PC components (especially graphics cards) are both rare and pricey right now thanks to the ongoing semiconductor shortage and container ship log jam, which is sadly showing no signs of getting fixed before year’s end. With the bulk of the available chip supply being reserved for the big computer manufacturers, building a PC is a rather costly endeavor at the moment given that there are virtually no good GPU deals up for grabs — but don’t give up just yet. If you need a new desktop battle station, our hand-picked selection of the best gaming PC deals are far and away your best chance of finding a worthy machine at a good price. The 2021 Black Friday deals and sales have already started, too, so just maybe you’ll find the parts you’re looking for with a sweet discount.
Best gaming PC deals
- Kepler Systems Genesis GT 730 Gaming PC — $510
- Ipason GT 1030 Gaming PC — $550, was $580
- HP Pavilion GTX 1650 Super Gaming PC — $700, was $750
- Dell XPS GTX 1660 Super Gaming PC — $931, was $1,110
- Alienware Aurora R12 RTX 3060 Gaming PC — $1,300, was $1,850
How To Choose A Gaming PC
As with any big purchase, make sure you know exactly what you want when buying a gaming computer. It’s not a bad idea to write down a checklist. It’s also important when looking specifically at gaming PCs (i.e. those coming in at less than $1,000) to have realistic expectations — you’re not going to get multi-monitor 4K gaming at this price point. That said, it’s easy to achieve great results with 1080p/60fps gaming at high settings even for modern releases, and even for 1440p gaming when you move towards the upper end of our $1,000 price limit.
If playing at 1080p/60fps on one or two monitors is good enough, then you won’t have a hard time finding a good gaming PC to meet your needs. If your demands are a bit higher, though, then expect to have to shop around a bit for the right deal. Also, be sure to bring yourself up to speed with the latest hardware — don’t just jump on the first attractive deal you find that meets your budget only to end up with a last-gen GPU that will feel long in the tooth in 2021. Know what you want and what to expect from a gaming PC that’s within your set budget and you won’t be disappointed, and for a more detailed breakdown of the sort of hardware you should look for, read on.
What Makes A Good Gaming PC?
The short answer is that a good price-to-performance ratio is what makes a gaming PC “good,” and the good news here is that desktop computers already provide this sort of value by their very nature — it’s simply easier to fit all that beefy hardware into a desktop tower, whereas the scaled-down components of laptops (not to mention their built-in displays and keyboards) make those mobile PCs more expensive. That said, it’s still important to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck if you’re buying a pre-assembled desktop computer, as some are built better than others.
The three main hardware components that drive performance are the CPU, GPU (or graphics card), and RAM. Our recommendations: For your CPU, stick with a 9th, 10th, or 11th-gen Intel Core or one of the newer AMD Ryzen (sometimes called “Zen”) processors. For RAM, a minimum of 8GB is recommended for all but the cheapest gaming PCs, and 16GB is even better — but remember you can almost always add more RAM and this is one of the easiest (if not the easiest) components to. GPUs are arguably the heart of a gaming computer; modern models include AMD’s Radeon 500, 5000, and 6000 series as well as Nvidia’s GTX 16-series and RTX 20- and 30-series GPUs.
Nvidia replaced their older 10-series GPUs in recent years, but there are still gaming PCs floating around with these cards. Our advice: Avoid them unless your needs are modest and you can snag one for a seriously good deal. Even the entry-level 16-series Nvidia cards are faster and are ideal for 1080p gaming. For 1440p gaming, you’ll be better served with one of the 20-series cards such as the GTX 2060 or 2070. If anything bottlenecks your gaming PC’s performance, it will be an underpowered GPU, so this is the one component you don’t want to skimp on. One final thing to consider is upgradeability: If you plan to keep your chosen PC tower for a while, look at what sort of case and motherboard it’s using to determine if you can easily add and swap parts in the future. Some desktop PCs from brands like HP use proprietary components which will limit what parts you can add and can be costly to replace.
Are Gaming PCs Good For Work?
