'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
Run, don't walk: These PC deals include a $550 savings on Alienware's rig
Getting your hands on a great new desktop PC doesn't have to cost a fortune. Brands like HP, Lenovo, and Dell have awesome employee pricing events, inventory clearance sales, and regular markdowns that you can take advantage of to save a bit of cash on a new computer. I've scoured the web to find the very best deals available, including steep discounts and accessory bundles, to help you find the one that best fits your budget and your needs.
Also: Best laptop deals available right now: For users on the go
- Current Price: $1,199
- Original Price: $1,749
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800 | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 512GB SSD | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 | Power Supply: 550W
Now is a great time to upgrade your gaming setup with a markdown deal on the Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10. It's built with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800 CPU, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, and a 512GB SSD for fast boot times and quick program launching. It also features WiFi 6 compatibility for ultra-fast wireless internet speeds and Bluetooth 5.1 for more stable connections to wireless peripherals. It even comes bundled with a keyboard and an optical mouse.
CPU: Ryzen 5 5000 Series 5600X | RAM: 16GB DDR4 | Storage: 500 GB PCIe SSD | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
- Current Price: $1,299
- Original Price: $1,499
MSI may be a powerhouse in the laptop world, but don't sleep on their desktop lineup. It features three 120mm system fans to keep airflow constant and a magnetic dust filter to keep it cool during the heaviest of games. Those that want to fill out the paperwork before adding it to your cart can also get an extra $50 in rebates, bringing the price down to $1,249.
CPU: INTEL Core i7 11700F | RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200 MHz | Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
- Current Price: $1,349
- Original Price: $1,699
For lighter gamers, this Skytech pre-built option boosts up to 4.9 GHz max while you're gaming, giving you a speedy processor while you're battling against foes with friends. The memory cards also uses a special Heat Spreader to keep the interior from overheating while you're gaming.
- Current Price: $1,849
- Original Price: $2,199
CPU: Intel i7 12700KF | RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200 MHz | Storage: 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
Want a great PC gaming desktop? This ABS model comes with 1TB of storage to hold all of your Steam, Epic, and Origin games, plus have room left over for building up your Twitch streaming fan base. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is a great graphics card contender for beautiful, lifelike imagery on the latest games.
- Current Price: $2,899
- Original Price: $4,999
CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3945WX | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 256GB SSD | GPU: Nvidia T400 4GB GDDR6 | Power Supply: 1000W
This desktop is a workstation configuration, meant for precision engineering applications like CAD drawing and 3D modeling, but if you're a creative professional, it also could work for 3D animation and graphic design. Lenovo is running an employee pricing event where you can pick up the ThinkStation P620 for about half of its usual retail price. It's built with an AMD Threadripper Pro 3945WX CPU and a Nvidia T400 4GB GDDR6 graphics card for all of the power you'll need for intense rendering. There are a few drawbacks to this build, chiefly that it does not include a WiFi card, so you'll have to use a hardwired Ethernet connection. It also doesn't have any sort of Bluetooth connectivity, so you won't be able to use any wireless peripherals. But depending on what you may use for animation, digital art, and engineering, it may not be that big a deal.
Are PCs and desktops the same thing?
Yes! A desktop is a computer that is meant to be set up and used in a single location (as opposed to a laptop that you can basically take with you anywhere), and "PC" stands for "personal computer." A personal computer can be either a laptop or a desktop, since you can use either as a personal machine; "PC" also has become a sort of shorthand to help differentiate Windows and ChromeOS machines from macOS desktops.
Which is better: laptops or desktops?
The best computer is the one that fits your budget and your needs. Desktops are great because they often have more powerful components than laptops, and you can swap out components at will if you decide later on that you want more RAM, a bigger storage drive, or a better GPU. Laptops tend to have integrated or weaker components, but they're much more mobile; so if you go to a lot of off-site meetings or travel for work, it's easier to keep up with your tasks than if you had tried to lug around a full-sized desktop tower, a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse.
Do desktops last longer than laptops?
Since desktops often have components that you can swap out yourself, it's easier to make one last longer than a laptop might. Though there are laptops out there that are user-upgradeable. For example: if you buy a pre-built desktop or build a computer yourself, but you can only afford mid-grade components, you can expect maybe three to four years of use at most before you need to upgrade. But you can extend that a bit by replacing components as you go (i.e., switching out GPUs, adding more RAM or storage drives, or upgrading your power supply). Due to the nature of tech advancement, you're never going to be able to buy or build a desktop that never needs updating or replacing. But if you play your cards right, you can find ways to get more mileage out of mid-tier builds.
Interested in more tech deals and reviews? Subscribe to the ZDNet Recommends newsletter and let our expert reviewers scour the internet for only the top products, services, and deals for you.