$250 Gaming PC 2014 Challenge

[Pawacorn]

This challenge is just something for those who have the time.

$250.00 is your maximum allowance. You can't go one cent over.

The approximate purchase date is: This Month

I came up with this build on newegg for fun. Think you can beat my build? Post your newegg quote here!

You only need six parts to make the build. Case, Power Supply, Motherboard, APU, RAM and Hard Drive.

Operating System, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers and Optical Drive are not necessary.

My system total comes to $247.32 (I merged the shipping prices)

$24.99 Case: Rosewill FB-04 Dual Fans ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, come with 1x Front 120mm Fan, 1x Rear 80mm Fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811147182

$43.98 Power Supply: EVGA 100-W1-0430-KR 430W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC 3 Year Warranty Power Supply Intel 4th Gen CPU Ready
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817438015

$48.38 Motherboard: ASRock FM2A55M-VG3+ FM2+ 95W / FM2 100W AMD A55 (Hudson D2) Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157480

$49.99 APU: AMD A4-4000 Richland 3.2GHz Socket FM2 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor AD4000OKHLBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819113343

$19.99 RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model 991586
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820146744

$59.99 Hard Drive: Western Digital WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive, Blue - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822236339

 

[Gamer Outpost]

I'm not an expert on AMD APUs, but I don't think that an A4-4000 will be able to run any new games made in 2012 or later.

2GB of RAM at 1333 won't really cut it either. I do understand the challenge is for $250, but I would not consider anything one can build for that price a gaming PC.

With that being said, your build would be pretty hard to beat at that price point, good job. :great:

 

[Twisted Fairytale]

I'll be looking at this when I get home today! 🙂

I love building PCs, so this should be fun. 😀

 

[Pawacorn]

I'm not an expert on AMD APUs, but I don't think that an A4-4000 will be able to run any new games made in 2012 or later.

2GB of RAM at 1333 won't really cut it either. I do understand the challenge is for $250, but I would not consider anything one can build for that price a gaming PC.

With that being said, your build would be pretty hard to beat at that price point, good job. :great:

I know thanks lol. I just wish RAM wasn't so expensive right now. It was so cheap in 2012 you could buy 4GB of 1866 for that price.

I'll be looking at this when I get home today! 🙂

I love building PCs, so this should be fun. 😀

Cool. 😎

 

[froggyboy604]

These are some pretty good specs for a $250 Gaming PC. I remember seeing a newspaper ad for the Wii U, and it cost $299 at a local store. It's interesting that people can build Gaming PC which are cheaper than the cheapest popular game console.

I think this PC is good to play many indie games, and games like MMORPG like World of Warcraft, and MOBAs like League of Legends and Dota 2.

 

[Pawacorn]

These are some pretty good specs for a $250 Gaming PC. I remember seeing a newspaper ad for the Wii U, and it cost $299 at a local store. It's interesting that people can build Gaming PC which are cheaper than the cheapest popular game console.

I think this PC is good to play many indie games, and games like MMORPG like World of Warcraft, and MOBAs like League of Legends and Dota 2.

Right on! I might actually build this for a friend. He loves to play WoW and doesn't want to spend alot. :yes:

 

[Ashish92]

$250 is just not a gaming pc budget unless you are interested in online gaming mainly.

my pc which is more than double that cost and was bought in 2010 can't play games of 2013 june onwards properly.

 

[Gamer Outpost]

$250 is just not a gaming pc budget unless you are interested in online gaming mainly.

my pc which is more than double that cost and was bought in 2010 can't play games of 2013 june onwards properly.

Personally, I think the best price for a gaming pc is $500-600. Spending any more than that is a waste, as most people only use their computers for 4-5 years max. A 500-600 dollar gaming PC will last a good 3 years, and a video card upgrade (~$150) will add on another year or two.

Paying $800-$1000+ for a gaming PC is like paying about $200 a year, since parts will literally wear down after the first 4-5 years of using the PC. So why not get a $500 pc and pay $100-150 a year over the life of the PC?

People, especially people who are new to PC-buying, like to go all in and get all this top notch hardware, when in reality the hardware will wear out before video games become 'powerful enough' to utilize that $400 GPU, or $200 CPU.

 

[froggyboy604]

I saw a video on YouTube on howto built a PC for gaming which only cost $350, but he used an AMD A10 Quad-Core 3.8GHz APU which has integrated Radeon HD 7660D Graphics, a Rosewill case, 8GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, and 500W power supply.

[youtube]Z_b3KCvl5-Q[/youtube]

I think a cheaper Gaming computer would be good enough for new PC gamers since there are many older games like World of Warcraft, Dota 2, Runescape, Team Fortress 2, etc which they did not play yet.

