Cheap PC builds

I will be doing 2 different configurations, at 3 different price points. This will be the first installment, and it will be the sub $500 rigs. There will be an Intel build and an AMD build, with 2 different video cards to choose from. I'll leave that choice up to you guys. Enjoy!

Intel Config:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.472789 This is an awesome DIY kit that Newegg is currently offering for only $399.99. The parts included are everything you need to build a tower, minus the video card. This motherboard and CPU are actually today's technology and there is plenty of room for upgrades as time goes by.

So here is two different video cards that can easily be paired with it.

1. Nvidia GTS 240 512mb. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127466 $69.99

2. ATI HD4670 1gb card. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150450 $69.99

Both of these cards are DX10 capable cards. They will both play games at lower resolutions fine. Say 1680x1050 and below. "Some" games may also run fine at 1920x1080. They are lower midrange video cards that are perfect for this budget build.

So for $469.99 this would make an exellent budget gaming computer, with lots of upgrading headroom that will last you for years to come.


AMD build:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.472786 This is another exellent budget gaming PC kit being offered by newegg for only $274.99. The only thing missing is the video cards once again. This time though we have alot more money to work with in that department since this kit is alot cheaper. There is also alot of room for upgrades on this PC as well. So lets get looking at some video cards.

1. ATI HD5770 1gb: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873 $149.99

2. Nvidia GTX 460 768mb http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187112 $199.99($189.99 in the cart price)


Both of these cards are DX11 and are more than capable in all games to get to a resolution of atleast 1920x1080. The GTX 460 will provide more performance overall than the HD5770, but that comes at an extra $50.00. I would definitly recommend the GTX 460 though, because for the price it is the best deal out there right now. With a little overclocking it can almost get to the level of the GTX 470, which is $150.00 more than the GTX 460.


So the bottom line with the AMD build is that you end up with DDR-2 memory and a tiny bit slower CPU than the Intel build. The difference between DDR2/DDR3 is negligible. DDR3 will give you faster load times, but not really enough to make any huge difference. The CPU is a nice bit behind the intel in the performance department, but is still plenty upgradable since the motherboard supports AM2/AM2+/AM3.

The biggest diffence here come in the form of the video cards I'm recommending. They are "ALOT" faster and capable cards than the one I recomended in the Intel build. Enough that the AMD build would smoke the intel system in games and benchmarks. The system I would personaly recommend is this build with the GTX 460 since it will be able to run everything out right now alot better.

So the AMD build with the HD5770 1gb would run you $424.99, and the AMD build with the GTX 460 768mb would run you 474.99. I want to say it again...The extra $50.00 to put in the GTX 460, is well spent money IMO.

Tommorow I will do the same thing in the $750.00 price bracket for you guys. After that I will do a couple of $1250.00 monster computers. lol. Anyone that tells you a good gaming computer will cost you $2/$3000.00 is full of shit. Even todays $500.00 budget build is more than capable of handling todays games, at very decent settings and frames per second.

wow, i'm really impressed by the price per performance ratios there. nice stuff Sin, it's almost getting where any gamer could pick up a PC now when compared to console prices

Typically if someone asks me to build a PC for cheap, I have to inform them that they might not be able to play at 1080P unless they are willing to pay a little more. I tell them to play everything at 720P and its fine . If they are coming from a console though, I dont see a point in playing PC games at 720P because thats what consoles are for. I have built a cheap rig for someone who only wanted to play Aion smoother, and it was perfectly fine for that because MMO's are pretty optimized.

Most of my typical cheap $400 PC's look like this:

-AMD AthlonII X3 435 (can be unlocked to a quad)
-AM3 785G chipset motherboard (necessary for a mobo with unlock option in BIOS!)
-2x1GB Patriot DDR3 1333
-Nvidia 9600GT or GSO
-320GB HD
-430W Thermaltake PSU
-DVDR, 120mm LED fan for fun, cheapo $30-40 case.

I have built a variation of the above, but they all have been AthlonII triple cores or quads. Unlocking the triple core to quad is a nice jump in performance on a budget rig.

If you are in the US, you should really check out the Frys Electronics sales. The $99 sales are a bargain. You can often find an AMD multicore CPU and motherboard with DDR3 support for $99. Then the money you save should go toward the video card. You dont need more than 2GB of RAM on a budget PC. Most games will not make the system use more than 2GB. If the game does hit the 1.8GB total memory usage, it just skips for a moment. Thats when you increase the page file to compensate.

good stuff, those athlon x3 and x4's are prime as far as price per performance

Nice round-up sin.Goes to show that pc gaming is getting more affordable than ever.

