PC Builds
$484 Cheap Bastard's Kaveri Gaming PC Build - January, 2014
By Michael Mann Published January 20, 2014 at 1:55 amWith the new year, it's time for a new low-budget gaming PC build. With our coverage of CES 2014 in the books, it's time to reflect on what we discovered there and move on to provide you with the best builds available for your budget.
This sub-$500 Cheap Bastard's gaming PC build attempts to demonstrate how little you have to spend to get a quality gaming PC -- now featuring a Kaveri APU. My initial purpose was to do a Steam Machine-style build, but seeing how the new SteamOS is still in beta, and the Steam Controller is not readily available, I decided to temporarily cut those two pieces. This is a great starter build for anyone looking to enter the world of PC gaming and offers plenty room for future upgrades.
We decided to go with a Kaveri gaming PC build list for this one, implementing fast RAM and a very stylish case from Corsair. Here's the list:
$727 DIY Budget Gaming PC Build - December, 2013
By Michael Mann Published December 23, 2013 at 2:55 pmChristmas is right around the corner, so we've decided to do a budget build that you could ask Santa to build for you. This build is a step up from the recent $508 Cheap Bastard's Xmas Gaming build we did for those of you on an ultra-strict budget, and at $727, you get a lot more power for a bit more cash. This build is powered by an eight-core CPU and an AMD R9 270 GPU; it's a great combo for gamers who play games more demanding on the video card than what was offered with the above mentioned build. You should have no problem playing most (if not all) games out there at mid to highest settings.
This $727 budget gaming PC build offers a DIY option for high-end gaming at a mid-range price. Let's get to the goodies you hope to find under your Xmas tree this year.
$508 Cheap Bastard's Xmas Gaming PC Build - December, 2013
By Steve Burke Published December 13, 2013 at 5:54 pmIt's been a while since a true revival of our Cheap Bastard series of gaming PC builds. We recently posted a low-end League of Legends PC for $425 that can be assembled very quickly, but it was really spec'd just for low-end games. We had a recent forum request for a cheap PC build capable of Twitch streaming, YouTube video editing, and gaming for around $500. That's what this gaming PC tries to do. This Cheap Bastard's gaming PC build has no frills -- it just gets the job done, namely gaming on high settings, lightweight video rendering, and Twitch streaming for around $500.
If you need help learning how to build the system, hit us up on the forums or keep an eye out for our impending guide!
Let's get started!
$1028 Cyber Monday Prodigy Gaming HTPC Build - December, 2013
By Steve Burke Published December 02, 2013 at 9:34 amIt's been a while since our last proper home theater gaming PC build; as Steam's Big Picture mode continues to develop, and with the impending arrival of Steam's Linux gaming platform, HTPCs now have more big-name support than ever before. This time, I wanted to put together an "enthusiast-class" HTPC, meant for those who want to play games on high resolutions with maximum settings and play around with overclocking, too.
Using several Cyber Monday & remnant Black Friday deals, we're able to put together a high-end gaming computer for relatively low cost. This $1028 HTPC build is best used as a DIY DVR or Big Picture gaming PC (for the likes of Assassin's Creed IV, Battlefield 4, Thief, etc.).
When I set-out to build this one, I struggled for a good ten minutes on one motherboard versus another... and ultimately decided to put together a list of components that I thought would be fun to build, not just functional. This system packs a couple TFLOPs of power in a small box and will run relatively quietly, so let's hit the list!
$884 Mid-Range AMD Battlefield 4 Gaming PC Build - November, 2013
By Steve Burke Published November 22, 2013 at 1:21 amWe stated that AMD "indisputably owns the $100-$200 video card market" in our coverage of their newly-released Radeon R9 270 GPU. With the card's focus on delivering high gaming performance at a sub-$200 price-point, it outperforms AMD's present 7850/7870 lineup and nVidia's GTX 660. The R9 270 lands just below the 760 in both price and performance, making the new AMD card an excellent choice for any mid-range, budget-conscious PC builds.
