$300 Gaming PC Build

[NickMayn]

1. Budget & Location

~$500 (US Dollars) PC. Just the PC excludes peripherals.

 

2. Aim

Exclusively for gaming.

 

3. Monitors

Need a recommendation for a cheap 1920x1080 60 hertz LED monitor.

 

4. Peripherals

Need a recommendation for a cheap built-in wifi adapter and a cheap set of computer speakers. I'm getting a CM Storm Devastator - LED Gaming Keyboard & Mouse Combo for keyboard and mouse. Do NOT need an optical disk drive or operating system.

 

5. Why are you upgrading?

Need a gaming PC.

 

I need the best gaming PC possible for around $500 US. I plan on building the PC. I would prefer a PCPartPicker list. I'm an inexperienced builder just trying to learn more.

[Mark77]

Let's see.  Find an old Sandy Bridge board, should be able to find something for $30-$40.  Might be able to score an i5-2400 or i5-2500k for $80-$100 these days.  8gb of RAM will set you back another $30-$40 or so.   Go down to recycling or something and find a busted laptop with a miniPCI-E wireless card, and pull it -- they're a dime a dozen (or buy something off of eBay -- the AR9380 is a great card for $10) along with $5-$10 for a miniPCI-E to PCI-E adapter.  128gb SSDs are $50 or so, but you could probably eBay a used Intel 240gb 520 or 330 for a little over $50.  The balance of your funds for a PSU, case, and one of those cheap Windows 10 licenses off of reddit.

 

Seriously though, you probably should save a little bit more money because I haven't even budgeted for a proper video accelerator and most of the money is already gone. 

[8-Bit Ninja]

$300 isn't worth it, save up to $500-$700

[NickMayn]

14 minutes ago, 8-Bit Ninja said:

$300 isn't worth it, save up to $500-$700

It isn't going to be running GTA5 or Skyrim. It will run simple, lightweight games. Is it still worth saving up? Are you saying the best performance for price is around $500-$700? I adjusted the price to $500.

[onlybuilt4cubanxlinx]

$300 is your budget with a monitor and peripherals?

[NickMayn]

2 minutes ago, onlybuilt4cubanxlinx said:

$300 is your budget with a monitor and peripherals?

The price has been adjusted. Exclude the price of monitor and peripherals from budget.

[stconquest]

21 minutes ago, NickMayn said:

The price has been adjusted. Exclude the price of monitor and peripherals from budget.

This leaves $160 for a GPU, wait for the RX 460/470 or maybe a GTX 960/R9 380/GTX 950:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($29.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Patriot Torch LE 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($56.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Xion XON-310_BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($22.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($65.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: ARCTIC Arctic F9 43.0 CFM  92mm Fan  ($3.98 @ OutletPC)  <<Rear exhaust
Total: $340.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-01 18:57 EDT-0400

 

Monitor:  http://pcpartpicker.com/product/Nbbp99/acer-monitor-umvh6aa003

 

Wireless:  http://pcpartpicker.com/product/tTdqqs/gigabyte-wireless-network-card-gcwb867di

 

Mouse, holy crap good deal:  http://www.bestbuy.com/site/logitech-g303-daedalus-apex-optical-gaming-mouse-black/4801031.p?id=1219638966934&ref=199&loc=8BacdVP0GFs&acampID=1&siteID=8BacdVP0GFs-L9OVb9t2YShP2j1YM81JTA

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($29.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Patriot Torch LE 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($56.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Xion XON-310_BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($22.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($65.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter  ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: ARCTIC Arctic F9 43.0 CFM  92mm Fan  ($3.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer H236HLbid 23.0" 60Hz Monitor  ($99.99 @ Best Buy)  <<IPS 60Hz 1080p
Keyboard: Logitech K120 Wired Standard Keyboard  ($9.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Logitech G303 Daedalus Apex Wired Optical Mouse  ($24.99 @ Best Buy)  <<Grab this now if you can
Total: $505.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-01 19:01 EDT-0400

[Herman Mcpootis]

use the built-in speakers in the monitor for now, heatsink's optional.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 845 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($67.99 @ Newegg) 
CPU Cooler: Deepcool GAMMAXX 200T 54.2 CFM CPU Cooler  ($2.00 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: MSI A68HM-E33 V2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($39.99 @ Micro Center) 
Memory: PNY Anarchy 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($25.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.50 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0 Video Card  ($109.50 @ Newegg) 
Case: Ultra XBlaster V2 ATX Mid Tower Case w/450W Power Supply  ($26.29 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: EVGA 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($34.98 @ Newegg) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter  ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Monitor: ViewSonic VA2246M-LED 22.0" 60Hz Monitor  ($99.99 @ B&H) 
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $501.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-01 21:36 EDT-0400