Is it a good time to buy a PC 2022?
Sounds like a great time to buy, right? Not quite. Building a PC right now is almost guaranteed to get you a worse value than waiting until later in the year, especially as next-gen components loom on the horizon and push last-gen prices down.
By current estimates, it'll get better around the end of 2022, but from what I've seen, I think it'll go on till 2023 at the very least. So, if you can get the parts for MSRP or second-hand (without paying scalper prices), then yes, building your PC will be cheaper.
Absolutely. You can enjoy PC gaming with budget or high-end components, but the experience is top-tier compared to consoles. Higher quality, free online play, MODS, and much more make it worth it.
Budget Breakdown
In this budget-range, we'd recommend spending between $600 and $800 for a solid 1080p-oriented gaming PC build. For a Mid-Range system, the CPU you should aim for will be either an i5 or Ryzen 5 processor.
In short, if you can wait six months to a year to start your next build, you'll find your high-end choices greatly expanded. Of course that isn't all that helpful if you need a new PC right now. If you just can't wait, you'll still see some amazing performance compared to a desktop from just a few years ago.
Building a PC will actually save you money in the long run, because you will likely not need to replace or repair components as often as with a pre-built.
- CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K.
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT.
- Motherboard: Gigabyte B660M DS3H*
- RAM: Corsair LPX 16GB DDR4-3200.
- Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4.0 1TB NVMe SSD.
- PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 650W Gold PSU.
- CPU cooler: Deepcool AK400.
- Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow.
- CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K.
- GPU: RTX 3050 (review unit RTX 3090 Ti used in the guide)
- RAM: Kingson Fury Beast DDR5 16GB @ 5200 MHz.
- Storage: PNY CS1030.
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X.
- CPU cooler: Corsair iCue H150i.
- PSU: Corsair RM1000x.
- Case: Corsair 5000T RGB Smart Case.
Building your own PC will be anywhere from $50 – 300+ cheaper than buying it. For lower to mid range PCs, if you're buying the exact same components, you're not going to save a lot of money. The advantage of building your own PC is that you get to put your money into the important hardware.
A good rule of thumb is: 8GB bare minimum, 16GB for most gaming needs, and 32GB if you want to run multiple high-intensity programs simultaneously. There's a little more to it than that, but we'll get onto things like DDR and RAM speeds in a moment.
What specs should a gaming PC have 2022?
- OS: Windows 10.
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 or better.
- RAM: 4GB of system memory.
- Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080.
- Storage: At least 4GB of available space.
| Game title | Change | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II/Warzone 2.0 | 34 |
| 2. | ROBLOX | - |
| 3. | The Sims 4 | - |
| 4. | Overwatch 1 & 2 | 3 |
- Dell XPS Tower. ...
- HP Pavilion. ...
- Compact Desktop Computers. ...
- Apple Mac Mini M1. ...
- MSI Pro DP21 Desktop Computer. ...
- All-in-One Desktop Computers. ...
- Apple iMac. ...
- Lenovo IdeaCentre 3i 22. Similar to the iMac above, this all-in-one from Lenovo features a 24-inch display, 8 gigabytes of memory, and 256GB of solid state storage.
Best Cheap Gaming PC for $500
Thanks to an Intel Core i3-10100F processor, an RX 6500 XT graphics card, and 8GB of DDR4 RAM, the cheap $500 gaming PC build listed below can max out pretty much any game on a budget 1080p monitor, as well as play non-demanding games at 1440p on medium-to-high settings.
- Spider-Man Remastered (August 13, 2022) ...
- Elden ring (February 25, 2022) ...
- Dying light 2 Stay Human (February 4, 2022) ...
- God of War (January 14, 2022) ...
- Final Fantasy 7 Remake (December 16, 2021) ...
- Halo Infinite (December 8, 2021) ...
- Far Cry 6 (October 7, 2021)