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Pls help. We in the PC Gamer hardware den can't agree on which of the gaming PC deals we spotted today is best. At Newegg, it's $1,200 (save $500) for the Acer Predator Orion 3000, $1,650 (save $250) for the Skytech Eclipse Lite, or $930 (save $170) for the ABS Cyclone Aqua.
Just considering the deal prices, the Predator Orion 3000 has a bigger discount, of course—we're talking a 29% off vs 13% off for the more expensive rigs. And the Orion is certainly a great deal in its own right. For just $1,200 you're getting a veritable high-end setup featuring an RTX 4070, an Intel Core i7 13700F, and DDR5 RAM. Acer's even throwing in a mouse and keyboard.
A natural choice, right? But, hear me out, $450 extra might well be worth it for the Eclipse Lite, primarily because it's just such a well-rounded build. In fact, I'd argue it's the most well-rounded high-end machine for such a reasonable price while this deal's on.
Quick Links
- ABS Cyclone Aqua | $930 @ Newegg (save $170)
- Acer Predator Orion 3000 | $1,200 @ Newegg (save $500)
- Skytech Eclipse Lite | $1,650 @ Newegg (save $250)
Gaming PC deals
ABS Cyclone Aqua | Core i5 13400F | GeForce RTX 4060 Ti | 32 GB DDR4-3200 | 1 TB SSD | $1,099.99 $929.99 at Newegg (save $170)
It's a last-gen Intel CPU but the 13400F is the best budget gaming processor you can get. It's an ideal match for the RTX 4060 Ti, and the rest of the specs are nicely balanced, too. Sure it would be nice to have DDR5 system memory, but 32 GB will ensure no game is going to be left wanting more. For the price, there's very little to complain about.
Acer Predator Orion 3000 | Intel Core i7 13700F | RTX 4070 | 16 GB DDR5-4400 | 1 TB SSD | $1,699.99 $1,199.99 at Newegg (save $500)
This is the cheapest deal we could find for an RTX 4070 machine, and considering it only costs $50 more than the RTX 4060 Ti rig above, it's a pretty good deal at that. Sure, you're only getting 16GB of slow DDR5 memory, but that's an easy upgrade down the line. The Core i7 13700F should be plenty fast for productivity as well as gaming, too. This Acer Predator Orion 3000 is probably the best price you'll find for an entry into high-end gaming today.
Skytech Eclipse Lite | Ryzen 7 7800X3D | RTX 4070 Super | 32 GB DDR5-5200 | 1 TB SSD | $1,899.99 $1,599.99 at Newegg (save $300 with promo code NEPLDU2Z255 at checkout)
This Skytech build, apart from looking very dashing in its all-white case, is the cheapest all-round solid high-end gaming PC we've found. This is because it combines the stellar RTX 4070 Super with the best gaming CPU on the market and 32 GB of snappy DDR5 memory. It doesn't cheap out on anything really, other than perhaps the meagre 1 TB of storage, but 1 TB should be enough to get you started and you can always expand this down the line.
This is because it has the ultimate chef's kiss of high-end, high-value gaming value hardware. What do I mean by this? Well, for starters, it's running an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which is the best CPU for gaming right now, full-stop. It's also running an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super, which is the best graphics card in its $500-600 price bracket. The RTX 4070 Super, to be clear, is more akin to the RTX 4070 Ti than the RTX 4070, and it goes toe-to-toe with one of our favorite AMD graphics cards, the Radeon RX 7800 XT.
The Eclipse Lite also goes where most cheap RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Super rigs do not, offering 32 GB of DDR5 memory that's actually running at a reasonable speed (5,200 MT/s). It's 2024, now, and DDR5-4400 just doesn't quite cut it, in my books. Finally, throw in some aesthetic icing in the form of a white, windowed chassis, and you have a pretty spectacular all-rounder for $1,600. It's exactly the kind of PC I'd buy today if I was in the market for one. (Can you tell which of the gaming PC deals I prefer, yet?)
Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD.
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest.
The thing is, though, I can see where the Orion 3000 crew's coming from. You're saving $450 extra and getting a rig that won't perform significantly worse in games. Its RTX 4070 will perform worse (the Eclipse Lite will probably net framerates about 10-20% higher, on average), but games will still be eminently playable at 1440p and even 4K. And $1,200 for such a desktop really is something, considering most similarly priced gaming PCs offer an RTX 4060 Ti. The only real downside is that it has just 16 GB of 4400 MT/s memory.
It seems we're at an impasse. But, to be fair, it's an impasse that might very well be decided by your budget. If your budget extends up to $1,650 I'd opt for the Skytech build, but if that's a bit much, the Acer build won't disappoint.
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Speaking of budgets, though, one thing we in the hardware hovel do agree on is that the $930 (save $170) deal on the ABS Cyclone Aqua, which has been ongoing for a while, is still a cracking one.
For far less than $1,000 you're getting a rig capable of playing modern games at 1440p on a high refresh rate monitor. The Intel Core i5 13400F is still our favorite budget gaming CPU, and the RTX 4060 Ti handily outperforms other current-gen options in its price range. Most RTX 4060 Ti rigs come in at over $1,000, so ABS is doing us a solid with this one. Oh, and did I mention it comes with 32 GB RAM? Yes, it's DDR4, but it's rare to see a build like this featuring 32 GB memory for less than $1,000.
Three solid deals for three different budgets, then. We'll let you choose between them, because we're still not having any luck deciding, over here.
Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob's led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years (result pending a patiently awaited viva exam) while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world's #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It's definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.