Reviewing the best affordable gaming desktop we could find – PCBuilder Sentinel

The PCBuilder Sentinel Gaming PC offers avid gamers an affordable modern gaming experience without breaking the bank.

This is thanks to its Ryzen 5 5600X processor, 16GB RAM, and GeForce RTX 3050 6GB graphics card, which combine to deliver impressive gaming performance.

The Sentinel Gaming PC is assembled by PCBuilder and available from Incredible for an RRP of only R15,999.

We put this setup to the test and found that it was great for everything from fast-paced first-person shooters to strategy games.

Watch our review video below, and keep reading to find out more about our experience testing this gaming PC.

What’s on offer

PCBuilder equipped the Sentinel Gaming PC with affordable components that offer great performance.

Its AMD Ryzen 5 5600X processor offers up to 4.6GHz speeds and features six cores and 12 threads, which ensured we could easily run our favourite games alongside programs like Discord, Spotify, and game launchers.

The Sentinel Gaming PC is also powered by ASUS in the form of an ASUS GeForce RTX 3050 6GB GDDR6 GPU and an ASUS A520m micro-ATX motherboard.

The GPU takes the lead in gaming performance, handling popular games at a 1080p resolution with ease.

Then, with four DIMM slots, the ASUS A520m m-ATX motherboard also offers significant room for future expansion.

Two of these slots are equipped with Patriot DDR4 3,600MHz RAM (2 x 8GB), while the other two slots leave you space to easily add extra RAM if you want to upgrade down the line.

Together, these components and a high-speed 1TB SSD allowed for snappy game boot and loading times, as well as excellent performance.

PCBuilder packed all of these components into its own sleek PCBuilder PROTECTOR mATX chassis, which offers a sleek tempered glass design and additional ports.

Benchmarking

The PCBuilder Sentinel Gaming PC came with the Windows 11 operating system and Norton 360 security suite included – so the desktop was ready to use as soon as we unboxed it.

We immediately ran a few benchmark tests on it to find out what the Sentinel Gaming PC had to offer.

Our main test was PassMark, since it evaluates the performance of every major component – including the CPU, GPU, RAM, and SSD.

The Sentinel scored a PassMark rating of 8,134, placing it in the 79th percentile of computers across the world – an impressive feat for a budget gaming desktop.

We also put it through the wringer using popular benchmarking tools like Cinebench and CrystalDiskMark.

The CPU scored an impressive 10,895 points on Cinebench R23, making it an excellent mid-range processor.

We also found on CrystalDiskMark that the SSD scored an above-average 3,676 MB/s read speed and 1,977 MB/s write speed – eliminating any chances of performance bottlenecking.

Putting it to the test

We then finally tested out the Sentinel’s gaming abilities ourselves, and were seriously impressed, as it comfortably ran most games at moderate settings – including the latest titles.

We tested popular titles set to 1080p graphics, and this is what we achieved:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6: 70-90 FPS on Low
• Counter-Strike 2: 150-180 FPS on Medium
• Apex Legends: 100-120 FPS on Medium
• Overwatch 2: 75 FPS on Medium

The Sentinel Gaming PC also included one month of free Game Pass, giving us immediate access to a wide library of games.

We could seamlessly download and play these games online thanks to built-in Gigabit LAN and 2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi.

Final thoughts

For anyone who wants a reliable gaming PC without spending a fortune, the PCBuilder Sentinel Gaming PC is a great choice.

It is super easy, as it is ready to go straight out of the box, and can run any modern game smoothly.

Click here to learn more about the PCBuilder Sentinel Gaming PC.