Best Gaming PC 2019 – Desktops Tested for Gamers

First up, most games these days are CPU capped. Meaning the GPUs are more than comfortable handling Extreme or ultra-high settings. This is where this desktop excels as unless you want to shell out an arm & a leg and go for Intel’s i9 series the i7-8700K is the best realistic target for most gamers. The high 3 figure price tag for the i9s make the 8th gen i7-8700K a no-brainer and this CPU is the best fit here.

Having said all of that the GPU is no slouch by any stretch of the imagination. 1080 might be the only upgrade that might be causing you some confusion, but we felt 1070 was more than capable of handling anything we threw at it. The 8GB VRAM & the speed was pretty good for gaming even the most demanding of titles like Battlefield, Warhammer 2 (which is known to be very much CPU capped) at very high frame rates. The monitors you use also vary your experience to ours, but it was quite positive in general. Generally, this fared well with 1080P gaming and 4K streaming.

The case is pretty elegant with 3.5mm jacks & USB slots at the top. This might make the front presentable, but if you have a tight setup regarding height, then the buttons might be annoying to access. You do get lifetime tech support despite the warranty for parts and labor being just 1 year. We felt this was still positive.

It has 16GB of ram, but you can very easily expand this to a 24 or change it for more. 16 is typically sufficient unless you are using highly demanding applications and like to multitask as well. Considering its predecessor on our list offered the 1080 & 32 GB of RAM we had some mixed feelings about the updated offering. The SSD, HDD hybrid of 240+1TB is quite standard among most gaming laptops & desktops, and at this price, this is the least we could expect. An SSHD or 512GB SSD would have made this even more competitive at this price point.

The RGB lighting which you control remotely is pretty cool, and you can see through as the sides made of tempered glass. As you can see at first glance, while it’s a neat setup on the inside, there’s insufficient room for expansion. Running an SLI setup (even though it’s not quite needed most of the time) is not possible without changing the motherboard itself to gain more room. Similarly, there isn’t any Blu-ray slot if you decide that’s the way you would like to go at any point in the future.

Liquid Cooling is always a fantastic addition and comes as an add-on with this rig. So if you are thinking of overclocking this turns out to be an absolute must unless you decide to run it with a giant air cooler than protrudes outside the case. This can add to the cost a tad and can make for a pricey package overall. If you decide overclocking isn’t your thing we’d be happy to report that this setup runs pretty quietly without any cooling issues. All in all, an impressive yet expensive desktop by iBUYPOWER. 

When gaming on a budget it’s always important to try to squeeze out the most for every penny you spend. Another thing that’s often overlooked which is also important is relevancy going forward. It is quite common to see questions like “I am looking to upgrade will this processor last me a few years? etc.” The i5-7400 is definitely a good gaming processor that will last you quite a while. While many view the 7600K as one of the best gaming CPUs that are highly affordable, then the 7400 isn’t far behind at all and more important will last you a few years at least. A slightly lower clock speed in comparison but most games do run well as the Geforce GTX 1060 does a lot of the heavy lifting.

The audio output quality we found to be quite exceptional, in-game and during music sessions. The Sonic Studio 3 and Sonic Radar offer a pretty immersive gaming experience. The lighting and the aesthetics look great, so it’s definitely a rig you can proudly show off. You can overclock this PC, and the ASUS interface will let you play around with the modes and fan speeds.

While this is one of the better ones in the budget gaming segment, this desktop does leave us wanting in some areas. The major one being storage. The 1TB 2.5HDD is frankly a tad slow. Your only other option would be a 512GB SSD which is a better bet but can cost you more. When you factor the price in along with the specs you find one even some cheap laptops that boast a 1060 card then you can question ASUS’s decision.

There are a fair few USB slots, a couple of 2.0s, a couple of 3.0s and a type-C slot for modern devices too. Cooling is something that pops into one’s mind especially when you see a PC this small. The ASUS does quite well in this department except when overclocking which can take a toll on any PC for that matter. The fan is reasonably quiet when performing basic tasks but can get slightly noisy during gaming sessions, but this is relatively negligible and was hardly an issue for us. The GR8 II-TO69Z despite its long designation is a compact powerhouse worthy of consideration by any gamer on a budget.

The CUK MSI comes with one of the best graphics cards on the market that can produce stunning 4K visuals. You have the option of upgrading this as well.

Usually, with a rig of this size, everyone will assume that cooling is its weak point. However, this rig can stay pretty cool thanks to the Silent Stormcooling design. Having said that, for the price it might be better to include a full liquid cooler in the model. This PC can handle games like Witcher 3, Doom and tomb raider very well.

One of its strong points is the storage. With the 2.5 terabytes you get, thanks to the Solid State Drive and the Hard Drive, you have plenty of space to store games and essential programs.

The SSD could have a bit quicker read/write speed we thought, considering how cheap they are becoming. This amount of storage is a rarity among PCs, which are even three times more expensive.

