How do I build a gaming PC?

[The White Hunter]

$299.99 gets me an Xbox 360, which plays games well enough. Where can I get a PC that plays games as well as that, or better, for the same price? I have Sub-Zero intrest in building one myself, so thats not really an option.

I'm not really sure on the price of components at the moment, especially not Stateside, but I imagine it should be possible. However, the 360 is seriously out of date now, you'd be better off spending more and getting a machine that's future-proofed for the next 2-3 years or so and can play games at far better settings than the xbox.

AMD A10 5800K APU with a good motherboard, 400W gold rated PSU, entry level chassis, $30 on an air cooler, fastest RAM the motherboard supports and get 8GB of it. I'd look up the specifics but yeah, will likely beat the XBox at 720p handily, even plays stuff in glorious 1080p.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

$299.99 gets me an Xbox 360, which plays games well enough. Where can I get a PC that plays games as well as that, or better, for the same price? I have Sub-Zero intrest in building one myself, so thats not really an option.

This guy appears to have your answer, but I'd get it checked out by somebody with more time than myself.

$299.99 gets me an Xbox 360, which plays games well enough. Where can I get a PC that plays games as well as that, or better, for the same price? I have Sub-Zero intrest in building one myself, so thats not really an option.

I'm not really sure on the price of components at the moment, especially not Stateside, but I imagine it should be possible. However, the 360 is seriously out of date now, you'd be better off spending more and getting a machine that's future-proofed for the next 2-3 years or so and can play games at far better settings than the xbox.

AMD A10 5800K APU with a good motherboard, 400W gold rated PSU, entry level chassis, $30 on an air cooler, fastest RAM the motherboard supports and get 8GB of it. I'd look up the specifics but yeah, will likely beat the XBox at 720p handily, even plays stuff in glorious 1080p.

 

[The White Hunter]

CPU: i5-4670K £220 (wild guess; maybe £280 for the i7-4770K)
Motherboard: some Z87 thing £150 (wild guess)
Graphics card: Sapphire 7870HD GHz Edition 2Gb Tahiti £174.99 (not quite sure about this one)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x8Gb 1600MHz DDR3 £107.99
SSD: Samsung 840 250Gb £125.99 (could save a lot by going 128Gb, but...)
Hard Drive: Western Digital 2Tb Caviar £71.99 (but need to check RPM)
Case: Cooler Master CM Storm Enforcer £65.99 (really want a Silverstone RV03 £104.99, though)
Cooler: Gelid Tranquillo Rev 2 £22.13, although might need something better to cool Haswell (maybe BeQuiet! Shadow Rock Pro £35.99; liquid SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME)
PSU: Corsair HX750 Modular £107.50
Optical drive: Pioneer BDR-S07XLT £63.61 (or ditch the Blu-Ray and just go DVR-S20LBK for £16.50)
SATA cables (x3): some cheapos £1.79; Akasa do a decent one for £4.43, but need to check SATA-III compatability on everything
OS: already got so don't actually need ;-)

All told: £1107.36. That's the cheapest parts from four suppliers (Aria, Scan, eBuyer and Overclockers); factoring in work discounts on some parts can get me down to £1062.06.

If I go all one supplier for convenience, Aria comes out best at £1140.40.

I would be pretty sure about the graphics acrd you've chosen then, though I've heard bad things about the Sapphire models, the Power Color equivelant I've heard good about though and aria have it for £166.

Also, I forgot this: OP,if you're on a tight budget, say £700, I would highly recommend considering an AMD FX chip, an FX 4350 or 6350 ideally, since the motherboards are generally more feature rich than their intel cousins and you have an upgrade path in steamroller. But definately don't bother with Ivy Bridge at this point, Haswell is gonna be better and is like, a week off.

 

[The White Hunter]

$299.99 gets me an Xbox 360, which plays games well enough. Where can I get a PC that plays games as well as that, or better, for the same price? I have Sub-Zero intrest in building one myself, so thats not really an option.

This guy appears to have your answer, but I'd get it checked out by somebody with more time than myself.

$299.99 gets me an Xbox 360, which plays games well enough. Where can I get a PC that plays games as well as that, or better, for the same price? I have Sub-Zero intrest in building one myself, so thats not really an option.

I'm not really sure on the price of components at the moment, especially not Stateside, but I imagine it should be possible. However, the 360 is seriously out of date now, you'd be better off spending more and getting a machine that's future-proofed for the next 2-3 years or so and can play games at far better settings than the xbox.

