PC gamers get a pretty bad rap from our console brethren. We tend to be perceived as hardcore nerds who aren’t interested in a gaming machine that doesn’t use complicated water cooling systems to keep its temperatures down or sport enough LEDs to cover a Times Square Christmas tree.
“They” are wrong. We don’t all go to LANs with a mini tool-kit in case we need to tweak our water-cooling, we don’t all smirk at anyone who doesn’t know how to edit the Windows registry, and most importantly, we aren’t all trust fund babies with thousands of Rands to spend on hardware.
So if you’ve wanted to stick your toe into the PC gaming pool but are scared of the price of entry, this article is for you. Or maybe you’re just in need of an upgrade before the next big title hits. I’ll show you how to build a PC powerful enough to play any of the current (and future) titles without having to auction any organs on e-bay.
Before we get started
I’d like to go over a couple of points about the list below. All the prices I quoted are from Sybaritic.co.za.
When I was shopping around I found them to have the best prices overall. Note you might be able to find a couple of the items for R20-R30 cheaper elsewhere, but the cost in shipping from multiple places negates that saving – it’s just more convenient and cheaper to get it all from one place. However, if you have a favourite online or brick-and-mortar store, let these prices simply serve as a guideline.
To save even further, for certain items, it may be worth looking at the second-hand market. While some hardware such as graphics cards can be a little bit sketchy to buy used, something like a processor with no moving parts is usually a safe bet. If you’re interested in shopping second-hand, a great place to start is the forum section on carbonite.co.za.
All right, enough chatter, let’s get building.
CPU – Intel Core i3 2100
Generally I find the AMD range of processor to provide more in the “bang-for-buck” department, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover this often overlooked gem. While only sporting two cores as opposed to four, in games testing this ‘little-engine-that-could’ manages to keep up with, and often outpaces, an AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition.
While the Phenom is a quad-core and consequently better at multitasking, most games only make use of two cores, thus the better clock speed on the i3 shines; you’d be hard-pressed to find a better-performing CPU at this price.
The i3-2100 also makes use of Intel’s newest technology, so it does leave you the option to upgrade to an i5 or i7 at a later time if you so desire.
R1,078 from Sybaritic
Motherboard – Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2P-B3 IH61
The motherboard is the foundation of your whole computer (you can tell by the overcomplicated product label), so it’s one area where you really want to get a brand you trust. Gigabyte is known for their high-quality products, and the GA-H61M is the cheapest available that supports both the CPU and DDR3 memory.
It comes with all the regular bells and whistles you need, but also sports two PCI-Express slots; a nice bonus if you want to add another graphics card at a later time.
R752 from Sybaritic
Graphics – Sapphire Game Edition Radeon HD5770
A cornerstone of any gaming PC, the graphics card does all the heavy lifting when it’s time to get your game on.
The HD5770 is the best candidate for an all-round good card. With DirectX 11 support, you won’t be buying something obsolete, and the performance is surprisingly solid. In testing it equals or outperforms a Radeon HD4870, so you should have no problems running the latest games at decent graphics settings, and the 1GB of memory is enough to support a decent-sized monitor. Sapphire is also highly regarded in the GPU business, so you can rest assured you’re getting a quality product.
R1,313 from Sybaritic
This card is a lot like the girl on its cover. It may look pretty, but it can still tear your head off.
Power Supply – Gigabyte Odin 585W
I’m a big fan of the Gigabyte Odin range. Power supplies can be very costly, but there’s really no need to sink a ton of money into one, unless you plan on running the aforementioned LED-water-cooling-bonanza. The priority when buying a PSU is brand – you never want to get something from a name you don’t trust.
The main power drain on your PSU will almost always be your graphics card. The HD5770 has a total maximum power drain of 108W, so the Odin should have no trouble handling it. It also sports two 12V rails and a 6-pin power connector, often needed for higher-end graphics cards.
I’ve run an HD4890, a much more power hungry card, on this exact model with no trouble at all, so it gets a personal recommendation from me.
R501 from Sybaritic
Memory – Kingston 2GB DDR3 x 2
RAM can make a huge difference to the speed of your computer. It’s best to always get a trusted brand, and to get a decent amount. 4GB is perfect for our needs, and Kingston is a well-respected brand. I’ve chosen the DDR3-1333 for our machine, which encompasses the newest technology at a great speed.
R430 from Sybaritic
Extras
Now we’ve got the main components down, we just need to fill out the rest of our PC with some other required components.
Every computer needs an HDD, and for a gaming PC you don’t want to get less than a Terabyte. This should be enough to comfortably fit all your favourite games and other media such as movies and music.
You’d be hard-pressed to find better value than the Seagate Barracuda 1TB – R501 from Sybaritic.
While often somewhat redundant these days, we still need a DVD drive to install our favourite games. My pick is the LG GH22NS40 DVD Writer, sporting the fastest write speed in the world (because why not add something extra to brag about?). R205 from Sybaritic.
Finally we need to cram all this new tech into something. For a tower you want something with enough space to squeeze everything into comfortably, with decent ventilation to avoid overheating. I found the Gigabyte X1 to achieve all that, while still looking pretty damn classy. R295 from Sybaritic
I know what you’re thinking. Where am I gonna fit all my LEDs?
Last of all, I haven’t included a monitor in this list, but if you are in need of one it’s not hard to find a 22” HD for around the R1,300 mark. The monitors at Sybaritic were a little pricey, but you can find one in that range from Prophecy.co.za.
Total
So then, let’s see how we did on our budget build.
CPU – R1,078
Motherboard – R752
Graphics – R,1313
PSU – R501
Memory – R430
Extras – R501 + R205 + R295
TOTAL – R5,075
Not bad! I hope you’ll forgive me for the R75. See you online!
Have you used any of these products? Do you think something else should be on the list? Tell me about it in the forums, or comment below!
