Build me a computer for ~$500

Carwhore · September 1, 2012

I built mine myself like a year ago. Forget all the specs but it can load porn for hours without breaking a sweat!

smashweights · September 1, 2012

If you're going with small profile/onboard GFX, consider the AMD APU chips with integrated AMD graphics solutions instead of the Intel CPU. They're supposedly very good for budget/HTPCs.

Cheech · September 3, 2012

What's the quality of the Asrock motherboards? I can't remember ever using one, so I'm curious, especially with as cheap as they are.
My last system upgrade I got CPU, Motherboard, RAM, and a SSD. CPU is AMD 8120 eight core, motherboard was free with cpu purchase, Gigabyte 970A-UD3. I forget what the ram is other than it's 8 GB and was cheap for a decent name brand. The SSD was around $100 for a 60GB. This was back in February. I think I have about $350 in it right now, using my old video card (9800GT) and several hard drives that I already had for storage (SSD is OS only rive.) Oh, I had to add a SATA DVD drive, too. I reused the rest.

I was a HUGE Asus fanboi, and ended up putting a Asus H67 board in my HTPC. So far, no problems. I wanted to build out my gaming PC on a bit of a budget, so I did some research and decided on the ASRock P67 Gen3. So far, it's been stand-up board. I thought the integrated power and reset buttons on the board itself were a excellent touch, especially if you like to bench-test stuff before you throw it in. The only issues I've had with it thus far is sometimes it likes to boot directly to BIOS, but a quick close and reboot later and everything's fine. Ended up buying a ASRock H67 for my parents when I built them a PC, and they have no complaints at all.

jporter12 · September 3, 2012

I was a HUGE Asus fanboi, and ended up putting a Asus H67 board in my HTPC. So far, no problems. I wanted to build out my gaming PC on a bit of a budget, so I did some research and decided on the ASRock P67 Gen3. So far, it's been stand-up board. I thought the integrated power and reset buttons on the board itself were a excellent touch, especially if you like to bench-test stuff before you throw it in. The only issues I've had with it thus far is sometimes it likes to boot directly to BIOS, but a quick close and reboot later and everything's fine. Ended up buying a ASRock H67 for my parents when I built them a PC, and they have no complaints at all.

Thanks for the review! I had the power and reset buttons on a board once, I think it was a Biostar AMD board. I rarely used it, but when "needed," it was nice! I've also had a board that would do the boot to the BIOS thing once in a while, and I found that very annoying. I'm sure you've already looked for BIOS updates, and all.

M_Quick · September 4, 2012

Here you is. 500 on the dot with a full, legal version of Windows.
[Seagate Momentu 500GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ NCIX US)

Are Seagates drive still not known as garbage? I know back in the early 90's they were. And I have a older Dell Desktop with a intell 8 core processor in it, it still screams and the 1st problem was the seagate 750 meg h/drive crashed.

jporter12 · September 4, 2012

Pretty much all hard drive makers have gone through periods of poor quality. I don't know of any that are lately, but I haven't been building many systems for a while, either.

ChiefScooter · September 6, 2012

Here you is. 500 on the dot with a full, legal version of Windows.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor ($111.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H67M (B3) Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($77.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: AMD Performance Edition 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Momentu 500GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ NCIX US)
Case: Rosewill R363-M-BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($54.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (64-bit) ($130.20 @ Amazon)
Total: $499.67
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-31 07:51 EDT-0400)

Oh man, I wouldn't trust those power supplies that come with the cases for anything. If they don't have at least a Bronze certification, they may just kill your entire system when they up and decide to die for no reason.

Here is a list for you to look at:

CPU: Pentium G630 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116406)

Motherboard: ASRock H61M-DGS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157315)

RAM: Any 2 x 2GB RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220453)

Graphics: Radeon HD 6670 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131440)

Power Supply: Seasonic SS-300ET 300W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151086)

Hard Drive: Cheap 500GB or -smaller- if you are fine with it (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822149380)

DVD Drive: Cheap DVD burner (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151244)

Case: APEX PC-389-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154095)

Estimated cost: ~$342.90 after shipping to my zip code of 43004 on New Egg. Does not include Windows.