$500 gaming pc... Is it possible?

MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
edited January 2005 in Hardware
My friend needs a new computer badly... He's using a 600 mhz celeron system now, so pretty much anything he can come up with now is a HUGE upgrade.

He wants to be able to play games on this computer, and it was pretty hard to get down to 700... He's working on it now, I think he's changed his mind from the 9800 pro to a 9600 pro, and from a gig of ram to 512. So far it's an amd system, since they're cheap. He doesn't know much about computers, and when he feels his computer is slow he'll probably just go and get a new one, so I recommended a socket 462 cpu and mobo.

Any thoughts on this, guys? I think a 2500 or 2800+, 512mb ram, and a 9600 pro should be within reach. I'm fairly certain $500 is his limit.

Comments

  • Nickboxer7Nickboxer7 KC,MO
    edited January 2005
    If you want a cheap computer, my cousin and I built one pretty cheap. Just use Newegg.com or Tiger Direct.com. Socket A is fairly cheap and you can get a 2500 or 2800+ for pretty good price. You can also get a 9600 pretty cheap there too. If you're low on cash, you could go for a 9200, but only if you cant afford the better one. Also, you can go cheaper by getting a small, but big enough hard drive. You can also OC the 2500 to make it run like a better one and you can even OC the video card if you wanted to. You can get by pretty cheap if you do that. I hope I helped you some. Good luck. :thumbsup:
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited January 2005
    OK, assuming he's planning to reuse his case and psu and drives, you can build a pretty powerful system for $500. This is what I quickly found at Newegg:

    Shuttle AN35N-Ultra mobo -$64 - Good board with very good overclocking options and doesn't have problems with setting multipliers with mobile procs.

    Corsair Value Select 512 MB TwinPack PC3200 - $78

    XP2400+ mobile proc - $80 , good for at least 2300 MHz

    Thermalright SI-97 heatssink - $38.99 You scrounge up an 80mm case fan

    EVGA Geforce 6600GT-AGP vid card - $213.00 should give some headroom for future games

    Tax - $17.87 I figured to Louisiana, it might be different for you.

    Total cost - $491.86

    Of course, if you need to get a better psu or a hard drive or something, you will need to go with a cheaper vid card.
  • flyriceflyrice
    edited January 2005
    If you can skimp on vid cards, the ATI 9600s aren't bad for their price (I think they're down to a little over 100 bucks nowadays).
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