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PC Build Under $200

Super0609

I am considering building a gaming pc. Due to the current ircumstances, I am on a tight budget of about $200. Are there any parts that would allow my to build a PC for $200? Thanks!!!

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quick answer, no. a cheap gpu is close to that price. you could probably find a used dell or something, but nothing that is going to handle modern games.

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you could just buy a potato

 

but seriously for 200 there is nothing to build. there are only things to buy such as that 200$ laptop

 

or you could go the cloud gaming route

PC specs:

Ryzen 9 3900X overclocked to 4.3-4.4 GHz

Corsair H100i platinum

32 GB Trident Z RGB 3200 MHz 14-14-14-34

RTX 2060

MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge wifi

NZXT H510

Samsung 860 EVO 500GB

2 TB WD hard drive

Corsair RM 750 Watt

ASUS ROG PG248Q 

Razer Ornata Chroma

Razer Firefly 

Razer Deathadder 2013

Logitech G935 Wireless

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LTT made a video about this. Get a Dell Optiplex and buy a graphics card.

 

EDIT: Throw in an SSD if you can afford it

 

 

To RGB, or not to RGB? That is the question.

- Shakespeare. Hamlet, Act III, scene I.

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also what games will you play? the more modern the worse your case will be

PC specs:

Ryzen 9 3900X overclocked to 4.3-4.4 GHz

Corsair H100i platinum

32 GB Trident Z RGB 3200 MHz 14-14-14-34

RTX 2060

MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge wifi

NZXT H510

Samsung 860 EVO 500GB

2 TB WD hard drive

Corsair RM 750 Watt

ASUS ROG PG248Q 

Razer Ornata Chroma

Razer Firefly 

Razer Deathadder 2013

Logitech G935 Wireless

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Simple games like CS:GO and league. Sometimes Fortnite and Valorant.

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If you save up a little more money, you can get a pretty decent rig. Around $250ish.

Keep in mind you won't be playing at any crazy settings. Probably medium to high, 1080p.

I'm also assuming you mean tower only. If you don't have a monitor, keyboard, etc then no. You don't have enough money.

 

Route 1: Browse eBay for a couple of weeks, eventually a rig will come up that you can buy and use.

Route 2: Buy a prebuilt Dell, and add a graphics card like a 1050Ti/1650. One that requires no additional power except for what the PCIe slot provides.

 

14 minutes ago, bmx6454 said:

quick answer, no. a cheap gpu is close to that price. you could probably find a used dell or something, but nothing that is going to handle modern games.

They can handle modern games just fine.

12 minutes ago, eeeee1 said:

you could just buy a potato

but seriously for 200 there is nothing to build. there are only things to buy such as that 200$ laptop

or you could go the cloud gaming route

Not true. There's lots of options out there.

 

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900 Cooler: EVGA CLC280 Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Pro AX RAM: Kingston Hyper X 32GB 3200mhz

Storage: WD 750 SE 500GB, WD 730 SE 1TB GPU: EVGA RTX 3070 Ti PSU: Corsair SF750 Case: Streacom DA2

Monitor: LG 27GL83B Mouse: Razer Basilisk V2 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red Speakers: Mackie CR5BT

 

MiniPC - Sold for $100 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i3 4160 Cooler: Integrated Motherboard: Integrated

RAM: G.Skill RipJaws 16GB DDR3 Storage: Transcend MSA370 128GB GPU: Intel 4400 Graphics

PSU: Integrated Case: Shuttle XPC Slim

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

Budget Rig 1 - Sold For $750 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i5 7600k Cooler: CryOrig H7 Motherboard: MSI Z270 M5

RAM: Crucial LPX 16GB DDR4 Storage: Intel S3510 800GB GPU: Nvidia GTX 980

PSU: Corsair CX650M Case: EVGA DG73

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

OG Gaming Rig - Gone

Spoiler

 

CPU: Intel i5 4690k Cooler: Corsair H100i V2 Motherboard: MSI Z97i AC ITX

RAM: Crucial Ballistix 16GB DDR3 Storage: Kingston Fury 240GB GPU: Asus Strix GTX 970

PSU: Thermaltake TR2 Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX

Monitor: Dell P2214H x2 Mouse: Logitech MX Master Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

 

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6 minutes ago, StaffCorporal said:

LTT made a video about this. Get a Dell Optiplex and buy a graphics card.

you really should do that because it will probably give you faster performance then anything in that price range.

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Just now, dizmo said:

Not true. There's lots of options out there.

problem with a 1050 ti is that the cheapest i could find is 76$ at minimum plus shipping. if there was no tax then that would leave our man with 124$ with that much he would prob hit a serious bottleneck. also the 1650 is way out of his league. and even you specify that this would cost more than his 200$ if i was to give a real suggestion would go even lower than 570. also a prebuilt around 200 or 250 would give you console framerates probably.

PC specs:

Ryzen 9 3900X overclocked to 4.3-4.4 GHz

Corsair H100i platinum

32 GB Trident Z RGB 3200 MHz 14-14-14-34

RTX 2060

MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge wifi

NZXT H510

Samsung 860 EVO 500GB

2 TB WD hard drive

Corsair RM 750 Watt

ASUS ROG PG248Q 

Razer Ornata Chroma

Razer Firefly 

Razer Deathadder 2013

Logitech G935 Wireless

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6 minutes ago, eeeee1 said:

problem with a 1050 ti is that the cheapest i could find is 76$ at minimum plus shipping. if there was no tax then that would leave our man with 124$ with that much he would prob hit a serious bottleneck. also the 1650 is way out of his league. and even you specify that this would cost more than his 200$ if i was to give a real suggestion would go even lower than 570. also a prebuilt around 200 or 250 would give you console framerates probably.

Not really. You can get a prebuilt with an i5 6500 for that price. Which is a very solid base for something like a 1050Ti.

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900 Cooler: EVGA CLC280 Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Pro AX RAM: Kingston Hyper X 32GB 3200mhz

Storage: WD 750 SE 500GB, WD 730 SE 1TB GPU: EVGA RTX 3070 Ti PSU: Corsair SF750 Case: Streacom DA2

Monitor: LG 27GL83B Mouse: Razer Basilisk V2 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red Speakers: Mackie CR5BT

 

MiniPC - Sold for $100 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i3 4160 Cooler: Integrated Motherboard: Integrated

RAM: G.Skill RipJaws 16GB DDR3 Storage: Transcend MSA370 128GB GPU: Intel 4400 Graphics

PSU: Integrated Case: Shuttle XPC Slim

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

Budget Rig 1 - Sold For $750 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i5 7600k Cooler: CryOrig H7 Motherboard: MSI Z270 M5

RAM: Crucial LPX 16GB DDR4 Storage: Intel S3510 800GB GPU: Nvidia GTX 980

PSU: Corsair CX650M Case: EVGA DG73

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

OG Gaming Rig - Gone

Spoiler

 

CPU: Intel i5 4690k Cooler: Corsair H100i V2 Motherboard: MSI Z97i AC ITX

RAM: Crucial Ballistix 16GB DDR3 Storage: Kingston Fury 240GB GPU: Asus Strix GTX 970

PSU: Thermaltake TR2 Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX

Monitor: Dell P2214H x2 Mouse: Logitech MX Master Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

 

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8 hours ago, Super0609 said:

which dell pre-builds should i look for?

Dell Optiplex or something similar. Preferbly with a Core i-series processor (The one in the video is a Core 2 Duo, and that is bottlenecking them a lot)

To RGB, or not to RGB? That is the question.

- Shakespeare. Hamlet, Act III, scene I.

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9 hours ago, Super0609 said:

which dell pre-builds should i look for?

A Dell Optiplex with a 2nd-4th gen i5 or i7 and 4-16GB of RAM. Should be able to find one for under $100. Assuming it doesn't already have 8GB RAM, add a used $10 4GB stick. $20 used SSD, and you can probably find a used RX 570 or similar for $70.

 

Take a look on r/hardwareswap (if you're in the US) for everything but the Optiplex, I would try and find that locally if you can (maybe contact some local universities, they tend to have dozens of machines like that laying around not in use and could potentially hook you up with one).

Quote me to see my reply!

