Building a $1500 gaming PC

by Nathan Taylor

May 23, 2008

| 34 Comments

Tags: PC | parts | gaming | components

So you want to make yourself a new gaming rig, one that’s capable of playing Crysis at more than two frames per second, but won’t blow the budget?

We set a target of $1500 for building a quality gaming system. Taking that amount, we further broke the system down into components as a way of balancing out the elements in the PC. Here’s what we came up with:

CPU $250
Monitor $300
Case and power supply $100
Motherboard $100
Memory $100
Optical drive $50
Hard disk $100
Graphics card $250
OS $150
Input devices $50
Headphones $50

So what are the best components you can get for these prices? Read on to find out.

CPU
This one was actually a tough call for us. Intel’s Core 2 Architecture is a little better than AMD’s Athlon right now, and some of the platform elements for Intel (like the chipset and DDR3 support) are also a notch above the available components for AMD. If we were building an extreme cost-is-no-object system, we’d definitely go Core 2.

But then we started looking at prices for CPUs, and quite simply AMD processors work out better on a processing-power-per-dollar basis.

We’d want a quad-core processor, and right now, you can get an AMD Phenom 9500 Quad Core (2200MHz) processor for $200-$250. That’s a good deal. The cheapest Intel quad-core processor is the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2400MHz), but that will cost you at least $50 more than the AMD. The DDR3 memory to go with it would also be more expensive.

Winner: AMD Phenom 9500 Quad Core, $200-$250

Monitor
For $300, you tend to be looking at 19” or 20” LCD monitors, but we found that with a little searching you can find a 22” monitor that sits right on $300. BenQ’s 22” G2200W or T221W are good bargains right now, and can be had for less than $300. The T221W even comes with (rather poor) built-in speakers.

Winner: BenQ T221W 22”, $280-$350

Case and power supply
Cases tend to be mostly a matter of taste, and can range in price from $60 to $500 (or more), depending on just how fancy you’d like it to be. For this system we’d tend to think that a smaller box-style or cheap mini-tower will do, and for $100 or less you can get decent mini-tower with a pretty hefty power supply unit. Do look for a case with an integrated power supply -- preferably one with at least 450 watts capacity and high efficiency (though realistically the efficiency you get at this price tends to be quite poor).

Winner: Take your pick. Whatever suits your taste, as long as the price is reasonable.

Motherboard
Assuming you’re going with the AMD processor, you’d want a motherboard that supports AM2+. Boards based on the newish AMD 770 chipset tend to be relatively affordable and capable. If you decided to go with an Intel processor, you’d look instead for a motherboard that uses the Intel P35 chipset.

Winner: Asus M3A, $110-$150

Memory
If you bought a newer motherboard (like the Asus M3A above), it’s probable that it supports memory faster than 800MHz. While it would be nice to get DDR2-1066 (a.k.a. PC8500) memory, for example, it would cost you a lot. Instead look for 800MHz PC6400 ram (DDR2 if you went AMD, DDR3 if Intel – check your motherboard specs for which is supported). It’s really cheap. With a bit of bargain shopping, you can get 4GBb of PC6400 memory (in four 1Gb modules) for about $100 right now. You can get 3Gb without even having to shop around. Don’t worry too much about brand and latencies – yes, you could get fancy low-latency Corsair memory, for example, but generally more memory is better than slightly faster memory.

Winner: 3 or 4Gb of PC6400 memory.

