The HP Pavilion 690 gaming desktop is on sale for $190 off at Amazon

TL;DR: The HP Pavilion 690 gaming desktop computer is at its cheapest price so far this year — $389.94 at Amazon, a savings of $190. 

Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you are new to this whole PC gaming thing. Maybe you’ve been rocking that Xbox or PS4 for so long now you just figured why change? But then the recent news kept popping up in your feed about Fortnite going dark for a day and freaking out millions of gamers. Very curious, that.

Or maybe you read a review of the new John Wick Hex PC-only game and it piqued your curiosity. Possibly you decided that it was finally time to see what all the fuss is about with one of those big MMORPG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) — like World of Warcraft, Overwatch  or Elder Scrolls. Whatever got you thinking about a switch to PC gaming, you still aren’t sure where to begin. 

Sure, gaming laptops are portable, but they aren’t always the most budget-friendly option for someone new to the online gaming world. Instead, consider a solid desktop PC that will give you clear graphics and performance play without breaking the bank. Right now you can find a good starter system at Amazon with the HP Pavilion 690 gaming desktop computer for only $389.94 — normally $579.99, that’s a sweet 33% savings and its lowest price all year. 

As gaming desktops go, you’ll get plenty of bang for your buck with the HP 690. Along with the 1TB hard drive and Windows 10 OS, the system also comes equipped with 8GB of memory, with a keyboard and mouse included. Also under the hood is an AMD Ryzen 3 2200G processor and Radeon RX 550  graphics card to help deliver visuals you can almost sink yourself into. It even has multi-monitor capability, upgradable memory and a built-in re-writable DVD drive so you can watch your favorite films — when not kicking booty, that is.

This may only be a basic starter model, but all the 5-star user reviews show it gets the job done for someone just testing the waters a bit. Even PCMag gives the Pavilion 690 an “excellent” rating for its already low price, combined with surprising computing power for such a compact desktop. One of the few downsides found is the lack of a SSD included, which can potentially make gameplay clunky at times if there is a lot going on at once. But that is easily remedied with any inexpensive SSD add-on, so don’t sweat it too much.

So keep those consoles, sure. But for your first foray into PC gaming, you aren’t going to find a much better price right now than for what you get on the HP Pavilion 690 gaming desktop computer. Just don’t complain to us when you get hooked on one of those goofy Fortnite dances.