This isn't quite a "cheap" gaming PC build -- like the $425 LoL option we posted -- but instead aims to fill the mid-range market for gamers with a bit more change. This gaming computer is built specifically with Battlefield 4 in mind, though it'll run any game on the market with high-to-max settings on 1080p with 4xAA (or higher). If you're looking for a sub-$1000 DIY budget gaming PC for Battlefield 4 -- or other high-end games, like Assassin's Creed IV -- you've come to the right place.
As a bonus, this entire build has an awesome blue/black theme; the CPU cooler fan, motherboard heatsinks, and RAM all use a metallic blue.
$425 League of Legends Budget Gaming PC Build - November, 2013
By Michael Mann Published November 13, 2013 at 3:27 amIt's been a while since we've done an ultra-budget gaming PC build, and never have we done one for so little. At just over $400, we've got a PC that's perfect for the casual gamer -- someone who plays games like League of Legends, Path of Exile, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, or FORCED. For less than the MSRP of the highly-anticipated console that is launching later this month, you not only get a PC, but a modest gaming system as well.
This Cheap Bastard's gaming PC build stands at less than $500, making a great DIY gaming computer for League of Legends, Path of Exile, Skyrim, and DOTA 2 players. With the powerful A10 APU and Zalman Z9 case, this PC not only looks ready to go into battle, but ready for you to summon your champion and decimate whomever crosses your lane.
$647 Halloween-Themed Budget Gaming PC Build - October, 2013
By Michael Mann Published October 30, 2013 at 10:11 pmHalloween is upon us, and since most of our readers are too old to trick or treat, we decided to bring the treats to you. We put together a Halloween-themed build that uses an orange and black scheme, but is still very capable of playing most games at medium-to-high settings.
Theme builds are a fun way to stand out from the usual black-and-blue configuration, so if you're looking to build a new system with a Halloween theme or just love orange and black, this is the build for you. Plenty of alternatives and upgrade options are also listed below.
With this $647 budget gaming computer build, you'll be able to play most modern games on mid-to-high settings and have a couple upgrade options open; for anyone looking for a first-time PC build (or a refresher), this one's a great starting point.
$558 DIY AMD Budget Gaming PC Build - October, 2013
By Michael Mann Published October 06, 2013 at 11:01 pmIt's been a while since we've posted a proper budget build, so with the re-launch of the site and subsequent giveaway, we figured it was a great time to post another. As with all our budget gaming PC builds, we decided to go for the best possible build for the lowest reasonable price, without entering HTPC territory (you can find one of those over here). This is a true gaming build.
Featuring an AMD Radeon HD 7850 GPU paired with an AMD FX-6300 processor, this machine is purpose-built for budget-focused gamers with a desire to still run medium or better graphics settings. You won't be maxing-out high-end games (like Battlefield 4, check out this rig for that), but the 7850 will readily handle most mid-range games on high settings and high-end games (BF4) on medium settings.
Priced at a little under $600, this DIY budget gaming computer build provides a strong foundation for your PC gaming and building endeavors. Let's get to the components break-down.
$1143 High-End Overclocking Gaming PC for Battlefield 4 - October, 2013
By Steve Burke Published October 01, 2013 at 7:15 amWith Battlefield 4's beta officially opened to those who pre-ordered the game, it's time to start looking into rig configurations to best take advantage of the game's high-end visuals.
Battlefield has historically pushed PC hardware significantly harder than most other games simultaneously hitting the market. When it comes to games like Crysis and Battlefield, we see the biggest differentiator lying in the game engine: Frostbite and CryEngine both support heavy multithreading (CryEngine natively supports 8 active threads), offload to GPU hardware for real-time physics processing (PhysX), and drive intensive tessellation / volumetric particle effects through the GPU.
$470 Back-to-School Budget Gaming PC - August, 2013
By Michael Mann Published August 09, 2013 at 9:21 amThe new school year is fast approaching, so it's time to do some back-to-school PC shopping. Office applications and the internet aren't exactly technologically-taxing, but why not build your own PC that can not only perform those tasks, but also play your favorite games?
This back-to-school budget gaming PC build lands at less than $500 and provides a DIY approach to system building; if you're a student (or if you're buying on behalf of a student), then system building is not only educational and rewarding, but cheaper than buying a pre-built box.
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