Budget gaming build for $260-$280. My first build. Opinions?

[mike12nite]

I'm getting the Radeon HD 4650 512MB, 4GB ram, a BIOSTAR A740G motherboard (which has 16GB ram Maximum Memory Supported) the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 2.6GHz (which is a Dual Core processor). I'm going for a budget build and this comes up to $280 all together after shipping on NewEgg. Is this a good set up to play games like Team Fortress 2 or Crysis on mid settings or are there better options for this price? Thanks, this is my first build so I'm really nooby at it, I usually just upgrade parts of my recent PC.

 

[xthekidx]

For $280 thats pretty good. See if you can Find the Kuma 7750 BE, it will give you more for your money because it is easily overclocked.

Do you have all your other bases covered (PSU, case, dvd drive, HDD...ect)?

 

[mike12nite]

For $280 thats pretty good. See if you can Find the Kuma 7750 BE, it will give you more for your money because it is easily overclocked.

Do you have all your other bases covered (PSU, case, dvd drive, HDD...ect)?

Thanks. Yeah I actually left that out, I was going to get this case which is included in the final price. It comes with a 430w PSU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811164067

I've already got 1 100GB and a 40GB HDD from my current PC and a DVD/CD-RW drive from my current PC so I think I'm good with that. Do you think the graphics card I chose would be good enough to play Team Fortress 2 and Crysis on mid settings? The price for the Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 is $59.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102805

Do you think that's the best choice for the price? I want to be absolutely sure I've got everything best for it's price since I'm on a budget. Plus I'm a huge penny pincher

 

[xthekidx]

Ehh I wouldn't get that case/psu. Too cheap. The PSU is not the place to pinch pennies, if it fails it will do very bad things to your system.

Although if you can't spend any more, i guess you can't do much better. Is $280 the most you can spend? The cheapest PSU that I can recommend is this one, all others are just too crappy:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371005
Then you can buy a cheap case like a rosewill.

The video card is iffy for crysis, but if you put settings low enough you can play crysis on any card. It will work, but don't expect stunning FPS and graphics.

 

[micahjamesmesser]

I would recommend waiting till you have like $100 more before buying. That way you can get something that is worth buying that won't blow up or smoke/ catch on fire.

 

[mike12nite]

I would recommend waiting till you have like $100 more before buying. That way you can get something that is worth buying that won't blow up or smoke/ catch on fire.

100 dollars is a bit much, the only thing that would have a chance of blowing up is the PSU. All the other parts are legit, I don't have any way of saving up right now. I'm actually getting the money from my dad so and I can't ask him for 100 dollars more after he just gave me 280. And I'm not working at the moment since I'm at school. But thanks for the suggestion. What did you mean when you said it will blow up? A bit of an exaggeration Please explain.

 

[theAnimal]

100 dollars is a bit much, the only thing that would have a chance of blowing up is the PSU. All the other parts are legit, I don't have any way of saving up right now. I'm actually getting the money from my dad so and I can't ask him for 100 dollars more after he just gave me 280. And I'm not working at the moment since I'm at school. But thanks for the suggestion. What did you mean when you said it will blow up? A bit of an exaggeration Please explain.

When a crappy PSU fails, there is a good chance it will take all or part of your system with it. A good quality PSU will have protection circuits which will prevent this from happening, plus it will provide cleaner and stabler power to your components. The PSU is the most important part of your system.

 

[xthekidx]

When a crappy PSU fails, there is a good chance it will take all or part of your system with it. A good quality PSU will have protection circuits which will prevent this from happening, plus it will provide cleaner and stabler power to your components. The PSU is the most important part of your system.

Exactly what I was saying above^^ That antec earthwatts PSU is the cheapest PSU that I would recommend, all others cheaper than that are just too risky IMO.

 

[astrotrain1000]

My question is how much are you going to be using this thing? Will it be on 24/7? If they answer is a couple of hours a day to then I think you could get buy with a cheaper powersupply. 80% efficiency isn't worth the money if your pc isn't in use much. My dad has had a couple of emachines and I know those suckers have to have the cheapest powersupplies in existence. His emachines lasted for years with the stock powersupply. That being said the reason he got a new one is because his old one the power supply blew up after 4/5 years of 24/7 use. (I should never have introduced my dad to bittorent lol.) It's a matter of risk versus cost. Remember though if you get good powersupply now then at christmas/birthday time you can ask for a 4850 and it'll still run w/o an uprgrade.

