Ultra Mega Low Absurd Budget PC

[Deleted]

The deal is man what you are trying to get is not possible within your budget. You can't get performance (even relative to budget) cause its too low to do anything and you definately can't get reliable cause again is out of your reach. There is no cheap and good. In your case you are lower than what is even considerd cheap. And we are talking something you want to do some very light "gaming" not even web broswing and office use. I am afraid thats how it is

[jackfrost]

Realistically, with your budget, your best bet is to snipe auctions on ebay for used parts. $200 might be enough if your current computer was relatively modern, but there's no way to make such a big leap because like others have said, your current parts are so old they don't work in anything. Note that some auctions are sold as is, whereas some have various return policies (30 days, etc). Generally, if a computer works for 30 days, it won't break on the 31st... but it's something to keep in mind. Many auctions will not have any warranty.

Anyways, on ebay, you could get things like...

For a computer, this listing that just ended: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiple...-/381029874098

It would blow your current PC out of the water, and with shipping comes to about $150... and it already has a significantly better gpu in it (although not a great one). If you're really lucky, some of the dells have 3 year warranties that you can take over ownership (although its a pain in the neck because you purchased through ebay).

You could also snipe gpu auctions for a better gpu with the remaining $50, might take some time though. You could get marginally better (over the 6450 in the above auction) by getting say a GT 630 for around $35, IE: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1GB-128BIT-G...-/111460069478

[AnimeLeech]

i appreciate your guys input. i was pretty sure i was close to making the leap and buying. using your suggested builds as an example, i am within the 200ish range that i'm comfortable with and getting parts that i know i can upgrade later. i could get that Gigabyte GA-H81M-H Micro ATX you recommended now, with a entry level cpu, and maybe a year from now, get an i5. that would fit into that same mobo. unless there is something i'm missing, i don't see the drawback.

and i'm not looking for "power" and budget, i'm looking for "quality" and budget. so you're saying that, lets say, Asus is the top of the line best mobo manufacturer on earth (assuming). you're saying that an entry level office use mobo from Asus will NOT last me a long time? that it will die within a few months because i got what i paid for?

surely, if Asus made a budget mobo for casual use and gave it an MSRP of 30 bucks. coming form Asus, is it not safe to assume, it will be built "to last"?

or are you saying that at that price point, it no longer matters that it is Asus, or Gigabyte, that if i'm stuck on paying 20-30 bucks, i may as well get PCChips, or MSI, or any crappy brand because at that price point, name brands no longer matter?

if someone told me Sony made a 32in TV for 100 bucks msrp, and Emerson also made a 32 in TV for 100 bucks. wouldn't you go for the Sony name?

that's what i'm looking for. i'm not asking for top of the line. i'm asking for "good". "decent". "quality". on a budget. :-/


i know i'm focusing too much on details like overclokability, TDP, microarchitecture, IGP's, what speed of DD3, if i want pcie2 or pci3. i get caught up in these things knowing full well, that i shoudln't. a lot of times, these are the factors that people with money can argue over when selecting top of the line parts. i have to remind myself "dude, you only got like 150 bucks, shut up and get whatever, it'll be good". i can't help it. it's my own fault. i rarely get to talk "pc parts" with anyone so maybe i got excited talking about the nice features. sorry bout that.

i still would like to believe, that i CAN build such a system. i'm lucky cause i get to save by not having to buy hdd/monitor/kb/mouse/case/gfx.

just need, psu, cpu, memory, mobo. done.

of course i would need to keep an eye on deals. but again, i have learned, and concluded, that i can't even afford a pentium. so i'll probably get a celeron, or another sempron. and i'm ok with that. as long as i can upgrade it down the road then i'm happy. and i know it'll be a huge upgrade. i mean, i'm using DDR1 for craps sake! and agp! lol. if i got this old hardware and i can STILL do ordos and 25man SoO on THIS system, then i know that these super budget parts will serve me very very good when i finally get them.

all i care about is not dealing with RMA's. that's all i want to avoid. as long as i never have to pay the postage for a return, i call that a win.

[Deleted]

What i am saying is that quality and budget don't go together after a certain point down. When you reach to the bottom, it pretty much doesn't matter what you get. Sometimes the "lesser" brands will give you more than the more "reliable" ones. Simply put cause the higher ones will cheap out so much on materials to make the profit they want, they end up crap compared to a "lesser" manufacturer.

[AnimeLeech]

ah. gotcha. i did not know that.

what do you think about this one?

[PCPartPicker part list]

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD A4-6300 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor]| $37.98 NCIX US
**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard]| $69.97 NCIX US
**Memory** | [Corsair XMS3 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory] | $32.99 Newegg
**Power Supply** | [Corsair Builder 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply] | $39.99 Newegg
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $180.93
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-28 00:22 EDT-0400 |

i "splurged" on the mobo.

also. what is your opinion of those sellers on the pcpart picker list? do you trust them? like NCIXUS? or do you stick with newegg only? what about tigerdirect?

[Brewski]

What's the point in building a PC if you are using low-end parts? You should just buy a used PC from ebay, it will be better without a doubt.

[jackfrost]

The seller of the ended auction I listed earlier has several more for sale.

IE this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiple...-/141451554643 (but there's others)

The cpu is almost 50% better in single threaded apps (which wow is, basically) than the amd a4-6300 you picked. It also comes with a video card that is probably at least 20%-30% better than what you have. Dell says its under warranty until april 2015, so if you can get that transferred you'd be covered.

