Here’s How You Can Build a 1080p Gaming Rig for Under Rs. 60,000 [Guide]

New to gaming? Or are you just looking to see what its all about and decided to buy a gaming PC?

We at ProPakistani are here to help you out build your very own gaming rig that lets you game on Full HD graphics quality (1080p).

The PC we’re going to build would cost you Rs. 60,000 (with brand new parts) and can run all current games at 1080p resolution on high graphics.

There are a few reasons for going for new parts for everything:

1. Everything is under warranty and can be replaced if it stops working.
2. Everything is in factory new condition with no screws/parts missing or dented.
3. All parts are easy to find and can be bought/ordered online.

It’s hard to decide on your first PC especially if you have no idea how to build one.

I will list my recommendation at the end of every single component you need to build a gaming PC under a budget. These are the cheapest prices online but if you find a better a better deal, please let me know in the comments below.

You typically need 7 basic things in order. Here they are:

1.Power Supply Unit/PSU

You need a good PSU to get started. This alone is very important because we live in Pakistan with a constant fear of a power outage. You should ideally get a PSU with overvoltage/undervoltage protection and resilience against power loss. Another thing you should be wary of is power usage of your PC.

Always get a PSU which has a higher power rating than the overall sum of what the components use (The CPU and the Graphics Card use most of it).

This is because the PSU never outputs 100% of its listed power. A 500W supply will at most get you 450W of power for example.

PSU Recommendation: Thermaltake Litepower Series 550W (Rs. 4,500)

Thermaltake’s Litepower series is one of the most reliable ones in a budget. It offers protection against all of the problems I mentioned earlier and it should provide enough juice to allow upgrade-ability in the future as well.

I also happen to use one of these in my own PC which has faced numerous under voltage/power outage situations with nothing getting burnt/short circuited or damaged thus far.

This PSU is available for Rs. 4,500 at Galaxy Computers online.

2. Motherboard

A good PSU complements the motherboard and vice versa. You should try to get a motherboard which has the least chance of failing and offers all the required slots you need. If it lacks a PCI-E x16 slot for example, you can say goodbye to buying a graphics card for your PC.

Make sure you buy a motherboard which is compatible with all of the other essential parts as well.

On a budget you can go for an ASUS/Gigabyte motherboard. They’re cheap and reliable. Upgrading in the future should also be factored in when buying a motherboard.

Motherboard Recommendation: Gigabyte H110M-DS2 (Rs. 6,500)

This motherboard has all the right slots you require for building a gaming PC. You can upgrade your RAM or processor later on when you can afford thanks to an additional RAM slot and support for 6th Gen Intel Core i series (i3, i5 and i7).

This motherboard is available on CZone for Rs. 6,400 but is currently out of stock. It is also available on Galaxy computers for Rs. 6,500.

3. Processor

The central core of your PC. Your PC needs to have the processing power to be able to multitask through your daily usage while being able to provide a somewhat good gaming experience.

Due to this reason you can safely go for a Core i3 processor without missing out on the fun (You’re on a budget remember?). Plus your motherboard can actually support a Core i7 as well so you can upgrade later on if you need to.

Processor Recommendation: 6th Gen Intel Core i3-6098P (Rs. 13,000)

Even though its a Core i3, it should be enough for you at the moment. This is because games mostly require a good graphics card to perform well and are not very CPU dependent.

This processor also features “hyper-threading” technology. This allows the processor to emulate more virtual cores to perform tasks more efficiently compared to a non hyper-threading ready processor. In essence this processor should perform better than a 2 core processor.

It is available on Galaxy computers for Rs. 13,500 and on CZone for Rs. 13,000.  You can also go for the i3-6100 (slightly better) which costs Rs. 14,000 online but can be found for cheaper in physical shops.

4. RAM

Currently 6th Gen Intel processors require DDR4 RAM. DDR can be crudely defined to be a speed standard in RAM. DDR2 is faster than DDR, DDR3 is faster than DDR2 and so on.

