The best gaming PC for every type of gamer in 2022

 

PC gaming continues to grow in popularity, but buying a gaming PC can still be a hassle due to technical jargon, ongoing product shortages, and a vast market to navigate. Plus, the global processor shortage continues to drive component prices up, leading many gamers to opt for pre-built gaming PCs instead of building their own.

A pre-built gaming PC will meet most PC gamers' needs without the added efforts of finding parts at competitive prices and assembly. There are also more choices than ever, letting PC shoppers choose between a range of budget and premium machines.

Below is our list of picks for the best gaming PCs from pre-built manufacturers based on personal and industry experience as well as research into stock availability and the best configurations at certain prices. After that, we explain what to look for when buying a gaming PC and cut through the common jargon with a glossary of terms to help you make the most informed buying decision possible.

Here are the best gaming PCs of 2022:

Best gaming PC overall: Corsair Vengeance i7300, available at Corsair, $4,399.99
This Corsair model offers the best in graphics and processing hardware available with zero expenses spared.

Best gaming PC for beginners: HP Victus 15L Gaming Desktop, available at HP, $734.99
The HP Victus 15L offers decently reliable performance and the basic, must-have features for an affordable price.

Best gaming desktop under $1,500: HP Omen, available at HP, $1,379.99
The HP Omen comes containing the latest hardware and plenty of ways to update and expand.

Best gaming desktop under $2,000: Dell Alienware Aurora R10, available at Dell, $1,999.99
The Alienware Aurora R10 features deep customization options with adjustable pricing.

 

 

Best Gaming in Store Available : 



DRAKEN-T5 RTX Gaming PC

Specification : المواصفات

- Intel Core i5-11400F

- Gigabyte Motherboard B560M

- 16GB Ram 3200MHz RGB

- EVGA RTX 3060 Ti 8GB

- SSD 480GB

- PSU EVGA 750W

- RGB Case Brufen C1 W/Fans

- RGB CPU Cooler

- WiFi Adapter

 

 

 

Corsair Gaming PC Ready-For Play

A black rectangular desktop computer with blue, purple, and yellow lights from the inside of the computer

Corsair

The Corsair Vengeance i7300 provides the best parts available with no compromises.

This Corsair setup may be twice as much as our other recommendations, but this build offers the best parts on the market and features like liquid processor (CPU) cooling for less than some of the competitors we have found. 

Inside the Corsair Vengeance are an Intel i9 12900k processor and Nvidia's RTX 3090 graphics card, making it capable of playing just about any game at 4K resolution with max settings. The 32GB of DDR5-4800 memory (RAM) is incredibly fast and should be more than enough for any game.

gaming PC for beginners

HP Victus Gaming computer with a white rectangular case
HP Victus 15L desktop gaming PC. 
HP

 

The HP Victus 15L offers solid performance and essential features for a low price.

The HP Victus 15L includes an older mid-range graphics card and a current processor that should be perfectly capable of handling most PC games at 1080p resolution with high or medium settings. 

The solid state drive will offer impressive speeds and load times, but an upgrade from the 256GB base storage will probably be necessary if you plan on playing games like "Call of Duty" and "Grand Theft Auto" that take up more than 100GB.

While the HP Victus may not pack more power than the latest consoles, like the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, it's a quality beginner desktop for gamers who can upgrade the computer later with better parts — which you can't do with a console.

gaming desktop under $1,500

The product card for the HP Omen 30L Gaming Desktop PC GT13-1380z.
HP

 

The HP Omen features the latest parts and plenty of ways to upgrade, making it the best pick at this price point.

The HP Omen series is heavily customizable, allowing you to choose between the latest AMD or Intel processors as well as the most recent graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia. A more affordable HP Omen model is available with an AMD RX 5500 graphics card, but you will find better value with the HP Victus if you want to spend less.

