Can i built a good Gaming PC for a bargain price?

[savlong1991]

Hello. im stuck trying to figure out what to get for my 1st gaming PC. I finally have enough money to get a gaming PC but im not looking to spend 1200-1500 dollars for a PC my range is 600-800. I want to be able to run all games smoothly i dont need to have outstanding graphics on every game to be happy. Would the better option be building one for this price? or buying a pre-built online. ?? I have been looking at some at best buy around 700 that have really good reviews. I just dont want to make the wrong choice that i will regret...

 

[volkgren]

Will you need an Operating System? What about mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc.?

 

[savlong1991]

I have Windows 10 backup disc. a mouse and keyboard also a monitor. But i plan on getting a another monitor for gaming to use as my main monitor

 

[volkgren]

I have Windows 10 backup disc. a mouse and keyboard also a monitor. But i plan on getting a another monitor for gaming to use as my main monitor

You can add Windows 10 to your Microsoft account so you can reactivate it on a different system if you change hardware. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

Here's an example build of what you could get in your price range. PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($197.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($74.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($75.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card ($216.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks - ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $755.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-13 23:22 EDT-0400

 

[volkgren]

If you link the prebuilts from BestBuy we could compare them with this custom build.

 

[Karadjgne]

Got my part yesterday, only 3 days! Very fast shipping. Put it in the pc and it's working great so far! (5 stars)

That's 90% of all reviews from websites. 9% are the ones that say 'took forever to get here, and it was broken, the box was crushed, so don't buy this product'. (1 star)

The last 1% (3 stars) are the only ones worth reading. They'll generally have pros/cons as to why the stars.

Just take any of the reviews with a grain of salt. 99% are written in the first month of ownership, be it 5 or 1 star, the joys/pain of dealing with the product/company are extremely quickly posted. You'll never see a post starting with 'i bought this product 2 years ago, and it's working great still'. This'll put an extreme bias on whatever is reviewed.

This I'll say about pre-built pc's. They run cheap. Very cheap. They sell at a higher price point than they are honestly worth. They have to. Someone ordered the build, someone built it, someone drove it somewhere, someone did inventory on the parts. There's a hundred ppl all had their fingers in that pie somehow and they need to be paid. So to get profit, you add product to manpower to parts and then up the price. Basically, those $700 pre-builts are worth @$350-400, the rest being profit and payout for various labor charges. In order to get such low cost units, corners are not just cut, they are massacred. Expect the lowest price and quality psu, mobo. Expect special edition gpus that are B-grade, most often failed units that keep the name but have components disabled at the factory. Expect the worst.