How to Build a Gaming PC on a Budget

PC gaming has always been popular, but in recent years its popularity has soared with the freemium model in particular seeing success. There are many theories as to why this has happened, but the most plausible is that the pandemic which started over four years ago – let that sink in – is the main driver behind the growing numbers of PC gamers.

With almost everyone’s social calendars cancelled, many turned to gaming as a way to reconnect with old and distant friends and to keep in touch with those whom social distancing restrictions kept them away from.

What happened to many during this period, is that they literally dusted off their PlayStation 4s and Xbox One to play games like Call of Duty Warzone. Then they realized that their gaming setups sucked and, at first, bought new headsets and controllers before eventually deciding to drastically improve their equipment.

For some, this meant upgrading to next-gen consoles in the fall of 2020, or even just changing from a 52-inch TV to a gaming monitor. For others, however, upgrading meant ditching the console altogether and making the move to PC gaming.

As a result, PC gaming is now more popular than ever, which means there is no shortage of good advice out there for beginners looking to build their setups. In this article, we’ve collated as much of that advice as possible to tell you everything you need to know about building a gaming PC on a budget.

Whether you’re looking for a setup that enables you to dominate console players in Uzbekistan, or a more basic one to play quick casino games, we’ve got you covered below…

What do you want?

There’s an old 17th-century proverb that says, “One man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure” and despite preceding the advent of the first computer by around 250 years, it’s almost the perfect phrase to sum up PC gaming. Our ideal PC gaming setup might seem like trash to you and vice versa, and that’s because it’s all subjective. 

You should aim to improve on the components which are most important to the type of game you are wanting to play. For example, if you’re a casual gambler and playing via this list of regulated gambling sites in Ontario, you probably don’t need to go the whole nine yards, the providers listed pride themselves on offering games which can be played quickly and easily. The graphics make or break many of the games so you could probably get away with a new monitor and maybe a gaming mouse. However, if you’re considering something like World of Warcraft, a game where graphics aren’t the be all and end all, you should consider upgrading your motherboard so the gameplay is smooth when you’re part of a huge game.

We’re all looking for different things when it comes to gaming, so your first step toward building the best PC setup on a budget is working out what you need and what you want. Here are a couple of examples of considerations you might want to make:

• How important is the screen resolution?
• Could you save money and resources by skimping on your resolution rate?
• Are you confident enough to install all the parts?
• What’s your upgrade budget going to look like in 12 months?
• Do you even need to upgrade?

All of these are questions that you need to ask yourself, especially as you’re working on a budget. If finances were unlimited, you’d be able to buy the best of everything, but as they aren’t, you’re going to have to make savings somewhere.

So, work out where those savings will have the least impact.

(Being specific about what you want is the best way to save money in the long run.)

What do you need?

Gaming PC’s, nay all PCs for that matter, are made of the following basic components:

• Motherboard
• CPU
• GPU system memory
• Hard drives or Solid State Drives (SSDs)
• Power Supply Unit (PSU)
• A case

Fortunately, nowadays most PC parts are compatible with one another so you can mix and match your components. There is however a small percentage of parts that are like iPhones and are deeply incompatible with other parts, to avoid using components like this use sites like PC Part Picker which help you to spot compatibility issues.

Then it becomes a case of simply picking your favourite pieces to suit your specific needs.

(What should you look for in a Gaming PC – Source: HP)

Where to make savings

If you were to make the following setup, which encompasses a good solid base of components, it would cost you around $1,500

MSI Mag B760 Tomahawk motherboard, Intel Core i5 13400F CPU, MSI Ventus 2X Nvidia GeForce RTX 305, Be Quiet! Pure Base 500DX case, Be Quiet! Pure Power 12 M PSU, Crucial 1TB P3 SSD & Crucial DDR4 32GB kit.

That setup would leave you with a solid base PC that would allow you to play a whole range of different games, but it’s expensive, especially when you compare it to a console. If you were to reduce the processor and motherboard ever so slightly and shop around for second-hand parts then you could reduce the cost by $500 fairly easily.

Dropping down to a GTX 1050 TI and just manually managing your visual settings could save you even more money. If you follow all those bits of advice and do buy exclusively second-hand parts, you could even drop your overall outlay to around $800, which isn’t too much of an outlay to get you on the PC gaming ladder.

I hope you enjoyed this one and it helps you to build your PC. Keep gaming 😉