Cheapest gaming comp?

[DL402]

Whats the cheapest gaming comp that will be able to play games like half life 2 in medium-high settings.

 

[Rage187]

Probably around $400-500

 

[DL402]

$400-500 built or bought from a company?

 

[CalamitySymphony]

Built, or if you get a good deal from Dell. (outlet, coupons, hot deals).

 

[DL402]

Are those $500-$700 computers from ibuypower or cyberpower a good deal?

 

[Rage187]

$400-500 build it yourself.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: DL402
Are those $500-$700 computers from ibuypower or cyberpower a good deal?

Without looking, I'd say no.

 

[bamacre]

Best bet for a pre-built

Or build your own...

Antec Mini Tower SLK1650B 350W ATX Case
$72.39
ewiz.com

MSI K8NGM2-L nForce 410/GeForce 6100 Athlon 64(FX)/64 X2 Dual-Core Skt939 DDR
$72.00
ZipZoomFly.com

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor (Venice) Socket 939 Retail
$159.80
ZipZoomFly.com

Corsair VS1GBKIT400 1GB Kit DDR400 PC3200 CAS2.5 Value Select Memory Retail
$82.49
ZipZoomFly.com

Western Digital WD Caviar WD800JD 80GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer
$55.80
ZipZoomFly.com

NEC ND-3550
$42.49
Newegg.com

Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO FireBlade Edition PCI Express 256MB DDR3
$155.95
ZipZoomFly.com

Total: 643.43 shipped. Doesn't include OS, KeyB/Mouse.

 

[Fenixgoon]

if you want to save some more, go with a socket 754 and a sempron 64. cpu/mobo cost me 105 total 🙂

socket754 sempron 64's can overlock like no tomorrow. people have often got 2.4ghz on stock cooling. i run at 2.0, but could probably get 2.4 if i changed some settings around

this is assuming you wont ugprade in the future. i have an x800 pro and run almost all my games maxed out

 

[RussianSensation]

$299
Now just add 1 gig of ram and 6600GT. Still gonna be around $500.

 

[i1o0i]

http://www.e4me.com/products/products.html?prod=T6216]

I recommend this one ^. just add one more 512mb ram and x800gto

 

[v8envy]

Just picked up the cr1710nx from CompUSA. $405 with tax, 250 in rebates. So, final cost will be about $156, including shipping/postage/tax.

Socket 939 Sempron 3400+ (2 ghz, 128k cache, dual channel capable)
Asus motherboard (unknown make) with custom no-overclocking BIOS, 2 SATA 4 PATA channels
4 PC3200 slots, comes with 1 PC3200 256 meg stick, CL3, infineon.
PCIe slot (yay!)
Delta 250 watt PS
combo cdrw drive
ATI X200 IGP video, which is pretty comprable to an X300 and TC6200 (read: some new games will run in low res, low detail, low eyecandy, no FSAA)
XP home license
100G Maxtor SATA drive

So, to turn this into a gaming machine:

$50-ish -- Power supply. Although this one might be able to handle lower end video cards, 14 amps on the 12 volt rail looks good.
$55 -- 1G of ram.
$120 -- 6600GT. I'm hoping for another sub-$100 X800 or 6600GT deal, or some other cheap alternative.

So when the dust settles, watching sales and hot deals can resulted in about a $325-375 gaming machine capable of playing new games, at least at low settings and low res.

I happen to have a bunch of PC3200 sticks lying around which were bought FAR or cheap after rebate years ago, and a few spare PS by Antec and Sparkle. So my cost for this box after the dust settles will be below $300.

 

[alimoalem]

go build a system for $500. don't get prebuilt

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: alimoalem
go build a system for $500. don't get prebuilt

:thumbsup:

I have a couple of "nice" emachines laying around (waiting to be sold), and the quality just isn't there. It's still a cheaply-made computer. These two I have are T6524's, a $650 system, and the design is horrible compared to a Dell XPS 400 (same as Dimension 9150).

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: alimoalem
go build a system for $500. don't get prebuilt

:thumbsup:

 

[foodfightr]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

Originally posted by: alimoalem
go build a system for $500. don't get prebuilt

:thumbsup:

Go with a geforce 6600 graphics card... its an amazing value card.