Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Want to buy a new gaming PC for my sons.
I'm currently looking to get a new PC for my kids. My oldest just hit 13 and is getting into online gaming with friends, youngest wants to play terraria online. Looking for something cheap, around $300 (how about $500?). I haven't built a cheap computer in a long time and just wanted to get some feedback. I will most likely be shopping at newegg.com. Any information would help. As far as gaming needs go I need something that could handle WoW/SW:TOR (depending on which he decides to play), Starcraft 2, Diablo3 (when it comes out), terraria (a calculator would do I guess), and whatever random crap I get talked into buying for them.
I have all the accessories such as a monitor, mouse, etc.
Thanks in advance.
Comments
I hate to say it but do not go cheap. It will just give you and your kid a headache. Spend around $500 at least unless you have seen a deal you are found of, then let us know
Sorry for not giving examples but I know someone will chime in soon who does a better job
His name starts with a Q
$300, wow not much for a gaming PC at 300, hell a good power supply alone is over $100, and thats bad to cheap out on or you can have all sorts of headaces.
Best best tho for you is to check out www.newegg.com
All parts are reviewed so you will know which to stay away from, and which give you the best bang for your buck.
Might want to go AMD tho for your CPU since they tend to be cheaper then Intel.
Well, I guess I could go a bit higher. Really just want some info. Checked newegg. nothing good for under 1000, at least nothing with good reviews. any other good sites to buy from?
Newegg is one of the best for pre-built models. My GF bought a
HP - Pavilion Laptop / AMD A-Series Processor / 15.6" Display / 8GB Memory / 640GB Hard Drive - Dark Umber
from best buy for $600 bucks and it plays Sims 3 very well.
With that budget you're better off buying a console.
This makes good sense except social services and mmo's are almost non-existent on consoles
If you like Dell, I would look at there site. They have pretty solid medium build gaming machines under 500.00 and if you don't mind referbish you may save even more money.
I've bought through Dell a few times for friends and even for myself a few years back. Sometimes you can save hundreds of dollars off a pretty sweet machine, you just need to check out what they have.
Also, for your 13 year old, maybe ask him what games he's interested in playing, thiscould be a good way to find out the kind of rig you may have to get him or something close to what he may be playing or wanting to play in the future.
Wildstar (2013) & Elder Scroll Online (2013)
Playing: Diablo 3, WOW, Far Cry 3 & X-Com.
Enjoyed: WOW 5 1/2 yrs, LOTRO 3yrs, GW 1/2yr, DFO 1yr, EVE Online 3yrs, and Huxley (Beta).
Failed to impress: GW2 3months, Tera Online 6 months (best combat system in any MMO I've played) STO 1/4yr, Aion 1/2yr, AoC 1yr, CO, Fallen Earth, DDO, EQ2 1/2yr, WAR 1/2yr, Lineage 2 and FF XI 1/2yr, FF XIV.
If you already have periperhals that you can keep from an old computer and can assemble parts yourself, then functional gaming computers that with some cut corners start around $500, or around $600 if you want to avoid the obviously cut corners. Add $100 if you can't assemble parts yourself and need someone else to do it for you. Don't buy a prebuilt computer; if you can't build it yourself, get something built to order. $300 will get you something that works albeit unreliably (i.e., could die any day) for word processing and e-mail, is dicier for watching videos or web browsing, and is a complete failure for gaming.
If you can assemble parts, but the problem is picking the parts, then I can help with that. Can you assemble the computer? And if so, do you do rebates, and count those in the budget?
yeah I can put a computer together, considering the parts only go in their specific places its pretty easy. realistically I can do about $500. that is the funds i would have available. so if its $500 then I can get rebates that make it less than that, it would work.
actually if anyone new of the best, low cost components to get i would appreciate a list, even if the total is over $500. I may have access to some other computer parts I could frankenstein together and upgrade it over the next couple months.
thanks for all the replies so far.
Good choice, but now comes they long part, picking out all that stuff. Although 500 bucks narrows your options, especially if you got to buy an OS, there is still a ton to choise from
The cheapest I have been able to come up w/ for anything decent that will last a few years is in the $750 range. Then if you have to buy an OS on top of that. The problem w/ buying anything name brand is that the upgradability is usually very limited.
You know, probably $300 computer would run WoW decent. I know I was able to run WoW pretty good on a non gaming laptop. It did not have a graphics cards.
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
This is good config
Intel i5 2500k
8GB of Memory PC1333 you could do 4GB
Geforce 460GTX 1.0GB GDDR5
500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA III
The rebate question is more a matter of, would you rather have a part that is $60 with no rebate, or $70 before a $20 rebate?
If you want to scavenge parts from elsewhere and even a low end machine would be an upgrade for you, then there probably won't be much you can get. The optical drive is a notable exception, as those haven't changed in a long time. Still, a single SATA CD/DVD combo drive is only $20 or so, so that doesn't save you much.
Another possibility is a hard drive. The problem is that flooding in Thailand in October shut down much of the world's hard drive production. That means a severe shortage, and that means that everything costs maybe $50 more than it normally would. That means you're stuck getting a severe budget model even if you buy something new.
One severe budget gaming computer coming right up, with most of the parts basically a step above cheap junk.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.778314
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371034
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145299
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820576003
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151252
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131342
Total price tag: $510 before rebates. The case is actually reasonably nice; I was planning on picking a lower end case for you, but that's a very nice sale price on it.
That's also a $1000 build once you fill it out. You have to respect the budget. Besides, the GeForce GTX 460 was discontinued near the start of this year.
Don't forget you can get a Llano instead. They run about the same price as Athlon II and have a decent GPU for watching movies and playing low end games. However, with a $300 budget there is not alot you can work with. Processor, Mobo, and Windows you are already meeting your budget. Might be better to save for something that will actually suffice for a gaming PC.
If you get a Llano A8 system, then you get less performance for about the same price. If you make it an A4 or A6 system, you run the risk of having a system that will seriously struggle with some games. I didn't realize that the lower end Llano chips had come to desktops, so I guess you could save some money by getting one, but you give up a lot of performance.
For that budget, you may want to look on craigslist. You can get some pretty decent gaming grade rigs for 4-500 on there with decent specs. People looking to sell off their 1-2 year old gaming systems to put the money into newer ones they're building. Just make sure you pick it up on site so you know its in working order. Actually had a friend of mine pick up a alienware a few months back for 300 bucks, completely top of the line watercooled i7-2600k, dual gtx 570's, 16gb ram...needless to say I was pretty jealous..lol, naturally its not going to happen all the time, but people DO post stuff on there and they have no idea what they have when it comes to PC's.
example (easily worth twice as much),
HTPC AMD Phenom X3, 8GB, Nvidia GTS 260 - $200
http://houston.craigslist.org/sys/2747585089.html