400$ pc

Is that it?

I mean, it can be done, but you'd either need to cut a lot of corners or raise your budget.
 
I would suggest a $400 Dell then adding a 3850 and an extra stick of ram but that would push you up to around $600. But that $600 would give you a fairly acceptable gaming rig. If you want to play at console graphics levels/frame rates $400 could do it. If you are willing to hit FS:FT or hit the pawnshops and buy used. It's usually cheaper and easier to bring a 1-2 year old pc up to fairly good gaming levels with $250 or so than it is to build from nothing with only $400.
 
Ok, OP, please help us help you by answering the following questions:
- What parts do you need for that budget? Hard drive? RAM? PSU? CPU? etc. Please be as specific as possible. Do NOT say just the tower/PC as the tower can comprise of many different parts that you may or may not need.
- Will you be overclocking?

Though so far,HardwareGuru's list is pretty good for a start.
 
$66 - Antec NSK4480 with EarthWatts 380W PSU
$60 - AMD X2 4000+ AM2 (free shipping)
$49 - BIOSTAR NF520-A2
$40 - Patriot 2GB DDR2 800 (single stick)
$23 - Lite-On DH-20A4P-04 IDE DVD burner (free shipping)
$50 - WD Caviar SE 160GB SATA HDD
$90 - XFX 8600GT 256MB ($20 mail-in rebate)
=========
$378 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

I'm going to tell you right now -- shipping will push this total over $400. And even though you can play games with the 8600GT, the in-game visual settings may not be to your liking.

Again, either raise your budget or consider getting some of your parts used. You're not going to get a good gaming experience for $400, especially when the video card takes up almost 25% of your budget.
 
$70-ANTEC New Solution Series NSK4480 Mid Tower Case w/ 380w PSU
$82-GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L rev. 2.0
$90-$20MIR-GeForce 8600GT 256MB
$30-Samsung Optical Drive
$46-$10MIR- A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) @ 800MHz
$80-Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB
$72-e2160
= $470 not including ship and tax. MIR are not deducted yet either.

*add this $27 ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7, and you'll be able to overclock the processor to about 3ghz easily

edit: go with HardwareGuru's idea of getting the $20 case and earthwatts 380w psu separately to save money. if two dollars is worth the .2ghz difference then drop to the e2140. getting a 160gb harddrive would also shed off about $30.
 
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