Gaming PC for $399.00-$499.00

[Rozalia1]

for Xbox price you can get double the power if you use the correct parts, even with consumer prices that are above that of bulk buying manufacturer prices.

Sadly Strazdas has not ponied up the details so I'm left to ask you guys on what they are. Twice the power of an Xbox One at $399 is pretty darn good and would make a hell of a gift (a little on the expensive side for a gift, but hey I think it'd be a nice one) for my brother or father (already got a nice enough PC that I got for more than $399). As it'll come up I'm sure I'll just say they'll need windows 7.

No idea if he meant $399 or $499 so I put both. I hope it isn't a US only thing too as a lot of the sites with prices like that don't ship to GB sadly.

 

[IceForce]

Beginning with a random quote from some other person is a really weird way to start a thread.

What is the point of this thread exactly? To name and shame someone for something they said?

If you want to address something someone else has posted, address it in the thread they posted it in.
If the thread has been locked, message them over a PM instead.

 

[Rozalia1]

Beginning with a random quote from some other person is a really weird way to start a thread.

What is the point of this thread exactly? To name and shame someone for something they said?

If you want to address something someone else has posted, address it in the thread they posted it in.
If the thread has been locked, message them over a PM instead.

I have addressed it there several times, but what you're saying is neither here nor there. I'm interested in cheap PCs, though not for myself as I said in the OP.

 

[ZCAB]

It's easy to build a PC that's twice as powerful as an Xbox One or PS4 on paper, and it can be managed in the proposed budget range. However, because this raw power is used much less efficiently on PCs than on consoles, it doesn't translate directly to better graphics or performance.

Building a PC from scratch for $400 or even $500 will not allow you to play any (non-indie) game that's currently available on PS4 and\or X1 at the same level of graphical detail or performance. This has everything to do with how the games are optimized, and nothing with how powerful the PC actually is. It doesn't mean these games can't still look nice or run more than adequately (if worse than the PS4 and X1 versions) on a $500 PC, either.

I think the price range for a PC that could actually meet \ exceed the graphics and performance of PS4 and X1 games is from $750 to about $1000 or even more for the particularly bad ports.

 

[Rayce Archer]

$600 dollars is how much you want to spend, minimum, on a gaming PC. Why? Because any lower is going to require cuts to your most expensive component, the CPU, and going with an old CPU will have unforseen limitations. Sure, most games ignore it and just depend on the GPU, but if you decide "hey, Core2Duos are cheap!" then your choices in motherboard, and by extension RAM and drive-cable standards will suffer.

Most sub-400 "gaming" PC builds you see squeak by on a CPU from years ago, and will have appropriately ancient performance in anything that isn't wholly dependent on the GPU. You'll also be totally un-future-proof, meaning you'll be upgrading sooner.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

You can basically buy each part for around these prices:

-Motherboard ~$75
-CPU ~$80 (you'd have to get an Athlon quad-core, which is basically an A-series APU w/o built-in GPU)
-RAM ~$40-65 (4GBs to 8GBs, you'd probably want the 8GBs though)
-HDD ~$50 for 500GBs, I NEVER have a system with just ONE HDD because a HDD will crash.
-Video Card ~$100 (maybe $75) I don't know video card prices that well but my rule of thumb is get the best one you can find for around $100. You can easily spend $500 on a video card. The video card is the one area where you don't want to go as cheap as possible.
-DVD Burner ~$20
-Case and Power Supply ~$80-100
-Monitor ~$100

That's $520 total buying at all the lowest price points I've given with no shipping or tax. Getting the 8GBs of RAM, 2 HDDs, $25 more on the video card, and extra $20 on the power supply & case would be another $120, then the price jumps up to $640 total. If you don't like AMD, you'd probably have to go AT LEAST another $120 for an Intel chip.

Like ZCAB said you can build a PC with much better specs but that won't equate having the game looking that much better either because the PC is running Windows and the game.

Also, it would probably be best to wait at least a year because there's going to be a decent jump in PC specs when you start getting games whose developed wasn't started with PS3/360 hardware in mind. I'd wait to see what hardware a Witcher 3, The Division, Batman Arkham Knight, etc. needs to play WELL on PC so the PC will be future-proofed for at least current gen.

 

[Jiggle Counter]

I used to work at a computer wholesaler, and $499 is a bit low... That's like buying a Nissan Micra for the Le Mans. It's totally DO-able, but you won't get great results.

1. There's a lot of graphics cards with cheap and nasty coolers where they idle at 60 degrees.
2. I'd never risk a gaming rig on a cheap power supply. The last thing you want is the 12v rail burning up from hours of gaming.
3. Windows costs between 80 and 100 something, depending on where you buy it from.