It’s safe to say that running modern video games at good settings is generally a much more demanding job than most work tasks you’d normally need a computer for, so any gaming computer — even a gaming PC — will be as well-suited for work and study as it is for play. The faster processors and high-speed RAM will make short work of simple tasks like web browsing, word processing, making spreadsheets, and so on, and the discrete GPU is also nice to have for graphical tasks such as video rendering. Another advantage of a desktop PC, particularly one with a graphics card, is the option to create a multi-monitor setup that can increase your productivity (and even a single monitor will still give you more screen real estate than a laptop display).
Kepler Systems Genesis GT 730 Gaming PC — $510
If your needs are modest and you still want a dedicated graphics card (perhaps for tasks like video editing along with light gaming), this Kepler Systems gaming desktop is a cost-effective and very attractive option. This tower features an Nvidia GeForce GT 730 graphics card, which, while a very basic GPU with 2GB VRAM, is one of the cheapest discrete GPUs on the market right now. That card works with a Core i5 CPU and 8GB of RAM to deliver sufficient performance for work and for less resource-heavy games like Fornite and Minecraft.
For storage, you’ve got a 500GB SSD, which is a nice amount of space for your games and other digital goodies. Its mod-friendly case design allows you to upgrade components in the future, as well.
Ipason GT 1030 Gaming PC — $550, was $580
Moving into the $550-$600 range brings us to mid-level GPUs, which are the ones that you should be looking for if you’re paying more than $600. This Ipason desktop checks all the boxes: A Ryzen 3 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a GeForce GT 1030 4GB GPU are capable of handling 1080p for many games, so this PC should be a worthy update over older gaming PCs that struggle to run Minecraft.
A 256GB SSD plus a 1TB HDD gives you plenty of storage for installing your games and loading things quickly. It’s also got a nice-looking case that adds some modern style to your setup without being too loud or gaudy.
HP Pavilion GTX 1650 Super Gaming PC — $700, was $750
HP may not be as well-known for gaming as brands like Alienware or MSI, but it makes some surprisingly solid PCs and you’ll see its name frequently when shopping around for gaming systems. This Pavilion desktop tower runs on a Ryzen 5 CPU paired with a GTX 1650 Super graphics card, which are very capable specs for a gaming PC in this price bracket. For memory, you’ve got 8GB of RAM (which can be upgraded even further if need be) along with a 256GB solid-state drive for storage.
This desktop tower is one of the best pre-built gaming PC deals with a dedicated GPU that you’ll find for around this price at the moment. And, like most of our other picks, it also comes bundled with a mouse and keyboard.
Dell XPS GTX 1660 Super Gaming PC — $931, was $1,110
Dell has some nice desktops for folks on a budget, and this XPS gaming PC offers a lot of bang for the buck. While not the beefiest tower on our list (see our last pick for that one), it’s still got a very respectable 11th-gen Core i7 8-core CPU, 8GB DDR4 RAM, and a GeForce GTX 1660 Super GPU with 6GB VRAM for some added graphical juice.
That isn’t quite as muscular as the RTX series video cards, but it’s more than enough to get the job done for 1080p gaming while also making this the perfect workstation for things like video editing and graphic design. You’ve also got a nice fast 512GB SSD for some extra storage.
Alienware Aurora R12 RTX 3060 Gaming PC — $1,300, was $1,850
And now for our special “who cares about a budget?” pick: Alienware builds some fantastic gaming computers, and the Aurora R12 gaming desktop doesn’t disappoint if you want a serious GPU upgrade over our previous selections. It packs a Core i7-11700F CPU and a GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 12GB of VRAM, which is a great processor/graphics card combo for 1440p or even 4K gaming in 2021, along with 16GB of RAM. It comes with 256GB of high-speed solid-state storage as well.
The PC tower’s LED-accented case looks striking on any desk and comes with everything you need to keep things running cool. This is a great enthusiast-tier gaming PC with some nice future-proofing — meaning you won’t have to upgrade it any time soon. At this price, though, you may want to consider upgrading to a mechanical keyboard and gaming mouse to get the most out of that hardware.
Looking for more great stuff? Find tech discounts and much more on our curated deals page.
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