• HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop — $650, was $800
• Lenovo Legion 5i Gaming Desktop — $900, was $1,000
• iBuyPower SlateMR Gaming Desktop — $1,050, was $1,150
• Alienware Aurora R10 Gaming Desktop — $1,323, was $1,710

HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop — $650, was $800

Why buy:

• Good specifications for the price
• Stylish look
• Comes with keyboard and mouse
• Dependable brand

For an inexpensive gaming desktop, the HP Pavilion covers many of the bases you need from a good system. It has an Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of memory, plus 256GB of solid-state drive storage. The latter is particularly useful for loading games quickly, in contrast to older, slower platter-based hard drives. That’s also enough room for installing the games you’re playing now along with a few of your old favorites. Alongside that is the most important part of a gaming PC: The graphics card. It has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super GPU, which is capable of handling many of the latest games without a problem. It’s just what you need to be able to play games for less than a full gaming rig while still seeing the delights of great graphics on your favorite titles.

Alongside all that is a pretty stylish case. It has plenty of ports, including numerous USB ports. There’s also both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, so you get the best connection possible. The tower comes with a keyboard and mouse, although you probably want to upgrade those to something better in the future. For a great way to get into PC gaming, the HP Pavilion is a perfect starting point. It has everything you need at a great price.

Also available

• HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop (Ryzen 7, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060): $1,200, was $1,300 — VIEW DEAL

Lenovo Legion 5i Gaming Desktop — $900, was $1,000

Why buy:

• Fast performance
• Stylish tower design
• Extensive hard drive space
• Possibly the best sub-$1,000 GPU

The Lenovo Legion 5i gaming desktop looks fantastic. It features a case that is stylish and well-designed for thermal performance. Underneath the hood is a surprisingly potent set of specs too, ensuring you can play all your favorite games with a minimum of bother. With whisper-quiet performance, you won’t have to worry about noisy fans disrupting your time enjoying playing a game, either.

The Legion gaming desktop offers an 11th-gen Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory, plus an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super GPU. That’s a great set of specs for the price whatever way you look at it, but the potential highlight comes from storage space. The desktop has a 256GB SSD plus a 1TB HDD, giving you tons of storage for your games. It’s plenty of room to install your favorite titles without having to worry about running out of space any time soon.

You can even back up crucial files across both drives to keep extra safe and secure. It’s also possible to connect a second monitor, which is sure to be useful for those potent gaming sessions or simply when you want more screen space while you work. This system is capable of handling that and much more, and it’s a solid value for less than a grand.

iBuyPower SlateMR Gaming Desktop — $1,050, was $1,150

Why buy:

• All the convenience of a desktop
• Great price
• Useful for work and play
• Configuration options if you want to use them

The iBuyPower SlateMR PC is a great way of ensuring you get all the benefits of a desktop setup with plenty of great gaming potential. Sleek and stylish, it’ll fit under your desk without any bother and looks pretty great, too. Under the hood, though, is everything you could need from a gaming setup, ensuring you can use it just as well for work and pleasure, giving you plenty of flexibility.

It’ll easily slide into your classy home space without looking too gamer-ish, while still offering all you could need. For the price, you get an AMD Ryzen 5 processor, 16GB of memory, and 480GB of SSD storage, plus an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card with 6GB of VRAM.

The beauty behind this desktop is that it’s possible to extensively customize your setup for a price by adding new hardware. The specs are plenty good enough for most gamers as they are, though, with around $1,000 buying you a lot of hardware. If portability isn’t important to you, then this is an ideal desktop setup. All you need to do is pair it with a monitor, or use an existing monitor or TV, and you’re able to enjoy playing all the latest titles at a high speed.

Also available

• iBuyPower Slate MR Gaming Desktop (Ryzen 7, 16GB RAM, Radeon RX 6600 XT): $1,200, was $1,350 — VIEW DEAL

Alienware Aurora R10 Gaming Desktop — $1,323, was $1,710

Why buy:

• High-end performance for less
• Fantastic processor
• Stylish tower design
• Great cooling features