Our three gaming desktop picks for the holiday season.
Rich Brown
Rich was the editorial lead for CNET's Home and Wellness sections, based in Louisville, Kentucky. Before moving to Louisville in 2013, Rich ran CNET's desktop computer review section for 10 years in New York City. He has worked as a tech journalist since 1994, covering everything from 3D printing to Z-Wave smart locks.
Digital Storm's pre-configured gaming beast is attractive, expertly built, and easy to purchase. It also offers some of the best performance and overall features for the dollar we saw all year.
Similar to the Digital Storm system, the Maingear Vybe SuperStock is a more compact, marginally more affordable gaming desktop. It's not quite as fast as the Digital Storm, but Maingear offers perhaps the best online shopping experience among boutique PC vendors, which will satisfy anyone interested in customizing his own gaming PC.
The first true gaming-oriented all-in-one, Lenovo's IdeaCentre B520 is a speedy, fairly-priced do-it-all home entertainment PC. It even supports Nvidia's 3D Vision technology, and includes a set of the required glasses. It's not quite as fast as a standalone gaming desktop at the same price, but this system provides a capable, self-contained gaming experience.
