First time computer builder, seeking advice.

[LeninLives]

Simply put, I'm looking into building the most powerful gaming PC I can that's within my budget (which will be about 500$ - not including the monitor, which I can get cheap from a friend - but could go higher if necessary).

I post because I'm looking for a general idea on how much I'm going to have to spend on each part, which parts are most important for a gaming machine, just how powerful the resulting machine will be for gaming, and the like.

I guess these are the basic parts needed:
Case (don't need anything fancy here)
Power supply
CPU
RAM
Motherboard
Hard drive
Media card reader
DVD burner
Video card
Sound card

I appreciate any help you can give me, as I'm brand new to this sort of thing, but I'm also ready to work and learn.

 

[Theocnoob]

Sadly, you can not assemble a reasonable gaming machine for $500. It just isn't going to happen.

You can afford a basic machine but it won't be able to do any intense gaming. The budget just isn't there.

Bare minimum would be about 800 with the features you're after. You could omit some things like the soundcard and mediacard reader and go as low as you safely can quality wise on the PSU and get that down into the 7s. For a machine that actually has some power to it 1000, and for a really serious machine that'll blow through anything you could ever throw at it, about 1200.

Have you got an OS yet? That'll be another $100 for win 7 64 OEM if you don't.

For a basic machine, you'd be looking at something like:

AMD 955BE CPU
800 series AMD motherboard
4GB DDR3 1600
1/2TB WD Black HDD
optical
GTX 460 GPU
Case
PSU

That'd be about 650 all said and done. With windows 750.
Adding a mediacard reader (15-20) and a good soundcard (100-200) would ^ the budget a lot.

 

[LeninLives]

Thanks for the good info and for taking the time to provide advice, but I guess this project is not for someone of my socioeconomic standing. I'll come back when I have more money to burn. Too bad really, I thought it would be a fun thing to do.

 

[Knufire]

It's quite an expensive hobby. $500 will get you a great HTPC machine, not so much for gaming.

 

[Theocnoob]

Thanks for the good info and for taking the time to provide advice, but I guess this project is not for someone of my socioeconomic standing. I'll come back when I have more money to burn. Too bad really, I thought it would be a fun thing to do.

You can build most of it now, just not all of it. You could build a system and use integrated video on $500 (without the OS factored in). Then you could add a graphics card when you have another $200 or so and have a good gaming system.

You could also spend $100 or so and have an 'ok' system, if you go for a used card or one that's discounted. They often have 'blowouts' on older stuff like the GTX 460 for about $120. They are regularly sold used for about 100.

Here's an example of something you can do with $500--

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128490
GIGABYTE GA-880

104

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808&cm_re=AMD_955-_-19-103-808-_-Product
955 CPU

120

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066&Tpk=antec 300 illusion
300 illusion case

55

4GB DDR3 1600 (ie, Corsair XMS)

45


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028&cm_re=CX_600-_-17-139-028-_-Product
CX600 PSU

70

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&Tpk=Spinpoint F3
1TB Samsung Spinpoint

70

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136238
LG DVD burner

20

$484

(DO NOT build this. SUPER rough. But example that you could do it. Just not a gaming rig. You would want to add a graphics card for that. If you wanted to do it we would tweak some stuff around, get you on a 9 series board, etc..)

You can also find a lot of used stuff cheap.

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/selling-ati-5770-50-firm-1022739/
Here's a 5770 graphics card for fifty bucks. That's a great deal. It's sold, but these kinds of things happen all the time.
This is a Canadian forum but there are local ones like it everywhere. A 5770 is not a GOOD card. But it'll run stuff. Badly. But that's what you get for that kind of money. $100-120 will get you a 460, which will run anything reasonably, while about 250 will get you anything well, and 300 will get you really well, and about 350 will get you ridiculously well. Above that it's more bragging rights than anything else, and super high resolution support. There are very few games that actually need about $500 of horsepower to run buttery smooth on high settings, but at the moment, they suck (ie Metro 2033. Prettiest boring game ever.)