The gaming PC you can build for the price of a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X

Consoles offer gamers a cost-effective way to experience the latest and greatest titles. However, gamers can also build a relatively powerful gaming PC for around the same price as Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

MyBroadband used the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 pricing to assess what gaming PC we could build using that money.

At the time of writing, retailers the PlayStation 5 digital edition cost R11,999 and the Xbox Series X R13,999.

It should be noted that gamers could get the consoles for a lower price if they shop around for a good deal.

Our gaming PC cost R12,546 in total. However, this doesn’t include a Windows activation, monitor, or other peripherals.

The graphics card contributed the most to the total price, so we selected the Palit GeForce RTX 3050 StormX with 6GB of video memory. It is available for R3,799 from Wootware.

The CPU and motherboard also contributed significantly to the total, at R2,452 and R2,199, respectively.

We selected the Intel Core i3-12100F processor for the CPU and the MSI Pro B760M-E DDR4 microATX motherboard.

Regarding RAM and storage, we opted for a 16GB kit of Klevv Bolt XR 4,000MHz DDR4 and a Western Digital Blue SN550- 500GB NVMe solid-state drive.

The RAM kit features two 8GB sticks and is priced at R1,299 at Evetech, while the SSD is priced at R1,099.

As this is a fairly low-specced gaming PC, we didn’t include a CPU cooler, and it draws only around 280W of power.

However, we opted for a 550W Gamdias Helios M1-550B power supply to allow for some upgrades in future. It is priced at R999.

Lastly, we went with the DeepCool Matrexx Si micro-ATX case from Evetech for R699.

Overall, the build cost R547 more than the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition and R1,453 less than the Xbox Series X.

It should be noted that the gaming PC build likely won’t perform as well as the consoles when it comes to newer, resource-intensive titles.

However, PC gamers should be able to reduce graphics settings to get smooth frame rates and a great gaming experience.

The table below lists the gaming PC build components and compares the build’s total price to that of the PlayStation 5 digital edition and Xbox Series X.