The best celebrity PC gaming rigs: how the other half plays the best PC games
The gaming PCs of the rich and the famous
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
PC gaming makes up around 24 percentof the overall video game market. Compared to the 30 percent home consoles from the likes ofSony,Microsoftand Nintendo a gaming desktop is a significantly more expensive investment. Helps that everything from the Playstation 5 to Switch even uses mid-tier PC components. In an age where most multi-platform AAA games are also some of thebest PC games, it’s essentially the best way to game. During the 2020 stay-at-home orders due to the covid-19 lockdown, it was said that thePC gaming market was set to increase 16 percent.By the time 2024 comes along, the market is set to rise by yet another 25%.
Though video games have become a pop culture mainstay due to more accessible technology, PC gaming is still a niche market with a high barrier of entry. Those who care about high resolutions, visual fidelity and frame-rates don’t mind taking time putting the perfect rig together or spending thousands on one of thebest gaming PCsThis includes many popular notable individuals with expendable cash. For PC Gaming Week, we look into famous people and their rigs.
A post shared by Henry Cavill (@henrycavill)
A photo posted by on
1. Henry Cavill
When Henry Cavill isn’t portraying Superman and Geralt of Rivia by day, he spends a large majority of his time gaming. Most importantly, he’s a huge advocate for PC gaming. Keeping things in perspective, he played so muchWorld of Warcraftthat he missed a phone call from Zack Snyder informing him that he landed the Man of Steel role. Speaking with GQ, Cavill said “At home, I get to sit playing games for ridiculous amounts of hours and escape there, because going outside has the opposite effect.”
During the Covid-19 lockdown, Cavill managed to break the internet by releasing a video of him putting together a pretty beautiful rig by himself. Having anAMD Ryzen 9 3900X,NvidiaGeForce RTX 2080 Ti, 32GB of RAM and a total of 2TB of NVMe SSD means that he can play some gorgeous games at high resolutions and frame rates. One thing is for sure, Witcher 3 should run like a dream.
2. Terry Crews
In late April, no one was surprised to hear football player turned actor Terry Crews demand Nintendo release a localized version of Mother 3. Between appearances in popular video game franchises like Saint’s Row and Crackdown, Crews went so far as performing a mock audition for a voice over role in Overwatch. Comparing PC gaming builds to HAM radios, his induction to PC gaming came through bonding with his son, who is an avid gamer.He even built one himselfthat also featured an HTC Vive for VR capability.
As one of the spokesmen for Old Spice deodorant, he was later gifted a rig with a custom case inspired by the brand that features some impressive specs in 2017. Nearly four years later, the specs are still fairly impressive. This includes anInteli7 overclocked to 4GHz, still ultra powerful NVIDIA GTX Titan Xp SLI, 32GB of RAM and liquid cooling.
3. Karl-Anthony Towns
Minnesota Timberwolves Powerforward Karl-Anthony Towns may be the most hardcore gamers within the NBA. Not only is he an avidCall of Dutyplayer but enjoys PUBG as well.Speaking with ESPN, Towns said that video games also help him connect with fellow Timberwolves players during the off-season.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
This couldn’t be any truer when Microsoft, in promotion of GamePass for PC, created one of the wildest custom designed rigs imaginable. Having the latestAMDCPU , Nvidia GPU, 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD and liquid cooling is more than impressive enough on its own. Past the high level PC gaming, the rotating basketball case is jaw dropping to look at. More than any other custom case on this list, Thomas’ rig is literally a work of art.
4. T-Pain
Multi-platinum recording artist/producer T-Pain spent a large majority of the 2000s releasing some of the greatest auto-tuned hits of the era. Now, the “Rappa Ternt Sanga” spends a large majority of his time gaming on Twitch. Over the past five years, viewers can watch him play everything from Doom and Rainbow Six: Siege to Overwatch. Most recently, T-Pain mercilessly slaughtered a group of gamers hurling racial slurs at him during a game of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
The “Buy U A Drank” artist also has a sponsorship deal with ORIGIN, which includes a fairly killer set-up. This includes a 10-coreIntel Core i9-10900KFCPU,Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 32GB of Corsair RAM and 1TBSeagateSSD with an extra 6TB HDD.
5. Soulja Boy
Beyond changing the music industry as we know it before turning 18-years-old, Soulja Boy’s history as a gamer has been well documented. From his hilarious review ofpopular indie title Braidto online videos of him playingGrand Theft Auto Online with Chief Keef, DeAndre Way really has a passion for gaming. His love for the culture is so much that he has even spent the past several years unsuccessfully trying tobreak into the console hardware business.
Like many hyper materialistic rappers of the modern age, Young Draco loves to flaunt his gaming setup just as much as he does his expensive foreign cars and apparel. This includes his NZXT SOD case featured gaming rig. Though the actual specs are unknown, Soulja proclaims that the set-up cost around $30,000.
6. Ilhan Omar
While many elected representatives of the United States government have used video games as a scapegoat for societal ills, Congresswomen IIhan Omar (D-MN) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made history by holding a live stream of popular social deduction game Among Us. The event was created in order to drive voter engagement during the 2020 presidential election. Over 400,000 people watched the live stream, which was definitely unprecedented at the time. When someone asked Rep. Omar for her PC specs on Twitter, she obliged.
More than enough power to run Among Us, her rig is respectable for games with higher system requirements. Besides having an Intel Core i7, RTX 2060 Super and 32GB of RAM, the storage is more than plenty with a collective 7TB worth of SSDs.
7. Post Malone
Multi-Platinum recording artist Post Malone is an avid gamer. Besides having his own Twitch channel displaying his Call of Duty and PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds skills, he also has branding sponsorships with the likes of HyperX. Last year, he even took an equity share in Dallas-basedeSports organization Envy Gaming.
In promotion of his 2018 albumBeerbongs & Bentleys,featuring the chart topping “Rockstar” with 21 Savage, Malone was given an impressive rig. With a case inspired by an acoustic guitar, the specs are powerful including the uber expensive Nvidia Titan XP SLI GPU. Everything else from the Intel I9 and 32GB of RAM to dual 960 GB NVME SSD for storage is more than enough to play games at high resolutions and framerates.
8. Murs
It’s safe to say that before rappers started taking up game streaming as a side-hobby, West Coast Hip Hop’s most well connected emcee Murs was well ahead of the curve. Let’s not forget he’s cemented himself in gaming history by providing the main theme for Tony Hawk’s Underground decades ago.
When he’s not literally freestyling on Twitch for hours on end, the 3:16 rapper is playing everything from Overwatch to Rocket League regularly. It helps that he’s also sponsored by Astro gaming. He has a modest build for those titles including a Intel Core i7-5820K,MSIGeForce GTX 980 Ti, 16GB of DDR4-2400 and 250GB SSD.
Ural Garrett is an Inglewood, CA-based journalist and content curator. His byline has been featured in outlets including CNN, MTVNews, Complex, TechRadar, BET, The Hollywood Reporter and more.
Valve just single-handedly upgraded content creation for PC gamers – Steam’s Game Recording feature is now available to all
The future of PC gaming will be AI-driven - AMD confirms machine learning FSR 4 for 2025, launching in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
This new malware utilizes a rare programming language to evade traditional detection methods
