I have a budge of $500, so if you can, please help me build a computer. - Hardware & Software

Here is what I already have that does not need to be covered: Monitor Keyboard & Mouse Speakers Here is what I need within a budge of $500. Operating System Hard Drive Graphics Card Motherboard & CPU Power Supply Case A decent Optical Drive RAM I need this computer to play games(Steam + Minecraft), video editing(Vegas Movie Studio HD), and be used for school(Papers and what not). Thanks to anyone who helps me build this as I really appreciate it.

Here is a build I came up with, thoughts? [url]http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mPz3[/url] Fancy explaining the dumb rating ? lol

Damn, that was fast. I need to ask, will this possibly be cheaper, say around Christmas? And Thanks.

Due to it being fast there could possibly be some changes made to it, keep in mind it is micro ATX aswell. I doubt it really.

[QUOTE=JakeAM;38357185]Here is a build I came up with, thoughts? [url]http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mPz3[/url] Fancy explaining the dumb rating ? lol[/QUOTE] The FX-4100 is crap, I'd rather see if we could fit an i3 in the budget and if not just get him a 955. single channel ram is worse than dual channel, that 1 TB drive is taking up a nice part of the budget for a better case, and other than that everything is fine.

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59389727/91.PNG[/img] [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59389727/92.PNG[/img] $580 w/ shipping, -$35 in mail in rebates, $545 total. The CPU in the other build is trash based on benchmarks comparing it to the previous generation of Intel's i3 processor [url]http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-4100-core-i3-2100-gaming-benchmark,3136-9.html[/url] and factoring in that the CPU in my build is the current gen, you'll see another ~10-15% performance increase on top of that. Going for Intel leaves you with an actual upgrade path as AMD is lagging far behind in terms of desktop processor performance. Also, speaking from me having the Fractal Core 1000 right now, it's a pain to work with and you can get leagues better mid tower cases for the same price such as the NZXT Source 210.

Also you could save another $5 and get the neo eco [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030[/url] Its oem by seasonic so its just as good if not better as the corsair.

Picked the Corsair over the NEO ECO because of the $10 MIR

Ah, did not see that. Very nice.

[QUOTE=HolyCrapAWalrus;38360820][img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59389727/91.PNG[/img] [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59389727/92.PNG[/img] $580 w/ shipping, -$35 in mail in rebates, $545 total. The CPU in the other build is trash based on benchmarks comparing it to the previous generation of Intel's i3 processor [url]http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/fx-4100-core-i3-2100-gaming-benchmark,3136-9.html[/url] and factoring in that the CPU in my build is the current gen, you'll see another ~10-15% performance increase on top of that. Going for Intel leaves you with an actual upgrade path as AMD is lagging far behind in terms of desktop processor performance. Also, speaking from me having the Fractal Core 1000 right now, it's a pain to work with and you can get leagues better mid tower cases for the same price such as the NZXT Source 210.[/QUOTE] Two problems, it is $66 over budget(I am not joking about that $500 limit), and it does not include an operating system. I am open to all suggestions for the operating system, unless it is Windows 8(I hate it.)

You're pretty much stuck then unless you know a few people with some win7 keys or you wanna take the risk of using pirated software. ( not recommended unless you know what you are doing )

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59389727/93.PNG[/img] [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/59389727/94.PNG[/img] Only barely pushing the budget now, $525 w/ shipping -$15 MIR = $510 total. With the operating system added in it's nearly [I]impossible[/I] to get a computer at $500. Everything in the build is there for a reason. - Yes I know that the RAM is 1866, but higher RAM speeds drastically improve the capabilities of integrated graphics. - Yeah you might say the PSU is overkill, but it's better than throwing a tiny bit less on it only for you to have to replace it when you can afford a dedicated graphics card due to a lack of PCI-e connectors. - Spending $20 less on the hard drive for a 500gb is just plain silly. That's still 75% of the original cost and halving the storage space. You really can't get any more performance for the budget without increasing it. With that being said, this should play most games on medium presets at good framerates. As far as video editing goes, you won't see amazing performance, but you get what you pay for.

I would seriously try to save an extra $60 - $100 though just so you can have a dedicated GPU and a nice upgrade path in the future.

You need to somehow not pay for your OS. See if you can get it from a friend or something. Maybe get a Dreamspark account and use Windows Server 2008 R2, but losing $100 to the OS is huge. [editline]8th November 2012[/editline] [img]http://puu.sh/1nMV0[/img] grand total is $450 after shipping, before tax. With the $50 you could get get a mediocre video card. This will run most games on at least minimum, and all source games decently well... but if you find a way to get W7 free (Maybe through a friend who upgraded to 8?) you could get a PC with a 6850 or even 6870 and run just about every game on maximum settings.