Cheap Gaming PC Under $600

[Vindekarr]

Yeah, you're right about that Jim. Hardware prices are a LOT higher here than in the US. In America you might be able to cobble something decent together for that sort of money-but not here. For one thing, there are NO FREE PARTS because people get their old PC parts crushed(and get payed for it) For another, everything's a good lot more expensive(20-50%) Hell, my PC's motherboard cost more than $600! It's just not going to happen mate, and whether or not you dislike consoles doesn't matter 'cause honestly, the PS4 is your only real option for this sort of price range. You literally CANNOT buy a gaming PC in Australia for $600 that will play games from after 2010.

Edited July 12, 2013 by Vindekarr

[FMod]

The key difference is that in the $2000+ range ... But at that point, your hardware is pretty much top-notch, so why would you even need to upgrade? A top-tier system built with current hardware would last well over 10 years with current generation cycle, so really all you're doing is just replacing hardware as it fails.

An "over 10 years" old top-tier system today would be early 2003, so:

 

Intel Pentium 4, single core, 32 bit only

DDR 1 RAM, 4x512MB = 2GB

GeForce Ti 4800

 

It's not just slow. Most modern games - by "modern" we mean, eh, like 5 years old - won't even start. Heck, even Oblivion won't start without a couple hacks.

 

Money doesn't buy you longevity in the PC world any more than it does in the real world. You're looking at a $1,500 PC lasting 1 more year than a $750 one and a $3,000 up to infinity PC maybe squeezing out 1.5 more years. Not even full 2.

 

 

 

As for a $600 PC in the USA still being good... I would say no. It still doesn't work very well in actual practice. Within that pricerange you're either stuck with such a shitty processor that running games becomes a joke, or your other hardware is just piss poor quality and everything goes to pot within 6 months.

 

But I just listed a $600 build with a FX-8320 processor - one of the top CPU today alongside quad-core Haswells. With a last-gen 7850 card. With all other hardware being better than average quality.

Every piece, HDD, PSU, motherboard, is stuff I would agree to use myself, not for my main PC, but for a secondary or tertiary yes.

 

If you approach it with $600 and zero knowledge , buying whatever is the first box you see for $600, then yes, it's going to go as you described. Shitty CPU and crap components.

 

But if you know exactly where to go and what for - like the list of links above - then in 2 days you'll be screwing together your very own $600 PC with a kickass CPU and a PS4-matching video card.

 

As you know, a negative statement only requires one counterexample to disprove. You can't argue that it's impossible to build a non-crap PC for $600 when I just did.

 

 

 

Yeah, you're right about that Jim. Hardware prices are a LOT higher here than in the US. ... For one thing, there are NO FREE PARTS because people get their old PC parts crushed(and get payed for it)

Anti-recycling policies?

But I suppose that changes things, you'd need a friend for free stuff instead of people having no use for so much of it.

 

But PS4 will retail in Australia for $549 too. That leaves just $51 for the games. Unlike PC, there are no freebies. Does AUD 51 even buy you a new console title? Let's say it's one; then, if $600 is your hard cap, you're stuck with it.

 

So I'd agree that in Australia, if you're into games for their graphics, for AUD 600, PS4 is the way to go.

If it's not about graphics, though, PC has 100s of good games going for it that are free or can fit in the remaining budget.

[Vagrant0]

 

The key difference is that in the $2000+ range ... But at that point, your hardware is pretty much top-notch, so why would you even need to upgrade? A top-tier system built with current hardware would last well over 10 years with current generation cycle, so really all you're doing is just replacing hardware as it fails.

An "over 10 years" old top-tier system today would be early 2003, so:

 

Intel Pentium 4, single core, 32 bit only

DDR 1 RAM, 4x512MB = 2GB

GeForce Ti 4800

 

It's not just slow. Most modern games - by "modern" we mean, eh, like 5 years old - won't even start. Heck, even Oblivion won't start without a couple hacks.

 

You can't look at the market 10 years ago and compare it to the market of today. 10 years ago, relatively few games being produced were being ported to multiple systems, and also before some of the more recent economic issues which has slowed down the drive for performance. Put simply, games these days are almost always being designed around console specifications with relatively few companies releasing PC games designed to push systems to their limit.

 

Additionally, you're kinda ignoring the fact that within the last 5 years there has been several milestone advancements which rendered most everything before obsolete. Things such as 64 bit operating systems, larger memory address awareness, significantly faster and larger storage systems, usage of multiple cores/videocards to boost performance. Just as consoles have generational gaps, so do computers. Meanwhile hardware advancements are currently stalled due to the actual limits of the materials that make up that hardware. Quantum computing, light based computing, or even using graphine as a heat transference medium is still many years away.

 

No, a computer built 10 years ago wouldn't work very well, but with what is available currently you could quite easily build a system that would be completely functional in 10 years if you had the budget for it. Likewise, even a computer built 4 years ago with high end parts would still likely last out another 6 or 7 years. There is just simply not enough new technology coming down the pipeline to render such systems obsolete any time soon. Things wouldn't be slowly being pushed to the cloud if there was much room for improvement left in individual machines.

 

 

Regardless, none of this matters. The OP is not posting from the USA, so any supposed budget builds you might throw at them would still cost more than they have in their country.

[JimboUK]

A decent spec PC today should see the next generation of games off easily, the new consoles are weak and their PC like architecture should lead to ports that rely less on brute force.

[Vindekarr]

That's correct Vagrant. I checked F-Mod's concept on Australian pricing, without delivery or assembly you're looking at about $1300 for all that, and maybe 2000 assembled.

[Thor.]

They say though you gotta have at least 8gb of ram to take advantage of that, sense the latest consoles have a good 8gb of ram or more. If you are planning on the future it might be wise to look into that.

 

The Xbone one specs might be increased to 12gb of ram. If anything future games might require that as a recommended specifications.

Easily done since ram is so cheap these days.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-future-proofing-your-pc-for-next-gen

Edited July 15, 2013 by Thor.

[Vindekarr]

Yeah, when I did my next-gen build last month RAM was my biggest priority-what sort are you using? I've got the wonderful-yet-stup G-Skill Sniper kit(32 GB). The Sniper has absolutely incredible power for the price(under $200), but you need a big case to use it-the sticks are about three times the size and mass of normal RAM and have their own heat-blades. But hey, I'm using the stupidly big Cooler-Master HAF case, so I can afford to use stupidly big parts. And they do look great too, big, red, nasty-lookin' things.

[Thor.]

Mine is 8gb of Patriot Extreme viper ram Intel, at 1866mhz. :yes:

 

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3468754&CatId=4534

 

i have 8gb and half the price of that, it was on sale for 60 bucks at the time.

 

Probably not the same version, but close enough.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Thor.

[JimboUK]

They say though you gotta have at least 8gb of ram to take advantage of that, sense the latest consoles have a good 8gb of ram or more. If you are planning on the future it might be wise to look into that.

 

The Xbone one specs might be increased to 12gb of ram. If anything future games might require that as a recommended specifications.

Easily done since ram is so cheap these days.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-future-proofing-your-pc-for-next-gen

Doesn't the XBone reserve 3GB for the OS and other stuff? I did read something somewhere about that.

[Thor.]

But thy mentioned that they are increasing it to 12 for that very reason.

That article also mentioned the gddr5, they recommended 8gb :blink: , i have six in all. So i just barely make it, but the 8gb of ddr3 is all good.

 

and they recommended my 7950 :biggrin:

Edited July 15, 2013 by Thor.