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Best Prebuilt Gaming Pcs Under $1000 of November 2023

I. What kind of a gaming desktop can you get for $1000?

Let’s be honest, a gaming computer or anything else, we all know for a fact that more money invested will always equal to more quality yielded, that’s for sure. But “quality” here sometimes could be divided into 2 main things: the working efficiency of the rig, meaning the inner core of the machine itself (the Mainboard, CPU, RAM, VGA, Hard drives, etc…) and the expensive extras (tower cases, high-quality fans, customized liquid cooling system,...) that we will try our best to bring the most efficiency of the gaming rig out of $1000 budget.

Here we’re not chasing after that latest, state-of-the-art, the real top high-end gaming computers that might break the bank, we’re looking at those that tremendously exceed every aspect of a mid-range PC, while also having a reasonable price to it. 
In this industry, there’s something you need to know: price sometimes does not matter that much in a gaming pc performance. A brand-new VGA that costs twice as much as an older VGA never meant that it will be twice as powerful, never has it been like so. When you pick right, a component that is a little older, less powerful than the just released one, but is far cheaper.

II. How Powerful Is A Prebuilt Gaming PC Under 1000$?

A $1000 for a computer, gaming, studying, or working, is actually plenty to spend on a single PC. Since most of us are not insanely rich, we still have to calculate how to buy everything. Today, we are trying to buy the best gaming pc with about a thousand bucks.
We didn’t come here to see some gaming desktops with flashy cases, their magnificent light works, or Tron-like cases which function like an Iron Man suit. We’re here to get exactly what we have in mind: as high as possible hardware, lag-free experience, and hardcore gaming.
Trust me when I say 1000$ can get you much further than the goal you set out to invest, because my friend, it’s the new age of old hardware. When new generation hardware releases, the recent generation's price will have to drop. If you don't mind buying a 2nd part or a whole 2nd PC, you can even get a better price. What we’re going to get is not “cheap” and “weak”, what we’re getting at is “much cheaper” and “a bit weaker” than the newcomers.
A prebuilt gaming PC under 1000$ can do pretty much anything you set it out to do. Basically what you’ll have is a close-high-end PC, meaning it can go straight for modern titles like DOOM Eternal, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, etc…without any technical difficulties. You’ll definitely get that sweet premium 60FPS gaming experience on almost any game you have on the drive.

III. What are the components of A Pre-built Gaming PC Under 1000$?

Since we’re looking to maximize the power of the gaming pc while minimizing the less important exterior add-ons, we’ll need to focus solely on the main components: the CPU, the RAM, the Mainboard, and the VGA:

CPU (Central Processing Unit)

CPU horsepower is also similarly tied to gaming acumen for a gaming system but branching out into anything over a quad-core processor will primarily see performance gains in multi-threaded workloads such as video processing, rendering, encoding, and games with high settings.
A new generation 4 cores with 4 or even 8 threads CPU is cheaper and more powerful than the old ones. You have to pay only about $100 to get a good one for your gaming PC. However, if you usually play CPU-sensitive games, you might want to spend a little more on the CPU.

RAM (Random Acess Memory)

Most of the time, a gaming computer with 8GB is enough for those games like DotA or CSGO, for those are mainly weighted on the VGA and CPU, but we highly suggest a system with 16GB, you can upgrade later. Why? Because new games with more players, bigger combat field, and many more objects require more RAM to handle. Also, you don't play games 24/7, you might want to edit some videos sometimes, render some projects, for work, for fun sometimes, big RAM would be a big help.

GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)

Without doubts, in a gaming pc, all attention must go to this big boy, he decides you play games or not, that’s the truth he’s proud of. The GPU decides the most parts of how well your computer runs games, to put it simply. 
Our work here is to choose the right GPU, not too weak or too strong for the CPU to handle, that we call avoiding bottleneck throttling. That’s where we get the best-prebuilt gaming pc out of the budget.
We plan on picking the most recent GPUs generation before the newest ones. Those products have most of the new technologies, but not too hot to be overpriced.
Due to the impact of the Covid 19 disease and some political events, the crypto market has gone insane and so has the GPUs’ price. Some strongest models are out of stock for a long time, only a few GPUs are too weak for mining is left for gaming pc. If you still want a top GPU for your gaming rig, you might have to pay extra bucks.
At $1000 range gaming pcs, we used to have a better choice, the best choice for this range of money, the NVIDIA RTX 2060, the smallest king. But now, GTX 1660 super is the best we can get.

