HP ProDesk HP Prebuilt Gaming Desktop PC Intel i5 + Radeon Review
The HP ProDesk marketed as a gaming PC is a refurbished office computer with a very old graphics card. It's a decent home office bundle, but a poor choice for real gaming.
The 30-Second Version
This is a refurbished office PC in gaming cosplay. It's a decent value as a complete home office setup, but a terrible choice for anyone serious about gaming. Manage your expectations.
Overview
Look, this HP ProDesk isn't a gaming PC. It's a refurbished office tower with a very old, very basic graphics card slapped in, and someone wrote 'gaming' on the box. The one thing to know is that you're buying a solid, reliable home or office computer that can handle light gaming from 2018. If you're expecting to play modern titles at decent settings, you'll be disappointed. But if you need a capable Windows 11 machine for work, school, and maybe some Minecraft or League of Legends on the side, this is a surprisingly decent deal.
Performance
The performance is exactly what the specs suggest: fine for office work, rough for gaming. That Intel i5-8500 is a 6-core CPU from 2018, and it lands in the 14th percentile in our database. It's not fast, but it's enough for daily tasks. The real story is the Radeon RX 550 4GB. It's a bottom-tier GPU from the same era, sitting in the 33rd percentile. In our tests, it struggles to hit 60 FPS in modern games like Fortnite or Overwatch 2 unless you turn the settings way down to 1080p Low. It's fine for esports titles from five years ago, but that's it.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Comes with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, which is a huge value add for a complete starter setup. 96th
- 16GB of RAM is a good amount for multitasking and helps compensate for the older CPU. 77th
- Windows 11 Pro is included, which is a nice upgrade over Home for a business user.
- The 'renewed' process seems legit, with a 96th percentile social proof score meaning buyers are generally happy with the refurb quality.
Cons
- The RX 550 GPU is ancient and weak. Calling this a '1080p Gaming PC' is marketing spin at its finest. 14th
- Wi-Fi is handled by a slow, single-band USB 2.0 dongle, not a proper internal card. That's janky in 2024. 20th
- Storage is just a 500GB SSD. You'll fill that up fast with a handful of games. 27th
- The CPU is also old and slow. This whole system is built on 2018-era tech. 34th
The Word on the Street
Specifications
Full Specifications
Processor
| CPU | Intel Core i5 8500 |
| Cores | 6 |
| Frequency | 3.2 GHz |
| L3 Cache | 8 MB |
Graphics
| GPU | Radeon RX 550 |
| Type | discrete |
| VRAM | 4 GB |
Memory & Storage
| RAM | 16 GB |
| RAM Generation | DDR4 |
| Storage | 500 GB |
| Storage Type | SSD |
Build
| Form Factor | Tower |
| Weight | 6.1 kg / 13.5 lbs |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi | WiFi 4 |
System
| OS | Windows 11 Pro |
Value & Pricing
At the low end of its price spread, around $339, this is a fair value as a complete office PC bundle. At the high end, near $526, it's a rip-off. Shop around. The value is entirely in the bundled peripherals and the 'renewed' warranty. As a gaming machine, it's poor value—you can find used PCs with much better graphics for similar money.
Price History
vs Competition
Don't compare this to the OMEN or Alienware towers listed; those are real gaming PCs. A more relevant competitor is a basic Lenovo or Dell business refurb without the 'gaming' label, which would cost less. If you actually want to game, a modern budget gaming PC with an RTX 3050 or RX 6600 will run circles around this for a few hundred dollars more. This HP is for someone who wants one box for everything and doesn't mind low settings in old games.
| Spec | HP ProDesk HP Prebuilt Gaming Desktop PC Intel i5 + Radeon | HP OMEN HP OMEN 45L Gaming Desktop, Intel Core Ultra 7 | Dell Aurora Dell Alienware Aurora Gaming Desktop | Lenovo Legion Tower Lenovo Legion Tower 5i Desktop Computer | Acer Nitro Acer Nitro 60 Desktop Computer | Asus ASUS Republic of Gamers NUC NUC15JNK Mini Desktop |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5 8500 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K | Intel Core Ultra 9 285K | Intel Core Ultra 7 265F | AMD Ryzen 9 7900 | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX |
| RAM (GB) | 16 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 64 | 32 |
| Storage (GB) | 500 | 2048 | 2048 | 2048 | 2048 | 1024 |
| GPU | AMD Radeon RX 550 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 |
| Form Factor | Tower | Desktop | Desktop | Tower | Desktop | Mini |
| Psu W | - | 850 | - | 850 | 850 | 330 |
| OS | Windows 11 Pro | Windows 11 Pro | Windows 11 Home | Windows 11 Home | Windows 11 Home | Windows 11 Home |
Common Questions
Q: Can it really run Fortnite or GTA V?
Yes, but not well. You'll be playing at 1080p with all the settings on Low or Medium to get close to 60 FPS. It's playable, but it won't be pretty.
Q: Is the monitor any good?
The included 24" monitor is a basic 1080p LCD. It gets the job done, but don't expect great color or high refresh rates. It's a freebie that makes the bundle worthwhile.
Q: Can I upgrade the graphics card later?
Maybe, but it's tricky. This uses a standard HP business chassis and power supply, which are often limited. You could probably slot in a low-profile, low-power GPU like a GTX 1650, but anything more powerful likely needs a new PSU and case.
Who Should Skip This
If you're looking for a real gaming PC to play new AAA titles, skip this immediately. Go look at a budget build with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G or a used system with a GTX 1660 Super. This HP is for office work first, casual gaming a distant second.
Verdict
We can't recommend this as a gaming PC. Full stop. However, as a renewed all-in-one desktop package for a home office, remote student, or general family computer that can also run some very undemanding games, it's a sensible, low-fuss choice if you find it at the lower end of its price range. Just go in with your eyes wide open about its limitations.