Best gaming PC deals in May 2021

So you want to play video games on your PC, huh? Well, you essentially have two basic choices. Build it yourself or buy a gaming PC. Personally, I’m in the build-your-own crowd, but it’s not always that easy. For one thing, building your own PC takes a lot of research to know what parts go with what and where and how to buy them. Then you have to build the thing, which takes a whole different level of understanding. And this day and age with all the bots snatching up the latest graphics cards and crypto miners buying them in bulk, a lot of prices have been artificially inflated.

The prevailing notion has always been that building your own PC is cheaper than a prebuilt, but that’s just not always the case anymore especially since 2020 wreaked havoc on supply lines. Plus sometimes buying a prebuilt is the best way to get access to the graphics cards you can’t find in stock, and the convenience of having someone else do the work can justify a few more bucks on occasion. Whatever your reason for needing a prebuilt gaming PC, we’ve got your back. These are the best deals available right now.

Best gaming PC deals:

HP Pavilion TP01 desktop PC | $150 off

You will have to pick this up in store, so hopefully you have an Office Depot nearby. The prebuilt desktop PC includes an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, 16GB RAM, a 256GB solid state drive, and Windows 10. It uses integrated graphics, but this is a mini PC designed to be compact.

$549.99 at Office Depot

Dell XPS special edition desktop

Includes an Intel Core i5 10400 processor, a Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 6GB graphics card, 16GB RAM, a 256GB NVMe M.2 SSD, and a 1TB 7200rpm hard drive. It also comes with Windows 10 Home and is ready for virtual reality if that’s something you want to explore.

$881.99 at Dell

Legion Tower 5 gaming computer | $110 off

This PC is built with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, 8GB DDR4 RAM, a 1TB hard drive, a 512GB solid state drive, and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super graphics card. It also has Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi, Windows 10, and comes with a USB mouse and keyboard.

$889.99 at Lenovo

CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme gaming desktop

The Intel Core i5-10600KF processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card are worth $650 by themselves. Not to mention it’s hard enough even finding those graphics cards in stock. The rest of the build includes 16GB RAM, a 500GB solid state drive, a 1TB hard drive, and Windows 10 Home.

$1,259.99 at Adorama

Alienware Aurora R10 gaming desktop pre-order

This PC has a very specific purpose: to get a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card without forking over your life savings. These are new PCs not released yet, but you can pre-order them now. If you convert to the RTX 3090 (and a 1000W PSU, which is necessary) then the minimum amount you’ll pay is $2,802.79. Worth the price considering all the extras as well.

Starting at $2,802.79 at Dell

CyberPowerPC Gamer Master 9500 desktop | $80 off

The specifications include an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 3.4GHz processor, 16GB RAM, and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card. For storage, you get a 500GB WD Blue SN550 NVMe solid state drive and a Seagate 2TB hard drive. It’s a liquid cooled machine inside a tempered glass case.

$2,955 at CyberPowerPC

If you want to build your own PC, go right ahead. Just be aware of some of the difficulties with the process. If you can’t be bothered with all the research and connecting of dots and just want something to game on right away, then maybe a prebuilt is more your style. Heck, if you want to play with the latest graphics you almost have to go prebuilt just to avoid how expensive modern cards are getting.