We chose to just go ahead and build a complete system that would fall into the $500.00 price range just too actually see if it can be feasibly done in an easy manner without hassle. Many walks of users will find themselves wanting a decent PC that will not break the bank or cause them to go into debt over obtaining a system that will do what they need and/or want. We set out to build a system that was not only in the $500.00 range, but would also play some of the higher end games like DOOM 3 and Half Life 2 in a decent fashion as well. The system I worked up not only plays Half Life 2 it played it rather well at 1024X768 and was playable, albeit a bit sluggish at times at 1280X1024.
The prices shown below can probably be beat by a small margin as I just did a quick internet search and then purchase of what I wanted without doing a lot of intense price searching prior to buying as I felt this is what most people do when shopping online. I bought (Minus the CPU) and configured a budget, and yet efficient gaming system for $525.00. For an office system, I got the price down even more, as in the sub-$400.00 range making it a very affordable and viable office workstation PC. You will probably see companies implementing the Sempron in their entry-level systems, as with many of the budget, priced CPU there will probably be special deals offering motherboard/CPU combinations for those wishing to build their own systems.
Gaming System
- Motherboard: Aopen AK89 $100.00
- CPU: AMD Sempron $125.00
- Heatsink: Spire $10.00
- Hard Drive: Maxtor PATA133 40GB $50.00
- Memory: Crucial DDR3200 1X512MB $70.00
- VGA: ATI 9800 Pro 128MB $110.00
- DVD: Sony 16X $25.00
- Floppy: Teac $5.00
- Case: Colorcase Platinum w 300W PS $30.00
Office System
- Motherboard: Gigabyte K8NS $70.00
- CPU: AMD Sempron $125.00
- Heatsink: Generic $5.00
- Hard Drive: Maxtor PATA133 40GB $50.00
- Memory: Generic DDR3200 1X512MB $50.00
- VGA: NVIDIA 5200 128MB $40.00
- DVD: Generic 16X $20.00
- Floppy: Teac $5.00
- Case: Generic case 300W PS $25.00
Normal test settings
- Desktop Resolution: 1024x768
- Color Depth: 32-bit
- V-Sync: Disabled