This PC will be fully capable of playing the latest games with maximum settings at 1080p, or with high settings at 1440p, but will likely struggle at 4K resolution. For that level of visual fidelity, you'll simply have to spend more money.

While you can certainly design an Omen that costs much more than $1,500, we've found that the configurations sold by HP at this price point offer more value than those at competitors, like Alienware and Lenovo. For example, a similarly priced Alienware R10 would have a slightly worse processor and a slower hard drive instead of a solid state drive. Lenovo's Legion Towers offer the least customization of the three brands and ultimately still end up more expensive than the HP Omen.

gaming desktop under $2,000

Alienware Aurora R10 gaming computer
Alienware Aurora R10 gaming PC 
Alienware

 

 

The Dell Aurora R10 offers deep customization with flexible pricing, making it a safe mid-range choice.

Like the HP Omen, the Dell Aurora series offers broad customization options to choose different processors and graphics cards, and specifically more choice from AMD.

While the AMD options are welcome, the Nvidia RTX 3080 is capable of playing most games at max settings and 1440p resolution, and can push your games to higher frame rates (at lower settings and resolutions) for monitors with high or variable refresh rates. Full 4K gaming will also be possible, though you might see some dips below 60 frames per second at the highest settings.

How we test and research gaming PCs

We have based our recommendations on 16 years of personal experience using PC gaming hardware, as well as referencing component benchmark performance tests performed by reputable outlets, like Eurogamer's Digital Foundry and Tom's Hardware. 

In addition to that, we have deeply researched the pricing and value of the brands, makes, models, and configurations that we recommend. If one brand offers a particular PC configuration for less than its competition, that's something we will thoroughly investigate.

However, because gaming PCs are so customizable, reviewing an individual build may not reflect the quality of every purchase option.

Gaming PC FAQs

What to look for when shopping for a gaming PC?

Pre-built gaming PCs offer multiple configurations, allowing gamers to upgrade certain parts of the computer. Primarily focus on the graphics card for visuals and storage for saving and loading games.

Check out our glossary of terms below for a breakdown of common gaming PC features and what to look out for within each category.

What specs should a gaming PC have?

What you need ultimately depends on what kind of games you'd like to play, and the overall quality you want to see. Find the experience you're looking for first and how much you're willing to spend. 

For example, you can spend more than $3,000 on a pre-built PC that can play any game at 4K quality, or you could spend under $1,000 for a gaming PC with comparable power to a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One X.

When shopping for parts, you should pay the most attention to the companies that make your computer's processor and graphics card. Intel and AMD are the leading creators of computer processors, while AMD and Nvidia are the leading producers in the graphics card market. Hardware like storage space and memory (RAM) will also depend on what games are being played, but 16GB of RAM is relatively standard for pre-built gaming PCs, and plenty for most gamers. 

Here is a handy chart for which parts you should consider to play PC games reliably at the three most common video resolutions:

Target Resolution 1080p 1440p 4K
Processor (CPU) AMD Ryzen 5600 or Intel Core i5 AMD Ryzen 5700X or Intel Core i7 AMD Ryzen 7 5800x or Intel Core i9
Graphics card (GPU) Nvidia GTX 1660 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT Nvidia RTX 3060Ti or AMD Radeon RX 6800 Nvidia RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 6800XT

Which is better, buying or building a gaming PC?

If you can find all the parts you need, building a PC will likely still be cheaper than buying pre-built, but be prepared to pay for things that normally come included with a pre-built machine, like a copy of Windows. 

Some pre-built gaming PCs will also come with a service warranty that covers the whole machine. So, you won't have to worry about dealing with different companies if a part breaks down and needs to be replaced, or you just need help.

Neither option is definitively better at this point, and it depends on how invested you want to be in PC gaming as a hobby. Putting together my first custom PC more than 10 years ago taught me tons about the parts I had taken for granted inside my PlayStation and Xbox consoles. 

