How to Build the Best AMD 1440p Gaming PC – Ft. RX 7800 XT & Ryzen 7 7700X

In recent years, 1440p has slowly become the standard resolution for PC gaming. As more components targeting 1440p gameplay are becoming increasingly affordable to consumers on a tight budget, parts that are restricted to 1080p gaming are quickly being overshadowed. Because of this, most mid-range consumers can put together a PC that can comfortably run games at 1440p, with even some budget-friendly builds being able to stretch to the higher resolution.

If you’re interested in putting a system together that targets 1440p in all the latest titles, you may be wondering what parts offer the best blend of price and performance. In this guide, we’ll be building a 1440p gaming PC that offers incredible value for money. The core components of this build are primarily made up of AMD parts, providing greater synergy between which leads to stronger and more reliable performance metrics in games and productivity applications.

AMD’s Ryzen 7 7700X has aged like a fine wine, reaching a point where it is one of the best value for money processors on the market. After a number of driver updates and price reductions, all of the Ryzen 7000 processors have recovered from a rough launch, with the 7700X being one of the SKUs that has benefitted the most from these changes. As a result, it is an excellent choice for a 1440p gaming PC, as it offers plenty of firepower to run the latest games and handle demanding productivity tasks.

Featuring 8 cores and 16 threads, the 7700X handles complex workstation applications with ease, making it a solid choice for streaming and content creation.

In order to keep our Ryzen 7 7700X processor cool, we’ve picked up the DeepCool LS520. This 240mm AIO cooler is an excellent choice for 1440p gaming PCs, as it provides optimal airflow and thermal regulation while remaining very affordable. Generally, a 240mm liquid CPU cooler is a safe bet, as they tend to fit inside most PC cases with ease.

DeepCool’s LS520 has been a firm favourite of ours, as this cooling solution is cheap, efficient, and blends in with the aesthetics of most gaming PCs. With two 120mm RGB fans on the radiator and an infinity mirror pump block, the LS520 looks smart, but is still clearly tailored towards gamers.

The motherboard that we’ve picked out to act as the skeleton of our build is the Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX, as it is simply one of the most valuable AM5 motherboards on the market. This B650 motherboard is a budget-friendly option geared towards consumers that are looking for a solid entry level component that won’t break the bank. Even when you compare it to other B650 motherboards, Gigabyte’s Gaming X AX is on the cheaper side.

However, that doesn’t prevent this board from being packed with great features. For example, the B650 Gaming X AX can support up to 192GB of DDR5 memory, which will be more than enough to support a 1440p system through multiple years of upgrades.

For our memory of choice, we’ve opted for TeamGroup’s T-Force Delta RGB kit. This DDR5 memory offers a striking design with plenty of RGB lighting, making it a perfect addition to any gaming-oriented build. But this RAM isn’t all about aesthetics, as the T-Force Delta RGB will also help elevate the speed and efficiency of your system.

Certain variants of this design can reach transfer speeds of up to 8000MT/s. This results in incredibly responsive gameplay, and will max out the support available on our motherboard of choice. However, the 32GB 6400MT/s kit we chose keeps games snappy and fluid while sitting at a reasonable price.

For those wanting to store a mass of larger games or files, we’ve picked up the 2TB version of Samsung’s 990 Pro. This M.2 drive is one of the best-performing Gen4 SSDs available, boasting incredibly fast read and write speeds that can easily keep up with the most demanding games and applications.

We’ve picked out the 2TB version specifically, as this amount of storage should be ample for most gamers wanting to install their games library onto a single drive. This means that gamers won’t have to deal with the hassle of switching games between drives or having to clear up storage space every time you want to install a new game.

The graphics card is arguably the most important part of any gaming PC, as it drives the rendering speed and quality of the system. For this build, we’ve selected the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, as the 16GB VRAM and strong clock speeds make it one of the best GPUs for 1440p gaming within its price range.

More specifically, we’ve picked up PowerColor’s Red Devil, as this SKU elevates the appearance and performance of AMD’s reference model. The Powercolor Red Devil boosts the 2.43GHz clock speed on AMD’s card up to 2.56GHz, which will slightly bolster framerates in select titles.

Our designated chassis to house all of our components is the Pop Air from Fractal Design. This PC case has become a very popular choice for PC builders, mainly due to it’s pleasing appearance and its range of accessibility features. Despite being a smaller mid-tower chassis, the Pop Air includes support for a range of components, making it a solid choice for builds of all budgets and use-cases.

For example, the support for Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX, and ATX motherboards will be enough to cater for most budget and mid-range builds, with the lack of E-ATX support only effecting enthusiasts building a high-end 4K gaming PC.

Finally, we’ve decided to pick up an affordable PSU to power up our system, introducing the Thermaltake Smart BM3 750W. The funds saved on this power supply provides users with a chunk of cash that can be used on upgrades for other parts of the build. Whilst we could have picked up a 750W PSU with a slightly higher efficiency rating and better modularity, the Smart BM3 will get the job done while offering some nifty features too.

With an 80+ Bronze efficiency rating, this power supply will be able to remain cool and quiet in most gaming scenarios. However, the biggest advantage of this design is the support for the ATX 3.0 power standard.