I'm choosing between two prebuilt PCs and would like to know whether either is worth the money. The first costs £299 and includes an unspecified Intel Core i7, a GTX 980 Ti, 16GB RAM, 500GB of storage with an SSD, a 600W power supply, and Windows 11 Pro. The second costs £699 and has an Intel Core i5-12500, an RTX 4060 8GB, 16GB dual-channel RAM, 1TB of storage with an SSD, a 650W power supply, a 360mm liquid cooler, and six ARGB fans.
I mainly play Valorant and other FPS games, use Discord voice calls, and occasionally work in Premiere Pro as a freelance creative. My current gaming laptop has an i9-13900HX, 16GB RAM, an RTX 4060 8GB, and roughly 1TB of storage. Would either desktop be a meaningful upgrade, and which one offers better value?
2 Answers
The £699 system is much better than the £299 one, but it may not actually be an upgrade over your current laptop. Your laptop already has an RTX 4060 and a much newer, faster processor. The desktop’s i5-12500 is capable, but the graphics performance should be broadly similar unless your laptop’s RTX 4060 is heavily power-limited. For Valorant, Discord, and occasional Premiere Pro work, your current machine should already handle everything well.
I’d avoid the £299 PC unless the seller provides the exact CPU model and detailed information about the power supply and storage. The GTX 980 Ti is very old, uses more power, and lacks newer features such as modern ray tracing and encoding support. It could run esports games at 1080p, but it offers poor long-term value and would be a downgrade for video work.
Exactly. The missing CPU model is a major warning sign. An old i7 can mean anything from barely usable to reasonably capable, so the listing isn’t detailed enough to justify buying it.