Build a PC this Christmas

It’s the time to be jolly, and what makes us nerds feel happier than the smell of freshly unboxed PC components? Well, the short answer is, nothing! So keeping with the holiday spirit, these are two PC builds that you ought to look into if you are thinking of treating yourself to a new gaming rig this holiday season.

We start things off with a mid-range build aimed at maxing out all the latest games at 1080p. The AMD Fx 8350 has been around for a fair few years  and is still going strong, and that’s for a very good reason, there is no CPU out on the market that can match this workhorse on the price to performance scale. For a mere Rs 14,500 you get a solid 8 core processor clocked at 4.5 Ghz, and this can easily be overclocked to 4.9 Ghz with the aid of an aftermarket CPU cooler. Moving on to the motherboard, you can go with the ASUS AMD M5A99FX Pro R 2.0. This is a decent board from ASUS that has a good BiOS and allows you to maintain decent overclocks. Next up, RAM. With the onset of DDR4 memory, the price of DDR3 RAMs have plummeted and that lets you put up to 16 GB of Corsair’s Vengeance RAM into this build. Now, on to the part that will make sure you never drop a single frame while playing games, the GPU. For this build your best option is to go for the Gigabyte Windforce OC GTX 970. This system is not a power hungry monster so you can go with the tried and tested Corsair CS 650M SMPS.

The Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB HDD is all that you’ll need to store all those games. For the CPU cooler, go with the Cooler Master Hyper 212x. This monster of a CPU cooler will help you achieve those crazy overclocks without you having to break the bank. And last but not least, the cabinet. At this price range, there isn’t really much choice when it comes to cabinets and the clear choice is the Corsair Carbide 300R. This cabinet comes with plenty of drive bays which can also be removed if you ever want to upgrade to the beefy 3 fan GPUs that are now all the rage. This whole build will set you back somewhere in the range of Rs 78,000 and is possibly the ideal build for those looking for a flawless gaming experience at 1080p.

Gigabyte Windforce OC GTX 970
For those of you who feel that 1080p was so last year and are looking to move on to the greener pastures of gaming at 1440p, well look no further. These are all the parts you’ll need to satiate your gaming needs for the foreseeable future at 2K resolutions. The intel core i7 6700K is the best CPU for gaming at the moment, at least a CPU that doesn’t end up costing a king’s ransom. Paired with the ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming Motherboard, you are looking at some fantastic output in terms of raw performance and overclocking potential. Throw in the Corsair H100i as your CPU cooler and you can have the i7 6700K running at 4.6 Ghz stable, without breaking a sweat.

It ought to be clear that this build is definitely going to contain the latest trends in memory, with 16 GB of G-Skill Ripjaws DDR4 RAM clocked at 2133 Mhz. The crowing jewel of this PC is the GPU, the MSI GTX 980ti Gaming Edition. Powering this monster PC is the Corsair CS 750M. Seeing as how this is a high end build, an SSD, the Samsung 256 GB 850 Evo, was imperative, over and above the standard HDD, the 2TB Seagate Barracuda. All these goodies need a worthy cabinet, and that role is fulfilled by the ever so impressive NZXT Phantom 240.

This build will set you back a whopping Rs 1,44,800.
 

 

 

Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.