Hello everyone, we are those who write probably the best UK essays ever, and now we’re going to write a short story about the most desired present for a student. 

One of our colleagues decided to make a vacation present to his son: a thing which many high schools, college, or even university students dream about during their summer rest. It was an excellent gaming PC. 

In our times, there are very few students who refuse to play videogames ultimately. So, a new gaming rig will make your son or daughter (or you, in case you are the student assembling a system for yourself) much happier nowadays, in July 2019.

Let’s see what the modern hardware market can offer us these days with quite a big budget: $1500. 

A few notes to remark before we switch to the description of student PC parts.

First: all the devices are brand new. We didn’t check used parts to build a present any student would like to have.

Second: the whole budget will be spent to assemble a student’s PC itself, without a monitor, peripherals, or other accessories.

Third: we checked prices at pcpartpicker.com (relevant for June 29, 2019). 

Fourth: the aim of this gaming PC for a good student was to launch all modern games with maximum graphics settings in 1920×1080 (Full HD) resolution. 

Now, here is what we chose. 

A Good Student’s Gaming PC: CPU

The processor is the heart of any computer. Latest games (like Metro Exodus or Rage 2) increased requirements about gaming processors comparing to previous years. Still, six strong CPU cores can provide gamers with enough performance to launch all the projects of 2019.

The student’s PC we recommend to assemble here is not a video editing or content creating rig. It’s designed to provide you with gaming. It is the main reason why we refused considering AMD Ryzen 5 or 7 CPUs which had processor core multi-threading technology (SMT) support and chose the Intel Core i5-9600K.  

Six solid cores with 3.7 GHz of frequency (Turbo Boost clock is 4.6 GHz) guarantee the best gaming experience. This CPU is enough for modern and future games. In case you want to have even more performance, the Core i5-9600K is overclockable. 

The CPU Cooler

The chosen CPU has 95 Watts of TDP by default, which means it is quite hot. If you plan to overclock it, the processor will warm up even stronger. So, a high-efficiency cooler is a must in our student’s system. 

A solid budget allows taking care of the exterior design, not only functional capabilities. That is why we chose the bequiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU cooler: it covers up to 200 W of TDP without becoming too noisy, and additionally has a beautiful look. Its characteristics and design mean more than the relatively high price and installation process difficulties one might face on the go.

The Student’s Gaming PC Motherboard

The Intel Core i5-9600K CPU requires the appropriate Z370 or Z390 motherboard to allow it to function at 100% of possibilities. There are boards with their price reaching $500 and more. Still, we decided to refuse to overpay to get features which a regular student and gamer (and even a light hardware enthusiast) will most probably never use. 

The MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Plus ATX motherboard is an excellent proposition. In addition to its nice overclocking potential, it also has a pretty cool design with the RGB illumination. In case you don’t want your gaming PC to shine brightly, it is always possible to switch the RGB options off. But the reliability of the motherboard remains the same in any case, and that’s what matters the most to any student or anyone else using a PC.  

Do not forget that lower class motherboards (those with H370, B365, B360, and H310 chipsets) won’t let you overclock your CPU. 

RAM

As we build a gaming PC for a successful student, high-frequency RAM modules should definitely be in it. If you are the overclocking enthusiast preferring to speed the system up yourself, it may be cool for you to buy cheaper sticks with lower clocks and tweak them as you want. In our case, we went for 2×16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws V Series DDR4-3200 MHz modules, 32 gigabytes of ram in total. 

In fact, modern games rarely require more than 16 GB, but we wanted to get some extra capacity for future projects (like Cyberpunk 2077, for example). Those who prefer saving money rather than buying things in advance can easily save up to $70 here.

Gaming PC Storages

Modern high-end gaming PCs should never be built without an SSD drive. SSD storages work much faster with smaller files than usual HDD solutions. So buying a top solid state drive means investing in your overall comfort of gaming in particular and interacting with the new PC in general. 

Our choice is expensive. It is probably far from being optimal. It is an overkill solution for a regular student gamer. Why did we decide to mention it in our list? We did that because the budget allowed. 

Our SSD: Samsung 970 Evo 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive.

Because we can!

The additional storage device is a regular and cheap Caviar Blue 7200RPM 1TB HDD by Western Digital. 

Video Card

It is the juiciest part of the $1500 gaming PC for students we recommend to assemble. Popular games require robust GPU solutions to show the best graphics possible. But even the 1.5K budget does not let you buy the top video card of today (a single NVidia GeForce RTX 2080Ti GPU would cost you $1200). 

So, the video card you are about to see in this build can be called a compromise. But in fact, it is the ultimately balanced price/performance solution nowadays. The Asus GeForce RTX 2070 8GB Strix OC GPU: play everything on ultra graphics settings. Even titles supporting the newest ray tracing technology by NVidia will launch at 60 frames per second with this video card. 

Additionally, Asus engineers overclocked it for you at once and added an effective and quiet cooling system. Paired with the silent CPU cooler, it will mean the most tranquil gaming PC you ever had.  

A Beautiful Gaming PC Case to Present

This PC can be an excellent present for any student, so it should look beautiful. The white NZXT H500 case is a perfect option: it has a flat and futuristic design, nice airflow capabilities providing your hardware with enough fresh air to stay cool, comfortable interior making it easy to assemble and maintain the system, and a tempered glass side panel which lets you see your cool PC from the inside all the time.

The Most Neglected PC Part: PSU

It’s a frequent mistake of many customers: they think that buying a reliable power supply unit is not really necessary. Actually, they are wrong. At first, a stable and certified element base of the PSU means that your hardware remains more protected from short circuits. At second, the high-end overclocked PC REQUIRES an adequate power supply to function properly.  

So, we chose the Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 650W PSU. It has the 80+ Gold efficiency certificate, is built of Japanese elements and protects your PC from any emergency. Besides, it is fully modular, which means more comfort: connect only the wires you need at the moment.  

Perfect Student’s Gaming PC Summary 

Hardware	Price
Intel Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHz CPU	$250
Bequiet Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler	$75
MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Plus Motherboard	$130
G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB DDR4- 3200MHZ RAM	$135
Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200RPM 1TB HDD	$44
Samsung 970 Evo 1TB M.2-2280 NVMe SSD	$170
Asus GeForce GTX 2070 8GB Strix Gaming OC GPU	$460
NZXT H500 ATX Mid Tower Case	$77
Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified PSU	$82
All Total	$1423

Mission accomplished. With the $1500 budget, this is the most balanced high-end gaming PC a student could dream of. The best way to spend the remaining 77 dollars is to add some case cooling vents to improve internal airflow and make the system temperatures even lower.

The lower temperatures are, the safer your hardware is.