I was browsing Reddit when I say a guy who had made a full gaming PC with only 300 bucks or so. I was pretty intrigued, after asking him some questions I learned that he hunted down discounts on parts with a program and then he just ordered them. He's planning on opening a business based on that. Do you think it's worth the bother to build a PC by waiting a long time for cheap parts ?
I would just buy cheaper parts and upgrade as time went on. It's very possible to make a gaming PC for $300-400 today even without waiting on the discounts, if you can handle not playing in native 1080p on Ultra.
You don't even have to seek out deals in order to build a $300 gaming PC. You'll have to run more advanced games on low settings, but it'll get the job done. A lot of people won't settle for low quality gaming, but you'll indeed be able to play and somewhat enjoy your favorite games. It's better to spend at least $500 here, though.
Well it really depends on how you consider a PC to be a gaming PC. Having low standards will obviously lower the price. I recently completed mine for ~$1000-$1100 after buying stuff I didn't "need", whereas just having what I need costed ~$900. My build ($900) is: AMD FX-8350 Asus M5A99fx MSI Twin Frozr GTX 760 (2GB/OC) Corsair RM650 G.Skill Ripjaws X 2x8GB @ 1600MHz NZXT H440
It is possible to build a "gaming" PC for just $300 but don't expect a miracle. Waiting for parts to be cheap is either a hit or miss depending on the person building the PC and how much do you really want to invest on it both time and money. Also, like what Yidna said, your definition of a "gaming PC" would vary. I have a laptop that I consider as a "gaming laptop" since I can play pretty much anything on it on low-medium settings at a steady 30FPS but for some people, it won't cut it.
A cheap gaming pc can be made with ~500$ too. For about 800$ you get the high end stuff in my country. That means i7, 16gb ram, 1 or 2 video cards and some decent psu/hdds. I would recommend investing in SSD's too.
Holy cow. In Canada, 16GB RAM = ~$200, a high end i7 = ~$350, 1/2 high end GPUs = $200-500, a decent PSU = $100-150, a decent HDD = $100 a decent MoBo = $100 a decent case = $100 a high end SSD (240GB) = $150-250 = $1525 +- $225 not including sales or mail-in rebates and that said, if I were going all-out with this, I wouldn't get a 'decent' PSU, HDD, MoBo, or case. Everything would just be high end and bump up the price to maybe $2000 +- $250. But again, I suppose it depends on your definition of high-end and decent. Here's my build:
If you're looking to build a budget gaming PC be sure to check out.. NewEgg PCpartpicker and reddit.com/r/buildapc All are great resources and awesome places to get the best deals on all sorts of parts, as well as plenty of advice on building a nice rig!
To answer your original question, it definitely isn't worth the wait. The average consumer won't be able to secure such discounts anyway, so the question is irrelevant for the average consumer. Your friend is a special case because he intends to open a business. Like OllyFitness has pointed out, there are some good resources to go to when building a rig. PCpartpicker would be my go to shopping tool. It gives you the cheapest price on all the parts, and allows you to see the total cost of your system easily. You can pick parts from almost any of the major online shops that provide PC components. This will include places like Newegg and Amazon. PCpartpicker even calculates the PSU requirements for you, so that is definitely a plus for anyone who doesn't know how to calculate it on his own. There are also many good review sites out there that can help you to choose a rig with the best value for money. Is it possible to build a gaming PC with $300-400? Yes absolutely. PC parts are extremely cheap nowadays compared to in the past, and they give very good performance.
I've come really far when it comes to finding the cheapest deals on performance PC's and so far the cheapest I've spent is about $500. If you really want something cheap then your only option is to go cheaper parts and just upgrade as you go on but it also depends on how big of a gamer you are. If you're expecting a smooth 60FPS at 1080p on a $300 rig then be prepared to be disappointed.
I've managed to build one at $300 and it's really a you get what you've paid for type of thing. I never ransacked the stores for cheaper parts so I guess it's part of it but I tried my best to get the best value for my money and yes it is in a way a gaming PC but it has it's limitations.
I got curious about this once and researched it a bit, and I found out that it would be much better to just save up a bit more and get something a bit more expensive, something around the $400 to $500 range but from what I have seen, some people do get it built for the $300 price you are aiming for. I'm assuming that most of the people who are able to do it are a lot more experienced and into building PCs as a hobby though.
Well, Reddit is a good place for tips and tricks to build a PC, and pretty much do anything else.Log In is a great sub-reddit and a community based just around that, building PCs. They usually post what's on sale somewhere, what's a good value for money, and general tips and suggestions. I got some suggestions when I was building my PC from there.
