A gaming PC can be a lot cheaper than a console, and you also have a lot more flexibility about your budget - you can skimp now, and upgrade to the monster rig of your dreams later if you choose.
There's an intimidating number of choices available but we can help you to build up a budget rig on your own. Our focus is on building the cheapest gaming rig that still delivers an acceptable experience. Clearly, this machine we'll build will not be for the purists - we'll do that at a later stage - but something that you can use as a reference point if you are looking to take your gaming a little bit more seriously.
You can then choose to step up from there depending on how much you're able to spend and what level of graphical quality you're looking for.
What you need
The basic considerations you need to keep in mind are a CPU, which you'll typically buy from Intel or AMD, a GPU, which would usually come from Nvidia or AMD, a hard drive, and RAM. First, let's talk about some of the different choices, and then we'll move on to our sample configuration.
On the CPU front, AMD does not have anything compelling to offer at the moment, but the excellent Intel Pentium Anniversary Edition (the G3258), is a low-priced monster that runs beautifully on its own, and can easily exceed speeds of 4GHz when pushed beyond its official specifications.
The GPU market is constantly in flux. Prices are not stable, as Nvidia and AMD keep trying new tricks to outdo each other. Nvidia's recently launched GTX 750 and 750 Ti are based on the new Maxwell core which performs well and consumes very little power.
For AMD, it's less clear, but repeated price drops and some pretty interesting deals on free bundled games are promising.
RAM prices have doubled since the start of 2013, and will likely stay this way for a while. As a result, we have to allocate more of our budget to memory or change our expectations.
Hard drive prices are fairly reasonable now, but SSDs are becoming more and more tempting. An affordable SSD that's only enough for the OS and applications will still make a huge difference, but it might not fit in our entry-level build's budget.
We've given ourselves a budget of Rs. 40,000 all inclusive. This will give us modest but consistent performance, and leave the doors open to multiple upgrades over time. Here's the best we managed to do, considering high import duties and a weak exchange rate. Note that prices fluctuate every day and vary from area to area, so you might need to tweak this a little.
The build
If you're looking for a simple list of things to buy, then the table below has you covered. But we also talk about what you can change and tweak in this list, so read on to know more.
This basic build is a little above what we'd budgeted, but you should be able to save some money by using the mouse, keyboard, monitor and PSU if you have an existing PC. Your old HDD and RAM should also be used, if possible, to get the costs even lower.
With this basic setup, you should be able to get 40-60 fps with high detail settings in most current games at the monitor's native resolution. If you want to step up to HD 1080p, you'll need a better GPU and monitor, which would add at least Rs. 10,000 to the budget.
Intel's Core i3s are fast and don't consume a lot of power - they don't quite have the muscle of a quad-core i5 but do a decent job as far as games are concerned. Disappointingly though, the i3s can't be overclocked.
The most affordable motherboard option we were comfortable with were was MSI's H87M-E35. You'll get all the important features such as multiple USB 3.0 ports and a PS/2 port as compared to the MSI board. It also has two more RAM slots, SATA 6GBps, HDMI, and PCIe 3.0.
A year ago, you would have would have been able to fit 8GB of DDR3-1600 RAM into this budget, but we have to step down to 4GB due to market forces. The same budget considerations lead us to suggest Sapphire's Radeon HD 7770. It is a potent GPU for the price, and should handle gaming at 1366x768 quite well.
As expected, we can't include a solid state storagedrive, but if you already have a hard drive, you could get a small SSD to install Windows to, for quick booting.
Corsair's VS450 is a nice, affordable and stable power supply, with ample enough PCIe, SATA and Molex cables for a budget build.
If you don't have an LCD monitor already, the AOC unit we've listed is a good place to start. A 1080p monitor like Dell's S2240L is a nice option for Rs.9,000 but it requires a more powerful graphics card as well.
The rest of the parts are pretty standard, and even if you choose another DVD drive or cabinet in the same budget, it should make a difference.
Upgrade options
As far as the motherboard is concerned, you may want to step up to a more feature complete board like the Gigabyte H87M-DH3. Overclockers should consider something with the Z prefix, like MSI's Z97 PC Mate, which appears to be the cheapest 9-series chipset available. Again, this depends on what savings you can make from using parts from your older desktop, unless you're ready to expand the budget.
