so one of my buddies that just broke his console wants to get into pc gaming. he asked me about an hour ago to build him the best machine that i could for about $375. he wants to play a few indie games, world of warcraft and another mmo i think i was called final chaos. anyways i found logans $350 gaming computer list and so far im really liking it but also thinking of any component that could be replaced with a better one for about the same cost. (i have around $25 extra if i stick with logans list) and i honestly cant really come up with anything better.
this is logans list
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-A55M-DS2 FM1 AMD A55 (has VGA and DVI) for PC $50 For a media center: ASRock A55M-HVS FM1 AMD A55 (has HDMI)
do you have any cases laying around? even if its a old ass pentium II case it should at least have a m-ATX standard that will give you more to work with budget wise
PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX430 V2 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026
ODD: ASUS DVD Burner - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204
Total: $353.93
Now, there are a couple of options that you can take from here. If you decide you need more storage space, then you can get this hard drive instead of the SSD:
Also, for more graphical power, I would suggest getting one of these to utilize dual graphics with your APU:
Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 2GB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102992
You'll save about $15 if you get the hard drive instead of the SSD. You'll also get more storage space, but you'll lose space. Either way if you add the video card, you're going to be going a little over $400.
That $380 system will kill the APU-based system thanks to the dedicated Radeon... however, I do not like the psu... and the ram is average. Something like that might work if the parts were better.