Build a Gaming PC Under Rs. 50,000

In our previous roundup we had helped you make a budget PC that was strictly aimed at casual use and basic bare bone functionality. While that kind of use may be just fine for some people, this article is for the rest of us who crave a better PC experience.

Most of us like a bit of entertainment while surfing or working. In this roundup we will show you how to assemble a zippy gaming PC with with inexpensive but quality components to give you that complete gaming and multimedia experience you desire.

CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E6300 (Rs. 8400)
Intel had been trailing AMD for over 3 years in the performance sweepstakes. All this has changed, with the introduction of Intel’s powerful new line of dual-core processors—the C2D or Core 2 Duo. Large L2 caches and a range of optimizations make these processors the fastest x86 platform.

The E6300 is the entry level C2D, with 2 MB L2 cache running at a clock speed of 1.8 GHz and is about 35-40 percent faster than the AMD solution—the X2 4200. Offering an unprecedented performance vs. price advantage, and more than capable of crunching anything that is thrown at it, was the natural choice for our roundup.

Motherboard: Asus P5LD2-VM Motherboard (Rs. 4,500)
The motherboard is the heart and soul of a machine. It’s therefore no surprise that at any given price range; there is a large and often confusing choice of motherboards with different chipsets and features. After an exhaustive survey, we narrowed down our choice to Asus’ P5LD2-VM board. Asus is a well known brand name that makes quality products and provide excellent performance. Hence it should it should come across as no surprise that we chose Asus here.

This is an inexpensive micro-ATX budget board based on the Intel 945G chipset, with integrated graphics. The board comes fully equipped with 4 SATA ports, 2 IDE ports, 3 PCI slots and 4 memory banks with support for DDR2 533 and 667 MHz Ram. The board also offers an excellent Hi-Definition 7.1 channel Realtek ALC882M audio chip, which offers great music playback .There is a single PCIe slot present, for a dedicated graphics solution. For LAN connectivity the board sports an onboard Gigabit LAN adapter, and peripheral expansion is taken care of by 4 USB 2.0 ports. With these kinds of features and inexpensive pricing it’s the perfect foundation to build the PC.

RAM: TwinMos DDR 533 RAM 2x512MB = 1 GB RAM (Rs. 5,450)
RAM is as essential to your system as a good processor. No system is complete without good quality ram. Twinmos is a well known and respected brand and offers great performance. We chose to put 2 sticks here as the motherboard is dual-channel capable. Dual-channel is used to double the memory speeds, bandwidth and performance at no extra cost hence it makes sense to utilize this free performance boost. Twinmos offers a two year warranty with its products and this make it a must have in our roundup.

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Graphics: Leadtek Winfast 7600GT TDH (Rs. 9,800)
Leadtek is a well known graphics manufacturer, who have been manufacturing Nvidia based products for almost a decade now. Their products have become well known, for their excellent overclocking potential and great build quality. The Leadtek Winfast 7600GT TDH is based on Nvidia’s mid-level offering—the 7600GT chipset—which offers great gaming at affordable rates.

The card is clocked at 560/700 core/memory speeds, and comes with Dual-DVI output for LCD panel connectivity. It also offers an S-Video port, which will allow you to connect it to a TV and watch movies on a big screen . The cooling unit on this card is fairly large with a good heatsink/fan combo that does a great job in dissipating the heat. 2D quality is excellent. In all, this card offers great value for money in both performance and features. Throw in the fact that Leadtek offers 3 years warranty on all its products and this makes it the ideal card to include in our roundup.

Sound: Onboard: 7.1 channel Realtek ALC882M Controller
Onboard sound has come a long way in recent years. Today’s onboard chips are multi-channel capable, and can easily compete with lower-end sound cards like Creative’s Audigy 2 ZS.

The ALC882M chipset is an 8 channel chipset that offers great audio output in the music, video, and gaming. It is also Dolby Digital capable and with a SPDIF connector, which has to be purchased separately, will allow you to enjoy excellent crystal clear sound in movies and games that support Dolby Live technology.

LAN: Intel Gigabit Ethernet Controller 10/100/1000
This is the standard Intel Gigabit onboard 10/100/1000 LAN that gives a maximum transfer speed of 1000 Mbps. It is fast enough to take care of your broadband internet (most users have a connection speed of 256 Kpbs or 512 kbps). Though Gigabit LAN is already present, most home networks are only capable of handling 100 Mbps speeds. Hence, you have the right firepower in Intel’s 10/100/1000 Lan.

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HDD: Western Digital SATA II HDD 200 GB (Rs. 3,850)
Over the last few years the cost of hard drives has gone down drastically. Hard drives currently available offer an excellent cost advantage if you compare the cost of the drive vs. its storage i.e. how many rupees does 1 GB cost in these drives.

Here we had to choose between Seagate and Western Digital. We chose to go with WD due to the excellent 5 years warranty they offer. The 200 GB we have is built on the SATA II platform and offers more than adequate storage for all your music and video needs. With its price now under Rs 4,000 the drive is now a great bargain.

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-1608P3S 16X DVD Writer (Rs. 2250)
We carry forward this drive from our previous roundup as it remains amongst the best choices available at this price range.

This drive is an OEM product of Pioneer’s 111L drive and offers great compatibility with all kinds of DVD media which can be burnt easily at 16x without quality issues. The drive is also capable of writing to DL media which can hold more data than any other media solution that is currently available. Pioneer also has some of the best read speeds of any DVD drive and can be easily converted to a region free drive which will allow you to view any kind of DVD movie without any issue.
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Monitor: Samsung 740N 17 Inch LCD (Rs. 10,300)
The monitor is easily the most expensive component in a computer roundup. Hence, when one is selecting a monitor, careful thought must be given while selecting. We could have easily selected a CRT monitor for this roundup but we chose not to. LCDs have become mainstream now and offer far more value for money with their bright output and great viewing angles. They are also slim hence occupy less space and require a lot less power to run as compared to the bulky CRTs. One thing to remember is that unlike CRT, LCDs have a resolution called “Native resolution” i.e. this is the recommended resolution one should work with for the maximum clarity. If you use any other resolution the picture will be less sharp and there will be a noticeable degradation in the quality of the display.

The LCD market space is fairly crowded making it a tough bargain for anyone to try and find a good deal. We chose to go with Samsung as this slim LCD monitor with its bright display and vivid colors is one of the best in the 17-inch class. The monitor offers a native resolution of 1280x1024 with a refresh rate of 75 Hz which makes it a pleasure to work with. Another great point for this monitor is the fact that comparable monitors from Viewsonic and LG cost around Rs. 1,000 more.

Keyboard & Mouse (Rs. 800)
Microsoft builds excellent keyboards and mice that are sturdy and are ideal for long hours of work. At a cost of just Rs. 800 this is considered to be an excellent buy. To top it, the set comes with a three-year warranty unlike other brands which offer only one-year warranty

Cabinet: VIP ATX Cabinet with Integrated 350W PSU (Rs. 1,650)
There is not much to say here. VIP is a well known maker of ATX cabinets available in decent colors and well designed power supplies, that are known for their reliability.

Speakers: Altec Lansing ATP3 (Rs. 2,700)
Altec Lansing makes some great PC speakers that offer an excellent experience for games and movies. The ATP3 2.1 speaker system fits right into the budget category offering above average performance with some features that can be found in products twice its cost. The sub-woofer packs a punch and is capable of outputting 18 watts RMS. The speakers are also equally well powered and are capable of outputting 12 watts RMS.
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Specification Table