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Comments: 34

kevin_watters May 24, 2008 8:19 PM	Or you could just buy an Xbox360 for $388 and it will kick that PCs butt 10 times over for frame-rate in Crysis and all other games. Comment made about the PC Authority article: Building a $1500 gaming PC? So you want to make yourself a new gaming rig, one that’s capable of playing Crysis at more than two frames per second, but won’t blow the budget? What do you think? Join the discussion.
kevin_watters May 24, 2008 8:24 PM	Oh... forgot.... and with the $1000 you saved... you can buy a new 42" plasma HD tv to go with it.
yasbad Jun 2, 2008 3:12 PM	and how are you gonna surf the net, IM, email, stream internet radio/youtube, p2p etc, not to mention the wider variety of games available on PC.
piers Jun 7, 2008 4:01 PM	I actually just got a computer for just over 1500 without extras though: MB - G-B DS3R CPU - Q6600 Quad Ram - 2 x 2GB kingston GPU - 8800GT HD - 2 x 640 WD Case - Antec P182 PSU - HX-520 Mon - LG 22 Random DVD The PSU and case I spend more on for quietness sake. All together $1550.
.:Cyb3rGlitch:. Jun 7, 2008 5:00 PM	I just did a build for $1500: CPU: E8400 - $187 RAM: 4GB 800MHz RAM - $132 GPU: 8800GT - $231 Mobo: EVGA 750i FTW - $253 PSU: Corsair HX-620 - $149 Case: CoolerMaster COSMOS S RC-1100 (no PSU) - $297 Optical Drive: Pioneer DVR-215D - $39 HDD: W.D. SATA 640GB - $105 OS: Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM - $132 Total: $1525 The guy didn't want peripherals, but it's easy to change it around to cater for them. Edited by .:Cyb3rGlitch:.: 7/6/2008 05:01:47 PM
Lupetto Jul 2, 2008 5:58 PM	Seeing that I work for an IT distributor I’m always setting up gaming rigs for customer’s clients for under $1500. It’s that easy, though with today’s computer technology advancing as fast as it is, you could almost treat nearly all the components as consumables. They get outdated that fast. Also my computer cost me under the $1500 AMD 6000 series Thermaltake MATRIX case M2N SLI DELUXE Mother board Kingston 667 4GB ram 600W PSU View sonic monitor G15 Keyboard & G5 Mouse Gigabyte 9600GT And I bought these before I was working for a Distributor. So there’s no Reason why anyone should go out and fork more than $2000 On a gaming system that’s just going to get outdated in the next 6 months or as soon as the next power hungry game comes out. BUT HEY!!!! If you got the cash... don’t let me stop you chances are I’m the one who is going to get a phone call to get custom parts for a gaming rig “HORRAY FOR BONUS+COMMISIONS”
islip Jul 17, 2008 8:07 PM	This guide helped me make a good bang for buck machine to replace my old one. Since I'm keeping the I/O peripherals I set my budget at $1000. Heres the parts: cpu - AMD Phenom 9500 QuadCore 2.2Ghz - $210 case - CoolerMaster Elite 331 with no PSU - $52 psu - 620W "Corsair" HX-620 ATX - $136 motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4 AMD - $141 memory - 4x Genesis 1G 800mhz PC6400 - $96 optical drive - liteon DVDRW20X - $35 hard disk - Samsung 500Gb SATA Hard Disk HDD 500G - $95 graphics card - Palit Radeon 4850 - $212 All up I'll be slightly over budget including postage.
DaFiz Jul 18, 2008 5:36 PM	I myself can not see the point in spending more than $800 on a gaming PC, so without going into specific products here is my budget gaming PC breakdown. CPU - $70 Case - $60 (including PSU) Mainboard - $70 RAM - $100 DVDRW - $45 HDD - $100 Video - $355 that puts me at about $800, without peripherals and monitor.
Jim.Dude Jul 19, 2008 4:14 PM	Well, without a keyboard and monitor it's going to be hard to use... :-P Computer > XBOX... why? - Waaaay more games. - Waaaay better games! - More uses, can an XBOX send e-mails and word process while burning a DVD? I didn't think so. - A more intuitive interface, keyboard and mouse ftw. And besides, everyone knows the Xbox is for dope smoking loners - if you HAVE to have a console, long live the WII!
.:Cyb3rGlitch:. Jul 19, 2008 4:18 PM	Jim.Dude wrote: Well, without a keyboard and monitor it's going to be hard to use... :-P Computer > XBOX... why? - Waaaay more games. - Waaaay better games! - More uses, can an XBOX send e-mails and word process while burning a DVD? I didn't think so. - A more intuitive interface, keyboard and mouse ftw. And besides, everyone knows the Xbox is for dope smoking loners - if you HAVE to have a console, long live the WII! I beg to differ. Consoles are better for people who want to play games on a small budget. Some people don't want to worry about performance issues and compatibility, and some might not want the games that Nintendo offer. Think without the blinkers.
