Building my first pc (eventually)

[ronaldounit0]

So the laptop I'm currently playing games on is starting to fail me (the graphics card is probably overheating and since it's integrated I'd rather not get an entirely new board for the graphics quality I get now) and I'm looking to get a low-level gaming pc. Since I am currently a college student with no job, I have a very low budget of around $500. 

 

I am a COMPLETE newbie with this sort of stuff, so any help is appreciated! I can run CoD4, Skyrim, and Fallout New Vegas on low settings currently, so I'd like to be able to play these with medium settings reliably (no graphics card overheating.....) with my future pc build. 

 

Bottom line is, what components can I get for around $500, and is there anything I should know before diving into my first build?

 

Thank you very much in advance for the help! Let me know if I left anything out that you need to know. 

 

 

EDIT: Ideally I'd like to have 8 or so gigs of RAM because I will be using it a bit for school as well.

[Jacker]

go for this:

 

http://www.amazon.com/CyberpowerPC-Gamer-Ultra-GUA880-Desktop/dp/B0089KDCIU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395858261&sr=8-1&keywords=gaming+pc

 

amkes it easy, not too expensive, not the best parts, but pretty good for what you are planing to do!

 

i'll check some selfmade parts tomorrow and let you know!

 

would be great to know where exactly you live - so i dont have to mess around with different currrencies!

Edited March 26, 2014 by Jacker

[Jacker]

lol... i just read thru the amazon page....

 

this is ridicoulous.... in germany you would pay at least 450 euros for stuff like that (even tho it's not the real shit) - and thats around 620 dollar.... cant take the differences...

[ronaldounit0]

I live in the United States, and thanks Jacker I'll look into it! I appreciate the help so far 

[Jacker]

as said before, i'll try to get the best parts to combine for around 500 bucks...

 

do u need anything else? display, keyboard, mouse, etc?

[ronaldounit0]

I'd need everything but a mouse. So, basically everything haha 

[Vanaraud]

This one should do fine: http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view for 514$ with NO DVD-drive NOR Windows.

 

Not sure if the cart is shown for everybody:

 

 

Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus - Mid Tower Computer Case with Windowed Side Panel and USB 3.0

$49.99


Western Digital WD Black WD5003AZEX 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive


$70.99

1

ENERMAX NAXN ENP450AST 450W ATX12V Power Supply


$39.99

1

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
$74.99

1

BIOSTAR B85MG Ver. 6.x LGA 1150 Intel B85 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$57.99

1

Intel Pentium G3430 Haswell 3.3GHz LGA 1150 54W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646G3430
$99.99

1

GIGABYTE GV-R726XOC-1GD Radeon R7 260X 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card

$119.99

Subtotal: $513.93

 

 

Other choise would be to build something with Kaveri APU, but I doubt it would save so much, also without discreete graphics card FPS would drop.

[ronaldounit0]

This one should do fine: http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view for 514$ with NO DVD-drive NOR Windows.

 

Not sure if the cart is shown for everybody:

 

 

 

Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus - Mid Tower Computer Case with Windowed Side Panel and USB 3.0

 

$49.99

 

 

Western Digital WD Black WD5003AZEX 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

 

 

$70.99

 

1

 

ENERMAX NAXN ENP450AST 450W ATX12V Power Supply

 

 

$39.99

 

1

 

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

$74.99

 

1

 

BIOSTAR B85MG Ver. 6.x LGA 1150 Intel B85 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

$57.99

 

1

 

Intel Pentium G3430 Haswell 3.3GHz LGA 1150 54W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646G3430

$99.99

 

1

 

GIGABYTE GV-R726XOC-1GD Radeon R7 260X 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card

 

$119.99

 

Subtotal: $513.93

 

 

Other choise would be to build something with Kaveri APU, but I doubt it would save so much, also without discreete graphics card FPS would drop.

Would this build be suitable for a beginner? I would like as little of a chance that things could go wrong as possible  Thanks for your help! 

[ZeZombie]

This one should do fine: http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view for 514$ with NO DVD-drive NOR Windows.

