The best budget PCs of 2024

As with all modern tech, even the best budget PCs can over-promise and under-deliver unless you know what to look for. But that's not limited to computers at the cheaper end of the spectrum - it's also true for the best PCs that money can buy.

However, manufacturers will cut different corners to ensure other components are up to scratch. It's all about balance. But which balance is right for you? A gamer on a budget will have different needs than someone who needs a home office PC. We're here to help you narrow things down and spend your money wisely.

Best budget PCs of 2024 at a glance

• Best overall budget PC: HP Slim S01-pF2012na Desktop PC - View at Currys
• Best value budget PC: Vibox I-7 Gaming PC - View at Amazon
• Best budget PC for students: Acer Aspire C24-1800 All-in-One PC - View at Currys
• Best budget PC for work: Lenovo IdeaCentre 5 Desktop PC - View at Amazon

The best budget PCs come in small cases, the size of a box folder, and huge towers covered in multicoloured lights. Plus, the specifications all differ, and so does the price. If you're a media professional looking for a basic video editing PC, you'll need plenty of RAM, CPU and graphics power. But if you're a student or a casual browser, you'll need a well-balanced spec for office apps, browsing and videos - perhaps even a space-saving all-in-one PC.

Thankfully, we've rounded up a variety of the best budget PCs, including computers for all uses. We've also included a buyer's guide and explained some computing jargon at the end of the article. So, let's look at some of the best computers money can buy - minus the eye-watering price tag.

Best budget PCs of 2023

Best budget PCs of 2024: Buyer's guide

What kind of PC user are you?

When choosing your next PC on a budget, the single most important decision you'll make is to carefully identify your needs. Budget PCs are, by definition, going to be less capable than machines costing a lot more. That also means you'll have less wriggle room when it comes to pushing its limits when you try to run various applications.

So, getting this right early on is essential. Everyone's use case is bespoke to their needs, but here are some general pointers for which specifications to look after depending on what kind of user you are.

Office work

If you need to run several office applications at once, look at the CPU, RAM and budget for a good-quality ergonomic keyboard and mouse. Graphics capabilities will probably be lower down on your list, but make sure you have at least two HDMI ports for connecting to more than one modern monitor - this is especially important if you are multitasking.

Gaming

Gamers are the hardest users to cater for with even the best budget gaming PCs. Yes, you'll need as much RAM as you can afford, but you'll also need an SSD for fast and sizable storage capacity. Your first step is to look up the recommended system requirements of your favourite games. Then, compare these to the budget PC you're looking at. By far, the most important component is your graphics card. Always go for a dedicated card and avoid integrated ones (the ones that are a part of the motherboard). Even with a middling amount of RAM and CPU power, doing this will ensure much better performance.

Casual browsing

As with the office work category, the casual PC user will need to do a little of everything. You'll probably need a lot less graphics power for light gaming than a serious game fan would, but more than an office worker will need. 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive with a modern mid-range processor is a good balance.

Design and creative media

Those who enjoy digital art, creativity and all kinds of visual media have needs that are a mix of the above, with an emphasis on graphics capability, while also thinking about RAM, and the CPU. Graphics, and particularly video work, will require a really fast CPU. Even maxing out your RAM won't help if your processor can't keep up.

Upgrades and expandability

Don't forget that one of the benefits of going for a full-size PC over a laptop is that you can upgrade and expand the capabilities of a budget PC with ease. And that means you can spend less on the best budget PC you can afford, knowing you can add more later. Here are some of the easily expandable components.

Storage

You can add more storage to the computer in two ways. By far, the easiest is to buy a portable external hard disk drive that will simply plug into a USB port on the computer. To support the highest speed available, you should look for the blue colour-coded USB-3 port on your PC. HDD and SSD external disk drives are available, with the former being cheaper and with larger capacities than the smaller but faster Solid State Drives.

If you're technically savvy, it's often possible to add a second or third internal hard drive too - but if you're planning to do this, check that the motherboard in the PC can support it.

RAM

Probably sounding much more difficult than it is, it's quite simple to open the side panel of your PC (with the power off and disconnected) and insert more RAM into an adjacent slot on the motherboard. You will, however, need to make sure you're properly earthed (using a simple anti-static wrist strap) before touching the machine to avoid electrostatic damage.

RAM - the working memory of your budget PC - normally comes in the form of chips on small stick-like circuit boards. As long as your budget PC has a spare slot and you match the memory type to that supported by the board, you can upgrade your machine in seconds. You could even buy all-new RAM and swap out the existing ones as long as the new RAM is supported.

Graphics card

Much like the RAM above, if the best budget PC you can afford only comes with onboard / integrated graphics, you can upgrade easily. Identifying the type of available expansion slots in the motherboard is key. As long as the graphics card, like those made by Nvidia and ATI, will fit on the board and is a good match for your CPU and RAM, you can slot one of these into your PC in a couple of minutes. Once again, you should have all the power disconnected and make sure you're earthed.

