The Best $2000 High-End Creator PC Build – October 2025

By Ari Altman | Published October 5, 2025 | Updated October 5, 2025

Lancool 217Calling All Serious Content Creators!

If you’re looking to put together the ultimate video editing PC at a mainstream price, this is the guide for you! Rather than try to tweak gaming-focused builds to make them a better match for heavy Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and similar application use, just build one that’s designed for content creation from the start! Sure, you could game on this system, but the components have been chosen specifically to maximize application performance and minimize noise, which is what we think professional video editors will value the most.

This Month’s Build, Featuring AMD and Nvidia!

For October 2025, the High-End Content Creation PC Build features AMD’s high-powered but bargain-priced Ryzen 9 9900X, a 12-core, 24-thread behemoth that offers tremendous content creation chops, plus impressive efficiency. It’s paired with a great Gigabyte B850 motherboard with the latest connectivity. Supporting this combo is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 12GB, which provides huge acceleration in apps like Davinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, and Photoshop. It’s also quite efficient, which is great for keeping noise in check, while also allowing for the use of up to 4 monitors.

Backing up the CPU and GPU is 64GB of ultra-high-speed DDR5-6000 RAM and a fast 2TB PCIe Gen 5 solid-state drive, which offers extraordinary I/O throughput. We suggest you equip this system with an efficient fully-modular 750W power supply, plus a big upgrade this month – an awesome liquid cooler from ID-Cooling. Finally, you’ll house it in the trend-setting, wood-paneled Lancool 217 from Lian Li, which will look great in any professional studio or work space. This will give you a silent-running, workstation-class system.

Parting Thoughts

If you’re looking to complete your system, you’ll find our recommendations on the perfect peripherals for a content creation PC later on this page. We use Amazon affiliate links for our readers in the US, which will auto-convert for our readers in the UK, Canada, and parts of the EU, with regional substitutions made automatically based on availability. Your use of these links to purchase the products we recommend will help support continued development of this site.

Required Components

  • CPU

    AMD Ryzen 9 9900X

    $398
    AMD has done it again with Zen 5, improving performance in all respects over the previous generation. The 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 9900X is up to 15% faster than its predecessor, while offering even better efficiency.

    The Guru’s Tip

    While the 16-core 9950X may be tempting, we'd prefer to save some cash in this build to apply to the GPU - that extra money will get you a huge boost in GPU-accelerated applications.

  • Motherboard

    Gigabyte B850 AORUS Elite WiFi7

    $200
    This B850 board from Gigabyte allows you to tap into the potential of AMD’s cutting-edge AM5 platform at a great price. You get a potent 14+2+2 Phase power solution, a PCIe Gen 5 video card slot, three M.2 slots (one being Gen 5, the others Gen 4), plus built-in WiFi 7.

    The Guru’s Tip

    Note that this B850 board is fully up to date and includes the latest firmware to boot the 9900X processor out of the box.

  • Video Card

    PNY GeForce RTX 5070 12GB OC

    $542
    The RTX 5070 offers amazing performance and amazing efficiency, surpassing the 4070 by over 20% at the same launch price. This model’s triple-fan cooler will keep temperatures in check and noise levels down, without going overboard on size.

    The Guru’s Tip

    This video card will provide a huge boost in various apps, especially video processing.

  • Memory

    G.Skill 2x32GB Flare X5 DDR5-6000 CL30 EXPO

    $240
    To get the most out of AMD’s latest CPUs, you want fast RAM, and DDR5-6000 is the sweetspot not only in terms of price, but in terms of making the most of the AM5 platform. It allows for the highest overall performance thanks to running in 1:1 sync with the memory controller. And this 64GB kit from G.Skill is specially designed for AM5, thanks to the 30-40-40-96 AMD EXPO timings. It offers tremendous capacity and speed in a single package!

    The Guru’s Tip

    64GB is want you want for a high-end content creation system. While you won't often need all of this capacity, having the headroom means you'll never have to worry that you're hitting RAM limits.

  • Solid-State Drive

    Samsung 9100 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 5

    $200
    For primary storage, you don’t just want high-end, you want ultra-high-end, and that means going with a PCIe Gen 5.0 solid-state drive. And while there were a few early Gen 5 drives based on a hybrid of new and old tech, the 9100 is the real deal, ripping out 14,800MB/s in sequential read and 13,400MB/s in sequential write, effectively maxing out the Gen 5 bus and making it up to twice as fast as any Gen 4 drive.

    The Guru’s Tip

    The speed of this drive will be put to good use in a serious content creation machine. Make sure to install it in the top slot on the motherboard to ensure you are enabling its PCIe Gen 5 speed.

  • Case

    Lian Li LanCool 217

    $120
    Just when it seemed Lian Li couldn’t possibly design a better case, they go and do it again. The 217 is simply incredible – it looks great, it’s priced right, and it performs like nothing else out there. The combination of two giant 170mmx30mm fans in front, two 120mm reversed-blade fans on the PSU shroud to blow air up at the GPU, and a 140mm fan at the rear for exhaust means this case is an absolute wind tunnel of air for your components. And yes, that’s real walnut wood trim on the front to set this classy chassis apart from all the RGB and glass options out there!