AMD A10 5800K APU with a good motherboard, 400W gold rated PSU, entry level chassis, $30 on an air cooler, fastest RAM the motherboard supports and get 8GB of it. I'd look up the specifics but yeah, will likely beat the XBox at 720p handily, even plays stuff in glorious 1080p.

Thats a pretty rough answer btw, you also need a hard drive and an OS, but I can't imagine you don't have a hard drive somewhere to gut out of something. Or the A6 or A8 would be a cheaper option. And I didn't have time to check either, so yeah.

 

[Azriel Nightshade]

$299.99 gets me an Xbox 360, which plays games well enough. Where can I get a PC that plays games as well as that, or better, for the same price? I have Sub-Zero intrest in building one myself, so thats not really an option.

This guy appears to have your answer, but I'd get it checked out by somebody with more time than myself.

$299.99 gets me an Xbox 360, which plays games well enough. Where can I get a PC that plays games as well as that, or better, for the same price? I have Sub-Zero intrest in building one myself, so thats not really an option.

I'm not really sure on the price of components at the moment, especially not Stateside, but I imagine it should be possible. However, the 360 is seriously out of date now, you'd be better off spending more and getting a machine that's future-proofed for the next 2-3 years or so and can play games at far better settings than the xbox.

AMD A10 5800K APU with a good motherboard, 400W gold rated PSU, entry level chassis, $30 on an air cooler, fastest RAM the motherboard supports and get 8GB of it. I'd look up the specifics but yeah, will likely beat the XBox at 720p handily, even plays stuff in glorious 1080p.

Ooooh a nice answer :3 This pleases me. When I get the cash I'll take you up on this.

 

[Kinitawowi]

I would be pretty sure about the graphics acrd you've chosen then, though I've heard bad things about the Sapphire models, the Power Color equivelant I've heard good about though and aria have it for £166.

Sapphire's usually seen me fairly well, to be honest. Aria's equivalent that I was looking at was the XFX Double D at £185.99; the reason for the uncertainty is that Logical Increments suggests that 7870-tier may be the weak link in the build, possibly pointing me more towards a 660, 670 or even a 7950 or 7970, all of which are a little the wrong side of the price line (but then, this is a "fuck it" build...).

Also, I forgot this: OP,if you're on a tight budget, say £700, I would highly recommend considering an AMD FX chip, an FX 4350 or 6350 ideally, since the motherboards are generally more feature rich than their intel cousins and you have an upgrade path in steamroller. But definately don't bother with Ivy Bridge at this point, Haswell is gonna be better and is like, a week off.

Ivy Bridge is going to be interesting; either it'll stay where it is and be boring and dull, or the Haswell launch might drive Ivy Bridge prices down a little. Either way, Haswell isn't entirely smooth sailing for an upgrade route - rumours still persist that Broadwell will be when it all goes soldered BGA (which is why I'm toying with the i7-4770K).

 

[Requia]

I would suggest you just buy a computer on newegg, its more expensive to buy all the parts individually and put it together.

Lol no. I charged a 200$ markup when I built gaming PCs for hire, and still undercut weaker prebuilt systems. Prebuilt stuff is cheap if you want something to check email and Facebook with, but the second you start talking about decent hardware specs (or even just soemthing with a motherboard and CPU that you can add a graphics card and more RAM too) the prebuilt prices increase astronomically.

 

[freakonaleash]

I would suggest you just buy a computer on newegg, its more expensive to buy all the parts individually and put it together.

Lol no. I charged a 200$ markup when I built gaming PCs for hire, and still undercut weaker prebuilt systems. Prebuilt stuff is cheap if you want something to check email and Facebook with, but the second you start talking about decent hardware specs (or even just soemthing with a motherboard and CPU that you can add a graphics card and more RAM too) the prebuilt prices increase astronomically.

The people who sell those pre-built computers buy all their parts in bulk. A computer with an i5 processor, 8bg RAM, 1TB harddrive and a 2 gb GPU is around $680-$720 on newegg. Put all the parts you need individually to build that computer in your cart and its gonna be quite a bit more. Even though they are charging a premium, the cheaper cost of production still gets you the computer cheaper than if you built it.

 

[Requia]

I would suggest you just buy a computer on newegg, its more expensive to buy all the parts individually and put it together.