 

Not sure if the cart is shown for everybody:

 

 

 

Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus - Mid Tower Computer Case with Windowed Side Panel and USB 3.0

 

$49.99

 

 

Western Digital WD Black WD5003AZEX 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

 

 

$70.99

 

1

 

ENERMAX NAXN ENP450AST 450W ATX12V Power Supply

 

 

$39.99

 

1

 

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL

$74.99

 

1

 

BIOSTAR B85MG Ver. 6.x LGA 1150 Intel B85 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

$57.99

 

1

 

Intel Pentium G3430 Haswell 3.3GHz LGA 1150 54W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646G3430

$99.99

 

1

 

GIGABYTE GV-R726XOC-1GD Radeon R7 260X 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video Card

 

$119.99

 

Subtotal: $513.93

 

 

Other choise would be to build something with Kaveri APU, but I doubt it would save so much, also without discreete graphics card FPS would drop.

This^ The build is perfect for $500. Anything pre-built or even if you picked the parts out on websites like cyberpower or ibuypower would be more expensive. Only problem is there's no keyboard or monitor. While it's usually not something you'd want especially for a game like CoD4 you could just use your TV as a monitor and a keyboard can be had for less than $20. You don't need anything special...yet.

 

No matter what you buy/build it's pretty much the same thing when it comes to putting it together. If you ever played with Legos then you have the basic concept down. This goes here, that goes there. Just have to be more careful since instead of indestructible blocks you're putting together hundreds of dollars worth of not-so-indestructible hardware. I suggest watching a few tutorials/guides on how to put a build together and whenever you do get it READ THE MOTHERBOARD MANUAL. Seriously. One cable unplugged or plugged into the wrong spot will have you freaking out and thinking you got faulty hardware. After 3 builds I still mess up so take your time and make sure you get as much cables out of the way of the fan as possible.

[PiaNist]

may I refer to you this website i found back when I was still researching about a possible build that fits the budget..it might give you an idea on your own budget build

[ronaldounit0]

If you ever played with Legos then you have the basic concept down.

Oh I've played (and I'll shamelessly admit that I still play at the age of 19) with Legos 

 

Thanks for the input Ze, Van, and Pianist! I'll do some more reading on it all to get a better idea of what I'll actually be doing. I won't be building my future machine until this summer at the earliest, but I had the itch to start planning! 

 

Again, thanks everybody for the help, it's much appreciated! 

[Jacker]

allright, here we go:

 

**i will only show amazon links - since i do not know where to buy stuff in the US! maybe other stores are cheaper/faster/whatsoever!**

 

1. we'll need some case, no matter what (since we don't want to look at it all day long!)

here's the cheapest one i found so far - Bitfenix, nothing special costs 55 dollars

 

2. lets go for a cpu - as we'll need to know what that is gonna be, in order to get mainboard, cooling, ram

to keep the price level low, i would choose that one: AMDs FX 4300 (4x3.8, turbo up to 4x4)-  costs 105 dollars (lets say this is A)

but since there are actually not really worse cpus from a generation before the FXs, you may choose this one: AMD Athlon X4 (4x3.4 GHz, turbo up to 4x4) - costs 80 dollars (and this is B)

 

since the (stock) coolers for these guys are pretty loud and ineffective, look for this big boy here: Cooler Master Gemin II Slim - costs 35 dollars

 

now we may choose a mainboard:

A Asus M5A97 R2.0 does a very good job in my built, brings a pretty good chipset - costs 94 dollars

B is a little cheaper - Asus A55BM-A/USB - coming in for 65 dollars (be aware this is older - and not better then A! will be enough for cod4 and stuff, but you will surely cry in crysis!)

 

after we know mainboard and cpu - let's go for some RAM - A supports up to DDR3-1866 (which is not necessary, you better go for some 1333!)

i found this set here: Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB - which you should set up in dual channel mode, makes them a little faster! - costs 65 dollars

 

giving it some hdd WD Blue 1TB for 55 dollars, which is enough space to save a huge lot of pawn there...

