Help me find a good gaming computer please

We have an old HP star wars edition laptop that is in very sad shape. Im trying to figure out if its even worth trying to fix or if itd be better to just try to get a new computer but then what do i get? I need for it to be inexpensive, but good for gaming, as that's my son's primary purpose for it. I dont know what im looking for and all the cpu/gpu stuff confuses me. Im tired of that blue store with the yellow logo and i need help trying to find something that isnt going to be full of useless apps you cant get rid of that soak up the memory and that is a good price and good for games that wont lag on my son and frustrate him. It doesnt have to be a laptop. It could be a desk top. I just need to have a good balance between price and quality. And i need someone who knows what theyre doing to help me. I had a friend rattle off something about looking for the newest generation of intel and graphics as high as possible and something about an i7? But it just confused me bad and now i cant reach him to get clarity on what he was talking about. Can i get some feedback from some of yall? Where do you shop? Have you been to microcenter? What are the options that might be available that i can look for? Should i just go up in person (its a long drive just to browse)? Thanks in advance.