What is the PC Perspective Hardware Leaderboard?
Updated 07/28/25 – Still depressing one year on
The Dream System pricing is horrifying, but not completely out of line when you look at custom built machines like those from our friends at Falcon Northwest. A watercooled RTX 5090 is a necessity as is a newer power supply that drops the less than wonderful 12VHPWR connector for a 12V-2×6 plug. All the power and none of the worry! We could have gone with the Intel i9-14900KS but it’s so last year … or more, considering it’s essentially a refresh of the i9-13900KS. Instead AMD’s X3D based CPU is the more interesting choice, and as is tradition we recommend the second best chip to avoid the multiple CCX issue. AMD and Microsoft are certainly better at dealing with this than they were, but why risk it for a minuscule boost in multi-threaded performance. The move to AMD doesn’t mean you miss out on USB 4.0 nor 5Gbps ethernet, it just limits the frequency of the RAM you grab. The Corsair kit has very tight timings, so if you want to play with your MCLK, UCLK and FCLK you should be able to retain a 1:1 ratio at slightly higher than DDR5-6000. It could be worse, one of the new Threadripper CPUs would push this build up close to $10K.
The High end of the Hardware Leaderboard offers tough choices to stay in budget. Intel is very attractive if you are going to work more than you play, but who are we kidding? This is going to be your gaming rig which means AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the way to go, and it is currently paired with the MSI X870 Gaming Plus WiFi. You can swap that board out, but the main idea is to get PCIe 5.0 to keep it relevant for at least a generation and to keep the price around $250. The DDR5-6000 kit is the same as the Dream system, just a little smaller in size. The GPU choice will be divisive but frankly we don’t support the markup seen on NVIDIA cards; we like the cards for the most part but the pricing is obnoxious. The storage remains PCIe 4.0 simply because you won’t see a difference in gaming performance if you go with a PCIe 5.0 SSD. If you have the cash and the desire you can certainly grab one, but the GPU price means sacrifices must be made. The sound card is dropped for the same reason. We like Corsair’s PSUs, so going with one that can support either NVIDIA or AMD cards just makes sense.
The Midrange system still comes down to the motherboard. Do you want to blow your GPU budget on USB4 and support for extremely high frequency RAM? Probably not, and Intel was very clever with Raptor Lake as it still offers the best band for your buck. You do get PCIe 5.0 for both the 16GB RX 9060 XT and your M.2 drive, even though neither of then really need it. Still, it’s nice to have if you spot an upgrade for a great price. The 16GB RX 9060 XT appears on the assumption that an 8GB GPU will cause apoplectic fits in many enthusiasts, even if a card with that much memory might offer slightly better performance in certain cases. The RAM favours value and timings over frequency, the SSD remains PCIe 4.0 to ensure you can afford the GPU, as does the PSU. Still, for a $1000 this system should get you enjoying modern games, and at impressive resolutions if you make use of FSR.
The Budget System is well over the $500 which hurts when you compare it to consoles or NUC-like devices, but if you want to build a PC from scratch this one will serve you well. The prices in 2025 mean that a GPU is well out of the price range, but the Ryzen 5 8600G with it’s onboard NPU and Radeon 760M mean you can certainly enjoy gaming on this system and Copilot won’t destroy your performance, if you don’t disable it. The current market also means you have to pay more for storage and memory, but you also get double what you did last year. USB 3.2 Gen2, 32GB of DDR5-6000 and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD will definitely ensure this system will serve you well for years. You might have to upgrade your internal network to deal with the 2.5GBps NIC though! If you drop WiFi, go with a Ryzen 5 8500G and 500GB of storage you can easily cut $100 off the price of this build and still enjoy a worthy Budget System.
Once you have all your components you can always reference Ryan’s videos covering the installation of the parts into the case as well as installing your OS and Steam so you can get right to gaming and surfing. For those of you looking at a Vive or Oculus, the systems mostly match those covered in Ryan’s VR builds; check out your expected experience in his three guides.
Dream System 2025 $6080.00
This is the Dream System. No compromises, IOO.
Processor — Ryzen 9 9900X3D$540
Intel’s i9-14900KS is a bit boring, albeit fast, which is why we want new silicon in the Dream System. AMD seems to have fixed the issues with multiple CCDs on the 9950X3D so if you want to go for it there is no reason you shouldn’t. However $540 for 12 cores at 4.4GHz is a much better deal than $650 for 16 cores at 4.3GHz unless you have a specific use for those extra 4 cores. Go with the 9900X3D!
