Building a PC isn’t always as easy as some folks make it out to be. Sure, the physical act of putting all of the components together can be fun, but we’re also the sort of people that wake up and play Wordle so “fun” is entirely subjective here.

The difficulty with building a PC is generally made apparent when shopping for components, especially if you’re building a PC for the first time. The danger here is that if you don’t know what you’re looking for, sales people will try to upsell you on something you may not need or that isn’t compatible with your system.

For example, if you only play esports titles, there is no need to buy enthusiast-level components.

Enter Syntech, a local distributor which recently announced a beta test of something it calls a PCBuilder. While you’ve likely seen PC part pickers before, what Syntech has built here is intelligent and incredibly well thought out. The system is still in beta but after seeing it in action we can tell it was created with the utmost attention to detail.

For now, PCBuilder is only available to resellers. Despite this lack of access for the general public, this system is designed with the end user in mind while still being designed for resellers.

The folks over at Syntech gave Hypertext access to the system to get a feel for it and our harshest critique is that this isn’t available to the general public. However, the value here for resellers is immense in that it allows a reseller to offer custom PC builds with minimal investment.

The process

At the top of the building process builders will need to select which games the system is for. The options available to us in the preview were:

• Far Cry 6
• Apex Legends
• Call of Duty: Warzone
• Fornite
• Minecraft
• New World.

While this is a limited list, it does cover the performance spectrum from the low end to the latest and greatest AAA publishers have to offer.

Once the games have been selected builders need to select a price point. There are three price points currently namely: R19 999, R29 999 and R39 999. These prices are a baseline price for the system itself and may not necessarily include a monitor, peripherals or other extras. The price will of course go up as you change or add components and peripherals.

Once a price point is selected, a PC will be created and the performance can be reviewed. On that, Syntech makes use of 3D Mark’s API and as such the performance metrics on the PC Builder are exactly what you’d see directly from 3D Mark.

We built the following system:

• Chassis – ANTEC DP501 ATX | Micro-ATX | ITX ARGB Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis – Black
• Processor – AMD Ryzen 5 5600X AM4 3.7GHz 6-Core CPU
• Graphics Card – MSI Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 VENTUS 2X 12G OC 192-Bit Graphics Card
• Motherboard – MSI X570-A PRO AMD AM4 ATX Gaming Motherboard
• Memory – Crucial Ballistix 16GB Kit (2x8GB) 3200MHz DDR4 Desktop Gaming Memory – Red
• Power Supply – FSP Hydro G Pro 750W 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular Power Supply
• Storage – One Crucial P5 Plus 500GB M.2 NVMe 3D NAND SSD
• CPU coolers – ANTEC CPU LIQUID COOLER NEPTUNE 240 ARGB
• Cables  – PWR Dedicated to Single Headed Kettle Cable 1.8m.

It’s at this point that the power of PCBuilder can be seen.

Builders can head deeper into the system to customise the build and all the while PCBuilder is making sure that builders don’t buy something they cannot use.

As you can see in the image above, because we have an AMD motherboard we get the message that Intel CPUs aren’t compatible.

But let’s say the builder is distracted and accidentally selects an Intel Core i7 11700KF CPU. The PC Builder system will recognise that the CPU and motherboard aren’t compatible and the builder will have to go and manually select a compatible motherboard.

This prevents builders from buying components that don’t work together and it’s a small but hugely important feature.

In the image above you can also see a power icon next to the price. This allows the builder to see how much power the system will draw and if a bigger power supply unit is needed. If one is needed the builder will be alerted to this before being able to check out.

As regards stock, the availability of components is checked during the build process and ensures that buyers get the system they were promised down to the brand they paid for.

For resellers

Once the system has been built it can be ordered or a quote can be generated to send along to a client. Resellers can customise the quote so it looks like their brand and customer details can be included so that delivery can take place once the system is ready.

The system allows resellers to set their own markup and that factors into the final price that the customer will see on their quotation.

The overarching goal here is to make PC gaming a more accessible platform and by offering custom builds, we think Syntech can make that happen.

Pre-built PCs so often cut corners that buyers may not want cut. Being able to customise a build however, allows a buyer to say, splurge on a CPU rather than the chassis.

For now, PCBuilder is limited to gaming PCs but perhaps in future resellers can use it to configure fleets of PCs for businesses.

If you are a reseller and you want to participate in the PCBuilder beta test, we recommend getting in touch with the distributor here.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]