$500 Gaming Computer Recommendations?

September 29, 2011 Matt Bidinger Editorials, System & Components 31

What parts would you pick to build the best gaming system you can for $500? There’s a thread in Overclockers Forums planning a $500 gaming build right now, and you can join right into the discussion below this article!

To set the stage here, pretend you don’t have any parts from an old build: You need a Case, Power Supply, Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Graphics Card, Hard Drive, and Optical Drive. How would you put together the most rocking budget system possible? Talk it over with our expert forum members in the comments!

Helpful discussions like this take place daily in our General Hardware forum, where members help each other get the most bang for their buck. Get your own personalized hardware advice from the most well informed hardware enthusiasts in the world; start your own discussion planning your ideal build to tap into our community’s expertise.

About Matt Bidinger 60 Articles
My name is Matt Bidinger. I manage the editorial and forum staff for Overclockers.com, and I enjoy Community Management with a number of large internet sites. I've worked in IT in my professional career; my site involvement keeps me off the streets at night. When relaxing, I can usually be found walking the parks and roads of Rootstown, OH with my wife Kim and my dog Bubba.

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Theocnoob

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#1 Sep 26, 2011

We did this about 3 weeks ago already :).

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Knufire

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#2 Sep 26, 2011

Yes, there was an extremely similar thread to this a couple weeks ago here in the General Hardware subforum, see if you can dig it up?

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Theocnoob

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#4 Sep 26, 2011

Anyways with extreme dilligence you can manage

955
bleh motherboard
6870
500GB HDD
4GB DDR3
500W PSU
Case

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updawg

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#5 Sep 27, 2011

I overlooked that thread but it looks like the lowest budget was $650, this comes in at $450 and should be a solid performer. Thanks for the link to the other thread, I was just trying to spark some interest in designing the most powerful systems at the lowest price point, sometimes at forums people want to encourage only the best and most expensive and I was trying to veer away of those type of conversations.

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bigben6

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#6 Sep 27, 2011

its a turd... didnt check if GPU will fit this case, but 401 after rebates

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ScrewySqrl

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#7 Sep 27, 2011

$499.

better PSU, Better case with better cooling, lifetime warranty GPU. Overclockable CPU

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bigben6

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#8 Sep 27, 2011

uhhh
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/362?vs=143

@3.7 it is BARELY better than the build i put together, compared to the SB build the 955 is about equal and thats assuming your NOT gonna overclock the i3's which are also = to or cheaper than the 955...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/362?vs=289

I like my 955 but your forcing the buyer to OC and there is no garantee that the 955 will hit 3.7 stable, historically it SHOULD for sure but it is not a garantee...

The 955 WAS great and if it were 100 or less i would recommend it but given this is a GAMING rig, i do not see as the best option TBH, though i love mine and it does 3.8 on stock voltage multi only... ;)

EDIT: I reposted this cause it is in response to the screwysqrl build but somehow this p[ost got -placed ABOVE his build... odd... so i just moved it cause it made no sense how the fprum placed it...

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ScrewySqrl

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#9 Sep 27, 2011

this *is* The 'Overclockers' forum. Tom's Hardware had a 955 OC to 3.8 on stock cooler as their $500 build for this quarter, and it outperformed the 2100 build from June.

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Evilsizer

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#10 Sep 28, 2011

what exactly is the computer going to built for? i mean in gaming its going to be about clock speed to a degree but then also the number of cores depending on the game. after that if its for something other then gaming then that really changes the build.

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