From hot rods to budget sleepers, our favorite desktops can handle anything
We’ve reviewed close to two hundred desktop PCs over the years, putting each system through stringent benchmarks to see how they perform.
While desktop PCs are often for heavier tasks like gaming or video editing, our pick for the best overall desktop is the Dell XPS 8930 SE. It comes at an excellent price and offers a great selection of components, from entry-level to some of the most powerful hardware available today.
There are other, more specialized options though. Read on to see what we consider the best all-in-one computer, best gaming PC, and more.
The best desktop PC: Dell XPS 8930 SE
Dell XPS Tower 8930 SE (Intel core i5)
Compact, powerful, and at a great price, there’s lots to love with the 8930.FROM DELL
Who it’s for: Families, students, budget-conscious buyers.
Why we picked the Dell XPS 8930 SE:
The best overall desktop is the one that will work for the most amount of people, and that’s the Dell XPS 8930 SE. On the exterior, it’s not flashy, but it’s a conservative desktop that would fit in as easily as a cubicle or home office.
Regardless of what configuration you choose, you’ll find something that matches your needs, but the base model is a good place to start. A six-core Core i5 processor and a discrete GTX 1650 GPU is nothing to scoff at, and should handle most of what you throw at it with relative ease. Importantly, it features a 256GB SSD M.2 boot drive and a 1TB HDD for quick-loading apps and plenty of hard storage.
While desktop PCs are often for heavier tasks like gaming or video editing, our pick for the best overall desktop is the Dell XPS 8930 SE. It comes at an excellent price and offers a great selection of components, from entry-level to some of the most powerful hardware available today.
There are other, more specialized options though. Read on to see what we consider the best all-in-one computer, best gaming PC, and more.
Read our full Dell XPS 8930 SE review
The best gaming desktop: HP Omen Obelisk
Why you should buy this: Punchy performance packaged in a clean design gives this desktop a more mature vibe.
HP Omen Obelisk
Sophisticated styling makes this an appealing desktop for mature gamer,
Why we picked the HP Omen Obelisk:
Not everyone has the time or interest to build their own gaming PC from scratch. The HP Omen Obelisk gives you most of the benefits of building your own system, without any of the hassle. It’s extremely easy to upgrade, offers nearly limitless configurations, and still gives you a look through the tempered glass at your glowing gaming behemoth.
You can save a bit of money by opting for slightly less powerful parts without sacrificing much performance, too. Our review unit, which can be found for as low as $1,700 on sale, comes with an older 8th-Generation processor and an Nvidia RTX 2080. In this configuration, even demanding games were playable in 4K resolution, and most games in our review played at around 100 FPS when stepped down to 1440p. If you need more performance down the road, the spacious tower makes the upgrades simple and easy.
Now, you can configure the Obelisk to be the most powerful gaming PC you can imagine, with up to the Core i9-9900K and an RTX 2080 Ti.
