00:00You're being lied to about what it costs to play games in 4k. In 2026, tech companies
00:06want you to believe that if you aren't dropping thousands of dollars on a flagship setup,
00:10you might as well give up on high-end gaming and 4k video editing.
00:14But what if I told you that they're totally wrong? By using the power of AI and modern GPUs
00:20and strategically mixing a few high-valued used parts with new ones, I'm building a 4k monster
00:27without overspending. Welcome back to The Saving Squad. Today I'm showing you the ultimate price-to-performance
00:33PC build for 2026. Let's get into it. When people usually build a PC, they fall into the trap of
00:42buying the absolute latest motherboard platform just to feel future-proof. But paying a premium
00:48for brand new, unoptimized chipsets is a massive waste of cash for most creators and gamers.
00:54Instead, we're pivoting to the ASUS Prime Z790M. Because it's an established platform,
01:02you can easily snag it on the used or discounted market. This gives us the exact LGA 1700 socket we
01:09need for our heavy-hitting Intel CPU, support for incredibly fast DDR5 RAM, and plenty of high-speed
01:15storage slots. To house it, we're using the ASUS Prime AP201 case, a compact mini ATX style case that
01:25keeps your desk space clean. The payoff here is all about thermal efficiency. By choosing a high
01:31mesh design with strong fan support across the top, bottom, and sides, we can run high-tier power-hungry
01:37components without choking them or overheating the system. Best of all, choosing the Z790 platform
01:43over the newest alternative saves you a clean Benjamin right out of the gate.
01:49It's incredibly easy to overspend on a current-gen CPU thinking you need the newest flagship
01:55architecture to process 4K video or heavy gaming titles. My pivot pick is the Intel i9-13900K.
02:03This CPU is a couple of years old now, meaning the used market is flooded with them, yet it still
02:09ranks
02:09as one of the absolute best productivity and gaming chips that you can buy. And to tame its appetite
02:15for power, we're pairing it with the ASUS Prime LC360 ARGB CPU cooler. This combination gives video
02:23editors a massive pool of hyper-fast cores for rendering high-resolution timelines without breaking
02:28the sweat. The 360-millimeter triple fans and massive radiator handle the thermal load perfectly,
02:35giving you flagship-level performance at a fraction of the cost.
02:40You guys are well aware RAM and SSD prices have been a nightmare and one of the trickier areas of
02:47this video I needed to tackle. Modern PC architecture is designed to stream heavy assets directly from
02:52your high-speed SSD straight into your GPU's VRAM, so it's important not to take too many shortcuts here.
02:58I would strongly encourage going for 32GB of RAM. You'll see boosts in performance for both video
03:04editing and gaming, and in the long term, you'll be glad you did. After all, it only seems like the
03:10RAM
03:10crisis is going to get worse, and I know you'd hate to buy 16GB now and then 16GB later at
03:16even more
03:16money, so for this pick, I went with the Kingston Fury DDR5 32GB model. It's a great choice for speed
03:24to price ratio and can be found for a relatively fair price range of about 200 to 280 used. And
03:30because RAM works so closely with the SSD of your computer, we are going with the Samsung 990 EVO Plus
03:37at 2TB of storage. The storage is plenty for both gaming and storage alike, and 7,000 megabits per
03:43second read speeds are certainly no joke. If you wanted to go with just 16GB of RAM, you certainly can,
03:50just keep in mind you're going to see a 10 to 20% drop in performance depending on the game
03:55or task
03:56that you're doing. Just do what makes sense to you. This build is going to pull about 700 watts of
04:03power,
04:03and I'm sure a lot of you are tempted to try to hit that exact number or something similar like
04:07800 watts.
04:09And sure, 800 watts could get the job done, however, I urge you guys to keep longevity in mind.
04:14If you're like me and want to buy something important for the long rather than the short term,
04:18the Thermaltake Tough Power 1050 watt 80 plus platinum offers over a thousand watts of power,
04:24while still giving you that sweet 80 plus platinum certification. PSUs are a very overlooked part of
04:30any PC build. And it's important to remember that efficiency rating, bronze, silver, gold, platinum,
04:36etc. is a very important factor to consider because just like PC parts, electricity bills are also pretty
04:43expensive. The more efficient the power supply, the cheaper your electricity bill and the cooler your
04:48PC and your room are. For this particular build, around 700 watts is the expected. But something
04:55like this runs about 150 to 200 dollars depending if you buy new or used, and it gives you some
05:00nice
05:01buffer for upgrading your PC again down the line. I know the savings might seem tempting here, but for
05:07the difference in price to something with lower wattage, you'll be happy you bought more if you ever
05:11upgraded something like your GPU down the line. Besides, it's not like your PSU is going to be outdated in
05:17a few
05:17years from new AI stuff, right? Hopefully, I didn't just give NVIDIA any ideas.
05:24Alright guys, GPUs are where the hardware industry gets greedy. They want you to believe that true 4k
05:31gaming requires the best of the best. I have two different suggestions here, so listen up.
05:37The way I see it, the ASUS NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti GPU is the best GPU for most people, but
05:45its $750 MSRP
05:47price tag is really hard to come by given how often this item is out of stock and being resold
05:52online.
05:53So, if you are willing to be patient, set up stock alerts, follow the various restock forums and pages
06:00on places like Reddit and Discord, the 5070 Ti would be my suggestion. Now, if you're looking for a
06:06wonderful GPU that still delivers excellent performance and DLSS support, but can be purchased
06:12quite easily, the NVIDIA 5060 Ti, with the memory model of 16GB, can be found for about $500 to $650,
06:20depending on the brand and the amount of fans that you want. This particular one I have is the ASUS
06:26Prime model that retails for $590. In 2026, gaming at 4k is rarely done natively, unless you want to
06:33burn an insane amount of money. Thanks to DLSS, this card uses advanced AI upscaling to deliver 4k
06:40performance in pretty much every single AAA title. Because it shares the exact same 16GB VRAM capacity
06:47as the more expensive 5070 Ti, you still get excellent performance, especially at the price.
06:53Here we go. Okay, there's lights, there's fans, there's action. Putting a balanced high value
07:04machine together like this takes some strategy, but in a world where hardware and console prices
07:09are skyrocketing, building a smart workaround rig like this is completely worth it. If this guide
07:15helped you figure out how to beat the tech pricing game, hitting that like button and subscribing to
07:19the channel is still totally free and is your way to say thank you for the hard work that we
07:23put into
07:24this video. With that said, we did try to link you to the components that I use here today, so
07:29check out
07:29the description if you're interested in picking up some of these products. You definitely won't want to
07:33miss our upcoming Saving Squad videos where we help you save hard earned cash on the latest tech,
07:39gadgets and gaming gear. Let me know down in the comments what kind of value build you want to see
07:44us
07:44tackle next. As always, I'm Phil Rodriguez, this is Tom's Guide and I will see you in the next video.
