If you had only $500...

recognize

If you had only $500 to build a computer, what would you put in it?  I have decided to build a comp, but i would have to keep it to a max budget of $500..Maybe $550 if really needed.  Any suggestions what to get?  I would be building the comp from ground up and the following would not be included in the pricing: Monitor, Case, Mouse,speakers, and keyboard.  Any help on where to start and or what the absolute best PC I could build would be with my budget, would be amazingly helpful.  Thanks in advanced!

 

~Rec.

Crose

Uh I'm confused.  If you're talking about JUST those things you listed (Monitor, Case, Mouse, speakers, and keyboard) then you can easily do it for under $500.  If you want things for inside the case as well it's also doable, but you'd be looking at the minimum system specs for pong.

asupermane

Id say.
2gb ddr2 ram kit
cheap 80-120gb hdd
cheap dvd rom
Decent, amd cpu like 5000 b.e., or something
try to get at least an 8800gts 320, or 9600gt,
case, and at least a 450w psu.

thats bout as cheap as i can get.

estolonio

To crose, he said the following listed will "not" be part of the budget.

 

anyway im pretty sure you can get a decent computer for 500 bucks, i cant really list some good parts for you cause im kind of lazy. i just wanna let you know, to buy your parts from www.newegg.com, you can save hundreds of dollars no joke. just search in parts motherboard, ram sticks, processor, psu,video card and im sure you can find good stuff for 500 or less. BUT if you still need to buy an operating system and hard drive you might need some extra cash.

masterjedi

CASE: CoolerMaster Stacker Tower 420W Case W/ Mod Side-Panel (CoolerMaster 830 Black Color)

CPU: AMD Phenom™ X4 9750 Quad-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology

MOTHERBOARD: Asus M2N SLI NVIDIA nForce 560 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 SATA RAID PCI-Express MBoard w/GbLAN, IEEE1394, USB2.0, &7.1Audio

MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Kingston HyperX)

VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

VIDEO CARD 2: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

LCD Monitor: 24& quot; TFT Active Matrix LCD Display (ViewSonic Optiquest Q241WB WUXGA 1920x1200)

HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (320GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)

Data Hard Drive: NONE

Optical Drive: (Special Price) LG 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)

Optical Drive 2: 16X DVD ROM (BLACK COLOR)

SOUND: Creative Labs X-FI XtremeGamer 24-BIT PCI Sound Card

 this is my next pc im buying

KirinShadow

If you're feeling really cheap you might see how much you'd save by going with a GeForce 8600 instead, as it's still a decent card.

I've never really dealt with AMD stuff, but you could probably get a decent Core 2 Duo, 2 to 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, and a motherboard that'll put it all together (PCIExpress x16 slot, whatever Socket type the processor is, and DDR2 compatible (Look away from DDR3, you're building a budget PC.) ) for under $550.

Priorities:

Good video card

min 2 GB RAM (DDR2)

dual core processor

Compatible motherboard.

 Note: Good for you masterjedi. Hope you have a decent job, or really generous relatives, and read the OP next time.

recognize

feedback has been very helpful, thank you!!

miketriple

I'm in your situation. I was looking at an intel e7200 cpu with 2gb ram and an 8800gts 512mb (g92 core is important). I decided to bump my budget up to $600 and bought an e8400, but the e7200 should be just fine. I'd highly recommend it this setup. Just make sure you get an 8800gts 512mb with the g92 core. It makes a big difference compared to the others. They can be had for as low as $170, although that was out of stock and I'm impatient so I spent $200 on my MSI version. Altogether with 2 mail-in rebates and shipping it was right at $600. Drop the CPU down to e7200 and get the $170 8800gts g92 with some patience and you'll be right in your budget!

Douhk

well assuming you're building a comp for Age of Conan, considering you're posting on these forums, you're going to want something around at least 2 gigs (preferably 4, it is very cheap to get if you go the right places afterall...), 8500GT or greater, a duo core of some sort, a good mobo, and hard drive of something like 250 gb (the size of your hard drive does effect loading times). You could probably build something like this for $500-$550, considering you have all the other accessories of a computer needed, but that isn't including the OS (operating system), which is an extra $50 - $100 depending on either XP or Vista and where you get it.

Tbh, if you're building a new gaming rig, do you want something that can last now, or something that you can easily upgrade in the future for a cheaper price? In most cases it's most efficient to put the money in for a new gaming rig if you want the best bargain for years. For instance, as of now most computers don't really need a quad core CPU... but in a couple years from now, it's going to be the common CPU, as the dual core is today, and by then, outdated. To put what I'm saying simply, you can buy a computer for $350 bucks that runs semi-well every 3 years or a $500 buck computer that runs outstanding, with upgrades in between for $200 bucks to even out for 6 years. If anything, I at least suggest getting the most up-to-date mobo (motherboard), to make things easier for yourself in the future.

EDIT: what someone already mentioned, go with newegg.com... it's a real money saver, they have fantastic deals. I'm building a rig myself for around $780 bucks that I hope will be enough to run for many many years (it's pretty high-end, just gotta hope that everything functions properly once I put it together...)