Best way to go about getting components to build a powerful pc for free or cheap

[JodonTitan]

Hi there, I'm a 35 yr old father of 4, ranging in ages from 3 to 20. Also, a husband. I've been wanting to build a pc for gaming for some time now, but recently my wifes father passed and I took over payments on his house, so she would not lose it. Between that and the 4 kiddo's I'm financially strapped. Winter I'm usually laid off for two months, so it gets even tighter with money. The extra time I do have I would like to get back into the gaming community and introduce the boys to it. I used to have a beefed up pc I built but sold it a few years back during a rough time. Is there anywhere I can get free or really cheap parts to get this mission underway or is that just wishful thinking? The more I watch Linus, the more I want to build another pc and delve into the side of myself that I put away so long ago.

[LukeSavenije]

well, local market. or second market is even better. you can get a nice xeon gaming pc together for little money

[Fasauceome]

eBay has a lot to offer. Did you have a specific budget? People would be more than willing to direct you to good deals

[JodonTitan]

My budget is really slim to none, everytime I get some money saved, one of the kids needs something for school or like 2 weeks ago when I had to rush my 3 yr old to the hospital. My spare money went into prescriptions and so forth. I have actually called schools and tried the dumpster diving but go in trouble for it haha.

[JodonTitan]

@Finwillwin Ahh ok thanks for that. I'm new to this community and appreciate the help.

[Overbuilder]

IF you wanted to build with only new parts, than this would be the cheapest possible pc :

 

 

https://www.amazon.ca/GIGABYTE-GA-AB350M-DS3H-Ryzen-Fusion-Motherboard/dp/B079NH98GS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1545077431&sr=8-3&keywords=b350+motherboard

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Timetec-2400MHz-PC4-19200-Unbuffered-Computer/dp/B07CMK373T/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1545077463&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=4gb+ddr4&psc=1

 

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113544&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwordsCA-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwordsCA-PC-_-pla-_-Processors+-+Desktops-_-N82E16819113544&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIra-cltan3wIVEo3ICh1hPwLIEAYYASABEgLCZfD_BwE

 

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147248&Description=mini tower&cm_re=mini_tower-_-11-147-248-_-Product

 

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438012&Description=500w power supply&cm_re=500w_power_supply-_-17-438-012-_-Product

 

 

You can overclock this chip on gigabyte boards, so therefore you could overclock it to perform like last gen's i3-7100.

 

 

You would only need a decent gpu, and if you can't afford it it is an APU.

[Overbuilder]

Totals up to 213 USD, sorry for the canadian links.

[Overbuilder]

You would have to find a decent GPU used if you wanted to game, so looks to be a good budget 300 USD build with almost all new parts.

[Overbuilder]

provided you can find a HDD

[Overbuilder]

and the integrated GPU does actually do well in some games 720p medium.

 

[Overbuilder]

BTW i know it is a locked chip but it still oCs on the board i have linked.

 

[JodonTitan]

@Overbuilder thank you for all the research you did, it is most appreciated. I will take all of that into account. Another question maybe you could help with. I'm trying to boost my WiFi to reach my shop, is there a way I can go about doing this for cheap or free?

[UnwantedLinks]

Buy a PC used second-hand. I doubt you could get a powerful PC for free without major corners being cut (etc. Bargain ass power supply, Chinese supplied GPU and more)

[JodonTitan]

I make custom wood furniture, so I could also do trades. Orrrrr, I could make someone a custom wood and plexi case to trade. However they would want it shaped or made, I can make it to any specifications.

[Bitter]

Core2Quad stuff and socket 775 in general is fairly cheap on the used market, but you'd still be in to a couple hundred dollars probably. Despite it's age, with more games taking advantage of multi core processing they still can do decently paired with even a cheap video card. Shockingly a GT 1030 matches or beats my GTX 650, this makes me sad. If you don't mind gaming on low details and 720p then the budget can get pretty small.

[kelvinhall05]

Sounds like a shitty situation, I'm sorry.

 

If you want to go used, go local. Unless you win auctions on eBay, the prices are generally not worth it. If I were you, I'd go either to your local schools/universities/recycling center and look for e-waste. I looked a bit at my local university and find lots of cool stuff (albeit it's not very powerful, the best thing I've found was an i3-540 based system with just a shitty case and PSU, the CPU, motherboard, and stock cooler).

