Budget PC for gaming
 

Ok, I know there are 100 threads on "what pc should I build".. I've gone back and read through quite a few of them.. but I've been out of the computer loop for so long that I don't know how to go back and piece together what I need between the budget pc's for internet and the $1200 (budget) pc's for gaming. I'm looking for something in between.

Budget: MAX $800 (looking for around 6-700 if possible) tower only
Used for: Light gaming (not looking to get into play mw2 online but I would like to be able to maybe just run it at a playable rate.. maybe..

The big thing is I don't care if it can't run the new games that have not come out yet but I do want to be able to upgrade it in the future when I have more money to through around to be able to run those games.

And I don't want to have to overclock as I have no idea how to do that.. I used to be a big PC gamer years ago and knew everything about building a pc but have gotten more into the xbox360 in the past couple years and everything is new now.

All your help would be greatly appreciated.

My buddy recently built himself an intel quad core with a 512mb Nvidia Geforce 9400 GT graphics card and 8GB of ram. Not sure what else he got, but with a cheap tower, it came out to be around 1k.

Wasn't too bad for standard gaming. It was able to handle Crysis on the highest settings with some lag when the game got intense.
He bought it all from NCIX, and for that price, it doesn't seem too bad.

I'd say pick up either a radeon 4870 ($150 ish) or 4890 ($200 ish) graphics cards and AMD phenom 2 quad cores for budget.

Kind of an imbalanced rig imo... 8gb ram is completely overkill, 4gb wouldve been sufficient. shouldve spent the money on a better graphics instead... 9400GT is fairly outdated/low-end

for the same money my friend built a Intel i5 with 4gb ddr3 and HD 5770

Do that. You won't be disappointed.

I heard good things about this setup for budget, that's more what im thinking..

The i5 is a bit out of my price range from what I'm reading..

a friend of mine also just got a new computer done and he went with I believe an i5 setup with 4GB ram and the 4870 1GB version ... runs anything and everything ...

Ok, I've built a rig on canadadirect.ca for $615 before taxes... opinions?

CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Dual Core Processor Socket AM3 3.1GHZ 7MB Cache 80W Retail Box -- $110.24

MB: Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P ATX AM3 DDR3 AMD770 PCI-E16 4PCI-E1 2PCI SATA GBLAN Motherboard -- $85.05

VID: Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 Vapor-X 860MHZ 1GB 1.2GHZ GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDMI DisplayPort Lite Video -- $194.40

RAM: G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ PC3-12800 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit -- $99.70

HD: Western Digital SE16 500GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB Cache 8.9MS 3.5IN NCQ Hard Drive OEM -- $57.46

ODD: Samsung SH-S222A/BEBE 22X Dual Layer DVD Writer Black IDE OEM -- $30.80

CASE: Logisys CS-51WBK Black ATX Tower Case 4X5.25 2X3.5 5X3.5IN W/ 480W Front USB Audio -- $35.99

I would only recommend getting the X2 550 BE if you intend to try to unlock the extra cores, otherwise I would suggest getting an X4 620/630.

I've put a few computers with that mobo and it's great for the money.

Everything else looks good. The case/psu is a bit sketchy, I always recommend getting seperate case/PSU but that will add ~$70 to your build.

^ I totally agree.

edit: accidental blank post.

Ya know I didn't even notice that i picked the dual core.. I meant to pick the quad core.. No wonder it was so cheap haha. As for the case yea I've been given direction on another forum as well that the case is a bad idea so I'll figure something else out.
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They have this on at tiger direct
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core Processor - 3.20GHz, Socket AM3, 6MB Cache, 2000MHz (4000 MT/s) FSB, Retail, Processor with Fan for $179.99

What am I missing.. why is it so much cheaper then the others.

if you can wait for the sale, intel i5 regularly goes on sale for 199.99

oh? from where?

That is a really nice CPU, you won't be disappointed.

You MIGHT be able to squeeze an i5 build out of your budget if you get good sales and space out the purchases, maybe buy a couple parts used.

I've put together a couple builds with the case you originally had and haven't had any problems with them. I still don't think it's a good idea especially with the more expensive pieces you'll have in there. Find a cheap case and get the 550W BFG PSU that seems to go on sale all the time.

was on sale at bestdirect.ca a couple weeks ago for $199

It'll be difficult to build an i5 rig, while staying under $600. The Motherboard cost alot more.

What do you suggest as a cheap motherboard for the i5?

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...cture=Gigabyte

Got it PM to $104

There is another one thats cheaper, but that board only allows up to 8GB of RAM.

Right on. Thanks, I'll definitely keep these in mind too. An i5 would be nice..

hahahah that X2 build is so similar to my build, except mine was from like 4 months ago

... plus I bought the sapphire 5770 vapor-x today after many misfortunes (back order and wasn't able to find the gpu) at ncix today :lol

I guess I was lucky because I successfully unlocked the 550.

You guys have any good resources for learning how to build your own rig?

I had my friend help me assemble mine, but it actually is very straight forward. Computers these days are pretty much just snap on parts or use a screw.

Open case, match up motherboard screw slots with slots in case, screw down. Put in processor, put in ram, put in Vid Card, put in rest of stuff.

Done