Best Prime Day computer deals: Top discounts on PC desktops

Amazon’s annual Prime Day sales event is here, which means you have the chance to score some great tech deals. This year, Prime Day will run from July 11 through July 12, and should include great deals on everything from gaming PCs to all-in-ones, as well as more traditional desktop machines.

The deals are already underway and we’ve curated the best sales on computers from all over the internet. You’ll need to be a Prime member to take advantage of these steep discounts. If you aren’t a member already, check out our guide for how to get Amazon Prime for free.

This year, we’re seeing some great deals on desktop computers, particularly gaming PCs and all-in-ones. Other retailers have jumped in on the Prime Day action, and some of the best desktop PC deals can even be found outside of Amazon, so we’ve included those deals too.

Best Prime Day desktop computer deals:

It’s still very early, but Amazon already has a smattering of attractive offers. The HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop on sale from Amazon for $222 off is a standout budget gaming PC with a Core i5 processor and an RTX 3060 GPU—that’s enough to game at 1080p with decent framerates in pretty much all modern games. Alternatively, for just about the same price you can opt for the Acer Nitro 50 for $410 off on Newegg which comes with a Core i5 processor and an RTX 3050 GPU. Ultimately the better value will come down to your intended use. If gaming is you main priority then opt for the HP model with an RTX 3060. But if you need your computer for work or other multipurpose use then the 16GB of RAM in the Acer Nitro 50 will be more important.

If you’re in the market for an all-in-one (AiO) desktop computer then you’re in luck. Great deals are abundant for Dell Inspiron AiOs and a variety of HP’s AiO lineup. Our favorites so far include the HP AiO 27 for $390 off on HP’s website and the Lenovo IdeaCentre 3 Business AiO for $100 from Amazon. The HP AiO 27 delivers strong performance with a Core i7 CPU and comes with loads of onboard SSD storage. The Lenovo IdeaCentre 3 is a top-notch premium business AiO with an insane 64GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage.

Best productivity and gaming desktop deals:

• HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop, Core i5/RTX 3060/8GB RAM/512GB SSD, $788.00 (22% off on Amazon)
• Lenovo Legion Tower 5i, Core i7/RTX 3070/16GB RAM/1TB SSD, $1,310.99 (22% off on Amazon)
• Acer Nitro 50, Core i5/RTX 3050/16GB RAM/512GB SSD, $789.99 (34% off on Newegg)
• Skytech Siege Gaming PC, Ryzen 7/RTX 4070 Ti/16GB RAM/1TB SSD, $1,749.99 (16% off on Newegg)
• Skytech Azure Gaming PC, Core i5/RTX 4070/32GB RAM/1TB SSD, $1,349.99 (20% off on Newegg)
• Alienware Aurora R13, Core i7/RX 6700 XT/16GB RAM/512GB SSD, $1,119.99 (39% off on Dell)
• Yeyian Yari II, Core i7/RTX 4070 Ti/32GB RAM/1TB SSD/2TB HDD, $2,749.99 (28% off on Adorama)

Best Prime Day all-in-one computer deals:

• Lenovo IdeaCentre 3 Business AiO, Core i7/64GB RAM/2TB SSD/27-inch 1080p touch display, $1,279.00 (7% off on Amazon)
• Dell Inspiron 24 AiO, Core i5/8GB RAM/512GB SSD/24-inch 1080p touch display, $729.97 (22% off on Amazon)
• HP AiO 27, Core i7/Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics/16GB RAM/512GB SSD/1TB HDD/27-inch 1080p display, $809.99 (33% off on HP)
• HP Pavilion AiO 27, Ryzen 3/8GB RAM/256GB SSD/27-inch 1080p touch display, $549.99 (35% off on HP)
• Inspiron 24 AiO, Core i7/MX 550/16GB RAM/512GB SSD/24-inch 1080p touch display, $949.99 (21% off on Dell)
• Inspiron 27 AiO, Core i7/12GB RAM/512GB SSD/27-inch 1080p touch display, $929.99 (26% off on Dell)
• HP Essential AiO 24, Ryzen 3/8GB RAM/512GB SSD/24-inch 1080p display, $489.99 (11% off on Walmart)

What to look for when buying a desktop computers

You’ll see a ton of options when searching for a desktop computer, but they all mainly fit into four main categories: productivity tower PCs, gaming PCs, mini PCS, and all-in-ones (AiO). Which you should end up buying is entirely dependent upon what your needs are and what you want to do with your computer. If you are looking for something that will work in a home office or family room, then a productivity PC or AiO with a solid CPU and lots of RAM and storage is probably the way to go. If gaming is your main concern, 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 provide basic computing then a mini PC is a good bet.

As for a CPU, we recommend opting for at least the latest gen Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 which will provide plenty of processing power for everyday computing tasks. If you don’t intend to do any gaming on your computer then feel free to save some money by going with integrated graphics. However, if you are looking to get your game on, then we recommend at least an Nvidia GeForce 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT as these are the least expensive discrete graphics cards that can handle ray tracing. The latest gen GPUs are becoming more readily available in pre-built systems so opt for that if you have the money and want a performance boost. But they’re still running a bit expensive, so budget gamers will likely be better served with the previous generation cards.

As for RAM, we think its best to shoot for 16GB at the minimum for productivity and gaming, but for family computers and internet browsing, 8GB should suffice. Storage size is dependent upon your personal needs, but it is generally a good idea to opt for an SSD over an standard HDD as they are much faster and don’t significantly affect the price of a desktop. Additionally, if you intend to go for an AiO, you should look for a display with a minimum resolution of 1080p.