Sync Widescreen Display1080p Monitor:
Acer Predator XB241H bmipr 24-inch Full HD 1920×1080 NVIDIA G-Sync Display, 144Hz, 2 x 2w speakers, HDMI & DP