Building a Budget Gaming PC

In today’s economy everyone is looking for extra ways to keep a certain amount of the level of lifestyle we’ve always been use to having throughout our lives.  For a lot of PC gamers, having a high end pc that can play the latest games is not only necessary for anyone who plays FPS or MMO’s, but a symbol of style and pride in ones computer.  If you’re on a budget and still need to have a pc that can perform well against the competition there are eight basic core parts you can buy fairly cheap if you shop around and assemble the PC yourself.

Motherboard

The motherboard is one of the most important parts of a computer build.  Purchasing a high quality motherboard will allow for a person to upgrade their computer over the course of time to ensure it stays up to date.  You can find fairly good motherboard's cheap on places such as eBay for 15-35 dollars if you’re willing to spend some time searching.  These are ATX standard with 2 x 16 2.0 PCI-E slots for adding dual Crossfire or SLI gaming cards.

Processor & DVD

Once you have purchased a motherboard you can then determine what processor best fits your budget.  Most gamers can get a 4 to 6 core processor that is over 3 GHz for fewer than 100 dollars if they search around web sites such as Newegg, TigerDirect, and Ebay for holiday sales or purchase used versions.  A lot of web sites along with AMD and Intel offer daily deals that throw in a free DVD player or Blu Ray as part of a processor package to help save money.

Case & Power Supply

Most computer cases have a front and back airflow to allow for a better stream of air to regulate temperature.  Finding a case that has a bottom power supply unit (PSU) installation will also help prevent extra heat from the processor rising up into the PSU to extend the life and cut down on future cost of multiple replacements.  It is also recommended that you find a PSU with at least an 80 Bronze certification which will handle current stress better than normal PSU units that can burn out faster.  Most sites start selling good PSU’s for around 50 dollars with free shipping.

Hard Drive

Searching for a refurbished hard drive or HDD can save money.  Most refurbished HDD’s work just as well as new ones and can cost 20 dollars less than new ones.  A 500 gig HDD is a good start when building a budget pc.  This can hold the Operating system and a good supply of games, movies, music.  Once you’ve saved up more money you can expand to a SDD for your operating system and get larger HDD to add more even more media in the future.

Graphics Card

If you’re on a budget you can find previous generation graphics cards on bidding sites for less than newer ones go for on the market.  An example is a 200 series Nvidia card with 1 gig of ram can usually be found for around 45 dollars.  Cards such as the 200 series will still play any game currently on the market and will allow you time to save up to buy a newer version to add to your PC later.  If you decide to buy two 16 2.0 PCI-E slots on your motherboard you can also upgrade to Crossfire or SLI later to give even more impact on gaming.

Ram

Most motherboards use 240 Pin DDR3 ram now.  You can usually find deals such as 2 x 4 gigs of ram on sale for around 40 dollars new or sometimes good deals for less than 40 on used bidding sites.  Having at least 4 gigs of ram is recommended if you’re going to build a PC with an option to upgrade to at least 16 gigs in the future.  Most motherboards have an option to upgrade to 32 or 64 gigs of ram, which can cost a lot more money to max out when setting up a starter gaming computer.