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Gaming PC under $500?

P

powersurge

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 1, 2005
Messages
311
So my friend is needing a new gaming PC but he doesn't have much in the way of cash and is asking me for advice. He first had me looking at some $400 dell desktops at bestbuy's site (he's got a couple of BB gift cards to go with some cash) a long with some sub-$600 laptops (He's kind of torn I think he'd prefer a laptop but in this budget I don't see how and still get good performance).

I'm trying to convince him into going with a custom built box (more bang for the buck) and we have a pretty decent mom and pop type shop locally that doesn't mark up and charge too much for builds (a couple of years ago they built me a tower and it only cost me about $50-75 more vs newegg and it came with a 1 year warranty). So I'm asking you guys for advice on a list I came up with based on newegg prices but keep in mind cheaper is better. He's a WoW addict, F2P mmo's (Age of Conan), and RPG's like Dragon Age are the target games.

LOGISYS CS301BK Mid tower with 480w PSU $30
GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 $90
AMD Phenom II X4 925 (quad core) $85
4gb DDR3 ram $30
Radeon HD 6770 1GB $110
WEstern Digital WD3200AAKX 320gb 7200rpm Hard Drive $60
DVD Burner $20
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM $100

Total: $525

I'm normally not a big fan of AMD/ATI stuff but in this budget it seems you get more performance for your buck. Any advice on bringing the price down and tweaking the list would be awesome. I know its probably a little iffy going with a cheap case/psu combo but I thought it might be a spot where we could shave some $$ off.
 
You can use this ebay configurator, I think it will help you.
 
powersurge said:
So my friend is needing a new gaming PC but he doesn't have much in the way of cash and is asking me for advice. He first had me looking at some $400 dell desktops at bestbuy's site (he's got a couple of BB gift cards to go with some cash) a long with some sub-$600 laptops (He's kind of torn I think he'd prefer a laptop but in this budget I don't see how and still get good performance).

I'm trying to convince him into going with a custom built box (more bang for the buck) and we have a pretty decent mom and pop type shop locally that doesn't mark up and charge too much for builds (a couple of years ago they built me a tower and it only cost me about $50-75 more vs newegg and it came with a 1 year warranty). So I'm asking you guys for advice on a list I came up with based on newegg prices but keep in mind cheaper is better. He's a WoW addict, F2P mmo's (Age of Conan), and RPG's like Dragon Age are the target games.

LOGISYS CS301BK Mid tower with 480w PSU $30
GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 $90
AMD Phenom II X4 925 (quad core) $85
4gb DDR3 ram $30
Radeon HD 6770 1GB $110
WEstern Digital WD3200AAKX 320gb 7200rpm Hard Drive $60
DVD Burner $20
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM $100

Total: $525

I'm normally not a big fan of AMD/ATI stuff but in this budget it seems you get more performance for your buck. Any advice on bringing the price down and tweaking the list would be awesome. I know its probably a little iffy going with a cheap case/psu combo but I thought it might be a spot where we could shave some $$ off.
Click to expand...

That setup is not good at all. The biggest failing is the case/PSU combo: As sram noted, the PSU cannot handle even half of its labeled 480W. And it can (and will) blow up under even half the load of that proposed build! And when that PSU blows up, it will take out the entire system, and all that damage will not be covered at all under anybody's warranty!

Even minimally acceptable case/PSU combos do not cost anywhere near $30 total - but actually cost far more than that ($100 at a minimum). That's because the cheapest minimally acceptable PSU by itself costs $40 to $50 while the cheapest worthwhile case costs $50 to $60 by itself. That leaves you with no more than about $400 for the rest of the build.
 
I fully understand there would be no room for upgrade (extras of any sort) with that PSU but I thought it would still handle the load of the above build. You guys are probably right though its not really something to cut a corner on.
 
CPU wise, you're actually better off with an Intel since the Intel Pentium G620 CPU outperforms the Phenom II 925 in video games. That'll save you $15:
$70 - Intel Pentium G620

Motherboard wise, This is the cheapest 4 DIMM slot Intel LGA 1155 mobo that I can recommend:
$80 - Biostar TH67B Intel H67 mATX Motherboard

As for the case + PSU, I recommend the following case + PSU setup:
$47 - Corsair 430CX V2 430W PSU
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case
----
Total: $97 shipped

Only get a cheap-ass case + PSU combo if you truly hate your friend. Thats the only good reason to get such a cheap case + PSU combo.

As for the RAM, make sure that RAM is rated at 1.5V or lower. If any higer, you risk damage to an Intel CPU. In addition $30 for 4GB of RAM is a total ripoff considering that 8GB of RAM can be had for $36 these days. So make sure the RAM cost no more than than $18. If any higher, and you're getting ripped off. Something like this RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220480
 
powersurge said:
I fully understand there would be no room for upgrade (extras of any sort) with that PSU but I thought it would still handle the load of the above build. You guys are probably right though its not really something to cut a corner on.
Click to expand...

You should be worried: A further investigation into that case/PSU combo reveals that the case would not have been able to provide adequate cooling (airflow) for anything even remotely modern. The front panel has no provision at all whatsoever for a case fan, while the rear can only handle the 80mm fan that's stock on that case. The side panel has a provision for a fan that's no larger than 80mm. All that will result in a modern system running significantly hotter on the inside than it needs to.

