The market is slowly becoming more inundated with cheap gaming PC deals, and while this competition is turning things into something of a buyers market, it's not always easy to tell if you're getting a good value. The price difference between buying a pre-fab PC and building your own has been shrinking in recent years, but that doesn't always mean that you're getting a decent price.
Buying a PC ready to play right out of the box definitely has its appeal, as you don't have to concern yourself with assembly or compatibility issues. However, you lose the ability to snag deals on various parts as vendors almost always charge a premium for their components. While we do understand that building your own high-end gaming PC can be remarkably rewarding, we get that not everyone necessarily has that kind of time or patience.
Snagging a pre-built from a vendor does have certain advantages, as they typically have bundles that make budgeting for peripherals like gaming monitors much easier, and most builds come with warranties right out of the box. Pre-built is a great way to get into the realm of PC gaming, and once you've taken a crash course on how to build your own PC it's simple to incrementally upgrade as your budget allows.
Vendors love to throw in extra goodies with their gaming PCs to help sweeten the pot, this is especially true around Black Friday when we're likely to see some of their biggest discounts. View Deal
Snagging a pre-built from a vendor does have certain advantages, as they typically have bundles that make budgeting for peripherals like the best gaming monitor much easier, and most builds come with warranties right out of the box. Pre-built is a great way to get into the realm of PC gaming, and once you've taken a crash course on how to build your own PC it's simple to incrementally upgrade as your budget allows.
Go portable
The vast majority of vendors use configurations allowing you to slot in different components based on your budget and the kind of performance you're looking for so we've divided our best PC deals into a couple of categories based on how much you're looking to spend. Our $500+ tier setups will have a decent processor and graphics card, probably a 2nd gen Ryzen CPU and GPU, while having a smaller SSD for storage. A setup like this is well suited to playing games at 1080p using max settings.
If you want to push your resolutions even higher, you'll need to take a look at our $1000+ category. These configurations will typically have one of Nvidia's 20-series GPUs towed by a higher-end processor. These units also have more and better storage, usually having an SSD in the 1TB range. These rigs will keep your games running smoothly around 120FPS even at 1440p.
We've outlined our top picks that fall into these price points so you can find out what best suits your needs, but if you're looking to try your hand at building your own PC, our budget gaming PC build guide will get you started on the right foot.
Cheap gaming PC deals - October
$500+
CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme | Core i5-9400F | GTX 1660 6GB | $749.99
This is regular price for CyberPowerPC's "Gamer Xtreme" PC, but it's still a great value. You get a 9th-generation Core i5 processor (on a B360 motherboard), an Nvidia GeForce, GTX 1660 6GB graphics card, 8GB of RAM, a 240GB SSD, and a 1TB hard drive. (Posted: 10/18)View Deal
ABS Mage E | Ryzen 5 2600 | Radeon RX 5700 | $879.99 ($100 off)
This is a good mid-range PC, with a second-generation Ryzen 5 processor and AMD's new RX 5700 graphics card. If you're unfamiliar with that graphics card, check out our review. (Posted: 10/14)View Deal
$1000+
iBUYPOWER Trace2 | Ryzen 2700X | RTX 2070 | $1,300 ($200 off)
This is one of the cheapest gaming PCs available with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card. It also has a second-generation AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, a 240GB SSD, a 2TB hard drive, and 16GB of RAM. (Posted: 9/9)View Deal
The best cheap gaming PCs
1. Cyberpower Gamer Xtreme
The best gaming PC under $1,000
CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 | GPU: Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB | RAM: 8GB DDR4 | Storage: 120GB SSD + 1TB HDD 7200RPM
If you want a fantastic value for a prebuilt gaming PC look no further than Cyberpower's Gamer Xtreme. Featuring an Intel Core i5-8400, Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB and 8GB of DDR4 ram, you might actually pay more than $700 when building the system yourself part for part. It's already great out of the box, but the Gamer Xtreme can also be easily upgraded. The 120GB SSD won't do much if you're looking to install multiple games, so we'd recommend upgrading that first. Especially since high capacity fast SSDs are so cheap nowadays.
