Challenge, Can You Build a Cheaper-Better-Faster Computer?

[David M]

The people at Maximum PC magazine put together a budget gaming computer for $647 in their February 2010 edition.

I think the people at PCMech can do better.

The only rule is to build a better or faster or equivalent cheaper gaming computer for about the same price or less at Newegg prices, since this is where they priced out the hardware. No fair shopping around to the cheapest sketchy vendor.

Also, if this build is going to be junk or probably have problems, then please say why. The stated goal though is to build a really cheap gaming computer despite its imperfections. Since they did not, we are not going to figure in tax or shipping either. That varies too much anyway.

Here is their build and the prices they were quoted before publication...
CPU, AMD Athlon II X4 620, $99
Motherboard, Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2, $57
Memory, Patriot 4GB DDR2/800, $85
Video card, Sapphire Radeon HD 5770, $166
Hard drive, Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.12, $55
Optical drive, Samsung SH-S223-C, $55
Chassis, Rosewill R220, $19
Power supply, Cooler Master RS-460, $35
Operating System, Windows 7 Home Premium OEM, $105

May the best geek win.

Ref: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea...awesome_pc_647

[glc]

Try $55 for the hard drive and $26 for the optical........

I won't touch that one with a 10 foot pole. I'd spend more and build an Intel, and I'm sure you know my reasons.

[Force Flow]

$19 case? heh...I've used those kinds of cases before...they are about as sturdy as a cardboard box. In fact, I almost might prefer a cardboard box

[David M]

Originally Posted by glc Try $55 for the hard drive and $26 for the optical........ I won't touch that one with a 10 foot pole. I'd spend more and build an Intel, and I'm sure you know my reasons.

My bad. I corrected the prices. My coffee hadn't kicked in yet.

Yes, I know your good reasons exactly.

[Khalil]

That AMD Athlon X4 would do extremely well for a budget build its not as fast as an i5 from intel but is indeed a great value, I have been using them alot for budget minded folks. I don't care too much for that Rosewill case. Yes I can build that machine for about $65 less with a better case but I won't sell it for that, most of my sales are local and people need support and that costs money.