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possible to build a gaming rig for under 600?

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  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347
    Originally posted by riigdonb

    i have a case, dvd drive and a hd i can probably use... i prefer to save the money rather than increase compoenent cost.  I may still buy all new parts, i was just replying to the person who used their old stuff.

     

    thanks agin for all the information

    If your optical drive is SATA, then you can reuse it and it's fine.  And if it's not SATA, then it must really be ancient, as that's been the standard for about a decade.  It doesn't matter what SATA version it is, as they're backward compatible, and a DVD drive can't come anywhere near saturating the bandwidth that even SATA 1.0 offers.

    For a case, I'd like to know what case you've got.  A lot of cases can be reused, but a cheap junk one with basically no airflow could be problematic.  If you have an extra narrow case that standard sized components won't physically fit into, then while it is technically possible to choose parts around the case, it's probably cheaper to just replace the case.

    As for a hard drive, how old is it?  Hard drives don't last forever, and if your current hard drive is pushing 5 years old, then it's time to replace it even if it still works.  Some other components are easy enough to replace if they fail, but if a hard drive dies, you're probably looking at reinstalling everything from scratch, and likely at losing data that is important to you.  Sometimes losing your data matters a lot more than the cost of a hard drive.

    Also, if you'd be taking components out of a computer that is functional today, then sometimes it's better to just leave the old computer functional, whether selling it cheaply used or keeping it as a backup.

  • SmikisSmikis Member UncommonPosts: 1,045

    http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/986175-Marest-s-Sample-Builds

    you should take a look there while its wow based website, you probably  wont find better up to date computer builds suggestions, every build is supposed best for its price range , nothing is perfect but those are really good

  • nicariftnicarift Member UncommonPosts: 70
    I payed about 500 for an extremely capable gaming computer. i suggest buying piece by piece and building it yourself. buying from a company will cost hundreds more.
  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    I have to agree with some of the other posts here:

    It's possible to build something that can game for $600 - that is probably the basement bottom price I would consider acceptable though.

    But you get what you pay for: your getting a basement entry level gaming rig. It will perform "adequately", but only on today's games; don't expect it to keep up for long as software gets more demanding. Don't expect it to MAX MAX out anything that isn't probably over 5 years old. And don't expect to be building a machine that is infinitely upgrade-able in the future.

    If you want a better computer, you need a better budget. Sure, there are a lot of things you can swap out and do this and that and try to keep the same budget, but bottom line is, your constrained by the budget. Sure you can upgrade the video, but only at the expense of something else; at least without increasing the budget.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347
    Originally posted by Smikis

    http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/986175-Marest-s-Sample-Builds

    you should take a look there while its wow based website, you probably  wont find better up to date computer builds suggestions, every build is supposed best for its price range , nothing is perfect but those are really good

    While you could do worse than those builds, not a single one of them is a good value for the money if gaming is your intended purpose.  He goes far out of his way to pick parts that are ridiculously overpriced, and in many situations, demonstrably doesn't understand what hardware does or what the alternatives are.

    For example, the cheapest build recommends paying a fortune for two modules of 1866 MHz memory with an APU that has only a single memory channel and only supports memory up to either 1066 or 1333 MHz memory (I forget which).  I don't care to break it all down, but there are blunders about on par with that in every single build he lists.

  • riigdonbriigdonb Member Posts: 11

    omg Newegg is having a May the Fourth Be with You sale... already saw a couple things ican save 10-15 bucks on

     

  • riigdonbriigdonb Member Posts: 11

    would this be good to use instead of the sata drive you suggested.. i already have a 500 g sata that hasnt been used much.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227928&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL050313&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL050313-_-EMC-050313-Latest-_-SSD-_-20227928-L012B

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    I've seen a lot of bad mojo with refurbished drives. Caveat Emptor.

  • jdnewelljdnewell Member UncommonPosts: 2,237

    I personally would be leery of a refurbished hard drive. Thats probably a bit of a gamble, could go either way.

    I would buy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769 this instead just to be on the safe side. Other than that 1 change that build looks good for the money.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347
    Originally posted by riigdonb

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182200&nm_mc=AFC-C8JUNCTION&cm_mmc=AFC-C8JUNCTION-_-EMC-050313-Latest-_-PowerSupplies-_-17182200-L011D&PID=6146960&SID=xrikp0bcydfn&AID=10446076

     

    higher wattage psu for about the same price after promo

    Don't get too caught up in higher nominal wattage ratings.  There aren't any objective tests where you can take a power supply and come away saying, this is the nominal wattage of the power supply.  Some companies will have mediocre power supplies that they'll stick a high nominal wattage rating on in hopes that clueless people will buy it, even though trying to pull the nominal wattage from it will probably result in sparks, smoke, and dead hardware.

