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Budget build
So I'm helping a friend build a budget pc. I haven't build one from the ground up in YEARS. Basically, around March he will have between 3 to 400 saved up. I know it's not much but he doesn't want it to do much either. He's looking for something that will play WoW with low to medium settings and Minecraft. He has two very old computers here but nothing is really salvagable as they are from the P4 days. Any help, links, or suggestions would be great!
Also, the cheaper the better.
Comments
If you're keeping old peripherals, then $500 is about the minimum to have a functional gaming computer, or $600 if you want to avoid flagrantly cut corners.
For WoW on low settings, you could try something low end like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157228
That's the motherboard, processor, and graphics, all for $99 before rebate. But be warned that a lot of games won't be playable on that hardware.
Hmm so maybe I should tell him just to go prebuilt.. something like this maybe? http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dddwaz3&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&model_id=inspiron-560
If you go prebuilt, then add about 20% to the cost of building it yourself if you want something comparable. That's moving in the wrong direction. That's not a gaming machine at all, and it will be loaded with a bunch of cheap junk parts, so it will be awkward to upgrade if you want to make it into a gaming machine.
If it's not until March, then wait to see if Trinity is out by then. If it is, then that may be the way to go on a severe budget build.
I would strongly suggest against buying a pre-built one since as Quizzical said, you're paying an extra price for the brand you're buying off from. If you're looking for deals that come in combo I would also suggest taking a look at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.790392
Throw in a graphics card like:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102934
an optical drive and a cheap OS and you should be well into your budget with a decent rig to run World of Warcraft, Minecraft or even other games with some fine tuning.