The finest gaming PC is a system that fits your wants and matches inside your funds. It may very well be one thing that spares no expense, packing probably the most highly effective {hardware} right into a premium case, or a funds construct that’s greater than able to working your favourite esports recreation. No matter which rig sounds extra up your avenue, we’re right here that will help you determine what prebuild is best for you.
Whether or not you already know the right way to construct a gaming PC or not, prebuilt programs supply a handy option to improve your set-up in a single fell swoop with minimal trouble. They usually include a small premium versus doing it your self, however this does take away the danger of issues going mistaken in your finish. Higher nonetheless, you’ll be coated by one other guarantee on high of the person components.
The finest web sites for customized PC builds will give you a number of parts to select from inside a given value vary. As a basic rule of thumb, you’re finest placing the vast majority of your funds into probably the most highly effective graphics card you possibly can afford, because it’ll have probably the most dramatic impact on efficiency. On the subject of selecting out a CPU, go for one thing with no less than six cores in the event you can, however don’t overlook to pair it with two 8GB sticks of RAM.
It’s price mentioning that the hand held PC market has significantly matured in recent times, with the Steam Deck serving as probably the most profitable pioneer. These units are worthy options to a tower, notably in case your shopping for energy is on the decrease aspect.
Why you possibly can belief our recommendation ✔ At PCGamesN, our specialists spend hours testing {hardware} and reviewing video games and VPNs. We share sincere, unbiased opinions that will help you purchase the most effective. Discover out how we take a look at.
Greatest gaming PC in 2024:
Alienware Aurora R15
Greatest gaming PC general
Alienware Aurora R15 specs:
| Working system |
Home windows 11 Dwelling |
| CPU |
Intel Core i7 13700KF (thirteenth Technology) |
| Reminiscence |
16GB RAM |
| Storage |
1TB |
| GPU |
NVIDIA GeForceRTX 3060 (12GB) |
Causes to purchase
- Runs like a dream
- Nice connection choices
Slightly than embody the newer Alienware Aurora R16, we’ve included the R15 as the most effective gaming PC. Why? As a result of this earlier mannequin nonetheless has all the ability you possibly can have to play any of right now’s most demanding AAA video games and it appears to be like infinitely higher than the R16 which, let’s face it, is extra bland.
The R15, in contrast, has all of the hanging magnificence we count on from Alienware and oodles of top-notch spec to again it up, together with a thirteenth Gen Intel Core i7 13700KF processor with 16 Cores and 24 Threads, clocking 2.50GHz base and a most of 5.40GHz turbo, matched with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card to ship dazzlingly immersive photos on all the most recent video games.
With 16GB RAM and 1TB of storage additionally underneath the hood, plus extra ports than you possibly can shake a USB stick at, you’re good to recreation proper out of the field.
And with a complicated cooling system, the video games can go on for longer free from worry of an overheating meltdown, whereas the spectacular inner acoustics preserve issues on the quiet even throughout intensive duties. Then there’s that aspect window onto the workings, which, some would possibly say, is cooler nonetheless.
HP Pavilion TG01-2170m
Greatest low-cost gaming PC
HP Pavilion TG01-2170m specs:
| CPU |
As much as AMD Ryzen 7 5700G |
| Motherboard |
Customized AMD |
| RAM |
As much as 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 3, 200MHz |
| GPU |
Nvidia: as much as GeForce GTX 1660 Tremendous, AMD Radeon RX 5500 |
| Storage |
As much as 1TB SSD |
| Energy provide |
400W 80 Plus Gold |
| Case |
HP Pavilion Acid Inexperienced |
| Guarantee |
One-year restricted {hardware} |
Causes to purchase
- Respectable value
- Nice entry-level gaming PC
Causes to keep away from
- Will most likely want additional cooling for GPU
Whereas it’s true that PC gaming could be costly, that doesn’t imply that it has to interrupt the financial institution, and the HP Pavilion TG01-2170m is proof of that. It comes with an AMD Ryzen 3 5300G and Radeon RX 5500 which act as a loads highly effective combo for these beginning their journey into the pastime or anybody with a smaller funds.
HP lists the Pavilion TG01-2170m with a beginning value of $699.99, however you possibly can usually discover it on sale with extras like a gaming mouse and keyboard, netting your self a correct cut price.