SPECS:

CPU: Ryzen 7 3700X Motherboard: MSI B450-A Pro Max RAM: 32GB I forget GPU: MSI Vega 56 Storage: 256GB NVMe boot, 512GB Samsung 850 Pro, 1TB WD Blue SSD, 1TB WD Blue HDD PSU: Inwin P85 850w Case: Fractal Design Define C Cooling: Stock for CPU, be quiet! case fans, Morpheus Vega w/ be quiet! Pure Wings 2 for GPU Monitor: 3x Thinkvision P24Q on a Steelcase Eyesite triple monitor stand Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3 Keyboard: Focus FK-9000 (heavily modded) Mousepad: Aliexpress cat special Headphones:  Sennheiser HD598SE and Sony Linkbuds

 

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Only chance you have is buying a old system that has some cheap upgrade potential. If you could get a system with the motherboard, RAM, maybe even HDD and a PSU, you could just look online for a cheap CPU to upgrade the PC with. I got a LGA1155 motherboard with 4GB ram from a friend for 20€ and just ordered a i5 2500 from ebay for 25€ and got a decent enough base for a system. Graphics card is gonna be the biggest issue. I bought a GTX 660 from a friend for cheap, you might be able to find something online.

My stuff:

Spoiler

CPU :  Intel i5 8400 | GPU : MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4GB

 

RAM : 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 @ 3600MHz

 

Mouse : Logitech G502 HERO SE | Keyboard : Mountain Everest Max w/ Cherry MX Brown

 

Headset : Beyerdynamics DT990 Pro 250Ω w/ AT2020USB+

 

Monitor : Acer XF240H @  144Hz

 

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12 hours ago, dizmo said:

Not really. You can get a prebuilt with an i5 6500 for that price. Which is a very solid base for something like a 1050Ti.

i looked on ebay and the only i5 pc i could find was one for 30$(US) not including shipping or any taxes and it had no ram or storage. even 3rd gen i5's go regularly for over 100(US). sure it is solid for a 1050 ti but if you don't have the money for both it doesn't matter if it is a good match or not.

PC specs:

Ryzen 9 3900X overclocked to 4.3-4.4 GHz

Corsair H100i platinum

32 GB Trident Z RGB 3200 MHz 14-14-14-34

RTX 2060

MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge wifi

NZXT H510

Samsung 860 EVO 500GB

2 TB WD hard drive

Corsair RM 750 Watt

ASUS ROG PG248Q 

Razer Ornata Chroma

Razer Firefly 

Razer Deathadder 2013

Logitech G935 Wireless

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UCW has an ever-revolving stock of used office PCs. They are all refurbished and include quite a bit!

I recommend looking for the full sized desktops (so a GPU will fit without modding the case.) and at least an i5 processor.

 

At time of posting, here is one you can use for reference!

https://shopucw.com/collections/desktops/products/lenovo-thinkcentre-m83-i5-4570-w-bent-pci-door

I believe Nerd On A Budget has a code that's still useable for $10 off, enter "NOAB" at checkout.

 

Then troll the local market for a used GPU, and I would get an SSD boot drive. So an example build could look like this:

 

Ignore snobs above. An i5 4570 and R9 280X will play modern games at 1080p med/high just fine.

 

You could also try to snag a deal on something like a GTX 960 or 780. If you look at sold units on ebay, there are some in the $60 range.

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14 hours ago, Super0609 said:

I am considering building a gaming pc. Due to the current ircumstances, I am on a tight budget of about $200. Are there any parts that would allow my to build a PC for $200? Thanks!!!

are you able to save up to 300 or is 200 all you will have for a while

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1 hour ago, trevb0t said:

 

i doubt the PSU has a 6-pin and an 8-pin, or even just a single 6-pin.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Heatsink: Gelid Phantom Black GPU: Palit RTX 3060 Ti Dual RAM: Corsair DDR4 2x8GB 3000Mhz mobo: Asus X570-P case: Fractal Design Define C PSU: Superflower Leadex Gold 650W

 

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7 minutes ago, Herman Mcpootis said:

i doubt the PSU has a 6-pin and an 8-pin, or even just a single 6-pin.

Fair. In which case (for the OP), a small form factor unit usually runs directly off of PCIe power. 

There are also adapters that can be used if there are available molex or SATA power cables useable.