 

[micahjamesmesser]

true very true astrotrain. sometimes that the way to go. upgrades. But if you want to start with a ok build that will last 1 or 2 years before upgrading then around $300 will do it. If you want a computer that will last for 4 to 5 years without being really out dated then get some money somehow besides asking for it from you dad and use i to go into the computer. It might take one or two months of WORK but it is very possible to be able to have a descent computer for around $550.

 

[xthekidx]

+1
IMO, its not worth building a PC that you want to use for gaming for anything below $500, because the parts you will be forced to use will be very basic and outdated quickly, as well as have limited upgradability, so when you have to upgrade again you will be starting over from scratch. So you are just throwing your money away basically. It's worth it to wait until you can afford some better parts. I would discourage you from trying to build a PC for $300 from scratch.

 

[mike12nite]

+1
IMO, its not worth building a PC that you want to use for gaming for anything below $500, because the parts you will be forced to use will be very basic and outdated quickly, as well as have limited upgradability, so when you have to upgrade again you will be starting over from scratch. So you are just throwing your money away basically. It's worth it to wait until you can afford some better parts. I would discourage you from trying to build a PC for $300 from scratch.

Dude, I'm basically poor, you may be able to save up money, but me? I can't, I really have no way of getting any more cash, I'm doing the best I can, some tech guys (not you lol your just trying to help me out) act like getting all these expensive parts every few months just to be relevant in the PC world is all that matters, but I REALLY don't have it like that. I just want to get what I can get, and be happy with it, I wish I could work for more but school has got me by the balls lol. I'm actually very proud of finding these parts at this price, I am worried about the power supply though. I wouldn't want to spend my money on something for it to just fry out.

 

[the1tarheel]

If I were to put one together I would look to get maybe 20 more dollars at least 300 minimum and use the following

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147031

Rosewill R604TSB-N 120mm Fan, mesh air filters & Tool-Free kits ATX Mid Tower Computer Case,with 450W Dual Fan Power Supply ( Decent PSU willpower the listed items with no problems ) $59.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186143

Foxconn A7VMX-K AM2+/AM2 AMD 780V Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD 780V and DX10 experience w/ DVI, VGA and Gigabit LAN ( great board and will take phenom up to 95 watts for upgrade later? ) $54.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141081

BIOSTAR VA4673NH51 Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail Integrated with HDMI port and HDCP ready ( MUCH stronger card this will let you play crisis at medium settings ) $76.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory ( quality memory with respectable timing if the desire to oc later )
$39.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103211

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor ( A decent proc for games as at this price level there is very little difference in playability ) $54.99


with shipping this comes to $297.50

 

[mike12nite]

If I were to put one together I would look to get maybe 20 more dollars at least 300 minimum and use the following

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147031

Rosewill R604TSB-N 120mm Fan, mesh air filters & Tool-Free kits ATX Mid Tower Computer Case,with 450W Dual Fan Power Supply ( Decent PSU willpower the listed items with no problems ) $59.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186143

Foxconn A7VMX-K AM2+/AM2 AMD 780V Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD 780V and DX10 experience w/ DVI, VGA and Gigabit LAN ( great board and will take phenom up to 95 watts for upgrade later? ) $54.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141081

BIOSTAR VA4673NH51 Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail Integrated with HDMI port and HDCP ready ( MUCH stronger card this will let you play crisis at medium settings ) $76.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory ( quality memory with respectable timing if the desire to oc later )
$39.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103211

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor ( A decent proc for games as at this price level there is very little difference in playability ) $54.99


with shipping this comes to $297.50

Hey thanks a lot for helping out I think I'll go with your set up. What wat power supply should I get for this set up? 300w? What do you suggest?

 

[theAnimal]

Hey thanks a lot for helping out I think I'll go with your set up. What wat power supply should I get for this set up? 300w? What do you suggest?

There's one included with the case, which I personally would not use. I would get the case minus PSU and use a Seasonic 300W ~$40.

 

[xthekidx]

There's one included with the case, which I personally would not use. I would get the case minus PSU and use a Seasonic 300W ~$40.

+1
Or if you can find a case by itself without the PSU, do that. You can usually find a rosewill case for around $30 w/o PSU, sometimes free shipping which will save you a lot. Something like this maybe:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147074

with shipping, this one is cheaper and better I think, can't go wrong with a CoolerMaster case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119161

 

[the1tarheel]

Cut down on your video card for now and use the 20 bucks extra for this combo as it is a MUCH BETTER setup for later

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129032
Antec NSK4480B Black 0.8mm cold-rolled steel construction ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 380W Power Supply

Original Price: $99.95
You Save: $20.00
$79.95
Free Shipping

 

[xthekidx]

^^good find.