Looking to buy a prebuilt gaming computer on a budget

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Charleysdad

Prominent
Apr 8, 2017
2
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510
Could I get a good gaming computer from walmart? If not where would be a reliable place to buy one? I'm new and I do not know how to build one. I looked at pcpartpicker.com but I'm nervous I'll spend the money and screw it up.
 
I built my first computer at 9, with no help. This was before YouTube was a thing. I simply bought the parts, and put them together - they only fit together one way, and a PC can be assembled in as little as 20 minutes if you're familiar with it.

You can't get a good gaming PC from Walmart. Expect any prebuilt to have a $2-300+ premium over the cost of the parts alone. Watching half an hour of YouTube videos can, therefore, save you $2-300+.

What's your budget? What games do you want to play? What are your expectations? Do you need a monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers too?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Just yesterday, a similar thread here ended up showing a $1,000 premium from CyberPower, with almost exactly the same parts list.
$2800 system, $1,000 fluff.
 

FarmerTed

Honorable
May 2, 2013
39
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10,540


Seriously? Haha wow that's crazy. What a waste of money. My buddy (who recently posted about a build for) had a previous rig that was prebuilt. Although he liked it, I'm sure he could have done better. I had to convince him that I could get him way better a build than going back to a prebuilt rig.
 

Wolfshadw

Titan
Moderator
Building a PC really is like an expensive jigsaw puzzle. The pieces only go together one way. Unless you're careless, it's pretty hard to mess things up. Read the manuals, watch videos, read the manuals, ask questions, read the manuals, it's all in there and we're here to help.

Is it possible to get a decent gaming rig from Walmart? Yes. Will you be over charged? More than likely. Is it a good idea? Not really.

I took a look at some of the offerings at Walmart. What scares me the most is that their more expensive ($1000+) "Gaming Desktops" from IBuyPower don't even bother to list what graphics card is installed and there's no telling what piece of garbage power supply they dropped in there.

My advice, stay away!

-Wolf sends

P.S. my first, from scratch build, I had to read the motherboard manual at least four times before I felt comfortable enough to plug anything in!
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Yes, seriously.
Here: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3381102/cyberpower-build.html
$2,800 from CyberPowerPC (often seen at Walmart)....$1,800 of actual identical (or better) parts, incl the OS and monitor.
 

Charleysdad

Prominent
Apr 8, 2017
2
0
510
My budget is 1000 and I need everything keyboard mouse speakers and monitor. Im wanting to play mainly American truck simulator and possibly euro truck sim not much else. The possibility of building one myself crossed my mind but I don't know much about computers.
 

Wolfshadw

Titan
Moderator
To be perfectly honest, the only thing I know about keyboards and mice is that if they cost more than $20, they're over priced in my opinion. Here is a build that may work for you. It's based off of a $600 build I made earlier, but with a better processor and the keyboard, mouse, monitor and speakers.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-7300 4.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($149.77 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($69.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($48.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card ($138.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($58.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.90 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VG245H 24.0" 1920x1080 75Hz Monitor ($179.00 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($14.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Speakers: Logitech Z623 200W 2.1ch Speakers ($98.32 @ Jet)
Total: $949.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-08 14:08 EDT-0400

-Wolf sends
 
Here's something I pieced together for ~$900:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI B250M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($69.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: ADATA XPG Z1 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($54.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($89.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($38.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: LG 27MC37HQ-B 27.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Logitech G105 Wired Gaming Keyboard ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Logitech G300S Wired Optical Mouse ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Speakers: Logitech Z623 200W 2.1ch Speakers ($98.32 @ Jet)
Total: $894.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-08 14:18 EDT-0400


Some upgrades you might consider:

-Upgrade CPU to an i5, ~$120, would probably not be important for the games you're looking to play.

-Faster GPU - higher graphical settings, but also probably not a factor in the games you picked

-Upgrade RAM to 16GB, ~$40, but you can always add more later

-Upgrade power supply to a more efficient model - ~$40 - it's the beating heart of your PC, this is a reliability factor, but he EVGA unit isn't bad

-Move to a small form factor case - harder to build for a first-time builder but you could assemble the above parts in a case half the size, if that's something you might like

-Bigger hard drive - more storage, ~$50+

Peripherals are entirely subjective. I like Logitech's stuff, and I picked things that I felt had a nice combination of price and ergonomics. I myself use a $130 keyboard, which has served me well for almost a decade. You might opt for a smaller or a bigger screen.

 
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FarmerTed

Honorable
May 2, 2013
39
0
10,540


Hahaha! DANG! I'm going to show him that one. That seriously blows my mind. This should be some sort of article if there isn't one already!
 

cdb_2k

Commendable
Sep 14, 2016
8
0
1,510
You guys are funny! Lol

If someone is ready to buy a pre-built PC explaining or commenting on how "easy" it is to build or that you built one when you were 9 is somewhat irrelevant.

The analogy is that when someone asks for a great place to eat they are not looking for cooking advice... sure they could save $$ by going grocery shopping and preparing their own meals. However for whatever reason they're not feeling it and instead prefers to pay the premium to have their food prepared for them.

For some people cooking can be a lil intimidating or they simply dont have the time......Same holds true for building a computer.

 

pexx421

Prominent
Nov 4, 2017
3
0
510
So, I just used the ryzen7 configure on cyberpower. I got a ryzen 7 1800x, nzxt 400 elite, 8g 2400 gskill ripjaws, x370 killer, wraith max, 1t wd hd, and 256 m.2nv, rx580 8g msi, and 600w modular evga, all for 1170. I pcpartpicked it out for 1140, so really they were just $30 more, and honestly I would never get around to sending the mail in rebates, so building it myself. So....you can configure a pretty good pc there yourself, now with all the add ins and freebies, cheaper than build cost.
 
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