RAM is simple, get DDR3-1600 with timings of 9-9-9-24 or tighter, but don't pay extra for anything beyond this, because it's usually not going to be worth it as far as games are concerned. G.Skill, Corsair and Kingston are good choices.
It boils down to how much RAM you want to add and how much you want to pay for it. We'd recommend 8GB at the minimum, if you can afford it. Try and buy RAM sticks in identical pairs to ensure a stable dual channel configuration.
Graphics is a highly scalable market. The more you pay, the more performance you usually get, so it comes down to how smooth you want your gaming to be and at what resolution.
While the 7770 is good till 720p resolutions, we'd recommend getting at least a GTX 750 Ti for higher ones (900p or 1080p). It is priced between Rs.10,500 and 11,500 online, and we certainly wouldn't pay more.
The next step up would be an AMD R9 270X at around Rs.14k, and it's a solid deal considering it's basically a higher clocked Radeon HD 7870.Note that you still won't always get 60 fps at 1080p. The GTX 760 is a good way to mostly achieve that; prices start from 17k.
Finally, the R9 280X and GTX 770 are the highest we'd mention in this article; both cost around 25k and provide a solid 1080p gaming experience.
As far as HDDs are concerned, Western Digital and Hitachi are known to be reliable, so just pick any, really, if you simply want a secondary storage drive. For the boot drive, pick an SSD from Intel, Samsung or Corsair, and you should be good to go.
Cabinets are 80% functionality and 20% personal taste and aesthetics. A decent cabinet can make the difference between bruised fingers and awkwardly crammed components, and a nice, clean, easily serviceable system.
While the Elite 311 will get the job done, look towards cases from Fractal Design, Antec, NZXT, Corsair or higher end cases from Cooler Master itself, like the HAF 912 Advanced.
Easily removable filters, good airflow and fan/water cooler mounts, relevant front panel ports (e-SATA will go waste, as will FireWire), a bottom PSU mount and space for cable management are all things to look out for. The case should be tall enough to accommodate the CPU cooler you want to use, and long enough for the graphics card of your choice. Removable drive bays and a CPU cut out are good ideas too.
CPU Coolers are fairly simple: From a pure functionality standpoint, the Hyper 212 EVO from Cooler Master sells for around Rs. 2,000 and is quite excellent. Noctua's Noctua NH-D14 is probably the only other air cooler you should consider; it's one of the best there is (but over twice the price of the Hyper 212). Of course, smaller cases may need smaller coolers like Noctua's NH-L9i 95mm SSO2, or you may want something fancy looking like the Cooler Master V8 GTS.
Note that if you're not overclocking, the boxed cooler is usually sufficient, but if it spins up too often and is too noisy, or the CPU starts hitting temperatures above 80*C, you may want to consider getting a third party one.
Power supplies are mostly simple too. Antec, Seasonic, Corsair, and certain Cooler Master PSUs are good choices, usually. You won't usually need more than 550W for a single GPU build, unless you're using a GTX 780 Ti and Ivy Bridge-E CPU together, where it would be on the safer side to consider a 600W PSU.
Otherwise, just make sure you have the appropriate connectors (especially PCI-e for the graphics card) and that they're long enough to route behind the motherboard tray. 80%+ efficiency is also a good thing.
With that in mind, consider the Corsair VS 550, Seasonic ECO 500 or Antec VP 550, among others. You may want a modular PSU, to reduce wire clutter and increase airflow inside the case, or for Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX enclosures. Such PSUs are appropriately marked (usually with an 'M' somewhere in the name, like CX430M or M12II 520) and usually more expensive. Try and avoid fully modular PSUs (in which all wires can be removed), as some undesirable electrical characteristics can be more pronounced on the higher power rails with such designs.
Last point to consider
If you're considering sinking 20k into a GPU today, we say save another 10 till the end of September and go for the GTX 880 when it launches. It'll be well worth it.Of course, it means that your budget gets a little bigger, but the difference in performance will be equally noticeable.
We hope this guide serves as a guide for inexperienced DIY gamer and also serves as a refresher and template for more advanced users returning to the field after a long time. If you have some suggestions about different components, tell us via the comments.
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