Desktop Computer Part List (Summer 2018-Pakistan Market)

     At the time of writing, 1 USD = Rs. 121.936. The prices mentioned in this post are based on the local market prices of computer components in Pakistan. Please remember that, prices vary from city-to-city within the country and shop-to-shop within a city. This is the reason why a price range is mentioned.

CPUs

     Intel Core i7-8700 for Rs. 41,500-Rs. 43,500. Top of the line processor from Intel. Always prefer a Core i7 or a Core i9 processor.

     Intel Core i5-8400 Processor Rs. 26,000-Rs. 28,000. Only buy this processor if there is a budget constraint.

Motherboard

     Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 3 for Rs. 21,200-Rs. 21,500. This motherboard has many USB ports and also comes equipped with a USB type-C port and M.2 slots etc. for future proofing.

Storage

     WD Blue 500GB Solid State Drive - WDS500G1B0A for Rs. 16,500-Rs. 17,500. Please do not buy a hard drive with rotating mechanism, it's 2018! When later in the year the SSD's prices go down, probably around November-December 2018, then buy another ~500 GB SSD. Do not waste money on a legacy hard drive.

Memory

     Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (1x16GB) DDR4 DRAM 3000MHz Rs. 25,800-Rs. 32,000. Please do not buy two sticks of 8 GB each. Save the remaining memory slots for future upgrading. Memory prices will fall significantly in October-November 2018 once the Chinese memory plants become operational. Don't fall for the shop keepers trickery. A common ploy employed by shopkeepers is that 1x16GB memory modules don't work in single channel mode for the 2400 MHz+ modules. It works perfectly well.

Casing

     Corsair Carbide Series® 100R Mid-Tower Case Rs.6,650-Rs. 7,500. This is the best option, really. Don't waste money on casing, it's just a box.

Power Supply

     Corsair VS550 - 550 Watt Power Supply Rs.5,800 -Rs. 6,000. A 550 Watt power supply for an i7 8700 CPU, 4 sticks of 1x16GB DDR4 memory modules, 1 SSD and up to a GTX 1x70 level graphic cards without any over clocking and 16 hours per day usage will be enough. May be this power supply will even be enough for GTX 1180 graphic card, as the graphic card chips are becoming more and more energy efficient. Yet again, do not fall for the shop keepers ploys.

Graphic Card

     Wait for the graphic new graphic cards from NVidia. The new cards are just around the corner. Local shops in Pakistan are selling 2 year old graphic cards, the GTX 10 series, at much inflated prices as compared to the rest of the world.

Conclusion

     This system will last at least 5 years, in terms of gaming with a GTX 1x70 level graphics card. It will even perform well for 10+ years if you keep upgrading it and take care of it cooling wise. Upgrade to a PCIe-NVMe SSD down the road when the prices drop, add more memory and update the graphic card every 5 years etc. Currently, the system will cost anywhere between Rs. 118,000 -Rs. 128,000, depending on you city and the shop, with an i7 processor.

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Coffee Lake Configurations for Computational Fluid Dynamics and Gaming with no Mechanical Storage, Pakistani Market Prices.

     These setups feature no mechanical hard drive(s).

Estimated price PKR 205,000.

     For the processor, choose the Intel Core i7-8700 for PKR 43,000. Motherboard of choice should be the Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 3 for PKR 20,500. For memory, go with the Corsair Vengeance LPX 1x16GB DDR4-3000 for PKR 23,000. Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD for PKR 39,500 should be the only storage option. The Gigabyte GV-N1080WF3OC-8GD GeForce GTX 1080 for PKR 68,500 graphics card. The Corsair Carbide SPEC-04 Casing for PKR 5,500. Powering the whole thing should be at least a Thermaltake Lite-Power 550W PSU for PKR 4,400.

Estimated price PKR 157,000.

     For the processor, choose the Intel Core i7-8700 for PKR 43,000. Motherboard of choice should be the Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 3 for PKR 20,500. For memory, go with the Corsair Vengeance LPX 1x16GB DDR4-3000 for PKR 23,000. Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD for PKR 39,500 should be the only storage option. The Asus PH-GTX1050TI-4G GTX 1050Ti for PKR 21,300 graphics card. The Corsair Carbide SPEC-04 Casing for PKR 5,500. Powering the whole thing should be at least a Thermaltake Lite-Power 550W PSU for PKR 4,400.

Estimated price PKR 167,500.

     For the processor, choose the Intel Core i5-8700 for PKR 23,000. Motherboard of choice should be the Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 3 for PKR 20,500. For memory, go with the Corsair Vengeance LPX 1x16GB DDR4-3000 for PKR 23,000. Western Digital Green 240GB and Blue 500GB SSD for PKR 9,500 and PKR 17,500 should be the storage options. The Gigabyte GV-N1080WF3OC-8GD GeForce GTX 1070Ti for PKR 64,000 graphics card. The Corsair Carbide SPEC-04 Casing for PKR 5,500. Powering the whole thing should be at least a Thermaltake Lite-Power 550W PSU for PKR 4,400.

Estimated price PKR 137,000.

     For the processor, choose the Intel Core i5-8700 for PKR 23,000. Motherboard of choice should be the Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 3 for PKR 20,500. For memory, go with the Corsair Vengeance LPX 1x16GB DDR4-3000 for PKR 23,000. Western Digital Blue 500GB SSD for PKR 17,500 should be the storage option. The Asus STRIX-GTX1060-DC2O6G GTX 1060 for PKR 43,000 graphics card. The Corsair Carbide SPEC-04 Casing for PKR 5,500. Powering the whole thing should be at least a Thermaltake Lite-Power 550W PSU for PKR 4,400.

Estimated price PKR 106,000.

     For the processor, choose the Intel Core i3-8100 for PKR 14,500. Motherboard of choice should be the Gigabyte Z370 AORUS Gaming 3 for PKR 20,500. For memory, go with the Corsair Vengeance LPX 1x16GB DDR4-3000 for PKR 23,000. Western Digital Blue 500GB SSD for PKR 17,500 should be the storage option. The Asus PH-GTX1050TI-4G GTX 1050Ti for PKR 21,300 graphics card. The Corsair Carbide SPEC-04 Casing for PKR 5,500. Powering the whole thing should be at least a Thermaltake Lite-Power 450W PSU for PKR 3,800.

     Only the first configuration is suitable for both gaming and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). If you need a system for CFD alone, then the second configuration will be sufficient, all other configurations can be referred to as general purpose gaming PCs.