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affordable gaming PC?
S/Z
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey all,
I'm looking into buying a desktop computer as I've been running games on a laptop for more than a couple years now. I'm hoping to get something roughly in the $1000 range, something that can run games without sputtering much would be great. Any pointers would be appreciated, thanks!
I'm looking into buying a desktop computer as I've been running games on a laptop for more than a couple years now. I'm hoping to get something roughly in the $1000 range, something that can run games without sputtering much would be great. Any pointers would be appreciated, thanks!
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Do you have the following:
Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse
Headset/Speakers (Depending on what you want to use)
PC Case
btw by figuring out this stuff will actually let you see the budget you will have for the hardware(guts of the pc).
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And for a budget of $1000 you can build a very capable machine that will pretty much run any current game on high settings. Exactly how bleeding edge/future proof it is partially depends on how much of your budget you need to invest in peripherals, as Khez mentions.
Also, for buying RAM I recommend going to your local microcenter or frys and buying 2 sticks (ie if you want 8GB buy 2x4GB not 1xGB). RAM generally has a relatively high percentage of defects, and you can use one stick to diagnose the other. If your ram just flat out doesn't work during your build, returning it through a store and getting a new set is a hell of a lot quicker and easier than returning something online.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
if you already have a monitor you can build an extremely capable gaming machine for a grand. If you have to buy a monitor you will be a bit more limited, but if you don't need it ready like, tomorrow, you can wait on a deal and get a pretty nice one
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Yeah, I'm currently selling the gaming PC I built in January, if you're at all interested, OP. Feel free to shoot me a PM.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0080NQCWY/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0080NQCWY&linkCode=as2&tag=thephansoft-20
Its definitely in your price range and you'll have a good amount of money left over to purchase upgrades. Building a computer from scratch is easy but going from never having built one to trying to build a gamin pc? Still pretty easy but making rookie mistakes could mess up parts and leave you loosing a bit of money, with now way to get it back. Something as delicate as pins on the motherboard is an immediate void on return policies if they are bent. You're better off starting with something like this.
You don't even need a screwdriver to build a computer these days. As long as someone knowledgeable helps make sure all the bits you pick will work with each other, and you watch a video or two to show you how the pieces actually fit together (if you need help, it's not difficult to work out on your own with a little reading and looking at pictures), you'll be fine.
Something like bending CPU socket pins simply will not happen if you're careful and thorough in your build process.
As for hardware:
If your budget allows for it I'd get a decent size SSD 120-250gb to run the OS and games and a standard hard drive 1-4tb for storage.
Get at least 8gb of ram to start off with, you can always throw more in later to same money upfront.
Do you play a specific game often? I've noticed that some video card just work better with some games, look up review and benchmarks about cards and games you want to play. You might not need a 5gb monster card to play what you want on max settings.
Get a good cooling system and power supply, they are the heart of the computer and if either fails you can get in some major trouble.
You can cut corners here and there to knock another $40-$50 off this build with basically the same specs, but this gets you high-quality components, a modular power-supply, a factory-overclocked graphics card, and sets you up to overclock your processor as well.
If you're not interested in CPU overclocking, the i5-4670 (non-k version) is on sale at Newegg for $210 right now, and you can get a cheaper motherboard to pair with it.
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Also, I cannot over emphasize how awesome a SSD is.
I went to microcenter, which is like Fry's (a small walmart sized computer store), and was trying to decide if i wanted to build my own box, or buy a midrange dell and just pop in a new video/power supply. I didnt want windows 8 if i could help it and was expecting to end up with an i5 6gig ram/cheap video cardWin7 core system. I bounced back and forth between the build your own department and the prebuilts asking questions and looking dissapointed when i realized the dell i was looking at would have been too cramped to hold the video card i was looking at (It was a 660 inspirion and a 660 nvidia card).
I think the guy in the prebuilt section wanted to get rid of me, so he comes up and suggests we take a look at his open box section. I was a bit wary but by that time i was willing to consider it. He found stock on a 850 XPS dell that had windows 8, 2 terrabyte drive, 12 gigs ram, i7 core 3.4gighz, and a midrange video card. I kept drilling him about why it was open box and he pulls up the details of the system. Turns out it was bought and returned 2 days later a month ago, and the notes say it had a bad hard drive that was replaced. all that for 650 bucks. The same machine new was 1100. So i said yeah i think thats what im looking for. The machine is big enough to hold a replacement video card and has a bigger power supply so im set for upgrades if i need them.
The moral of this story is not to shun the open box.