RAM crisis got you down? Don't build a new PC — just get a pre-built system like this one instead

(Image credit: Future / Jouri Altorf)

It's no secret that PC-building has always been a potentially expensive hobby, but things are dire right now – desktop graphics cards remain expensive, and the RAM crisis keeps getting worse, with prices almost doubling just since the start of the year.

There was a golden era when building your own PC was significantly cheaper than buying a pre-built system; but sadly, it now seems that particular dream is dead. The good news, though, is that PC gamers looking to upgrade can sidestep the current component pricing crisis by simply buying a pre-assembled desktop. For now, anyway... it probably won't be long before the price spikes catch up to manufacturers, so if you've been deliberating an upgrade, don't delay.

With the Presidents' Day sales in full swing in the US, now is the perfect time to snap up a whole new system at a reduced price – and even better, if you're upgrading from an older system, you can go ahead and strip it for parts to sell and hopefully recoup some of your costs – I personally pulled the RAM out of an old desktop and sold it on eBay just this week! (If you're not in the US, scroll down to see the best desktop gaming PC deals in your region.)

If you do decide to bite the bullet and get yourself a new desktop gaming PC, I've taken the time to collate some of the very best deals in the current sales. Best Buy, as it so often does, has some of the best deals right now, although I've also included a direct-from-Dell deal on an Aurora desktop that caught my eye. To better help you choose, I've limited my selection based on the GPU: one model each packing the Nvidia RTX 5060, 5060 Ti, 5070, and 5070 Ti (listed in that order below).

In terms of bang for your buck, the best of these deals is inarguably the RTX 5060 PC - specifically, the Asus TUF T500 at Best Buy for $789 (was $959). It's a decidedly midrange system, but it should be able to easily handle most games at 1080p or 1440p with a little help from Nvidia's DLSS secret sauce. Considering that 16GB of DDR5-5200 RAM alone (the exact memory in that system) will cost you at least $230 right now, with prices still going up, it's a seriously good deal.