07/24/2020 $1,500 High-Level Gaming and Production.

CPU: 

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Amazon*) 

Ok, so for this budget we are stepping it up on part performance starting with this 3700x. This 8-core 16-thread Matisse CPU on the 7nm process is more than most people will need ensuring you are happy for years to come.

Motherboard: 

Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($190.00 @ Amazon*) 

We are going with the Asus Tuf board for this build because the Asus Tuf lineup are a time tested products that show to be stable over time. Reading through the reviews all the negativity doesn’t seem to realize how to enable XMP and are manually upping the speed without upping the voltage or changing the timings. If you can’t find XMP in the BIOS look for D.O.C.P. as Asus sometimes calls it that in the BIOS.

Memory: 

G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory ($65.98 @ Amazon*) 

Going with the Ripjaws here again. It’s a solid kit that will keep you running quickly even with all the Chrome tabs open.

Storage: 

Patriot VPN100 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($79.98 @ Amazon*)

This NVME SSD with a 512MB cache will perform at top speeds ensuring your system is never waiting on the drive.

Storage: 

Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.00 @ Amazon*) 

A mainstay on my lists. This Barracuda is hard to beat with it’s price to performance and capacity.

Video Card: 

Asus GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB DUAL EVO OC Video Card ($579.99 @ Amazon*) 

Really stepping up the performance of this build with this card. The 2070 Super is one of the best cards on the market and one of the best values without going AMD and risking driver stability issues***. This workhorse performs better than last generation’s 1080ti, a card most of us would have given our right foot to have. For you streamers, it also has the Turing NVENC encoder. The Turing NVENC is a separate chip on the Graphics card which takes stream encoding stress off the GPU and CPU allowing you to run your games at max performance while having a nice smooth stream. Furthermore, for you production users, NVIDIA's new Studio Driver has changed the game allowing your hardware accelerated programs to better utilize the computing power the GPU provides. You can find the Studio Driver here.

Case: 

Deepcool MATREXX 70 ATX Mid Tower Case ($74.98 @ Amazon) 

I really like the look of this case. With its tempered glass front and side panel, it gives a nice and classy look to your desk.

Power Supply: 

EVGA SuperNOVA GA 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($109.99 @ Amazon*) 

I wanted a good fully-modular PSU for this budget and this EVGA PSU delivers. 550W of gold-rated efficiency give you plenty of room for future upgrades.

Case Fan: 

Cooler Master MF120R ARGB 59 CFM 120 mm Fans 3-Pack ($98.00 @ Amazon*)

I think at this price point if I didn’t put a bit of RGB in it I never would have heard the end of it. So, I am including these 3 120mm RGB fans for the front of the case. You could even fit another 3 in the top if you wanted as exhaust. One note is if you put these fans in front of the filter on the front of the case which is what would look best you may need to remove the fans for cleaning. I would put the fans behind the filter which will still look great.

Optional WIFI/Bluetooth Card:

EDUP WiFi Dual Band 5GHz/2.4GHz PCI-E with Bluetooth 5.0 ($29.99 @ Amazon*) 

I have been using these cards in both of my personal cards as well as I believe something like 32 client builds. These cards are awesome offering reliable WIFI and strong Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity.

Total w/WIFI: $1534.23**

Total w/o WIFI: $1504.24**

*Post contains Amazon Associate links.

**Based on the prices and availability at the time of writing. Pricing and availability changes minute by minute.

***AMD is reporting that the driver stability issues have been fixed.