Under $500.00 Budget Gaming Rig - Sep 08

[gamingguru]

If I were to build a fairly awesome gaming system(not including monitor) as of today, as in RIGHT NOW, that could play Warcraft 3, WOW(Wotlk included), COD 4, PREY, Quake 4, Company of Heroes, BF 2, BF 2142, Sims 2, Titan Quest, and others, all on medium(1028x768) to high settings(1268x1028) settings, I could do so for under $500.00 dollars AND that's including TAX + shipping cost. All the parts are from Newegg.com, the BEST ONLINE COMPUTER MERCHANT. System Parts:

CPU: Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale – $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116052

Graphix Card(GPU): Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 – 99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102715

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA 73VM – $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128079

RAM: Crucial 2GB DDR2 667Mhz – $30.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146526

Computer Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5 – $39.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068

Power Supply: Logisys 480W – $14.99 + $9.67(shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817170012

Hard Drive: Excelstor 160GB – $41.99 + $8.55(Shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822210004

Optical Drive: LiteOn 20X +- R – $21.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106228

Keyboard+Mouse: Raidmax – $19.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823704001

Speakers: Logitech – $11.99 + $8.95(Shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16836121013

Total w/o shipping and tax costs: $411.90
Tax Total( based on California Tax – .0825): $33.98
Shipping Total: $27.17

Grand Total( Base Cost + Tax + Shipping): $473.05

That would be an amazing gaming system, with great OC'ing potentional, at an exceptional price. Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and other future games would be very playable with medium settings. It will provide solid gaming performance for months to come.

[GenTrapstar]

I'm getting errors when I try to view your links. I myself have learned a lot and one thing most people will tell you is to have a good PSU, MOBO, and GPU.

Here is the link to the rig that I did and was basic, but I re did a lot of parts:

Redesigned Rig

In this thread I have links to my old rig and then the pic shows some of the new things I added. The redesigned rig cost around $530. I also was on a $500 budget, but I figured I could come up with an extra 30 or 40 dollars.

I ran my rig design through a few people and finally came up with something I liked and that would run most of modern day games.

Most likely some people here will give you great advice like they gave me. Like I said they will mention PSU. MOBO, and GPU.

The CPU you see is the best low cost priced one that PCMech has provided to me. You can see some mentioned that my old rig was a good start so $500 can get you somewhere.

Good luck and I hope you can take some of the parts that's listed and use them.

Also heres a link to the power supply list. It list the good and bad power supplies to choose from:

What Power Supply should I get? How many Watts? Who made it? Guide Inside

Here is the link to my rig I plan on ordering not including the monitor:

https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/M...spx?ID=6752814

[gamingguru]

Your build is okay I'd say, but you forgot to take into account the shipping and tax costs. Not to mention I was able to get a keyboard + mouse + speakers as well. My grand total was $473.05, which I is less than your build by about $70.00. I also have everything I need for a new computer on my build except for a monitor, your build on the other hand still needs some parts for a complete system. Also the link you posted on your current build did not load the page for me, can you repost the items again? Thnkx.

[GenTrapstar]

Originally Posted by gamingguru Your build is okay I'd say, but you forgot to take into account the shipping and tax costs. Not to mention I was able to get a keyboard + mouse + speakers as well. My grand total was $473.05, which I is less than your build by about $70.00. I also have everything I need for a new computer on my build except for a monitor, your build on the other hand still needs some parts for a complete system. Also the link you posted on your current build did not load the page for me, can you repost the items again? Thnkx.

I do have everything for a complete build except for speakers, mouse, and keyboard. What would say that I am missing. Also tax and shipping is included. Most of my parts have free shipping.

Link should work since I have it on share. Anyways here's my complete system:

Case

MOBO

GPU

PSU

CPU

RAM

HDD

Optical Drive

Also on my list is my monitor and NIC card that I will be getting.

Other than monitor and NIC my system is complete.

[gamingguru]

Nice build, except another problem, it goes well beyond the $500.00 budget. It totals to about $594 or so. And for the psu, this is better and cheaper:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182044

[Alaron]

A Logisys power supply is a junker. There is no such thing as a quality 480w PSU for $15. You would be wise to spend a bit more on the PSU, it is never the place to cut corners.

Antec Basiq units are higher quality then anything from Rosewill. The 12V rails are stronger and it is $5 less then that Stallion.

The rest of your build looks fine. You might check out the Geforce 9600GT cards. They are the same price and perform very well.

[GenTrapstar]

Originally Posted by gamingguru Nice build, except another problem, it goes well beyond the $500.00 budget. It totals to about $594 or so. And for the psu, this is better and cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182044

Well according to the site here Rosewill is a PSU that you would want to stay away from according to this link:

What Power Supply should I get? How many Watts? Who made it? Guide Inside

Also Antec is said to be a great PSU.

Yes my original budget was $500, but I figured I could squeeze a few more bucks and get some better components.

Originally Posted by Alaron A Logisys power supply is a junker. There is no such thing as a quality 480w PSU for $15. You would be wise to spend a bit more on the PSU, it is never the place to cut corners. Antec Basiq units are higher quality then anything from Rosewill. The 12V rails are stronger and it is $5 less then that Stallion.

Yea I wouldn't entrust a custom built PC on a $15 PSU. It could short your MOBO out and that will be $400-500 down the drain unless some parts are salvageable.

Plus that Rosewill PSU is 49.99 while the Antec is 39.99 and the Antec is way better. No bad reviews on the Antec yet, while the Rosewill has almost 30 poor/very poor reviews.

Like Alaron said don't cut corners on a PSU I'm taking that advice from many people here on the site.

[gamingguru]

True, after reading the reviews that antec PSU is better. But it ends up being $54.17, $6 more than the one I listed. I guess I'll keep that antec PSU in mind for now.