Help building an inexpensive computer

S

Seabassns

CAG Veteran
I want to build a good inexpensive computer but i dont know where to go or how to do it. i figured this was the place to come and ask as it seems this site is dedicated to bieng a cheap gamer.
 
When you say inexpensive, you need to give us the maximum price you will pay for the computer. $900 is inexpensive to some people, $400 is inexpensive to other people. And tell us what games you will be playing, if you need a monitor or not.
 
At the very least tell us what you need the computer for - do you want something for basic web surfing / spreadsheet / word processing, do you want to do real-time HD video editing, or do you want to play Crysis?

Also, what is your budget? There are different price points you can target depending on what you want your computer to do. As an example, you could probably build a web-browsing PC for less than 300USD but even spending over 1,000USD may not be enough for a responsive HD video editing rig, so no sense targeting something you cannot realistically afford / will not spend the money on.

Finally, What hardware do you currently possess that you can use / reuse in this new computer? Monitor? Speakers? A generic wireless mouse? A Razer Copperhead? Telling us what you already have (if anything at all) means we can specifically focus on the parts you need (e.g. "...but I already have a wireless keyboard and mouse I can use", or ..."I forgot to mention I wanted to hook up the PC to my 42" Samsung HDTV so I don't really need a 24" TFT LCD") and make recommendations that maximize your bang for your buck. Or something like that.

Anyhow, I don't think anyone will be able to answer this question adequately for you unless they are clairvoyant, but I'm sure if you do let us know a bit more people will be able to help.

Edit: Like what SOSTrooper said.
 
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Thank you guys, that is exactly the kind of stuff i need to know. Im sorry i didn't mention that stuff. Im completely knew to this. I've always wanted to build a computer but ive always been to scared. Okay know to to business.

Mostly i want it for multimedia use. Music and Movie watching. I have 15 gigs of of music and i don't know how many movies and to record television. I'd like to be able to hook it up through my receiver and my HDTV so i dont need speakers or a monitor, or mouse or keyboard i got those too. For know i'd like to do some light gaming. A little bit of WoW, im not really sure if their is a pc game i want right now that i cant get for my 360, so i would like the option of gaming like command and conquer or halo wars those look good and people tell me they play better on the pc rather than the 360. Some video editing but not heavy. So mostly a multimedia computer. I was looking to spend about 500 but i could totaly spend more if i had too. I hope this is enough.
 
$500 should be enough. Here's a build I made really quick just by looking through newegg:
Motherboard: Foxconn G31AX-K $50
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz $120
Video card:ASUS EAH4850 TOP/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 $110
Memory:CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 $30
Hard drive:Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s $48
DVD Burner:Pioneer Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-R 32X CD-RW 40X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner $23
Power supply:Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply $35

Then just look through newegg's computer case section and pick out any ATX case you like and you should be set depending on what inputs your receiver has (this setup has DVI output which can also be converted to VGA if necessary, but you might need a sound card for your audio). It should come out to about $450-$500 and I'm sure it can run any game out there on fairly high settings. Then as far as actually building it, motherboards usually come with fairly good build instructions or else you can google build guides. Also if you need a copy of windows I think it costs a little under $100.
 
[quote name='DrFoo']$500 should be enough. Here's a build I made really quick just by looking through newegg:
Motherboard: Foxconn G31AX-K $50
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz $120
Video card:ASUS EAH4850 TOP/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 $110
Memory:CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 $30
Hard drive:Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s $48
DVD Burner:Pioneer Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-R 32X CD-RW 40X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner $23
Power supply:Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 Power Supply $35

Then just look through newegg's computer case section and pick out any ATX case you like and you should be set depending on what inputs your receiver has (this setup has DVI output which can also be converted to VGA if necessary, but you might need a sound card for your audio). It should come out to about $450-$500 and I'm sure it can run any game out there on fairly high settings. Then as far as actually building it, motherboards usually come with fairly good build instructions or else you can google build guides. Also if you need a copy of windows I think it costs a little under $100.[/quote]

Few things that struck me in this build.

Depending on the amount of Video recording he wants to do, he may want to slap in a bigger and/or another hard drive. Or maybe get some externals. Either way, 250gb will probably be used up fairly quickly.

Also of note - with 4GB of ram, some will be wasted, unless you get a 64-bit OS. With a normal 32-bit system, your computer will only read ~3.4 or so GB of ram. It's not worth going for cheaper ram to save a few bucks, as you won't save much, but it's something to be aware of when you're setting up your system.

The OP also mentioned a desire to do light gaming. As i'm willing to bet everyone on this forum can attest to, if you have a choice of playing a game on PC or on 360, the PC version is usually better. There are some exceptions, but in general, a PC game has a lot of benefits over 360. Easier to Mod, get updates faster, don't need to pay for Live to play, usually easier to find and get into a game...the most blatant example is Team Fortress 2. Compare the achievement packs and class updates PC has gotten with what the 360 has gotten.
 
[quote name='Salamando3000']
Depending on the amount of Video recording he wants to do, he may want to slap in a bigger and/or another hard drive. Or maybe get some externals. Either way, 250gb will probably be used up fairly quickly.

Also of note - with 4GB of ram, some will be wasted, unless you get a 64-bit OS. With a normal 32-bit system, your computer will only read ~3.4 or so GB of ram. It's not worth going for cheaper ram to save a few bucks, as you won't save much, but it's something to be aware of when you're setting up your system.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, you're right. OP, if you need more hard drive space than that just buy a larger one. You can get a hard drive three times that size for under twice the price just by looking through newegg. And I do also recommend buying 64 bit Windows Vista so that you can utilize more RAM. Vista 64 is just about on par with 32 bit Vista/XP and it is much better than 64 bit XP.
 
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I would take a look at some of the bundles at Tigerdirect. I've seen them have bundles that go as low as $199 after rebate. A couple of them looked like good deals, you just needed to buy some stuff to finish the machine like a cpu fan. I would suggest getting a different power supply though. The ones in the bundles aren't the better quality ones.
 
[quote name='DrFoo']Yeah, you're right. OP, if you need more hard drive space than that just buy a larger one. You can get a hard drive three times that size for under twice the price just by looking through newegg. [/quote]

Maybe I misread this but your saying that newegg has a 750gb hd for less than $24.
you are referring to the segate 250 @ 48 right?


@Seabassns
I run the 250 Segate in raid 0 with a Hitachi 1tb for all my random\important shit, so that's what i recommend. 1 or 2 smaller sub 320 gb hd for your OS and a seprate HD 500 and up for all your files just in case of HD\OS failure.
 
[quote name='Gspoon']Maybe I misread this but your saying that newegg has a 750gb hd for less than $24.
you are referring to the segate 250 @ 48 right?
[/QUOTE]
No I said for under twice the price, not under half the price. I think you can find 750gb drives for ~$80.
 
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