Best Place To Buy Gaming Desktop
The best cheap gaming PC is all about finding the PC deal that suits your wallet and gaming needs. Whether you're after an entry-level rig that can deal with a 1080p load or a high-spec machine capable of 4K gaming and beyond, you want to get as much tech for your cash as possible.
best place to buy gaming desktop
And that's where we come in, trawling through the systems on offer this week to give you the best idea of where you should spend your money. It's not an easy task because PC gaming has become a supremely expensive hobby in recent years. Unless you know where to look...
We use all our combined decades of technological PC gaming expertise to determine whether something is a good deal or not, and you can rest assured that we'll only recommend the best gaming PC deals right here. If something's super cheap doesn't automatically make it worth the money, and likewise, just because a system is $2,500 doesn't mean it can't be a great value.
Skytech Shiva II Core i5 12400F Nvidia RTX 3060 12GB 16GB RAM 500GB PCIe SSD $999.99 at Amazon (opens in new tab)The 12-thread Intel Core i5 is still one of the best gaming CPUs around, and with the back up of a 500GB NVMe SSD and 16GB RAM the Skytech rig is a decent rig when specced out with the RTX 3060 card. The $1,000 price tag is probably the limit of what you'd want to pay for this config, though, and Nvidia is the more expensive of the three GPU makers at this sort of performance level.
Yeyian Katana X10 Core i5 11400F Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 16GB RAM 500GB SSD $1,399 $949 at Newegg (save $450) (opens in new tab)This is a good deal for a mid-tier gaming PC, especially when many rigs around this price are delivering you an RTX 3060. The Core i5 is still a really solid CPU today, and RTX 3060 Ti is probably the best mainstream GPU of Nvidia's last generation of cards. You also get a full 16GB RAM and a 500GB NVMe SSD... which you'll probably want to give a little more storage down the line.
The most important component for any gaming PC build is always going to be the graphics card. That will give you the best idea about how one machine matches up with another just in terms of raw gaming performance.
When you pay the premium to configure or purchase a prebuilt PC you are paying for more than just the parts. You are paying for warranty service, support and the peace of mind that your system was put together by professionals. These are some of the things we value highly when considering the best budget gaming PCs. We also look at other unique selling points like design, upgradability and anything you wouldn't be able to do when building it yourself.
For most users that don't have the luxury to spend over $1000 on a prebuilt gaming PC, upgradability and performance per dollar are paramount. When we set out to choose our top choices for budget prebuilt gaming PCs, we took a look at almost every major manufacturer and system integrator to find the best combination of value, reliability, customer feedback, design and performance under $500 and under $1,000.
Since 1999, we have been delivering on the promise to build the best gaming PC for the most avid gamers. Our systems have since become the backbone for professional gamers, game developers, LAN centers, major esports tournaments, and everyday consumers.
Why you should buy the Dell G15 gaming laptopAt this price, the Dell G15 gaming laptop won't rival the best gaming laptops but it certainly makes gaming more affordable. You get a 12th-generation Intel Core i5 processor along with 16GB of memory, 512GB of SSD storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050. There's also a 15.6-inch full HD screen with 250 nits of brightness, and a 120Hz refresh rate to reduce motion blur. For $200 less at $650, you could buy a with 8GB of memory and 256GB of SSD storage but we wouldn't recommend it. Games take up a lot of room these days so you're likely to need to swap between game installs often while the limited amount of RAM doesn't really cut it for gaming anymore. Unless you're on a very tight budget, stick with the better G15 model.
One of the most significant advantages of building your PC is the ability to hand-pick every single component in the system. This enables you to shop around for deals and find the best combination of parts to fit your budget and performance needs. The downside for most inexperienced builders is that this process can take some time and cause quite a headache if something goes wrong. You only get warranties on the individual components, not your finished build, and this is where the best prebuilt gaming PCs shine.
When you pay the premium to configure or purchase a prebuilt PC, you pay for more than just the parts. You pay for warranty service, support, and peace of mind that professionals put your system together. These are some of the things we value highly when considering what the best gaming PC is. We also look at other selling points, like design, upgradability, and anything you wouldn't be able to do when building it yourself.
When we set out to choose our top choices of prebuilt gaming PCs, we look at almost every major manufacturer and system integrator to find the best combination of value, reliability, customer feedback, design, and performance for various budgets and needs.
The best gaming PC is meant to bring you hours and hours of joy. It's more than a collection of fancy bits stuffed in a case. That's why what we look out for in our testing is a complete system built with care by professionals and tailored to gaming performance. We also want to see that the manufacturer has put thought and care into selecting its components to fit your budget without cutting corners. And after all our testing, the best gaming PC is the NZXT BLD Kit (opens in new tab). The range offers the perfect mix of affordability, power, and sheer joy. You don't have to put it together yourself, you get to, and it's genuinely fun.
We've all seen how hard it's been to get components like the best graphics cards throughout the last couple of years. And if finding them wasn't difficult enough, they often sell well above MSRP to the point where it feels like a rip-off. There has been some improvement in product availability and pricing in 2023. Still, it remains true that the buying power of system builders means they generally have a better chance of getting hold of a new piece of hardware than you do on your own. That means it's easier and often cheaper to chase down that desirable new GPU by buying the best gaming PC and, for the most part, passing those savings onto you. I get it; nothing is better than building your own gaming rig, but not everyone has the know-how or the patience to make it happen.
But with so many different configurations, how can you tell the best gaming PC? We've switched up how we test prebuilt PCs and are focusing less on exact configurations and more on what different system builders will prioritize in terms of specs and what they offer regarding the quality of build and warranty.
Essentially, you're going to be able to play pretty much any game at the top settings at 1440p without issue. And with DLSS on hand to help out in ray tracing heavy titles, you can easily show off what the best games are capable of with this machine and not feel like you're missing out. 4K isn't too much of an ask either, making this a versatile option for plenty of gaming setups.
That would be fine if it was cheaper than the competition, but the Legion machines retain the same sort of pricing as more boutique PC builders. And because of that I'm going to stick with our recommendation that the best way of getting into the hobby, particularly those with a hankering for tinkering, are those darling NZXT DIY BLD kits (opens in new tab). And hell, they're a great purchase even if you're well versed in PC building, too: they end up with a higher gaming spec and you may just learn something new as you go.
But if you want to play at 1440p or 4K, then you need to start thinking about saving more for your rig. CPU horsepower is also tied to gaming acumen, but branching out into anything much over a quad-core processor will primarily see performance gains in multi-threaded workloads such as video processing, rendering and encoding, not games.Because component shortages have become less of a problem, you may now be able to get a prebuilt gaming PC with one of the best graphics cards for gaming without paying a hefty premium or having to wait weeks or months for you system to arrive.
On the graphics front, Nvidia is in the process of rolling out its latest RTX 40-series cards, starting with the RTX 4090. Those will coexist with the current RTX 30-series, and presumably mid-range 40-series cards will come out sometime soon. Intel launched its Arc A770 and A750, providing power on the low-end and mid-range, and AMD's high-end 7900 XT and 7900 XTX are also recent powerful performers in the mix.We'll jump into our tested picks for best prebuilt gaming PCs directly below. But if you want more advice about how to shop and specific things to look for, our buying advice follows our top gaming PC picks. 041b061a72