The Best Prebuilt Gaming PC Under $1000 of 2024
To continue the series of prebuilt gaming PCs, today we will introduce to you the top 14 Best Prebuilt Gaming PCs under $1000. There are reviews, buying guides, and FAQs available for you to read.
Reviews
1. CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme VR Gaming PC
CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme VR Gaming PC is now the best-prebuilt gaming PC priced under $1000. The processor here is the Intel i5-10400F with a CPU clock speed of 2.9GHz and can be turbo boosted up to 5GHz. Obviously, we can’t compare the performances of an i5 and an i7 processor, but $200 is worth considering.
The RAM, however, is a little low with 8GBs of RAM that came with the set. You can purchase one or two separate RAMs to upgrade your computer to the next level. In exchange for that, we get a great NVIDIA 1660 super 6GB dedicated memory, just like the iBUYPOWER. Therefore, this computer can handle highly required graphics games but not highly RAM required tasks such as editing 8K videos or so. Out of the box, the mainboard gives you plenty of 6 USB ports of 3.1 and a Wi-Fi ac network card. The PC case is RGB lighted with 7 colors, and that’s still great. Last but not least, we don’t see an HDD here but a 500 GB SSD built-in. The capacity might not be a lot, but be reminded, it’s SSD
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CPU: Intel Core i5-10400F
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RAM: 8GBs
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500GB SSD
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NVIDIA GTX 1660 super
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Genuine Windows 10 Home
2. OMEN 25L Gaming Desktop PC
Standing on top 2 of our list, we introduce OMEN 25L Gaming Desktop PC. This is one of the best gaming PCs we can find at a price of a little over $1000. This computer set offers you the powerful Intel Core i7-10700F. The CPU’s base frequency is 2.9GHz, but it can be turbo boosted up to 4.8GHz. It comes with 16GB of RAM and can be upgraded up to 64GBs. The set is made to be gaming-ready out of the box with an NVIDIA GeForce 1660 super with 6GBs of dedicated memory.
The video card supports one DVI, one HDMI, and one DisplayPort, meaning that you can simultaneously mirror 3 screens at the same time, of course, if your computer is strong enough to handle it. A 500GB SSD drive is ready for you to store your operating systems and 1TB of HDD for you to put your data in. The ports are various, including 4 USB 3.0 ports with backward compatibility, 2 USB 2.0, and 1 Ethernet RJ-45. I never understand why brands have to manufacture mainboards with 2.0 USB ports while the backward compatibility is so great. The ethernet card is the standard 1Gbps; plus, you get an additional set of mouse and keyboard and a Wi-Fi card for free. Finally, you get a 16-color RGB case to make your computer look cool.
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Intel Core i7-10700F 8 cores 16 threads
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NVIDIA GTX 1660 6GB dedicated memory
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500GB of NVMe SSD
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Lots of ports
3. OMEN 25L Gaming Desktop PC
OMEN 25L Gaming Desktop PC is the budget choice of our article today. The PC also comes with an Intel 10400F, base frequency 2.9 GHz, and turbo-boosted 4.3GHz. The RAM capacity here is 8 GBs, you can upgrade later.
With this case, we can save some money but still get really good performance.
