A gaming PC built for less than a PlayStation 5

South Africans who enjoy gaming on PC may be able to build an entry-level machine at the same cost as a PS5 and Xbox Series X.

These consoles are available online for R11,999 without additional charges.

MyBroadband researched the best gaming PCs we could build in South Africa, at R11999

We sourced the components’ prices using Wootware and Progenix.

Our budget was slightly lower than expected, but we did not include a hard drive, keyboard, or peripherals like mice and keyboards. It also doesn’t have a monitor or headphones — but neither does a console.

Because it plays a major role in gaming performance, PC gamers spend the most on their graphics processor unit (GPU).

This build was built with an ASUS GeForce GTX1650 TUF Gaming OC Edition graphics card.

It has 4GB VRAM and a core clock of 1,590MHz that has been overclocked to 1,785MHz, supporting a maximum resolution of 7,680×4,320 at 60Hz.

A Radeon RX6600 is an option if you have a little more money.

Progenix has a Gigabyte Radeon RX 6600 EAGLE 8G for R5,131, which would bring the build’s total cost to between R12,302 and R12,380.

Consider Sony will increase the price of PlayStation 5 This graphics card is possible to build a South African home.

Gaming can choose between Intel or AMD for the central processing unit and motherboard while staying within budget.

We recommend Intel processors, such as the Core i3-12100F and the Gigabyte Gigabyte Gigabyte Gigabyte Gigabyte Gigabyte Gigabyte Gigabyte h610M H micro ATX.

The 12th generation i3-12100F features a base clock of 3.30GHz, which can be boosted to 4.30GHz if necessary.

It comes with four performance cores, and DDR5 RAM support if it is paired with the appropriate motherboard.

If you’d rather go with AMD, we’ve paired the Asus Prime A520M-K micro ATX motherboard with AMD’s Ryzen 5 4500 CPU.

Although Intel’s i3-12100 has better single-core performance than the Ryzen 5 4500, AMD’s CPU has more cores.

Ryzen CPUs with six cores are better for users who intend to use their PC for productive tasks such as video rendering and encoding.

We didn’t go for any aftermarket cooling since the stock coolers included with these CPUs are acceptable.

Since both motherboards come in micro ATX form factors, we chose Thermaltake’s Versa H15 mini tower micro ATX case.

One 120mm fan is included in the case. Deepcool 120mm fans can be added to the case for R67 each from Progenix.

Two 8GB Adata XPG Gammix X20 3200MHz RAM should suffice for a gaming-oriented desktop computer.

While Intel’s 12th-generation chips can get a slight boost in gaming performance by using DDR5 RAM, these memory modules are still very expensive.

For storage, we chose Crucial’s 500GB P2 M.2 NVMe SSD. There are several affordable 1TB SSDs available You can add storage to your games library if you have the funds.

Regarding the power supply, Cooler Master’s 600W Elite V3 Series 80 Plus White PSU gives enough headroom for the components running in this system.

These components allow you to have a gaming computer that can run several high-end games at 1080p and maintain 60 frames per second depending on title and graphics settings.

If you have a 4K TV, and already have a PS4 or Xbox games library, a PS5/Xbox Series X might be a better choice.

A PC is better for multi-purpose machines that are more flexible and capable of gaming. In the long term, PC games are cheaper than consoles.

Below is a table listing the prices for each component.

---

Watch this: A YouTuber transforms a toilet into a gaming computer