Looking for a laptop instead? Although they're technically a 'PC', we've covered those separately in our guide to the best budget laptops.

Best budget PCs of 2024: Top tips

Beware the bling

Many budget PCs pitch themselves very well by using overly designed cases with lots of unnecessary shapes, angles and - well - bling. RGB lighting is a cheap and effective way of making a cheap and nasty PC look far more impressive at first glance. We recommend you look straight past the photos and go straight to the hardware and software specifications.

Budget for better peripherals

Sometimes, the best budget PCs will look to compete in the marketplace by throwing in extras like keyboards, speakers, a mouse and monitors. Some of the time, these are basic but acceptable, but much of the time, they're poorly made, unbranded tat. Unless they're from recognisable brands with good reviews, we strongly recommend ditching them in favour of buying your own. This is particularly true when it comes to budget PCs bundled with mouse and keyboard - often, again, RGB lighting is used to make them look much better than they are.

Consider a VPN

Of course, your budget PC will connect to the internet - and that comes with some risks. Antivirus is great, of course, and you should definitely invest in security suite software such as Bitdefender or McAfee to protect you from the worst. However, what about your personal data? A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a secure tunnel to the internet that hides your IP address from would-be hackers and snoopers. If privacy is your priority, we highly recommend an affordable VPN for that extra layer of security.

Frequently asked questions

Are budget PCs worth it?

As always, this comes down to how much cash you have to spare. For some, a budget PC might cost less than £1000 - especially compared to some high-end beasts out there. For others, budget may mean anything less than £400.

Whatever you spend, whether it's worth it or not, is down to what you are looking to achieve with your new machine. Even the best budget PC will be a poor buy if you haven't looked after the specifications first. If you follow the advice in our buyer's guide, every budget PC is potentially a great choice.

What are the best budget PCs for gaming?

As we mentioned in our line-up, the ADMI Gaming PC Ryzen 5500 is an excellent choice for budget gaming. Budget PCs are rarely the first choice for serious gamers due to limited graphics cards, CPU and RAM. But, it is possible to get a really capable budget gaming PC that can run many of the latest games, all be it at reduced framerates and resolutions than that of PCs costing three times as much.

Can I build a PC on a budget instead?

It's completely possible to build your own PC - providing you have the know-how. Those who embark on this task will undoubtedly save money. Parts for your build, checked for compatibility with the rest of your components, can often be bought from websites like PCPartPicker.

However, this is not recommended for newcomers. By far, the fastest and easiest way to get yourself the best budget PC is to buy one pre-built for just a little more cash.

Best budget PCs: Jargon buster

CPU

A Central Processing Unit, or CPU, processes and executes instructions. Think of this as the brain of the PC. Processors often consist of multiple cores. A higher number of cores increases the amount and intensity of tasks that the CPU is able to carry out.

GPU

A Graphics Processing Unit. Otherwise known as a graphics card. They generate an output feed to a monitor. Every computer has at least a basic one - usually referred to as an integrated graphics card, as it is part of the main motherboard. Dedicated graphics cards have additional processing to improve performance. These cards have dedicated video RAM processor(s), fans and heat-syncing solutions.

RAM

Random Access Memory, or RAM, is a component that temporarily holds information for quick access by the CPU. The information will be related to programs and services that are in use. The more RAM available, the more quick-access information there is available to the CPU, thereby improving computer performance.

HDD

An HDD or hard disk drive is the storage on the computer. It writes and retrieves data to a disk using magnetic storage.

SSD

An SSD or solid-state drive is another option for storage. Unlike its counterpart, an SSD has no moving parts. Much like an SD card, they use flash memory to store and retrieve data. Effectively, they are faster hard drives that will transfer, load and store data faster. They are also more reliable too.

Keep in mind that an SSD will offer less storage and cost more than an HDD. Some computers come with both, often opting to install the operating software on it for a faster boot-up time. If you choose an SSD, you may want to consider having some additional storage as sizes are typically smaller.

eMMC

Embedded MultiMediaCards, or eMMCs, are not too different from SD cards or SSDs. They are not as fast as SSDs and are typically soldered to a PC's motherboard. They will get the job done but are slower. They typically come in lower-end budget PCs, usually in laptops, as they have limited space inside.

Chris Duffill is a Tech Product Writer for What's The Best and Yours. His background includes writing, editorial, marketing, design, video production and photography.

He specialises in home entertainment and audiovisual tech, including speakers, amplifiers, turntables, streaming media players, and TVs. He is also one of our resident experts in computing (PCs, tablets, smartphones, smartwatches), DSLR photography and all kinds of digital cameras. He also writes about retro gaming, game consoles and various electronic gadgets. If it plugs in, lights up or makes a noise, he’ll write about it.

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