With many exciting releases in the coming weeks and months, you’ll need a gaming PC capable of running your preferred title.
But gaming PCs are expensive, and the myriad of available parts can be confusing, so to that end, this is the budget PC that I would build.
All prices listed were sourced from Evetech.
Building a gaming pc takes time and careful placement of all the components.
CPU, Motherboard and RAM
The CPU, motherboard and RAM are the core components of a Gaming PC, and you should therefore choose these components before any others.
The best bet for running games at their minimum settings and at the lowest price is Intel’s i3 10100f, a 4-core, 8-thread CPU that comes in at a reasonable R2,099.
However, if you’re willing to spend a little more, the i5 11600i5 11600 has 6 cores and 12 threads and costs R4,240. This CPU potentially offers a longer period of use before becoming outdated.
For the Motherboard, the ASUS TUF Gaming B560-Plus WIFI is an excellent option as it supports both 10th and 11th generation CPUs, so the i3 and i5 processors we are considering are both compatible, and can run higher grade GPUs.
In terms of price the ASUS TUF Gaming B560-Plus WIFI costs R2,499.
Finally, for RAM, you’ll want to start at 16GB and purchase two KLEVV CRAS XR RGB 8GB sticks. Bought together, they will cost R1,799, and should cover you for almost any game.
You could also simplify the buying process by choosing an upgrade kit – which includes all three components and costs between R5,000 and R9,000 depending on your choice.
- i3 10100f: R2,099
- i5 11600: R4,249
- ASUS TUF Gaming B560-PLus WIFI: R2,499
- KLEVV CRAS XR RGB 8GB (x2): R1,799
Graphics card and storage
For gaming, the graphics card (GPU) is arguably the most important component, given this the GTX 1050ti is the best budget card.
It isn’t the cheapest card at R4,499, but it will offer greater longevity than other lower price cards.
Storage is also essential, and it is a great idea to buy an SSD as these drives offer superior speeds.
At a minimum, you want a 500GB SSD; however, given the sizes of games being released, a more comfortable choice would be a 1TB SSD, such as the Hikvision E3000 1TB NVMe SSD at R1,699 or the HP S8000 1TB Internal Solid State Drive at R2,299.
However, if this will break the bank, you can also get a standard internal hard drive like the Western Digital Blue 1TB HDD for R669.
- GTX 1050ti: R4,499
- Hikvision E3000 1TB NVMe SSD: R1,699
- HP S8000 1TB Internal Solid State Drive: R2,299
- Western Digital Blue 1TB HDD: R669
The motherboard of a PC is designed with numerous slots for the CPU, RAM, Storage and GPU.
Power supply, cooling and the case
All that’s left is the power supply, CPU cooling system and a case.
For the power supply, a 650W model such as the Antec VP650W Plus is more than sufficient and is priced at R899.
Regular fans will suffice for cooling the CPU, such as the Antec C400 Glacial CPU Cooler, which costs R649.
Finally, as this is a budget PC, the cheapest case that can comfortably hold our components is fine. The Evetech Base Standard PC Case is the best option then as it costs just R599.
- Antec VP650W Plus: R899
- Antec C400 Glacial CPU Cooler: R649
- Evetech Base Standard PC Case: R599
The total price for this budget PC is between R13,712 and R16,492 – depending on which of the discussed components you choose.
While this is a significant price, you’ll have a gaming PC that can play most games comfortably on either low or medium settings.
Join the conversation