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For a shade under $900, you get a PC that’s great for 1080p gaming.
Dream PCs are a dime a dozen right now, which is great news if you’ve got a big chunk of cash to spend on your next gaming PC, but less exciting if you’re on a tight budget. Pickings are definitely slimmer when it comes to more affordable machines, where compromises need to be made and graphics card options are limited.
Given that background, this RTX 3050 gaming PC for $899 represents a pretty good deal right now. That nets you a graphics card that is capable of decent 1080p gaming. Being an RTX card you get the added joys of DLSS and ray tracing support too. As we noted in our review of the RTX 3050, 1440p isn’t completely out of the question either, particularly if you’re happy to settle for non-max settings.
The ABS Challenger has built a decent gaming machine around this graphics card, with an Intel Core i5 11400F backed up by 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM to make sure that your games are well fed. You do only get a 512GB NVMe SSD for your money, which doesn’t give you a lot of wiggle room for bigger libraries, but it’s still enough for your main games. You can always bolster the storage further down the line as well.
ABS Challenger Gaming PC | Nvidia RTX 3050 | Intel Core i5 11400F | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD | $1,299.99 $899.99 at Newegg (save $400)
It doesn’t make much sense at $1,299, but at a penny under $900 this is a bargain. If you’re looking for a no-nonsense gaming PC that can handle 1080p at decent settings, then you’ll be hard pushed to find anything better. Bargain hunters, your search is over.
The Roswell Zircon I case is a decent looking chassis too, with RGB rainbow lights bleeding out of the edges of the front panel for a pleasing effect. The side window also gives you the opportunity to look at the RGB rear fan and that rarest of hardware these days, an actual Nvidia graphics card.
Throw in the fact that you’re getting Windows 11 for your money, and you’re all set to enjoy affordable PC gaming for years to come. And if things do start to get a little tight, there’s room to upgrade here.
With a $400 saving off its normal price, this is a very tempting system for anyone on a tighter budget right now. Sure there are faster graphics cards out there, but you won’t find those in systems anywhere near this price point.
Alan has been writing about PC tech since before 3D graphics cards existed, and still vividly recalls having to fight with MS-DOS just to get games to load. He fondly remembers the killer combo of a Matrox Millenium and 3dfx Voodoo, and seeing Lara Croft in 3D for the first time. He’s very glad hardware has advanced as much as it has though, and is particularly happy when putting the latest M.2 NVMe SSDs, AMD processors, and laptops through their paces. He has a long-lasting Magic: The Gathering obsession but limits this to MTG Arena these days.
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