Lol no. I charged a 200$ markup when I built gaming PCs for hire, and still undercut weaker prebuilt systems. Prebuilt stuff is cheap if you want something to check email and Facebook with, but the second you start talking about decent hardware specs (or even just soemthing with a motherboard and CPU that you can add a graphics card and more RAM too) the prebuilt prices increase astronomically.

The people who sell those pre-built computers buy all their parts in bulk. A computer with an i5 processor, 8bg RAM, 1TB harddrive and a 2 gb GPU is around $680-$720 on newegg. Put all the parts you need individually to build that computer in your cart and its gonna be quite a bit more. Even though they are charging a premium, the cheaper cost of production still gets you the computer cheaper than if you built it.

Bulk matters for the fringe stuff, CD Roms, cables, cases. Newegg's markups aren't high enough to save money buying wholesale. If they're getting better prices, its via shoddy ass power supplies and motherboards.

And those specs you agave are essentially meaningless, is it a Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge i5, what clock speed? Intel makes some good shit, but they have very dodgy branding, and you can easily end up with a pile of crap with the same brand as the actual high end GPUs. What's the actual GPU, given that you can have a 2 gig card and nothing even close to being able to run games, but most mid-high cards are actually 1 gig. And hell, the GPU isn't even that meaningful without knowing its up to spec, there's a lot of underclocked cards carrying the premium labels out there, and Nvidia in particular is horrible about putting the boots to the people that sell them. How about the chipset, its it an actual Z77 (really, the only reason to buy Intel in that price range) that will have future proofing when you go to upgrade your graphics card in 4 years, or are you going to need a whole new computer instead of a 150$ card?

(of course, all of this is probably good reason *not* to build your own too, there's a shitload of landmines when it comes to part selection).

 

[Kinitawowi]

The people who sell those pre-built computers buy all their parts in bulk. A computer with an i5 processor, 8bg RAM, 1TB harddrive and a 2 gb GPU is around $680-$720 on newegg. Put all the parts you need individually to build that computer in your cart and its gonna be quite a bit more. Even though they are charging a premium, the cheaper cost of production still gets you the computer cheaper than if you built it.

Well, let's do a quick compare and contrast.

I've specced out my planned build above. If I go i7-3770K (pre-overclocked; about £60 more than I'm looking at, including overclocking cost), a Z77 mobo (about £10 less), a GTX 670 (about £100 more), half the RAM (about £50 less), half the SSD (about £60 less), the DVD-RW instead of a BD-RW (about £50 less) and a liquid cooler (about £30 more), I get roughly Aria's Gladiator Diablo [http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gaming+Range/Intel+Gamer/Gladiator+Diablo+670+i7-3770K+4.60GHz+OC+Gaming+PC+?productId=54502] build, which comes in a fuck ugly case (no sane person should build in a white case - this is going in my bedroom, not the kitchen), costs more than my bottom line and is doing the usual prebuild trick of skimping on a couple of components; in this case, using the single cheapest GTX 670 they sell and trading down to a bronze-grade Corsair PSU rather than the gold. It also neglects to mention anything about the OS, whether it needs one or not.

In other words, shopping around and buying parts both works out slightly cheaper (for me), provides the satisfaction of building it yourself, and is pretty much guaranteed to land you all the exact parts you want.

 

[Woodsey]

Walk through the valley of ashes, and beg.

Or tell a small computer parts shop your budget and have them do it for you.

I would suggest you just buy a computer on newegg, its more expensive to buy all the parts individually and put it together.

No, it isn't.

 

[The White Hunter]

I would be pretty sure about the graphics acrd you've chosen then, though I've heard bad things about the Sapphire models, the Power Color equivelant I've heard good about though and aria have it for £166.

Sapphire's usually seen me fairly well, to be honest. Aria's equivalent that I was looking at was the XFX Double D at £185.99; the reason for the uncertainty is that Logical Increments suggests that 7870-tier may be the weak link in the build, possibly pointing me more towards a 660, 670 or even a 7950 or 7970, all of which are a little the wrong side of the price line (but then, this is a "fuck it" build...).

Also, I forgot this: OP,if you're on a tight budget, say £700, I would highly recommend considering an AMD FX chip, an FX 4350 or 6350 ideally, since the motherboards are generally more feature rich than their intel cousins and you have an upgrade path in steamroller. But definately don't bother with Ivy Bridge at this point, Haswell is gonna be better and is like, a week off.

