We built a 1440p gaming PC for less than $1,500 with Cyber Monday deals — your last chance to defeat the RAM apocalypse

Cyber Monday is upon us, and there are still PC hardware bargains aplenty. You might have noticed that there is something of a RAM apocalypse going on, with prices of DDR5 tracking upwards of 400% higher than they were just a few months ago. Building a PC in this economy is not for the faint-hearted.

Luckily for you, Tom's Hardware eats PC hardware deals for breakfast. We're hooked up to a drip of discounts astride a database of hot hardware you wouldn't believe.

To that end, we've scoured the internet, wringing every last possible dime out of a set of PC parts capable of 1440p performance on PC, without breaking the $1,500 mark. It wasn't easy (I'm looking at you, $274 of 32GB DDR5 RAM), but we did, in part thanks to the excellent value of Intel's LGA 1851 platform and a stonking set of deals on the Intel Core Ultra 7 series.

Of course, you can't please everyone with a PC build, so take this as a handy starter guide to building your very own 1440p PC. We focused on a balanced config that's got plenty of cores and threads for productivity work, plus a 16GB Radeon RX 9070 that's a value champ at 1440p gaming (and even beyond if you don't mind upscaling).

You can, of course, chop and change parts, add a bit more storage, use a different case, or add more power supply for futureproofing, but this is a pretty good start, and for 1440p gaming, it could be the best it gets for a long time. Thanks to some great bundles, if you buy this build, you'll get two free games, including Star Wars Outlaws and a choice of Intel holiday offerings, including Battlefield 6.

$1,500 Cyber Monday gaming PC: Quick list

• Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF + MONTECH HyperFlow ARGB 240: was $379 now $239.99 at Newegg
• MSI MAG B860 Tomahawk: was $229.99 now $149.99 at Newegg
• PowerColor Reaper AMD Radeon RX 9070 16GB: was $579.99 now $519 at Amazon
• Crucial Pro Overclocking 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 6000: $274 at Best Buy
• Crucial P310 2TB: was $200.99 now $134.99 at Amazon
• Corsair Frame 4000D: was $104 now $79.99 at Amazon
• Montech Century II 850W fully modular PSU: was $89 now $82 at Amazon

$1,500 1440p Cyber Monday PC

Our mid-range 1440p build has, in the past, run us $1,600, so we are pretty proud of a $1,500 alternative given the pricing landscape of vital components like RAM and SSDs. Obviously, we've made some compromises, but this is a PC that will handily see you through 1440p gaming for the foreseeable future.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.