The Best $5000 Dream Machine Gaming PC Build – March 2023
Build the Gaming System of your Dreams!
If you want to build a dream gaming system, but can’t stand the idea of having another huge desktop by your side, stop dreaming and jump into a new reality! This build has all the power you could want, packed into an awesome high-end chassis that performs as great as it looks. It’s everything you want in a killer gaming PC!
This Month’s Build, Powered by Intel and Nvidia!
For March 2023, the $5,000 Dream Machine Gaming PC Build is faster than ever! It all starts with the Intel Core i9-13900KS 24-core, 32-thread CPU, a fire-breather if there ever were one. Capable of pulling more power than most graphics cards, it is not for the faint of heart. But don’t worry, we’ll set you up to get the most out of it! And you will be driving it to the max with the insane Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 24GB, which is a shocking 60% faster than Nvidia’s prior best, the 3090 Ti.
But that’s not all, this build is packing upgrades everywhere else! 64GB of ultra-fast DDR5-6800 RAM will make sure the CPU has plenty of bandwidth to perform, and a 4TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD offers plenty of blazing-fast storage for a huge game collection (keeping in mind that modern games take up hundreds of gigabytes of space!). To keep things cool, this system uses an awesome Corsair 360mm liquid CPU cooler, which provides immense cooling capacity. Powering the system is a quiet and ultra-efficient 1300W Platinum-rated power supply. Finally, the system comes together in the sleek and cutting-edge MSI Prospect 700R, with built-in 4.3″ touchscreen display!
Parting Thoughts
We list all of our top picks to accessorize your Dream Machine in the optional products section later in this guide, although feel free to check out our dedicated Monitor Buyer’s Guide, Keyboard & Mouse Buyer’s Guide, and Headset Buyer’s Guide. To support continued development of this guide, please use the links we provide in the guide. For readers in the US, we list either Amazon links, which will auto-convert for readers in Canada, the UK, and parts of the EU, with automated substitutions made by region where necessary.
The DIY Build
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CPU –Intel Core i9-13900KS
$740The Guru’s TipThe 13900KS, based on the cutting-edge Raptor Lake architecture, takes everything that was great about the original 13900K and pushes it to the max. It packs in 8 Hyperthreaded performance cores that can boost up to 6.0GHz, making it the first consumer processor to hit the 6GHz mark. Combined with an incredible 16 efficiency cores, it offers a total of 32 threads. That makes it both the world’s fastest gaming processor, and an elite-level multi-tasking monster. Simply put, it’s what you want in a killer PC!This CPU is hot and power-hungry, so take our PSU and cooler recommendations later in this guide seriously.
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Motherboard –MSI MEG Z790 Ace
$700The Guru’s TipIf you’re going to be running an ultra-high-end Intel CPU, you don’t want to mess around. Go for a board that can dish out the power, because that CPU is going to need it. The Z790 Ace from MSI follows in the footsteps of legends. It offers up 24+1+2 power phase design rated for 105 A, meaning it is a true premium solution. You also get dual PCIe x16 Gen 5 expansion slots, a PCIe x4 Gen 4 slot, an incredible 5 M.2 slots (one being Gen 5), along with 12 USB ports (1 being Type-C and two being full Thunderbolt 4 ports). Finally, it includes the cutting-edge ALC4082 audio codec plus ESS ES9280AQ DAC/headphone amp, dual 2.5Gbps Intel LAN ports, and WiFi 6E. Basically, this thing is stacked!This board will guarantee incredible stability no matter how hard you push the CPU and RAM!
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Video Card –PNY GeForce RTX 4090 XLR8 24G
$1650The Guru’s TipHail to the king! The absolutely mind-blowing RTX 4090 24GB goes beyond extreme, beating the RTX 3090 Ti by 60%, an insane gen-on-gen leap in performance. And this model from PNY offers amazing cooling thanks to the massive yet quiet triple-slot, triple-fan cooler!This card can draw over 450W on its own, so we equip this build with a seriously-high wattage PSU!
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Memory –G.Skill 2x16GB Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6800 CL34
$200The Guru’s TipFor the ultimate in speed, you must go with DDR5 RAM, but not just any DDR5 RAM, because you need high-frequency DDR5 to blow past DDR4 RAM performance. And that’s what you get with G.Skill’s TridentZ5 kit running at DDR5-6800 with timings of 34-45-45-108 at 1.40V. This is the real deal when it comes to DDR5 performance!To get DDR5 to run this fast, you can't use just any motherboard, and the one we picked is a proven RAM overclocking monster!
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Memory –
Second Kit of G.Skill 2x16GB Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6800
$200The Guru’s TipAt this point, the fastest DDR5 kits max out at 32GB, but of course you’ll want more than that for this build, hence a second set!We're going with DDR5-6800 here, because it's the fastest you can run when going with four sticks to get you to a full 64GB setup!
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Solid-State Drive –WD_Black SN850X 4TB NVMe
$400The Guru’s TipWith the SN850X 4TB, you’re getting the fastest high-capacity on the market, with incredible sequential speeds of up to 7,300MB/s. What’s more WD priced it to kill off the competition, with a price lower than most lower-tier 4TB drives.While you don't really need a drive this fast for gaming, for the dream machine, nothing else will do! And the truth is, you'll quickly see the benefit of the huge capacity if you have a large game collection.
