If you're in the market for a new gaming rig, you might be asking if you should buy a gaming PC this Prime Day. Computers don't exactly come cheap these days, especially if you want something that can play 2024's biggest titles that are getting more and more demanding on their minimum specs sheets.
Black Friday is admittedly when we see the biggest discounts on computers and their components throughout the year, but Prime Day isn't to be slept on either. Outside of that, there aren't that many obvious points on the calendar you can point to as great times to budget for when it comes to PC deals. Luckily, Amazon Prime Day PC deals are pretty reliable, whether you're looking for a new GPU or a whole new rig.
Amazon is, however, the world's largest retailer, and when Prime Day kicks in, there are an unholy number of deals and products to sort through. Luckily, we have a list of the best gaming PCs that can keep you on the straight and narrow, although there will be plenty of configurations we'll be able to recommend to you this Prime Day based on our time with each brand and the parts that make up a build.
There's a lot to think about when asking if you should buy a gaming PC this Prime Day, and while we can certainly recommend good deals when we spot them, we've added some reasoning, analysis, and thoughts about who should be buying what, and how much you should be paying down below.
Budget gaming PCs (Under $1,000)
My goal when covering gaming PC deals during big sales events like this is to try to find the best rig under, or as close to a grand as possible. It's more than possible to find a capable gaming PC under $1,000/£1,000 these days, and you won't need to compromise as much as you'd think.
Even if the rig in question doesn't have one of the best graphics cards, it might be all you need to get started. Upscaling tech today is so good you'll cover yourself even if you get one of the more entry-level builds with recent-generation parts in it.
For processors, we'd think about futureproofing. 11th and 12th-generation Intel CPUs will be cheap as chips this Prime Day, but if it's a choice between them, absolutely go for the 12th. These are DDR5 compatible, and as long as you get a motherboard that plays ball, you'll set yourself up for years to come.
Buy a budget gaming PC this Prime Day if:
Which budget gaming PCs should you buy on Prime Day?
There is a wide selection of budget gaming PCs that we typically see for under the $1,000 mark in most instances. This includes cheap configurations from iBuyPower, the HP Omen 25L, Acer Predator Orion 3000, CyberPowerPC, Gamer Master, and various Skytech Gaming rigs.
Mid range gaming PCs (between $1,500 and $2,000)
If you're after a machine that can comfortably sit at 1440p in today's games, then it's likely you're going to be aiming for somewhere above $1,000, but likely under $1,800. Mid-range gaming PC hardware is beginning to be priced a little better these days (he says tentatively), depending on the brand you go for. For example, from our early tests with the Intel Arc A770, we can say it's absolutely worth going for if you don't have the money for a higher-end Nvidia or AMD GPU but still have ambitions for 1440p and 4K60. There's a lot that can be done with rigs well under the $1,500 mark, many of which will feature faster processors, far more storage space, and much more capable video cards.
This is the price range that we normally see the RTX 4070/3070 reside in, which will more than set you up for decent gaming performance. 12th Gen Intel Core i7 CPUs and AMD Ryzen 7 processors are common in builds of this spec. We'd also look at ensuring you have at least 16GB of DDR5 and 1 or 2TB of SSD storage space. You want NVMe SSDs here, not SATAs.
These machines arguably offer the best price-to-performance ratio for the vast majority of PC gamers, making gaming PCs under $1,700 some of the most sought-after on Prime Day at least in our experience.
Buy a mid-range gaming PC on Prime Day if:
Which mid-range gaming PCs should you buy on Prime Day?
In terms of which mid-range gaming PCs are available, you've got configurations of the Alienware, as well as the HP Omen 30L, and various Skytech and iBuyPower models just to name a few.
High-end gaming PCs
For those wanting high-end options with their next rig, you'll most likely find you need to spend around the $2,000 or more mark depending on the brand you buy from. Some high-end rigs, especially the ones sporting an RTX 4080 or more, can be extremely pricey - like, above $3,000 pricey. It's up to you if you shoot for these, but just be aware that building separately, or building up from a mid-range rig, might be an easier financial hurdle.
For these rigs, definitely aim for 32GB of DDR5, and if you aren't seeing 2TB of NVMe storage, your money could go further elsewhere. To get your money's worth, you really want a flagship processor from AMD or Intel, but 7s could work too if they're priced fairly enough. The biggest strength of these computers is their capacity for 4K gaming above the 60 FPS mark, so if that's what you're aiming for, be prepared to bite the bullet. The good news is, that these sorts of PCs are total powerhouses, and there will barely be anything you throw at it that your gaming monster will struggle to deal with.
Also, be more cautious about discounts with these machines - sometimes retailers can be a little wayward with quoted MSRPs.
Buy a high-end gaming PC this Prime Day if:
Which high-end gaming PCs should you buy on Prime Day?
We're also gearing up for the Prime Day gaming laptop deals. And for console gamers, we're bringing you everything you need to know about the Prime Day Xbox deals and Prime Day PS5 deals.
