1. The list in brief
2. Best gaming PC
3. Best budget
4. Best upgradable
5. Best cutting edge
6. Best for newbie builders
7. Best cooling system
8. Best for 1080p gaming
9. Best value
10. Best AMD gaming PC
11. Best compact gaming PC
12. How to choose
13. How we test
Choosing the best gaming PC largely depends on your gaming needs. It's more than just about finding a pricey and powerful option as depending on your demands, budget, and what you're happy with in terms of gaming experience, you might just need an affordable, mid-range option or even better, a budget one.
If you want the most kitted-out build, of course there are plenty to choose from. The robust options will see you through any demanding title at the highest settings without ever slowing down or experiencing lags. However, if you don’t need to game on high or ultra, the best PC for you might just be one of the best budget gaming PCs or something that won’t break the bank, which is why we’re gathered the best gaming PCs for every user and every budget.
Of course, you can – like with many hardcore gamers – build your own PC, but that doesn’t mean that these pre-builds we’ve chosen below are any less capable. You'll also have a better chance of getting the best graphics card or the best processor that is a little harder to get on its own if there’s a stock shortage.
There's also the advantage of having more stability in a system that has undergone fairly rigorous testing from an OEM manufacturer like Dell, Alienware, or Lenovo. You're guaranteed that out of the box it will be ready to play the best PC games from the get-go. And, since you really only need to plug it in, turn it on, and go through the initial setup, a prebuild is just a much easier route.
Given that there are so many options out there from literally dozens of brands from HP to Maingear, we brought our top picks together in one place, keeping in mind different needs and budget. We've tested many gaming PCs from every major manufacturer, so we know which ones to recommend, whether you want the most premium model or a great budget option offering a fantastic value for both 1080p and 1440p gaming.
The quick list
We have tested hundreds of gaming PCs, from the budget ones that offer 1080p gaming to premium, kitted-out ones that are powerful workhorses that can see you through any game on ultra settings. With so many choices, we've whittled down your options to 10 to serve every need and budget. Take a look at our top picks below.
Best gaming PC overall
Combining stellar gaming performance and an appealing gamer aesthetic with affordability, this is worthy choice for most people.
Best budget gaming PC
Don't need to game at the highest settings? Getting a budget option like the HP Victus 15L that delivers decent 1080p gaming is the way to go.
Best upgradable PC
With its highly-customizable, tool-less design, this powerful gaming PC with slightly older-gen specs is your best bet if you like to tinker.
Best cutting edge gaming PC
One of the most powerful gaming PCs, the newly-redesigned Alienware is even more compact and has a more effective cooling system.
Best PC build kit for beginners
Though Corsair is a little late in the PC building game, it does make it easier for newbie builders to put together their own system.
Gaming PC with the best cooling
Despite its compact design, its quiet cooling even when under high pressure is impressive. Add to that its customizability, and it's worth the investment.
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Best for 1080p gaming
If you want solid 1080p gaming performance in a monolithic chassis that makes a subtle statement, this PC works great for play and work.
Best value gaming PC
Not the cheapest on this list, but its older-gen specs allows this gaming PC to be more affordable while still delivering impressive performance.
Best AMD gaming PC
AMD fans who need something robust must get this AMD-powered model of the Alienware. Though a little older, it still delivers in performance.
Best compact gaming PC
A smaller desk? for something compact yet still powerful, this offering from Corsair is the best you'll find for gaming and creative workloads.
The best gaming PC 2023
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The best gaming PC overall
While we wish the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i had a more accessible USB-C port and we're not so thrilled with some of the bloatware it comes with, the performance on this desktop is just about legendary for a mid-range computer. You won't be able to do 4K on high settings or take much advantage of ray tracing, but you will get fantastic 1080p performance.
In test, we were able to play a number of demanding AAA titles on very high settings with little impact to performance. It was only when turning on ray tracing or VRAM-hungry processes like motion blur that we would experience any screen tearing.
On top of its stellar mid-range performance, this is a good looking PC. Its venting, which runs across the front, top, and back of the chassis, not only allows it to keep the internals cool, but also allows for plenty of the RGB lighting from the cooling fans as well as its logo to shine bright.