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CPU: Intel 10400F
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RAM: 8GBs
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500GBs of SSD
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NVIDIA GTX GeForce 1660 super
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RGB case and free keyboard mouse set
CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme VR Gaming PC, Intel i5-10400F 2.9GHz, GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6GB, 8GB DDR4, 500GB NVMe SSD, Wi-Fi Ready & Windows 10 Home (GXiVR8060A10)
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New Dell G5 Gaming Desktop, Intel Core i5-10th Gen, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super 4GB GDDR6, 256GB SSD +1TB SATA, 8GB RAM, Black (i5000-5378BLK-PUS)
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Dell XPS 8940 Special Edition Flagship Gaming Tower Desktop 10th Gen Intel Hexa-Core i5-10400 16GB DDR4 256GB SSD 1TB HDD AMD Radeon RX 5300 3GB WiFi USB-C Bluetooth Win10 Black
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Dell XPS 8940 Desktop Computer, Intel Hexa-Core i5-11400 up to 4.4GHz (Beat i7-10700), 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB PCIe SSD, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, Type-C, Keyboard and Mouse, Windows 10
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Dell XPS 8930 Flagship Desktop Computer 9th Gen Intel Hexa-Core i5-9400 (Beats i7-7700HQ) 32GB DDR4 512GB SSD 1TB HDD USB-C Keyboard Mouse MaxxAudio WiFi Win 10
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SkyTech Shadow 3.0 Gaming Computer PC Desktop - Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core 3.6GHz, GTX 1660 Super 6G, 1TB SSD, 16GB DDR4 3000, AC WiFi, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, Black
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- BrandSkytech Gaming
- Prime
SkyTech Shadow Gaming Computer PC Desktop - Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core 3.6GHz, 1660 Super 6G, 1TB SSD, 16GB DDR4 3000, A520 MB, RGB Fans, AC WiFi, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, Black
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SkyTech Blaze II Gaming Computer PC Desktop - Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core 3.6GHz, GTX 1660 Super 6G, 500G SSD, 16GB DDR4 3000, B450 MB, RGB, AC WiFi, Windows 10 Home 64-bit
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Skytech Archangel Gaming Computer PC Desktop – Ryzen 5 3600 3.6GHz, GTX 1660 6G, 500GB SSD, 8GB DDR4 3000MHz, RGB Fans, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 802.11AC Wi-Fi
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Skytech Archangel Gaming Computer PC Desktop – Ryzen 5 3600 3.6GHz, GTX 1660 Super 6G, 500GB SSD, 16GB DDR4 3000MHz, RGB Fans, Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 802.11AC Wi-Fi
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- Prime
Dell XPS 8940 Gaming Desktop (Latest Model) I7-10700(8-CORE, UP to 4.80GHZ) 16GB 2933MHZ RAM 512GB PCIe SSD + 1TB HDD NVidia GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6 WiFi 6 Win 10 Home (Renewed)
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VR Ready HP Pavilion Gaming PC Desktop Computer, Intel Core i5-9400F, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Windows 10 (690-0073w, Black)
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OMEN 25L Gaming Desktop PC, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super, 10th Generation Intel Core i5-10400F Processor, HyperX 8 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Windows 10 Home (GT12-0020, 2020)
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HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop TG01-1167c Intel Core i7-10700F 2.9GHz 16GB 1TB + 512GB SSD Windows 10 (Renewed)
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Last update on 2024-03-19 / Affiliate links / Images, Product Titles, and Product Highlights from Amazon Product Advertising API
Gaming PCs are constructed by many parts. Therefore, we found ourselves not able to categorize them in whole. Instead, we categorize the PCs by different ways:
1. The CPU - Intel or AMD
Comparing Intel and AMD is like comparing Apple and Samsung. Awarding a winner is simply not possible, because there isn’t any. Intel has updated its lineups with the Core-i9 and the newest 11th generations, sadly still 14nm like Sky Lake 6th. AMD, on the other hand, used to be beaten down by Intel for a long time, has just prevailed to their Ryzen lineup, which has been complimented by gamers all around the world. These are some CPUs for gaming from both brands:
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Intel Comet Lake (10th)
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Intel Rocket Lake (11th) upcoming
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Intel Xeon
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AMD Ryzen 9
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AMD Ryzen 7
A major difference between Intel and AMD CPUs is that Intel CPUs are flat, which means there are thousands of little springs made into the socket, while AMD sockets are flat, making the CPU embedded with thousands of tiny little pins. That makes the Intel socket easier to be damaged while the AMD CPUs are easier to be broken. In both situations, the CPU-socket pair wouldn’t work. However, considering high-end CPUs are much more expensive than high-end motherboards, Intel’s way might be better.
Typically, an AMD CPU is cheaper than an Intel CPU relatively. You might somehow see that the AMDs are priced more than the Intels, but if you put in the performance perspective, the AMD chips are slightly cheaper than the Intel ones with the same performance. In exchange for that, we get better compatibility and other exclusive features on the Intel name as Intel has been around for more than anyone in the field, and it’s been collaborating with a lot of companions.
For under $1000, you can buy a gaming PC; however, you should probably consider an AMD CPU because of the price. AMD works perfectly with the RADEON graphics cards, so that should be a good choice for an affordable gaming PC set.
2. Storage
Many customers think of RAM for what they consider when buying a computer. However, when you walk in the programmers’ shoes in this, there are a lot of things to think about. L1, L2, L3 cache storages are the first things the CPUs come in contact with, which means if the speed and capacity of those storages are good enough, the performance of the computer would be significantly improved. To help you understand the differences, take a look
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The L1, L2, L3 cache: The first 3 levels of cache are the fastest memory spaces that can be accessed from the CPU - the former is faster than the latter - meaning if the CPU reads or writes a value into those spaces, it would be even faster than writing or reading on RAM.
