Building a gaming pc for $500???

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

Minhaz Ali

Honorable
Mar 15, 2013
79
0
10,630
Hello guys,
Im 16 years old and am currently using a crappy pentium4 with mx440. After reading various forums on gaming desktops, ive decieded to start building one with a budget of $500-525. I want to atleast have an intel i3 in it and i want to be able to play BF3 on a mid-high setting. I also play HL2, TF2, Amnesia, F.E.A.R, etc. I want to be able to play todays games in mid settings ATLEAST. Please give me the best bang for my buck. I will purchase the equipment right away using your choices. Thanks Guys!

One more thing, how long will it take to build this bad boy??
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
J

jaslion

Splendid
Dec 17, 2012
6,425
0
22,160


pick an amd a10 5600k
an hyper 212evo to overlcok it
an elite 430 case
8gb off corasair vengeance memory
an 500waat corsair,coolermaster,... psu (good brnds not crap brands)
and an extra 6670 or 7750 to dual gpu that thing and you will be good to go
this will cost you about 500€ without windows
sorry that i didn't put prices here because i don't know where you are buying from
o and the funny thing is that computer you are now useing is sort of my pc except that the graphics card died
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
bigcyco1

bigcyco1

Champion
Feb 11, 2012
15,867
2
54,960
CPU – Intel Core i3-3220
Motherboard – ASUS P8H77-V LE
Memory – 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz DDR3 Low Profile 1.5v
Video Card – Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 Vapor-X
Hard Drive – Seagate Barracuda 500GB
Optical Drive - OEM DVD Drive or OEM Blu Ray Drive (Any Manufacturer)
PSU – Antec VP-450
Case – Corsair Carbide Series 200R

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I

Isaiah4110

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2012
603
0
19,010


With the limited information your provided, this is pretty close to as high end as you will be able to go:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Biostar TZ77A ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($97.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $506.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-18 17:17 EDT-0400)

Note that this build does not include an operating system, which will add on roughly $100 to any build. I can't really tell you how well it will run any of the games you listed, but if this parts list can't do it for $500 then you probably won't be able to do it for $500 at all. Increase your budget by another $150 and you can add an operating system and probably bump the graphics card up to a 7850. If you need an operating system then you may want to consider switching to an AMD APU platform, but you will notice a drop in performance.

You other options would be to reuse a case and/or HDD (the parts that are most readily reusable) you already own, and turn that money saved into a better GPU or use it to buy an operating system.

Those are your basic options on such a limited budget.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
rolli59

rolli59

Titan
Oct 27, 2007
47,790
283
130,890

Not bad above but since the CPU does not overclock cheaper motherboard options http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h77pro4mvp
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-b75ag43
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I

Isaiah4110

Distinguished
Jan 12, 2012
603
0
19,010


I considered a different chipset MB, but I hate recommending limited parts. Additionally, this motherboard gives the freedom to upgrade to an overclockable CPU in the future and doesn't cost that much more once the combo deal is factored in. The OP can also obviously upgrade the GPU in the future (which would still be able to do with a B75 or H77 motherboard as well).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
photonboy

photonboy

Titan
Jun 20, 2006
21,567
13
85,015
Some of the recommendations here are very good.

Minor points:
1) The Corsair CX430 blew up on me within a day. Perhaps it's a fluke. There's a more expensive Antec that I'd recommend. The PSU is very important so Google both customer reviews and a more professional one if possible.

2) DVD burner:
Whichever one you get, got to the website and see what the FIRMWARE update date is. Don't buy one with a firmware update earlier than 2012 (some are only 2009). The older the firmware update, the more likely you are to get bad burns (firmware updates add profiles for newer discs).

3) If possible, get a 1TB drive. I know you're on a budget but the price difference is very small.

4) As mentioned, it's $100 for Windows. So budget for that, tax and shipping.

5) Get Windows 8 64-bit OEM and Stardock's Start8. Windows 8 is superior to Windows 7 and there are very important differences such as security. Windows 8 can prevent malware from infecting your system during the vulnerable boot period before antivirus is properly working (I was infected with keylogging software which sent someone every key I pressed. It turns out Windows 8 would have prevented this.)

6) 1155 Z77 motherboard with UEFI BIOS. (not sure if all Z77's have UEFI).
*UEFI motherboards have a new security feature that works with Windows 8 to prevent boot-time infections. Very, very important.

Personally, I'd recommend WAITING a bit until you can beef this up slightly (i.e. HD7870 2GB graphics card, and i5-3000 series 4-core CPU) but in the end it's really your choice. Haswell is also on the horizon. I mention this because I'm not sure how long 1155 motherboards will have available CPU's produced for them if you want to upgrade to a better CPU in the future. Haswell's likely a non-issue but if you can hold off a little to save more money that may be the way to go.

Cheers.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom