Cheap Gaming Computer :(

[leatherface7]

Hello,
Let me start by saying that this build is for a young cousin of mine who for whatever reason needs to build a computer for a senior project. The budget is small ~$400, and I know she won't be making anything great with this budget (hell most great GPU's are >$400 alone), I just want to see what I can come up with.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
********Browsing and gaming, albiet low end gaming.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
*********Trying to stay around $400 If this cannot be done, I would like to see how cheaply it can be done and see what I can do.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
********* US - from newegg preferably

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
*********No preference.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
*********Will not be reusing any current parts, but no need for keyboard/mouse/monitor.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
*********I could not find anything recent for quite what I need here. I am looking around on my own though and not being ignorant to the subject.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
*********No.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
*********Most likely 1680x1050

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
*********By the first week of February


Not sure what to do about the OS yet..

I will continue my search now and see what all I can come up with. I wish I would have had a greater time frame to get this done so I could have been searching around for deals and and not felt rushed to do this, but that is not the case. Again, I know this is a super low budget, if you think something much more worthwhile and feasible can be done for a little bit more, please post and I will see what my cousin can do about funds.

Thanks again guys!

 

[paperwastage]

400 will be hard. W7 OS itself cost like >$60 unless you are a student and have access to dreamspark

maybe look for older gen hardware/used stuff, or stuff like http://slickdeals.net/f/3767264-Del...1TB-HD-HDMI-WiFi-desktop-287-bestbuy-B-M-YMMV

what games?

quick list if you want the latest sandy-bridge
i3 2100 or Pentium <$100
H61 mobo $60
1x4gb ram $20
PSU Corsair 430v $25 after rebate
case $30
=$235
+ GPU($100 5770?) + HDD/SSD($70) + W7 OS($70)

Are you near a microcenter?

 

[jpeyton]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2217573

 

[mfenn]

$400 including OS doesn't really get a worthwhile gaming computer. $500 including OS can get you something that sorta kinda resembles a gaming PC.

http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116409Pentium G620 $70
Biostar H61MGC $50
Crucial DDR3 1333 4GB $17
6770 $92 AR
Hitachi 500GB $80
Lite-ON DVD Burner $19
Corsair 430CX $25 AR
Fractal Core 1000 $40
Total: $393 AR

 

[Belegost]

Just noticed newegg has a deal today on a llano a6-3670K, 4GB, 500GB HDD, case and PSU for 290, toss in a windows 7 license and you're done for the 400 you wanted to hit. Also, since your cousin is a student, try to get the student license, currently its like 60 bucks for a win7 pro upgrade (you can clean install with it, provided you don't mind installing, and then upgrading the install)

Other than hitting a deal like this, I don't see hitting the 400 limit.

 

[leatherface7]

Thanks for the reply guys; I'll read into it more when I get home. I may be able to get a copy of Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit, so the $400 budget can be without the OS.

Not near any microcenters either!

 

[leatherface7]

$400 including OS doesn't really get a worthwhile gaming computer. $500 including OS can get you something that sorta kinda resembles a gaming PC.

http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116409Pentium G620 $70
Biostar H61MGC $50
Crucial DDR3 1333 4GB $17
6770 $92 AR
Hitachi 500GB $80
Lite-ON DVD Burner $19
Corsair 430CX $25 AR
Fractal Core 1000 $40
Total: $393 AR

I like what you have setup here but I have a question; how is the GPU on the processor? If she could get by without buying a separate GPU for now, and then pick one up in a month or two that might help out tremendously. I know she wouldn't be able to game much without it, but if she could just pass her project for now, and then buy the GPU with her next pay check that might just work!

 

[janas19]

$400: Refurb machine + FS Video Card is an option.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Hello,
Let me start by saying that this build is for a young cousin of mine who for whatever reason needs to build a computer for a senior project.

$400: Refurb machine + FS Video Card is an option.

