Budget gaming rig

D

duk3

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 2, 2011
Messages
190
Reaction score
0
I'm looking to buy a budget gaming rig as mine is ancient now.

Basically just a box with psu, mobo, cpu, ram, hdd, and of course the graphics card. I don't need a monitor, speakers, mouse or keyboard, as I've got those covered all ready.

I'd like to spend R5000, as I know it's hard to get anything decent for less, but I could go up to say R7000. That would be my upper limit, I think.

What's the best rig for those figures any of you can suggest for me? I live in the northern suburbs of Cape Town, so it would help if the place is within range. Thanks.
 
This Pc is not for overclocking, it's just a simple build that I came out with. It's certainly not the best rig you can get but it isn't bad either.

Rebeltech are in Johannesburg, you can request them to build the Pc first before sending it to you. Last time I checked it cost R75 to ship via courier.

They are very trustworthy and I have used them a couple of times myself.


Case: R551
Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus, Mid Tower, Black with Black interior

Product Page
Review

OR

Case: R736
Cooler Master CM 690II Plus, Mid Tower, Black

Product Page
Review

PSU: R808
Corsair GS500, 500w

Power Cord: R35
Unbranded Dedicated Power Cable, 2M

Optional, you can use your old one ofcourse.

Motherboard: R710
ASRock B75M, all-in-one LGA1155, Intel B75

Please note that the motherboard does not have front USB 3.0

CPU: R1,964
Intel Core i5 3470, 3.2GHz, LGA1155

Ram: R247
Corsair CMV4GX3M1A1333C9 , value select , 4Gb , ddr3-1333

You can always add another stick later, most gamers don't require more than 4GB of Ram.

GPU: R1449
GIGABYTE GV-R777OC-1GD, HD7770 OC

Hard Drive: R736
Western Digital Caviar Green WD7500AARX, 750GB, SATA6G

DVD-ROM: R165
LG GH24NS90, 24x SATA


Total with Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus:
R6665.00 (excluding shipping)

Total with Cooler Master CM 690II Plus:
R6850.00 (excluding shipping)


Optional Case Fan: R58
Cooler Master XtraFlo 120 Slim
 
Nice setup @ NomNom !

I'll perhaps just change the PSU to a slightly cheaper one: be quiet! Pure Power L8 CM, 530w @ R684 * Currently out of stock

Then also increase the HDD space for just a tad more: Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARX, 1TB/1000GB, SATA6G @ R805

* Just take note that due to the still rather entry level graphics card, this PC will still struggle to play new games like BF3 on 1920x1080 !

Perhaps one can go for a cheaper CPU ( Intel Core i3-3240, 3.4GHz @ R1533 ) and then increase the GPU budget by about R500?
 
Pada said:
Nice setup @ NomNom !

I'll perhaps just change the PSU to a slightly cheaper one: be quiet! Pure Power L8 CM, 530w @ R684 * Currently out of stock

Then also increase the HDD space for just a tad more: Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARX, 1TB/1000GB, SATA6G @ R805

* Just take note that due to the still rather entry level graphics card, this PC will still struggle to play new games like BF3 on 1920x1080 !

Perhaps one can go for a cheaper CPU ( Intel Core i3-3240, 3.4GHz @ R1533 ) and then increase the GPU budget by about R500?
Click to expand...

Agreed on what Pada said.

How does be quiet! fair against the other brands?

I recommended the i5 since games tend to like quad core CPU's more these days especially Battlefield 3.

I am using a Pc with a i3 2120 3.30GHz and a HD7850 2GB GPU and the CPU is bottle necking when playing Battlefield 3.

But then again for a max budget of R7k getting a i3 instead of a i5 and then using more cash to get a better GPU is probably the way to go.

@OP

If you can try to reuse your hard drive from your current Pc since you will be saving yourself R800+- on getting a new one.

Use the R800 to get a better graphics card, and maybe you can keep the i5 CPU.

Then get a new Hard Drive later on when prices are better.
 
Do you really need a large HDD though? 1 TB seems like overkill. Seems the OP can save a penny by using a smaller HDD. Unless you have a massive movie and music library on your PC, I highly doubt you need anything more than 500GB. Probably get away with 320GB as well.
 
Last edited:
that mobo is cheap for those specs, very nice indeed.
 
Thanks for your input guys.

@NomNom, the HDD I have is quite old (6 years), and it's an 80 GB which is tiny nowadays, so I don't know how long it would last, to be honest. But you do make a good point about saving some money for a better CPU and maybe even GPU.

@Pada, Like thestaggy says, 1 TB probably is overkill for me. 320 GB would more than likely be enough. If I need more space, I could just get an external HDD at some point. I keep most of my music on flash drives as it is.
 
Avoid the green drives for your main hdd. Get one of the WD Blue/Black editions. Get a 1tb WD Green when you got some spare cash.
 
Last edited:
Cooler Master Elite 344, Mini Tower, Black + Blue, no PSU, 1x US
Intel Core i3-2120, 3.3GHz, LGA1155, Dual (2) Core (Hyper Thread
Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARX, 1TB/1000GB, SATA6G
Corsair CMV4GX3M2A1333C9 , value select , 2Gb x 2 kit , ddr3-1333mhz
ASUS P8H61-M LX R2.0 - all-in-one LGA1155 mb with EFi mouse-cont
LG GH24NS90, 24x SATA, black, support SecurDisc technology (pass
Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus, 500w, Eps12V V2.91 + ATX 12V V
Sapphire HD7850 O.C, 1GB 256bit 4 channel DDR5, 32RoPs, 153.6Gb/s

It's my boet's rig.Total came to 6.5k but like the people said don't get green HDD drive as your primary drive.
Rig works well and isn't giving any problems.
Just my my thoughts.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X