Below is How To Build A Cheap Gaming PC In South Africa
Trying to figure out how to build a cheap gaming PC that doesn’t suck? We hear you.
The best gaming PCs have a reputation for being really expensive, with extremely high-end systems setting you back thousands of dollars to buy or build. But, there’s more to building PCs for gaming than what the 1% can afford.
To prove that point, we’ll show you exactly how to build a cheap gaming PC that doesn’t suck.
The system we’ll walk you through here won’t be able to play Control at 4K with ray tracing maxed out, but 1080p at high settings? Easy. Thanks to excellent processors and graphics cards that are, now more than ever, priced competitively, it’s practically a walk in the park – as long as you know what to look for.
If you’re building a system out of new parts, you’re not going to be able to beat the Xbox One X at the same price point. 4K gaming is pretty much out of the question until you get to the mid-range. You can get around this by picking up used parts, but that’s not something we’d recommend if you’re afraid of your PC components spontaneously combusting.
But, the other benefits that a gaming PC can offer more than make up for the higher price tag. And, even if PC gaming has a higher entry price, you’ll still save a ton of money over time on PC games.
What you’ll need
Despite what you may have thought, you don’t need too much in the way of tools to build a cheap gaming PC.
A Phillips head screwdriver is the only absolutely necessary tool. However, there are a couple of things that can help you out. Because you’ll be dealing with a lot of screws, having a parts tray helps a lot. If you don’t have one of those lying around (who can blame you), you can just use a couple of bowls to keep things sorted.
Also, you have to be on the lookout for static electricity.
An anti-static wristband is a godsend if you have one, but if you don’t, just make sure you’re not standing on the carpet when building, and discharge any latent static electricity by touching some metal, like your power supply or PC case.
Most importantly, however, you need a clean space to build. If you can clear off the dining room table for a couple of hours, that’s perfect. You just need enough space to hold all of your PC components.
The parts
There are so many PC components out there these days that you could theoretically build dozens of PCs without having the same parts list.
Luckily, we follow PC components literally every day, so we used our expertise to pick out the best bang-for-your-buck PC components for this cheap gaming PC, and why those parts are the best choices for a budget PC build in 2019. And, once you’ve gathered up all the best PC components that don’t suck we’ll show you how to build a PC.
You can build gaming PC for R10,000 in South Africa
Whereas consoles provide an easy, more affordable plug-and-play solution for those purely interested in gaming, a PC brings with it a wealth of new gaming possibilities.
This includes a greater variety of custom mods and add-ons to choose from and more personalization with regards to software and hardware.
You are typically also able to shop from a wide range of digital and physical stores to find discounts on games.
On top of this, PC games are generally also cheaper than their PlayStation or Xbox counterparts.
However, when it comes to the hardware needed to run a proper gaming PC setup, South Africans tend to get the shorter end of the stick.
One clear example of this is the high mark-ups on the RTX 30 Series graphics cards available in South Africa.
While Nvidia’s recently launched RTX 3060 retails for only $329 (R5,088) in the US, the cheapest RTX 3060 card we were able to find was available from Wootware at R10,499, equivalent to around $680.
PC gaming is, therefore, a rather expensive hobby and is often viewed to be only an option for more affluent players.
However, those with enough patience to start small, save, and expand their machine’s capabilities, can still get away with a moderately capable desktop for less than the R12,000 price of a next-generation console in South Africa.
We decided to see what type of entry-level gaming desktop we could assemble in South Africa for around R10,000.
Brand-new build
For our first configuration, we used only new components which were available from well-known South African retailers, including Takealot, Loot, and Evetech.
To give ourselves a fair chance of hitting that figure, we did not include the prices of a monitor, peripherals, or a Windows 10 installation.
Arguably the most important piece of hardware will be the graphics card or GPU, as this will be the main driving force behind the visual performance.
However, it is essential that you don’t underestimate the value of a good CPU, which will, in basic terms, run the brain of your game.
Choosing an excessively powerful version of either while opting for a low performer on the other end will result in “bottlenecking”, with one simply being unable to keep pace with the other.
We were able to combine a 4-core AMD CPU, 16GB DDR4 RAM, and an Nvidia graphics card with 4GB GDDR6 video memory for a balanced build.
While it won’t crush frame rates, it should be able to maintain between 40-60fps in recent AAA titles when playing at low to medium settings.
The table below shows the components of our brand new entry-level gaming PC build, which came in at R10,075 in total.
| Specifications | Parts | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Case | Antec NX110 Mid Tower Gaming Case | R649 |
| Motherboard | MSI X470 Gaming Plus MAX ATX Ryzen | R4,999 |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 3 3200G | |
| RAM | Klevv 16GB 2,666MHz DDR4 | |
| GPU | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC Edition 4GB | R3,409 |
| Storage | Hikvision E100 256GB SATA SSD | R549 |
| Power supply | Raidmax XT-Series 400W Non-modular PSU | R469 |
| Total | R10,075 |
Solid second-hand option
Another possibility to look into is to buy your entire setup or at least parts thereof second-hand.
While you won’t get the added peace of mind afforded by warranties, choosing the right sellers can save you thousands on your purchase.
This way, you may end up building a significantly more powerful machine at a fraction of the cost than when all parts are brand new.
One of the most popular online spots which help facilitate the buying, selling, and trading of PC parts is the Carbonite forum.
Using only parts available from here, we came up with a much more powerful machine.
It would sport an AMD Ryzen 5 3500X, which is around 19% faster than the Ryzen 3 3200G, according to UserBenchmark tests.
This is paired with a GTX 1070, which is also 111% faster than the GTX 1050 Ti in our new build.
We were also able to get significantly more storage out of the deal, with a combo of 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD capacity.
This setup should be able to run most current AAA titles at a stable 60fps at medium to high settings, while less demanding games may even hit 100fps.
The table below shows the collection of components we could put together from Carbonite sellers at exactly R10,000.
| Specifications | Parts | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Case | Cooler Master HAF 922 | R400 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite V2 | R1,500 |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 3500X | R2,900 |
| RAM | Klevv 16GB 2,666MHz DDR4 | R600 |
| GPU | MSI GamingX GeForce GTX 1070 8GB | R3,500 |
| Storage | 256GB WD 2.5-inch SSD + 1TB WD 3.5-inch HDD | R800 |
| Power supply | Corsair VS450 | R300 |
| Total | R10,000 |