If you can get it for $150, its a pretty good deal, significantly better than what you have + anything you can get for $200.

Given your budget, anything new will be far less powerful than what you could get used... and it doesn't have to be Dell or ebay, I'm just too lazy to look up other examples or from other places like craigslist, etc.

If you insist on building something yourself:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Celeron G1840 2.8GHz Dual-Core Processor ($46.98 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($48.99 @ Mwave)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6450 1GB Video Card ($29.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($27.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $198.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-28 04:50 EDT-0400

Just note that this requires you to use your current case, and your current hard drive.

The processor and graphic card in this list basically suck (although better than what you have now) but the motherboard will allow a vast range of improvements... if you really want to build something new instead of buying something used, do this.

[AnimeLeech]

i thank you guys very much for your input. these ebay deals are like..wow! i don't know what search terms you guys use but when i look, i get all the super crappy ones. /pukes.

i'd LOVE an i3 like the one listed. welp. it would make everything easier and i'd get a ton of new parts for free, (hdd/optical/fans). i'm a wannabe hobbyist at best. so even though i get excited at the idea of building, i also get terrified at the same time cause i've only replaced a mobo once, a cpu once, and memory/hdd like a dozen times. it's fun, they work, i learn something, but i've also had the headaches. -_-

and i would love the avoid the headaches.


can't thank you guys enough for all your help. i learned a lot.

for future reference however whenever i do one day build something down the line, i'd still love to know how you guys feel about those other eshops? like micro center, ncix us, tiger direct, Mwave. do you guys purchase from them regularly? are they good? trusted? or do you stick with newegg/amazon like all the time?

[skitszo]

I'd say try using a pentium 3258 haswell with a LGA1150 z97 motherboard. It has onboard graphics; you can overclock it later; you can install i5/i7 later down the road.

I don't like AMD apu.s for the price. a decent one is like 180 bucks.... you can get a i3 haswell for 120.... APU.s work fine actually.. i ran i3 for wildstar and it worked fine for out questing in the world environment.

You definately can get cheaper stuff with AMD......but long term i don't think its a good idea.....

- - - Updated - - -

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-b81-cheap-overclocking,3888.html

[Disconnected]

for future reference however whenever i do one day build something down the line, i'd still love to know how you guys feel about those other eshops? like micro center, ncix us, tiger direct, Mwave. do you guys purchase from them regularly? are they good? trusted? or do you stick with newegg/amazon like all the time?

The majority of the sellers available, such as Micro Center, NCIX, and Tiger Direct, are as just as reliable as Newegg/Amazon when it comes to computer parts. I haven't personally heard of or bought anything from the other sellers, such as Mwave, but chances are that the price will most likely be the lowest from one of the other well known sellers.

[AnimeLeech]

ok. i finally took the plunge. someone was selling a lot of workstations with very low bids. and they looked REEAAALY good. and i'm HOPING, i did enough research and made a good choice. >.<

Dell Optiplex 755 MT Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40ghz 4gb RAM
8mb L2 cache
DDR2 memory speed: 667
160 GB Hard Drive
Optical Drive DVDRW CDRW
Video Card: ATI Radeon 2400 XT - DMS 59 Connection (i barely noticed this connection now. -_-. stupid me lol).
card is ranked at 684 by Surlix. . worse than the one i plan to use. but better than my agp 6800gs. so i'll prolly just leave it there. (my needs are simple)

$42 dollars. 50 dollars shipping. so about 100.

i've been looking for deals for a couple of days and have been getting outbid on all the nice custom ones. so in a desperate and very very stupid move. i bid on 3 computers thinking "with the way that i've been getting constantly outbid and losing, maybe if i bid on these 3, i might win 1..."

well. to my horror, i won 2 of them, and almost won the 3rd. O_O

here's the second one.

Dell Precision T3500 One Intel Xeon E5530 2.40ghz 4gb RAM
1mb l2 cache, 8mb l3 cache
DDR3 memory speed: 1066
160 GB Hard Drive INCLUDED
Optical Drive #1 DVDRW CDRW
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD3450 - DMS 59 Connection

Price: $88.00. also 50 bucks shipping. total: 140ish.

and i ALMOST won a duo Xeon. O_o. but luckily i got outbid cause i am already 100 over budget. >.<.
(though i WISH i won the dual xeon and lost one of the above lol)
that dual xeon had 8gigs of installed memory and it ended up selling for about 90 bucks.


anyways. i am really hoping i did good. or at least ok. i'm DYING to know your guys opnions. i know server computers are NOT made for gaming. so i'm terrified i made a terrible mistake. i'm sure it's got ECC ram and other server technologies that compared to real gaming pc's of equal speeds are slower cause of their constant error checking/correction behaviours.

and who knows about the mobo. but i was desperate, the prices seemed really good, nothing on the page indicates its "for parts" and everything should work when it gets here. jsut need to install OS and hopefully i'll be up and running the same day without doing anything to it. (oh shit i need to buy adapters for cards >.<)

i just need these to let me do AV, Ordos, Isle of conquest, 25mans, (and any 80man BGs) with everything set to low while getting at least 20fps.

if these can give me that...just that..i am SOOOOOO happy.

please let me know.


edit: testing to see if i can finally post links
passmark comparing my current cpu to the new ones.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=1244&cmp[]=413&cmp[]=1038