When thinking about setups in the gaming landscape we usually associate this with high-end PCs, triple monitors, standing desks arrangements but the majority of gamers do not need these types of specifications especially dependent on what games your running or how you play games. Before getting into what the best budget PC’s are as well as monitors, mouses and keyboards it is important to consider console gaming if you are someone who wants to get into gaming for the first time or even consider yourself more of a casual gamer. A great entry option is a console like the Xbox Series S which brand new currently sells for £299.99 and includes 512GB of storage, up to 120 frames per second (FPS) and features like quick resume that lets you instantly return to a game from where you left it. Admittedly, the negatives of this console are very apparent as it has no disc jockey, cannot reach 4K resolution (however it does have High Dynamic Range or HDR) and has slower loading times compared to the mid-ranged consoles or PC’s.
If you are looking for better features and more access to exclusive games at a mid-range price there are a few hardware options to choose from. The Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 both sit at around £500 featuring 1TB of storage, 4K resolution, 120FPS among other features on both. Equally, if you are someone who would also love to game wirelessly on the go, the Steam Deck OLED (£569.00) and Nintendo Switch 2 (£395.99) are unique options that offers hours of gameplay wherever you are and flawless controls.
Moving onto PCs things get slightly complicated, there are many different options, and it is important to consider whether you would prefer a pre-built machine or buy all the parts and build the device on your own. The latter option is cheaper overall as you have full control over all parts and with a bit of research you can find pre-owned, refurbished or sales for the components of your PC. There have been some fantastic value releases in the PC space recently, the Intel ARC B580 came out last year at only £250 and runs 120FPS, 1440p gaming which is exceptional value compared to the average GPU. Additionally, NVIDIA released the new 5000 series including the GeForce RTX 5060/Ti at around £400 that can run games reasonably at 4K resolution with 120FPS. In terms of pre-built PC’s it is more dependent on choosing one that looks appealing to you on websites such as PCSpecialist, newegg and AWD-IT. However, key aspects to look out for are a Windows 11 operating system, a 16GB RAM at least, 500+ GB storage, DDR4/5, a highly rated graphics card and a reputable CPU.