$300 for a Cheap Gaming Build

[Aaron11]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Some gaming and maybe some mild video encoding. (of course web browsing too)
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$300, and yes please include shipping AND tax.
3) Where do you live?
Fresno, CA (so yeah Newegg charges me tax)
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU, RAM. mobo, psu, hard drive
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Antec Three Hundred case, 23" Acer monitor, MSI ATI 4670 1GB, Lite-On DVD burner
6) Will you be overclocking?
Most likely, so an aftermarket cooler is preferred.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Acer 23" @ 1920x1080
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Maybe 6 months (this is more for informational purposes because I just want to see what I could get right now for this budget since I know prices will probably go down in six months)
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
RAID 0, Crossfire (if the budget allows), I don't really care if it's DDR3 or not, but that is preferred.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Yeah, Windows 7 64bit


So any help is appreciated. Like I said earlier, this is more just to see what I could get now for my budget.

 

[jeremyshaw]

Hello, again

If you have a rough idea of what you want, [H] FS/FT can help you avoid much of the shipping and tax.

 

[Aaron11]

Hello, again

If you have a rough idea of what you want, [H] FS/FT can help you avoid much of the shipping and tax.

Yeah, thanks for the info. But like I said, this is more for informational purposes. Anyone else?

 

[Dangman]

[/COLOR]8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Maybe 6 months (this is more for informational purposes because I just want to see what I could get right now for this budget since I know prices will probably go down in six months)

Not necessarily. In 6 months time, most of the parts recommended today will be out of stock or replaced by a better performing version.

Quick build:
$60 - AMD Athlon X2 240 CPU
$70 - Biostar TA785G3 AM3 AMD 785G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
$40 - 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$50 - Corsair 400CX 400W PSU
$55 - Seagate 7200.12 500GB drive
----
Total: $275 plus tax and shipping

Buy as many of those parts as possible from Amazon.com since that site does not charge CA residents tax. In addition, they usually have free shipping.

More than likely, whatever setup you get in 6 months time will be completely different from the above setup.

EDIT: If you were buying today, I would recommend this CPU/mobo combo instead:
$145 - AMD Phenom Ii X2 550 CPU + Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 motherboard combo

 

[tiraides]

That's cutting things very close. For future upgrades, you'll need to spend the most on a board that would allow future upgrades, like either the Asus M4A78 Plus (DDR2) or the Asus M4A785TD-V EVO (DDR3). The problem is, however, that the rest of the parts will have to be low budget "holdovers" while you acquire the money for better parts.

Right now, Amazon is the only place that I know of that doesn't charge CA residents tax, but its selection isn't as robust as NewEgg's.

I personally feel like $300 is too low of an amount for a decent gaming build. $500 would be a better base for a decent gaming rig. As an aside, it would be more practical for you to sell your HD4670 rather than try and find another one to use in a CrossFire setup.

 

[Yonzie]

At this price level, prices don't really drop, you just get more for your money as time goes on.

 

[engiNURD]

Danny's build is good, but you're building 6mo from now...

At this price level, prices don't really drop, you just get more for your money as time goes on.

indeed. For example, Intel simply pushes CPUs down the priceline: the E2200 used to be $72, but now the low end is the E5400, which is still $72 -- faster CPU for the same amount of money, a year or so later.

 

[Aaron11]

I personally feel like $300 is too low of an amount for a decent gaming build. $500 would be a better base for a decent gaming rig. As an aside, it would be more practical for you to sell your HD4670 rather than try and find another one to use in a CrossFire setup.

Thanks for the advice. I could probably come up with $400 especially if I were to sell the 4670. Besides, I've looked at benchmarks for two 4670s in crossfire and they had about the same performance as a single 4850, so I'd probably just buy a better card.

For example, Intel simply pushes CPUs down the priceline: the E2200 used to be $72, but now the low end is the E5400, which is still $72 -- faster CPU for the same amount of money, a year or so later.

That's kind of what I'm hoping for!

Btw, I noticed some PSUs, specifically this ocz model, seem to have a low wattage, despite being able to support crossfire. What's the point of that? Don't most cards in crossfire/sli require more than 550watt. Well, I guess cards seem to be getting more energy efficient (case in point, the 5770), but at today's standards that doesn't really make much sense.