    The Guru’s Tip

    This stylish case is the perfect chassis for a high-end creator build!

  • Power Supply

    MSI MAG A750GL

    $96
    The A750GL from MSI offers exceptional performance at a great price. It features 750W of Gold-rated power, fully-modular cables, a fan equipped with fluid dynamic bearings, and a compact form factor for ease of installation. The best part: it’s backed by a 10-year warranty!

    The Guru’s Tip

    This PSU will provide plenty of power for this system, which under full CPU/GPU rendering load will draw under 400W.

  • CPU Cooler

    ID-Cooling FX360 Pro

    $65
    To run a high-powered CPU, you need extreme cooling, and we suggest you go straight for this awesome 360mm liquid cooler, which offers great performance at a simply incredible price, resetting expectations for the cooling you can achieve at its pricepoint!

    The Guru’s Tip

    With the price of liquid coolers coming down so quickly, there's no reason not to upgrade to one for this build. Luckily, the case we recommend can easily accommodate this cooler in the roof of the chassis.

  • Operating System

    Windows 11 Home (USB) @Newegg

    $139
    Windows 11 built on everything people loved about Windows 10, and then took it to 11! It adds significant under-the-hood changes to make it faster and more secure, and of course, the interface is sleek too! Note that we’re linking to Newegg, because Amazon long ago stopped selling this physical USB version of Windows, which is the most convenient one to use.

    The Guru’s Tip

    Win11 is definitely what you want on a new PC!

Optional Products

  • Sound Card

    Creative Sound Blaster AE-7

    $200
    If you’re serious about audio, you’ll want to add a dedicated sound card to your system. The AE-7 from Sound Blaster features an astounding 127db signal-to-noise ratio, an ESS SABRE-class 9018 DAC, along with an Audio Control Module (ACM) that incorporates a built-in microphone array and mic/headphone I/O connections, plus a control knob to adjust the headphone levels.

    The Guru’s Tip

    Stepping up to a dedicated sound card is a good choice if you do a lot of audio work.

  • The 32-inch Professional 4K Monitor

    ASUS ProArt PA329CV

    $569
    Want to pair your productivity rig with a stunning monitor? Look no further than the awesome ASUS ProArt PA329CV, a 32″ 4K IPS  monitor that achieves 100% sRGB and 100% Rec. 709 wide color gamut. It has dual HDMI 2.0 ports and a DisplayPort, and offers 90W power delivery to support just about any laptop with a single cable.

    The Guru’s Tip

    Any content creator will want a big 4K monitor to work with, and this one is that and a whole lot more!

  • The Ultimate Business Keyboard

    Logitech MX Keys S Wireless Illuminated Keyboard

    $130
    The sleek, full-featured keyboard is our top pick for serious office productivity use. The low-profile keys and metal frame give it a very professional look and feel, along with a solid typing experience. It also offers backlighting to make typing in the dimly-lit conditions easier, and being wireless, you can easily move it out of the way when you need more desk space. Finally, Logitech’s Flow Control software allows you to use it on multiple systems simultaneously!

    The Guru’s Tip

    Logitech really leapfrogged the competition when it released this keyboard, and no one is close to catching up!

  • The Deluxe Wireless Mouse

    Logitech MX Master 4

    $120
    Logitech has essentially no competition in the professional mouse market, and yet it keeps innovating, finding ways to make a power user’s mouse even better. The MX Master 4 has an incredibly comfortable profile, ideal for use all day long, along with the most innovative scroll wheel ever (actually make that two of them) – the main wheel can scroll 1000 lines per second! Its built-in battery will last up to 70 days before needing a charge, and the 4 can even track on virtually any surface, thanks to its highly-optimized 8000dpi sensor. And with haptic feedback, the 4 can connect you to your work more than any other mouse on the market.

    The Guru’s Tip

    Perhaps the coolest feature of this mouse from a content creator's perspective is the Flow cross-computer control, which allows you to work seamlessly on three computers without the need for a KVM switch.

  • The Deluxe PC Headset

    SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Wireless

    $200
    From humble beginnings as a mousemat manufacturer, SteelSeries has come to absolutely dominate the gaming headset industry. And that’s because it’s not rocket science, it’s audio science! SteelSeries took a careful look at what gamers needed and and then applied all the proven techniques to get them everything they wanted. That includes ultra-high-fidelity audio, 360-degree surround sound for immersive gaming, dual audio streams for simultaneous connection to a PC and a smartphone, multi-platform support, and amazing 38-hour battery life plus quick-charge over USB-C, providing a 6 hour boost in 15 minutes! It also has among the best microphones in business, providing clear audio for everyone you’re talking to!

    The Guru’s Tip

    While designed first for gaming, this headset is of such a quality that any content creator can be proud to use it!