How to Build a $500 Gaming Machine

bacterial_pus writes "Tom's Hardware has a very interesting article on how to build a $500 gaming rig. 'Instead of the newest killer rig from Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo, etc... how about a system for the rest of us with a realistic budget starting from scratch? We set out to build a reasonable gaming system that will get you through today's game titles without breaking the bank for around $500.'"

Comments

Re:Linux

[StonedRat]

Did you miss the part about it being for gaming?

Pirates!

[jmorris42]

Uh huh. A gaming machine that doesn't run Windows? Or are they just yo ho ho pirates at Tom's and expecting everyone to be loading it up from the bootleg .iso of Windows XP Corporate Edition that 'everybody' has in their shoebox of warez?

Add that line item in and to stay on budget will require some drastic downsizing in everything else.

Oh, and I know they only cost $20 sans P/S but they also forgot a case. Idiots.

Re:Pirates!

[rkcallaghan]

Uh huh. A gaming machine that doesn't run Windows? Or are they just yo ho ho pirates at Tom's and expecting everyone to be loading it up from the bootleg .iso of Windows XP Corporate Edition that 'everybody' has in their shoebox of warez?

Oh, and I know they only cost $20 sans P/S but they also forgot a case. Idiots.

While I realize it was bad form not to mention it directly; neither of those items is exactly rare in the typical Tom's reader's closet. I've got a few legit Windows licenses and extra chassis. They're aren't hard to come by.

~Rebecca

Re:Pirates!

[Praxx]

Students at my university (who are also more likely to appreciate a $500 gaming rig) can get a Windows XP license for $6.

Re:Pirates!

[stud9920]

We're not in 1995 anymore. Everyone owns a PC. Now if you build a modern PC, you won't need the old anymore, and good luck selling the old one.

Only in Microsoft's wettest dreams is it not allowed to reeuse a copy of windows on a newer PC.

Re:Pirates!

[xSauronx]

The thing is, honestly, that they left those things out so that they could tout a $500 gaming machine as something worth reading so they could attract traffic to their website. A number of hardware sites have been doing rigs for years at multiple levels, especially budget machines, but i dont recall any of them leaving out necessary parts or accessories so they could use the "sub-$500 gaming rig" headline in an attempt to attract traffic to their site.

Toms did, and now slashdot has directed traffic to them. I dont recall seeing an update on the front page of /. last time ArsTechnica or Anandtech put up budget rigs, which anyone with some common sense could easily look at and say "oh i dont need a new case or monitor for this, ill spend even less on a budget rig!" just so they could attract traffic.

Re:Pirates!

[ChrisGilliard]

Oh, and I know they only cost $20 sans P/S but they also forgot a case. Idiots.

Who needs a case? See?

Re:Pirates!

[antifoidulus]

Meh, ,who needs a case when you can just use a pumpkin!

Re:Pirates!

[ottothecow]

The average gamer is going to probobly have their preffered monitor/keyboard/mouse and simply no longer have a system capable of playing the newest games.

They have all their software and accessories but they just dont have enough muscle for the newest stuff so they need new internals and nothing else.

Re:Pirates!

[Solkre]

That's true, but you just screwed yourself on upgradability.

I'm probably running on my last version of this setup (939 board) and that's because this mobo doesn't have a PCI-E slot. It's a great machine, it's just not upgradable for the future.

I don't think it's wise to build a new machine that you don't think you'll be able to upgrade at least once. Also the idea of budget game machines makes me think of those people who'd come into my shop needing upgrades for the newest Sims. Gag I swear the Sims caused more computer upgrades than newer versions of Windows.

Re:Pirates!

[Decker-Mage]

I beg to differ on your second point. I've moved my Windows Server 2003 Enterprise from one system to another with no problem and it hasn't required anything except that I do one of two things: completely fill out the registration information before I click on Activate or give Microsoft a call. the same is true with Windows XP Pro here as well and yes I have called them when I've been at one of my remote machines or at a clients and are moving things over and it bounced for some strange reason. Actually they are quite nice over the phone when you explain what you are doing.

Oops, I forgot. This is Slashdot. Microsoft is evil, they can't ever be nice. Sheesh!

Re:Linux

[slackmaster2000]

Dude, you haven't experienced gaming until you've played Tux Racer at 300fps! ;)

Tommy, can you hear me?