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The Random Access Memory (RAM): The term “Random Access” has meanings hidden. Unlike rotating devices, the traditional HDD for instance, the Random Access Memory can read and write a value to anywhere on its storage instantly. It’s different from the rotating devices, when you have to wait for the disk to rotate to the position you need then you’ll be able to read or write, which reduces dramatically the speed and most importantly the price of the storage. Therefore, RAM is expensive, so people don’t make these 512 GB RAMs to store your games, photos, but only 8GB or 16GB RAMs to store things temporarily to assist the CPU. A RAM has a bus speed, at which it communicates with the CPU, and the capacity such as 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB.
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Read-Only Memory: It makes our developers so itchy when someone says the ROM capacity of the computer is 256GBs, which is ridiculous. The thing they were referring to is the external storage, which definitely is not ROM. ROM is the abbreviation for Read-Only Memory; read-only is suggested by the name. It’s the first ever code that every CPU has to read right after you press that power button. It contains every piece of start-up commands, BIOS settings of what operating system to boot, what the brand name is, … The BIOS size is typically small; therefore, the quality of this memory doesn’t usually matter. However, you would not want your BIOS to fail during usage, so you’d better understand it.
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Attached storage: Traditionally, an HDD was used in this situation. Now that the SSDs are becoming more popular, the SSD is used for gaming. SSDs work just like RAM, for the Random Access thing, but at a lower speed. SSDs are connected to the computer by the PCIe interface, which is the similar interface used to RAM and ridiculously fast, or the SATA, which is the interface used to be used for HDD, for a lower speed.
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To play games and other stuff: games require a lot of space to store but not as much as video content, so 512GBs of SSD storage would be very enough for storing games
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To edit videos and other intense computing stuff: videos, especially raw, take up terabytes and terabytes of space, so a 512GB SSD wouldn’t be enough. In fact, famous youtubers often use a 1TB or 2TB SSD as the main storage for their computers, and a set of multiple high-capacity HDDs as the archive storage for old video content.
3. BIOS settings
BIOS settings are important for gaming PCs. Those settings are usually implemented by the brands, typically consisting of booting configurations, fan control, and the most important, overclocking.
Overclocking is an act of computer enthusiasts to literally “overclock” the CPU. They speed up the clock of the CPU so that the CPU thinks the time is running faster, thus pushing itself to work more. That sounds silly! But people are doing it. The BIOS capacity is the first thing you should look into if you want to do experiments on your CPUs
Be noted that overclocking needs expertise in the field. If you do something wrong, the motherboard and the CPU might be permanently damaged.
4. Cooling system
For a gaming PC, I would normally suggest the buyers to go for a water cooling system; however, a water cooling system is an expensive solution, hence, for the price under $1000, you’ll probably have to give up that idea. You should consider upgrading the cooling system in the future instead of buying it prebuilt.
Editing videos or playing games are among others the most extreme tasks pressuring the computer. Consequently, the computer produces a lot of heat doing the tasks, and the need now is to distribute the tremendous amount of heat to cool the system down, helping prevent the system from exploding and performance dropping; these efforts are made to achieve one true goal, to keep the system performance stabilized. Two types of cooling system are used, which are:
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Air cooling system: The noise you often hear when turning on the computer is the noise of the fan or fans. The fans are designed to make an air flow around the computer to distribute the heat and eventually for the heat to escape through the tiny holes on the mainframe. The aluminum case on some modern laptops also helps to do it because metals conduct heat better than plastic, and metals are thinner.
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Water/Liquid cooling system: This type of cooling system has no disadvantage at all, provided that the price is excluded. Water cooling provides a silent solution to flow the heat out of the mainboard; it does that much more effectively than air cooling without making any sound at all. Heat is taken out of the CPU by a special type of liquid or on some cheaper version, water, that always flows around a closed set of tubes, carrying the heat outside. Again, this type of system has nothing to be criticized, but the drawback here is the price. It’s so expensive that it can’t be used in normal affordable computers.
