I'm sure there's a ton of these topics here, but hey I'm new.
I was in a pawn shop today and found a built PC that someone had pawned. It was a year or two outdated with ton of random pirated stuff on it. But it was a great case, 27 monitor, keyboard and mouse for $500. Thought about getting but I thought I'd seek experienced opinions before blowing that much on something.
What I'm looking for is a low-mid budget PC that can run games/media smoothly. I don't need to run things on ultra settings or anything like that but it'd be nice to be able to run new games on medium-high at the very least. It will mainly be used for gaming but I also want to be able to run photoshop, some video editing software, and stream movies as well.
Thanks in advance. Any help is appreciated.
This shall be fun. BRB with links
CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115078
MOBO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131832
Case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139011
Video card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127687
PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151074
Blu-ray/DVD drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135247
HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769
Monitor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236200
Windows http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986
Ok so I laid out some REALLY superb parts that would achieve what it sounds like you want. You'll have to build it yourself and it's about $250 more expensive than the one you looked at in the pawn shop, but I can guarantee to you that this configuration is most likely 10x better than the pawned one and much more of a "bang for your buck". It's possible you could go cheaper as well, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Total price about $850
Hmmm. A. Nice display picture.
B. This is generally the same or equal-ish parts friends have told me to get so I guess that's my best bet. Although all my friends urge me to get an i5 at least. Not sure why.
I've never built my own computer before, only watched it done. Thanks for the input though, I'll most likely be able to afford it before Christmas. I just hate not having a desktop anymore. I need to get back to my awesome PC games. AHHH
So you did what? What exactly do you want us to do? Give you a mid-range build? Whats your budget?
The one posted above should work nicely but I'm open to suggestions. A mid range build is what I'm going for until I have the money to go high end, yes. Max budget would be 850-950. Under 1000 is best.
Honestly unless you're going duel monitors like me and alt tabing/running multiple applications simultaneously then an i3 is plenty for gaming and media. If you do can afford it though an i5 is a boss of a chip. A very common config is an i5 2500K with an aftermarket heatsink. I run an i7 2600(non K) slightly overclocked with a cooler master hyper 212 evo, it works great and that heatsink/fan only costs about $30.
Alright, build on its way, aiming for $850 without an OS, so it will be $950 if (for whatever silly reason) you'd want to buy an OS you'll have room under your max.
some people need to have legit programs, like me, microsoft wouldn't be too pleased it I made a multi-million dollar making indie game on a pirated OS, same goes forpeople in businesses and professional video editors, this guy probably doesn't have to worry about it but there are people that do
Protip: Unless your a corperation with many workstations working on pirated software, they won't give a fuck, and if you are coming out with a product, buy the programs before you come out with it.
That said, there are plenty of perfectly legal ways of running Windows without spending a dime.
Yeah that's the one thing you REALLY shouldn't pirate. Just get linux or pay greedy microsoft 100 dollars for there OS. Speaking of pirated stuff, that PC at the pawn shop. You said it has a bunch of pirated stuff on it. Really makes me think the guy pawned it because he got a virus and said fuck it. Also not sure that it's completely legal for that pawn shop to even sell that thing if they know it has pirated software on it.
That's like the pawn shop selling watches 2 days after the watch outlet store next door got robbed.
Yeah some of my friends got there windows from my school with their site licence. Technically it's sort of legal since the computers were built there and it was sort of educational.
Here we go:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/m7es
$900 before rebates, $830 after rebates. This system completely destroys the system post here on all fronts (not to sound like an ass). This will have you gaming on everything at max settings and burn through video and photo editing significantly fast than the i3, and thats before overclocking it. You can OC this chip to about 4.8GHz on this system. I'd spend an extra $10 and throw in a few 120mm fans to help keep the case cool.
Dang. Thanks for the build and tips. I just got 2 jobs so after busting my bum for a bit I'll have enough to buy it all outright.
hahahah, I forgot the ram in my build. It's been awhile
lol, I'd be surprised if anyone else would have noticed that
Also, a tip just for you, with the way you worded that I assume your working as an indie game dev? If so, you can do as I have and fully encorperate your company. Once you have encorperated, you can apply to join Microsoft BizSpark, if you are accepted they will give you free access to many of your products up until your company starts to gross 1 Mil a year, at which point they will ask you to join their MSDN service, at which point such an option is quite affordable.
Also quick question, aside from the OS and aftermarket fans, if I ordered all the parts seperately, that would include everything I need to actually asemble the PC? As far as wire, bolts, etc?
Yes, cases come with all the screws you need and the mobos will come with all the wires you need.