Ivy Bridge is going to be interesting; either it'll stay where it is and be boring and dull, or the Haswell launch might drive Ivy Bridge prices down a little. Either way, Haswell isn't entirely smooth sailing for an upgrade route - rumours still persist that Broadwell will be when it all goes soldered BGA (which is why I'm toying with the i7-4770K).

Just to be clear I mean the 7870 Tahiti LE things, not the standard 7870. The 7870 Tahiti cards really hit that sweet sweet pricing spot and perform amazingly well in crossfire, the only drawback is that stutter with crossfire, hopefully that alpha build driver tomshardware were playing with on their 7990 review will hit soon though.

Yeah by the time I get a job Haswellw ill be here and if Ivy Bridge drops in price I may actually be interested in it more, eespecially if the motherboards drop in price too. I hope that that isn't true, but I think it's more likely that intel will have both options available and just keep it's sockets as an enthusiast option, and likely that'll be too pricey, I mean socket 2011 is amazing but it's also a rather pricey proposition.

 

[The White Hunter]

Gladiator Diablo build, which comes in a fuck ugly case (no sane person should build in a white case - this is going in my bedroom, not the kitchen)

Urgh that chassis is utterly disgusting. More OEM's need to start using some sleek, subtle Scandinavian cases.

God damn Fractal know how to make silent towering obelisks, so subtle they belie the beast beneath...

 

[The White Hunter]

$299.99 gets me an Xbox 360, which plays games well enough. Where can I get a PC that plays games as well as that, or better, for the same price? I have Sub-Zero intrest in building one myself, so thats not really an option.

This guy appears to have your answer, but I'd get it checked out by somebody with more time than myself.

$299.99 gets me an Xbox 360, which plays games well enough. Where can I get a PC that plays games as well as that, or better, for the same price? I have Sub-Zero intrest in building one myself, so thats not really an option.

I'm not really sure on the price of components at the moment, especially not Stateside, but I imagine it should be possible. However, the 360 is seriously out of date now, you'd be better off spending more and getting a machine that's future-proofed for the next 2-3 years or so and can play games at far better settings than the xbox.

AMD A10 5800K APU with a good motherboard, 400W gold rated PSU, entry level chassis, $30 on an air cooler, fastest RAM the motherboard supports and get 8GB of it. I'd look up the specifics but yeah, will likely beat the XBox at 720p handily, even plays stuff in glorious 1080p.

Ooooh a nice answer :3 This pleases me. When I get the cash I'll take you up on this.

I recommend it and I'm glad you feel that way, but bear in mind it'll likely be as new generation by then and look for the A10 6800K and always check reviews and stuff first.

Should be around $400, I recommend Kingston Beast 2400MHz DDR3, as it's insanely fast and the APU uses it for both system and graphics memory.

 

[Rendahli]

well, for £1k on our fair little island you can get a fairly awesome pc.

i'll spec you up a few components if you like, do you have a screen?

I was planning on using my HD TV... dunno if that's a bad idea or not, got a spare monitor kicking about though if not. Thank you very much though

 

[afroebob]

So, if it's not too much trouble, can you tell me what the steps are to building a gaming PC? or is it much more simple than I think it is?

This is a step-by-step process to put together your PC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls

Its much easier than you think, it just takes a little bit of time (your first time might take north of an hour, now I can probably put together a PC in about 20-30 minutes and I've only done it a few times) but its pretty much just put shit where it fits with the exception of the processor, which isn't really anything difficult either. All in all, its just like putting together IKEA furniture, just with smaller and more fragile parts.

Anyhow, this is a nice, affordable build that I concocted for you, everything is on sale but the sale ends in the end of May, so if you want this build buy quick or just wait till June, their sales will be more or less the same.

RAM: http://www.microcenter.com/product/382099/Ballistix_Sport_8GB_DDR3-1333_(PC3-10600)_CL9_Dual_Channel_Desktop_Memory_Kit_(Two_4GB_Memory_Modules)

Hard Drive: http://www.microcenter.com/product/382099/Ballistix_Sport_8GB_DDR3-1333_(PC3-10600)_CL9_Dual_Channel_Desktop_Memory_Kit_(Two_4GB_Memory_Modules)

Graphics Card: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=936922

Power Supplies: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=284000

Case: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=324277

Motherboard: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=870733

Processor: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=994335 (this is a VERY good deal)

All in all, with the rebates and the Motherboard/CPU combo that you get when you buy them together it ends up as $425. Not a bad deal, and cheaper than the new consoles will be (most likely).