Whether you're looking to play Battlefield V or some rounds of Fortnite Battle Royale, the Gamer Xtreme has you covered with great performance at 1080p with high to ultra graphic settings. It doesn't have any fancy RGB lighting, but this prebuilt still looks fantastic with its built in red LED fans and tempered glass panels.
2. HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop
An AMD powerhouse that keeps up with the best
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 Series | GPU: AMD RX 580 | RAM: 8GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB HDD 7200RPM
HP may not be the first PC company you think of when it comes to gaming, but the Pavilion Gaming Desktop is a fantastic choice for gamers on a budget, with models in the $700 range that offer better gaming performance than several systems we've seen well over $800.
AMD's Ryzen 5 series offers incredible performance on a budget. Combine it with the RX 580 and you have yourself a winning combination that can handle just about any modern game you throw at it. The only downside to the system is its lack of an SSD, but the modern I/O with USB 3.1 Type-C and plentiful USB ports makes it a versatile system that is great for work and play.
3. SkyTech Archangel
The best bang for your buck
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 Series | GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB | RAM: 8GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB HDD 7200RPM
SkyTech PC isn't the most recognizable name in the game, but this company has some of the best deals we've seen on prebuilt gaming PCs. The Ryzen edition of the SkyTech Archangel desktop is the perfect place to start for new PC gamers. The Archangel is already capable of running most games in 1080p on high settings, but it's also easily upgraded.
Since the PC doesn't include an SSD, that would be an obvious choice for an upgrade. The Ryzen 3 1200 that's included is a budget AMD CPU that offers great performance but could easily be upgraded to a 5 or 7 series further down the line. Unlike some of the bigger name brands, SkyTech's PCs don't have any built-in bloatware to worry about. If you don't mind the aesthetic and have a budget in the $600 range, the Archangel is one of the few choices that rival building it yourself.
4. Acer Gaming Desktop Aspire TC-780-UR1E
Great for newcomers to PC gaming
CPU: Intel Core i5-7400 | GPU: AMD R9 360 | RAM: 8GB DDR4 | Storage: 256GB SSD
If you're on an even tighter budget or just looking to get your foot in the door for PC gaming, Acer's Aspire Gaming Desktop TC-780 is a solid place to start. The desktop features Intel's Core i5-7400 for a CPU and AMD's older R9 360 for a graphics card. These are older generation components, but the combination is still capable enough for 1080p gaming on medium settings. It won't get you much further than that but it's a great place to start and can be easily upgraded down the line.
The system already comes with a 256GB SSD installed, which is great at this price point. A new graphics card further down the line will make this PC even more viable for modern gaming. Acer also offers great support which can be handy for users that are new to PC gaming.
5. ABS Simpli
One of the cheapest entryways to PC gaming
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 | GPU: Nvidia GT 730 2GB | RAM: 8GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB HDD
If you're reading this, chances are you've probably heard of a site called Newegg before. What you may not have known is that Newegg actually came from a PC company called ABS Computer Technologies. The company is much busier now being one of the top PC retailers, but it hasn't forgotten its roots and is still making and selling ABS computers today.
One of those prebuilt systems is the ABS Simpli. As the same suggest, the Simpli is a simple prebuilt PC that doesn't offer a whole lot out of the box. The graphics card will only allow you to comfortably play games on lower settings, but the system can easily be upgraded over time without costing a whole lot. A simple upgrade to an SSD and a better graphics card will go a very long way towards making this a viable PC for high end gaming.
Choosing the best affordable prebuilt PCs
One of the biggest advantages to putting together your own budget gaming PC build is the ability to essentially choose every single component in the system. This allows you to take your time shopping around for deals and finding the perfect combination of parts to fit your budget and performance needs. The downside for most inexperienced builders is that this whole process can take some time and has the potential to cause quite a headache if something goes wrong. This is where prebuilt gaming PCs really shine.
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.
We still highly recommend the experience of building it yourself, but if you can't do that then one of the systems above will have you gaming in short order.