The Best Cheap Prebuilt Gaming PC Under $500: iBUYPOWER Pro

Buying a premium prebuilt gaming PC under $500 isn’t easy, but you can certainly locate a good gaming PC at a reasonable price with prebuilt components including a motherboard, case, and CPU. High quality gaming PCs can be easily built by using prebuilt gaming computers.

Cheap prebuilt gaming PC under 500 are still available on the market today and have been for years. There have been some improvements, while others have been declining in quality. We will contrast the best prebuilt gaming pc under 500 in today’s article.

Are Gaming PCs under $500 Worth It?

For casual gamers, a prebuilt gaming PC under $500 is perfect. The price is reasonable, but you shouldn’t expect it to keep up with the latest trends and features. You’ll be satisfied with the performance of a system if you don’t play heavy games.

If you’re buying a prebuilt PC, it should be an AMD Ryzen or an Intel Core i3 or i5. Make sure the graphics card you’re buying has plenty of memory. A graphics card with a good quality GPU will ensure a smooth game experience. The PC should come with decent RAM and storage as well.

Under $500, you will not get the best features, but it is enough for casual gaming. If you are buying your first gaming PC, you can find a decent machine under $500 with a good processor, GPU, RAM, and storage. It will support most of the games like CS: GO, GTA, League of Legends, etc. However, you need to compromise on the FPS.

What can you expect from a prebuilt gaming PC under $500?

Whether you’re spending thousands or a few hundred, the last thing we want is to waste our cash, and while setting a budget is a great way to do this, the PC still needs to be able to run your chosen games.

Processor
The processor is going to be mostly responsible for making your general use feel snappy. When dealing with prebuilt computers for under $500, you can expect older processors at the helm, with fewer cores and threads than the more premium options.

Graphics
As prebuilt gaming PC’s under $500 fall into the entry-level category, the graphics cards that feature are often older generation cards, if any. These days, PCs at this price point will usually feature integrated graphics (powered by the CPU/ APU) and may struggle to play the latest games in any setting other than low. The same can be said for esports titles too but they work very well with esports titles, especially when playing in 1080p. You may have to lower resolutions below 1080p in some titles just to get a relatively good experience.

RAM
Having 8GB of RAM isn’t ideal but it isn’t a major issue either. While we always try and recommend 16GB of RAM, this isn’t very realistic when we have a $500 budget. This means that the RAM is one of the areas you may want to upgrade in the near future.

Storage Space
When it comes to storage space in $500 prebuilt computers you are unlikely to get dual storage solutions but they do feature SSDs. The SSDs included will usually be around 240GB to 500GB and give you just enough room for your operating system and favorite games.

Prebuilt Gaming PC Under $500

1. iBUYPOWER Pro Gaming PC

We’ve had some pretty amazing pre-builds from iBUYPOWER over the last couple of years. They are even considered some of the best gaming desktops you can get.

Some of them were budget-friendly options while others were high-end rigs. iBUYPOWER Pro Gaming PC is also one of the budget-oriented options and probably the best cheap gaming PC in the market.

This machine is certainly one of the best-prebuilt gaming PCs you can get for your money. It features a Ryzen 3100 processor with a core speed of up to 3.9GHz coupled with AMD’s RX550 2GB graphics card that could handle 1080p gaming with ease.

You will also get 8 gigs of DDR4 RAM, a 240GB SSD, and a proper mid-tower gaming case that features tempered glass on the side along with 4x USB3.0 ports. Performance-wise, this Ryzen build can offer solid performance and can easily handle medium-settings gaming on 1080p.

2. Dell Optiplex 990

Optiplex desktops are not advertised as gaming PCs but they are fully capable of handling modern-day gaming if you throw in a worthy graphics card. This Dell Optiplex 990 is equipped with an Intel Core i7 chip backed with an Nvidia GT710 graphics card and 16 gigs of DDR3 RAM.