 

[anthony87]

What is the point of this thread exactly? To name and shame someone for something they said?

Literally the first sentence typed by the OP is:

Sadly Strazdas has not ponied up the details so I'm left to ask you guys on what they are.

Maybe take a few seconds to not be so snippy next time eh?

 

[Lilani]

for Xbox price you can get double the power if you use the correct parts, even with consumer prices that are above that of bulk buying manufacturer prices.

Sadly Strazdas has not ponied up the details so I'm left to ask you guys on what they are. Twice the power of an Xbox One at $399 is pretty darn good and would make a hell of a gift (a little on the expensive side for a gift, but hey I think it'd be a nice one) for my brother or father (already got a nice enough PC that I got for more than $399). As it'll come up I'm sure I'll just say they'll need windows 7.

No idea if he meant $399 or $499 so I put both. I hope it isn't a US only thing too as a lot of the sites with prices like that don't ship to GB sadly.

Wait, wait, waitwaitwaitwaitwait. WAIT. Did you seriously create and ENTIRE thread to call out ONE user? I don't care if Strazdas was claiming you could make a gaming PC from pocket change and a stick of gum, that is incredibly rude and a fast way to incur mod wrath. You could have asked about assembling a gaming PC on that budget without quoting Strazdas to draw attention to your little quarrel. The fact that you did directly quote him to bring him into this shows a good part of this is "Hey, help me prove another user wrong."

 

[Remus]

for Xbox price you can get double the power if you use the correct parts, even with consumer prices that are above that of bulk buying manufacturer prices.

Sadly Strazdas has not ponied up the details so I'm left to ask you guys on what they are. Twice the power of an Xbox One at $399 is pretty darn good and would make a hell of a gift (a little on the expensive side for a gift, but hey I think it'd be a nice one) for my brother or father (already got a nice enough PC that I got for more than $399). As it'll come up I'm sure I'll just say they'll need windows 7.

No idea if he meant $399 or $499 so I put both. I hope it isn't a US only thing too as a lot of the sites with prices like that don't ship to GB sadly.

Wait, wait, waitwaitwaitwaitwait. WAIT. Did you seriously create and ENTIRE thread to call out ONE user? I don't care if Strazdas was claiming you could make a gaming PC from pocket change and a stick of gum, that is incredibly rude and a fast way to incur mod wrath. You could have asked about assembling a gaming PC on that budget without quoting Strazdas to draw attention to your little quarrel. The fact that you did directly quote him to bring him into this shows a good part of this is "Hey, help me prove another user wrong."

Just stop already. He didn't create the thread to call out a poster. He created the thread to get PC specs for around $500 and the post by Strazdas most accurately expresses the question which, I can assume, was not answered in the thread that the post came from. With the amount of console hate I've seen on these, and other forums, this is really no surprise.

On building a new PC for that price, one huge thing to consider is peripheral parts. Monitor, keyboard, mouse, midtower. And then a copy of your choice of Windows for another $80-100.This can easily add another $300 to your cost if you don't have these parts and software already available. It's easy to throw together a similarly-powered computer to consoles if you're building it in a void and not considering the toll that the Windows OS will take simply by running on it. So while I'm not going to list parts, because I honestly don't think you can get the same performance for the same price, I will say, maybe consider adding a couple Benjamins to pad it out and get parts that won't break in a week or month.

 

[Sight Unseen]

I saw this a while ago and they built a PC for the same price as an xbox one- I don't think it was TWICE as powerful but it was definitely BETTER

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

I would suggest OP, that the strategy of building a PC that is more powerful than consoles is a waste of your time and a bad idea all together from the trouble and time it would take for you to do so. If you are up to that point, you might as well invest more money ( 750-900) in order to build yourself a 1500 machine. This is because you would have a game rig that would last you probably longer than the console would because if you build a strong up-gradable base ( Mobo, CPU, Power Supply, tower), then all you would need to do is upgrade as things evolve.

One person's suggestion as to what you put into it may not be the best because sometimes you can be able to get a real nice part at a discount if you keep hunting for good sales. One thing you don't want to cheap out on though is your CPU, Mobo, and GPU. Many times your GPU will be as expensive as a PS4 depending on what your wallet will let you get and what kind of power you want to play with but blow your PS4 away in leaps and bounds.


Keep in mind if you are patient person, you may invest 900 or so in a machine but the point is you get it part by part and spread out the expense so its easily manageable. You can also buy lesser grade peripherals such as mouse, keyboard, monitor until you can afford to upgrade those. You can also use a slightly lesser hard-drive for instance or 2 ( 4 ) Gig sticks = 8Gig Ram before you would want to go to 16Gigs ect. These choices cut the price down a lot so once you get the meat and potatoes situated, you can then complete your rig as needed.