This is going to make up all of your rig, if you want a new mouse/keyboard/headset/monitor etc. I'm not going to be that much help to you, but what I have found is that Microcenter has the cheapest parts for your PC and Newegg.com and TigerDirect.com can have the cheaper accessories, so check all three (but if I where you, any extra money I have I would spend on better PC parts. If you want to see a list of the sales on Microcenter they are http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/28d45362#/28d45362/45)

 

[Kinitawowi]

Just to be clear I mean the 7870 Tahiti LE things, not the standard 7870. The 7870 Tahiti cards really hit that sweet sweet pricing spot and perform amazingly well in crossfire, the only drawback is that stutter with crossfire, hopefully that alpha build driver tomshardware were playing with on their 7990 review will hit soon though.

Yeah, LI's reference 7870 off Amazon seems to be the GHz Edition alone - they've got a different SKU for a Tahiti version that also costs about £20 more.

This [http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/AMD+Radeon/Radeon+HD+7870+Tahiti+LE/XFX+Double+D+Radeon+HD+7870+GHz+Edition+%28Tahiti+LE%29+OC+2GB+GDDR5+Graphics+Card+%5BFX-787A-CNAC%5D+%2B+4+FREE+GAMES%21+?productId=55140] was the XFX I was looking at, which is currently the same price as the PowerColor. (They also both come with a free Bioshock Infinite, which I'm also after, so bonus!)

I could not be less arsed about Crossfire.

Yeah by the time I get a job Haswellw ill be here and if Ivy Bridge drops in price I may actually be interested in it more, eespecially if the motherboards drop in price too. I hope that that isn't true, but I think it's more likely that intel will have both options available and just keep it's sockets as an enthusiast option, and likely that'll be too pricey, I mean socket 2011 is amazing but it's also a rather pricey proposition.

This is the most infuriating thing about graphics cards now. There's a clear and obvious line of demarcation between the costs from the i7-3770K (£240) to, say, the 3970X (£820), marking a logical upper "sane" limit and the "well, if you really want to throw money at it" stupidity of LGA2011 (and LGA1366 had the same thing going on). Graphics cards, particularly on nVidia, seem to have every price tag between £150 and £600 covered until you jump to Titans or 7990s making it far tougher to pin down an optimal solution ("well, there's another card £20 up the price ladder...").

I dunno. It depends where Haswell lands pricewise; if I go for the i5 then the 7870 should do me; if the i7 isn't too stupid, I might scope out 7970 prices. (This is a proper "no more major PC expenditure for several years" build - I've been saving up for a while for this... ;-)

 

[Signa]

My first build? I bought a Corsair H80 Liquid CPU cooler, put it in, I see two cables coming from the pump. One goes into the CPU fan header on the motherboard and me being the amazingly intelligent person that I am, immediately decide that that's enough to power the thing. I see the other cable is left hanging and guess what I decide to do with it? I cut it. With a pair of scissors. That's right, I later discovered that the cable I cut was meant to power the damn thing, while the CPU fan header cable was strictly temp monitoring. I remember freaking out when I first powered everything on, and the BIOS is there telling me the CPU is cruising along at a slightly uncomfortable 100 degrees C.

Dude, i downloaded speccy, a program wildly recommended here, and that thing tells me my CPU is at about 97 degrees C every day all day.

Either i am royally fucked or that program isn't as good as people claim

God i hope i don't jynx it now.


To the OP; pick the parts for whatever money you can spend. Then let someone else build it. Might cost an extra buck or two but at least you can assume they won't fuck up.

If you get all your parts in one shop, you might be able to negotiate the installation for free.
Don't be afraid to haggle a bit when you are spending 1000 bucks.

Are you 100% certain that isn't 97F? If you're running 97C all day, I would not expect your PC to last much longer. That's about 5C away from a shutdown to protect the machine. You do not want to be running that every day, all day unless you are wanting to ruin your PC.

 

[The White Hunter]

Just to be clear I mean the 7870 Tahiti LE things, not the standard 7870. The 7870 Tahiti cards really hit that sweet sweet pricing spot and perform amazingly well in crossfire, the only drawback is that stutter with crossfire, hopefully that alpha build driver tomshardware were playing with on their 7990 review will hit soon though.

