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A gaming PC is one of the most flexible ways to play games, with options to upgrade and pick just the parts you need. There’s plenty to keep in mind when buying a gaming PC: power, size, components. and what resolution you want to play at. If all you need is to play a few AAA titles at 1080p, you may not need a high-end CPU and graphics card.
But if you want to play at 1440p or 4K, then you need to start thinking about saving more for your rig. CPU horsepower is also tied to gaming acumen, but branching out into anything much over a quad-core processor will primarily see performance gains in multi-threaded workloads such as video processing, rendering and encoding, not games.
Intel recently released its 14th Gen “Raptor Lake Refresh” processors, including the Core i9-14900K, Core i7-14700K and Core i5-14600K. In our recent testing, we’ve found that AMD’s 7000-series X3D chips are still the most powerful for gaming. We’re currently in the process of testing a few new desktops with some of these chips to get an idea how they perform.
We’ll jump into our tested picks for best prebuilt gaming PCs directly below. But if you want more advice about how to shop and specific things to look for, our buying advice follows our top gaming PC picks.
1. Corsair Vengeance i7500 – A powerful gaming PC with top-notch build quality
SPECIFICATIONS
CPU: Intel Core i9-14900K
GPU: Palit GeForce RTX 4090 GameRock OmniBlack
RAM: 64GB DDR5-6000
Storage: 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
Buying a gaming PC may be easier than building one, but perhaps the biggest benefit of the Corsair Vengeance i7500 is that it feels like one you built yourself. The build starts in a Vengeance 4000D mid-tower case and is built to excellent standards.
Our review system, with an Intel Core i9-14900K and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 from Palit, offered top-notch performance. And while it’s pricey at that configuration, the system is backed by a two-year warranty, rather than the one-year system you see on many prebuilt systems in big box stores.
Because this PC is built entirely from aftermarket parts, you can customize it to your heart’s content. No proprietary parts here!
There were very few downsides, beyond the expense. But RGB-lovers be warned – our review unit’s GPU didn’t come with colorful lighting, which you kind of expect on something that expensive, like it or not.
2. iBuyPower Y60 – Best Mid-range gaming PC
SPECIFICATIONS
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
GPU: PNY GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Verto
RAM: 32GB DDR5-5200
Storage: 2TB Western Digital Blue SN580 SSD
The iBuyPower Y60 is a strong mid-range performer with some bumped-up specs that will serve you well in the future. It’s slightly pricer than some similar desktops, but it comes with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage, which will let you store plenty of games and will serve you with demanding apps in the future.
You get a classy case — the Hyte Y60 — with this prebuilt, which gives you a wrap-around window to your components and a vertically-mounted GPU. While the motherboard doesn’t have a USB Type-C port on the rear, there is one on the case.
Other desktops we tested in this range used air coolers that didn’t impress. While liquid cooling isn’t a must, the 240 mm liquid cooler in this case was quieter than on some competitors.
There are some downsides, namely in networking. This system uses Wi-Fi 6, which is getting a bit old as a standard. Some gamers may want to plug in Ethernet (always a best practice, if you can), particularly for big game downloads.
3. MSI Infinite RS 13th – A Powerful, Quiet PC with Room to Upgrade
SPECIFICATIONS
CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KF
GPU: MSI RTX 4090 Surpim Liquid X
RAM: 32GB DDR5-5200
Storage: 2TB MSI Spatium PCIe 4.0 SSD
If you’re looking for the best of the best, the MSI Infinite RS 13th delivers top-of-the-line performance, as long as you’re willing to pay for it. Between the 13th Gen Intel Core i9 and a liquid-cooled Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, this system delivers awesome performance, while still being quiet and upgradeable down the line.
All of the parts are standard, and the case (the MSI Prospect 700RL) is roomy. In fact, for some it may be too roomy! But it can fit the two radiators and nine fans that made this system all but silent in our testing.
A keyboard and mouse are included, though you’ll likely want to get something a bit nicer.
In our testing, we got some incredible performance out of the Infinite. If you value smooth gameplay and upgradeability out of your prebuilt and will sacrifice room on or under your desk, this is the one to consider.
4. Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD) – The best budget gaming PC for AMD fans
SPECIFICATIONS
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
RAM: 8GB DDR4
Storage: 512GB SSD PCIe Gen4
AMD fans have a compelling choice in the Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD), especially if they’re looking for a budget gaming PC that can be used as a work machine. This cheap option cuts back on many things, including that flashy gaming aesthetic, which in this case works in its favor – that simple design means it’ll fit right in the office and in most spaces. It’s also efficient at not taking up a lot of space, despite the fact that it’s got a nicely varied port selection – although an extra USB-C port would have been nice too.
Despite being a budget option, it proved to be rather impressive during our testing. You can’t expect it to run games like Cyberpunk 2077 on anything higher than low settings, of course, but it admirably ran any PC game we put through it quite smoothly. The trick is to run each one at the right settings thanks to those affordable yet capable AMD components inside.
5. Alienware Aurora R15 – Powerful Performance with Improved Cooling
SPECIFICATIONS
CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KF
GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 4090 (24GB)
RAM: 64GB DDR5-5200
Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD, 1 TB, 7,200-rpm HDD
The Alienware Aurora R15’s biggest updates are all about cooling. Alienware parent Dell has added in a 240 mm radiator, finally moving on from a 120 mm cooler, which should allow for much better CPU performance. There is also more ventilation on the side, and this all made for a quieter PC to our ears.
It’s not much of a surprise that with an Intel Core i9-13900KF and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, the Aurora plowed through our benchmarks measuring gaming and productivity performance.
On the one hand, we really like how many ports are accessible on the front of the Aurora, including three USB Type-A ports, a USB Type-C port and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The downside is that Alienware is using a proprietary motherboard to achieve that, making it difficult to fully upgrade the system in the future.
The GPU, RAM and CPU are accessible on our model, and there’s room for additional storage. (Our review unit was maxed out, so there wouldn’t be much of a reason to make many changes outside of storage anytime soon).
For those who want Alienware’s latest chassis, we also recently reviewed the Aurora R16, which is smaller but comes in more limited configurations.