That has been my experience.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

But if your going to build a game/multi-purpose machine, you might as well go for broke to get your effort/$$$'s worth.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

PC Users will occasionally overstate how inexpensive it is to get a console-lapping machine up and running. While it is hypothetically possible to build an extremely inexpensive gaming machine...if you have a line on good, cheap parts...if you're comfortable assembling it yourself...if you get a line on a good system from yesteryear off Craigslist...etc, etc, etc...if you're going to the store TODAY you're probably spending closer to $1000 than $500 to get a machine you're comfortable with, especially if you're starting at zero (I.E. no pre-existing tower, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc, stuff that a lot of "BUILD IT CHEAP" manifestos often hand wave).

The thing to keep in mind about buying a PC is that you can, over time, upgrade here and there, beefing up bottlenecks or swapping out for newer, faster, more efficient hardware. By the time that XBOX One or PS4 is 3-4 years old, your PC will be so far beyond it in terms of capabilities you'll start coming to the forums and making angry threads about how game aesthetics and performance is shackled to a four year old console instead of your NASA level gaming rig.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

"you're probably spending closer to $1000 than $500 to get a machine you're comfortable with, especially if you're starting at zero (I.E. no pre-existing tower, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc, stuff that a lot of "BUILD IT CHEAP" manifestos often hand wave)."

I agree, getting the strong start will indeed cost you. Starting from zero, I think the best I was able to cut it down to was at 960.00.

Its pretty tough to find a sale on graphics card or the CPU... maybe 10 bucks off but most people won't budge to far and rightly so.

Of course the selection between making an AMD powered machine or a Intel powered one already will set the price range.

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

monitor, speakers

Apart from these two points I agree with what you're saying. If you're buying a console you generally have a TV, so you wont have to buy a monitor or speakers.

If you're a first time pc builder, it'll be extremely difficult to buy a proper strong computer for the price point of a X1 or PS4, so if you've never built a computer before you can pretty much ignore the people saying it's super easy.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I saw this a while ago and they built a PC for the same price as an xbox one- I don't think it was TWICE as powerful but it was definitely BETTER

That's a horrible gaming PC with no room to upgrade. It only has a 300W power supply and a dual-core Pentium. With consoles being 8-core now, games are going to start utilizing the quad+ core CPUs much more, that Pentium is going to be shitty very soon. The AMD GameSpot build is such a better machine.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

Twice as powerful? Well, PC specs are difficult to quantify, it is not exactly like horsepower or torque for cars. But yeah, you can build a PC that is equal to or superior to the Xbone for about that price. You may have to leave out the Bluray player, and if you are gaming, it is never a good idea to cheap out on things like keyboard and mouse, but essentially it is easy.

This is the first generation where at the time of launch, PC specs met or exceeded the console specs, dollar-for-dollar. The largest single cost of all is Windows, as your selection of playable games will be drastically limited without it. Assuming you already have a retail copy of Windows and a reasonable monitor, it is easy to do.

Apart from these two points I agree with what you're saying. If you're buying a console you generally have a TV, so you wont have to buy a monitor or speakers.

If you're a first time pc builder, it'll be extremely difficult to buy a proper strong computer for the price point of a X1 or PS4, so if you've never built a computer before you can pretty much ignore the people saying it's super easy.

Basically, you are right, buying consoles saves on a copy of Windows, a monitor, speakers, case, mouse and keyboard. Except for Win8 however, you can get these reasonably cheap used, and even 1920x1080 monitors have really come down in price.

I am reasonably poor, but at the start of this year I build a gaming PC that more or less matches the consoles for about $450 USD. In the end, the price can be a matter of finesse, though. Waiting until you find a good sale and then assembling all the parts yourself is necessary, and some people simply do not have the time or energy to do this.

 

[Bad Jim]

I think it is better to spend a little more. In particular, a 500GB hard drive is not much cheaper than a 1TB one. Top end is a bit wasteful, but if your new PC scrapes the minimum specs for new releases you'll want a new one before long, whereas a mid range PC will last many years.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

Well games don't really require 8 Cores, from my research ( and maybe I am wrong as I just got into building PCs) but I think the most they use is 4-5 Cores. Of course you are probably better off getting an 8 core anyway because presumably, you'll use your PC more than just to play games even though a good part of the PC would be for gaming.

I would agree that 300w power supply isn't going to cut it at all. You'll quickly need something far more larger very fast. Your best bet in a corsair line of power supplies in my opinion, somewhere in the 850w + range.

You are also better off getting a 1TB HD as well though you could get a 500GB HD if you wanted to cut costs and apply a 1TB later...or have both at some point. No wrong way to do it.