Motherboard — ASUS ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi$478
If you want it all you don’t have to buy the most expensive motherboard, but you can if you want. This board has 3 PCIe 5.0 and 2 PCIe 4.0 M.2 ports, two full USB 4.0 ports and an almost obnoxious 10 USB 10Gbps, one with 30W power delivery. Connectivity includes 5Gbps wired and WiFi 7 802.11be, so you might want to search for a new router/switch while you wait for the board to arrive.
Video Card — Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 5090 Xtreme WATERFORCE$3670
Gigabyte once again holds the frequency crown, thanks to their WaterForce design that integrates a watercooler into the GPU. The card ships at 2655MHz core, though the GDDR7 remains at stock. That is until you get your hands on it!
Memory — CORSAIR Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000MHz 64GB x 2$297
CL28-36-36-96 and on the QVL list, need you ask more? You could poke around with a DDR5-6400 kit, lower it’s frequency and try to bump up the motherboard and CPU clocks to be 1:1 but this kit will probably overclock enough to let you play. Buy two and have fun!
Hard Drive — Crucial T710 4TB x 2$430
As Sebastian said “Bottom line, the Crucial T710 is one of the fastest SSDs on the planet, and in some cases the fastest we have ever tested.” Get two if you want, you’ve got the M.2 ports.
Sound Card — Creative Sound Blaster AE-9$460
Headphone Impedance: 1–600Ω
PCM 32-bit/384 kHz
129 dB DNR
0.0001% THD
Swappable op-amps
Power Supply — CORSAIR RM1200e$205
Good riddance 12VHPWR, long live 12V-2×6! This PSU should have more than enough power for your system and features ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 as well as a Cybenetics Platinum Efficiency.
High End System $2198.00
High end gaming for under $2500.
Processor — Ryzen 7 9800X3D$451
Intel’s Core i7-14700F is a workhorse of a CPU, and if you are going to be doing more work than play it is an option you might want to check out. However for gaming and many other uses the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is by far the better choice. The price jumps as does the power consumption, but not unreasonably so,
Motherboard — MSI X870 Gaming Plus WiFi$249
Shopping for AMD motherboards ain’t what it used to be. They used to offer great features at a low price, but like their competition they’ve kept the features but raised the prices. Some judicious shopping is a good idea, as you can occasionally spot relatively decent deals like the MSI X870 Gaming Plus WiFi. It checks all the boxes from PCIe 5.0 to USB 4 and a 5Gbps wired NIC that is probably faster than your current network can handle.
Video Card — XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900XTX Black$1030
So, here’s the thing. If you have an RTX 4080 SUPER or a way to get one under $1000 then do it. You will more or less match the performance of the RTX 5080, which will run you $1200+ to buy. If you are dead set on having a card with the best ray tracing support then you can pay $200 for that feature but if you want the best overall card that doesn’t support the tradition of charging a ridiculous premium over MSRP then an RX 7900XTX is the way to go. This one happens to be nicely overclocked, giving you more frames for free!
Memory — 32GB CORSAIR Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000$148
It’s the same kit as the Dream, except with the High end you have to dream a bit smaller and limit yourself to 2x16GB DDR5-6000 @ CL28-36-36-96.
Hard Drive — WD_BLACK 2TB SN850X$160
Sure it’s PCIe 4.0, but 7,300MB/s is nothing to sneer at! You could add around $100 to the price and grab a PCIe 5.0 model to hit 14,900MB/s but you aren’t likely to notice the difference.
Sound Card — No$0
Things are getting ridiculous, so unless you are doing audio editing grab a USB DAC when you get some cash.
The Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus is $160 if you have your heart set on an audio card.
Power Supply — Corsair RM1000e$160
The new generation of PSUs have arrived and thanks to ready availability the prices have come in line as well. This Corsair PSU gives you 105°C rated capacitors, 80 Plus Gold efficiency and a 12v 2×6 connector, not that you actually need it at the moment. Your card wants the three PCIe power connectors.
Mid Range System $1031.00
You can clearly play from middle … though $1000 is the ‘new’ mid-range.
