Decent build for 300$?

[Scholar]

Back in August you guys helped me think up a build I thought i would have by now(1000$ AMD gaming build)...but after blowing all of my money on my dream car(which Im enjoying more than I could any pc) I realize its going to be a while before i can build my powerhouse. Right now im using an 8 year old 700mhz Celeron HP Pavilon ...one small step up from an abacus. What can I expect for about 300$...at that price point would it be ok for me to get one of the cheap 120$ prebuilts(1.3 ghz) on Ebay?...or would I be better off shopping on Newegg? All im looking for is a computer that can burn cds, has atleast a 20 gig harddrive, and can play old games like Warcraft 3 and Civ 3 without freezing up. Any advice on which route would be better to take? If the jump from a 140$ budget and a 300$ budget isnt that big, Im more than willing to save money. Thanks.

By the way, I have my own monitor...and would prefer something that doesnt have integrated sound and video although at my price point....I dont really think it matters.

[Scholar]

This brings forth another question... what is that magic price point where you get a LOT of computer for your money?500$ or so?

[Spriggan_one]

You can seriously get a good dell that will do all that and more with an 80gb HD for 400-600$, as to where to get it? thats beyond me, check out dell's options on their homesite though, could help. What car did you get? I'm in that same predicament My dad B****** about every car I'd like to get, so I said "Bleep" it I'm gonna make a PC. Little does he know I'm still going to get a muscle car somehow, and my dream car has yet to be found in the US.

[yeoamuca]

definently the more high end your computer the more money you save by building it yourself
i would say the point at which you start saving more money is around 450-500 dollars
i recently built a computer for my parents for 450 that included an amd athlon 3500+ a gig of ram a 120 gig hd and two optical drives all main brand stuff and there is no way that a dell for 450 dollars would give you that
(probably get a celeron)
but for 300 dollars its about impossible to build a computer yourself without sacrificing quality
at least with dell if it breaks within a week they will replace it
if you build your own for 300 and sacrifice quality you might end up eating the savings by replacing things
for 300 dollars its hard to say to not go for dell

[Al Pollock]

One thing you are forgetting in that $500 to $600 dell is tax and shipping. It will almost certainly have an onboard video chip and sharred memory . You can build a "good " system with shipping for about $500.....no brainer

[glc]

A $299 Dell (B110) will almost do what you need, but it will have onboard everything and only legacy PCI slots. It has only 256mb ram and no burner, just a CD reader. Bringing it up to 512mb and upgrading to a CD burner will add $70, and I'm guessing shipping will be another $99 - and there's sales tax. It does come with a 17 inch CRT, subtract $50 for no monitor.

A $300 build is not realistic unless you can recycle a lot of old parts and take a chance on substandard brand components.

The cheapest Dell that has a real video card slot is a E510 (the E310 doesn't), and it starts around $700. There's a huge area between this and the B110 where you can build your own.

[jayb1234]

One thing to consider is that a name brand system will come with an Operating System, and some other software (Usually limited or trial editions, but functional). $300 - $80 to $100 for a copy of windows knocks your budget down to $200-$220, which won't go very far.

[Louds3]

check out Delloutlet.com they have some nice deals most of the time they were returned computers or computers that were configured incorrectly so dell just sells em as is instead of stripping them back down and rebuilding to that customers specs.