Origin PC Chronos V2
Greatest mini gaming PC
Origin PC Chronos V2 specs:
| CPU |
Intel: as much as Core i9-12900KS, AMD: as much as Ryzen 9 5950X |
| Motherboard |
Intel: Z690, AMD: X570 or B550 |
| RAM |
Intel: as much as 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR5 5,00MHz, AMD: as much as 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR4 3,200MHz |
| GPU |
As much as Nvidia GeForce RTC 3080 Ti |
| Storage |
As much as 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD |
| Energy provide |
Corsair SF750 750W 80 Plus Platinum |
| Case |
Origin Chronos |
| Guarantee |
One-year half alternative |
Causes to purchase
- Runs quietly
- Compact case
- Wonderful efficiency
Causes to keep away from
- Costly
- Not a lot room to improve
In crafting the Chronos V2, Origin PC has made a micro machine worthy of the oft-used phrase ‘small however mighty.’ It’s among the best mini gaming PCs. Inside its compact chassis, you’ll discover the sorts of parts that any full-fat desktop can be fortunate to have, together with the most effective gaming CPUs from each AMD and Intel.
You too can select between a glass or mesh aspect panel, permitting you to prioritize the aesthetics or cooling of your new tiny titan. Origin PC additionally provides a one-year half alternative guarantee as commonplace, along with “lifetime 24/7 assist and labor.”
NZXT Streaming Professional PC
Greatest gaming PC for streaming
NZXT Streaming Professional PC specs:
| CPU |
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X |
| Motherboard |
AMD B550 |
| RAM |
32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 3, 200MHz |
| GPU |
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 |
| Storage |
1TB NVMe M.2 SSD |
| Energy provide |
NZXT C750 750W 80 Plus Bronze |
| Case |
NZXT H510 Movement |
| Guarantee |
Two years |
Causes to purchase
- Sensible for streaming
- A number of good connection choices
You don’t want bleeding-edge specs to be a profitable streamer, nevertheless it definitely helps. The NZXT Streaming Professional PC packs an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X with eight succesful and highly effective cores that make it among the best gaming CPUs for enjoying video games and working a stream concurrently.
It additionally comes with among the best graphics playing cards, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, permitting you to utilize options similar to Nvidia DLSS, NVENC encoding, and Nvidia Broadcast to spruce up your stream.
Maingear Apex Rush
Greatest water-cooled gaming PC
Maingear Apex Rush specs:
| CPU |
Intel: as much as Core i9-12900KS, AMD: as much as Ryzen 9 5950x |
| Motherboard |
Intel: Z690, AMD: X570 |
| RAM |
Intel: as much as 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR5 5,200MHz, AMD: as much as 128GB (2x32GB) DDR4 3,600MHz |
| GPU |
Nvidia: as much as GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 12GB, AMD: as much as Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB |
| Storage |
As much as 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD |
| Energy provide |
As much as 1,200W |
| Case |
Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL Black |
| Guarantee |
One-year full-coverage |
Causes to purchase
- Wonderful water-cooling system
- Respectable number of ports
Causes to keep away from
- Big price ticket
- Takes a little bit of tweaking
For those who’re on the lookout for an altogether cooler system in each sense of the phrase, the Maingear Apex Rush could also be simply what you’re on the lookout for. It encompasses a customized PC water cooling answer, which along with being beautiful to have a look at additionally provides higher noise and thermals than even the very finest CPU coolers.
By bringing your system’s temperatures as little as attainable, the Maingear Apex Rush permits you to unlock the utmost potential of its top-tier specs with out worry of thermal throttling. Higher nonetheless, you possibly can select to package out your private rig with both smooth tubing or a number of types of hardline cooling, permitting you to craft a system that may really feel proper at residence in your gaming desk.
