Our favorite pre-built gaming PC is the best way to get an RTX 3080 right now
Most years we're all about building the best PC you possibly can from Black Friday deal parts, but 2020 isn't exactly a normal year. AMD's brand new CPUs are scarce, and even old graphics cards are hard to find. The latest Nvidia RTX 30-series and RX 6800 from AMD? Forget about it—we can't find them in stock, let alone on sale.
But there is a way to get one of these new cards, if you don't mind getting a whole PC right along with it. Buying a prebuilt gaming PC right now is the easiest way to get your hands on an RTX 3080 right now. Conveniently, Dell has chopped about $50 off the high-end configuration of the Alienware Aurora R11 with an RTX 3080, which happens to be our pick for the best gaming PC today.
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Over on the Alienware Aurora R11 configuration page, you can choose a base model of the PC and then customize it with the graphics card of your choice, including an RTX 3070 or 3080. When I got to the order screen I put in my zip code in San Francisco, and found that I could get the system delivered as soon as December 3 with express shipping. In other words, the RTX models aren't back-ordered, at least right now; stock might not hold out for the entirety of Black Friday.
The default high-end RTX 3080 Aurora R11 model is a pricey $2,391.19, but Dell lets you do plenty of customization here. I started with the cheapest config, using an Intel i5-10400F, and upgraded to the RTX 3070 along with a 1000W power supply, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB M.2 SSD for a total price of $1,754 (with discount code "EXTRA50" applied). That's $600 cheaper, though still a pricey PC build.
If you just want an RTX 3080 model with no thought tweaking required, here it is. Bonus: it comes with a free copy of Call of Duty: Cold War.
Alienware Aurora R11 | i7 10700KF | RTX 3080| $2,439.99 $2,391.19 at Dell (save $48)
This isn't exactly a big deal on the Aurora R11, but it's currently our favorite pre-built gaming PC, and you can actually get one with an RTX 3080. Save yourself the hassle of searching for cards in-stock on every store on the internet.View Deal
The Aurora R11 comes with a one-year warranty including tech support and on-site service if you need it. In our review of the R11, we wrote that "the higher-than-average price provides you with reliable build quality, exceptional customer service, and solid warranties. The numerous pre-fab options offered by Alienware also help eliminate much of the guesswork associated with customizing your system. Some options provide better value for the parts used, but for hassle-free PC gaming out of the box, it's tough to beat the ease of use that Alienware provides."