The PSU that's inside that case is the typical super-shitty Deer-manufactured PSU that explodes when one tries to push even half of its labeled wattage (in this case, the PSU can - and does - explode even with a load of only 240W). And that's not to mention that that PSU is extremely inefficient at its maximum usable wattage (it will draw more than 300W from the wall only to deliver its 200W maximum usable wattage).
 
A laptop isn't out of the question, a Llano platform is around that price range and can run the games you listed pretty well. However, now is probably the worst time to be buying anything like Llano - in a few months it's all going to be replaced. Ivy Bridge, Trinity, the new Brazos refresh, etc... it's all coming to town and it should be a pretty nice upgrade. Your friend may be interested in holding out for those - especially Trinity - which will be sold within his price point and should offer very good performance (and by that time, your friend may have an extra 100-200 bucks to throw at it as well). Ivy Bridge based ultrabooks are also supposed to have pretty decent video performance. If you want what's best for your friend and you know he really would like a laptop, then this is definitely what he should do. Don't coax him into a desktop unless he absolutely does not want to wait a few months. Sure it may be fun for you to build it or whatever but it's not really in his best interests if a laptop is what he truly wants. Good things come to those who wait.

Not to mention he will be able to make use of those gift cards if he waits for a Trinity laptop or something similar.
 
I thought those Llano based laptops had Radeon HD 6620G and they aren't dedicated (and the cheapest one I saw was $700 and the cpu was only 1.6ghz). I just want him to end up with the best performing machine he can for not a lot of $$ and not be back in the position he's in right now which is a laptop that can barely run WoW on low settings. He's always asking me for advice on free to play MMO's and rpg's like dragon age but his current laptop won't run them at all.
 
Well, his current laptop is not a Llano, that's probably why, because unless he had some kind of $1500 gaming laptop, no laptops in the past had any kind of graphical power, especially at the price point of Llano. You're thinking of the Brazos E series with the 6320/6350 graphics. While pretty nice little "APUs," they aren't Llano. Current Llanos have 6410 to 6550 GPUs in them. The midrange A6 Llano can run pretty much anything including BF3 around medium settings at 720p smoothly. The Piledriver-based successor (Trinity) is expected to be quite a bit faster, "The standard voltage notebook Trinity APU will offer a 25% increase in CPU performance and a 50% increase in GPU performance over the A-series Llano APUs available today." (http://www.anandtech.com/show/5411/amds-trinity-apu-at-ces-shipping-in-mid2012)

Llanos range from 500-700$ depending on manufacturer, APU, etc., and Trinity is going to hit the same price point. If your friend values the mobility of a notebook with decent gaming capability on a budget the most, there is no other option than Trinity (Ivy Bridge ultrabooks are reportedly going to be hitting 1k+). If not, then get the desktop.
 
I agree with that Danny said...

bodan said:
Well, his current laptop is not a Llano, that's probably why, because unless he had some kind of $1500 gaming laptop, no laptops in the past had any kind of graphical power, especially at the price point of Llano. You're thinking of the Brazos E series with the 6320/6350 graphics. While pretty nice little "APUs," they aren't Llano. Current Llanos have 6410 to 6550 GPUs in them. The midrange A6 Llano can run pretty much anything including BF3 around medium settings at 720p smoothly. The Piledriver-based successor (Trinity) is expected to be quite a bit faster, "The standard voltage notebook Trinity APU will offer a 25% increase in CPU performance and a 50% increase in GPU performance over the A-series Llano APUs available today." (http://www.anandtech.com/show/5411/amds-trinity-apu-at-ces-shipping-in-mid2012)

Llanos range from 500-700$ depending on manufacturer, APU, etc., and Trinity is going to hit the same price point. If your friend values the mobility of a notebook with decent gaming capability on a budget the most, there is no other option than Trinity (Ivy Bridge ultrabooks are reportedly going to be hitting 1k+). If not, then get the desktop.
Click to expand...

Well just to add to the laptop history, I have to disagree. I paid ~$1000 for my Dell i9300 back in 2005... It came with a shitty x300 ATi video card with something like 64MB of VRAM which was crappy. Paid ~$400 for an 7800 GTX video card from Dell and transplanted it, then another ~$30 for a better power brick and I had a very capable gaming laptop back in 2006. (Also paid $40 for a 1.8Ghz CPU that I pinmodded to 2.4GHz)

Had lots of memories playing BF2 with that rig back in the day. :(
 
Skillz said:
I agree with that Danny said...



Well just to add to the laptop history, I have to disagree. I paid ~$1000 for my Dell i9300 back in 2005... It came with a shitty x300 ATi video card with something like 64MB of VRAM which was crappy. Paid ~$400 for an 7800 GTX video card from Dell and transplanted it, then another ~$30 for a better power brick and I had a very capable gaming laptop back in 2006. (Also paid $40 for a 1.8Ghz CPU that I pinmodded to 2.4GHz)

Had lots of memories playing BF2 with that rig back in the day. :(
Click to expand...

Yeah and that's about 1500, which is about the median price for a gaming laptop, as I stated before. Before Llano there was essentially no gaming to be done around the $500 mark - perhaps ION, but not really.
 
bodan said:
Yeah and that's about 1500, which is about the median price for a gaming laptop, as I stated before. Before Llano there was essentially no gaming to be done around the $500 mark - perhaps ION, but not really.
Click to expand...

This was nearly 6 years ago as well, back when an entry level laptop was still nearly a grand. You can get good laptops for under $400 these days. :D
 
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