You could try to build a gaming PC on a budget right now, but you shouldn’t. Between RAM, storage, and GPU prices going absolutely wild, it’s better to search for a pre-built. It won’t be cheap, but economies of scale mean you save money versus building your own in a paradoxical inverse of the natural order. For example, this Acer Nitro refurbished gaming PC is only $1,578.20 via eBay.
The best I can do on PCPartPicker this morning for a system with equivalent specs is almost $1,000 more expensive… and that’s going for the cheapest available options. And this is about $1,000 off the original retail price of this PC, too. We are in hell.
The big star of this particular spec list is the RTX 5070 Ti graphics card with 16GB of video RAM. That part alone would cost you about a thousand bucks at retail right now. You also get 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 2TB Gen 4 SSD, and an Intel Core i7-14700F processor with 20 cores (8 performance, 12 efficiency). This thing is an absolute powerhouse for gaming or media production. Other highlights include built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and an 850-watt power supply.
The only real downer I can see is a dated case that doesn’t include a front-facing USB-C port. Acer is selling this Nitro desktop directly via its eBay store, and thanks to the eBay Refurbished program, it comes with a two-year warranty (though that warranty is through Allstate, which has a mixed record for these things).
At this price, I doubt even a refurbished model will stick around for long. Plenty of folks will pick it up just for the parts, either to stick them in a better case and/or motherboard, parasitize it for their own builds, or just flip the GPU, RAM, storage, and processor for easy profit. Get your order in quickly if you want one.