Help with building a cheap gaming rig for a friend who can't afford one..

M

momosake

Weaksauce
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Mar 9, 2011
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Hiya :)

So... My friend hasn't had the money to buy or build a new computer since like... 2001.. No joke. His computer has bit the dust on more than one occasion, but the local repair places that he takes them to manage to hobble together ancient parts & make the franken-puter live again. lol

I feel so bad that he has to keep spending $100 here and $150 there every few months when the computer decides to kick the bucket again.. When I know that he could just save that money to buy a new computer... But the fact is that he won't... He'd rather just complain about his old one & spend money on repairs.. Why? I have no idea, but that's just how he is.

Being the nice friend that I am.. I'd like to put together a very inexpensive gaming rig for him. It doesn't have to be fancy, nor would I expect it to be.. But my god... I would at least like it to be something to catch him up with this decade. :D

Any ideas for a cheap rig? I'll need everything.. Everything meaning... Case/PSU/MoBo/PSU/Keyboard/Mouse/Video Card, etc.. I won't be getting an OS or a Monitor, but just the tower & all components within the tower itself. He has an OS & a monitor & if he wants an upgrade he can buy those himself.

Or heck, if you can recommend a pre-built tower that'd work, I can go that route. I don't really care. I just want something cheap that'll be good for playing most games at low/medium. The fact of the matter is that anything would be an improvement over what he has now. *shudders at the thought of the franken-puter*
 
I recently posted a similar question to these forums...

ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS AMD 760G AM3+ Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X6 1045T 2.70GHz AM3 Processor
Kingston HyperX Red 4GB Memory Module
Thermaltake V2 ATX Mid Tower Case
450W PSU Bundle

$200

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=7750562&sku=B69-0989

Maybe look into this? He would still need a gpu, but the onboard would help him surf up deals in the meantime....

I am waiting for feedback on those parts from our local gurus, wondering if I should upgrade to this from my current Q9550.
 
If you live in the US and if your friend don't play any games, than the dell outlet would be your best bet.
 
That TD setup isn't good due to the crappy case and PSU and requires you to deal with a rebate.

Now some questions:
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
11) What's the specs of his current PC?
 
Excalibur55 said:
If you live in the US and if your friend don't play any games, than the dell outlet would be your best bet.
Click to expand...

Hi.. While I appreciate the response to the thread... I just have to ask--- Did you even read the thread title or any part of this thread? lol

I do live in the US and my friend DOES play games... In fact, the whole concept of the thread is to build a cheap GAMING rig. Thank you for the input, though.. I am not trying to sound mean or sassy or anything.. Just curious why you even mentioned that, considering the very thread title itself.



Danny Bui said:
That TD setup isn't good due to the crappy case and PSU and requires you to deal with a rebate.

Now some questions:
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
11) What's the specs of his current PC?
Click to expand...

I live in the USA, in Oklahoma, as stated on my profile. No Microcenters here.

I already said I'm not buying a monitor for him. I don't know what size of monitor he has. If he wants to upgrade it, that's his own business, I am just wanting to give him a tower, so he can play games.

I already answered the OS thing as well. He has one, yes. I'm not buying one for him. If he doesn't want to use his, I'll download & send a copy of Ubuntu for him, until he can afford to buy his own copy of one. His is without question a 32 bit.. Probably Windows XP.

His current PC?... It's from 2001.. Does it really matter? Nothing on it is salvageable & I won't work with his case. It's too small & has had mouse feces in it.. He took it to one local repair shop & they refused to work on it, because of that. He's a hoarder type & I have never seen the inside of his house & I've known him since 2007. I don't even know what street he lives on. lol I've just heard stories from mutual friends & he's mentioned on various occasions that he has a bad mouse problem.. So I'm not risking it.. I'm just doing this for him out of the kindness of my heart. All I know about his computer is that it's a P4. I think he may have 1.5 gigs ram. He couldn't even tell you all the specs of his computer. He's had it so long he doesn't remember.

EDIT: A mutual friend of ours' father just paid for his latest computer repairs.. It ended up being $280.. They had to clone his hard drives, because they were failing.. And they had to find IDE hard drives, since his doesn't use SATA... -_- I can't believe anyone would spend $280 on that franken-puter. WTF. *sigh* Anyway. He needs a new one.. But I'm not going to sit there & dole out $1000 + when I know it's going into a mouse infested hoarder house. Not to sound mean or anything, but jeez. lol I'm just wanting to get him at least somewhat current. No more, no less.
 
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Calmete man. We're just trying to help. So frustrated responses won't help either of us.

Anyway, I wasn't asking if you were gonna buy a monitor. I was asking what was the resolution of that monitor since that would determine what video card he would need at a minimum. i.e a monitor with only 1024x768 would have a different GPU requirement than one for 1920x1080.

As for the OS, again, we need to know what OS he can actually use as that'll also determine what hardware he should be getting. Certain hardware don't play nice with Linux but work just great with Windows. Some hardware may not even have drivers for older OSes like Windows XP or 2000. Not to mention that support for Windows XP is going to end in 2014.

As for asking about the specs of his current PC, had to ask that since you specifically said the words "frankenPC". I've seen "frankenPCs" with parts from different years in them. I.e a 2001 built PC with a 2009 built HDD or GPU or PSU, etc. And if it's been in the shop as many times as you've said it has, it may have some newer parts that could be reused (i.e the case or PSU or even fans).
 
Oh, I'm not frustrated. lol Sorry I came off that way. :) I'm actually in a pretty good mood. :) Guess it goes to show that you can only read so much into text. xD I'm just very direct & I guess that can come off wrong sometimes.. My apologies.

I don't know how to answer your questions, though.. So I guess just figure that I'll buy everything including a monitor & an OS. I'm not doing Windows 8, though... Not working with anything from his franken-puter.. because of the potential health risks... everything will have to be new.
 
All right then, here's what I'd recommend for the cheapest gaming but still decent gaming PC possible:
$69 - Intel Pentium G860 CPU
$55 - Biostar H61MGC Intel H61 mATX Intel Motherboard
$45 - Corsair CMV8GX3M1A1333C9 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$90 - HIS H775F1GD Radeon HD 7750 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$57 - Seagate Spinpoint ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$16 - LG iHAS124-04 DVD Burner
$45 - Corsair 430CX V2 430W PSU
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
$100 - Asus VW199T-P 19" LED Monitor
$91 - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit OEM
-----
Total: $618 shipped.
 
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Thanks, Danny. :) <3 You're always the best.

My friend better love me for this. >.> Not in a romantic way, but.. He just better appreciate it. lol :D
 
I think I saw home premium at the Egg right now for $80, with promo code EMCXTWL48 so that'll save $11 off your build. (Has to be ordered in the next 24 hours) And the 430CX PSU is only $40 (plus a $20 MIR for you if you choose) to further lower your build price.
 
Augster said:
I think I saw home premium at the Egg right now for $80, with promo code EMCXTWL48 so that'll save $11 off your build. (Has to be ordered in the next 24 hours) And the 430CX PSU is only $40 (plus a $20 MIR for you if you choose) to further lower your build price.
Click to expand...

thank you! :D
 
just out of curiosity, why no AMD builds? are they that crappy that they weren't even considered? (just asking) :)
 
momosake said:
just out of curiosity, why no AMD builds? are they that crappy that they weren't even considered? (just asking) :)
Click to expand...

AMD CPU gaming performance tends to be lower than Intel CPU gaming performance. Since they're not all that much cheaper than Intel CPUs yet use dramatically more power and generate more heat, there is very little reason to go with an AMD CPU setup for a gaming PC.
 
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