300$ budget pc build

creepa

Distinguished
Oct 27, 2009
17
0
18,510
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: This month (november)

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Games (world of warcraft, CS,) internet, youtube, school, movies

PARTS NOT REQUIRED:keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com

PARTS PREFERENCES: AMD or intel (prefered intel) . Any name brand motherboard, and 4 gigs of raam

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe SLI OR CROSSFIRE:Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1024x768

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: must be no higher than 300$ before shipping, i will take other sites if its THAT MUCH cheaper. I know this is hard to do but if at all possible mabe 4 gigs of ram or some deal that is good on ram thanks
 

nofun

Distinguished
Nov 5, 2009
247
0
18,710
4 gigs of ram will be impossible to get at this price window without seriously hacking other components, furthermore it is not necessary for WoW. In the interests of building a balanced gaming PC, I am going to stick with 2 GB.

Can you salvage an old case, power supply, or any old optical drives?


Here's the best I can do:
CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz $60.99
Mobo: ASRock M3A770DE $61.99
RAM: Crucial 2GB SDRAM DDR3 1066 $43.99
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB $47.99
GPU: POWERCOLOR AX4650 512MD2-H Radeon HD 4650 $47.99 (-$10 MIR)
Case & PSU: Rosewill R103A $29.99
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW $25.99
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grand Total: $318.93 ($308.93 after rebate)

You're really not going to be able to hack it down too much more than that. Reuse the old case and optical drives if you can, and you will save yourself $55 minimum.



For an Intel Build swap out:
CPU: Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz $64.50
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-G41M-ES2L $64.99
RAM: G.SKILL 2GB DDR2 800 $45.99
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grand Total: $327.44 ($317.44 after rebate)


The Intel setup will be faster (the E5200 beats the Athlon X2 240, and has better OC potential); however, the AMD setup has far more room for future expansion. The AM3 socket will still be supported for another year, and it uses DDR3 memory and newer mobo architecture. Additionally, the AM3 mobo I linked has capacity for 4 sticks of ram (as opposed to only 2 stick with the Intel build). Finally, the AMD mobo has two PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots; thus, it will support Crossfire (although one slot runs at 4x, and will be bottlenecked).
 
Hows an 80+ certified PSU as a foundation for your proposed el cheapo rig sound?
vvaw.jpg

Over budget but never skimp on PSU because the thought of it taking out all your other hardware isn't a nice one!
RanaA1.jpg
 
G

Guest

Guest
I'm surprised that nobody chose an ion system. He only wants to play CSS and WoW for games, and web browsing. If my 8400gs in my laptop can handle all of that, then the 9400gs in an ion system certainly can as well.

Zotac IonITX-B-E - $86 (inc. $30 Mail-in-Rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500029&cm_re=zotac_ion-_-13-500-029-_-Product

Wintec AMPX 2GB DDR2 800 - $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161030

Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 7200RPM - $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136113

EVGA 9600 GSO 1GB - $60.00 (inc. $10.00 Mail-in-Rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130509&cm_re=9600-_-14-130-509-_-Product

Winsis Wi-02 Black w/ 200w PSU - $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811234021

Lite-On Slim DVD Burner - $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106323

That should all add up to $306.