$500 - $1,000 Gaming Pc

[macmarauder]

i was talking to some kids about how The Screen Savers used to tell where to get and how to build a $500 gaming PC and they wished that they still had a place to go to such info. so i figured that others would want the same thing. so if anyone knows of a good place or has a list of parts and where they got them than list it here to help those unfortunat empty pocketed computer geeks out.

[Naming is hard]

http://www.g4tv.com/screensavers/features/...PC_for_500.html

Thats the old Info, i guess the only place that still does stuff like this TODAY is dl.tv

[snyper]

anything for good gaming at that price must be second hand?

[Honda_Boy]

no, actually back when I built my first computer it only cost me $400 to start. I already had a motherboard and case from christmas. Later it wasn't a bad budget system at just under a $1000. All new parts except the sound card and CD drives, which I reused from a previous computer.

My current Rig

Aspire X-Plorer Mid tower case $50

FSP 450W ATX12V PSU $45.50

EVGA nForce4 SLI x16 $145

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice, then it wa $110 but it has since dropped majorly.

Corsair XMS TwinX 1GB Dual Channel Kit, then about $110 but has since gone up to $132

EVGA e-GeForce 7600GT CO 256MB DDR3 EVGA FAN #1 $160 #2 also $160 but was added in later

SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS- reuse

Maxtor Diamond Max 160GB 8MB Cache HDD- reuse

Samsung 80GB HDD- $27- bought used from jimras

Lite-On DVD-ROM- reuse

Lite-On DVD-/+RW DL- reuse

Mitsumi Floppy- $20 at local shop

Logitech Elite LE Keyboard - reuse

Logitech MX518- reuse

Logitech Z4 2.1 Speakers $50 at Office Max but added after initial build so it will be excluded from build cost

Acer AL1917 19" LCD Display- reuse

Windows XP Home SP2- reuse

countless games but that ain't included

Loads of freeware stuff like AVG, Kerio, SB S&D, adaware, and you get the idea- FREE!!!!

That's about it and the initial buld cost excluding parts added later and parts reused from my dead system was about $690 not including shipping which adds maybe $50.

After everything's said and done including the cost of reused parts my guess is somewhere around $1200-1400

SO if you know what you are doing, you can sneak away with a cheap gaming rig. Just buy good brands at newegg and officemax (trust officemax frickin rules, those Z4 speakers are $50 there, $70 + shipping on newegg, and $100 at office depot) and be frugle. Sacrafice somethings to improve in other areas. reuse parts where you can, like CD drives, monitors, keyboards, mice, and speakers. Upgrade later when you have the money. If you are unsure of the performance and benefits of certain parts, like video cards and processors, ask someone eho knows to help you pick the parts that'll give you the best bang for your buck. I'm reall good and picking out nVidia based systems or so I think. Somebody could be much better but I have helped friends and fellow gamers out many a time.

[snyper]

I built my first computer it only cost me $400 to start

Ah, i was refering to factory made pcs...

[IEatHardDrives]

You can get a dell XPS 410 system for $990 dell also has a few systems in the $300-$600 range.