 

well, now comes the point, where we need to make a decision - do you want to have some great looking graphics AND performance, or do you go with one of them?

if you want to go with a solid, good and by the way pretty cheap one, choose a ATI/AMD 5770 HD which will beat the shit out of COD4 and some newer games as well! comes for around 80 dollars

 

now we have pretty much this left: 11 dollars in case A, and around 65 in case B.

 

keyboard - as long as you want some reliable, good working one, i would say this here is fine: Logitech G105 - costs 50 dollars...

 

anyways, there will not be much mpney left to get a monitor to this - and no OS...

 

 

As you may see from the first post i made - the configs are pretty much the same.

only the OEM Win7 saves the price on the prebuild system!

 

if you have the time to check out some components you want to install (and decide to choose some "older" parts) you may get some cool stuff together on ebay... normally ppl like me sell their "old stuff" there, when it's about a year old!

 

 

 

[excedo]

allright, here we go:

 

**i will only show amazon links - since i do not know where to buy stuff in the US! maybe other stores are cheaper/faster/whatsoever!**

 

1. we'll need some case, no matter what (since we don't want to look at it all day long!)

here's the cheapest one i found so far - Bitfenix, nothing special costs 55 dollars

 

2. lets go for a cpu - as we'll need to know what that is gonna be, in order to get mainboard, cooling, ram

to keep the price level low, i would choose that one: AMDs FX 4300 (4x3.8, turbo up to 4x4)-  costs 105 dollars (lets say this is A)

but since there are actually not really worse cpus from a generation before the FXs, you may choose this one: AMD Athlon X4 (4x3.4 GHz, turbo up to 4x4) - costs 80 dollars (and this is B)

 

since the (stock) coolers for these guys are pretty loud and ineffective, look for this big boy here: Cooler Master Gemin II Slim - costs 35 dollars

 

now we may choose a mainboard:

A Asus M5A97 R2.0 does a very good job in my built, brings a pretty good chipset - costs 94 dollars

B is a little cheaper - Asus A55BM-A/USB - coming in for 65 dollars (be aware this is older - and not better then A! will be enough for cod4 and stuff, but you will surely cry in crysis!)

 

after we know mainboard and cpu - let's go for some RAM - A supports up to DDR3-1866 (which is not necessary, you better go for some 1333!)

i found this set here: Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB - which you should set up in dual channel mode, makes them a little faster! - costs 65 dollars

 

giving it some hdd WD Blue 1TB for 55 dollars, which is enough space to save a huge lot of pawn there...

 

well, now comes the point, where we need to make a decision - do you want to have some great looking graphics AND performance, or do you go with one of them?

if you want to go with a solid, good and by the way pretty cheap one, choose a ATI/AMD 5770 HD which will beat the shit out of COD4 and some newer games as well! comes for around 80 dollars

 

now we have pretty much this left: 11 dollars in case A, and around 65 in case B.

 

keyboard - as long as you want some reliable, good working one, i would say this here is fine: Logitech G105 - costs 50 dollars...

 

anyways, there will not be much mpney left to get a monitor to this - and no OS...

 

 

As you may see from the first post i made - the configs are pretty much the same.

only the OEM Win7 saves the price on the prebuild system!

 

if you have the time to check out some components you want to install (and decide to choose some "older" parts) you may get some cool stuff together on ebay... normally ppl like me sell their "old stuff" there, when it's about a year old!

Why an old 5000 series card? He can get a cheap and good card 7750/7770 or R7 250, both around the 80-90 bucks.

 

Never buy old videocards. Since videocards are heavily driver related always take the newest out of it.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Motafied

[ronaldounit0]

So let's say that I am willing to spend as close to $500 (or even slightly above). So if the choice A is better and saves me $11, I think I'd go with this. But would the video card you mentioned be compatible with this setup Motafied? 

[excedo]

So let's say that I am willing to spend as close to $500 (or even slightly above). So if the choice A is better and saves me $11, I think I'd go with this. But would the video card you mentioned be compatible with this setup Motafied? 

With that setup Jacker mentioned, Yes it is.