The best gaming PCs are the most powerful tool at your disposal for both video games and productivity software.
The popularity of gaming PCs has exploded in recent years. Sure, there are plenty of people who won’t abandoned their beloved consoles. But a large number of gaming enthusiasts have been shifting their attention. And with good reason.
When shopping for a new gaming PC, it’s important to have a goal in mind. If you need your system to provide excellent framerates in AAA games at 1920 x 1080, you won’t need the absolute best (and most expensive) GPU and/or processor on the market. But if you want to play at 2560 x 1440 or 4K, then you need to start think about saving more for your rig.
While the PS5 and Xbox Series X will deliver more power than console gamers currently enjoy, they’re still no match for one of the best gaming PCs. If you want fast-loading SSDs, gorgeous ray tracing, massive quantities of RAM, 4K resolution and 60+ fps frame rate, you can have them right now.
Here are the best gaming PCs to buy right now.
HP Omen Obelisk
HP’s Omen Obelisk is a sleek gaming PC. And with the addition of a high-end Z390 motherboard and watercooling among its configurations, it can be a serious workhorse and gaming rig.
It also uses standardized parts for upgrades and has a relatively small case to free up space on your desk. If you want to open it, you can remove one of the side panels with the push of a button, which makes simple changes like RAM easy.
This gaming PC is powerful, but thin enough to sit on a desk, and that makes it a great choice for most people.
Specification
CPU: Intel Core i7 8700 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 | RAM: 16GB DDR4-2666 | Storage: 256GB M.2 SSD, 2TB HDD
Corsair Vengeance A4100
The Corsair Vengeance a4100 has all of the basics you need in a PC. Not only is it powered by a water-cooled Ryzen 7 3700X and MSI’s take on an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super, but it also has an Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 capture card to stream from other PCs, consoles, phones or other devices.
Even if you’re not streaming, the Ryzen/RTX combo makes for a performance-packed gaming PC that can play most titles on their highest settings.
The desktop has a two-year warranty, which is nice because it spans all of its parts and is double the length of many prebuilt gaming PCs on the market.
Specification
CPU: Intel Core i5 9400F | GPU: Nvidia GTX 1660 6GB | RAM: 8GB DDR4-2400 | Storage: 1TB HDD 7200RPM + 128GB SSD
Dell G5
The Dell G5 is small for a mid-tower, and can play most games at mid or high settings at an affordable price. a compact rig that can play most games at an affordable price. If you want to get into PC gaming and don’t care to focus on tinkering too much, though there are ton of configuration options.
It also has a lot of ports on the front and on the rear, making it easy to expand with peripherals and external storage. Inside, you can expand with extra room in hard drive cages and m.2 2280 slots.
Specification
CPU: 9th Gen Intel Core i3 10-series – i7 10-series | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 – RTX 2070 Super | RAM: 8GB – 64GB | Storage: 128GB SSD – 1TB SSD and/or 1TB HDD
Alienware Aurora R10
The Alienware Aurora R10 delivers big on every front: it’s stylish; it’s powerful; it’s customizable and it’s easy to upgrade regardless of whether or not you’re a PC enthusiast. Alienware Aurora gaming desktop PC line is among them, fitting its R10 models with AMD’s powerful yet affordable Ryzen CPUs.
The AMD Ryzen processors of the latest generation are exemplary in terms of both performance and price. And with the potential for a 16-core, 32-thread chip inside your Alienware gaming PC, alongside an Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti, you’re looking at something rather special.
Specification
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3500 – 9 3950X | Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5600 – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | RAM: 8GB – 64GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB 7200RPM SATA – 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD + 2TB 7200RPM SATA
Alienware Aurora R11
There’s something about Alienware PCs that ooze quality in design, and strength in performance. Mainly because the reality is that both are true.
It offers four different configurations of Comet Lake CPU: the i5 10400F, i7 10700, i7 10700K, and i9 10900. They’re paired with Nvidia GPUs from the GTX 1650 up to the RTX 2080 Super. That gives you a range of Alienware gaming machines from affordable 1080p right up to 4K smashing performance, and the Alienware AIO cooling system will help keep the cozy interior of the case at a reasonable temperature too.
