Every year, we have a tradition of putting together a Black Friday PC out of the best deals we can find. Our normal best gaming PC build guide aims for around $1,250 for its budget, while the high-end build goes for $2,000. But on Black Friday weekend, when prices on some components drop through the floor, can we do better? Yes, or you wouldn’t be reading
Every year, we have a tradition of putting together a Black Friday PC out of the best deals we can find. Our normal best gaming PC build guide aims for around $1,250 for its budget, while the high-end build goes for $2,000. But on Black Friday weekend, when prices on some components drop through the floor, can we do better? Yes, or you wouldn’t be reading this.
We’re going to do two parts lists this year, one for a midrange PC and one for a high-end build. The goal here is to get a great deal, and we’ll regularly update the parts as needed—because the best deals aren’t going to last.
As a point of reference, there’s an HP Omen PC selling for $1,499 that we want to meet or beat on price and performance. That will be the high-end build, while the mainstream build will shoot for a budget half as high. Both builds are designed to handle all of today’s games without struggling, with 1080p ultra being the target for the midrange build and 1440p high on the high-end system. Here are the current best picks, and we’ve done our best to ensure all the parts will work and fit together.
As usual, we aren’t including the keyboard, mouse, or monitor in these builds. Black Friday high-end PC build
Everything you need for a high-end, overclocked custom PC, including Windows. You could upgrade to a larger SSD, or choose a different case, but that’s about the only thing you’d need to think about swapping out.
Total Price: $1,658.92 (save $466)
Yeah, beating that HP Omen price is tough! Tim was so impressed by the deal that he bought one. We do win a few points for including the unlocked K-series CPU with a liquid cooler, plus a larger high-end M.2 SSD. Is that worth the extra $150? We’d like to think so.
Intel Core i7-8700K| 6 Cores | 12 Threads | $339.99 ($30 off)
This eight-generation Core i7 processor is $30 off the usual price right now at both Amazon and Newegg.
