Possible to build a gaming pc for around $500 to $600?

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gundam007

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At first I was researching on laptops to find the best one for gaming, at a reasonable price.., which also led me to learn more about pc's. Not to mention coming across a lot of people saying "Build your own PC, because it's cheaper and will perform way better then a laptop at the same value or higher."

So now I really can't decide anymore.


But long story short, I'm now really intrested in building a computer. After watching the entire videos of building a computer from NewEgg and NCIX Tech Tips youtube channel, I pretty much have an idea of where everything goes. But what I'm still kind of confused about is the thermal paste, since everyone doesn't seem to agree.

This was one of the combo I was thinking of getting off newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.791295
it will come up to about $650 including shipping,and tools and dvd drive that i will need. Not including win 7 os 64 bit :sweat:


Other then that one, I tried building a couple for fun on ibuypower and cyberpower to see how much it would cost me for a pre-built one.

At the end it came up to around $888 bucks
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/PrintBox/Intel_Z68_Core_i5_i7_Configurator

Probably would be 100 bucks cheaper, but I don't have a windows 7 64 bit os so I added it in.

I also tried looking at products on best buys and micro center, but then end up costing above my price zone :??:
Since I have no idea what product is compatible to what, unless I ask, but doing that will only lead to more questions, so by just asking my question below, I will get everything I need without asking too many questions.. :wahoo:




So now my question is, Is it possible to build a gaming computer for $500 to $600 without os? Well, what I really want is a balanced computer that runs a HD 6850 card/similar or higher, so I can play games on high or ultra at 1080.


Games I'm going to be using the pc to play are Skyrim, Diablo 3, and Guild Wars 2. I just want one that can play all those at max settings. If the build costs just a bit more, feel free to post up info. I want to learn as much as possible.

Hopefully I don't scare off anyone with my wall of texts..., and thanks in advance :hello:


 
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The difference between the the h61 and the motherboard I showed http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128495 is a lot more than HDMI. First of all it's pci express 3.0 ready which is a lot more future proof than the h61 in the combo deals. It also has room for another card to crossfire which is a very nice option to have. For example you can buy another 6850 later on when the price drops and put more life into your system. You also have 4 slots for ram instead of two.

The last deal zoltan showed is ok. Problem is there there is no graphics card, no psu, and the 60gb hardrive even if it's ssd is not enough space. You need at least 120 gb for windows 7, updates and a few games. You could buy a traditional hard drive...
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zolton33

zolton33

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http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details_ss.asp?EdpNo=1241992&SRCCODE=BIZRATE&cm_mmc_o=2mHCjCmtB5ObkkzCjCVqHCjCdwwp&cpncode=27-91481323-2

Not the best but it will game well (the i5 2500k is considered king of gaming cpus at the moment) All you need with this would be the windows operating system.

As a side note you may want to replace the motherboard as well as the psu later on for maximum power in gaming and a better heat sink as well but this will give you a great cpu for gaming in the mean time (while you save up for the other upgrades)
 
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gundam007

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@zolton33

Thanks for the fast reply. It looks like a very balanced system for $630 ship. That right there pretty much hit my price range im looking for. I'm fine with spending just the extra 30 for the card I want. But then it comes with a 450 watt psu.., so I'll have to get a 600 watt one. But for NewEgg's build, they're build is a 500 watt.., but when I was building one on ibuypower, they said it requires a 600 watt psu. So I have no idea which one to buy.

But I was also wondering if I Will be able to dodge the i5 2500k and go for an i3 processor, just so I can save some extra money? Or will i3 bottle neck the video card I'm looking to get. I also heard AMD cpu's are cheaper. But I shouldn't be going cheap when i5 2500k


I'm fine with playing those 3 games I mentioned. Those will probably keep me busy for an entire year. The next year, I can upgrade the mother board and cpu if a more demanding game I really want to play comes out. I just want just the right amount of hardware to support the hd 6850 or similar card so that it won't bottle neck or anything. But I guess I'm fine with the build that was just posted, since it's even faster then a $1500+ laptop. But was just wondering how low can I go... :D since I won't do any upgrades on it until next year.


