It's certainly with high-end PCs, but beyond the budget of most of us. Fear not, however, as many versions of these gaming PCs come with very economical price tags that can run just about any title and level up gameplay without breaking the bank.
The HP Victus 15L is literally a top-of-the-line gaming PC for modest budgets, offering quite a good compromise between affordableness and the amount of power it carries. With 10th generation Intel Core processors under its hood and housing the best AMD or Nvidia graphics at its core, it can gladly accommodate your latest playthrough. And its compact design ensures that it won't take up half your floor space.
The word, which defines this product here, is "affordable," and it really all starts with AMD's reliable, though very cost-effective parts. You won't be running the titles like Cyberpunk 2077 at their maximum settings, but you should get smooth performance from most games. It also boasts a generous port selection and of course can be used as a handy space-saving option. We are highly experienced in budget gaming PCs and would be more than glad to guide the customer toward the perfect option that would balance performance with affordability. We have listed a list to make a compromise on both, such that it will ensure meeting every sort of budget and requirement so that one can browse with confidence.
If aesthetics is the kind of place in your heart that power holds, you'll be fall-over-head-in-love with the MSI Trident 3 10th if you find yourself onto the gaming-orientated design.
The angular tower is roughly the size of a home console, so it won't hog too much desk real estate and could even wedge itself into the gap of a TV stand if you like to play using a controller from the comfort of the sofa instead. It comes with an included removable base if you would rather mount it upright, either. It's not all looks, either.
But that small gaming PC packs an awful lot of power under the hood for a whole lot less than its peers sporting 10th-generation Intel Core processors and best Nvidia RTX and GTX graphics. Heck, it's even cheaper than many of the gaming PCs on this list, and at its Intel Core i7 + RTX 2060 Super +16GB RAM configuration, is going to be a heck of a lot less expensive than an HP Omen 25L that's similarly-equipped. For the fan of AMD, however, the Legion Tower 5 Gen 6 (AMD) is a nice deal since it's for persons who are interested in purchasing an affordable gaming desktop that can be used as well to serve work purposes.
This budget comes at very cheap price, cutting so many things, including flashiness concerning aesthetics of gaming that, in this case, works in its favor because its design is simple, thus fitting anywhere in the office and most spaces.
Also turns out to be quite efficient in terms of not eating too much space, and the selection of ports is quite nice, though that's got an odd mixture in it-an extra USB-C port would have been pleasant too.
Not a budget option, as such, it proved rather impressive in our testing. You won't have it running games like Cyberpunk 2077 at anything much above low settings, of course-but admirably ran any PC game we threw at it quite smoothly. Best Compact The Acer Predator Orion 3000 comes in many, many configurations, the most powerful of which is going to cost far, far more than most budget gamers are willing to pay.
This base configuration is much easier to swallow under $1,000 and its GTX 1660 graphics card paired with an Intel Core i5 processor back up by 16GB of RAM.
It no longer sells through Acer, but it can still be found at retailers, and should offer enough graphical oomph for at least 1080p gaming in a post-RTX 3000 world, without ever really needing to compromise too much in the graphical settings menu.
Slimmest gaming PC
PC by any stretch of the imagination, but with outstanding piecemeal upgrade potential down the line, the Orion 3000's chassis isn't oversized like some gaming rigs and has been cleverly designed to fit besides a monitor or underneath a desk, with vented front and side panels doing a fine job in keeping the thermal performance excellent.
The rest of the design flaunts this 'gamer aesthetic' one would fancy, thanks to RGB lighting and a large, triangular power button that's very satisfying to press. The very best office PC. Lenovo Legion Tower 5i is, in fact, fully fledged gaming computer, which it puts very well into a dedicated office machine.
Excellent performance in 1080p offerings, and this means that even the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 managed to happen on Ultra settings at 77 fps during our benchmark testing. This also translated into an ideal high-end editing and creative product meant for the office, a blessing given the extremely affordable pricing of just over $1,000.
Even better, with this level of performance, there are many more vents around the chassis so you can last much longer in much intense gaming sessions without the danger of your PC overheating.
We tested it, and sure enough, the ventilation system holds up quite well. And if you care for aesthetics, the Legion Tower 5i is pretty simple yet stunning with glass side panels exposing magnificent RGB lighting along with an amazing component build.
It has a few downsides, but most notable, it cannot possibly deal with ray tracing because the framerate and overall performance drop drastically any time that is enabled. Port selection is only average, and there is also a bit too much bloatware installed as well. Except for those downsides, Legion Tower 5i is an awesome gaming PC at an even better price. Minimalist Pc Build
While the HP Victus 15L is dramatically cheaper and much smaller, this is to be expected at the cost of specifications from previous generations, so compared to the HP Omen 25L, which boasts extra RGB lighting and ships with a glass panel, if aesthetics is your biggest priority, then this would be your better purchase.
Of course, the HP Omen 25L is also a bit more powerful than the above again, owing to the newer-gen specs involved. What we found, in our review, was rock-solid performance, something that will satisfy just about anyone's 1080p gaming needs. Indeed, it averaged 86fps when we ran Cyberpunk 2077 on Ultra, and an equally impressive 89fps in Total War: Warhammer III, which also used Ultra.
We also like its tool-less access, and while the port selection on it is just only enough to be all right, there are enough there to connect all your peripherals.
That's just a mention here. We advise only on the base configuration. Over that, you already fall in the mid-range category. If it's just a bit more flexible in your budget, then go for a higher configuration by all means. But if you want this gaming PC at a budget price, then you're stuck with its entry-level model. How to Choose
Finding the best budget gaming PC is certainly no easy task. After all, there are hundreds and hundreds of different manufacturers, and an almost huger range of configurations. We survey all these kinds and compare them to other PCs in their class in order to compare everything from price to performance to build quality.
Be sure that you look into what you may want as a human being in terms of PC gaming.
Now, if you are essentially playing 2D indie games or such esports games as League of Legends and Valorant, then you won't need this superpower machine at all because most titles are very well-optimized for entry-level hardware. Meanwhile, if you want to play the demanding AAA graphically, you will have to spend a bit more to get the best.
Resolution matters here, though; are you going to be okay with a 1080p full HD monitor, or perhaps something more upscale at 4K 120Hz? If you're gaming on a higher resolution, you will need something of a far more substantial GPU so you can keep your framerates looking healthy without sacrificing too much in the graphical settings.
This content was last updated on 22 November 2024.
