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Even old-school computer enthusiasts have to accept that it’s hard to beat the portability of a laptop in today’s mobile landscape, but when it comes to gaming, even the best 2-in-1 ultrabook or MacBook can’t hold a candle to a proper desktop battle station. It’s much easier and cheaper to cram all that beefy hardware into a full-sized computer tower, and this lets you upgrade any one of your computer’s internal parts (giving you future-proofing that laptops can’t offer). A desktop PC also allows for full-sized monitors, multiple displays, and purpose-built gaming accessories such as keyboards and mice.
Many people assemble their own PCs, and while that’s a fine option, it can be a challenge for the uninitiated and may not save you all that much cash. Unless your time is worthless, why not find a good cheap gaming PC that suits your needs instead? There are plenty waiting to be found, and to help you get the right one while saving you some money, we’ve scooped up the best cheap gaming PC deals available for less than a grand right now.
Today’s Best Cheap Gaming PC Deals
- HP Pavilion Radeon Vega 8 Gaming PC — $400, was $550
- HP Pavilion GTX 1650 Super Gaming PC — $599
- CyberPowerPC Gamer Master Radeon RX 570 Gaming PC — $600
- Dell G5 GTX 1660 Super Gaming PC — $705 with code SAVE17, was $855
- Acer Nitro 50 GTX 1660 Ti Gaming PC — $800, was $900
- ABS Master RTX 2060 Gaming PC — $950, was $1,100
HP Pavilion Radeon Vega 8 Gaming PC — $400, was $550
Years ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find any sort of gaming-capable rig for less than $600 owing to the cost of discrete graphics cards. AMD crafted a unique solution to that problem in its APUs, or accelerated processing units, which are basically CPUs that pack built-in graphics processing capabilities. This Pavilion desktop PC from HP features an AMD Ryzen 3 CPU with Radeon Vega 8 graphics that allows for some light gaming. Don’t expect to run the latest AAA games at high settings, but it’ll get the job done for those with modest needs.
Along with the Ryzen APU, this desktop PC comes with a boosted 8GB of DDR4 RAM, a 128GB solid-state system drive, and a nice big 1TB hard drive — and like most of our other picks, it comes with a wired mouse and keyboard. This cheap gaming PC can be yours for just $400 after a $150 price cut.
HP Pavilion GTX 1650 Super Gaming PC — $599
HP may not be known as a gaming brand, but it makes some surprisingly solid (and very budget-friendly) gaming PCs and you’ll see this name a lot when shopping around for them. This new Pavilion tower runs on an AMD Ryzen 5 3500 CPU paired with a GeForce GTX 1650 Super graphics card which, while not mind-blowing specs, are nonetheless very impressive for a cheap gaming PC at this price point. For memory, you’ve got 8GB of RAM (which can be easily upgraded if need be) along with a nice fast 256GB SSD for storage.
This desktop tower rings in at just $600 (similar PCs in this class usually go for $700 or more when not on sale), and it’s 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.
CyberPowerPC Gamer Master Radeon RX 570 Gaming PC — $600
AMD’s Radeon RX 500-series GPUs are still one of the best entry points for getting into 1080p gaming, and this CyberPowerPC Gamer Master desktop is a cost-affordable (not to mention very attractive) way to do it. This tower features a Radeon RX 570 graphics cards, which is one of the most cost-effective 1080p-capable GPUs. That card works with an AMD Ryzen 3 2300X CPU and 8GB of DDR4 RAM to deliver great overall performance for work or play.
For storage, you’ve got a fast 240 GB SSD along with a fat 1TB HDD (giving you a lot more space than what you usually find on cheap gaming PCs), and like most of our other picks, this desktop includes a mouse and keyboard. All you need is a display and an audio source and you’re ready to game. You can grab this high-value gaming PC bundle for a mere $600.
Dell G5 GTX 1660 Super Gaming PC — $705 with code SAVE17, was $855
Tip-toeing up to the $1,000 budget limit brings us to the Nvidia GTX 1660-series graphics cards, which is definitely in the upper range of mid-level GPUs that you should be looking for if you’re paying more than $800. This new Dell G5 gaming desktop checks all the boxes: A 10th-gen Intel Core i5-10400F CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a beefy GTX 1660 Super GPU (with an impressive 6GB of VRAM) are capable of handling 1080p gaming at 60 frames per second, so if 30 fps isn’t cutting it for you in 2020, this PC is a worthy upgrade over most other cheap gaming PCs.
A 1TB 7,200rpm HDD gives you plenty of fast storage for installing games as well. It’s also got a nice-looking geometric case with RGB LED accents that add some style to your setup without being too loud or gaudy. This gaming PC rig comes in at $705 with code SAVE17 (including a wired mouse and keyboard) after a $150 discount, fitting well within our budget.
Acer Nitro 50 GTX 1660 Ti Gaming PC — $800, was $900
Acer builds many well-priced gaming computers for a normally business-focused brand, and the new Nitro 50 doesn’t disappoint. It packs an Intel Core i5-9400F six-core CPU and an Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti GPU with 6GB VRAM, which is easily one of the best processor/graphics card combos for 1080p gaming at 60fps in 2020. It comes with 512GB of high-speed solid-state storage as well.
The PC tower’s striking case design looks nice on any desk without appearing too garish, and it’s customizable and upgradeable like most desktop towers. At $800 after a $100 discount, this is a very solid enthusiast gaming PC with some nice future-proofing (although you’ll want to consider upgrading to 16GB of RAM in the future).
ABS Master RTX 2060 Gaming PC — $950, was $1,100
For a lesser-known brand, ABS has some surprisingly nice gaming desktops for budget-conscious shoppers, and its Master gaming PC tower offers a lot of bang for the buck: It’s got a six-core Intel Core i5-10400 CPU, 16GB DDR4 RAM, and most impressively, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU which is arguably the best “entry-level” high-end graphics card on the market right now (and that boosted 16GB of memory means you won’t have to upgrade the RAM too soon).
You’ve also got a nice beefy 512GB solid-state system drive. A basic wired gaming mouse and keyboard are included as well, although you might consider upgrading to a mechanical keyboard and gaming mouse to get the best experience out of a desktop at this price point. This gaming PC deal rings in at $950 after a $150 savings, hitting our budget limit right below the mark.
How To Choose A Cheap 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 cheap 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 cheap 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 2020. Know what you want and what to expect from a cheap 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 Cheap Gaming PC?
The short answer is that a good price-to-performance ratio is what makes a cheap 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- or 10th-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, an 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 and 5000 series as well as Nvidia’s GTX 16- and RTX 20- series GPUs.
Nvidia replaced their older 10-series GPUs last year, but there are still cheap 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 Cheap 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 cheap 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).
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