[winkydink]

Did you forget something? Are you sure? Uh, the case?

the punchline

[randyest]

Couldn't find a printable link, so to save you from 8 clicks on "next->" and more ads than I could count (they went over budget by $16.49):

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ $146
Motherboard: ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 $69
Memory: Corsair Value Select 512 MB (2x 256 MB) $52
VGA: eVGA 256-A8-N340-TX Geforce 6600 256 MB $113
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80 GB $57.50
Optical Drive LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM $19.99
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12-330 ATX12V 330W $59.00
Total: $516.49

For those who can be bothered reading TFA

[Timesprout]

1 Pay 498$ for XP licience
2 Pay 1$ bus fare to nearest alienware retailer
3 Throw brick through retailers window (If you buy a brick it breaks the budget so steal one)
4 Grab demo model and run (you can call this pc liberation if makes you feel better)
5 Pay 1$ bus fare home
6 Happy gaming

Re:For those who can be bothered reading TFA

[Alsee]

Hmmm.... Pay 498$ for XP but steal a fricken' BRICK.

We are the BSA and we approve this message.

-

Re:Calling all whores

[Anonymous Coward]

Seeing as I had it in another tab at the time:

Part Product Price
Processor AMD Athlon 64 3000+ $146
Motherboard ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 $69
Memory Corsair Value Select 512 MB (2x 256 MB) $52
VGA eVGA 256-A8-N340-TX Geforce 6600 256 MB $113
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80 GB $57.50
Optical Drive LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM $19.99
Power Supply SeaSonic S12-330 ATX12V 330W $59.00
Total $516.49

A Few Omissions

[Chasuk]

Most of us find a keyboard and a mouse useful on our gaming rigs, and a pair of speakers, and oh, I don't know, an OS, a case, and possibly even a monitor.

A $500 gaming rig? Not quite!

And then there's how to game for $500

[Nom du Keyboard]

And then there's how to acquire a gaming machine for less than $500.

PS2
XBox
Nintendo GC

And coming soon:

PS3
XBox 360

Remember that they were building a machine only for gaming too in that article.

Re:And then there's how to game for $500

[Skye16]

Shh! You're not supposed to ask questions like this. Console proponents hate when you point out that an RTS or FPS completely sucks ass on these "gaming systems".

The moment you bring it up, the moment they go into a tizzy about how those game types suck anyway and you should just be happy with other types of games, 'cos, hey, they are, and they don't feel like they're missing out on anything.

What works for them has to work for you. Or else!

Re:And then there's how to game for $500

[Stormwatch]

You forgot the Dreamcast, you insensitive clod!

Re:And then there's how to game for $500

[Rasta Prefect]

FPS doesn't suck on consoles. I'm sure you hate Halo 2, but there is a reason it's sold over 5 million copies.

FPS sucks on consoles. Halo 2 has sold a lot of copies because it's the best FPS available for a console. This does not in anyway negate the suckage of FPS on consoles.

Re:And then there's how to game for $500

[VGPowerlord]

Because we all know how much Goldeneye sucked on the N64... (Prove that you hate karma by giving me some good mod points)

Yes, it did. It really shows if you've ever played an FPS on a PC prior to playing Goldeneye. Goldeneye feels like you're stuck in molasses.

In addition to Goldeneye being so freaking slow, the mouse is much better at turning and aiming than a gamepad is. There's no noticable limitation on how fast you can turn with a mouse.

I know someone is going to bring Halo up, so I'll beat you to the punch:

The PC version will feature a faithful port of Halo's acclaimed story-based campaign that won't be changed in any substantive way. However, conventional mouse and keyboard controls give PC players an advantage that would make the game too easy if the difficulty settings weren't rebalanced somewhat. Pitchford mentioned that the harder settings might need the most tweaking, since the legendary difficulty should still be terrifically hard. Bungie is working closely with Gearbox and has provided some insight on how to maintain the game's balance.

Source: Gamespot Article Halo PC Update, emphasis mine.

Exactly what did they change?

However, the team found that the simple step of removing the auto-aim assistance from the game (necessary to compensate for the inaccuracy of the joypad) ramped the difficulty up sufficiently, and no other balance changes were required.

Source: Eurogamer Halo PC Preview

Re:And then there's how to game for $500

[portscan]

what FPS was better than goldeneye at the time it came out?