Yeah, LI's reference 7870 off Amazon seems to be the GHz Edition alone - they've got a different SKU for a Tahiti version that also costs about £20 more.

This [http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/AMD+Radeon/Radeon+HD+7870+Tahiti+LE/XFX+Double+D+Radeon+HD+7870+GHz+Edition+%28Tahiti+LE%29+OC+2GB+GDDR5+Graphics+Card+%5BFX-787A-CNAC%5D+%2B+4+FREE+GAMES%21+?productId=55140] was the XFX I was looking at, which is currently the same price as the PowerColor. (They also both come with a free Bioshock Infinite, which I'm also after, so bonus!)

I could not be less arsed about Crossfire.

Yeah by the time I get a job Haswellw ill be here and if Ivy Bridge drops in price I may actually be interested in it more, eespecially if the motherboards drop in price too. I hope that that isn't true, but I think it's more likely that intel will have both options available and just keep it's sockets as an enthusiast option, and likely that'll be too pricey, I mean socket 2011 is amazing but it's also a rather pricey proposition.

This is the most infuriating thing about graphics cards now. There's a clear and obvious line of demarcation between the costs from the i7-3770K (£240) to, say, the 3970X (£820), marking a logical upper "sane" limit and the "well, if you really want to throw money at it" stupidity of LGA2011 (and LGA1366 had the same thing going on). Graphics cards, particularly on nVidia, seem to have every price tag between £150 and £600 covered until you jump to Titans or 7990s making it far tougher to pin down an optimal solution ("well, there's another card £20 up the price ladder...").

I dunno. It depends where Haswell lands pricewise; if I go for the i5 then the 7870 should do me; if the i7 isn't too stupid, I might scope out 7970 prices. (This is a proper "no more major PC expenditure for several years" build - I've been saving up for a while for this... ;-)

Ah I see, I was confused by that having a lower memory clock than the other available ones. I'm kinda hoping that some other companies put out Tahiti 7870's, particularly an ASUS DCUII or MSI Twin Frozr would be nice and I'd definately pay more for those. Aria's pricing seems to fluctuate a lot on cards, how about this VTX3D Black Edition HD 7870 Tahiti LE [http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/VTX3D+Black+Edition+Radeon+HD+7870+%28Tahiti+LE%29+OC+2GB+GDDR5+Graphics+Card+%5BVX7870+2GBD5-2DHV3E%5D+%2B+4+FREE+GAMES+?productId=53474], just shy of £165 at the time or writing.

Yeah crossfire seems a hassle, I'd consider it if I were to go for a 7790, since it scales fantastically and is really a cheap way of doing it. But it's a pain.

I'm definately considering a 7950 or 7970 (possibly GHz edtion if the price is similar), if I can get my budget to stretch that far.

As for Socket 2011 you're absolutely correct, the cost of the platform is ludicrous and nobody needs it for gaming. I did know a guy who spent the money (almost a grand) on a socket 2011 board and chip and then only put it with a 680.... I'd have gone for the 3770K and got a fucking 690 or 7970 quad-fire in the bloody thing instead since it's just for gaming...

I definately hpe Haswell is a sensible proposition with some viable price points. I'm also hoping that whenever Steamroller hits it really puts some hurt on intel to compete on price it only really needs to be piledriver but better at single-threaded workloads and less thirsty.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

$299.99 gets me an Xbox 360, which plays games well enough. Where can I get a PC that plays games as well as that, or better, for the same price? I have Sub-Zero intrest in building one myself, so thats not really an option.

You have to go to at least $390-400 to get something as good or better. But technology keeps rising which makes the older parts go down in price, thus the prices will always go in your favor as you time goes by.

Case in point, in 2009 you had to pay at least $660 to get what the $390 can get you now. That means you can pay $660 now, to get something even better than what you got in 2009.


Omitted Costs:

Operating System
Monitor
Keyboard + Mouse
Speakers and/or Headphones

My calculations include:

Video Card
CPU
Motherboard
Power Supply
Hard Drive
Case
DVD Disc Drive


Just to make certain, I decided to check PC Part Picker and all the builds that included these (that I looked at) supported my estimate.

Lower cost builds omitted a disc drive (which could be removed due to games being more digital these days, but would make things more difficult when needing to boot from a disc) and/or dedicated Graphics Card (which is essentially required for high gaming).