A neat feature that many gamers find appealing is to do with the aesthetics. You can customize the lights on the front of the tower using the inbuilt Nahimic app.

The audio thanks to the Nahimic surround sound are quite something as well. The sounds are so crisp and precise you will know exactly who is lurking in which part of the map. Who says it’s not possible to have eyes in the back of your head! Overall, a pretty solid gaming PC which can provide you a couple of fps shy of the best the market has to offer.

We’re reviewing the GTX980 version, and the load speeds and frame rates on games like the latest Need for Speed, Fallout 4 etc. The GTX980 might not be a 10 series card, but it can give most of the 10 series cards a run for its money. The card can run three 4K monitors quite comfortably.

The read and write speeds of the storage combo is quite incredible, and perfect for running games and intensive applications.

The angled design contributes to how the cooling system works on this desktop, compared to others. The model helps hot air escape more naturally, instead of circulating within or next to the casing.

Although NVidia GTX 980 is not a VR ready card on its own, the Alienware Vive-optimized PCs such as this one can handle VR quite comfortably, which makes it a stellar choice for games in the future. This desktop is also suitable for games like Bioshock Infinite, FIFA 17, Dying Light and most A+ titles!

This PC will easily allow you to game to the extreme, and design an aircraft wing in great detail if you have to. Where we think the Alienware is lacking, is the capacity of the SSD. A mere 128GB is a bit on the low side for storing essential programs and the ever-updating windows 10. Dell’s customer service isn’t that great either, so make sure you have your warranty set in case you run into any issues.

The rig can handle most games even at 4K, but if you run the games that have just released in late 2016, then you might face a drop in frame rates when running at ultra-high graphics settings. A great piece nonetheless, a great brand offering stability and fast performance.

This souped-up PC also boasts 32GB of RAM and over 2 TB of storage.

The customization options are aplenty, but if you happen to switch over to AMD hardware, then the two fans in the front and the two at the back might not suffice.

Cooling, we thought was good but not great overall. Especially when you overclock your processor, you notice a difference. Nonetheless, four fans in a large casing were quite the achievement design wise.

We recommend, you buy your own gaming keyboard and mouse, and use the ones you receive with this rig as a backup. For entry-level folks, this combo will serve you fine, however.

The price was we thought pretty high considering this is a mid-tower and not a full tower cabinet.

Ultimately the IBUYPOWER AM501X offers one of the best non-SLi PC gaming experience you can get in the market. It can handle the punishment given by games like Battlefield 1, Fallout 4, Witcher 3, Dishonoured, etc.

If you are in the habit of stacking up graphics cards or expanding things like your hard disk and more, then this PC can leave you a tad frustrated on that end. Among other things worth mentioning is that the motherboard is an X99 Chipset so that you can explore other options if need be. If you have no plans of upgrading individual components, then you can confidently buy this PC.

This PC can handle 4K gaming quite comfortably. The connectivity options are loaded with a total of 8 USB slots. However, none of them are a USB 3.1. The entire set includes a USB keyboard and Mouse as well.

The PC can offer you a 7.1 Channel HD audio experience, so you hear even the slightest rustling of leaves. Games like Call of duty: Advanced Warfare, Warhammer, Assetto Corsa, Dirt: Showdown and other 4k titles run well.

The clocking speed of the processor is slightly higher than that of the Alienware, and even the AM501X. The processor has four instead of the six cores you find on some of the others on this list. This, however, does not have too significant an effect on general performance.

The areas where we found the computer wanting was primarily storage related. The lack of an SSD was a big surprise. Considering how important it is for games and apps to load in an instant, the non-inclusion of the SSD was a big downside. The storage capacity, in general, was a bit low. A 2TB hard disk could be better to store ample amount of games, movies, and music.

A must mention how excellent the customer service is. They can answer any queries and quickly arrange fixes for any issues. This is something that makes this rig a very safe buy.

The PC has an AMD FX-400 which is a quad-core processor that can function at 3.8GHz. The graphics card is an R7 250 which has about 2GB of VRAM. A very basic card, but it can handle the majority of the games on the market. It also supports multiple displays which are pretty great. A fantastic choice for games like LoL or Counter Strike Global Offensive and most other games on steam. You get a gaming mouse and a keyboard as well.

As for the storage aspect, you have to make do with a 1TB hard drive, which can be more than sufficient for most gamers.

This PC can be ideal for MOBA and MMO games like LoL, Dota2, etc. On the connectivity side, you have 7 USB 2.0 ports. We expected at least a few USB 3.0 ports, as it has become a fundamental requirement these days. This PC doesn’t come with a wireless adapter, so LAN is the way to go if you need to game. This can be a bit of a pain if your router is away from where the rig is set up.

What could have made this PC great was the introduction of an SSD, instead of the keyboard and mouse which are a bit average. If you are starting out and need a PC to work hard and play hard, then this is the one for you!