This midrange gaming PC with a GeForce GTX 1650 Super for $600 is a sweet bargain

New hardware is on the retail horizon, like Intel's upcoming Rocket Lake-S CPUs and the latest generation GPUs from AMD and Nvidia (once supply catches up with demand). Typically when new stuff hits, there are deals to be had on existing inventories, and that is the case here. A reasonably equipped Dell G5 gaming desktop can be had for just $599.99 right now.

The setup lists for $904.98, but if you fill out the coupon field at checkout with code DBBFDTAFF1, it will knock $304.99 off the price. That is a hefty discount, and it brings the overall configuration down to about what it would cost to build it yourself (factoring in the cost of Windows 10) with the same parts.

As configured, the G5 sports a 10th generation Intel Core i5 10400F Comet Lake processor with six cores and 12 threads humming along at 2.9GHz (base) to 4.3GHz (max Turbo), with 12MB of L3 cache to boot. And for graphics, it comes with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super. Not too shabby.

Other hardware includes 8GB of DDR4-2666 RAM, a 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD, and a 360W power supply. Even for a midrange machine, the first thing I'd do is look at upgrading the RAM. Dell will bump it up to 16GB for $100, which is not egregious, though you can do better on your own—this 16GB kit of G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4-3200 goes for $76.99 on Newegg, for example.

Also be aware that the 360W PSU isn't beefy enough to support higher end GPUs. It remains to be seen what midrange Ampere parts Nvidia eventually ends up releasing, but something like a GeForce RTX 3070 is definitely out of the question. Even for the unreleased RTX 3060 it is recommended you have a 550W PSU.

For what this is, though, the value is solid.

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).