Cheapest possible PC that can game?

I'm trying to convince my brother to do PC gaming. 

He's stuck up between either buying a last generation Xbox 360 bundle, which is about $200, or a PC at that equivalent price. 

Is $200 budget feasible? I went over Logan's $350 PC build in which he stated that it would play most modern games at low, which is fine for him.

I could cheap out on the hard drive and power to achieve the $200 mark.

PS - $200 does not include Windows, Accessories and Taxes (#MURICA)

Is $200 budget feasible?

Nope.

 

if he only has $200 he should just save it nothing worth buying for $200.  The xbox 360 is dated and they will probably stop making games for it soon so in my opinion its a waste.

No. I tried building the cheapest PC i could on PCpartpicker for the lols once. http://pcpartpicker.com/user/SmileAsTheyDie/saved/2DfE

 

and thats before windows, mouse and keyboard, monitor, ect. Not to mention the gaming performance on that build is equal to that of a potato 

Well technically speaking, you could game on a netbook. Just install an Nes Emulator, and Mario bros, but for any modern games, no way. Don't go cheap on the Power, the HDD, I guess if you want slow read/write times.For a cheap gaming experience, you could check out AMD's APU's, but no way you are going to game that cheap. Save it, and get some better stuff.

Lol, I just picked up that APU for a buddy's computer that crapped out, since all he does is browse the web.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2kYvt  This is 200, has a dual core celeron, 430w 80+ psu, 4 gb ddr3, geforce gt 430, dvd drive and a cheapo case

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2kYvt

sir, that's a 3930k lol

You could probably buy a used rig.

Well at least he can afford the cooler for it :D.

That is baaad. I wouldn't give it a year before it breaks down, especially with that psu.

if you have a computer to upgrade, it might work. i had an old hp tower that i was running games on. gave it to a relative that wanted to get into pc gaming. it had a c2d, 2gb of ddr2, a couple old hdds i had spare and a 5670 i upgraded from. it ran games, not well but good enough to get by. i never tested bf4 or metro on it but it worked for everything i tried. bf3, crysis 3 (took a long time to load) and a few other random titles. i wouldn't suggest that build but it was cheap. you can save money sometimes if you are careful on craigslist or ebay. even scavenging old parts can help, hdds, fans, case or a psu if they're decent. it all helps my friend. if you are talking all new, it would be hard to do and make something respectful. 

It strongly depends on what games he'll be playing. To play anything fairly modern, Logan's $350 build is really about as low as you can go. 

There's a difference between being able to simply "run" any game and being able to actually "play" such games at an enjoyable frame rate (anything over 30-40fps). 

I agree with the others. Don't bother buying a 360 at this point. It's so old, it just doesn't make sense. Tell him to save up another $150 or so and build a proper entry level gaming PC.  

How about a used Dell or HP small form factor computer.  They are $100-$200 and have a dual core Intel chip.  That includes a Windows license.  You could only play old games but there are so many good ones.

I'm not saying this is better than building one for $350.  Just throwing out the option.

I don't think a form factor pc is a good option for him. He is looking for something to game on, but it's gonna be darned hard to game at that budget, unless you get a bunch of stuff used for really cheap, or already have a bunch of parts. You could always sell some old stuff you don't need. I got $160 out of my old PS3 and some games on Craigslist. 

Yeah, a SFF from a main brand won't work.

I'd suggest a $200 custom built computer, from some guy who is upgrading or something.

1 gigabyte of RAM? an A4 for gaming? Please for the love of god, stick with an Xbox then if the only thing is what he wants to do is game.

Yes the PC masterrace is awesome but cheaping out under 350 is just not possible if you want the quality of a PC.