Budget Gaming PC Build Guide Nov. 2009

Introduction

Many of us these days surf the web looking at gaming PC's and benchmarks, thinking to our self "someday I will build that". Well what some of you may not know is that you can build something similar (as in it will play all games at very high or high settings) for a fraction of the cost of those top of the line rigs out there. What i am going to show you is a rig built on a $600 budget and one built on a $400 budget, now the $600 PC is the one that will play games at the settings stated previously, the $400 will have its limits set lower.

Some people may not be confident in their ability to "build" a PC, but in reality its quite simple. Everything will come with some sort of instructions and it will virtually just fit into places kind of like legos. However, there's a couple things you may want to know before attempting your first build. An anti-static wrist band is highly recommended, it will protect the electrical components from frying while handling them. Also you want to make sure the screw driver you use does NOT have a magnetic tip, although that makes thing easier in most cases, it can cause harm to electronic components.

Budget Gaming PC Components $600 limit

• Processor - AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz Processor I chose this processor because it is a strong low power consumption processor with good overclocking abilities even with its stock cooler.
• Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H I am a big fan of Gigabyte motherboards, they have many good features that most others dont offer in the same price range, i chose this particular one because of the support of 1066 DDR2 RAM and two PCI express slots for future upgrade.
• Memory - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM 1066 I chose this RAM because the brand is reliable and also known for its ability to overclock well.
• Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB Hard drive should be plenty enough room for any gamer this also has a nice sized 32mb cache putting it up there on my list.
• CD/DVD Burner - Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R Its Sony what else can i say, really its just a good drive for a good price.
• Video Card - XFX Radeon HD 4870 512MB This card performs very well it will surely allow you to play Call of Duty 4 and similar games at the highest settings when paired with the other components of this rig, and it also comes with a double lifetime warranty.
• Case - Rosewill Conqueror This case has 3 nice big 120mm fans to ensure good airflow, it also has a nice solid construction. The power supply for this build happens to come with this case its 500 watts which should be plenty for this build. Please note that if you decide to upgrade to a second HD 4870 you may want to get a larger power supply to be safe.
• Keyboard/Mouse - Microsoft Comfort Curve This keyboard is comfortable to type on and will work for anyone who's not a hardcore gamer, same goes for the mouse.

Total cost - $557.93 That is not including shipping, however, it should still be under the $600 mark with shipping included

Budget PC Components $400 limit

• Processor - AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz I chose this processor because its basically the perfect budget dual core solution has plenty of power for moderate gaming and can be overclocked.
• Motherboard - ZOTAC GF8200-D-E This motherboard fits the budget and also has all of the specs and features any casual gamer would need.
• Memory - Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Crucial is a very well known brand for its reliability and price, great choice for any one on a budget.
• Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB Hard drive should be enough to satisfy any casual gamer.
• CD/DVD Burner - Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R Its Sony what else can i say, really its just a good drive for a good price.
• Video Card - Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB Although I have never used this card some claim that it will play some newer games at their highest settings very well, its definitely the way to go for anyone on a budget.
• Case - ARK 6099-CA Black Steel This case comes with a 400 watt power supply and has a couple of well placed fans, it should satisfy and casual gamers needs.
• Keyboard/Mouse - Microsoft Comfort Curve This keyboard is comfortable to type on and will work for anyone who's not a hardcore gamer, same goes for the mouse.

Total Cost - $372.93 That's without shipping, when i factored in shipping costs I got $403.27 just barely going over my $400 limit, but I believe the $3 isn't going to break the bank.

Now Both of these builds will in fact play all of the new games out now the $600 rig will out perform the $400 one of course. These builds do not factor in speaker or monitor costs, but I recommend you get a 20" moniter for the $400 rig and a 22" for the $600 for the best performance and quality (LCD wide screens is what I am referring to) they are quite affordable these days.

If anyone has any budget builds they would like to share I would love to hear what they got and their experience. I had just recently built my first PC and it is very similar to the $600 build shown here. I will write another blog about my first build and what I learned from it sometime in the next week or so. I can verify that the $600 build that is shown here can play some graphic intensive games with very respectable frame rates. I hope you found what you were searching for here and wish you all luck on future PC builds, have fun.