However, if you don't have the time to handle your own repairs and just want to game instead of starting a hardware hobby, pre-built gaming PCs are customizable enough that you don't have to worry about getting sold short.

How long do gaming PCs last?

Gaming PCs can last for a long time, since desktop parts can be easily upgraded. Processors and graphics cards generally last about five years before it becomes necessary to upgrade to keep up with gaming trends.

Most gaming PCs will need to be replaced when the motherboard grows too old to work with new parts, as newly released processors and memory sticks occasionally change design and configuration compatibility for new features. 

Personally, I've built three different gaming PCs for myself since 2011, going about five years between major upgrades. However, many of the old parts I upgraded from still worked, so I was able to sell them and give them to friends for their own builds.

Glossary of terms 

Processor (CPU): The processor is essentially the brain of your gaming PC, executing the complex commands that control each part of the computer. Gaming PCs require strong CPUs to process large amounts of data during gameplay, impacting load times and frame rates. Some CPUs have built-in graphics processors that allow you to play basic games without a dedicated GPU to handle graphics output.

AMD processors are generally more affordable and energy efficient than Intel processors, but the latest 12th series Intel processors will outperform AMD in some games based on tests from Digital Foundry, a widely trusted benchmarking source. Ultimately both brands make great CPUs and the choice comes down to price and personal preference. 

Graphics Processor (GPU): If the CPU is the brain of your computer, the GPU is the heart. Your GPU is dedicated to handling the constant computations needed to produce the game's visuals while playing. Like the CPU, graphically intensive games will put more stress on the GPU, as will increasing the video resolution you play at. 

Your GPU will ultimately determine what level of graphics performance you can expect from your gaming PC, with prices ranging from $300 to $1,800. I primarily recommend Nvidia's 30 series GPUs, thanks to their impressive software support, but AMD GPUs are slightly more affordable and can see performance boosts when paired with an AMD CPU.

Random-access Memory (RAM): RAM determines how many tasks your computer can keep immediately accessible simultaneously, which is especially important when gaming. Typically, a minimum amount of RAM (8GB) is needed just to hold the complex worlds you see in games like Grand Theft Auto, but having additional RAM (16GB to 32GB) can also improve your overall load times.

Refresh rate: A term used to describe how often a display updates the picture on screen each second. Monitors with higher refresh rates will display more unique images per second, which means gaming PCs that output high frame rates of 60 per second or more will have even smoother looking animation on a high refresh rate display.

Storage (HD, SSD, M.2): Quite literally, storage describes how much space you have to store long-term data on your PC, and what type of drive it will be stored on. There are three types of storage drive available: hard disk drives, solid state drives, and M.2 drives.

The hard disk drive (HDD) is an older, slower storage type that uses a spinning disk encased in a magnetic material, but usually offers the most space for the least money. Solid state drives (SSD) don't have a physical disk inside and are capable of faster speeds than HDD.

M.2 and NVMe are the latest formats for solid state drives with even faster speeds and smaller sizes, but they're significantly more expensive than standard SSDs and HDDs for now.

Wi-Fi: A wireless network protocol using radio waves, often used to connect portable devices to the internet. In 2018 the group that owns the Wi-Fi trademark began identifying new versions of Wi-Fi numerically, and the latest format, Wi-Fi 6, was approved in February 2021. All of the PCs I recommend support Wi-Fi 6, meaning they are compatible with the widest possible range of devices.

Bluetooth: A relatively short range wireless format used to connect devices locally. Devices with the latest features are certified as Bluetooth 5.0 compatible to reflect the signal's improvements, but new devices remain backward compatible with older versions of Bluetooth. This is a common wireless connection used in computer mice, keyboards, and headphones.


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3 comments

  • Hey there! 🎮 Thanks for sharing this! I think a gaming PC can also be a great investment for productivity, like video editing or design work.

    Eric on
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    PlayStation 4 Repairing on
  • Good Content Helpful. Thanks 👍🏻

    Abdullah Alajmi on

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