a very hard request

My friend wants to see if he can make a pc that can run modern games with a budget of 500 max. Here is the tough part, he also needs a monitor.

Can anyone help out.

Possible if he gets a good deal on a refurbished monitor and goes with an older GPU until he can afford something better. Also, if he already has a case or knows someone that has one that could cut down on the cost.

Windows 7 OEM is $100

a cheap monitor is at least $100

That leaves you with $300 for the desktop. It will be be VERY hard to accomplish this.

Bring the budget to $550-560 and we can do this:

Case

PSU

Mobo

CPU

RAM

Video card

HDD

DVD burner

Total: $359

Then add Windows 7 64-bit OEM

and a ~$100 monitor

forgot to mention he has windows 7

forgot to mention he has windows 7

M4Ntan

does he actually own a copy or is it one that comes with a recovery disk for another pc?

Your friend needs another 400 bucks.... minimal; for this alone: "that can run modern games."

You can play a lot of games at max setting if you go with a very crappy resolution. So with that said, yes it's possible but I'll let the others do it.

a pc like that is useless. A monitor itself is $200 so that itself is half the effing budget, what kind of computer that "games" do you expect for $300? Tell your friend to find a job and save more money before he thinks about building a PC....untill then there is always a ps3 or xbox 360

.

.

C_Rule

you can get one pretty cheap nowadays.....it was selling for $130 at my ebgames brand new. Plus the wii is dropping to $150, so the op can get both the wii and the 360 and save $20 for a mc happy meal

PS3 or/and xbox360

I technically broke the rules with this build, because it does come to $509.91 before shipping, but there is a $10 mail-in rebate on the power supply :P

Since your friend apparently already has Windows 7, I didn't include it in the build. This will run the vast majority of games very smoothly. I almost shat myself when I saw the price on that GPU.

LG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS70 OEM - OEM

Xigmatek ASGARD II B/B CPC-T45UC-U01 Black / Black 0.8 mm SECC / Aluminum and Aluminum Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer ...

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Hanns·G HZ201DPB Black 20" WideScreen LCD Monitor w/Speakers

GIGABYTE GA-M68MT-S2P AM3 NVIDIA GeForce 7025/nForce 630a chipset Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

SAPPHIRE 100297L Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ ATI Eyefinity ...

COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-500-PCAR-A3-US 500W ATX12V v2.3 Power Supply

G.SKILL Value Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9S-4GBNT

AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX250OCGMBOX

I technically broke the rules with this build, because it does come to $509.91 before shipping, but there is a $10 mail-in rebate on the power supply :P

Since your friend apparently already has Windows 7, I didn't include it in the build. This will run the vast majority of games very smoothly. I almost shat myself when I saw the price on that GPU.

LG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS70 OEM - OEM

Xigmatek ASGARD II B/B CPC-T45UC-U01 Black / Black 0.8 mm SECC / Aluminum and Aluminum Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer ...

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Hanns·G HZ201DPB Black 20" WideScreen LCD Monitor w/Speakers

GIGABYTE GA-M68MT-S2P AM3 NVIDIA GeForce 7025/nForce 630a chipset Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

SAPPHIRE 100297L Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ ATI Eyefinity ...

COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-500-PCAR-A3-US 500W ATX12V v2.3 Power Supply

G.SKILL Value Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9S-4GBNT

AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX250OCGMBOX

hartsickdiscipl

HANNspree By Hanns-G HF225DPB Black 21.5" Full HD WideScreen LCD Monitor w/Speakers

1080p for only $10 more

There were 99$ deals for 460 768mb before, but this gpu is still very good for the price.

Very nice find Kaitanuvax. I agree with this monitor upgrade choice.

I technically broke the rules with this build, because it does come to $509.91 before shipping, but there is a $10 mail-in rebate on the power supply :P

Since your friend apparently already has Windows 7, I didn't include it in the build. This will run the vast majority of games very smoothly. I almost shat myself when I saw the price on that GPU.

hartsickdiscipl

i am officially impressed, but the athlon II 250 really kills the entire setup. If the op lives near a microcenter maybe he can get one of those bundle deals at huge discounts if they still have them

OP's buddy should get a monitor at a Goodwill or a Salvation Army.

I got a pretty awesome mechanical keyboard at my local Goodwill for $2.00! Last time I stopped in there were tons of monitors for around $10, even a couple of LCDs.

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

I technically broke the rules with this build, because it does come to $509.91 before shipping, but there is a $10 mail-in rebate on the power supply :P

Since your friend apparently already has Windows 7, I didn't include it in the build. This will run the vast majority of games very smoothly. I almost shat myself when I saw the price on that GPU.

blaznwiipspman1

i am officially impressed, but the athlon II 250 really kills the entire setup. If the op lives near a microcenter maybe he can get one of those bundle deals at huge discounts if they still have them

Yea I was just at microcenter yesterday. They give free motherboard with any AMD cpu purchase. Granted its probably not a great motherboard its not a bad deal for a cheap setup.

get windows 7 off a university/college student for 30 bucks

Hmm, well tell your friend he can always lay his motherboard/psu on table without a case and hook it up to a tv instead :P Also dig an old hdd/dvd drive from an old computer or better yet just iso install win7, and dont use a drive at all. Just because you need a decent cpu and gpu budget set aside to play modern games.

[QUOTE="hartsickdiscipl"]

I technically broke the rules with this build, because it does come to $509.91 before shipping, but there is a $10 mail-in rebate on the power supply :P

Since your friend apparently already has Windows 7, I didn't include it in the build. This will run the vast majority of games very smoothly. I almost shat myself when I saw the price on that GPU.

blaznwiipspman1

i am officially impressed, but the athlon II 250 really kills the entire setup. If the op lives near a microcenter maybe he can get one of those bundle deals at huge discounts if they still have them

Hey, I didn't have much to work with. :P Besides, a 3ghz Athlon II X2 can run most games well. I too think that a microcenter purchase may be the best option, if it is an option for the OP or his friend. If he goes ahead and builds the rig that I priced-out he can always upgrade to a quad-core later.

Besides, a 3ghz Athlon II X2 can run most games well.

hartsickdiscipl

I can vouch for this claim. It's not nearly as bad as you might think. It's not ideal but not terrible either.

[QUOTE="C_Rule"]

.

blaznwiipspman1

you can get one pretty cheap nowadays.....it was selling for $130 at my ebgames brand new. Plus the wii is dropping to $150, so the op can get both the wii and the 360 and save $20 for a mc happy meal

Given the GPU, you should probably go with the first monitor, with the lower resolution.C_Rule

Nonsense. A 5830 can handle 1080P easy.

You're exaggerating it's potential. There are already a lot of games that the 5830 won't run fluently at 1080p, and there's only going to be more. I'm not saying it's not a good card, but every card has it's limit, and the 5830 isn't going to cut it for future gaming @1080p, not if you want mas details, anyway.C_Rule

Why would you downgrade a monitor resolution just because the card can't max the 1% of games (yeah, that's how much games the 5830 can't max at 1080p) at 1080p? You're forgetting that the computer is also used for other things than gaming, and a higher, crisper resolution helps alot.