HP Omen 40L specs:
| CPU |
AMD Ryzen 7 7700 |
| Motherboard |
HP FrostBreath 8A98 B650 |
| RAM |
16GB (2 x 8GB) Kingston Fury RGB, 5,200MHz DDR5 |
| GPU |
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti |
| Storage |
1TB WD SN560 SSD |
| Energy Provide |
600W 80 Plus Gold ATX |
| Case |
HP Omen 40L |
| Guarantee |
One-year restricted {hardware} |
Causes to purchase
- Nice 1080p gaming efficiency
- Usually discounted value
- Handsome, accessible case
Causes to keep away from
- Solely 8GB of VRAM on graphics card
- Overpriced at MSRP
- Can battle with ray tracing with out DLSS
HP’s Omen 40L has a suitably demonic look to match its title, with its darkish black shiny chassis, and eerily glowing rings of RGB lighting on the entrance. You get much more lighting from the Kingston Fury RGB reminiscence and CPU cooler too, however this rig isn’t nearly beauty. Below that easily-removed tempered glass aspect panel you’ll discover some severe specs.
We examined the GT21-1324 mannequin for our overview, which comes with an eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 7700 CPU, primarily based on the highly effective Zen 4 structure. You additionally get an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GPU, which makes mild work of gaming at 1080p, and in addition helps the most recent Nvidia DLSS 3.5 tech, which incorporates AI body technology to massively improve body charges.
Certainly, in our checks, we had this machine working Cyberpunk 2077 at 70fps with the Extremely ray tracing preset on this rig. Nonetheless, whereas the 8GB of VRAM on this graphics card is okay for 1080p gaming proper now, you could discover it turns into a restrict sooner or later, as the most recent video games are beginning to use extra VRAM at excessive settings. You get a decent-sized 1TB WD SSD for storing video games as effectively, and whereas the 16GB of RAM is the naked minimal we’d suggest for a gaming system proper now, you possibly can at all times improve the reminiscence later.
It’s effectively price maintaining a tally of the worth of this machine for a superb deal. It’s overpriced at its $1,823.99 MSRP, however you possibly can usually discover it less expensive. On the time of writing, it’s going for $1,179.99 at Greatest Purchase, which is a superb value for the spec on supply.
Learn our HP Omen 40L overview.
MSI MEG Trident X2 14th specs:
| Working system |
Home windows 11 Dwelling |
| CPU |
Intel Core i9-14900KF |
| Reminiscence |
64GB DDR5 RAM |
| GPU |
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 (24GB) |
| Storage |
2TB SSD, 2TB laborious drive |
| Case |
MSI Trident X2 |
| Guarantee |
One yr components and labor |
Causes to purchase
- Unimaginable gaming efficiency
- Touchscreen on entrance of case
- Environment friendly cooling system
Causes to keep away from
- No glass panels or inner RGB
- Touchscreen has restricted use
- Can’t configure spec at checkout
Most gaming PCs could be configured to incorporate top-tier {hardware} however the MSI MEG Trident X2 has probably the most highly effective parts in a PC we’ve but examined. Its Intel Core i9-14900KF processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 graphics make it as quick as a gaming PC can get. You additionally get an enormous 64GB of RAM and 4TB of whole storage. The latter is among the barely weaker factors of the machine nevertheless it’s straightforward so as to add extra storage later.
The case has an attention-grabbing angular design however doesn’t embody any glass or see-through panels. As an alternative, this gaming PC concentrates on delivering big efficiency with a intelligent and environment friendly cooling system that ducts cool air to the GPU and makes use of simply three different major system followers. Set the PC to Silent mode and it stays remarkably quiet. The touchscreen helps you to change quantity, management multimedia, swap between Silent, Balanced, and Excessive cooling modes, however we didn’t discover that package a massively helpful function.
Regardless of already packing in over $2,000 price of CPU and GPU, this PC is available in at round $4,000, which is loads however first rate worth for the parts you get. It’ll ship over 150fps in most video games at 1440p and effectively over 60fps at 4K in even probably the most demanding titles. Purchase it in the event you want the quickest machine that’ll be quick for years.
Learn our MSI MEG Trident X2 14th overview.
Greatest gaming PC FAQs
Why purchase a prebuilt gaming PC?
Prebuilt PCs present comfort and safety that may’t be matched when constructing a system your self. Because the parts are all pre-assembled forward of supply, your new rig can be able to go as quickly because it arrives at the doorstep. You’ll even be entitled to extra warranties and doubtlessly technical assist if one thing goes mistaken.
Is $1000 sufficient for a gaming PC?
Sure, something from $600 upwards is usually sufficient for a gaming PC. Naturally, increased budgets permit you to splash out for extra highly effective specs, however dearer parts aren’t explicitly vital for a stable expertise in most video games.
