I was one of the many people inspired by the Scrapyard Wars series. So, I decided to get back into the PC game, and attempt a sub- $400usd build of my own. I still cannot stand the Windows OS, but the system building part is very enjoyable. Started with a $70 tower from Craigslist and went from there. My total cost for everything was just around $300, and if I hadn't splurged on a new case, quieter fans, and LEDs, it would have been around $220 total. Now I know it's nothing special, but it should be at least somewhat competent, I hope. I was able to get a tower off of Craigslist for $70, LGA 1155, Core i3. The guy didn't really know what he had, so I knew it was a bit of a gamble, but for $70, it was one I was wiling to take. Well, turns out it was running a decent Asus board running a chipset that is compatible with Ivy Bridge, so I plan to drop one in in the future. I got a Corsair CX500 PSU used off of Amazon, I originally bought it for $40+, but when it arrived I noticed it had a messed up PCIe connector, not the 6-pin, but the 2-pin one that turns it into 8-pin. After complaining I got half of my money back, so my PSU was $26.50 counting shipping. For the GPU, I originally was going go with the R9 270, but after much thought I realized that for my needs, and for my schedule to play games that I wouldn't really need one... yet. I haven't even touched my Xbox in 2 months. If it turns out I start gaming a lot, I'll probably upgrade. So, I ended up with the R7 265, $76.50 on eBay. One bad thing about the tower I got was that it only had 2GB of RAM. So after $44.98, I now have 8GB of Corsair Vengeance. Though I'm still actually waiting for those sticks to arrive... funny because I bought the video card a week after I bought the ram... So originally that was gonna be it, but then I installed the new video card and saw how tight the fit was. That and the cable management was nonexistent without pinching the wires on the backside and having a bulge on the back panel. After I watched the video on cable management and pimping out my case, my mind was made up and I decided that a new case with good cable management was absolutely crucial. $49.99 later and I have the Thermaltake Commander G42. Add to that some LED bars and more quiet fans, and my build is finally complete... for now.
So, did I do alright? I know Core i3, not gonna be playing BF4, Elite Dangerous, or Star Citizen until I got Quad-Core, though I've heard ED actually runs fine on the i3, not on the highest settings of course.