Re:And then there's how to game for $500

[portscan]

quake 2 came out 3 months after goldeneye, so i will spot you that they were roughly contemporaneous. there was nothing near as good as goldeneye when it came out. quake 2 was the standard for a while, but goldeneye got a whole generation of gamers into FPS games. Wolfenstein, Doom (I or II), and even Quake were nowhere near as good, and the multiplayer for Goldeneye was actually awesome. Yes, it was a bit sluggish if you didn't have the memory expansion, but if you tried to play Doom III on an ATI Rage 128 Pro, I think you would complain that it sucked, too. Obviously it's a matter of opinion, but there are many people who do not share your viewpoint that Goldeneye was bad. Some refer to it as the greatest game of all time. Some just the best FPS, and some just the best console FPS. These are all opinions. Personally, I think Perfect Dark brought many welcome enhancements.

Console gaming is just more fun for some people, plus it's way cheaper. Personally, I like the social aspect of several friends sitting around the TV playing games, not all hooked up over the internet (with PC gaming, only 1 user can really use the system at a time). If you have a big TV, split screen is not a big deal. Sorry to ramble on. Your points are all valid--I just respectfully disagree.

Dell Coupons

[BrookHarty]

Check out Dell coupons, do a google search, dell has some good deals as long as you dont buy upgrades from them. Monarch or Newegg are my favorite low cost, and top pricewatch listings for lowest price.

I wanted a Dell 24inch LCD, Dell had a dual core 2.8ghz system with 24 LCD for 1199. So, basically I got the computer for a 2-3 hundred above a 24 inch on sale. Or free on normal prices. (160 HD, Dual DVD/DVR, ATI 300, system)

I picked up a 7800 GT/OC for 350, almost 7000 3dmark, every game can run 1900x1200 or 1600x1200 with AA/AF on. And it included Call of Duty 2.

Figured I can always build an AMD X2 system later and put the GFX card in it, and bump upto 8500-9000 3dmark, next year when the prices drop.

I missed running dual core, since my dual P3-800, so nice.

Great Cheap Gaming System

[davidwr]

If you want a "great" inexpensive gaming system just pretend it's 3 years ago but pay today's prices.

The best games of 2002 aren't all that bad.

Want cheaper? Keep dialing back the clock.

Re:Great Cheap Gaming System

[Sponge Bath]

Want cheaper? Keep dialing back the clock.

2330 PRINT "WEATHER REPORT: A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM"
2340 PRINT "HIT LEMONSVILLE EARLIER TODAY, JUST AS"
2350 PRINT "THE LEMONADE STANDS WERE BEING SET UP."
2360 PRINT "UNFORTUNATELY, EVERYTHING WAS RUINED!!"

Re:Linux

[EnronHaliburton2004]

Does Tux Racer at 300fps count as gaming? ;)

Oops, 512MB isn't enough

[slackmaster2000]

You can always scale back graphics to bump up fps, but some of these new games are so memory intensive that 512MB just isn't cutting it anymore. I certainly regret making the decision to do 256x2 in my machine...especially since upgrading to gig and maintaining dual channel means I have to buy 2 sticks of 512. Bummer. Swapping is something I've had to deal with in a number of games, from HL2 to BF2. It's not terrible, but enough that I do have to go and shut down a lot of stuff I run at startup before playing to minimize it. I would spend the extra dough on a gig right off if I had to do it over.

This article assumes (hopefully intentionally) that you're reusing a bit of stuff from your last machine...I mean, a *case*, mouse/keyboard, monitor, speakers, etc. Money might be found for more memory then by recycling a hard drive and CDROM/DVD drive.

Re:Linux

[gbulmash]

Dude, you haven't experienced gaming until you've played Tux Racer at 300fps! ;)

Yes, but then the "Linus Is God" subliminal message, coming every 35th frame, would go by too fast to register.

Re:Corners have been cut

[gbulmash]

The Gaming-tuned WINE variant is called Cedega. I've also read some comments that it kicks Crossover Office's butt on running productivity apps, but I haven't seen any reputable pubs do a head-to-head on them.

- Greg

www.sharkyextreme.com

[JoshRosenbaum]

I usually check out www.sharkyextreme.com for some information on systems built to a certain price. It has a few different options like low-end, gaming, high end. (Don't exactly remember.) Helps a bit even if they aren't one of the top hardware sites. I've always found their guides to be very useful.

