200-250$ budget gaming pc. Build
- Thread starter Aidan134
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- May 27, 2010
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For that price I would look at lightly used laptops with a discrete GPU. About as good as it gets for the money. And you get a laptop.
Trying to get performance out of a budget gaming desktop at that price is fighting the basic construction costs of a computer. Only so cheap you can make the parts before diminishing returns set in.
Trying to get performance out of a budget gaming desktop at that price is fighting the basic construction costs of a computer. Only so cheap you can make the parts before diminishing returns set in.
I'm fine with getting used parts but I pretty much have no clue what to look for. Are there any parts I should be looking for that can get me the performance I'm looking for at the price I want? I just see so many "$250" budget builds where on YouTube where they make a great pc out of these parts that they have found on eBay or Craigslist.
genthug
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You can get parts from Microcenter or local stores that often will have combo deals mainly on a CPU and motherboard... So that's one place to look, other places to look would be on craigslist and eBay, yes. But, that's not with a concrete price. We can give you a build that will play the games you want, but it will not be within your budget, it will be up to you to go find the parts or parts close to them that will fill out your budget.
Also, @the console suggestion, a console is $300-400 as it is. There is no money saved there. You can build a PC from the ground up for that price that will play those games. For GTAV, probably not at 60FPS, but a steady 30. Also, OP said CS:GO is a consideration. Console = no CS:GO.
Also, @the console suggestion, a console is $300-400 as it is. There is no money saved there. You can build a PC from the ground up for that price that will play those games. For GTAV, probably not at 60FPS, but a steady 30. Also, OP said CS:GO is a consideration. Console = no CS:GO.
genthug
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PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/vhTPKZ
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/vhTPKZ/by_merchant/
CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-D Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($58.12 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($38.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Zalman ZM-T4 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($32.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($30.39 @ OutletPC)
Total: $439.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-08 16:32 EST-0500
This does not have all the corners cut in it that it could, could've gone with a cheaper GT GPU, could've gone with a cheaper case+PSU solution, but the GT will not run GTA well, and included PSU + case deals are scary. The i3 might not be able to run 60 FPS in GTAV 100% of the time, but it's going to be the best CPU choice for you. That build will do what you want it to.
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/vhTPKZ/by_merchant/
CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-D Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($58.12 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($38.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Zalman ZM-T4 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($32.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($30.39 @ OutletPC)
Total: $439.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-08 16:32 EST-0500
This does not have all the corners cut in it that it could, could've gone with a cheaper GT GPU, could've gone with a cheaper case+PSU solution, but the GT will not run GTA well, and included PSU + case deals are scary. The i3 might not be able to run 60 FPS in GTAV 100% of the time, but it's going to be the best CPU choice for you. That build will do what you want it to.
genthug
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- Mar 20, 2016
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If you're going to be looking for second hand and other deals, you're likely not going to be getting everything at the same time. Do your best to find someone that has a rig that would be willing to test parts out for you, so you know if they work or not. These things often have a fairly short return period on them, so make sure you test the pieces of hardware you get first before you get the rest of the pieces. Would be bad to get a good deal only to find out that it's not what was advertised and you have nothing you can do about it.
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