My $170 gaming PC

[readysetmosh]

Everyone I've asked has told me that you can't have a decent gaming PC under $600. I decided to prove them wrong (since I'm broke). So I bought a cheap HP DC5750 desktop for about $50. It came with a 2.4Ghz AMD Athlon X2 CPU, 1gig of RAM, and onboard video (with 128mb of dedicated vRAM). Since then, I have upgraded the RAM to 3gigs, the CPU to 3.0Ghz AMD Athlon X2 6000+, and the GPU to an EVGA nVidia GeForce GT 630 w/2gig vRAM. I added an old PSU fan, and an old CPU cooler for optimal temperature. That all added up to about $170. I can run pretty graphically intense games on low settings at around 20FPS, such as Battlefield 4, Saints Row: The Third, and DayZ. I can run games such as Just Cause 2 at about 30 FPS on medium high settings. All in all, I think I successfully proved them wrong. Any thoughts?

 

[jfby]

I would not call that a cutting edge gaming machine, but if you're fine with your settings and frame rates, why do you care what anyone else thinks?

 

[vrumor]

If 20 FPS is playable for you, thats all that matters. If you want my opinion, you failed at making a competent gaming PC. Its all old tech except for the 630 which out of the box is already dead in the water for gaming. But if you are ok with it, what does it matter what anyone else thinks?

 

[readysetmosh]

If 20 FPS is playable for you, thats all that matters. If you want my opinion, you failed at making a competent gaming PC. Its all old tech except for the 630 which out of the box is already dead in the water for gaming. But if you are ok with it, what does it matter what anyone else thinks?

Do you think it's the best I could've done with that amount of money?

 

[jfby]

If 20 FPS is playable for you, thats all that matters. If you want my opinion, you failed at making a competent gaming PC. Its all old tech except for the 630 which out of the box is already dead in the water for gaming. But if you are ok with it, what does it matter what anyone else thinks?

Do you think it's the best I could've done with that amount of money?

Quickly browsing eBay, I did find several computers with CPUs that are several generations newer than what you got. The trade off is a GPU that might be as powerful as your 630, but several generations behind.

 

[readysetmosh]

If 20 FPS is playable for you, thats all that matters. If you want my opinion, you failed at making a competent gaming PC. Its all old tech except for the 630 which out of the box is already dead in the water for gaming. But if you are ok with it, what does it matter what anyone else thinks?

Do you think it's the best I could've done with that amount of money?

Quickly browsing eBay, I did find several computers with CPUs that are several generations newer than what you got. The trade off is a GPU that might be as powerful as your 630, but several generations behind.

Gah... I should've done some more research :/. This isn't my final build, obviously. I just wanted a PC that I could use until I got enough $$$ for a good one. Think of this as my "junk yard PC".

 

[jfby]

I'm not judging you at all, I've been there myself, had to buy some lower end parts back in college when my "dream" computer from high school years died. I would rather have any PC than no PC, and if it works just roll with it until you can upgrade.