Mainboard (Motherboard)

To the newbies, finding compatible parts is complicated enough. When people mention upgrading potential, they get more confused than they already are. That’s right when it comes to upgrading, unexpectedly the most important is actually the mainboard because it requires compatibility with CPU, RAM, CPU cooler, etc...
 And trust me, you don’t want to change your mainboard every time you upgrade a single component, because that might actually be the case.
Since Intel keeps changing their socket and motherboard, we tend to choose AMD CPU. However, many people have the same thought, which makes Intel CPUs are getting cheaper, and AMD CPUs are getting more expensive. 
So, to sum up, AMD CPU and motherboard combo are usually more expensive than Intel’s, but they are more convenient for upgrading your gaming computer later.

The Case

You don’t need a huge tower to get a system with high-end components, it might take out too much of the budget for your gaming pc. Just take a big full tower or mid-tower case, which looks cool to you, and big enough for future upgrading. You usually have trouble when upgrading an extra-long GPU, big tower air cooler, or monster size radiator liquid cooler.

PSU (Power Supply Unit)

Power is always an important factor when choosing a PC, especially a heavy load system, like gaming or rendering. It is less important for a computer that uses for web browsing.
How do we know the PSU is powerful enough for our gaming PC? Most of the time, yes, but there are some exceptions. , particularly if you intend to upgrade your components. A new high-end CPU or GPU might drain more power than the entry-level one, you need to be spare some extra wattage.

Hard drives (SSD + HDD)

Storage capacity once was a problem when storage devices were low tech and expensive. But everything has changed. HDDs are so much cheaper, and there comes a new type of storage device, SSD. SSD (Solid-state Storage Devices) offer huge strides in performance and load times in games, especially when compared to their elders HDD’s (Hard Disk Drives) with mechanical parts, but they also cost more money for less storage capacity. For your gaming PC, a 256-512GB SSD for your system and favorite game, an HDD for other games and media. You can always add more HDDs or switch to a bigger HDD if you are out of SATA connectors

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Overviews

Why are we looking for the best prebuilt gaming pc under $1000?

The 21st century is the technology age, especially the last decade. Gaming on a personal computer is not the only choice when there are many other platforms such as mobile, Xbox, play station and Nintendo. However, gaming on PCs is still widely chosen because you can make some other good use of the computer besides playing games.
If you own a PC before 2015, the older it is, the weaker it is. Computer technology has developed faster in the last haft decade. The newest Ryzen has released, the old Intel structure has been "refreshed", again. On condition that you have been planning to upgrade your old PC, do it now.
 
New games come out, old games have been upgraded in graphics, modes, and bring on many platforms. An up to date technology gaming PC gives you chance to play recently released and old games you never had a chance to play. New generation technology brings more performance but less pricey. They also make prebuilt gaming rigs. You book one online, then wait for the delivery, unbox and power it up to enjoy.
 
A $1000 budget for a gaming computer is not quite enough for all modern games with high settings, but you still get playable standard to medium settings.
 
With that amount of money in hand, you won’t be able to get your hands on some high-end gaming pcs, or premium builds, just a medium one but it can still handle most AAA games in 2021. Some you can play on high settings, but with some hardware demanding game, just playable settings.
 
If you are new to gaming computer components, don't worry. You have come to the right place. We are going to show you how to pick the right parts for a gaming PC so that you can choose a prebuilt gaming PC that fits you. In case you are too busy, we have a list of top prebuilt gaming PCs under $1000, feel free to pick one. Those are the best choices in that range of budget.

Best prebuilt gaming pcs under $1000

CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme

Specs

  • Processor: Intel Core i5-10400F 2.9GHz 6-Core
  • Memory: 8GB DDR4
  • Hard drives: 240GB SSD | 1TB HDD
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 super 6GB Video Card | 1x HDMI | 1x DisplayPort
  • Ports: 6 x USB 3. 1 | 2 x USB 2. 0 | 1x RJ-45 Network Ethernet 10/100/1000 | 802. 11AC Wi-Fi | Audio: 7. 1 Channel
  • Addons: Custom ARGB case Lighting | RGB 7 Colors Gaming mouse with keyboard.

This prebuilt gaming pc is equipped with one of the most common video cards, the NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1660 super 6GB GDDR6. New RTX GPUs have released, so GTX 1660 super is not the new, but it is not that old. GTX 1660 super features Turing Architecture and GDDR6 Vram, that is a new Vram type which gives higher bandwidth than GDDR5 type.