[Overbuilder]

@JodonTitan 

[Overbuilder]

@JodonTitan If you have an old router, and it supports DD-WRT (linux OS designed for routers), you can unlock its full pootential and use it as quite a long range wi-fi repeater. The better the router, the better the range.

 

 

Here is a link i have found : https://lifehacker.com/5563196/turn-your-old-router-into-a-range-boosting-wi-fi-repeater

 

Hopefully you have a router that supports it.

 

Cheers, and Merry Christmas !

[KuJoe]

Where are you located (country/state/region)? Some places have better options than others so maybe people can make better recommendations based on where you are in the world. Not to mention if you're willing to trade custom furniture it would be nice to know where you are so people can take you up on your offer.

 

If you want the absolute cheapest gaming PC I recommend taking a look at this video: 

 

[Overbuilder]

@JodonTitan , there is currently a very good deal on a T3600 on ebay:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T3600-Intel-Xeon-16-GB-RAM-1-TB-HDD-Win-10-Pro-NVIDIA-Quadro-2000/283207890654?hash=item41f08176de:rk:1:pf:0

 

It is gaming ready with a 600w PSu and a decent GPU, 16gb of ram is a very nice inclusion.

 

 

Currently 200 usd. However it does not specify which cpu it has, you will have to contact the seller. Throw in an offer of 150 $ and he might just accept.

[Overbuilder]

the 750ti is quite a bit better though.

[JodonTitan]

16 hours ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Sounds like a shitty situation, I'm sorry.

 

If you want to go used, go local. Unless you win auctions on eBay, the prices are generally not worth it. If I were you, I'd go either to your local schools/universities/recycling center and look for e-waste. I looked a bit at my local university and find lots of cool stuff (albeit it's not very powerful, the best thing I've found was an i3-540 based system with just a shitty case and PSU, the CPU, motherboard, and stock cooler).

Yea it is haha, we dont have many schools or colleges around but I'll definitely try hitting them up to see what I can come up with. Thanks man I appreciate it.

[JodonTitan]

2 hours ago, Overbuilder said:

@JodonTitan , there is currently a very good deal on a T3600 on ebay:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T3600-Intel-Xeon-16-GB-RAM-1-TB-HDD-Win-10-Pro-NVIDIA-Quadro-2000/283207890654?hash=item41f08176de:rk:1:pf:0

 

It is gaming ready with a 600w PSu and a decent GPU, 16gb of ram is a very nice inclusion.

 

 

Currently 200 usd. However it does not specify which cpu it has, you will have to contact the seller. Throw in an offer of 150 $ and he might just accept.

Yea the offer I gave was rejected... But I'll keep plugging away for sure. Thank you so much for taking time out of your life and everybody else that has been trying to help.

[JodonTitan]

3 hours ago, Overbuilder said:

@JodonTitan , there is currently a very good deal on a T3600 on ebay:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T3600-Intel-Xeon-16-GB-RAM-1-TB-HDD-Win-10-Pro-NVIDIA-Quadro-2000/283207890654?hash=item41f08176de:rk:1:pf:0

 

It is gaming ready with a 600w PSu and a decent GPU, 16gb of ram is a very nice inclusion.

 

 

Currently 200 usd. However it does not specify which cpu it has, you will have to contact the seller. Throw in an offer of 150 $ and he might just accept.

Yea the offer I gave was rejected... But I'll keep plugging away for sure. Thank you so much for taking time out of your life and everybody else that has been trying to help.

[JodonTitan]

I just wanna say thank you to everyone for all the information and input. It means the world to me that you giys are taking time out of your lives to help. I wasn't sure what to expect when I first posted. I'm new to the community and this is my first post. I thought I might get trolled or what not. Needless to say I was happily surprised. So far this seems like a great community. I don't really have friends in the real world because I've spent most of my life out of town working, up until the lay off. Now I feel like I have some solid friends, that are like minded and that actually care and are trying to help. I appreciate it immensely and I can't thank you guys enough. I wish I was sitting at a pc typing this instead of my phone, but that's life I guess. I sincerely wish all of you have a wonderful Christmas amd holiday season. I'll keep trying everything I can to get a pc up and running, so I can get my shop up and running and get some income coming in. (A little gaming on the side never hurt anybody hahaha) Thank you guy's so much again. I dropped a pic of my wife, my youngest and I so you can sorta see who you're talking to. Have a wonderful day everyone!