Best budget gaming PCs for serious gaming at an affordable price

Best for: cheap thrills

The Steam Deck is from Valve, the creators of the Steam digital marketplace and the Half-Life games. Unusually for a PC, it doesn’t run Windows (though it can) defaulting instead to a version of Linux and using console-like custom AMD processors.

Its gaming abilities are better used to play older games, or the less technically demanding, and there's a programme in place to show you which games will run well on your Deck. A few variants are available, some with a newly upgraded OLED screen, but the original Deck represents exceptional value as long as you’re not expecting too much.

Best for: a proper laptop

A laptop with a separate graphics chip is what you’re really looking for in PC gaming, and HP’s Victus supplies that in the form of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050. The entry-level chip is one generation behind the current models. Its 8GB of RAM is the minimum you should look for in a gaming machine, and the 512GB SSD will get full quickly if you download too many games at once.

However, HP’s portable is well-specced enough to tackle many of the latest titles (an upgraded version is also available for a few hundred more) and its 1080p, 144Hz screen means you’ll be able to play at high frame rates too.

Best for: a step up from the basics

A distinct step up from the HP Victus, this laptop from Gigabyte has an Intel Core i5 and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, as well as 16GB of RAM and should keep you gaming happily for years to come. It has a 1080p, 144Hz screen, and as the graphics chip feeding it uses the latest technology and is a step up from the entry-level model, you’ll be able to play games with higher detail settings than with lesser chips.

At over £1,000, it doesn’t sound much like a budget model, but gaming laptops are incredibly useful things that can be put to many uses, including photo and video editing, so they’re good all-around purchases.

Best for: a potent portable

A Steam Deck-alike that attempts to outdo Valve’s machine in every way, the Ally sports an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, with MicroSD expansion cards available for offloading rarely played games onto. It runs Windows, which means the game library is even broader than the Steam Deck’s, and as an all-in-one PC gaming system, it’s hard to beat.

Best for: sit-down gaming

Desktop gaming PCs get expensive fast, but they’re the best way to get really good processors to power your games along, as they don’t have to worry about the cooling envelopes and power budgets of the portable machines. This desktop, built by XS Systems for Scan, offers an Intel Core i5 12400F and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics chip, along with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

It comes with Windows installed, and as long as you’re able to provide it with a suitable monitor, mouse, keyboard, gamepad, headset, desk, chair and plug socket, it’ll keep you happy for a long while.

Best for: a future upgrade

This desktop is a bit of an oddity, in that it combines an up-to-date Intel Core i5-13400F with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 that’s starting to look old. As this is a desktop PC, there's nothing stopping you from ripping out the graphics card (carefully) and replacing it in a year or two, bringing the machine back to life.

Alongside those processors you get 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, plus Windows 11 and a case that looks like an angry robot. We’ve seen it reduced by around £300 too, which makes it an even better deal.

Best for: DIY retro gamers

Ridiculously cheap, this single-board computer that runs Linux appeals to tinkerers, home automation obsessives and retro gamers. It’s not going to play the kind of games you’d expect from a modern gaming laptop, but it can be built into a retro-gaming machine that’s surprisingly capable.

Dedicated operating systems are available to create a friendly front-end for you to scroll through lists of games, you can get a case that looks like an NES, there are USB or Bluetooth controllers that imitate the gamepads of yesteryear, and with its 4K HDMI output it will look great connected to your big-screen TV.

Best for: an alternative approach

You wouldn’t often think of a Chromebook as a gaming PC, but there's a method to our madness. Acer’s machine is ideal for two things: one is using game streaming services such as Xbox Cloud Gaming, GeForce Now or Amazone Luna. The other is playing Android games, the Chromebook’s often-overlooked ability to bring mobile gaming to a slightly bigger screen opening up a lot of game experiences.

This laptop contains a full Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM, with a 256GB SSD for offline storage, and presents one of the best experiences you’ll get from a Chromebook, whether you’re gaming on it or not.