A desktop PC isn’t for everybody. For those who want portability, discover our finest gaming laptop computer information. If you would like a PC in a small house, the finest mini gaming PCs preserve getting higher and higher.
How to decide on the most effective gaming PC
There are a number of elements to think about when selecting the most effective gaming PC to your wants, however the major one is at all times the GPU. This may make the most important distinction (by far) to gaming efficiency, and it’s the one space the place you don’t need to skimp.
As a naked minimal, if you wish to play the most recent video games at excessive graphics settings at 1,920 x 1,080, search for no less than an AMD Radeon RX 7600 or Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060. If you wish to play video games at 2,560 x 1,440, search for no less than a GeForce RTX 4070 or Radeon RX 7800 XT, and if you wish to play video games at 4K, you’ll want to be taking a look at an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Tremendous or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
The subsequent key part is the CPU, however don’t be fooled into considering that you just want a great deal of cores. Most video games don’t use greater than six CPU cores, and an eight-core CPU is totally high quality. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D hits the present candy spot for video games, however you may get away with much less. So long as you’ve a good GPU, you possibly can simply get by with a Core i5 12400F. The CPU does impression gaming efficiency, however not by wherever close to as a lot because the GPU.
Different key elements to think about are the SSD and reminiscence. You need no less than 16GB of RAM in a gaming PC now, however 32GB is a worthwhile improve in the event you wish to have numerous tabs open in Chrome, with a number of purposes open concurrently. For those who’re shopping for a brand new system, we suggest shopping for one with DDR5 reminiscence moderately than DDR4 now, as we’ve discovered DDR5 is quicker in video games (although not enormously), and this may even give your parts some future-proofing.
On the subject of the SSD, search for no less than 1TB of house so that you’ll have room for a couple of large recreation installs, and have a look at the kind of SSD as effectively. You don’t want the excessive speeds of the most recent PCIe 5.0 SSDs for gaming, however be sure you no less than have an NVMe drive, moderately than an previous SATA mannequin.
Lastly, have a look at the guarantee, notably in the case of components protection. One yr of components and labor return to base is the naked minimal a PC producer ought to supply, and having an additional yr or two of components cowl is invaluable in case your system ever breaks down.
How we take a look at gaming PCs
When testing the most effective gaming PCs we’ll perform benchmarking and take into account the design, construct high quality, parts, and noise generated by the system. A PC ought to look clear and engaging on the surface and inside, the place cables ought to be neatly tidied out of sight, and entry to key parts shouldn’t be obstructed.
We like to see modern designs that work to enhance cooling, appears to be like, and entry to parts. Whereas we count on the followers in a PC to make some noise when working it at full load, we additionally count on this to be well-tuned consistent with temperatures. A well-built PC can have a carefully-considered airflow system that retains your parts cool underneath load however doesn’t assault your eardrums.
When benchmarking a gaming PC, our major checks naturally contain video games. We benchmark Cyberpunk 2077 and F123 to check every PC’s efficiency when enabling the most recent graphics options at excessive settings, together with ray tracing, DLSS, FSR, and body technology. We additionally take a look at with Whole Warfare: Warhammer III to gauge gaming efficiency with out ray tracing enabled.
Every take a look at is run no less than thrice, and we discard any anomalous outcomes earlier than calculating the typical. We report the typical and minimal outcomes and work on the precept {that a} recreation is easily playable if the PC can generate a 60fps common and no less than a 45fps minimal in these titles.
Lastly, we additionally run 3DMark, an artificial benchmark to evaluate efficiency with a remaining rating. You possibly can run 3DMark in your system proper now, after which evaluate the scores from our opinions.
In fact, nobody buys a PC only for gaming, so we additionally run Cinebench to offer you an thought of how the CPU performs in every system. This offers you a multi-threaded outcome, the place you possibly can see how a CPU with a great deal of cores performs in hardcore content material creation situations, similar to video encoding and 3D rendering. A single-threaded outcome represents single-core CPU utilization, which is essential for most elementary Home windows software program, together with image-editing packages.
Our remaining rating and conclusion steadiness the efficiency in our benchmarks with the final design and construct high quality, in addition to the worth and guarantee package deal in comparison with the competitors.