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Case –MSI MEG Prospect 700R
$380The Guru’s TipArguably the most advanced case ever made, the Prospect 700R from MSI is simply astonishing. With dual hinged tempered glass doors on both sides and four 140mm ARGB fans and a mesh front panel for extreme airflow, it already has most cases beat for looks and performance. But what really sets this case apart from everything that has come before it is the built-in 4.3″ touchscreen control panel on top, allowing you to monitor and control practically every aspect of your PC’s performance!This case is truly worthy of housing the Dream Machine PC!
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CPU Cooler –Corsair iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT
$220The Guru’s TipFor this build, we recommend you go for the amazing H150i Elite Capellix XT from Corsair. It offers up three AF120 RGB Elite fans equipped with AirGuide technology, along with awesome ARGB lighting that can be sync’d directly with the rest of the components spec’d in this build.Mount this radiator to the top of the chassis as an exhaust.
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Power Supply –SilverStone HELA 1300R Platinum
$294The Guru’s TipA power supply is about so much more than just a wattage rating, and with SilverStone’s HELA 1300R, you get it all. Of course it has an incredible 1300W of capacity, but it also offers an impressive Platinum efficiency certification, a fully-modular design, all Japanese electrolytic capacitors, and an ultra-silent 120mm FDB fan with semi-fanless function. It’s also ultra-compact, at just 140mm deep, meaning it offers the most wattage per liter of any power supply on the market! But perhaps most important, and what really sets this unit apart, is the Gen5 12VHPWR PCIe connector, meeting Intel ATX 3.0 specification standard. It means no adapters required when paired with the latest power-hungry GPUs from Nvidia!While 1300W is overkill for most systems, it's honestly the sweetspot for this system, because the CPU and GPU together consume about 800W at stock settings, and if you push them, that will go way up. This PSU will take it all in stride!
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Operating System –Windows 11 Home (Download)
$140The Guru’s TipWindows 11 take everything people loved about Windows 10, and then takes 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! Make the best use of this downloadable version of Windows by loading it onto this 128GB USB 3.1 thumb drive, which you can re-purpose after OS installation as an ultra-fast backup drive.This is absolutely the OS you want on your system to take full advantage of the Intel 13th-Gen CPU and its advanced hybrid architecture!
Optional Products
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The Ultimate Gaming Keyboard –Corsair K100 RGB Optical-Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
$200 The Guru’s TipYou can even sync this keyboard's lighting with the lighting inside the case!
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The Ultimate Wireless Gaming Mouse –Logitech G502X Lightspeed Wireless
$151 The Guru’s TipLogitech proves with the G502X that it can take the best and make it better!
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The Ultimate Gaming Headset –SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Headset
$350 The Guru’s TipArctis is the first gaming brand to offer something that is far more than gaming headset!
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The Ultimate Gaming Monitor –Corsair XENEON Flex 45WQHD240
$2000 The Guru’s TipThe best gaming PC deserves the best gaming monitor!
The Pre-Built Option
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The Ultra-High-End Gaming PC –Skytech Pro Eclipse 13900K/RTX 4090
$4000 The Guru’s TipWhile we know most people browsing this guide want to build their own, we'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention this pre-built option, which quite frankly is a much better value than the DIY build above, due to the better price (and better availability) OEMs can get on the 4090 GPU.
Total Cost: $4924
The DIY Build
- CPU – Intel Core i9-13900KS ($740)
- Motherboard – MSI MEG Z790 Ace ($700)
- Video Card – PNY GeForce RTX 4090 XLR8 24G ($1650)
- Memory – G.Skill 2x16GB Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6800 CL34 ($200)
- Memory – Second Kit of G.Skill 2x16GB Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6800 ($200)
- Solid-State Drive – WD_Black SN850X 4TB NVMe ($400)
- Case – MSI MEG Prospect 700R ($380)
- CPU Cooler – Corsair iCUE H150i Elite Capellix XT ($220)
- Power Supply – SilverStone HELA 1300R Platinum ($294)
- Operating System – Windows 11 Home (Download) ($140)
Optional Products
- The Ultimate Gaming Keyboard – Corsair K100 RGB Optical-Mechanical Gaming Keyboard ($200)
- The Ultimate Wireless Gaming Mouse – Logitech G502X Lightspeed Wireless ($151)
- The Ultimate Gaming Headset – SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Headset ($350)
- The Ultimate Gaming Monitor – Corsair XENEON Flex 45WQHD240 ($2000)
The Pre-Built Option
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The TBG DIY PC Build Guides
View all of TBG’s DIY PC Build Guides! This is where you’ll find all the best PC builds on the ‘net, from ultra-compact home office PCs to massive gaming towers.
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The Monitor Buyer's Guide
Find your dream gaming monitor to pair with your new PC in our comprehensive guide!
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The Speaker and Headset Buyer's Guide
Upgrade your audio experience with one of our top-rated picks among speakers and headsets!
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The Wireless Networking Buyer's Guide
Don't let your games lag due to tired old networking... upgrade to the best today!