Economy Gaming SFF

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phalnax

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 21, 2005
Messages
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Hey guys,laptop is dying so the time to build an SFF with the ability to play modern games. Not looking for max settings or anything close just moderate performance.The clincher is that I just had a son so want to keep my spending on myself to a minimum. I'm willing to use ebay, craigslist and whatever else you guys suggest to build a gaming sff.

my budget: AS LOW AS POSSIBLE.

I don't care about aesthetics or anything else, just live in a small apartment in Chicago so need something to conserve space.

Games I may be playing on it : Star Wars: The Old Republic, heart of the swarn,diablo 3


THANK YOU!

EDIT : filled out questions!

1. What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming, Internet Browsing

2. What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included in this budget? Is your budget flexible? Is cost a driving factor in component selection? AS LOW AS POSSIBLE

3. Where do you live? Do you have any big B&M (brick and mortar) computer chains nearby (e.g. Microcenter, Fry's, etc)? Tiger Direct and Microcenter near me.

4. What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, GPU, mobo ( with wifi ) ,powersupply
 
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OK, you said you want "as low as possible"? You got it!

CPU + GPU: AMD A4-3300 Llano 2.5GHz dual-core + AMD Radeon HD 6410D $65
RAM: Crucial 2GB DDR3 1333 $9
Motherboard: ASRock A55M-HVS FM1 Micro ATX $59
Wi-Fi: Rosewill 802.11b/g/n USB2.0 dongle $10
Case + PSU: Apex TX-373 Micro ATX + 300W PSU $35
Hard drive: assume you're using your own?
Operating system: assume you're using your own?

Total: $178 plus shipping

Buy from somewhere other than Newegg if you like, this is just a ball-park figure. I chose parts which were cheap, but which had good reviews (4- or 5-stars).

This rig should play the games listed, at low-to-moderate settings. But it's really cheap! Personally I'd sink another $100 into it and get a better CPU and GPU to start. But then, this build is (modestly) upgradable in the future.
 
I'm not sure a person could top what Calroth posted in terms of cheapest possible. A few variants on his post would make it more robust (though not stellar) for gaming but increase the cost.

CPU+GPU: AMD A8-3850 Llano 2.9GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core $130 with $10 off code (adds $65 to your total bill)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103942
That would give you a quad core version of llano and their most robust integrated GPU. It's still not going to be a rocket launcher but I would think that would be better suited for general medium gaming. When you look at customer comments at Newegg, that's what most people seem to be doing with this chip (and the slightly faster 3.0 GHz version).

I would also highly suggest bumping that memory up to 4GB. Many games these days work best if you have at least 2GB for them to play around in and the integrated graphics needs some memory as well. My suggestion?
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $30 (adds $21 to total bill)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231427
I believe the llano reviews have shown that the integrated graphics do benefit from having faster memory (e.g. 1600 over 1333) but 1600 is generally still in the affordable range while faster speeds tend to ramp up the cost.
 
phalnax said:
2. What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included in this budget? Is your budget flexible? Is cost a driving factor in component selection? AS LOW AS POSSIBLE

3. Where do you live? Do you have any big B&M (brick and mortar) computer chains nearby (e.g. Microcenter, Fry's, etc)? Tiger Direct and Microcenter near me.

4. What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, GPU, mobo ( with wifi ) ,powersupply
Click to expand...

Micro Center AMD bundles
$88 gets you a Phenom II x2 560 Black Edition with a cheap mATX motherboard. Two boards are available at that price, I would suggest the Gigabyte board (with $10 rebate) as it has the more robust VRMs.

While you are at Micro Center, pick up the $19 4GB DDR3 RAM kit (house brand) and a Powerspec TX-606 mATX case for $25. It actually has pretty decent ventilation and comes with a 92mm exhaust fan and spot for 120mm intake fan (not included). The front panel is mesh, which allows for a lot of airflow. If you end up using a graphics card that does not require a 6-pin PCIe power plug, then you can pay $18 more to get this case with a 300W PSU. That PSU is not very good, but you can probably expect around 200W out of it - just fine for the CPU + low end graphics card. Otherwise, get the cheaper case w/o PSU and get a PSU separately.

Buy a cheap USB WiFi dongle. Micro Center has a USB N-150 dongle for $10. Also, if you need an optical drive they have them for $18. HDDs are expensive right now, so cut corners by buying a refurbished/recertified drive from Micro Center. They do come with warranties, albeit short ones. HDDs usually die right away if they're going to, so should be okay.

CPU+mobo $88
RAM $19
case + PSU $43
WiFi $10
optical drive $18
250GB SATA refurb $40
cheap video card $38-57 after rebate from Micro Center, Gigabyte Radeon 6570 480 cores or Zotac GeForce 430 96 CUDA cores
 
How much exactly are you looking to spend?

I have a load of SFF parts I'm selling that will make a 95% complete system (lacking a PSU and HDD/Optical Drive). I may actually have an older PSU laying around that I can throw in for free that should do the trick.
 
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