5. The performance
Gaming PCs have to be intense. The exchange is the price, sky-high. That is when you have to play highly detailed games with high frame rates on a high resolution. Examples for that might be the latest Metro Exodus or the Hitman, and those aren’t meant to play on computers under $1000. You can get around with that somehow, but you wouldn’t get a decent playing experience.
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For low-end normal games: This type is for people who wish to play popular low system requirement games and can compromise much. Some games you can play at this level are the leagues of legends with the low graphics mode. This type of PCs is cheap, by the way.
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For mid-range games: This type is slightly more expensive. PCs that we categorize into this range are usually packed with water cooling systems.
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For the highest performance required games: built to play intense FPS or complicated games on the highest configurations. It can play well games in 4K or even 8K with the frame rate of 60 frames per second or even 120 frames per second.
6. Special requirements
New computers come with support for news features. We list out some of them here:
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HDR support: HDR produces colors which are much richer and brighter than normal color definition. It’s been adopted into phones for a long time and is now being used on many new monitors and supported by many high-end graphic cards.
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Water cooling: As we stated before, water cooling improves the stability of the system when intense tasks must be done consistently.
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Wi-Fi and Ethernet adapter: Networks are also important for gameplay as a low-latency connection is a must for battle real-time games. That’s why adapters for Wi-Fi and Ethernet must be considered before buying a PC.
Read more:
- Best Gaming Laptops Under $1000
- Best Prebuilt Gaming PCs Under $3000
- Best Prebuilt Gaming PCs Under $500
1. Can I upgrade my PC’ configurations?
Absolutely. That’s the point of gaming PCs. Upgrading is the most important feature of a hand-built PC because the needs vary among people. All of the products we have recommended have support for upgrading with additional RAM slots, SATA ports and openable cases.
2. How do I set up the computer after I get it?
Unfortunately, we have all introduced PCs in this article, and a PC doesn’t come with a separate monitor. Therefore, you need to buy a monitor to work with your computer.
Another option for you is to buy a laptop; however, the compromises are the price, the size, and the stability on intense tasks. Here are the monitor options for you.
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Refresh rate: 120Hz or 240 Hz
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Resolution: 1080p, 4K or even 8K
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HDR compatible or not
When you have your monitor, these are what you need:
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Power cords for your PC and monitor, which usually come with the product
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HDMI cable, also often comes with the product
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Ethernet cable, which you can easily buy off any PC stores
Firstly, you plug everything in, including but not limited by the HDMI cable connecting the PC and the monitor, the Ethernet cable connecting the PC to the network router, the power cord for the monitor, and the power cord for the PC. Secondly, you need to press the button to power on the PC. Finally, you complete the setup by doing some software setup and tweaks for your best PC.
3. What about the warranty?
The PCs usually come with separate warranty policies for separate parts of the computer. Typically, all the parts are warranted for at least 1 year by the brand, and because it’s a built PC, those parts can be taken out of the computer and be repaired separately.
4. How much power do I need?
Gaming takes up a lot of power, so you can’t be expecting that it would be an energy-saving option for you to own a cool gaming set. The CPUs and GPUs nowadays are programmed to cut down a hefty percentage of their power usage when they’re in idle states. The power consumption, on average, should be expected to be around 500W to 750W.
5. What operating system comes with the PCs?
All the computers we have recommended include Windows 10 operating system OOB. Sometimes, the brands don’t want to do that. Some others cut the cost of the PCs by installing freeware operating systems, Ubuntu for instance. If you have bought a Linux pre-installed PC, you'll probably end up with buying a genuine version of Windows because games built to run on Linux operating systems are not many. Fortunately, Steam has been available to Linux users for a while, despite the fact that many games on the platform are only available to Windows users.
Gaming PCs are great but it’s an expensive hobby. For beginners of the gaming geek world, it does not seem like a wise option to spend $3000 on the latest gaming PC without considering things. $1000 is a popular range of price for those people. We want to sum up this article by pointing out the best gaming PCs under $1000:
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The Best Prebuilt Gaming PCs under $1000: Skytech Archangel Gaming Computer PC Desktop, or HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop Core i5-9400F.
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The runner-up: CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme VR Gaming PC
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The budget choice: Skytech Archangel Gaming Computer PC Desktop
The last thing we are supposed to remind you at the end of this article is, that gaming PCs are made to be customized. The CPUs are meant to be replaced. The RAM slots are meant to be filled. The SATA interfaces aren’t meant to be empty. Therefore, be sure to think clearly before buying your computer and make sure of the upgrade capability.