Back in the 90s I used to really love PC gaming and was constantly upgrading my computer to be able to run different games. When Doom came out my 33mhz PC couldn’t run it (pictured above) but our “family computer”, a Pentium 60 could so I used to get permission from my dad to play on it. Eventually I took over that computer since nobody at home really knew how to use it except me (pictured below).
When I moved to uni in 96 I used to spend all my money on CDs and upgrading my computer. I remember the first legit gaming card I got was the Matrox Mystique. But then a new brand launched called Nvidia and I got their Riva 128 card which was great until 3DFX came out with their Voodoo cards. Games that were optimized for 3DFX looked so much better so got that but I remember I used to have a lot of compatibility issues so got the Nvidia TNT and then later got the TNT 2 Ultra. I think the last decent card I got was the original Geforce 256 before I stopped PC gaming.
Recently I’ve gotten into sim racing and was considering building a gaming PC for it. My Xbox Series X is great but some games like Assetto Corsa Evo, Assetto Corsa Rally and iRacing aren’t available on the Xbox while other games like Dirty Rally 2.0 have ultra realism graphic mods that the Xbox version doesn’t have. It was pretty hard to get a grasp on whats considered good or not good nowadays since I haven’t had a Windows PC in over 20 years, but with the help of Ai I think I kinda started understanding things and managed to build a really good gaming PC, but wtf is up with these crazy prices??
This is the build I managed to put together based on parts currently available locally, I think memory is the hardest thing to get right now:
CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Gaming Processor — 179 KD
Motherboard
Asus TUF GAMING X870E-PLUS Motherboard — 129 KD
RAM
Kingston Fury Beast RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 6000MHz CL30 — 145 KD
Graphics
ASUS TUF GAMING GeForce RTX 5080 16GB GDDR7 OC — 580 KD
Storage
Samsung 2TB 9100 Pro NVMe M.2 SSD PCIe 5.0 — 117 KD
Cooling
Asus TUF Gaming LC III 360 Liquid CPU Cooler — 62 KD
PSU
Asus TUF Gaming 1000W Gold ATX 3.1 Power Supply — 58 KD
Case
Asus TUF Gaming GT502 — 54 KD
Total: 1,324 KD
That seems really insane, I thought I was going to end up paying like 500-600KD for a high end gaming PC but this is more than double that. I thought this might just be the usual Kuwait over inflated prices but seems to be pretty much the same even in the US. Crazy! How are you guys doing this?
34 replies on “Thinking of Building a Gaming PC”
I have been buying second hand or waiting for deep discounts on international websites (newegg / amazon).
Thanks to the AI boom GPUs and RAM prices have gone through the roof.
Might as well invest KD 1,300 in NVIDIA and exit that after a couple of years 😀
I invested in NVIDIA back in 2019 so I’m doing pretty good at that end lol
Ciao Mark, greetings from Italy. Stay safe. ~Alessandro
hey! long time, and thank you 🙂
It helps if you have an idea of what resolution you want, how much frames u need and the games you want to play. You tube benchmark videos help based on the parts they give you and the games they test, so if you want 1440p gaming at 160hz they can give you a whole parts list.
I figured 4K was the norm, so would be aiming for 4K 60fps. I don’t think it would be an issue with the system I’ve setup, I just saw the requirements for Forza Horizon 6 and their extreme setup is a few steps below what I’ve put together. Right now I’ve got a 55inch OLED screen with 120hz refresh rate connected to my race rig but eventually thinking of going with a 3 screen set up, or that was the plan before realizing how much a gaming PC would cost. But my understanding 3 screen setup would obviously mean much more strain on the system to keep the 4K 60fps res.
Let us know what you decide!
Are you planning on building it or getting someone to do it for you?
I picked the parts for mine, and someone built it for me, but i disassembled it the other day and putting it back on is daunting.
Mind you mine is a budget build and is for 1080p gaming at 165 Hz.
I hadn’t really thought about it that much, I used to build my own PC’s but I guess so much has changed so it would probably make more sense to have someone build it for me.
I think it’s best to take a look at the used computers section on the 4sale website; you’ll find a good deal for half the price you’re planning to spend.
My nephew (shout-out to Zade D., who just turned 12! 🎉) also recently completed the same mission of purchasing a gaming rig—with guidance from a knowledgeable (and somewhat famous!) local maven (you know who you are, Sumo! 😄). It came at no small expense, unfortunately I think we all may all have overlooked this opportunity…
https://classifieds.248am.com/index.php?page=item&id=41777
You picked the worst time to build a gaming PC my friend. Either you can wait out or get a used rig. It’s not worth so much extra money. The best time was around 2022 now it’s just insane
Ram prices have sky-rocketed because of all the stupid AI crap. Also, have you tried getting a Steam Deck instead?
steam deck? the portable unit? I wouldn’t be able to use that for sim racing
Try PCKUWAIT.COM they have great deals and the team there is amazing
I think most of the items I listed I found out PCkuwait, they seemed to have the best prices when they have the item in stock
If you are planning to buy from them. I might get you some discount.
I would need a huge discount cuz no way I’m paying this much for something I’m only going to use every so often lol
Keep in mind that you might move to curved screens at some point, a flat 4k monitor won’t do it honestly. A couple of 34″ 2k Ultra-wide monitor would take the experience to the next level, so the PC will need to push way more pixels.