Processor — Intel i5-14600KF$198
This chip is a proper midrange product, it offers very good performance for the price and is now has its voltage addiction under control. Single core performance is not as good as the new Ryzen but multicore is miles ahead. In gaming, where it really counts, you will see equal or better performance and for most people that is what really counts for them.
Motherboard — ASRock B760M Pro RS$120
Not much movement in the middle. One of the few victories that Intel can claim this year is that they still have the best CPU at around $200. This B760M does offer updated features however, DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 being the most notable. If you want to spend a bit more, you can add a Thunderbolt 4 AIC as otherwise you get USB 3.2 Gen1.
Video Card — XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT OC 16GB$400
If you want 16GB of VRAM for $400 or less you only have one real choice. If you can live with 8GB VRAM, you have a wide gamut of choices of cards from both AMD and NVIDIA to chose from. However it seems that in 2025 even the suggestion a 12GB card might be enough is likely to start a vendetta against anyone who dares make such a suggestion. There is some merit to demanding at least 16GB, as a large number of games eat as much memory as a handful of Chrome tabs.
It’ll cost you a sound card though, if you need one the Sound Blaster Audigy FX will do.
Memory — Kingston Beast 32GB DDR5-6000$123
Memory prices spike if you go beyond DDR5-6000 and offer little improvement in performance. However the Mid-range system deserves something a bit better than the Budget build which is why a kit with timings of 30-36-36 from Kingston is sitting here. If you can find a better deal then grab it, but remember that memory QVL lists are a thing again for both Intel and AMD and this dual channel kit is on it.
Hard Drive — Samsung 990 PRO SSD NVMe M.2 PCIe 4.0$150
Cheers to Samsung for offering the 2TB 990 PRO for a decent price. You get the just about the peak bandwidth PCIe 4.0 can offer and for a decent price. If you are somehow lacking an M.2 heatsink for this drive you will have to spend an extra $10, sorry.
Power Supply — Thermaltake Smart 500W 80+ White$40
This PSU has been recommended for so long the 5 year warranty might be running out if you bought it when it first appeared. It’s quiet, powerful enough to handle these components and you cannot argue with the price!
Low End System $578.00
Plenty of fun still to be had on the low side.
Processor — Ryzen 5 8600G$236
Welcome to the world of 2025, where everything is more expensive but at least it’s often better too. Such is the story of the Ryzen 5 8600G which costs almost twice as much as the previous budget APU. On the other hand it has the Radeon 760M which is roughly equivalent to the mobile versions of the RX 560X or GTx 1050. The price jump means that we don’t recommend a GPU, only a PSU capable of powering one when you decide to upgrade.
You can save $80 with the Ryzen 5 8500G, but that also reduces the APU portion to a Radeon 740M, and there’s no NPU!
Motherboard — ASRock AMD B850M Pro RS WiFi$160
Just because you are on a budget doesn’t mean you can’t have it all! WiFi 6E, 2.5Gbps ethernet, 7.1 channel sound, USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C and more are available at a decent price. It is also Micro ATX so you can go with a small case if you like. When you do upgrade to a full GPU, there is a PCIe 5.0 x16 ready for you.
Price a little too steep? Drop the WiFi and grab the ASRock B850M-X R2.0 for $40 less!
Memory — Crucial Pro 32GB DDR5-6000$84
AMD Expo compatible, 1:1 clock ratio and 36-38-38-80 timings! It is a 2x16GB kit, because that’s pretty much all there is. It would be nice to cut a bit of cost down by going with a 2x8GB kit, but no one ever complained about having too much RAM!
Hard Drive — Kingston NV3 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0$58
You could spend a bit more and get a PCIe 5.0 drive, but you’ll be unlikely to notice the difference. You could save a few pennies going PCIe 3.0 but that’s about it as they aren’t much less expensive than a PCIe 4.0 drive. The 500GB version of this drive is $20 less expensive if you need to save a few bucks but remember that the speed of an SSD depends on how much free space you have!
Sound Card — Onboard Audio$0
7.1 Channel from the Realtek ALC1200 Audio Codec with Nahimic Audio; good enough for the majority of earholes.
Power Supply — Thermaltake Smart 500W 80+ White$40
500W will handle the components in the Low end as well as the Mid range system. This particular PSU offers quiet cooling and while it isn’t as efficient as some at this wattage it is far less important as your power bill won’t show much difference.
