what kind of price range would i be looking at for building a desktop like this

hi all, i'm thinking about building my own desktop, since all i have right now is an HP laptop that i don't like very much. i have a friend who is very good with tech stuff, he knows how to build a PC and i'm definitely going to have him help me deciding which parts to get, i just wanted to get y'alls opinions as well.

i don't need anything too fancy, just something i can watch HD videos, play WOW, surf the internet, and download torrents and stuff. i run WOW on my laptop now and much of the time, i get really low frames per second which makes it not fun to play. if i could always have 30fps or higher, that would be fine, but much of the time it is below 15-20fps.

i found this article

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/build_a_kickass_500_gaming_pc_play_crysis_40fps

it's a few years old, and it says it's for a gaming PC (not what i'm going for but playing PC games well would be a plus) but those parts only cost $500, which i think is pretty cheap. would i be able to build a PC for cheaper than that now? are those parts outdated and should i get better parts?

i know almost nothing about computer parts, so any help you guys could give me would be much appreciated! :)

Those parts are very outdated, and I would not recommend building a PC that is remotely similar in specs to that. However, this should not be surprising, given that the article is over two years old.

What kind of budget do you have?

How willing are you to go above or below that budget?

Cheers.

i see

i don't really want to spend more than $500, if it's a little over that price then i can deal with that.

i see

i don't really want to spend more than $500, if it's a little over that price then i can deal with that.

needled24-7

PSU: Corsair vx430 $44 or $24.99 after Mir.

Case: Coolermaster 430 $49 or Coolermaster HAF 912 : $49 after MIR

CPU: Phenom II X4 $119

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2P AM3 $49.99

Graphics: Zotac GTX460 1GB OC $156 or 126.99 after MIR.

Ram: 4GB A-data DDR3 2*2GB $42

HDD: 500GB SG barracuda $39

So without the Mail in rebate this Compleate PC ends up @ $500 and to be honest it should run just about any new game with max ingame settings, Crysis 1 and Metro 2033 is the only games it could have problems with if you choose the highest ingame settings apart from that it's a very decent machine for little money.

Most parts have free shipping and most offer a Mail in rebate, with the MIR you only pay $451 and should be able to get a decent AFm cooler like the 212+ and perhaps upgrade the PSU to a stronger one.

[QUOTE="needled24-7"]

i see

i don't really want to spend more than $500, if it's a little over that price then i can deal with that.

swehunt

PSU: Corsair vx430 $44 or $24.99 after Mir.

Case: Coolermaster 430 $49 or Coolermaster HAF 912 : $49 after MIR

CPU: Phenom II X4 $119

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2P AM3 $49.99

Graphics: Zotac GTX460 1GB OC $156 or 126.99 after MIR.

Ram: 4GB A-data DDR3 2*2GB $42

HDD: 500GB SG barracuda $39

So without the Mail in rebate this Compleate PC ends up @ $500 and to be honest it should run just about any new game with max ingame settings, Crysis 1 and Metro 2033 is the only games it could have problems with if you choose the highest ingame settings apart from that it's a very decent machine for little money.

Most parts have free shipping and most offer a Mail in rebate, with the MIR you only pay $451 and should be able to get a decent AFm cooler like the 212+ and perhaps upgrade the PSU to a stronger one.

[QUOTE="swehunt"]

[QUOTE="needled24-7"]

i see

i don't really want to spend more than $500, if it's a little over that price then i can deal with that.

needled24-7

PSU: Corsair vx430 $44 or $24.99 after Mir.

Case: Coolermaster 430 $49 or Coolermaster HAF 912 : $49 after MIR

CPU: Phenom II X4 $119

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2P AM3 $49.99

Graphics: Zotac GTX460 1GB OC $156 or 126.99 after MIR.

Ram: 4GB A-data DDR3 2*2GB $42

HDD: 500GB SG barracuda $39

So without the Mail in rebate this Compleate PC ends up @ $500 and to be honest it should run just about any new game with max ingame settings, Crysis 1 and Metro 2033 is the only games it could have problems with if you choose the highest ingame settings apart from that it's a very decent machine for little money.

Most parts have free shipping and most offer a Mail in rebate, with the MIR you only pay $451 and should be able to get a decent AFm cooler like the 212+ and perhaps upgrade the PSU to a stronger one.

[QUOTE="swehunt"]

[QUOTE="needled24-7"]

i see

i don't really want to spend more than $500, if it's a little over that price then i can deal with that.

needled24-7

PSU: Corsair vx430 $44 or $24.99 after Mir.

Case: Coolermaster 430 $49 or Coolermaster HAF 912 : $49 after MIR

CPU: Phenom II X4 $119

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2P AM3 $49.99

Graphics: Zotac GTX460 1GB OC $156 or 126.99 after MIR.

Ram: 4GB A-data DDR3 2*2GB $42

HDD: 500GB SG barracuda $39

So without the Mail in rebate this Compleate PC ends up @ $500 and to be honest it should run just about any new game with max ingame settings, Crysis 1 and Metro 2033 is the only games it could have problems with if you choose the highest ingame settings apart from that it's a very decent machine for little money.

Most parts have free shipping and most offer a Mail in rebate, with the MIR you only pay $451 and should be able to get a decent AFm cooler like the 212+ and perhaps upgrade the PSU to a stronger one.

If you just want to play WOW, you don't even need a computer that powerful. You could probably go for one that's around 400$ instead, but you probably wouldn't be playing anything else on high settings if that really matters to you, at least not for long.

[QUOTE="needled24-7"]

i see

i don't really want to spend more than $500, if it's a little over that price then i can deal with that.

swehunt

PSU: Corsair vx430 $44 or $24.99 after Mir.

Case: Coolermaster 430 $49 or Coolermaster HAF 912 : $49 after MIR

CPU: Phenom II X4 $119

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2P AM3 $49.99

Graphics: Zotac GTX460 1GB OC $156 or 126.99 after MIR.

Ram: 4GB A-data DDR3 2*2GB $42

HDD: 500GB SG barracuda $39

So without the Mail in rebate this Compleate PC ends up @ $500 and to be honest it should run just about any new game with max ingame settings, Crysis 1 and Metro 2033 is the only games it could have problems with if you choose the highest ingame settings apart from that it's a very decent machine for little money.

Most parts have free shipping and most offer a Mail in rebate, with the MIR you only pay $451 and should be able to get a decent AFm cooler like the 212+ and perhaps upgrade the PSU to a stronger one.

Looks good, but he would have to add on $100 bucks to pick up and oem copy of windows.