Read our full Lenovo Legion Tower 5i review
The best budget gaming PC
The HP Victus 15L is clearly a budget gaming PC. It’s smaller, it’s less robust, and the components available are a bit on the weaker side. But, these are not all necessarily bad things. To start, this means that the price of entry is lower than a lot of other options. Even the kitted out version is affordable. Also, it will fit in more cramped desk setups than much of the competition.
On top of that, when we tested the HP Victus 15L, we found it to offer good 1080p performance as long as we played with the settings a little bit. It’s more than capable for most games and gamers – just avoid ultra settings and ray tracing and you’ll be fine. Add in the large amount of ports lining the front and this is a great option for someone wanting a gaming machine made for competitive gaming on the cheap.
Read our full HP Victus 15L review
The best gaming PC for upgraders
The Acer Predator Orion 7000 is a gaming PC that delivers beauty and power in spades, which makes it a top choice if you're not strapped for cash. Its high-end specs guarantee a smooth gaming experience and has seen us through completely maxed out sessions - including 4k resolution, HDR, ray-tracing, and 120fps - of Final Fantasy VII Remake without breaking a sweat. It even performed at max 256fps with all those settings turned on.
Of course, being this powerful does have some drawbacks -- namely, the loud fans that go on overdrive when you're playing on Ultra. However, on the plus side, we found that its well-constructed cooling system keeps running smoothly without turning into a furnace. The fan noise doesn't bother us anyway, especially when we've got a decent headset on.
All that power is packed in a chassis that's built for practicality, as it can be popped open without the use of tools, comes with an elegant cable management system, and boasts an excellent port selection. However, the chassis is just as gorgeous as it is practical, boasting gorgeous RGB lighting that makes it a stunning addition to you gaming setup.
Read our full Acer Predator Orion 7000 (2022) review
The best cutting edge gaming PC
The old space-age look of the Alienware Aurora is no more, with Dell launching a brand-new redesign that takes that unique Alienware design into the modern age. This new chassis will still remind you of the original, but it's sleeker and more compact - so compact, in fact, that it might just fit in the chassis of its predecessor.
That impressive Alienware performance is still there, however. During testing, it slowed a little when we played Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K, dropping the framerate to 16 fps without DLSS 3 active. Still, it handled titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Dirt 5 like a pro, with the former scoring nearly 60 fps consistently while the latter hitting over 150 fps on lower settings.
What impressed us most about this version of the Alienware desktop is its elevated cooling system. Despite its smaller chassis, its ventilation is among the best and quietest we've seen, with not a single moment of overheating during our long gaming sessions. That's all thanks to the several vents and the 240mm liquid cooling system inside working together.
Read our full Alienware Aurora R16 review
The best PC build kit for beginners
The Corsair PC Build Kit is a special addition to this list as, unlike all the other entries, it's not a pre-build, which means that you do get the pleasure of building it yourself. However, it might as well be, as Corsair already puts together the configurations for you - there are three currently - taking out the involved research required when building a PC on your own. In fact, all we needed to do when we got our kit was to follow the detailed instructions and build it ourselves. Almost a no-brainer for beginners. Almost.
Of course, the base configuration we got isn't as powerful to see gamers through gaming on Ultra with everything turned up high. However, playing Hogwarts Legacy on it was a favorable experience, thanks to its smooth performance with no noticeable lags, even with ray tracing at low. Same deal with Kena: Bridge of Spirits, which it handled beautifully, giving us smooth gameplay.
Sadly, the base configuration won't give you RGB components or even an RGB-lit case, but upgrade to the mid-range or high-end configuration, and you're getting a nicely-lit setup. Just be prepared to pay a lot, as Corsair never rolls out anything that's cheap where its gaming PCs are concerned.
Read our full Corsair PC Build Kit review
Gaming PC with the best cooling
The Origin Chronos V3 is not for the budget-minded with its exorbitant price tag, but this small mid-tower option is worth it if you can afford it, and for several reasons. Despite being small and compact, it's extremely customizable, so it feels like you're building your own PC without doing all that work. And it looks good as well, looing great while offering a premium design.
