SourceEngine Games & General Useage PC for a budget of $800 or less.

ChernobylCow

ChernobylCow

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Hey there. My Dell XPS 710 motherboard died last night. Honestly I thought I would be pissed in this situation but I got a good two years out of it. I logged over 300 hours in Team Fortress 2 and hundreds more in other games. However, my PC needs and gaming habits have changed.

Here is what I imagine myself needing a new PC for:

(order of priority)
1) Internet surfing, day to day useage
2) Light gaming
a) Being able to still play Team Fortress 2 and L4D would be nice but not necessary. I've been moving into console territory heavily lately. And I have a library of old games that would take the place of the heavy hitters. Baldur's Gate, etc.
3) Uh, what the hell else is there? :bouncy:

So yeah, I'm about to buy an XBOX 360 for my central gaming system so I don't want to spend a shitload on a new PC. Honestly, I believe I could build my own rig and even harvest some of the parts from my current dead pc but I would like to go the easy route and just "buy" a new PC. But not from Dell.

What would you guys do in my situation (I just sort of fabricated the $800 value. If I could get something to meet my needs for $400 please explain. Or if I should splurge with $1000 do tell.)

Thanks.
 
[quote name='CoffeeEdge']Check this out:


Total cost: $421.88 after rebates, all shipped free. And that is everything you need (see footnote two posts down, however).

Buy these parts. Assemble the computer. Be amazed that you managed to get a computer this powerful, this cheap. Enjoy. Thank me later.[/QUOTE]

.
 
Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 - $50 AR
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W - $45 AR
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 - $120
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q SE/R - $85 AR
Memory: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 - $47 AR
Video card: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 1GB - $125
Hard drive: WD 640GB Black - $75
Optical drive: LG DVD Burner - $24

These are just some general ideas on what you should look for in your computer for your types of usage. The total comes to $570 after rebates, add $100 if you want to buy the OS as well. This all brings the system far below your $800 limit and will still be capable of running source engine games smoothly. If you want to up a notch you can get the HD 4870 video cards too, for around $50 more.
 
Moxio's build is almost there. Swap the 4830 for a 4770 and the E5200 for an E7200. Swap the case and PSU for a case that comes bundled with a PSU. Something Antec is a safe bet. It may be a few dollars more but it will be worth it.
 
man, there have been a lot of "help me build a pc" threads lately. maybe we can make a big one, have a mod sticky it, update the OP with various builds recommended by users.
 
[quote name='RAMSTORIA']man, there have been a lot of "help me build a pc" threads lately. maybe we can make a big one, have a mod sticky it, update the OP with various builds recommended by users.[/QUOTE]

Agreed, no offense to OP or any other build my PC people out there but this is getting cumbersome.
 
Yeah, it would be awesome if there was a sticky with the OP updated every month with a $500-800, $900-1200, $1200-1800 build list.
 
what good is a sticky gonna be?

you make a build within a budget tailored to your needs. prices change so fast that your quality build for 800$ will be cheaper and thus below budget (meaning room to spend on better parts) within a week or two. not to mention the amount of work and research that goes into making a build for yourself. i think you are expecting too much out of one of the least active boards if you're looking for a build every month in varying price ranges, and for those builds to be quality and well thought out, without just flat-out copying builds from an outside source, which is where people should be looking anyway.
 
That's why you *Ghasp* update the post. SOSTrooper made the post, we'll just continue to hone it and fine tune it. If a price drops we post it and it gets changed. If new parts come out we post it and it gets changed.

Even if we're copying builds from elsewhere the people who were going to post here won't have to.
 
Thank you very much for the quick responses.
I am typing this on the PS3 web browser and god is it finnicky.
I'll take these builds into consideration for sure but do any of you recommend a site for pc building newbies?
As I said, my mobo is dead but I really need the contents of the HD still in the pc (family photos). Is there going to be any way for me to recover that data? Like transferring the internal HD to another pc? My friend is looking the pc atm.
 
[quote name='Hydro2Oxide']Agreed, no offense to OP or any other build my PC people out there but this is getting cumbersome.[/QUOTE]

Except the right answers change every six months or so.
 
[quote name='ChernobylCow']Thank you very much for the quick responses.
I am typing this on the PS3 web browser and god is it finnicky.
I'll take these builds into consideration for sure but do any of you recommend a site for pc building newbies?
As I said, my mobo is dead but I really need the contents of the HD still in the pc (family photos). Is there going to be any way for me to recover that data? Like transferring the internal HD to another pc? My friend is looking the pc atm.[/QUOTE]

MaximumPC is sure to have many helpful guides.

Here, start on page 2. Page 1 is just recommending components, so they'll be referring to parts that you don't have, but the guide portion should get you rolling. http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/how_build_a_kickass_800_gaming_pc?page=0,1
 
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