Category Part Price CPU Intel Core i5 2500K

$230 Motherboard Asus P8P67 Pro

$190 Memory Corsair XMS3 8GB DDR3 1333MHz

$95

Video Card

Nvidia GeForce GTX 570

$360

Storage

Western Digital 2TB Black

$170

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-223

$20

Case

Fractal Design R3

$110

Power Supply

Corsair CMPSU-850HX 850 Watt

$165

OS

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (OEM)

$100

Total



$1440



Building a new gaming PC is much easier than you think. All you really need is a screwdriver and the eight components that make up a modern PC: CPU, motherboard, case, RAM, video card, storage drive, optical drive, and power supply. Picking out these components isn't so difficult either, since we've just seen product refreshes in the CPU and GPU markets that makes choosing those core parts a no-brainer. So when Jeff from Giant Bomb told us he was in the market to upgrade from his dated Core 2 machine, we seized the opportunity to spec out a reasonably-priced rig that would last a couple years and build it live to show you just how easy PCs are to assemble.

The system leaves plenty of room for upgrading, since we included an ample power supply and used the cutting-edge Sandy Bridge platform from Intel. Jeff can always add in an additional GPU a year down the line or even overclock his processor if he feels like he needs more speed.And if you don't have $1500 to spend, you can make the cost easier on your wallet by making a few reasonable cuts. For example, you can get the Intel Core i5 2500 (non-K version) for an $11 savings, only use 4GB of RAM to save $45, opt for a Geforce GTX 560 Ti (the sweet spot card) to save an addition $110, go with a Western Digital 2TB Green drive for $70 off the Black version, and choose the 650 Watt version of the Corsair HX series PSUs for a $40 price difference. Combined, those adjustments net you a total system cost of $1224, or $276 off the price of the rig we built.Have you build a new system lately or are you in the market for one? Share your PC building experiences below, and let us know what parts you would pick for your own $1500 machine.