Gaming PC prices are truly shocking right now but this RTX 5070 rig is the cheapest I've seen one of late

We're in a brave new world of PC gaming hardware right now, with extra emphasis on the irony in that phrase. I wrote recently about how there isn't a single well-priced PC left, and that's true if we're comparing prices even to just last year. But the thing is, some people will still want or need to buy a new PC even in this inflated market, and judging by how you folks have responded to our recent polls, many of you are still reluctantly willing to pay the premium for a gaming PC upgrade.

To that end, I shall solider on and deliver the best gaming PC deals I can find to your doorsteps, even if they're expensive compared to last year's market. And right now, just as I reported a few weeks ago, RTX 5070 gaming PCs look to be where it's at for value below $2,000.

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None of the previous RTX 5070 PCs I highlighted are available at those prices anymore, but I've found a couple more, and in fact one of them is even cheaper at $1,399 at B&H Photo—though you have to be willing to compromise on the CPU. Or, if you'd rather compromise on the RAM than the CPU, there's another option for you, for $1,600 at Amazon.

Quick links

• MSI Codex Z2C | Ryzen 7 8700F | $1,399 @ B&H Photo
• Skytech Blaze 5 | Core i7 14700F | $1,600 @ Amazon

RTX 5070 gaming PC deals

Considering 2026 prices, this is the build I would be going for. The thing to highlight from the very start is that CPU is not fantastic. It's actually a repurposed mobile chip, which means it has a low maximum TDP and has just 16 MB of L3 cache. That nerfs it pretty significantly for many uses, however the PC should still be fine for gaming, especially in more GPU-bound games.

What makes the CPU caveat not such a big deal is that it's socket AM5, meaning you can replace it with a decent Ryzen chip and perhaps even an X3D one. Importantly, CPUs are one one kind of component that hasn't seen such a dramatic price increase over the past few months, despite declining sales and yes, murmurs of slight price increases.

And apart from the CPU, you're getting a complete, ready-to-go system with a graphics card that's very capable of 1440p gaming, and some DDR5 RAM to boot.

This option is less appealing to my eyes, but if you're certain you won't want to upgrade any of your new PC's components any time soon, it might be a better choice than the MSI one. That's because the CPU here is much more capable than the 8700F in the MSI.

The caveat in this case is you're getting DDR4 RAM rather than DDR5, which means if you do decide you want to upgrade this memory in the future, you'll have to swap your motherboard and CPU out to boot. In other words, you're locking yourself in a bit, here.

You're also paying $200 extra for the privilege, putting it in the range of what I've seen some RX 9070 XT gaming PCs going for recently, which will perform much better and be worth it if you can catch one on sale. So, I'd say this Skytech build is primarily for if you can't stretch your budget much higher and you're sure you won't want to touch it for upgrades any time soon. If that describes you, you'll do fine with this build and will net some great 1440p performance out of most modern games.

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Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob's led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world's #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It's definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.