When you're shopping for a gaming PC, you often hear horror stories. "You'll need a few hundred quid for a graphics card" or "A decent PC will cost a couple of grand" often get banded around. But we're here to tell you that's not true at all... unless you're looking to play
GTA V
in 4K at 60 FPS, obviously.
If you're looking for the best gaming PC under £500, we have you covered with four great recommendations. Obviously these don't include
,
,
and the like, but they are great options for kicking off your setup without draining all your funds before you even have those things.
Read on for all our picks...
MORE PC GAMING BUYING GUIDES:
Best gaming PCs 2020 • Best cheap gaming PCs 2020 • Best gaming laptops 2020 • Best gaming monitors 2020 • Best gaming headsets 2020 • Best gaming mice 2020 • Best gaming keyboards 2020
The best AMD PC under £500: Stormforce Onyx RX Vega 11
For essential gaming for under £500, the Onyx RX Vega 11 gaming desktop is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 3400G processor, delivering a boost speed of up to 4.2 GHz.
With 8 GB RAM and 1 TB HDD storage, this PC has plenty of capacity for multiple games and multiple users, making it great for multiple gamers. Play
Fortnite, CS:GO
and the like with ease, with the Vega 11 APU delivering great graphics for super low cost.
The second-best AMD PC under £500: HP Pavilion Ryzen 5
The HP Pavilion Ryzen 5 is very similar to the Onyx Vega 11 above, but with a slightly older processing unit which clocks up to 3.8 GHz.
What it loses in a bit of speed, though, it makes up for with a 128 GB SSD in addition to its 1 TB HDD, adding more storage accessible more quickly, for those key titles you play all the time.
8 GB RAM and AMD Radeon Vega 11 graphics ensure you can play all your favourites.
The best super-cheap gaming PC: Scan Gamer AMD Ryzen 3
Even cheaper than the Stormforce and HP options is retailer Scan's own AMD Ryzen 3-powered gaming PC for just over £450. It's only a slight step down from the other two options if you want to try and get everything for under £500 - you might not even notice it.
The Ryzen 3 3200G processor delivers up to 3.7 GHz clock speeds, while the AMD Radeon Vega 8 graphics card should be enough to deliver HD graphics on most entry-level games.
The best Intel PC under £500: Punch Technology Intel Core i5
For a bit more power and better graphics, check out the Punch Technology Core i5-9400F PC at Laptops Direct. Technically you'll also need to buy an OS, but you can get a sneaky legit copy of Windows 10 on
for under £25.
This unbranded, unnamed PC is really the only one for the price which features a 9th-gen Intel Core i5 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card, making it arguably the best value for money on the list. A definite recommendation.
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