Black Friday gaming PC deals are, without a doubt, the best opportunity to get gaming PCs on the cheap. Whether you're looking for an entry-level option or a hefty upgrade to run the latest games at max settings, your money will go the furthest during these sales. Black Friday may seem like a while away yet, but it's always good to be prepared, and plan for the long-term, especially when gaming PCs cost as much as they do.
Down below, we've listed a whole load of helpful information (we hope), from our expectations of the market in 2023, to the historical go-to retailers for the best offers, and a list of last year's best deals that you can peruse in order to get an idea of what was on sale, and how much you may need to save up as the months roll by.
2022 was an exceedingly interesting year for the gaming PC market, especially in terms of their components. SSDs, GPUs, and RAM saw some of the cheapest prices we've ever seen them at, which was a welcome change after the pandemic years. It all culminated in amazing gaming PC deals, with the majority being made up of RTX 30 series cards, 12th Gen Intel Core i5/i7 CPUs, 16GB of RAM, and 500GB or more of SSD storage.
To help you further we've got our ever present list of best gaming PCs to lay out the best of what's out there across the full ranges of costs and set ups. We also maintained a Black Friday gaming PC deals live blog which kept people up to date with the minute-to-minute best offers we found. If you want a conclusive list of what was up for grabs last year, that might be a good place to look.
Black Friday gaming PC deals: FAQs
Black Friday gaming PC deals 2023: What to expect
Given the last few years in the gaming PC market, it's particularly hard to predict what will happen in November of 2023. For example, the low, low prices of SSDs we saw in 2022 was practically unpredictable after the chip-shortage years. What we can say is that it's fully likely that the new generation of GPUs that's currently releasing will start to populate the best gaming PCs on the market. It's highly likely that by the time we get to November, we'll see plenty of 40 series GPU machines in circulation, and Black Friday will likely see them drop to their lowest prices since launch.
What does this mean for 3000 series configurations? We'd predict that they will still be largely available, and since AMD is undercutting Nvidia's GPU prices with its new generation of cards, it could be that Nvidia offers up the 3000 series as the still viable, cheaper option for new buyers.
When it comes to CPU, we're sure November will see more 13th Gen Intel processors in discounted gaming PCs. With regards to SSD, we'd expect to see the same types of capacities on offer, but it's difficult to say that they'll remain at the historically low prices we've seen throughout 2022. In RAM, we'd expect to see more DDR5 sticks on offer next year, as they were sparce in 2022 deals. Beyond that, we'll just need to sit back, get comfy, and wait for the markets to unfold.
Is it cheaper to build a gaming PC or buy one in 2022?
In the short term, buying a gaming PC will definitely work out cheaper - especially around Black Friday. PC components, especially ones that are geared at the gaming market, are undeniably expensive. For example, an RTX 3050 graphics card is on the entry level end of the 30 series. That component alone will set you back between $250 and $300 (£270-£300). It could even be more than that depending on when and where you buy. When you look at prebuilt gaming PCs, you can get pretty decent entry level options for between $550 and $750 (£700-£1000 in the UK).
In the long run, building your PC can work out cheaper, but especially if you’re looking for your first gaming PC, we’d suggest paying more attention to the prebuilt market. If building is the road you choose to take, you can find great Black Friday CPU deals and amazing Black Friday SSD deals too.
Is it worth waiting until Black Friday to buy a gaming PC?
Given what we’ve seen in recent years, prebuilt gaming PCs see their biggest price reductions around Black Friday. According to the 2022 Adobe holiday shopping report (opens in new tab), computers saw up to a 15% reduction in across the board in the US between the end of October and end of November. By a fair margin, the lowest prices are seen in the last weeks of November, right when Black Friday always hits.
Unless it’s an absolute emergency, we’d strongly advise you wait to buy a gaming PC during Black Friday week. This is especially true if you’re looking at the higher end of the specs scale, or at PCs that include RTX 30 series GPUs.
Where to get the best Black Friday gaming PC deals?
When it comes to the best Black Friday gaming PC deals, Newegg, Best Buy, Overclockers, and eBuyer are the ones to watch. We have seen that Dell has some deep discounts on their high-end Alienware rigs (namely the Alienware Aurora R13 and R14 in 2022), but the big retailers are always a safe bet as well. Amazon is a given, although we found that their deals weren't as plentiful or powerful as the first four we mentioned. In the UK, Box is another one to watch.
US:
Amazon: Fair prices on boutique built and branded prebuilt gaming PCs (opens in new tab)
Dell: Regularly has some of the best-value deals on Alienware Aurora builds (opens in new tab)
Best Buy: Low starting prices on iBuyPower, HP, and Lenovo rigs (opens in new tab)
Walmart: Competitive prices on all the major brands with the newest GPUs (opens in new tab)
Newegg: Big savings on ABS Legend and Gladiator gaming PCs (opens in new tab)
UK:
Amazon: savings on Admi, Vibox, CyberPowerPC, and more (opens in new tab)
Currys: Few deals but competitive prices on high-end gaming PC builds (opens in new tab)
Overclockers: Low starting prices for OcUK custom gaming PCs (opens in new tab)
eBuyer: Decent savings to be made on AlphaSync boutique builds (opens in new tab)
Very: Savings on PC Specialist, Zoostrom, and MSI gaming rigs (opens in new tab)
BOX: A high number of discounts on a massive range of gaming PCs (opens in new tab)
Black Friday 2022 gaming PC deals in the US
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(opens in new tab)Black Friday 2022 gaming PC deals in the UK
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(opens in new tab)If you're looking to upgrade your gaming set up in other ways this Black Friday, why not check out our Black Friday gaming chair deals page, or our Black Friday Secret Labs deals roundup.
You can also find all the best deals for these this sales season, in the Black Friday CPU deals, Black Friday graphics cards deals, and Black Friday SSD deals.
