I'm shopping for gaming PCs for my two sons. Their current computers are Dell all-in-ones from around 2020, so there aren't any useful parts to carry over. Costco has a CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme for $999.99 with an Intel Core Ultra 5 225F, RTX 5060 8GB, 32GB DDR5, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, 600W 80+ Gold power supply, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, Windows 11, and a two-year warranty. Buying two would put the total around $2,000 before monitors. I'm comfortable building PCs if I can get noticeably better gaming performance or upgradeability for the same money, but I'm not attached to matching these exact specifications. Given current RAM, SSD, and GPU prices, would you build two systems for roughly $1,000 each, or buy the two Costco prebuilts? If building is the better option, what CPU and GPU combination would you target? I'm located in South Carolina, US.
5 Answers
If you buy them, inspect the power supplies and motherboard once they arrive. Prebuilts sometimes use less capable supporting parts, although a budget motherboard usually just means fewer features rather than an immediate reliability problem. If the power supply is questionable, replacing it with a reputable model could be worthwhile, but keep the original parts in case you need to return the system. The GPUs and power supply may also be upgrade points later.
I’d buy the two Costco machines, especially since the boys can play together immediately and each gets their own computer. A single $2,000 build would be much faster, but it defeats the purpose if they need two systems. You may also be able to reuse the old PCs’ storage drives for extra space and sell the old computers afterward.
I tried pricing an equivalent build and couldn’t get close to the Costco price. Unless you find exceptional sales, use older used parts, or travel to a major component retailer for a bundle deal, building two noticeably faster PCs at this budget will be difficult. Buying the prebuilts also saves a lot of assembly and troubleshooting time.
The Costco systems are the better value right now. Matching 32GB of DDR5, a 1TB NVMe drive, an RTX 5060, Windows, and a full-system warranty would likely cost close to or more than $1,000 per machine if you bought the parts separately. Current memory, storage, and graphics-card prices make this particular prebuilt unusually competitive.
They should be solid 1080p gaming systems. Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox, esports games, and most current titles should run well, often at high settings. The RTX 5060’s 8GB of VRAM is the main limitation, so I’d pair each PC with a 1080p monitor rather than 4K. Some 1440p gaming should work with adjusted settings, but these aren’t intended to be high-end 4K machines.
The 8GB limit is worth keeping in mind for some newer AAA games, but it doesn’t make the PCs unsuitable. At 1080p, lowering textures or a few demanding settings should keep them playable for quite a while.