Best PC Deals: Top picks from desktops to all-in-ones

There are a lot of sites that sell computers, and it would take a lot of time to search through them all – that’s why we do it for you here and highlight the best deals we find. However, to save you some time and frustration, you need to be smart about where you look at any time of year.

If you’re looking for a new computer during the holidays or during popular sales periods like Black Friday or Back to School, you’ll likely find great deals directly through the websites of first-party sellers. These include retail storefronts of popular computer manufacturers such as HP, Dell, and Lenovo.

However, if you’re looking between sales, it’s generally a good idea to look at major third-party retailers like Amazon, Adorama, Walmart, BestBuy, and Newegg. Often times, these sites will offer limited “deals of the day” type sales in hopes of getting rid of excess inventory. On the upside, you can get still good computers at a significant discount.

You’ll typically want to time your computer shopping during a notable sales period. The biggest sales periods are Black Friday/Cyber ​​Monday in late November and Amazon Prime Day in early and mid-July. The best sales often occur before and during these two events, which are great times to pick up a new PC on the cheap. Other holiday shopping periods, such as the New Year’s sales in January, the President’s Day sales in April, and the back-to-school sales event in August, are also good times to find discounts on computers.

You’ll see a large number of options when looking for a desktop computer, but they all basically fall into four main categories: productivity towers, gaming PCs, mini PCs, and all-in-one (AiO) PCs. What you should end up buying depends entirely on your needs and what you want to do with your computer. If you’re looking for something that will work in a home office or family room, a PC or AiO with a powerful CPU and plenty of RAM and storage is probably the perfect solution. If gaming is your main interest, a gaming PC can offer a lot more bang for your buck than a laptop, and you should focus on getting the best GPU possible. Or if you just want something that can fit anywhere and provides basic computing, a mini PC is a good bet.

When looking at a new computer’s CPU, get at least an Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5, both of which will provide plenty of processing power for everyday computing tasks. If you don’t intend to play any games on your computer, feel free to save some money by using integrated graphics. However, if you’re looking to get your game on, we recommend at least the Nvidia GeForce 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, as these are the less expensive discrete graphics cards that can handle ray tracing well. If you’re not interested in those high-end lighting effects, the RTX 3050 and Radeon RX 6600 also offer good 1080p gaming performance at lower prices.

As for RAM, we think it’s best to go up to 16GB as a minimum for productivity and gaming, but for family PCs and web browsing, 8GB should be enough.

The amount of storage depends on your personal needs, but it’s generally a good idea to choose an SSD drive instead of a standard hard drive because it’s much faster and doesn’t significantly impact the price of your desktop computer. Before making a decision, it is best to consider the intended use of the computer. Are you just working or surfing the Internet? Then something like 512GB will be enough. If you want to upload a lot of large files like games or content creation projects, you’ll need at least 1 or 2 TB of storage space. However, just remember that even if your computer doesn’t have enough built-in storage, you can always upgrade your SSD or use an external drive to increase your available storage options.

Refurbished computers are used devices that have been repaired, upgraded, and cleaned for resale. These products are usually opened returns, overstock, or models with minor cosmetic damage (scratches, scuffs, etc.). Refurbished computers can be a bargain hunters dream because they are most likely still in good (or great) condition and you can save a lot of money. However, refurbished computers can have their downsides as well. In addition to cosmetic blemishes, some internal components may be slightly older or dated and may not be in their best condition due to previous use.

If you are thinking about purchasing a refurbished computer, I recommend looking at eBay as they offer a one-year warranty. You can also check out the manufacturer’s retail storefronts like Dell’s Outlet Store and Apple’s Refurbished Store — just be sure to look at the warranty terms provided before purchasing.