Whats the least amount you can spend on a PC that will run most current 3D games?

[Arkitech]

I'm trying to build a PC for someone who does'nt have a lot of money but they would still like to be able to play the most recent games.

 

[Rifter]

does he have a monitor and keybord mouse speakers etc. already? or does he need everything.

 

[Arkitech]

They don't have anything yet

 

[Rifter]

well then, you could probably through it together for 700-1000 US$. And that should last about a year or so being able to play most games well, will try to give a components list when i get home from work, dont have time right now.

 

[dullard]

Just got finished with that topic somewhere last week. I think $450 + monitor cost should do the trick.

Originally proposed by Klashe:

$68 AMD 800 Athlon Tbird, slot A
$67 FIC AZ11 Mobo
$17 128 Meg PC133 Generic Memory $67 20.0 GB West Digital Hard Drive $24 56x IDE CD-ROM $40 Sound Blaster Live Value! $21 250 Watt Case $109 Geforce 2 GTS $5 Mouse $10 Keyboard
Total: $428 + monitor + shipping

I think if you really want to go the budget route try this:
Buy these parts new,
$68 AMD 800 Athlon Tbird, slot A $67 FIC AZ11 Mobo $17 128 Meg PC133 Generic Memory $109 Geforce 2 GTS
Buy a $25 used computer at Good Will and take some parts, 4.0 GB Hard Drive 24x IDE CD-ROM Sound Blaster 250 Watt Case Mouse Keyboard

Total: $286 + shipping + monitor. You can get free shipping sometimes, and monitors start at around $100. So for $400 you can have a machine that can play almost any game now available.

 

[wyvrn]

Well if you are going for cheap, this is what I recommend. I tried not to sacrifice quality for price though, because if you do you will regret it:

Case
55

Mobo
76

Duron 800
49

256 PC133
47

20GB HDD
84

DVD drive (games will be moved to this format eventually)
65

Floppy
16

ATI Radeon LE (flashable to full DDR)
80

MX400 soundcard
24

Modem
15
or
NIC
16

3pc. speakers
40

Keyboard
19

Logitech Optical Mouse
18

CPU fan
18

17" Monitor
193

Total:

$800 (without tax and shipping charges)



That is just from one of my favorite stores, I am sure you could find better pricing if you looked around a bit. I included 256 RAM becase a lot of games hit the swapfile otherwise. I picked a nice quality case and monitor because you are going to keep those even when you upgrade the computer, so might as well get them right the first time.

 

[erub]

ack, slot A! pay the few extra dollars and get a kt133a motherboard and a duron...

 

[Boonesmi]

man i would really stay away from a slotA
you can get a good socketA for $90 (epox 8kta3) and it will run current durons/athlons and the next generation of athlons

 

[dullard]

<< ack, slot A! pay the few extra dollars and get a kt133a motherboard and a duron... >>



Just going for real cheap there, yes some quality was sacrificed. But it still should run almost any game now available.

 

[MrBond]

My celery 300/a at 450 ran every game that came out up until this month (when I build a new one). No fancy hardware, all on an abit board. This was with my TNT1, although I did upgrade to a GeForce2 GTS right before the new PC. The TNT1 ran B&amp;W, Tribes2, UT, and Quake3 very nicly. It lasted me at least two years, maybe more (I forget when I built it).

 

[LuciferHaze]

How about this:


ABIT-KT7A
Duron @ 950MHz
32MB DDR-SDRAM GeForce2 GTS
Generic Mid-tower case w/300w power supply
30 GB Fujitsu 5400 rpm UATA66 hard-drive
SB Live! Value
17&quot; TTX-1770 .27mm monitor