Jim.Dude Jul 19, 2008 5:39 PM	That's like saying that a Toyota is the same as Ferrari, because some people like cheap cars. Yes, a $1500 computer is a whole lot more expensive than an XBOX, but it can do a whole lot more. So if you want a fair comparison, compare the XBOX with a similar priced console, such as the Wii. http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/wii-breaks-xbox-sales-record/2006/12/14/1165685799546.html Proof that the Wii console pwns the XBOX.
bbjai Jul 19, 2008 6:12 PM	Jim.Dude wrote: That's like saying that a Toyota is the same as Ferrari, because some people like cheap cars. Yes, a $1500 computer is a whole lot more expensive than an XBOX, but it can do a whole lot more. So if you want a fair comparison, compare the XBOX with a similar priced console, such as the Wii. http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/wii-breaks-xbox-sales-record/2006/12/14/1165685799546.html Proof that the Wii console pwns the XBOX. thats not a very smart statement in my opinion. Although my personal opinion is that the Xbox is not a better entertainment device for myself compared to say a PC, I wouldn't say the same for alot of other people. First of all your assuming that everyone can build a $1500 PC. Thats not true, any PC around the $1500 mark (with Monitor and KB/Mouse) won't actually be as good as the ones above. A standard Dell one for example at that price doesn't come up to being up to scratch with many of the latest games, hence cutting your heaps of games theory in half. Even if they could play the games it would be in lesser graphical quality where as most people would be playing high quality looking games on the XBox. Lets not mention that a $1500 Box wouldn't be able to play on a large HDMI equipped TV unless you built it specifically. Which I'm sure 80% of the population can't. Second of all, its more expensive and its not really like a console but if the stated purpose of the purchase is playing games I think the XBox is a much more cash efficient buy. It can still stream and stuff as well through its media centre streaming abilities. Sure it won't do half of what a PC will do but then you won't have to set it up either. The Xbox, Wii and PS3. Everyone buys those not everyone buys a PC for games. I think if you say just plain having a PC for games the consoles will win everytime. Just less hassle.
.:Cyb3rGlitch:. Jul 19, 2008 6:34 PM	Jim.Dude wrote: That's like saying that a Toyota is the same as Ferrari, because some people like cheap cars. Yes, a $1500 computer is a whole lot more expensive than an XBOX, but it can do a whole lot more. So if you want a fair comparison, compare the XBOX with a similar priced console, such as the Wii. http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/wii-breaks-xbox-sales-record/2006/12/14/1165685799546.html Proof that the Wii console pwns the XBOX. It's orange and apples. They're different markets.
Jim.Dude Jul 19, 2008 10:11 PM	I'm not assuming anything, the name of the thread was literally $1500 PC and you can get a very good machine for that price. Just because DELL doesn't make one doesn't mean they don't exist! http://www.zipcomputers.com.au/store/view_product.php?product=SYS-INTEL-PERF The PC in the link is only $1300, as an example and it comes ready to go - no 'setting up' required. Realistically though it's a facetious argument; you buy an XBOX to play games but you buy a PC for numerous other reasons. I mean, you could buy a $1500 workstation that wouldn't do the first dent in a game. No, really the question is what's the best gaming platform...and according to the figures on sales, that is a Nintendo Wii. :-) Edited by Jim.Dude: 19/7/2008 10:11:58 PM
Jim.Dude Jul 19, 2008 10:15 PM	.:Cyb3rGlitch:. wrote: Jim.Dude wrote: That's like saying that a Toyota is the same as Ferrari, because some people like cheap cars. Yes, a $1500 computer is a whole lot more expensive than an XBOX, but it can do a whole lot more. So if you want a fair comparison, compare the XBOX with a similar priced console, such as the Wii. http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/wii-breaks-xbox-sales-record/2006/12/14/1165685799546.html Proof that the Wii console pwns the XBOX. It's orange and apples. They're different markets. Well, since you don't have anything to back that claim up beyond your own words, the best I can offer is the following link: http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=508 Which states that both the XBOX & WII DO share the same market and that the WII is in fact the market leader. So, it appears if you wanna play games, buy a wii. If you wanna play games, surf the net, burn DVD's and video conference, buy a PC.