As for the graphics, looks like it will play some modern titles on low settings:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/11

 

[tynopik]

$52 Celeron G530
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116409

$24 ECS H61H2-M2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135288

$17 Crucial DDR3 1333 4GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148366

$87 Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200
+ 24x DVD burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136075

$40 Broadway 1243MA-BLACK with 500W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811162059


there you have it, a fully 'functional' 'gaming' system for $202 (after $30 rebate)

video card of your choice can be added later

for instance:
$193 Galaxy 56NGH6HS4IXZ GeForce GTX 560 Ti
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814162074

 

[Belegost]

If you need to skip the video card, look at a llano system.

A6-3500 - $90
Biostar A75MH - $75

Put that with the other parts mfenn suggested. Raw CPU performance is a little lower than the pentium, but the gpu is significantly faster, so games would be a lot more playable. There are cheaper motherboards, but I have heard good things about the Biostar, whereas I don't have any knowledge of the others.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

$52 Celeron G530
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116409

$24 ECS H61H2-M2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135288

$17 Crucial DDR3 1333 4GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148366

$87 Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200
+ 24x DVD burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136075

$40 Broadway 1243MA-BLACK with 500W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811162059


there you have it, a fully 'functional' 'gaming' system for $202 (after $30 rebate)

video card of your choice can be added later

for instance:
$193 Galaxy 56NGH6HS4IXZ GeForce GTX 560 Ti
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814162074

i love how the video card costs about the same as all the other components

 

[mfenn]

I like what you have setup here but I have a question; how is the GPU on the processor? If she could get by without buying a separate GPU for now, and then pick one up in a month or two that might help out tremendously. I know she wouldn't be able to game much without it, but if she could just pass her project for now, and then buy the GPU with her next pay check that might just work!

The IGP is not very good for gaming (read, don't even think about it), but works great for normal Windows usage.

 

[leatherface7]

$400 including OS doesn't really get a worthwhile gaming computer. $500 including OS can get you something that sorta kinda resembles a gaming PC.

http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116409Pentium G620 $70
Biostar H61MGC $50
Crucial DDR3 1333 4GB $17
6770 $92 AR
Hitachi 500GB $80
Lite-ON DVD Burner $19
Corsair 430CX $25 AR
Fractal Core 1000 $40
Total: $393 AR

So we decided to go this route, and my cousin put everything together but after the POST it says "CMOS failure", and wants you to enter a boot up CD or restart. She reset the CMOS using the jumpers about 10 times but to no avail. She also tried a batter from another computer that was working just to check that but still the same issue. Any ideas here other than a bad motherboard?

 

[leatherface7]

I should also mention the beep code is 1 beep - I wasn't informed of this until now. I'll try to look into this more but seeing as this is time sensitive I'll keep this going while I look. Thank you!

 

[leatherface7]

I should also mention the beep code is 1 beep - I wasn't informed of this until now. I'll try to look into this more but seeing as this is time sensitive I'll keep this going while I look. Thank you!

It appears it may be a media failure so I'm going to find out tomorrow if the DVD drive is installed properly and if she is trying to load an OS.

 

[mfenn]

It appears it may be a media failure so I'm going to find out tomorrow if the DVD drive is installed properly and if she is trying to load an OS.

I'm betting this. "CMOS Failure" can mean a lot of things, but if it is prompting you with some sort of "No OS" message, there is probably just nothing loaded on it (at least a brand new drive better not have anything).

 

[VirtualLarry]

Usually, you get that message after a CMOS clear, and the next immediate time you boot after clearing the CMOS, you have to go into BIOS settings, set things to DEFAULT, and then SAVE AND EXIT.

At that point, on the next reboot, it should come up, flash some BIOS screens, beep once, and then display a message "No Bootable device found", or something to that effect.

You should then power down, connect a DVD drive and a HD, and then power up, go into BIOS, set the DVD as the first bootable device, the HD second, and then SAVE AND EXIT. Upon reboot, insert Windows disc into DVD drive, and proceed from there.