@ivan1984
Thanks, I'll have to get to you on that tommorow, since I have work in 6 hours, need to sleep :sweat: , it's 2 am already :cry:

 
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zolton33

zolton33

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ebola28

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ivan's build looks pretty good, but no HDD or ODD, unless it is in his shopping cart which doesn't work for me.

The motherboard will allow you to upgrade the processor without having to change it out. the 2500k and ivy bridge are the same 1155 chipset the motherboard uses, saves a lot of money.

The only thing i don't like is the case, but that is very subjective.

The i3 2100 still games pretty well, for your budget no need blowing a third on just the CPU. Going the i3 will not bottleneck the GPU and will be pretty balanced build.

You are correct in that AMD cpu's are cheaper, but the new fx line do not game very well at all. for gaming, most go with the phenom which is fairly dated at this point. Stick with sandy bridge.

ibuypower uses a 600 watt because they use a crap brand. no way that build needs that much power.
 
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I forgot about the hd
 
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I'll try to get a build for you with a hd.

cpu i3-2120 $120 Best gaming cpu in this price range http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077

motherboard GA-z68ma-d2h-b3 $108good budget motherboard alos can crossfire http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128495

g-sill ripjaws 8 gb 1600 $47 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

antec 620 w $70 with $20 MIR http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371031&cm_sp=Cat_Power_Supplies-_-Spotlight-_-17-371-031

His 6850 $140 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161384

Antec 300 IMO best budget gaming case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

Seagate barracuda refurbished $ 65.. jesus hardrives are expensive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148858

all total $610 for a balanced system

The issue that I have with the bundles deals is pairing an i5-2500k with a h61 motherboard(you need p67/x68 to oc), crappy psu (usually actual wattage is about half) and case(with crappy ventilation). It look like a good deal but when you upgrade motherboard psu later you will lose money. And if you have/get oem os you can install on one motherboard.
You can get an optical disk drive for $20 so $630.
 
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gundam007

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@zolton33

$570 including the card I want, a 650 psu and free shipping. Am I fine with just 4 gigs of ram? Or do I need 8 gigs? Does 1600 ram makes more of a difference than a 1333 ram?



@ivan1984

I will most likely go with your suggestion $660 which includes the magnetic tools and dvd drive with shipping, but I can't seem to come up with the question I want to ask. I kind of want a comparison between yours and zolton33 suggestions.

But just from looking at the hardware, for about $90 more dollars, i'm getting a hdmi mother board and 8 gigs of 1600 ram. Is it necessary to have those to play skyrim,diablo3, and guild wars 2 at max settings and at 1080? Since you can do vga to hdmi? Or will hdmi to hdmi give better visual quality? Or will in the long run the hdmi motherboard save me money when I want to upgrade. Or what does hdmi motherboards do? I really don't know what I'm asking anymore, since I don't know anything about mother boards or hdmi setups :sweat:


@ebola28 I actually do live close to microcenter in Minnesota, but I'm currently not in Minnesota and not for awhile... :sweat:
 
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zolton33

zolton33

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Honestly I think that the moderator is wrong. Why would intel sell boards that have allow 1600mhz memory http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121533 . Another thing is that you don't need to change the vtt voltage to run 1600 mhz ram.
Click to expand...


Did you read through the thread? An intel rep did post there.

@gundam007 most games do not use a lot of ram and you can always add a stick or 2 or upgrade your ram later. The main thing is your video card in gaming performance. Not all games even use much of your processor (this doesn't mean that having a better processor won't help it just means that your cpu and processor should not bottleneck each other and a better processor helps to keep this from happening) So most suggest deciding on your video card and a processor. The i5 2500k is king of the gaming cpus at the moment. Which is why i suggested it in the first place. The bundle is not the absolute best but you could always upgrade later (an i5 2500k is about 229.99 alone) For its price you are getting MSI H61M-P23 B3 Board,, Patriot 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR3 RAM, Seagate 500GB HDD, Optiarc 24x DVDRW, Thermaltake V2 Mid Tower, 450W PSU for about 200 bucks. Get a decent video card and upgrade to a better psu and motherboard and heatsink later for a great system (and being able to over clock after getting the new psu motherboard and heat sink fan).

