A Poor Man PC Build ($300 Price Range) Feedback? Suggestions? Comments?

[Woodhouse]

Ok, so like many people out there, I don't have a lot of money. I am quite poor and am currently a high school senior with a shit load of extra-curricular which leaves me with no time to get a legitament job. With that being said, I really can't afford to build/buy a $500+ gaming PC.

I've done a lot of research on the cheap PC builds, price to performance ratios, etc., and I've come up with this solid build. I myself have bought these exact parts and plan on doing so benchmarking to show the results. From what I've seen, a lot of build guides won't even have a graphics cards in the computer at this price. I'm not including a monitor, operating system (install Linux or just pirate a commercial os), or optical drive (not necessarily needed).

Please note that I don't necessarily prefer Intel over AMD or vice versa. It's just just that in my opinion for this particular build, Intel appeared the way to go.


CPU/Processor (Option 1): Intel Pentium Dual-Core G2020 2.9GHz LGA 1155

Price: $66

Link: Amazon.com: Intel G2020 2.9GHz 5.0GT/s 3MB LGA 1155 CPU Processor BX80637G2020: Computers & Accessories



Contrary to belief, you don't have to necessarily need to have a crazy, expensive CPU in order to get great results. A lot of your performance will depend on your GPU. You have much more wiggle room as far as pricing goes in this department. The G2020 is without a doubt a bang for you buck. It's definitely not an i5, but for this price, it's quite powerful and amazing.

CPU/Processor (Option 2): Intel Celeron G1620 2.70GHz LGA-1155

Price: $43

Link: Amazon.com: Intel Celeron G1620 2.70GHz LGA-1155 Processor BX80637G1620: Computers & Accessories



Has the top price to performance ratio among all processors. $43? Are you fucking kidding me? However, even with all of the ratios in the world, the cheaper it is, the lesser amount of performance you'll get. Around 8% less powerful than the other option, but if you really can't afford the 2020, go with it.

Here is the comparison between the two processors: Intel Celeron G1620 vs Pentium G2020


Motherboard: MSI H61M-E33/W8 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX

Price: $55

Link: MSI H61M-E33/W8 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS - Newegg.com



Nothing too amazing here. Is future proof (supports i3, i5, and i7) in the event that you upgrade. Low profile. No USB 3.0. PCI Express 3.0. 2 Memory slots expandable up to 16GB. Solid for the price.


Graphics Card: Radeon HD 7770

Price: $117 (after shipping via Tiger Direct)

Link: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 1GB GDDR5 Video Card: Computers : Walmar*****m



I really can't recommend a particular make of the card. Just find the best deal you can (discount, rebate, etc.). Overall, it's a solid card and should have you running games like DayZ, Battlefield, and COD on medium settings with decent frames. I had a bunch of gift cards which is why I went through Walmart. Just throwing it out there that I normally refuse to shop there. Though, technically it's Tiger Direct.


Power Supply: CORSAIR CX series CX430 430W

Price: $23 (after rebate)

Link: CORSAIR CX series CX430 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg.com



It's always a good idea to invest in a decent power supply even if you're on a budget. Don't want your whole rig going up in flames because of a cheap ass bundled PSU.


The rest of this stuff is really flexible/interchangeable. This is just what I picked up.


Case: Rosewill FB-03 Dual Fans ATX Mid Tower

Price: $30

Link: Newegg.com - Rosewill FB-03 Dual Fans ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with 1x Front 120mm Fan, 1x Rear 80mm Fan



Nothing too fancy. Comes with some stock fans which is nice. Fairly cheap. Why not?


RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866

Price: $39

Link: Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9S-4GBXL



Never get anything less than 4GB. Anything more is icing on the cake.

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200 500 GB 7200RPM

Price: $47 (after shipping)

Link: Amazon.com: Seagate Barracuda 7200 500 GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 16MB Cache 3.5 Inch Internal Hard Drive ST3500418AS-Bare Drive: Electronics



Gets the job done.

Total Price Range: $354 - $377

Well, there you have it. I'm sure you could get all of this much cheaper. I was just in a bind with those gift cards I had. Feel free to leave any criticisms or suggestions. I'll be posting benchmarks soon.

[KorkiPoo]

Doubt that you can really improve this setup with such a limited budget. Very good, would buy.

[HalfBajan]

You can buy components from walmart?
Man, we need one of those

[Woodhouse]

You can buy components from walmart?
Man, we need one of those

A Walmart? And yeah, I was really surprised. But dunno if it's worth it if you're not stuck with gift cards. Anything available on Tiger Direct can be searched for and bought off of the Walmart website. But I've yet to see a product with free shipping.