PC Gaming in Syria is Really Good. Especially Most people playing Counter Strike & GTA. I used to play some PC Gaming such as Counter Strike, Serious Sam, Neighbours from Hell, Zuma, Luxor, GTA, The Sims, & Need For Speed. Right now, unfortunately my PC Gaming Has been Died out cause I’m usually Now Playing Emulators of Retro Consoles & also MUGEN. So I’m into Fighting Games on any Consoles Instead. & I’m Not an PC Gamer. I usually Play Games on PC back then. Also the issues that some PC Games that Trying hard to get working cause mostly PC Games are not working mostly on errors and Crashes. That’s why I’m playing Emulators and MUGEN they’re the only PC that working properly and Easier. But sometimes Laggy so it’s playable.
This is exactly what I’ve been ranting about in the previous post related to AI; All these price increases for AI slop. Was it worth it?
I spent around the same for my PC but with way more ram and nvme storage, two monitors and peripherals, all before the sloppening.
I don’t think you understand what Ai is if you’re calling it slop.
Sounds like you’ve invested in AI related stocks, but at least the returns from it can fund the pc setup lol
yeah I’m totally invested in Ai, people think Ai is chatgpt when it’s a lot bigger and deeper than that.
Have you heard about the TikTok phenomenon, “Fruit Love Island”? THAT is AI Slop! It’s practically Cocomelon for adults! And good news that OpenAI’s Sora app is shutting down! 🥳
Sora and whatever play small roles in Ai. Blaming Sora for slop is like blaming Microsoft word for slop or photoshop for slop. They’re just tools.
I’m aware AI isn’t just chatgpt and that generative AI is just one of the use cases, but it’s the primary driver for memory price hikes. We’ve had scientific and medical applications of AI for decades without having to choke the ram industry.
People thinking AI is chatgpt is not surprising because genAI has become so popular and “AI” is stamped everywhere in product marketing. As an example, what comes to mind when you think of ‘Mitsubishi’? Cars? Well, they also make machinery, hvac, elevators etc but that’s just an afterthought.
Yr 40 and u still game? Omg thats so sad
Whats actually sad though is that you think gaming is just for kids. You sounds like an incredible fun person to be around!
If your into sim racing.. get a PS5/ps5pro, Gran Turismo 7, a compatible racing setup (Logitech g29) and the PSVR headset. Nothing else matches the VR experience
The Logitech is a plastic toy compared to my Moza Racing R12 wheelbase + CRP2 pedals setup so not planning to downgrade anytime soon!
A better VR experience would be iRacing with an Apple Vision Pro (which I own) but right now not looking to do that and more interested in trying to get Assetto Corsa Rally which is PC only at the moment hence why I’m looking for a gaming PC.
I love building PC’s , I ended up building all PC’s at my design Studio just for fun and because i can customize it to my set budget.
I was able to get a decent setup for 480KD End of 2025 with 5070 GPU, i purchased the parts from NextStore (https://www.nextstore.com.kw/). But my higher end PC did cost closer to 1000KD due to the price of the 3080 GPU at the time. I have a link to a Discord group that sells and notifies you when GPU’s new stock is dropped on US websites so you can catch it for its original retail price. People also trade parts, I took a risk at the time and actually purchased a GPU from someone on the Discord.
More recently I updated the RAM on some of the workstations, and had to pay 80KD for 32GB DDR4 , I thougth that was absolutely insane but couldnt get around it. Newegg prices seemed to match that as well.
All in all, sometimes i think you either downgrade some parts to fit your budget, keeping in mind that you could possibly upgrade it later when the need arises. Or you pay the premium from the get go and just enjoy the build.
My go to websites and local stores are;
NewEgg
Nextstore.com.kw
Quadra Stores (Their shop in Qurain is fun to visit)
P.S. The Asus Tuf case you picked, looks a bit bulky. Wouldnt you want to consider something a little slicker? My go to has been a Corsair 4000D in white.
Check this setup, Its at 600KD and perhaps you can ask them for a discount. I have been doing some very heavy lifting on it and it never failed us.
https://www.nextstore.com.kw/gaming-pc-ryzen-7-9700x-asus-tuf-gaming-b850m-plus-wifi-32gb-ddr5-6000-1tb-nvme-ssd-rtx-5070-12gb-850w-gold-psu-azza-l240-liquid-cooler-acer-v930b-case-6-fans-windows-11-pro.html
I thought about getting a more budget friendly gaming PC but what recently happened is I picked up the MOZA R3 bundle and liked it so much I ended up upgrading to an R12 set up and new panels just after 2 weeks and took a hit on the R3. I don’t want to buy a budget PC and then realize it’s something I love and have to pay again to upgrade. I’ll just wait it out till the war is over hopefully and prices drop. Everything in kuwait is more expensive than usual because no stock coming in I think.
The specs you have are solid if you are using it for sim racing only, i would change the cpu cooler to a Noctua nh-d15 (highly recommended compared to AiO in my opinion) if the case fits and aim for higher ram if the pc will be used for productivity in addition to sim racing.
That said, you couldn’t have picked a worse time to by a PC with ram /storage prices at those levels. for a bit of saving i would probably go for an older GPU model 3080/3090/4080 and maybe swap the nvme to the Sumsung 980/990 as you probably won’t notice the difference compared to 9100 for gaming.
yup the worst time, without the war prices were already high and now just too crazy