But one way you can lighten the load is to just start with a gaming laptop, which packs in everything you need to get started in PC gaming without all the extra pieces. Of course, gaming laptops can be expensive, too, but plenty of budget options also exist.

New for 2025, the Alienware Area-51 gaming laptop features a magnesium alloy chassis with upgraded cooling to tackle the latest and greatest heat generating components. This includes more fans and bigger cutouts enabling greater airflow,

The Alienware 16 Aurora with an RTX 5060 is now $400 off at Best Buy, meaning you can grab next-gen gaming performance for just $1,099. That's the cheapest I've seen an RTX 50-series gaming laptop go for so far, and I'm amazed it's coming from Dell's popular gaming brand!