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Building a capable gaming PC has never been easier - or indeed cheaper. There's a multitude of options of available, but we went into our own budget gaming build project with one objective in mind: to run the latest games well and to attempt to match the overall experience offered by the current generation of consoles. Could we match or even exceed PlayStation 4 performance with a computer constructed for a mere £300/$400?Obviously we'd be looking to extract the maximum amount of performance from a minimal financial outlay, and here's where things get a little complicated: prices at the bottom end of the PC spectrum fluctuate quite widely, so by the time you read this, the parts we've chosen may be more expensive, or they may be cheaper. Take for example one of our chosen components - Intel's entry-level overclocking monster - the Pentium G3258 - cost us £45 when we bought it. These days it's anything from £50-£60. While we generally buy from Amazon (for the excellent returns service - more useful than you might think when building your own PC), we recommend that you shop around for the best prices, and refer to your favourite bargains website for best value - HotUKDeals.com is a good shout for British readers.
Below you'll find our list of components used in the creation of our budget gaming PC. All that's missing is an operating system. We'll leave this particular element of the system up to you, but if you're particularly low on funds, the current Windows 10 preview is free to use and in our experience works just fine for gaming with only minor compatibility issues (bear in mind that it is beta code). Windows 7 licenses are a good option and can be sourced relatively cheaply, and let's not forget that Microsoft is pledging to allow any and all users of Windows 7 or 8 to upgrade to its next OS free of charge. Even those who haven't activated their existing OS get the new operating system for free during the first year of its release.
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