It's also extremely powerful, with our own review configuration delivering smooth 1440p gaming on max settings during testing. Our standard test from Total War: Warhammer III and Dirt 5 provided frame rates that all went above 200 when using Ultra settings. Most importantly, however, it's as quiet as a mouse. It stayed quiet during our use even when it was pushed and running at full throttle.
The only downsides here, apart from the price, are that it's not upgrade-friendly, making it not the most future-proof option, and its port access is an adjustment. Still, if you want a powerful gaming PC that maintains a quiet gaming space, this is the one to get.
Read our full Origin Chronos V3 review
The best for 1080p gaming
We couldn’t decide if we liked the monolithic stature of the HP Omen 25L or its fun RGB-filled lighting emanating from the front and through the side glass panel. Either way, this computer makes a statement. And, considering that this is really a mid-tier gaming PC, that’s more than we would have expected.
Its performance is more in line with its mid-range stature, which means it’s not going to break any records. Instead, it gave us solid 1080p performance in our testing, allowing us to get good results in games like Cyberpunk 2077. And, we even managed some decent 4K results with games like Battlefield 2042.
Of course, there have been issues out there with overheating GPUs, but that’s what the warranty is for. More importantly, if there are any issues, this PC has easy tool less access to the internals. Just a push of a button and the whole glass side panel can easily be removed.
Read our full HP Omen 25L review
The best value gaming PC
While the Acer Predator Orion 3000's higher-end configurations don't sit in the budget department, we did find its more affordable versions offer absolutely incredible value for money, with performance-per-dollar beating out most other gaming PCs. Our review unit achieved 7,160 points in the PCMark10 test, scoring higher than 93% of other PCs. That's why it takes the top spot on our best budget gaming PC list - despite the fact that its fans do struggle during the most intensive gaming sessions.
It's also superbly built, something that Acer's Predator PCs have in common, with an attention to detail that’s practically unrivaled and a tidy, compact design that makes it much more portable and easy to move around than many of its competitors. Of course, its RGB lighting is also something to behold, made even better by the FrostBlade fans and light bars on the side.
An easy-to-upgrade chassis means that this is a gaming PC that could last you for years, with performance in the base model making it easily capable of playing the latest games at 1080p or even 1440p right now. It’s certainly a compelling purchase for gamers who care just as much about aesthetics as they do about performance.
Read our full Acer Predator Orion 3000 review
The best AMD gaming PC
Not only do we love Alienware’s suite of apps to keep things running quickly and smoothly, but we’re also impressed by the Aurora R10’s gorgeous looking case, which we think is one of the more attractive out there. But, the Alienware Aurura R10 Ryzen Edition is more than just a pretty computer.
It’s a powerhouse, especially in its more robust configurations. We were able to test one equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU, not to mention 32GB of RAM, and it flew through all of our tests without breaking a sweat. 1080p gaming on Ultra regularly hits above 100+ FPS, and we can even turn on ray-tracing for some games, though it’s not quite as widely implemented for AMD-powered machines as it is for ones packing an Nvidia GPU.
Of course, that configuration, like most Alienware PCs, is not light on the wallet, though its most stripped down configuration with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, Radeon RX 5300 , and 8GB RAM is a little more reasonable. However, if you really want to experience the Alienware magic, be prepared to spend.
Read our full Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 review
The best compact gaming PC
The Corsair One i300 is exhibit one when it comes to proving that you don’t need a behemoth to get fantastic gaming results. This absolutely (relatively) tiny gaming PC takes high-end components like an Intel Core i9-12900K and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and crams them in a case not much bigger than an Xbox Series X.
And, while this small size means that you probably will be forgoing any future upgrading as the innards are fit together like a well-played game of tetris, we found it to still run smoothly and, more impressively, quietly. Its power is something to behold. We were able to, for example, run demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K at max settings with ease.
Just know that as exceptional and compact as the Corsair One i300’s form factor is, you’re going to have to pay for it. In fact, you can probably get two normal-sized powerful gaming PCs for the price of this one. However, if you have the money but prefer something space-saving, it's truly worth the money.
Read our full Corsair One i300 review
How to choose the best gaming PC for you
How to choose the best gaming PC for you
Since building your own PC can be pricey and/or a bit of a hassle, buying the best gaming PC you can afford definitely makes the whole process easier. And with some recent offerings from companies like HP and Dell, you don't even necessarily have to spend a fortune either. Still, it's always good to go in knowing what you're looking for within your budget.