This PC case might not give you those ‘gaming PC’ vibe but it is surely a performer. Even the latest and most demanding titles could be played on this one with at least 60 fps on high settings.

Although, the combination of GT710 and Intel Core i7 is not that great and there are some chances of bottlenecking, but it’s quite slim. Furthermore, a 1TB hard drive is also included in the package along with a 250GB SSD.

Dell Optiplex is extremely cheap and if you’re looking for a beast of a PC under $500 then Dell Optiplex is the best that you’re going to get.

3. Airtech by Dell

It offers a high-end Intel Core i7 3770 3.9GHz processor and GTX 650 2GB graphics technology for an incredible price-to-performance ratio. This gaming rig is capable of running popular games at a smooth 60 frame-per-second frame rate. The best thing about this PC is that it is extremely affordable.

The computer comes with 8G DDR3 RAM and 128GB storage. This powerful gaming PC can run popular games. It can play Call of Duty Warzone, Fornite, Escape From Tarkov, Grand Theft Auto V, and Roblox. The Airtech by Dell Gaming PC is also compatible with games like Roblox, Overwatch, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It is fully stress-tested and comes with Windows 10 Pro-64-bit.

4. HP Pavilion 690-0010

Now, we have the HP Pavilion 690-0010, an absolute beast designed exclusively for gaming. The best budget gaming PCs have the most powerful processor, GPU, RAM, and huge storage, which is uncommon in best budget gaming PCs. The ergonomics of the PC, on the other hand, make the outside seem magnificent, and the well-organized front panel speaks for itself.

The AMD Ryzen(TM) 3 2200G CPU on the gaming desktop runs at 3.50GHz. The GPU, dubbed the AMD Radeon(TM) RX 550, is also rather remarkable, with 4GB of dedicated RAM. For a cheap PC like the HP Pavilion 690-0010, additional GPU RAM aids in providing higher frame rates. Furthermore, the HP Pavilion 690-0010 comes with an 8GB DDR4-2666 SDRAM that can be upgraded to 32GB.

Furthermore, the HP Pavilion 690-0010 does not lack ports because it has a large number of them. There are two second-generation USB 3.1 connectors and one first-generation USB 3.1 port on the front panel. While there are a lot more connectivity choices on the back, the ones on the front panel are straightforward to use. Aside from the overall hardware, the bundle also includes the HP and a keyboard and mouse, which is a fantastic value in the best gaming PC under 500 dollars.

5. ASRock DeskMini

The DeskMini is a new mini PC from ASRock and CUK. It’s super small, but still packs in some serious power! The DeskMini has an 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8700 CPU, 16GB DDR4-2666 RAM, 256GB NVMe SSD + 2TB HDD which can be configured to suit your needs. If you’re not sure what the best configuration for you is, we have plenty of options to choose from on our website.

We are not sure if you are an AsRock DeskMini user, but it is a small computer that can be placed on your desk. It has a fanless design and doesn’t make much noise.

Can you get a good gaming PC for under $500?

Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92 Desktop, 9th Gen Intel Core i5-9400, 12GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, 8X DVD, 802.11AC… The Acer Aspire TC-885-UA92 features quite a basic and standard design.

Is a $500 gaming PC worth it?

Conclusion: A $500 PC Build Can Give You A Lot More Than You Think. The $500 gaming PC build listed in this guide is capable of playing any game on a 1080p monitor. And, through a few different upgrades, it can transform from a decent entry-level gaming PC, into a high-end beast of a computer.

Are mini PCs good for gaming?

While AMD’s processors are arguably better than Intel’s when it comes to gaming, the world of mini PCs isn’t great for gamers. Even powerful mini PCs struggle to run the latest games well..

Is Ryzen 3 good for gaming?

Both the Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X are quad-core processors, meaning that they have 4 cores and 8 threads. They’re more than capable of running low-intensity games and even games from the last generation with higher graphical requirements such as The Witcher 3 at a steady 60 frames per second (fps).