It is arguably the worst time to build a gaming PC especially with the ongoing memory crisis inflating the cost of RAM, SSDs, and graphics cards. One way to possibly work around the rising costs is to consider a prebuilt system. For instance, the iBuyPower Slate Gaming Desktop PC, a well-rounded mid-range gaming PC which is selling for a very reasonable price of $899, down from its regular price of $1,399 over at Best Buy.
The system is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F, an entry-level 6-core, 12-thread desktop processor with a relatively low 65W TDP. This makes it fairly power-efficient while still offering decent performance for 1080p gaming. For graphics, the prebuilt comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, a solid GPU for 1080p gaming as well as an entry point to Nvidia's latest Blackwell architecture, with support for multi-frame generation and newly released DLSS 5.
For memory, there's a single 16GB DDR5 stick running at 4,800MT/s. which isn't particularly fast and should ideally be configured in dual-channel, but a 16GB DDR5 memory stick on its own can cost around $300, making the system's $899 asking price a pretty solid deal. It also comes with a 1TB NVMe SSD with additional storage expansion for a secondary M.2 as well as SATA 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives. It is also worth noting that this iBuyPower prebuilt is cheaper yet more powerful than the Steam Machine, which currently goes for $1,049 for the base 512GB storage model. With a little bit of tinkering one could even use this system as a dedicated gaming PC for their living room.
In terms of cooling you get a single tower CPU cooler in addition to four ARGB fans, three at the front and one at the rear. The sturdy mid-tower chassis offers additional cooling fan mounting options, a glass side-panel, and a 600W PSU. iBuyPower also offers an entry-level gaming keyboard and mouse combo with the gaming PC. Remember, the discounted price of $899 is a limited-time offer, so you may want to grab it before the deal expires.
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Kunal Khullar is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. He is a long time technology journalist and reviewer specializing in PC components and peripherals, and welcomes any and every question around building a PC.
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(Image credit: iBuyPower)
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