How to Build an Awesome Gaming PC for $647

JRViejo · Jan 2, 2010

In many respects, it’s more difficult to build a great cheap PC than it is to build a more expensive one. In fact, the less money you have to spend, the more vital it is that every dollar delivers measurable value. With that in mind, we sat down with one simple goal: to build the best inexpensive, multipurpose PC that we would want to use ourselves. We didn’t start with any particular budget, but at every turn we shaved as much from the cost as we could—trimming the fancy case, ditching an unnecessary 800W PSU, and scuttling the spendy Core i5 CPU.

The result is an incredibly lean, but still powerful machine featuring a quad-core CPU, a GPU capable of playing anything on a 22-inch panel, and… well, you’ll have to read on to see the rest. Rest assured, though, this is a machine that would be welcome in any of our homes, whether we’re playing games, editing video, touching up photos, ripping movies, or simply surfing the Internet. Oh yeah, we’ll also show you how to assemble the components like a pro, one easy-to-follow step at a time.
Click to expand...

MaximumPC Article by Will Smith and Gordon Mah Ung.

bgoodman4 · Jan 2, 2010

JRViejo said:

MaximumPC Article by Will Smith and Gordon Mah Ung.
Click to expand...

I am new to build it yourself but plan on my next PC being built with my own 2 hands. Thanks for the lesson,,,,much appreciated.

YeOldeStonecat · Jan 2, 2010

Good choice on the graphics card...
I just built my son one for XMas...
Most from NewEgg

RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX-612WEBP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cm_re=raidmax_smilodon-_-11-156-098-_-Product
$84.99
It's the best "value" case I've ever seen..and I've seen A LOT of them. It's heavy, well built, solid, good quick release rails 'n stuff for drives, the rear side of the case swings out for easy motherboard mounting/access.
It comes with a pretty decent power supply, 500 watts..and importantly for the graphics card, it puts out more than 14 amps at the 12v+ rail....and this one does 20 amps.

Lots of good reviews from Newegg customers on this case.

I got the Sapphire 5570 graphics card, IMO and lots of research, best "bang for the buck"..potent midrange card, 1 gig of RAM, DirectX11 support (one of the first cards to support DX11), $164.00 at New Egg.

On Black Friday I picked up an Intel Quad Core q8500, 2.5GHz, for $139.99

I picked up 4 gigs of G-Skill RAM for $94.00. 2.0-2.1v..have to be careful with custom RAM these days, default voltage is 1.9v for PC2 RAM, lots of performance RAM requires 2.1 or higher and some motherboards don't like that.

I picked up a Western Digital Black Edition 750 gig hard drive at New Egg on Black Friday, $49.00! The Black Edition is high performance...very fast, 32 meg cache.

I picked up an LG DVD-R NewEgg for $24.00

Motherboard, I did an Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, was $124.00 Solid Intel Chipset!

Total so far, $594.00

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