Build a better $500 gaming PC than the XBox One

[ultimatebob]

Inspired from the Console Gaming forum, I thought that it would be fun to try to build a $500 "gaming" PC that could play most new gaming titles in 1080p resolution like the XBox One can.

To make things a bit more challenging, remember that the XBox One comes with a camera, a microphone, and a gamepad. I'll leave it up to you if you want to include a Windows license in your build. I didn't.

Anyway, here is what I quickly came up with. I know that some of my component choices are dicey, but I was focusing on price over quality:

Motherboard: $43

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157361

CPU: $40 (Yeah, it's slow. But so is the AMD Jaguar)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819106013

Silly looking 8 GB memory: $53

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231455

500 GB Hard Drive: $54

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822149380

BluRay drive: $49

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136268

Case with a 400W power supply: $39

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811121125

Radeon 7790 Video Card and a Free Game: $89 (Plus I can boost this speed with the crappy integrated Llano video. Woot!)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131490

Web Cam with Microphone: $19

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826158168

Keyboard and Mouse: $13

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823176008

Gamepad: $22

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826104402

WiFi Adapter (Since the XBone has WiFi built in): $10

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833704045

OS: FREE (Linux)

My craptastic quickie build total comes to $430. This is nowhere near Microsoft's build quality, but the performance should be similar. All you need is a couple of good hardware sales, and you could substitute better quality parts and STILL get this build under $480 with tax and shipping included.

And, hey... if Mantle turns out half as good as AMD promises it will, this rig will only get faster a few weeks from now 🙂

The guys at PC Perspective took on this challenge as well. I think that I did better than they did, since I remembered to add the WiFi, gamepad, BluRay, and camera.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Systems...g-PC/Why-Go-PC

 

[Essence_of_War]

The peripherals kill you. BR alone is 10% of your starting budget. If you want all of that stuff, you're actually talking about a budget of $380ish, closer to $300 if you also want a windows license, as most AAA titles aren't available for linux yet.

So $300 of actual hardware that contributes to the playing of games? Without including things like "steal an i5 from your unsuspecting neighbor" everyone's build will be the same: The lowest tier APU, the dodgiest of motherboards, a low-mid-tier dgpu, not enough RAM, a cheap and borderline dangerous case + built-in PSU. :\

 

[DaveSimmons]

Sony and MS cheat. Sony's own cost for the PS4 is very close to $400. To be apples to apple you'd need to pay Newegg's own cost for parts not what they sell the parts for. MS also gets Windows for free and blu-ray software for just the license cost ($10?).

So for a fair fight you should be giving yourself a hardware budget of $500+ to match the PS4 and more for the X1, and not paying for the OS or blu-ray software.

If your answer is "but you can't get Newegg's wholesale cost" then consider that the games cost $10+ less for PC, and there is no $40+/year cost for online play. X1 / PS4 pricing is subsidized like buying a cell phone on contract.

 

[ultimatebob]

The peripherals kill you. BR alone is 10% of your starting budget. If you want all of that stuff, you're actually talking about a budget of $380ish, closer to $300 if you also want a windows license, as most AAA titles aren't available for linux yet.

So $300 of actual hardware that contributes to the playing of games? Without including things like "steal an i5 from your unsuspecting neighbor" everyone's build will be the same: The lowest tier APU, the dodgiest of motherboards, a low-mid-tier dgpu, not enough RAM, a cheap and borderline dangerous case + built-in PSU. :\

The XBone comes with 8 GB of memory. That's enough for most games right now.

500 GB of storage is a pretty sad amount for a modern PC, though.

 

[oranos]

Sorry but to me this is "how to build a really crappy 'gaming' pc" for $450. Will not be anywhere close to same gaming performance as xbox one let alone a $400 ps4.

 

[Joeydubbs]

Sorry but to me this is "how to build a really crappy 'gaming' pc" for $450. Will not be anywhere close to same gaming performance as xbox one let alone a $400 ps4.

Agreed, even though the hardware "specs" may seems equivalent, programming will not be. In two years the xbone will be in its prime with developers learning how to get more out of the hardware, the rig you have listed "might" be able to play current titles...

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I do not think it is a fair comparison to build a $500 gaming PC vs. an XO. First, how many of you gaming on a PC only game on the PC and nothing else? Can you open M$ Office, Photoshop, etc., etc., etc. on the XO? Nope. Can you do this easily on a gaming PC? Of course you can.

So, ask yourself how much would you spend on a PC, and then add $500 worth of components and upgrades to make it a PC that can also game.

 

[Stone Rain]

Here's a build for you:

AMD Athlon II X4 760K: $89.99 @ Newegg. Quad-core, unlocked, punches above its' weight. It's an A10 APU without the integrated graphics.

MSI FM2-A55M-E33 motherboard: $39.99 @ Newegg. Highly reviewed on Newegg, from a respected motherboard manufacturer. Supports up to 32gb of RAM and has 4 SATA 3gbps ports.

G.Skill Sniper DDR3-2133 RAM 8gb: $52.99 @ Newegg. Cheapest 8gb kit around right now, and kickass RAM on its' own anyway.

Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive: $64.99 @ Newegg. Good hard drive, lots of space. Double the Xbone.

MSI Radeon HD 7850 2gb GDDR5 GPU: $139.99 @ Newegg, before the $30 rebate. This GPU will murder the Xbone's GPU, and match the one in the PS4.

Corsair CX430 PSU: $49.99 @ Newegg before the $10 rebate. Decent PSU, modular, commonly used in low end builds.

HEC Enterprise case: $24.99 @ Newegg before the $15 rebate. Cheap as it can get, but surprisingly well-rated.

So far we are at $462.93 *before* our rebates. Factoring in rebates, we are at $401.92. Now let's go for peripherals.

Note: I am not including an optical drive. PC gaming doesn't really use them anymore, and OS's are installed from a thumb drive. Adding an optical drive just because the Xbone has one is silly: the xbone has one because console game companies want you to use disks that you can break easily.

OK.

Rosewill RNWD-N1501 802.11n wifi dongle: $5.99 @ Newegg.
Rosewill RK-01 keyboard: $6.99 @ Newegg.
Rosewill RM-P2U mouse: $3.99 @ Newegg.
Gear Head USB webcam: $6.99 @ Newegg.

Before rebates, we're at $486.89. After rebates, $433.85.

On its' own its' a solid build. However if we take advantage of the rebate...we can upgrade our GPU to a Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 2gb GDDR5: $200.00 @ Newegg.

After rebates, we are brought to $491.89 for the whole shebang. A system with a 7870, X4 760K, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive is way better than either console.

How's that build for ya.

 

[mfenn]

Note: I am not including an optical drive. PC gaming doesn't really use them anymore, and OS's are installed from a thumb drive. Adding an optical drive just because the Xbone has one is silly: the xbone has one because console game companies want you to use disks that you can break easily.

No, I'm quite sure that the console manufacturers would rather omit the optical drive entirely. They want to force you into their DRM scheme and make you re-buy the same game as many times as possible and don't want the secondary market sapping sales.

 

[ultimatebob]

Here's a build for you:

AMD Athlon II X4 760K: $89.99 @ Newegg. Quad-core, unlocked, punches above its' weight. It's an A10 APU without the integrated graphics.

MSI FM2-A55M-E33 motherboard: $39.99 @ Newegg. Highly reviewed on Newegg, from a respected motherboard manufacturer. Supports up to 32gb of RAM and has 4 SATA 3gbps ports.

G.Skill Sniper DDR3-2133 RAM 8gb: $52.99 @ Newegg. Cheapest 8gb kit around right now, and kickass RAM on its' own anyway.

Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive: $64.99 @ Newegg. Good hard drive, lots of space. Double the Xbone.

MSI Radeon HD 7850 2gb GDDR5 GPU: $139.99 @ Newegg, before the $30 rebate. This GPU will murder the Xbone's GPU, and match the one in the PS4.

Corsair CX430 PSU: $49.99 @ Newegg before the $10 rebate. Decent PSU, modular, commonly used in low end builds.

HEC Enterprise case: $24.99 @ Newegg before the $15 rebate. Cheap as it can get, but surprisingly well-rated.

So far we are at $462.93 *before* our rebates. Factoring in rebates, we are at $401.92. Now let's go for peripherals.

Note: I am not including an optical drive. PC gaming doesn't really use them anymore, and OS's are installed from a thumb drive. Adding an optical drive just because the Xbone has one is silly: the xbone has one because console game companies want you to use disks that you can break easily.

OK.

Rosewill RNWD-N1501 802.11n wifi dongle: $5.99 @ Newegg.
Rosewill RK-01 keyboard: $6.99 @ Newegg.
Rosewill RM-P2U mouse: $3.99 @ Newegg.
Gear Head USB webcam: $6.99 @ Newegg.

Before rebates, we're at $486.89. After rebates, $433.85.

On its' own its' a solid build. However if we take advantage of the rebate...we can upgrade our GPU to a Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 2gb GDDR5: $200.00 @ Newegg.

After rebates, we are brought to $491.89 for the whole shebang. A system with a 7870, X4 760K, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive is way better than either console.

How's that build for ya.

Nice build, although that WiFi dongle and webcam look like total rubbish. 🙂

I gotta dock some points for not having a BluRay drive, though. Netflix's streaming movie selection just isn't good enough to go without an optical drive yet.

 

[wilds]

I wouldn't be surprised to see PS4/XO slim varient in the next few years with a 1tb hard drive and no blu ray drive.

Sorry, but I agree that including a blu ray is redundant for a gaming PC because disks have been replaced with digital downloads for games and movies.

I also think that games will be of higher fidelity on both consoles than a 7850 in a few years.

I wouldn't bother trying to build a sub $500 gaming rig to replace the new consoles; but rather one-up both of them. Whatever $500 rig is built today, will not live as long as either PS4 or Xbox One.

FX-8350 or i7-4670k
R9 290 or GTX 780

Still, wicked awesome how much bang for our buck buck we can get. I mean, both GPUs I list essentially cost the same as the consoles!

Tough decisions all around....