Whether you’re playing the best PC games or the best free games to save a bit of coin, your priority should be choosing something that manages to be within your budget without compromising on performance or scrimping on vital features like a healthy port selection and appealing RGB lighting.
That could very well mean a pricey desktop PC that will see you through 4K gaming, or one of the best budget gaming PCs that will give you a smooth 1080p gaming experience. Don’t worry so much about the frills and the design unless your budget is flexible or you’ve got deep pockets.
Once you’ve decided on your budget, you should pick a computer with the best GPU you can afford. You’ll want at least an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 if you plan on gaming in 4K while an RTX 3060 Ti can handle 1440p gaming. While you want a CPU that can keep up like Intel Core i5 or i7, pre-built PCs won’t come with underperforming CPUs.
You should also make sure you have enough speedy RAM and fast storage capable of keeping up. These days, an 8GB DDR4 memory is the bare minimum, but upgrade to 16GB if you can. Plenty of SSD storage is ideal as well, since many top titles take up a lot of space, although you can always get an additional drive later down the line.
Finally, make sure you have enough money for quality peripherals as well. After all, a gaming PC is only as good as its peripherals. Only when coupled with the best gaming monitor and the best gaming keyboards will yours be the stuff of legends.
Is it better to build or buy a gaming PC?
Whether to build or buy a gaming PC, that is the question. For some PC gamers, building a system is the only way to go, as this lets you customize your rig to very precise specifications. Unfortunately, finding the individual components you need to build a PC is getting tougher than ever. As much as you might want to build a custom gaming PC, you might not actually be able to do so.
If that's the case, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with buying a gaming PC. No, you might not be able to precisely customize it to your liking, but if what you want to do is play your favorite PC games, then buying one of the best gaming PCs you can afford will simply make the whole process easier.
Should you get a gaming PC or a next-gen console?
There may not be a clear answer to settle the gaming PC vs next-gen console debate, but there are a few key things you should consider before buying either one. Both pieces of technology will flawlessly play the biggest game releases, but consoles like the PS5 still have exclusive games like Horizon Forbidden West that can’t be played anywhere else.
Next-gen consoles are also an all-in-one package with the console and at least one controller in the same purchase. Gaming PCs require a tower, monitor, keyboard, and mouse - most of which all have to be purchased separately. The cost for PC gaming accessories only goes up when you want to get things like the best gaming keyboard, best gaming mouse, and best PC gaming headsets.
Both next-gen consoles and gaming PCs have been affected by component shortages, making it difficult to find consoles as well as newer PC gaming parts. If you can get these items for retail price it won’t be as much of an investment, but it has become increasingly difficult to find reasonable prices amongst scalpers. Stock often sells out fast as well, making it hard to get your hands on either technology.
So, is a gaming PC better than a next-gen console? Not necessarily, especially if you don’t have the room to devote to all the aspects of a PC gaming rig. However, the best gaming PC will run on-par with the newest next-gen consoles so it’s ultimately about the gaming experience you’re looking for - choosing between a next-gen console or gaming PC is a win either way.
How we tested these gaming PCs
A gaming PC is a big purchase that shouldn’t be taken lightly, which is why we don’t take our testing lightly either. Testing gaming PCs is always a comprehensive undertaking for us, using it to play not only the latest or hottest games but also older yet still demanding titles as well, noting things like performance – especially in gaming – as well as noise and thermal efficiency. We also run synthetic benchmarks like PCMark 10, 3DMark, and Geekbench 5.
Furthermore, we take a look at its design, things like availability of ports, expandability and upgradability, RGB lighting, and accessibility that its chassis offers. Build quality is an important factor in comparison to the asking price, so if any piece of hardware feels cheap or flimsy in an expensive product, it's going to get marked down. For good measure, we’ll also check how it does with daily tasks, because most of us don’t only use our gaming PCs for gaming; it serves as our everyday computer as well.
We then take everything we’ve learned about the gaming PC and compare it to its price – whether or not its performance and features are worth that price tag, and whether or not it offers the best value to customers.
For more information about our process, see how we test.
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