On my first build i included the lower cards to stay under $500 with the money that was left. That is why I included my personal opinion on the matter afterwards. BOTH the HD5770 and the GTX460 are capable of 1920x1080 in almost all games. Just with the GTX460 you can probally add some anti alising, since the performance will be 15-20% better in most cases.

With the intel build that was hard to do TBH, unless I really went low end on the PSU, Mobo, and case. I'm not willing to do that, since either system at some point could be getting overclocked and we wouldn't want any issues there. There are cheaper parts that can do the job just as well as the more expensive stuff, but you really have to do alot of research if you ever go down that road.

In every review I've seen so far for a Phenom II cpu with a Nvidia video card hasn't mentioned any issues with the combination. I know that when the X58 chipset first came out it had issues with Nvidia cards, but that has been addresed and fixed a long time ago as far as I know. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-280,2156-2.html Actually I'm pretty sure that the NB and SB more have to do with the CPU and RAM anyway, not the GPU. If it was an issue you wouldn't see any AMD owners with Nvidia GPU's. We all know that is not the case.

Guys leave the links if possible. So that if anyone is looking for the parts they can see where you got the prices from atleast. Also keep in mind that it has to be someone that deals with both US/Canadian clients. That's why I will usually go with Newegg/Tigerdirect. 95% of the people that will be looking here are from the US as well, and will most likely want "new" parts not ones from Ebay or anything of the like.

PS: Ya i've been lazy the last little while guys. I need to redo the original links, since those deals are over now. I'll look into it again tomorrow.

Here a few components I wouuld recomend for someone on a budget

AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103846 unlockable

MSI 870-G45 AM3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130290 with core unlocker

G-SKILLS DDR3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231185 could buy 1333 with tighter timmings but needed for 4 ghz on the i3 for a good bus/ram ratio

SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102858&cm_re=5770-_-14-102-858-_-Product

Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115222

EVGA p55 SLI LE http://www.evga.com/products/prodlist.asp?switch=20 see price in cart

EVGA GeForce GTX 460 http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=768-P3-1360-TR&family=GeForce 400 Series Family&sw=

computer case and power supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121113


With dx 11 being around for some time already and more really good titles comming in the next few months I personally wouldn't buy a dx 10 card.While it is true that ddr2 with tigher timmings has proven to be able to keep up with higer clocked ddr3 the price difference between both are so minimal that Its hard to justify the trade off.

Ok, I got a buddy looking to build a "good" PC for mostly photoshop and of course some gaming. He didnt really have a budget, I said at least $500 for a PC to play on all high and do everything, but I'm gonna lean more toward $600 for tax and then the choice of mouse would be up to what he thinks is comfortable, and case is up to his liking.

Here's what I came up with:


Keep in mind that the AthlonII X3 will unlock to a PhenomII X4 with the extra cache. Buddy wanted for sure for the PC to be quiet, so I had to toss in a cheap aftermarket cooler I've used before because the stock fan just too buzzy and will toss in an extra 120mm fan somewhere in there. He also wanted a decent looking case and Cooler Master is my only brand for that because I think they have the best value along with looks for $50-60 cases. This will be a lightly overclocked PC so any budget motherboard will work thats DDR3 and AM3 supported.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I still want that GTX460 768MB in there because its the best bang $200 GPU out there. I had the 5770 1GB before my current GPU and I wasnt too happy with it at 1920x1080 with 4xAA even when overclocked. The GTX 460 has about 10-20FPS ahead of the 5770 and it should be able to handle all games without dropping below 35FPS with AA.

holy crap the GTX 460 is on sale at Micro Center for $166.99. I hope my buddy comes up with the cash real quick. Thats the lowest I've seen it.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0341905

that would be a nice budget build for sure. the only thing i might recommend is that you could get another 250GB of space for $20 bucks more if you went with a caviar black 750 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136283&cm_re=caviar_black-_-22-136-283-_-Product
too bad the prices on the caviar blacks have all gone up a little bit again

actually i just checked newegg when i got home today, i don't know how quickly he is planning on purchasing his computer but newegg
is running a special through the 13th of this month on their caviar black 1TB drive, for $3 dollars more than the 750GB you can get a 1TB for $77.99
with the promo code EMCYXYV34 , just a heads up, that's cheap as hell for a 1TB black, I'd pick one up if I had the extra $78 dollars

Oddly enough, I havent bought anything online in a long time. Mainly because when I build PC's for people, I do it within a weekend or an entire week. I dont like to keep my paying customers waiting and so I drive around to a few stores within the area to find the sales if there are any and get it done ASAP.