Specification
CPU: Intel Core i5 10400F – i9 10900 | GPU: Nvidia GTX 1650 – RTX 2080 Super | RAM: 8GB – 32GB 2933MHz | Storage: Up to 2TB M.2 PCIe SSD + 2TB SATA HDD
ASUS ROG GA15
This is a tremendous machine and one that really harnesses a great power to performance to price balance. It’s a great new design from ASUS and is a welcome addition to the pre-built gaming PC market.
The GA15’s successful inhabiting of a place of balance between performance and value. Inside is a 3700X processor, a 2060 Super graphics card (itself probably the best bang for buck GPU in the ray-tracing category), 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD + 2TB HDD combo. It’s got a sweet design, plenty of ports, runs quiet, and has some RGB fun too on the front – with ASUS making so many of the best gaming laptops right now
Specification
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600X / 7 3700X / 3800X | GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 to RTX 2080 | RAM: 8GB to 32GB DDR4-2666 | Storage: Up to 512GB SSD + 2TB HDD
CyberPowerPC Gamer Extreme
The CyberPower Gamer Xtreme is one of the best gaming PCs. The Cyberpower Gamer Xtreme – housing an Intel Core i5 9400F and Nvidia’s GTX 1660 – is a great PC to rock the current generation of games and do it all for well under the four-figure mark. this desktop can run mainstream games at high settings and even handle virtual reality without much of a sweat.
The Xtreme is also great for anyone looking for a PC to match the capabilities of current-gen consoles, something that will bridge the gap between the PS4 and Xbox One era of games and the next console generation
Specification
CPU: Intel Core i5 9400F | GPU: Nvidia GTX 1660 6GB | RAM: 8GB DDR4-2400 | Storage: 1TB HDD 7200RPM + 128GB SSD
Corsair One i164
The Corsair One i164 still the same small form factor PC, but with updated hardware, a revamped internal layout, and a few other slight changes. It’s built around an RTX 2080Ti, and contains a 960GB SSD and a 2TB HDD. It also has the impressive i9-9900K intel processor which is still offers some mega gaming chops despite the new 10th gen CPUs now going. And also, in a nod to megatasking workload scenarios, it packs a lot of RAM, at 32GB of DDR4-2666. It will manhandle modern games at 4K with ease, and it’s also suitable for heavy rendering, CAD, or other workstation style applications.
Specification
CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | RAM: 32GB DDR4-2666 | Storage: 960GB NVMe M.2 SSD, 2TB HDD
Intel Ghost Canyon NUC
The Intel NUC 9 Extreme, aka Ghost Canyon, is smack dab at the intersection of two ideas the chipmaker has been pursuing for years. Since 2012, the company’s been building barebones desktop computers called NUCs (short for “Next Unit of Computing”) that are typically so tiny, you could fit one anywhere.
The newer Ghost Canyon With 9th-generation Intel Core chips, up to 64GB of memory and up to 4TB dual storage, we’re all for it. The only catch is that it’s pricier now as well. The lower configurations are still quite affordable, and the best gaming desktop PC for the budget- and portability-conscious.
Specification
CPU: 9th-generation Intel Core i5 – i9 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630 | RAM: 8GB – 64B DDR4 | Storage: 128GB SSD – 2TB + 2TB
Corsair One a100
The Corsair One a100 is one incredibly powerful machine, packing internals like the legendary AMD Ryzen 9 3950X and Nvidia’s unbeatable RTX 2080 Ti into a tiny chassis that would disappear into the background had it not been for its stylish RGB. Coupled with 32GB of memory and lots of storage space, this one’s a boon for the professional creative types as well. Rightly so, as they’re among the very few who can truly afford that hefty price tag. If you want something that looks cool and runs all the best games, the Corsair One a100 is the best gaming PC for you.
Specification
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X – 3950X | Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX RTX 2080 Super – 2080 Ti | RAM: 32GB DDR4-3200 | Storage: 500GB NVMe SSD + 2TB HDD – 1TB NVMe SSD + 2TB HDD