I recently built my new rig by sourcing for all the parts by myself!
I did my research on
- what parts I would need
- whether the parts would be compatible with each other
- whether they would fit in the casing
- whether they would bottleneck any other parts.
It may sound like a very daunting process, but if you actually have spare pockets of time (1-3 hours every day) to do some proper research, you could actually save quite abit of money (more than $200!!!) on your DIY gaming rig!
For all you prospective DIY PC builders out there in Singapore, I know your first thought would be to head on down to Sim Lim Square and just go to one shop (perhaps Fuwell?) and get all your parts from that single shop.
Yes that's a perfectly valid option, but if you do have the time to spare, you could easily save over $200 on your new rig (to buy peripherals perhaps?).
That's because the shops like Fuwell, PCThemes, Cybermind etc, usually jack up their parts by $10-$50~ SGD.
So after you add up all the savings, you could easily get an upgrade for, say, your graphics card!
But of course for convenience's sake, you can head down to Sim Lim and get it done there and then within the day itself.
If you're unsure about the brands of the parts that you want, and unsure whether the parts are compatible with each other, then I'd suggest that you go to Sim Lim - Tradepac.
After looking at multiple pricelists on Hardware Zone, Tradepac is always consistently cheaper by $10-50 for each and every part that you're looking for.
All these shops will also build the rig for you, perhaps at an additional cost for building, and also the Windows OS will cost you almost $100++ at those shops!!
Of course there's a more convenient option if you're feeling rich.
You could definitely buy those pre-built gaming rigs from brands such as Alienware.
Those could cost up to $3500-$5000, but if you do your homework, the same specs on a DIY PC is easily $500++ cheaper!
Those branded gaming rigs may also not be worth their price, as the parts that they use may not be the best in the market, and you could easily get a better functioning one for a lower price.
7 years back, I did get a gaming rig, but I didn't have that much money back then as a secondary school student (my dad bought it for me ultimately), and the parts were not as optimal as they should have been for its price ($1200 SGD).
Since then, I've always dreamed of having a proper gaming rig and proper gaming setup complete with a gaming monitor, gaming chair and gaming peripherals, which I have finally achieved today.
So with my spare pockets of time, and with a budget of below $2500 SGD not including monitor and peripherals, i set off on my quest to build my own gaming rig.
Timing is of essence here.
You may have done your research, but, if the timing isn't right, you may not gain any savings at all.
I waited patiently for 2-3 weeks, until the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales came.
I already had a rough idea of what parts I wanted, i.e.
So when the sales came, I quickly searched on all of these sites: Amazon US, Lazada, Shopee, Carousell, and even looked at the Sim Lim pricelists everyday, to see and compare on which platform was the part the cheapest.
(Take note that at that time, Amazon US still offered free shipping above $150 to Singapore!!)
I ultimately ended up with this build:
So here's an explanation of why some parts got upgraded, and some got downgraded.
For the total savings, I'll be comparing the price i paid vs PC Themes Sim Lim's price list.
Let's start with the parts I bought first.
RAM, cooler and HDD
I bought those parts off of Amazon US, as they were considerably cheap compared to Sim Lim's Tradepac (cheapest store I found).
Granted, those parts were the easiest to buy as I had already decided and was firm on what I wanted.
But, there's always the risk that the part will arrive DOA (Dead on Arrival)
You also have to go through the hassle and monetary pain of returning the item, and waiting for a new one to be shipped to you again.
Also, if you're purchasing stuff from Amazon US, take note of the warranty!
Some parts do not have international warranty - be warned.
Casing
Next, I looked for my casing.
I tried Carousell, where there were some old listings selling the NZXT Noctis 450 for $200 or so, but they either didn't reply, or said it was sold out.
I had no choice but to buy it from Lazada, where I managed to get a cashback of $12 thanks to their LiveUp program, and free shipping to my house too!
SSD and PSU
After that, I waited to see where I could buy my SSD and PSU at cheaper prices without compromising the seller's reliability.
It so happened that Shopee had a $20 discount for purchases more than $200 if you used a Citibank card to pay, and also, combined with the fact that Shopee had a random pre-Cyber Monday sales on selected items, and the PSU (Seasonic Focus Plus 750 Gold 80+) happened to be one of it - I saved $30 thanks to that random sale.
CPU, Mobo, GPU and OS
We're now left with the CPU, Mobo, GPU and OS!!
So far, we've saved a total of
$177.85 + $8 + $73 = $258.85!!!
Just by doing proper research and waiting for the right time to buy things, you could really save a lot.
2 days after I ended my exams, I headed down to Sim Lim and straight to Tradepac.
I asked for the i7-8700 and they said it was sold out :(
I was stunned for a moment, as I really had my mind set on that CPU because it was more value for money.
I then headed down to another shop: PC Care and Solutions in Sim Lim, which my friend recommended, as he said that the guy would help me source for all the parts and could even help me build it.
I headed down to PC Care and Solutions, and the guy called Nigel was really friendly and even advised me on which parts I could get from Amazon, and which parts I would be better off buying from Singapore with the thought of the part malfunctioning and how much savings I got.
But I recall that I did research on the benchmarks of the i5-8600k vs i7-8700 vs i7-8700k, and indeed, the i5-8600k was cheaper if I was not building a workstation.
Overall, for the i5-8600k vs the i7-8700 for gaming, there is no difference at all.
The i7-8700 only wins if you're using it for a workstation - number crunching, virtual machines, databases, audio/video encoding.
Which I am doing none of the above!
And hence I settled on the i5-8600k and saved a bit more money than I would have.
The GPU that I wanted, the Galax GTX1070 8GB Sniper White EXOC, was apparently out of stock everywhere as Galax was replacing it entirely with the GTX1070Ti version.
As it was the cheapest and most value for money choice to get that brand's GTX1070TI instead of another brand's GTX1070, I ended up going for the Galax GTX1070Ti Sniper White EXOC 8GB instead, as I really wanted it to fit my white and black theme for the build.
So Nigel from PC Care and Solutions, offered to help me get my remaining parts, and to build it for me at no additional cost, and also install the Windows OS for me at $30.
Hence I went back home, and brought all my parts from home to Sim Lim the very next day.
He finished building it in 3 hours, and even threw in 2 LED strips cause he knew I wanted an RGB build, how nice and thoughtful of him!!!
Final Build
Here's a breakdown of my final build and cost.
All in all, my total savings was $395.85!
The OS was also a major contributing factor to the savings.
I definitely went well below my $2500 SGD budget and even had an upgrade for my graphics card, albeit with a downgrade of the CPU.
Nonetheless, this experience was certainly exciting and new for me, and I'd be glad to help any of you readers should you have no time to do research for your gaming rig!
Things to take note are, to make sure that you have bought a suitable PSU for the parts that you're getting.
Otherwise, if you get lesser wattage than needed, your computer may not even boot up after being built.
Overestimating the PSU wattage is better than underestimating, as you would then have some space to do some overclocking!
Also, this build could have been much cheaper had I gone for a non-RGB LED build.
I could easily have saved another $50-$100~ just by not being picky about whether certain parts such as the RAM, cooler and mobo were RGB LED or not.
And of course, you can also save an equally decent amount on your gaming peripherals, which I'll leave for the next blog post! :D
Happy Holidays to all!