    The Rosewill Green series isn't terrible, really, but it's not very good, either.  If you think you actually need something in the ballpark of 630 W, then you really should get something of higher quality.  But you don't actually need anywhere near that wattage.  With the rest of the rig that you're looking at, you may or may not ever pull 200 W from the power supply.  Even if you upgrade the video card in the future, you probably won't pull 300 W from it.

    In your situation, you could consider this:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1291664

    That's a combo to be used in place of both the memory and the power supply.  If you want to spend up for a really nice power supply, this is a great deal for someone on a larger budget:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088

    But that doesn't fit your budget very well, and it's overkill for you.

    -----

    It's very nice to have an SSD, but if it's "refurbished", it means that someone else returned it--likely because he thought something was wrong with it.  Maybe the previous owner is an idiot and you'd get a good SSD on the cheap.  Or maybe there really is something wrong with it that got past OCZ's testing before certifying it as okay to sell again.

  • kjempffkjempff Member RarePosts: 1,759

    SSD is a good place to save some money, get a harddrive instead and spend the money saved on something else.

    Having bough a new pc every 2-3 years since the 90ies, I would say don't think about how it can be upgraded because you never will. So many times I have thought, I will just buy a cheap gfx now and get a new one in 2 years, or I will put more ram in later.. I never did, just get some midrange or a little higher depending on your needs and funds, buy enough ram. 

    I can almost guarantee in 2-3-4 years when you want something better, you either can't upgrade because processor sockets changed or gfx standards changed or ram frenquncies etc, or it is a poor investment compared to getting a brand new one and retire the old.

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383


    Originally posted by kjempff
    SSD is a good place to save some money, get a harddrive instead and spend the money saved on something else.

    Having bough a new pc every 2-3 years since the 90ies, I would say don't think about how it can be upgraded because you never will. So many times I have thought, I will just buy a cheap gfx now and get a new one in 2 years, or I will put more ram in later.. I never did, just get some midrange or a little higher depending on your needs and funds, buy enough ram. 

    I can almost guarantee in 2-3-4 years when you want something better, you either can't upgrade because processor sockets changed or gfx standards changed or ram frenquncies etc, or it is a poor investment compared to getting a brand new one and retire the old.


    I don't necessarily agree with the first statement; although in the context of a $600 build it's probably prudent advice. I wouldn't say it's a blanket good statement to make because I'd sacrifice a lot in order to fit an SSD in my build, and it would only get cut as pretty much a last resort. That's my own personal priority though - SSDs make that much difference to me.

    I pretty much agree entirely with the last sentiment though: I've done the same thing with a lot of computers myself, and I think I've only ever actually upgraded a couple of them. And inevitably, after the "upgrade", I go right out and decide I should have gotten a new computer in the first place and do so.

    There are a lot of little things you can do to get extra life out of your PC, and ways to help that along during the consideration and building phase but no need to go overkill on it though. If it's a $5-$20 difference, then maybe it's a consideration, but if we are doubling the price of a component in order to potentially upgrade it at some later date (easily done with a power supply or motherboard) - then there is no benefit.

    Overclocking, and planning for such, inevitably has always been a better method of eeking out extra life from a computer rather than hardware upgrades for me. I agree with kjempff - by the time you get around to needing to upgrade something, odds are standards have changed (Intel CPU sockets - for instance), technology has new revisions (DX9/10/11+, DDR2/3/4), or you find out that you need to upgrade other stuff to make it work (power supply rating, motherboard compatibility, case dimensions, etc). That, and your still stuck with the old whatever it was you had from before, which probably won't Craigslist for much more than enough money for a pizza.

    I don't get all crazy with overclocking and try to liquid nitrogen cool a PC to 8GHz, but a 10-15% bump on the CPU and graphics are pretty easy to get, pretty easy to accomplish, pretty safe as it often won't require anything more than a clock adjustment, and for not a lot more money up front - an unlocked processor, a power supply that isn't already at 100% capacity, and a motherboard that is at least one rung up from the bottom of the barrel. That amount of performance increase is roughly the equivalent of a generational jump in PC speed, and that's flat out an 18-month extension on your PC's life (going by Moore's Law).

    All of that said - it doesn't mean anything if it causes you to blow your budget. The budget is there for a reason; it's a constraint. Your build needs to fit inside of that, and if it doesn't, then it isn't a good build. You can try to convince the customer to adjust their budget based on any numbers of (presumably good) reasons, but as the builder (I can't really say retailer because I don't retail them) I won't ever just take it upon myself to exceed a budget given to me.

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