 

[Gamer Outpost]

I saw a video on YouTube on howto built a PC for gaming which only cost $350, but he used an AMD A10 Quad-Core 3.8GHz APU which has integrated Radeon HD 7660D Graphics, a Rosewill case, 8GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, and 500W power supply.

[youtube]Z_b3KCvl5-Q[/youtube]

I think a cheaper Gaming computer would be good enough for new PC gamers since there are many older games like World of Warcraft, Dota 2, Runescape, Team Fortress 2, etc which they did not play yet.

I'm not sure of all the most recent prices, but I think a Radeon 7750 + AMD Athlon X4 750k, 430 Watt power supply and 4GB of RAM would be better than an A10, a 500 Watt PSU and 8GB. Memory is overrated, especially when people are trying to build a budget PC. 4GB will be enough for any game that a $350 gaming pc can run.

 

[1FreeCloud]

Lol, $250 that's just too cheap. I would rather say that it starts to be a good computer at the price of $750.

 

[Gamer Outpost]

Lol, $250 that's just too cheap. I would rather say that it starts to be a good computer at the price of $750.

My brother's gaming PC cost $450 and it can run Crysis 3 on maximum, which means it will be able to run any PC game on at least medium settings for a good 3-5 years.

 

[1FreeCloud]

@Above

Hmm, did he buy it online? Because I don't find that good computers in the stores for that price.

 

[Gamer Outpost]

@Above

Hmm, did he buy it online? Because I don't find that good computers in the stores for that price.

Yeah, online. Stores will always rip you off. Also, Alienware computers will cost you hundreds of dollars more than buying a gaming pc online.

The cheapest way is to build one on your own, that way you can build the cheapest possible pc for your needs. You can save money by reusing the old parts from your current PC like the mouse, keyboard, speakers, monitor, CD/DVD drive, and hard drive (though its good to buy at least a 500GB new hard drive to install your OS on, in addition to the one you use now).

http://www.newegg.com/
http://www.amazon.com/

Newegg and Amazon are the best places to buy components, and you can go to Youtube.com and look up how to build your own PC if you don't know how to.

So in general, it's best to buy the best possible PC for around $500, and than get a new $500 one every 3-4 years. That way you're paying just $125-167 a year instead of $175-$250 a year on your computer.

In some cases, you can just upgrade your GPU (video card) and squeeze an extra year or two out of your PC, since the GPU is the most important part of a gaming rig.

 

[JoshSmith]

@Above

Hmm, did he buy it online? Because I don't find that good computers in the stores for that price.

Lmao why would you buy a computer at a store?

 

[froggyboy604]

@Above

Hmm, did he buy it online? Because I don't find that good computers in the stores for that price.

Yeah, online. Stores will always rip you off. Also, Alienware computers will cost you hundreds of dollars more than buying a gaming pc online.

The cheapest way is to build one on your own, that way you can build the cheapest possible pc for your needs. You can save money by reusing the old parts from your current PC like the mouse, keyboard, speakers, monitor, CD/DVD drive, and hard drive (though its good to buy at least a 500GB new hard drive to install your OS on, in addition to the one you use now).

http://www.newegg.com/
http://www.amazon.com/

Newegg and Amazon are the best places to buy components, and you can go to Youtube.com and look up how to build your own PC if you don't know how to.

So in general, it's best to buy the best possible PC for around $500, and than get a new $500 one every 3-4 years. That way you're paying just $125-167 a year instead of $175-$250 a year on your computer.

In some cases, you can just upgrade your GPU (video card) and squeeze an extra year or two out of your PC, since the GPU is the most important part of a gaming rig.

eBay, TigerDirect, and Craigslists are also good places to look for cheaper computer parts. I bought a USB 2.0 PCI card for $1 from a eBay seller to add to an old computer which only has USB 1.1.

If you don't know how to build a PC, it is sometimes possible to hire someone locally on Craigslist for $10-20 to help you build your PC from parts you bought since putting together a PC does not take a lot of time if they know what they are doing, and your PC just has the basic parts needed for a Gaming PC like case, power supply, cpu, motherboard, video card, ram, hard drive, and disc drive.

 

[Gamer Outpost]

Good tips froggy. I forgot to add eBay and TigerDirect. Craigslist is good too. :great:

 

[depat]

i would buy a 500gb hard drive and add 4 or 8 gb of ram

 

[jhony117]

Personally i don't like to use AMD board. Try to use newest core i7 board.

 

[froggyboy604]

AMD is good if you are a budget. I own a few desktops and laptops with AMD CPU, and they work pretty well.