 

But of course there are plenty of good used PCs out there. I have a couple of HP Z420's in my basement waiting for a little lovin' and they have an extra 6 pin. So it's been a challenge finding a good price to performance GPU that is compatible. 

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22 minutes ago, trevb0t said:

Fair. In which case (for the OP), a small form factor unit usually runs directly off of PCIe power. 

There are also adapters that can be used if there are available molex or SATA power cables useable.

 

But of course there are plenty of good used PCs out there. I have a couple of HP Z420's in my basement waiting for a little lovin' and they have an extra 6 pin. So it's been a challenge finding a good price to performance GPU that is compatible. 

I like pairing used 1366 workstations with reference RX 480 cards, usually they'll have at least one 6-pin so less trouble for OP.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Heatsink: Gelid Phantom Black GPU: Palit RTX 3060 Ti Dual RAM: Corsair DDR4 2x8GB 3000Mhz mobo: Asus X570-P case: Fractal Design Define C PSU: Superflower Leadex Gold 650W

 

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On 6/24/2020 at 8:53 PM, Super0609 said:

I am considering building a gaming pc. Due to the current ircumstances, I am on a tight budget of about $200. Are there any parts that would allow my to build a PC for $200? Thanks!!!

Optiplex and used gpu from ebay. Doable just do your research and beware of insufficient PSU

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On 6/25/2020 at 8:08 AM, eeeee1 said:

i looked on ebay and the only i5 pc i could find was one for 30$(US) not including shipping or any taxes and it had no ram or storage. even 3rd gen i5's go regularly for over 100(US). sure it is solid for a 1050 ti but if you don't have the money for both it doesn't matter if it is a good match or not.

You didn't look that hard then. 

I only had to spend a couple hours looking when I was looking for a budget system a couple weeks ago, and I found lots. Sometimes you have to wait a week to get an amazing deal, but it'll happen. 

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900 Cooler: EVGA CLC280 Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Pro AX RAM: Kingston Hyper X 32GB 3200mhz

Storage: WD 750 SE 500GB, WD 730 SE 1TB GPU: EVGA RTX 3070 Ti PSU: Corsair SF750 Case: Streacom DA2

Monitor: LG 27GL83B Mouse: Razer Basilisk V2 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red Speakers: Mackie CR5BT

 

MiniPC - Sold for $100 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i3 4160 Cooler: Integrated Motherboard: Integrated

RAM: G.Skill RipJaws 16GB DDR3 Storage: Transcend MSA370 128GB GPU: Intel 4400 Graphics

PSU: Integrated Case: Shuttle XPC Slim

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

Budget Rig 1 - Sold For $750 Profit

Spoiler

CPU: Intel i5 7600k Cooler: CryOrig H7 Motherboard: MSI Z270 M5

RAM: Crucial LPX 16GB DDR4 Storage: Intel S3510 800GB GPU: Nvidia GTX 980

PSU: Corsair CX650M Case: EVGA DG73

Monitor: LG 29WK500 Mouse: G.Skill MX780 Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

OG Gaming Rig - Gone

Spoiler

 

CPU: Intel i5 4690k Cooler: Corsair H100i V2 Motherboard: MSI Z97i AC ITX

RAM: Crucial Ballistix 16GB DDR3 Storage: Kingston Fury 240GB GPU: Asus Strix GTX 970

PSU: Thermaltake TR2 Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX

Monitor: Dell P2214H x2 Mouse: Logitech MX Master Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 Cherry MX Red

 

 

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4 hours ago, dizmo said:

You didn't look that hard then. 

I only had to spend a couple hours looking when I was looking for a budget system a couple weeks ago, and I found lots. Sometimes you have to wait a week to get an amazing deal, but it'll happen. 

yeah those systems will pair with gpu's like rx 470 or older than 980. not 10 series or 16 series.

PC specs:

Ryzen 9 3900X overclocked to 4.3-4.4 GHz

Corsair H100i platinum

32 GB Trident Z RGB 3200 MHz 14-14-14-34

RTX 2060

MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge wifi

NZXT H510

Samsung 860 EVO 500GB

2 TB WD hard drive

Corsair RM 750 Watt

ASUS ROG PG248Q 

Razer Ornata Chroma

Razer Firefly 

Razer Deathadder 2013

Logitech G935 Wireless

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