Here's some real budget gaming advice

[Achra]

Well, this story is just junk.. But here's my 2 cents. Buy enough cheap ram to upgrade to 512mb. Make sure that you have a machine that runs in the neighborhood of 2ghz (P4/Athlon XP). Purchase an ATI Radeon 9500Pro ($40ish on ebay). This should be enough to be able to play Doom 3 and the other modern titles. No, they won't look great, but they will certainly be playable. I'm on a rig like that right now, and it runs Doom 3 at 1024x768 with specular lighting at around 30fps.
As a general rule of thumb when purchasing a video card on a budget, always buy yesterday's performance model rather than today's budget model.

Ars Technica

[Kesh]

I'd rather use the Ars Technica System Guides. They tend to be a bit more realistic and don't hype up a specific price point. Plus, they get all the components in. ;)

Their Budget Box is comparable to the one Tom's built, and actually includes all the necessary parts in the price.

Don't read this article, please.

[inkdesign]

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ $146
SRock 939Dual-SATA2 $69
orsair Value Select 512 MB (2x 256 MB) $52
Geforce 6600 256 MB $113
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80 GB $57.50
LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM $19.99
SeaSonic S12-330 ATX12V 330W $59.00
Total $516.49

There's the article, without a bunch of bullshit.

Dunno wtf they expect you to do without a case though.

3 gamer computer guides for 3 budgets

[g_adams27]

Sharky Extreme does this kind of thing on a regular basis, usually every month.

Value Gaming System Buyer's Guide ($1000 budget)

High-end System Buyer's Guide ($2,500 budget)

Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide ($4,000 budget)

Of Course No Case

[matthewcraig]

Many comments have mentioned the case and keyboard and mouse and monitor and speakers were not included. Of course, they were not included because PC gamers building a new system already have another computer. These peripherals are assumed to be present in computer gamers' enviornments. The article did not include prices on a chair for sitting upon, but I will assume a gamer probably already has this peripheral. They don't need help purchasing one because if they didn't have a chair or a case or a keyboard, then they surely know it and can go buy it without the help of a computer purchasing walkthrough. These peripherals have not changed in decades, and Tom's Hardware does not include it in their gaming-rig loadouts.

Re:Can anyone read? It's an UPGRADE

[VGPowerlord]

RTFA

It clearly says "Instead of the newest killer rig from Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo, etc... how about a system for the rest of us with a realistic budget starting from scratch?" on the very first page.

Just how CLUELESS are you people? It's an UPGRADE!

[WidescreenFreak]

Okay, folks. Let's look through what we have so far in this thread - a number of people complaining about no monitor, keyboard, mouse, or case.

Did it ever occur to any of you that all of those items are what WE CURRENTLY HAVE? Look at the parts list that he's building up in the review. It's evident that he's talking about UPGRADING a current system on a shoestring budget!

Keyboards, mice, monitors, and cases can remain consistent through any upgrade. They neither improve nore degrade performance. HOWEVER...

A new processor is obvious.

Depending on how old your current system is, a new motherboard is probably required for the new CPU.

New memory is also often required in order to take advantage of faster buses. (No smart-ass comments about public transportation, please.) Although I personally would not recommend anything less than 1 GB for gaming or 2 GB if you plan on playing Battlefield 2.

A new video card is obviously needed for a lot of newer games, and the 6600 has a very good price/performance ratio right now.

A new hard drive is always a good idea for several reasons. (A) Price/GB is always dropping. (B) More storage is always good. (C) A new drive allows the ability to transfer data from the old hard drive more efficiently than making a backup to DVD. (D) New hard drives are just about guaranteed to be faster than older hard drives, especially if there is a multi-year difference between the two.

Everything that he mentioned in the article are what are needed to get yourself a "new" gaming system. A new case, keyboard, mouse, and monitor are not needed. The main internals that matter are clearly what he's talking about. So, it should have been evident that the article is about UPGRADING a current system, not buying a whole new gaming system from scratch!

News?

[Ma3oxuct]

What the hell is wrong with Slashdot today. This article is dated the 14th of October. This is not news; the prices have changed if you browse the 'net a bit now. On top of that the article was rather stupid as so many have pointed out.

