Back in May I had a PS5 that was mostly collecting dust and Nintendo Switch thay I only used when a new Zelda dropped, or when I had seldomly had some friends over for some Mario Kart or Smash Bros. I had been into emulation on my phone for a while, and had always been interested in making the switch from console to the "master race" of PC, for the many advantages it has like emulation, more online store fronts, mods, less exclusivity, free online gaming, access to older gen games and the ability to basically make your PC as you good as you want / can afford.
ALL PRICES ARE IN CAD
The first move I made to Jumpstart me into this new hobby was unloading my PS5, accessories and Games. I scored $600 for my PS5, 2 controllers and Pulse Headset, then another $290 for selling the physical games I owned in bundles. The next shoe to drop was My OG Nintendo Switch Accessories and games, which all sold for a combined $440, Bringing my total to $1330.
I needed more cash to build something I'd be really happy with, from the PC parts all the way down to the desk and chair, I needed everything. I had started collecting vinyl records just before covid, amd my music taste has changed since then so.i sold off a chunk of my collection I no longer listened to in order to reinvest that money spent. I ended up selling 26 records for $1000, and even ended up selling my old damaged S21 phone for another $100, to bring my total PC budget up to $2330 CAD
In order to stretch my dollar to its limit, I needed to be frugal, and decide when to by new and when to by used. Facebook Marketplace was a very good friend of mine when I built this. Luckily for me I bought all my parts back in June and built in July before this whole RAMageddon thing started.
The PC I ended up building contained the following parts:
● CPU – I7-12700KF $270 NEW
● GPU – Asrock Radeon RX6800XT 16GB VRAM $450 USED
● RAM – Corsair Vengeance DDR4 32GB 3600MHz $80 NEW
● SSD – TeamForce G70 Pro 2TB w/ DRAM $185 NEW
● Cooler – Thermalright Peerless Assassin SE Black $55 NEW
● Motherboard – Gigabyte B760m DS3H DDR4 $100 USED
● PSU – Corsair RM850x $100 OPEN BOX
● Case – Corsair FRAME 4000D RS ARGB $160 NEW
So I was $1400 all in for the main components, leaving me just under $1000 for all of my peripherals and extras.
I mentioned I'm into collecting Vinyl, well, I'm a bit of an audiophile, so I didn't want regular desktop speakers. I was looking at some Edifier bookshelf speakers on Amazon for a little over $100, but then I decided to browse Facebook Marketplace, and that's where I got the best value item of my whole setup. I scored a pair of KRK VXT6 Studio Monitors for $100 CAD. They retailed for about $500-600 USD EACH when they released. This was a big win for me and they sound INCREDIBLE. They take up a lot of desk space, but are absolutely worth it for the sound I get.
Besides the speakers, I think my whole list of peripherals is where I really struck gold on value in general, here is the whole list:
● Monitor – Acer Nitro XV271U 1440p 240hz $250 OPEN BOX
● Keyboard – Corsair STRAFE Mechanical Keyboard $40 USED
● Mouse – Logitech G305 $50 NEW
● Controller – XBOX Fusion Pro 3 $35 OPEN BOX
● Headphones – Steelseries Arctis 5 RGB $50 USED
● Speakers – KRK VXT 6 $100 USED
● Audio Interface – M-Audio M Track Duo $95 NEW
So I was able to land all of these for $620., bringing my total to $2020.
Lastly I just needed some little things for my PC, and a desk and chair. Ended up getting the following:
● Case fans – Thermalright TL-S12 RGB x3 $20 NEW
● Fan Hub – Cooler Master ARGB & PWM hub $30 NEW
● Isolation Pads – Anpro Studio Monitor Acoustic Isolation Pads $20 NEW
● Surge Protector – Belkin 12 outlet Surge Protector $40 NEW
● Ethernet Cable – UGREEN Cat8 Cable $15 NEW
● Gaming Chair – DPS Gaming 3D Insight $50 USED
● Desk – IKEA Utespelare $70 USED
So after adding the final $245, my grand total was $2265, leaving me $65 to spare from my original budget.
This goes to show that even if you think the barrier to enter the Master Race is too high, you probably have some stuff laying around that, with some hustle, you can flip into a hell of a rig.
I would love to hear some feedback on how you guys think I did overall!
My questions to you guys:
Is there anything you would have changed? (I know now that if I could do it all again I would have gotten a regular ATX Motherboard, not a micro, but I'm happy with the price I got it at and it serves its purpose.)
To my fellow audiophiles, what kind of speakers are you running for your setup?
Did you have a similar build story when switching from console to PC?
What could I do to make my setup even better (reasonably)?
Posted by dankbackwoods