Of course the i3 2100 is not a bad gaming cpu either. (not sure which bare bones you were looking at specifically to be honest) I like bare bones kits for peoples first builds as they bundle together compatible parts for a great price. Yes you can buy each individual component but that will cost you more. Buying it in a bare bones bundle and upgrading components over time allows you to have a decent pc to use while you slowly upgrade to what you really want over time. And for some that is a good option but it depends on the individual.
 
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zolton33

zolton33

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With that 1 i'd buy a decent video card as well as windows 7. If you wanted more ram you could also buy another stick as well.Like isaid though i personally like bundles like this as its cheap yet effective. Does it mean that all the parts in the deal are the best? No you generally get a few high quality mixed in with some middle to lower items.

124.99 cpu http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details_ss.asp?EdpNo=7295297&CatId=6983

84.99 ssd hard drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233188

59.99 ram http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc_ss.asp?MfrId=2508&Nav=|c:4534|&Sort=0&Recs=10

75.99 motherboard http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details_ss.asp?EdpNo=534468&CatId=7162

49.99 case http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details_ss.asp?EdpNo=7108886&CatId=1844

17.99 drive http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details_ss.asp?EdpNo=4829307&CatId=1624

Total 413.94

You save 88.95

That is everything in that bundle. Not bad for its price i think as a bundled deal.
 
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The difference between the the h61 and the motherboard I showed http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128495 is a lot more than HDMI. First of all it's pci express 3.0 ready which is a lot more future proof than the h61 in the combo deals. It also has room for another card to crossfire which is a very nice option to have. For example you can buy another 6850 later on when the price drops and put more life into your system. You also have 4 slots for ram instead of two.

The last deal zoltan showed is ok. Problem is there there is no graphics card, no psu, and the 60gb hardrive even if it's ssd is not enough space. You need at least 120 gb for windows 7, updates and a few games. You could buy a traditional hard drive and run the ssd as a boot drive but that's more money again. The i3-2120 is actually cheaper than the i3-2100 now and you have an extra 200 mhz.

With ram being as cheap as it is not bad to have 8gb although you can always get 4 gb and add on later as zoltan suggested. Sandybridge supports dual channel that's why adding two same ram will give you slight boost in performance.

Remember if you get an oem windows 7 you cant install it on another motherboard that's what makes your first motherboard choice a lot more important if your going that route. And getting a system where you have to upgrade motherboard cpu later on is a bad idea.

Good luck with your computer just please don't get that deal with the i5-2500k it's horrible.
 
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gundam007

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@zolton33

You're right. But if I were to compare your build to http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.791295 that already comes with the card I want, which totals to about $530 with shipping.

I did a short look at FX 4100 vs i3 2120 and FX 4100 is slightly faster, or is it :??:


So now I was wondering if that motherboard supports intel cpu, just so I could upgrade to an i5 2500k or higher next year. But either way I will probably have to upgrade everything next year which is fine. I just want something that will last me a year.


@ivan1984

Wow, that's very informative. I understand now. But what do you mean by windows 7 oem? So that means I can only install 1 operating system per motherboard. So if later if windows 8 is necessary, I will then need to upgrade my motherboard?


@Zolton33

Thanks I finally understand now :)
 
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zolton33

zolton33

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The i5 2500k is an intel 1155 chipset and so is the i3 the 4100 is an amd chipset made by amd so not compatible motherboard wise. If you are going to use an amd system its recommended to get a phenom x3 or better over the new fx chips.
 
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gundam007

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@ivan1984

After I google about it, I now understand about the windows 7 oem thing. All my previous owned computers and laptops all came with them so I had no idea how that works. Thanks so much and now I know what to get. I will go with your build. Now I just have to find a way to save it somewhere, so I can buy them all together.

But I have one more question.., I can upgrade later to an i5 2500k without needing to buy a new oem windows 7 or motherboard right?
 
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Yes you can, You just can't change the motherboard. Buy the time you upgrade the cpu, ivy bridge(new intelcpu ) will out and it supports pci-express 3 and will work on the motherboard that I showed you. Intel is better at gaming, it's hard to reccomend a gaming cup with the fx amd.
 
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