The combination of GeForce GTX GPUs and NVIDIA Game Ready Drivers deliver the fast performance and low latency required for an amazing gaming experience. If you are switching from your old gaming build to this, you will be quite surprised how it is so strong and smooth.
With faster, intelligent, multi-core technology that applies processing power where it’s needed most, Intel Core i5 processors with more core and threads deliver an incredible breakthrough in PC performance. More cores, threads, and higher IPC (Instructions per Clock) bring you better CPU compute power to handle tasks. Now combine that with DDR4 fast RAM, you’ll get an absolutely new experience that you never had before with the old gaming pc.

SkyTech Blaze II Gaming PC

Specs

  • Processor: Ryzen 5 2600 6-Core 3.4GHz (3.9 GHz Max Boost)
  • RAM: 8GB DDR4 3000MHz with Heat Spreader
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 6GB GDDR5
  • Hard drives: 500GB SSD
  • Addons: 1 x HDMI, 1 x D-Sub, 1 x DVD-D | 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Ports, 2 x USB 2.0
  • HD Audio and Mic
  • Free RGB Keyboard & Mouse

Pros

  • Great performance with AM4 Combo, easy for upgrading later
  • The package includes a mouse and keyboard
  • A big built-in SSD.

Cons

  • Bulky, craggy design.
  • A little RGB for RGB fans
  • Little RAM to work with.

The Skytech Blaze II is another acceptable choice for a prebuilt gaming PC under $1000. It features a  6-Cores 12 Threads Ryzen 5 2600 and GTX 1660 video card. The Blaze II can handle well at 1080p, some games at 2k, 4k would be a little challenge. 

The Ryzen 2600 is a quite powerful CPU for the budget. Its single-core performance and multi-core performance are both impressive. It handles gaming and multi-tasking application sure well. However, the Skytech Blaze II only comes with 8GB RAM, which is ok for gaming, but a little lack of RAM video editings or rendering. If you plan on using your gaming PC for some content creating sometimes, you might want to add more RAM later.

Read more: Price History of Best Prebuilt Gaming PC on Product Reviews.


Final Thoughts

The technology that has developed over years gives us more powerful gaming PCs and a much more affordable price. We now can own a PC that is able to handle heavy games once we only watch over walk-through videos.
I hope after this you will get a better grip on PC gaming and how saving it might actually be to put your trust into good brands like CyberPower, Skytech, or iBUYPOWER, to let them create one for you that benefits both the user and the publisher.

We hope you have some basic knowledge about building a gaming PC so that you can easily choose a prebuilt gaming PC, or even build one yourself.
For now, CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme VR Gaming PC is the best prebuilt gaming PC under 1000. We will have better choices when the Covid 19 disease is over.
If you are ready to pay a little more for better performance, you might want to have a look at  Skytech Blaze II Gaming Computer RTX 2060

For future proof your gaming PC, you might want to see some relative articles:

The Best-prebuilt Gaming PC Under $1500

The Best-prebuilt Gaming PC Under $2000

Top list of The Best Cases Under $50


FAQ

Is it worth buying a prebuilt gaming PC?

Prebuilt gaming PCs are cheaper than buying individual parts since the parts come directly from the manufacturers. You still get good deals without wasting time picking parts.

Should I buy a prebuilt PC or build it myself?

It depends. Buying a prebuilt PC saves you a lot of time choosing parts and put them together. It is more convenient when some failure happens. It is easier to send the whole case to the shop when your PC is still covered under warranty.

On the other hand, if you want to experience building a PC yourself, then build it. Picking parts, put them together, and start it for the first time, that is a great feeling.

Which is better, a PC or a PS5?

It depends on which games you are playing. If you like to play PS5 games, go for a PS5, and vice versa. 

Can I play PS5 games on my PC?

They start building PS5 emulators on PC, but it is still early. It takes time and effort to perfect the emulators. In the future, you can still play a PS5 game on your PC via an emulator.

How long does a gaming PC last?

Physically, a PC can last for about 10 years. My friend even has a 15 years old PC and it still works. That PC is even older than his younger brother. 

But talking about performance, a gaming PC can handle fine in 3 years. Some powerful rigs can keep up in 5 years. But that's when parts are obsoleted and need to be upgraded.

Cade Metz
Cade Metz
Cate Metz is not only a gamer but also a specialist in Technology and Computer hardware. He often writes about the choices of gaming PCs and accessories which are dependent on your budget.