What you get for $2,700 in 2026 is a big, solid, and occasionally loud PC that hits a minimum bar for 4K gaming. As expensive as that sounds, the iBuyPower Element Pulse X PC may be one of your better bets in this age of obscene PC component pricing. Despite being loaded with lower-end components, it’s a beefy rig that looks the part and offers enough space for upgrades down the road.

It's a pretty PC case that loses the plot with its clashing motherboard and poor cable management.

Rather than one of AMD’s ilk, the iBuyPower RDY Element Pulse X B02 model (which is also listed on one of those perma-sales for $2,550) uses an Asus Z890 Max Gaming motherboard with a Intel LGA 1851 socket. My review unit—which is what should ship with the $2,700 model—features the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus chip from this year. It’s Intel’s lone love letter to desktop PC gaming this year, though as a mid-range chip it still doesn’t quite meet the bar of AMD’s best-for-gaming 3D cache chips if you’re looking for a pure play experience. It’s also running an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, though not the original one with only 8GB of VRAM. This one is slightly better for higher resolutions with 12GB of video memory. This PC also comes packed with dual-channel 32GB of DDR5 6000MHz RAM, two sticks alone that can easily cost over $600 by themselves.

All those mid-range components are then shoved into a mid-sized full ATX case that is really quite premium, with tempered glass panels, aluminum sides, and integrated RGB lights flowing like rivers from every seam.

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