Previous generations of Intel processors supported DDR3 RAM while starting with the current 6th Gen processors, they now support DDR4.

Higher amount of RAM does not make your PC faster. Its essentially the bus speed of the RAM that makes it faster. For running games released this year you will require RAM capacity of no more than 8 GB.

RAM Recommendation: Kingston value RAM 8GB DDR4 (Rs. 5,800)

Kingston and Corsair are the biggest RAM makers around, at least on consumer level. Currently the Corsair 8 GB DDR4 RAM module is out of stock with only the Kingston being available.

The motherboard recommended earlier has 2 RAM slots. You can double your RAM if you think its not enough in the long run.

This RAM stick is available on Galaxy computers for Rs. 5,800.

5. Storage (Hard Disk Drive/Solid State Hybrid Drive)

This is also one of the most important components of your PC. Always go for a reputed Hard Disk Drive (HDD) maker like Western Digital or Seagate when buying one. That said, everyone has different amounts of storage they need. Some are content with a mere 500 GB HDD while others require 2-3 TBs (Terabytes) of space.

An HDD with a higher RPM is faster than a lower RPM HDD. Go for a 7200 RPM HDD if you can. A solid state hybrid drive (SSHD) has a small SSD in addition to its original capacity. This flash memory (SSD) stores programs which are frequently run by the user. This allows the SSHD to load up Windows or your favorite games faster than a regular one.

This makes the SSHDs expensive as well. For now you should be fine with a regular HDD, which will get the job done in a budget.

Storage Recommendation: Seagate Barracuda 1 TB HDD (Rs. 5,600)

This HDD offers a middle ground for storage enthusiasts and frugal (in terms of storage) users. This is a very basic hard drive and is the cheapest one available right now. You can go for an SSHD in the future if you need to, they use the same SATA cables/slots as regular HDDs.

This HDD is available on Galaxy computers for Rs. 5,800 and on CZone for Rs. 5,600

6. Graphics card

The star of the show and the component that will do the heavy lifting for games. Graphics cards have been getting cheaper these days with the big ones like the GTX 1060 dropping from Rs. 42,000 to Rs. 35,000 in price. I don’t really need to remind you that we are on a budget here.

You should make sure your PSU and your motherboard are both compatible with your graphics card. Your PSU should have enough power to run the card while the motherboard should have PCI-E x16 slot (preferrably 3.0).

The key is to get the perfect card which offers the best performance for the lowest amount of money.

Graphics Card Recommendation: Gigabyte GTX 1050Ti (Rs. 19,500)

This is the best card available for the lowest price in the market right now. If you want better performance to the tune of 30-35%, you can go for AMD’s RX 470 which costs higher at Rs. 26,000. However, on a budget, you cannot go wrong with this card as it does not use a lot of power and has two fans for heat dissipation.

Heat is the main reason graphic cards stop working and having a good cooling solution for the graphics card means you are essentially future proofing your rig.

You can read an in depth review on the GTX 1050ti here.

This card is available on Galaxy computers for Rs. 19,500.

7. Casing

Last but by no means the least is the casing. The casing is the outer cover for your PC and is also an important part which is often ignored by gamers and PC builders. You need to have a casing that has good ventilation and has good dust filters installed near the fans. This is to avoid dust collection inside your PC to make sure it doesn’t damage the components inside.

Dust collecting on the fans (CPU, graphics card fans) inside the PC will eventually lead to slower RPM and more heat. Heat damages components, especially your graphics card which is the backbone of your gaming PC.

Some people care about the looks of their PC and a flashy casing can impress non-gamers too.

Casing Recommendation: Cooler Master K380 Mid Tower (Rs. 5,100)

This casing not only looks cool, it has plenty of space to accommodate the biggest graphics cards around (AMD’s HD 7990 for example). It can support 4 fans and has a vent at the front and the back. Overall it has good ventilation and build quality to go with it.

This casing is available on CZone for Rs. 5,100

Do you have better recommendations for building a gaming PC? Let us know in the comments below.

Image Source: AVADirect