We keep an eye on gaming PCs each and every week here at PC Gamer, and usually you have to pay upwards of $1,350 to get a prebuilt gaming PC stuffed with an RTX 5070 card, even one on sale. That's an Nvidia mid-range GPU after all, and fetches more than $500 at MSRP. Take it up with Jensen.
Luckily, we've found a beefy little iBuyPower PC, complete with an RTX 5070 and Intel Core i5 14400F for just $1,100 at Walmart.
The only catch with this machine is the single channel 16 GB of DDR5 RAM. That just isn't very good. The volume of RAM isn't the problem, but the fact that it's only a single stick. As most standard gaming PCs have two channels available, by using just one, this limits your performance in reducing bandwidth. Since dual-channel kits cost so little these days, it does feel like a bit of a weird miss here.
- Join us on WhatsApp for daily deals, direct to your phone.
Luckily, given you are getting an RTX 5070 instead of the RTX 5060 Ti you'd generally spot at a similar price. And with that, you can pick up a new set of RAM for the hundreds of dollars you are saving (and you can sell off the old one in the process for a few pennies if you really want to).
You do, of course, need a little technical knowledge (and a willingness to crack open the PC case) but swapping the RAM is arguably one of the easiest things to change in a PC. It's good practice, and a nice way of saving a good bit of cash. We've also picked out a good deal on memory while we're at it.
Quick List
- iBuyPower Slate (Intel Core i5 14400F, RTX 5070) |
$1,500$1,099 at Walmart (save $401) - G.Skill S5 32 GB (2x 16 GB kit) |
$230$75 at Walmart (save $155)
Gaming PC
The RTX 5070 is in a bit of a weird spot in Nvidia's current lineup. It's a bit slower than AMD's comparable RX 9070 cards, and it's not as much of an uplift over the RTX 4070 Super as we were expecting. It is, however a beefy card nonetheless, and one that is made stronger thanks to the advancements of frame generation in the Blackwell series.
Paired with this card is an Intel Core i5 14400F processor. Launched at the start of 2024, with 10 cores and a max frequency of 4.7 GHz, it's certainly more on the budget end of the current CPU market, but that's perfect for a rig like this where the majority of its cost is being pumped straight into the GPU.
The 1 TB of SSD storage is about the norm for a PC at this price point: big enough to get a couple of games and small enough that I'd be looking into shoving another SSD in there in the near future.
It also comes with an iBuyPower gaming keyboard and mouse, and, though I haven't tried them myself, I personally wouldn't put much stake in them being professional level. They will likely be just fine for, well, moving a cursor around the screen, and opening up the Walmart tab to buy something a little better when it arrives.
The big catch with this rig though is the RAM. 16 GB of single channel RAM is significatnly worse than 16 GB of dual channel RAM, and will limit your performance heavily. To make things worse, I wouldn't advise just throwing another 16 GB stick in there and hitting the on button. You are better off removing the single stick and buying two matching ones to get this rig properly up and running. Luckily, we've spotted a good deal on memory too.
RAM
Okay, the spec listing is a bit weird for this specific combo of memory. The specifications box and the title say its speed is 6000 MT/s, but the description says the speed is 5600 MT/s. On a grand scale, the difference between these two speeds is minimal, and not something I'd care about personally, but it is worth noting that we don't know which of these two speeds will show up at your door.
Given the model name given is also F5-6000J3040F16GX2-RS5W( the 6000 variant), my money would be on the speed being 6000.
What we do know is that this G.Skill set is DDR5, 32 GB total over two channels, and it looks pretty tidy, too. It's got a reasonably low profile at 33 mm, though the white colouring of this one may stand out a little in that black case. But hey, you can't argue with the price (and I'm sure you could spend a touch more or shop elsewhere for black sticks if you wanted).
Given similarly priced rigs (even including the extra cost of this memory) come with 16 GB of RAM and an RTX 5060 Ti, this is arguably one of the best gaming PC deals I've seen in quite some time, even if you have to do a little legwork yourself.
1. Best gaming laptop: Razer Blade 16
2. Best gaming PC: HP Omen 35L
3. Best handheld gaming PC: Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS ed.
4. Best mini PC: Minisforum AtomMan G7 PT
5. Best VR headset: Meta Quest 3
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
