How to build a fast and high quality computer for under $600!!!

[S.P.Q.R. Praetorian]

How to build a fast computer for under $600

So, you want to build a fast, reliable, touch, cheap computer for under $600. So you ask....How can this be done? Weellll....let's get to work. First we have to begin with all of the basic parts of a computer: Motherboard, Powersupply, Case, Memory, Hard Disk Drive, CPU, and of course the Optical Drive. Now your probably asking where the hell the graphics is, right? I will discuss this a bit more later. There is no need for a graphics card for the Motherboard we will be using. Yay! Now, lets get to be personal with the equipment we will be working with. First, a case is in order.


First, a case is in order. Lets use the $100 wonder called the ”NZXT Tempest” computer case.

Next we need the Motherboard, manufactured by Gigabyte which takes another $100 off the budget.

The processor will be the $165 Phenom Tri-Core proc from here

Now for the 500 watt powersupply from Thermaltake

We will be using 4GB of DDR2 800 memory from Patriot

Then a 160 GB HDD from Western Digital

And last but not least, a DVD Drive from Lite-On

Congratulations! If you have all of that, you can begin installation of your components. Now as I said earlier I will explain the no GPU needed part. The Motherboard being used already has a fast DX 10.1 graphics chip integrated. It has excellent benchmarks and it can clock 90% faster comfortably with no crashes and it will run even faster, although for games like Crysis you will need better graphics. It gets about 35 FPS very high graphics settings, stock clocked, in Far Cry. It is at the moment, the fastest IGP on the market with a faster one coming out in July. The HD 3200 IGP has a stock speed of 500 mghz, but will be stable up to 950 mghz which yields a huge boost in performance.

Also I picked a 500 watt power supply simply because the Mobo, CPU, and drives don't need much power. However if you wanted something fancy for a video card you may need an upgrade.

As you can see I didn't mention an Operating System simply because people prefer different OSes. All I did was cover what HARDWARE was needed as basics. Now to add up all the components cost.

Motherboard 99.99
Case 119.99
Processor 165.99
Powersupply 59.99
Memory 86.99
HDD 43.99
DVD Drive 23.99
Total Cost 601.93
Rebates -20.00
Sub-total 581.93

Hope you enjoyed! Maybe some more juicy info later.

[Freddie]

I made a similar thread in October 2006. I paid £300 which is about the same as $600 these days for this

CPU: Core 2 E6400 with Artic Cooler Freezer Pro 7
Motherboard: Gigabyte P965 DS3
Ram :1 gig DDR800 Crucial Memory
Hard Drive: 320gig Seagate Barracuda SATAII
Video Card: X1900 XT 512MB with Artic Accellero X2
PSU: Seagate 600 Watt PSU
Opitcal Drives: Pinoer: 18x DVD RW, 16x LG DVD-RW
Extras: Floppy Drive, Front Card Reader, Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard

The above may not seem all that great but at the time the video card was ATI's second fastest video card and the Core 2 DUO hadn't been out for long so there was still a premium on them and DDR2 at the time was very expensive hence why I only had 1Gb of ram.

In Europe (more specifically the EU) we have this nasty little tax called VAT which is charged at 17.5% on top of the sale price, by buying through my work I was able to claim the VAT back. I was also able to deduct the the gross cost (gross = before VAT) of my wages which meant that month I paid less PAYE (in the UK our tax on income/wages/salaries are deducted from your wages each month) and I sold my old machine on ebay.

[S.P.Q.R. Praetorian]

The only way you couldve gotten all those parts for that price was buying them through Ebay. I prefer mine from the OEM or a supplier so I don't get screwed on a deal from those dorks on Ebay.

[Freddie]

The only way you couldve gotten all those parts for that price was buying them through Ebay. I prefer mine from the OEM or a supplier so I don't get screwed on a deal from those dorks on Ebay.

Nope they were all brand new parts from some of the biggest etailers in Britain. The total cost before I applied my financial hocus pocus (Being an accountant by trade has its advantages) on it was about £800/$1600. That what I would have paid to paid had I purchased it by myself rather then my work.

The only time Ebay same into it was when I sold my previous computer on Ebay for £200.

[S.P.Q.R. Praetorian]

Interesting. :|

[Doono]

What is the main purpose of this system by the way because any onboard gpu is absolute pants so it wont be doing any gaming. Unless you can dig up some benchmarks to prove otherwise.

[S.P.Q.R. Praetorian]

What the crap!?! Why can everybody not stop insulting IGP's. This is the only IGP that can kick benchmark ass.

From overclocking it from 500 mghz to 950 mghz here is the performance increase.



Onboard 780G-GPU @950 MHzBenchmark
Performance Increase
Warhammer:21.7%
Supreme Commander:42.8%
UT 2004:18.4%
Serious Sam 2:47.1%
Quake 4:22.3%
Prey:21.8%
Average Overall:29.0%

Here are some excellent benchmarks. Plus this mobo has Hybrid chipset. Crossfire can be run with the IGP AND a regular graphics card in conjunction.

[Doono]

Im not insulting IGP's they are fit for what there purpose is, dvd playback and playing games from about 3 or 4 years ago. And I agree this is a huge leap in performance for intergrated gpu's but either way it still will not run todays games at an acceptable framerate.

[humvee2800]

lol my computer cost me bout 4000 XD

evga 780 motherboard

9800 gx2 video card (soon im getting another to sli it up with)

400 gig seagate hdd

4 gigs reaper ram

g16 keyboard

22 inch samsung lcd hd monitor,

logitech surround sound speakers

q6600 intell quad

[Freddie]

If you've got a 19" monitor (1280 x 1024) and want to play games that are several years old and not to demanding the 780G video chipset is the way forward. That link you posted the HD3200 couldn't get a playable framerate in Supreme Commander, Prey or Warhammer even if you apply those increases your mentioned the games would still be unplayable.

The motherboard is most suited for those who want to build a HTPC and have a causal interest in games. The HD encoding is very impressive and the low power consumption means it won't give out a lot heat which is ideal if you’re looking to make sure your HTPC is quite as possible. Intel should take note.

[S.P.Q.R. Praetorian]

Yes, Freddie, I agree. But the HD 3300 IGP in July is supposed to be the equivilent of a 3870 I believe. AMD is taking a huge step foward. Plus the crossfire with the IGP plus a regular PCI-E card is much cheaper and has excellent frame rates.

[the_mango55]

EVGA GeForce 8600 GT 256MB - $89 with a $30 mail in rebate

I would rather pay $660 for a machine that will play every game than $600 for a machine that will play most games.

Also, what do you plan on using 4 gigs of ram for that doesn't require a video card?

[fatsheep]

Your grand total is going to be over $600. Also, throw in a monitor and you're in a whole different price range. Here's a computer I just ordered (everything except keyboard and mouse) for $570* (including shipping and tax):

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Brisbane 2.5GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
BIOSTAR nForce 430 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Acer Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor
G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
ZOTAC GeForce 7300GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16
Rosewill ATX Case
FSP Group 400W Power Supply
Western Digital Caviar 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA
Logitech S-220 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System

* Video card has a $10 mail-in rebate so the net cost will be $560.

It's not a gaming computer so I didn't go overboard on the video card. It's only meant to do basic word processing, email, internet, photo editing, etc...

[S.P.Q.R. Praetorian]

Also, what do you plan on using 4 gigs of ram for that doesn't require a video card?

I know. 4 gigs is still used by the system even though it only reads 3.5 GB for 32 bit. :| More RAM always helps.