REAL sub $600 gaming rig

[sarareku]

AMD Semperon 3000/ECS NFORCE3 A combo: Fry's %80
Western Digital ATA133 80 GB HDD: Fry's $50
1 GB OCZ DDR400 RAM [2X512]: Fry's $100
Sony 16x DVDRW Dual Drive: Walmart $70
Samsung DVDROM 16X OEM: Micro-Center $20
Diamond/Stealth ATI Radeon 9550 256MB DDR: Micro-Center $65 [easy to overclock]
Turtle Beach Catalina 7.1 Soundcard: Fry's $35
MGE M1 Gamer Case with 450W Power Supply: Micro-Center $50
2X CoolerMaster Case Fans: Micro-Center $10
Antec Slot Fan/Blower: Micro-Center $5
Windows XP Home Upgrade: Wal-Mart $89 [All you need is an old Windows 9x/ME/NT or system restore disc to use as full]

After tax, a tiny bit under $600, not cheaping out on anything [this system has a good burner, a real sound card good for gaming and HT, twice the amount of RAM dual channel at that, and happens to have a case and proper cooling, 0h, and a legal operating system] If you bought all these parts online or ebay, I'm sure you could do even less than what I did.

And Tom didn't even count in shipping or tax..loser. Someone could counter his system "performs better", but I seriously think the difference in performance would be very marginal, with twice the system and video ram, less intergrated parts, and better though cheap cooling.

Thoughts on sub-$150 Graphics?

[rsilvergun]

Is it just me, or is it getting harder and harder to buy a decent card for less then $200? I gotta say, I miss the days of $99 Voodoo Banshees. Heck, if you ask me cards in the $100 range should at least play last years games at 800x600x60fps, and a lot don't. Nvidia's and ATI's naming schemes don't exactly help here either (I especially like how ATI 8500s are faster than many 9200s and the ever increasing alphabet soup trailing off Nvidia card names).

Re:Thoughts on sub-$150 Graphics?

[stilz2]

Actually there are quite a few decent, budget cards to be found. I myself just recently purchased a refurbished Leadtek 6800LE online. Even at stock speed, it should be able to handle most games fine at mid-high quality settings at 1024x768 resolution. These cards are quite popular with the budget overclockers/gamers, as there's chance to unlock their hidden 8 pixel pipelines and 2 vertex units. In my case, I was only able to unlock 2 vertex units, but with stock cooling the card went up to 400mhz core and 800mhz memory. It is no 6800gt/ultra, but still plenty fast for $95. But yeah, if you ask me I'd still say the best bang for the buck gaming system for $500 is an Xbox360/PS3.

This isn't difficult.

[Oz0ne]

Any entry level budget PC which can be had a Frys, Compusa, Walmart, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc etc for about $200, with an upgraded video card and MAYBE upgraded ram will run today's games.

No it won't run them at top resolution at 120fps... but who cares. Anything above 30fps is very playable. Anything above 60fps is just pure gravy.

Why pay retail?

[Ndkchk]

If I'm building a system with a budget like that, I'm not going to pay sticker prices for all of this. Here's a system that's better than that for the same price--actually, a little less.

CPU: AMD Athlon64 3000+ Venice core, $139 at Newegg.
Motherboard: Foxconn NF4K8AC-RS-1.0, $65 at Newegg, and with the processor, $5 off, taking it to $199.
RAM: Buffalo Select 512MB DDR 400, $32.25 after rebate at Newegg.
Video Card: Connect3D Radeon X700, $70 after rebate at TigerDirect. Or, if you're Nvidia, try the XFX Geforce 6600 256MB, $102 at Newegg.
Hard Drive: Seagate 250GB 7200RPM 8MB, $70 after rebate at TigerDirect.
Optical drive: NEC 3540A DVD+/- DL, $39 at Newegg.
Power Supply: Antec SmartPower 2.0 400W, $55 at Newegg, and it won't catch fire when you put something else in that system, unlike their power supply.

Now, with the Nvidia card you're at $497.25 after all rebates and before shipping. With the ATI, $465.25, leaving enough for another 512 MB of RAM so FEAR will actually run.

So we have 250 GB of hard drive space, a DVD burner, more RAM, and a real power supply, all for under $500, leaving you that $15 they went over for a cheap case. Enjoy.