A friend of mine has $500 and wants to play Age of Conan when it comes out. He asked me to build him a PC with $500...but he needs everything (monitor, keyboard, sound card, speakers, mice, etc.)! Can u guys help me out...this budget is tight for everything...but possible imo.
Go for 1 or 2 gigs of memory. 25-30 for 1g, 40-50 for 2g.
Keyboard, mouse, monitor?
You need a power supply. You can cut it with a 50.00 psu but be careful what you select. You need to find good brands with a rebate and free shipping.
Id go with a cheaper video card. Ive seen the 9600GT for 129.99.
Tell us what you are reusing, if you have an operating system already. If you need literally everything then you will need to cut down to bare minimums on the parts you have listed.
Let us know and we can give you a more educated and helpful answer...
the only thing my friend has is Vista OS (he can also get XP)...that is it...he has been using a laptop for a while, and realizes Age of Conan can not work on it.
OS = Vista or XP...he has both.
he has nothing else as of now... (>.< )
He just wants the best gaming experience he can get for $500...so i think a small HD, onboard sound - sound good.
Message edited by qmalik on 05-09-2008 at 07:36:51 AM
I am going to make a pretty bold statement. **Putting on flame suit** I dont think it can be done.
You need to post the specs for Age of Conan. I myself will be playing it but cant think of the specs needed. Something like 2GB ram, 30GB hard drive space, 7600GT or better, C2D 2.0GHz.
The need of a monitor really kills him IMO. It might almost be better to look for a dell or something similar then add in a GFX card.
I am going to look everything up on newegg now but good luck.
* OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista * Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3Ghz or equivalent * RAM: 1GB * Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better * Video memory: 128MB * DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive * HARD DRIVE SPACE: 30GB
Recommended configuration (Up to 1280X960, most features on)
* OS: Windows XP SP 2 or Windows Vista * Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz or equivalent * RAM: 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 * Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or equivalent * Video memory: 512MB * DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive * HARD DRIVE SPACE: 30GB
PS: He just told me he is going to *try* to get a free monitor from a friend...he hasn't asked yet...nor sure if he can get it.
Message edited by qmalik on 05-09-2008 at 07:55:00 AM
Ok I am sticking with my statement. It CANNOT be done with new parts. If he wants to find an old used CRT monitor for like $20 from a thift store maybe. The cheapest monitor I could find was a 17" CRT for $90 but shipping is like $29 on those.
Try looking at sites like Dell, Gateway, eMachine, etc.... I know these PCs are complete CRAP!!! but thats the only way he might be able to pull this off.
alrighty....for now...lets pretend its $500 tower only....since he thinks he can get the rest for free from a friends....so best gaming pc for $500? comments/suggestions/ideas?
PC for 500$; get a Dell.
Gaming PC for 500$; Can't be done, unless you buy a used one off ebay and consider playing games that are 2 years old... Sorry.
Ok this is what I just came up with not perfect but you can make some adjustments:
Mobo - $50 there are about 20-30 different ones you cane pick on newegg. Just make sure its 775, PCIEx16, DDR2 800
Case - $25 again just pick one. He wont be able to get a nice case on a small budget.
PSU - $50 dont feel like researching because you need to make sure you have quality power. Quality > Quantity.
CPU - $68 E2160
GPU - $180 8800GT 512MB
Ram - $46 OCZ 2GB DDR2 800 CAS 4
HD - $35 80GB
DVD - $35 pick brand you like.
Why has you friend decided just now to play this game? Its been in the making for a long time and most people knew the requirements were going to be high. He shouldve planned better to have more money for the PC.
BUT!!!!!
He can always donate plasma for money.....
Now that everyone is done laughing I am serious. Most places give you about $25 for donating can take 30 minutes - 2 hours depending on wait. You can donate every 2 days unlike giving blood that is once every 6 weeks. With 12 days before release he should be able to get another $150 towards that PC.
Best case scenario, he will be barely scraping by on "recommended" performance for $500. He'll probably have to tone down the graphics a bit but it should be ok.
ATOP AT-AP103WBB Black SGCC steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
$39.99
Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $47.99
Remember, we are going on the ULTRA cheap!! Some of these prices have rebates and that will bring him down closer to his target price afterwards. So he needs to be prepared to spend a little more to save. He also needs to ask for an advance on his allowance for the difference.
Monitor: 20.00
I would go to the local good will and get a flat crt monitor for 20.00 to make do until he can get more money for a decent monitor. Take a power cable with you to test before you buy!
Total including shipping but excluding rebates: 488.00
There were a lot of good rebates to mail back in so it will probably be around 750.00 payout and you will get the difference back in 6-8 weeks.
You can trim a little fat off what I suggested but it will likely be lesser quality and slower system.
Going with the cheapest everything will lead to problems and higher cost down the road to replace what goes bad and what else it takes with it...
Message edited by englandr753 on 05-09-2008 at 09:26:35 AM
Do you live near a fry's? They commonly do mobo+cpu combos for real cheap. Had one in the paper with a C2D 6550 + ECS mobo for ~$160. Right there in the range as a few other builds here for a mobo and cpu. Would be worth looking at. The rest is going to have to be bare bones, and just upgrade the video card later on down the line because you'd have a decent setup otherwise.
tigerdirect has a few good barebones kits http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] etailspecs throw a decent video card in there and you are set with a pretty good system(or deal with onboard graphics) its not the same as putting it all together yourself, but it would work.
I know some people cant afford to spend extra to save on the rebates. This is an option he can look at and if theres any way he can make it happen then he will get a much better system than a dell for gaming and a much more dependable system than buying the items that only cost 500.00 up front.
This would be the least recommended way to do it IMO. You still have good brand core components that the system depends on to run. Not the best case, keyboard or mouse but it works until he can get some spare change to upgrade later.
IF he has the OS then this would be very doable...
Got it down to 525.00 after rebates, shipping and including the thrift store crt monitor.
Message edited by englandr753 on 05-09-2008 at 09:09:27 AM
