Gaming On A Budget

Everyone has that Facebook friend on their friends list who likes to show off a little. Lots of fans rule their lives, both the fawning at the mouth, awed "chotobhais" drooling kind, as well as the rotating cooling device kind. Their gaming rigs feature the best liquid cooling systems, the highest number of heat-sinked RAM sticks, and needlessly overclocked components just for the bragging rights. Here's the shocker, though. You don't need liquid cooling and a bazillion bucks worth hardware inside your casing to have a gaming rig that will run with the big boys without denting the most important part of your life: your wallet.

The Processor
A common misconception among the new-to-the-world-of-PC-gaming-crowd is the idea that a PC is not worthy of praise unless it has a third generation Core i7 fuelling it. You can play almost any game on a Core 2 Duo PC, as long as it has all the other necessary components.
AMD has always been the go to manufacturer for cheaper, more budget friendly processors, and other than a couple of downsides (like increased power consumption, massive heat generation, relative instability compared to Intel processors), AMD can get the job done just as well as any Intel processor. The AMD A8-6600K processor is a cheap APU (CPU plus GPU, the processor itself is an onboard graphics card) which can save you money on buying a graphics card.
 

• Intel Pentium Dual Core2.8 GHz 2nd generation processor – Tk 5,000/-
• Intel core i-3 3.06 GHz 3rd generation processor – Tk 9,500/-
• Intel core i-3 3.30 GHz 4th generation processor – Tk 10,500/-
• AMD Sempron 145 2.8 GHz dual core processor – Tk 3,200/-
• AMD APU A8-6600K 3.9 GHz quad core processor – Tk 10,000/-

Motherboard
Consider this to be the basis for all your future upgrades, when you aren't tied down by a lack of finances. It should support loads of RAM and have a good front-side bus speed, and support the processor you want to upgrade to later, if you want to upgrade it in the near future. Keep in consideration that motherboards are a significant investment, and if you spend a large amount on a good motherboard now, you will not have to change it for quite some time (if you plan your upgrades right).

• Asus Mainboard B75M-A LGA – Tk 6,200/-
• Gigabyte Mainboard GA-B75M – Tk 6,000/-
• MSI Mainboard Intel B85-G43 - Tk. 9,800/-
• MSI Mainboard B75A-G43 – Tk. 9,300/-
• MSI AMD A75 - Tk. 8,100/-

Graphics
THE most important part of a gaming rig, the graphics card you run is a defining make or break point. The trick is not to go for the latest and most expensive, because for the price of a mid-range latest generation card, you can get a high end, high spec card from a slightly older generation. The tradeoffs aren't significant enough to pay more and get less raw power. The VRAM does not matter much, so don't think a 2GB card or a 4GB card is going to perform amazingly. Google, look at the performance benchmark tests (most good cards will have been tested) and then buy. Go second-hand if your budget is tight, but make sure you test them out if possible, and never buy if its too old and warranty has expired.

• MSI N650 1GB DDR5 (NVidia) - Tk. 10,500/-
• Sapphire R7 250 1G DDR5 (ATI) - Tk. 9,000/-
• MSI GTX630 4GB DDR3 (NVidia) - Tk. 7,400/-
• Sapphire HD5450 2GB DDR3 (ATI) - Tk. 4,400/-

Power Supply
For Pirelli tires, power may be nothing without control, but for a PC, power is crucial. Most low to mid-range graphics cards do not require a power supply connection to operate, but a good power supply unit can be a worthwhile investment for future upgrades, and will save you money in the long run. A good PSU can also ensure a healthy and stable system, which should be a requirement for any and all PCs. Its best not to go down the second-hand route with the PSU, though.

• Corsair CX500 500 Watt – Tk 7,000/-
• Corsair VS450 450 Watt – Tk 4,000/-
• Thermaltake Litepower 550 Watt – Tk 5,500/-
• Thermaltake Smart SE 630 Watt – Tk 6,900/-
• Gigabyte 350 Watt – Tk 2,500/-

RAM
2 GB is more than enough for light use, but go with 4GB DDR3 RAM if you have the little extra money that you'll have to pay. The difference is price is not a lot between 2 and 4 GB RAM sticks, so why not get more RAM just in case?

• Transcend 2GB DDR3 1333 bus RAM – Tk 1,700/-
• Twinmos 2GB DDR3 1333 bus RAM – Tk1,600/-
• Transcend 4GB DDR3 1333 bus RAM – Tk3,000/-
• A DATA4GB DDR3 1333 bus RAM – Tk 2,900 /-
• Apacer 4GB DDR3 1333 bus RAM – Tk 2,600/-

Display
A good quality display is worth your money, but when you're on a budget, the display shouldn't be that big a concern. Samsung displays are relatively cheap to buy and they  have good resale value, while Dell and Viewsonic makes pretty cheap but durable monitors. The price differences between the 15.6 inch and 18.5 inch monitors are not that significant, varying by a 1000 taka or so, so if you can afford the greater price, go for the bigger screen. Also remember to look around and ask what ports the monitors come with. An HDMI port would be a bonus if you can get the monitor for cheap.

• Dell IN1930 18.5 inch widescreen – Tk 7,800/-
• Dell E1713S 17 inch square – Tk 9,000/-
• LG 19EN33S 18.5 inch widescreen – Tk 7,600/-
• Samsung S16A100N 15.6 inch widescreen – Tk 6,500/-
• Samsung S19A100N 18.5 inch widescreen – Tk 7,600/-
• Viewsonic VA2046A 20 inch widescreen – Tk 8,000/-

Miscellaneous
Cooling isn't an issue unless you've opted to save money and buy an AMD processor…in which case you don't really save money anyway, because AMD processors are notorious for overheating issues and in most cases requires a cooling system upgrade. A basic cooler upgrade will deal with most of the issues, and Thermaltake's Spin Q is a good cost-effective option, but usually Dhaka's shops scarcely stock the Spin Q for long periods of time. Grab one when you can, or get the more expensive Frio CPU cooler.
Hard disk drives are not as expensive as last year, and you can find good quality internal SATA HDDs for quite low prices. A 1 terabyte Western Digital HDD will set you back TK 5,900/-; a 500 GB TwinMos hard disk will cost you Tk 4,500/-. If you want to save even more money by sacrificing space, a 320 GB Samsung HDD will cost you Tk 3,700/-. Don't make the mistake of buying secondhand unless you're REALLY short on cash, because you do not want to deal with bad sectors later on. Buy new, get the warranty.
No need to get a fancy gaming rig style casing on the get go, a regular, run of the mill casing should do just fine. If you can manage the extra cash, however, you can get a few basic gaming suited casings for around 3000 taka.
Other peripherals are not as important, and they won't set you back much. Our recommended budget for a decent entry level gaming PC? Take at least 40-45 thousand and you'll do fine. The trick here is to buy a good base to which you can add on more components with time and build a proper gaming rig in the future without having to buy everything new.

Good luck.