Low(er) Budget Gaming PC

[Detnom]

Hi guys. Stumbled upon pcmech while looking for a guide to building a PC, since I've never done it before. I'm familiar with PCs in general, but not all the things that must be considered when building one. Been thinking about doing it for awhile, and getting closer to wanting to make it a reality. I spent quite a few hours over the last day or two checking out different hardware that's available, and it's overwhelming, to say the least. Figured I'd post here and see if I could get some help.

I'm not really sure what my budget will be, to be honest, as I'm planning on saving up some money over the next few months, perhaps nabbing pieces here and there as they go on sale, etc. It's tough to gauge a dollar amount, since I live on a very fixed budget, and things can go awry, naturally. What I do know is I need something better for gaming, as my cheap laptop just isn't working as well for me as I'd like it to.

I've picked some pieces out while browsing Newegg, hopefully I can get some suggestions on quality, perhaps some similarly priced variants. I'm not looking for anything spectacular, definitely not all the newest stuff, just enough to play MMOs (Aion, etc) some FPSs (TF2, HL2, possibly BC2, etc) as well as Diablo 3 when it comes out, with at least decent FPS and graphic quality (higher the better, haha, but money's always an issue). Tired of running everything on lowest and barely scraping by. Anyway, enough rambling, here's the pieces that I'm considering, and don't mind the format, just how I have it in a notepad file.

* Hard Drive = $65
* Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal HD
* CD-ROM Drive = $20
* * LG DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS50 - OEM
* Processor = $70
* Intel Pentium Dual-Core 2.7GHz
* Video Card = $70
* BFG Tech GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

Haven't really looked at motherboards, as they just confuse the heck out of me, as far as RAM I'm thinking somewhere between 2gb-4gb, price depending. Cases are something I'm unsure about, as I have an older PC that I was considering scrapping out and re-using the case, however the PSU is only 350W, so I'd likely need to get a better one, right? I've already got the OS covered, and a keyboard, mouse and old monitor I can use until I can shell out for better ones.

Please let me know if there's anything I'm over looking, and thanks in advance for any help I get! I definitely need it, haha.

[Nikon]

I understand you are on a tight budget, and we can work with that =D

aftrer a little research, i think this board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128414

would do you best. it will be compatable with that CPU, has decent speeds on memory, and for the price, it just seems like a good deal. lots of sata for HDs etc. a PCI express and a couple older PCI slots.

now about that videocard. its 2 generations out dated. Im not saying that is a bad thing, but you might want to look for something a little... newer, especially if you want to play games like D3 and other brand new titles. in any gaming machine, video is the single most important thing. period.

i reccomend a 260 GTX if you can afford it.

ram is mobo dependant, so you cant choose it untill you have chosen a mobo, with the gigabyte one i would go with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820134810

no need for over expencive super-ram lol, kingston valueram is excellent, i use it myself. guaranteed to work, because kingston does mem tests before shipping. pretty much same price all around though, if you want something a little more flashy, go with corsair or a-data, or anyone GLC reccomends. he is the resident ram guru.

any antec/corsair 500w PSU would be enough for this rig. no need for more.

[David M]

We have done a number of inexpensive gaming machines lately and many of them are very similar. Currently the experts (glc and Khalil) seem to be agreeing that the best bang for the buck, yet reliable computer is along these lines....

ASUS P7P55D-E Deluxe LGA 1156 Intel P55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20intel%201156
Asus has been making very reliable boards. There are a number of P7 boards with the 1156 socket and the P55 chipset. It depends on which features you like and what price you want to pay.

An Intel i-5 650 processor. Or if you want multi-threading the more expensive i-7 860.

4 gigs of DDR3 dual channel RAM from Kingston Technology, Crucial Technology, Corsair, GSkill or ADATA

The case is pretty much a personal preference depending on which style you like. You can get a very good steel case for under $100.

Either an Antec, Corsair or Seasonic power supply in the 500 to 600 watt range or the same thing in the 600 to 700 watt range for the high end, high wattage graphics cards.

A 5830 or 5850 graphics card I think would fit right in with your budget. They are right in a price/performance sweet spot plus they have more refined drivers and more graphics processing power for the dollar compared to the 260 or 280. Diamond, HIS and EVGA make good cards. Diamonds customer service seems to be best.

Hopefully this will provide a good starting point for choosing parts.

Go ahead and post what you come up with and we will try to refine your parts list.

[glc]

David, I think you are well out of the inexpensive range with those recommendations.

I HIGHLY recommend that you save the money up FIRST and do NOT buy parts piecemeal. When you have a budget figure AND the money available, please come back for current recommendations.

[David M]

I agree. Lets wait and then see how much he is willing to spend.

[Detnom]

I had a feeling I was probably jumping the gun a bit by trying to plan things out without having a set budget, but I really appreciate the suggestions guys. I'll definitely take your advice, glc, and wait on buying parts until I'm all saved up.

I'll swing by and ask again once I've got a better idea just how much I'll be spending. Thanks again!

[orbrit]

Many folks have gotten great bang for buck from AMD builds.

here's a typical "budget" build
Case: Antec Three Hundred $54.95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129042

Power supply: Antec Basiq BP 500U $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371004

Combo deal on the case and PSU saves $20

Motherboard:
Asus M4A77TD $84.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131603

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 Rana 2.9 Ghz Triple Core $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103724

Memory: A Data 2 x 2Gb 1333 MHz $97.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211364

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250Gb SATA 3.0 7200rpm 16 Mb cache $47.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136161

Optical: Asus Black 24X DVD Burner $22.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135204

this puts you at about $415 without the video card, OS, monitor or keyboard.
Obviously the video card can run anywhere from $130 to $480 depending on performance.

The HD 5770 seems to be the sweet spot for bang for buck at about $160.

A Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OEM OS is about $100.