Guide to Budget Computers (with images)

Hey guys,

I've noticed recently a fair few people have been looking at getting new computers, upgrading them, or have already built their own computers, so rather than re-answer every question I figured I'd just make this one post to - in my opinion - get the best PC for your dollar.

Examples I'll be using are from the PC I just built on an AU$600 budget. I got my parts from http://www.umart.com.au/, which is a pretty good Australian reseller.

FOREWORD
This guide neglects to mention how to actually put the parts together - there are plenty of guides for how to do that on youtube, so I'm not going to waste any more time pulling my computer apart just to take photos and show you guys how to do it.
I also neglect software and operating systems in the pricing. As a university student I can get full versions of Windows for free through Microsoft DreamSpark, but you can usually get copies of Windows 7 fairly cheaply.

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BUDGETING
A common difficulty I've seen and had personally before is getting too many expectations about what your computer will be before you build it. I've personally put all the parts I wanted together and thought it'd be brilliant, but the issue that ultimately stopped me from getting that PC built was the pricetag.

So please, for the love of God, SET YOUR BUDGET. It's the most important first step. Work out how much you're willing to spend before you even start thinking about the computer; it'll give you a good framework to go by.

The next part of budgeting is keeping in mind what are most likely to be the most expensive parts in the computer. Typically these are the processor and the graphics card, but it really depends on what sort of quality you're going for in each part. Personally my motherboard cost me AU$65, for example, but my friend just bought one for AU$300. If you don't know what you're doing, a good guide in order of expenses may look like the following:

Processor (Intel) > Processor (AMD) > GFX Card (nVidia) > GFX Card (Radeon) > Motherboard.

I've neglected including storage devices etc. because they come in so many different sizes and it's really tailorable to your needs.

The First Step: Processors and Motherboards
Beyond budgeting, this will be the most important step in building your computer. Processors will not just go in to any motherboard. At the time of writing, a decent Intel processor might fit in a socket LGA1150 motherboard for example, but if you spend money on a socket AM3 motherboard the parts simply won't fit together.

Pick Your Processor FIRST
You COULD pick your motherboard first, but if you're unfamiliar with motherboard features, CPU sockets etc., the processor is the best first step. The reason for this is, you can pick a good processor for your needs, then look at which socket it needs and THEN buy your motherboard confidently knowing which processor socket you need.

The first decision you'll have to make is: AMD or Intel? This is completely up to you, as both are worthy brands, but as a general rule of thumb: Intel is better for games, AMD is better for budget. Most good resellers will already have these brands separated in to their own categories.


So, as an example, I picked up an Intel Core i3 4160 Dual Core @ 3.6GHz processor for about AU$140. It's a good budget processor and plays well with most modern games and applications. After I picked that processor on my AU$600 budget, from looking at its specifications I knew that it required a socket LGA1150 motherboard. You can usually find the socket required by looking at the product name, but otherwise just search through the description:



IF you really want to know which processor will give you the most bang for your buck, Google it. Seriously, Google it. Google "best budget gaming processors 2014" or something and you'll get dozens of hits from reputable websites like TomsHardware that will show you various good parts within different budget ranges. This isn't just for CPUs, but for anything really.

Budget remaining: $600 - $140 = AU$460

Pick Your Motherboard
Now that you know which processor socket you'll need, it's time to pick your motherboard. On a budget build, you want to keep this fairly cheap. A good motherboard is ESSENTIAL for higher end gaming builds, but on a budget build it isn't so important you can usually buy one for chips if you shop around. All that's really important is that it will support your CPU, your RAM, and your graphics card.

As with the processor, most decent hardware sites will have already separated the motherboard by brand and CPU socket type. In the case of my budget built, I used an i3 with an LGA1150 socket, so I'd pick this category:


Now if you sort motherboards by price lowest to highest, you should come up with a few good options. In my case, I chose ASRock motherboards as they're cheap and decent for what I needed, but shop around a little. The main features you'll be wanting are DDR3 RAM support, how many USB3 ports are supported, and how many PCI and PCI-E slots are available for things like graphics and wifi cards.


In my case, I chose this one for AU$65:


Just by looking at it, if you have a little experience you can see it supports 4 USB3 ports, 2 USB 2 ports, surround sound, Ethernet LAN, 2 DDR3 RAM slots, 2 PCI slots and 2 PCI-E slots. For the less experienced user, you can find this stuff in the description. PCI-E x 16 is essential for graphics cards, so make sure there is at least one of them.

A lot of motherboards offer up to 4 RAM slots, but on a budget, 2 RAM slots is more than enough.

Budget Remaining: $460 - $65 = AU$395

Choose Your Memory
Memory is very important. Lucky for us, it's also going to be one of the cheapest parts. Typically at the time of writing 4GB of DDR3 RAM will suffice. HOWEVER, if you want a little bit of future proofing as well as better performance, 8GB or more is preferred. On a budget you can usually get memory for about $10 per gigabyte.

Some of you may have spare memory sticks from older computers lying around. Using them is fine AS LONG AS they are DDR3 (in this case) and of the same brand. You CAN mix brands, memory sizes etc. but it's usually a headache and you can end up with frequent crashes, bluescreens, or worse. With memory, it's best to make sure you kit yourself out with the same brand and model if you're buying more than one stick. If you absolutely had to do it, I'd at least make sure the clock speed and CAS latency are the same, but RAM is cheap enough that you can usually get away with just buying another set of DIMMs altogether.

On a budget, you want non-ECC memory (I won't go in to details with this) at about 1600MHz. If you can get faster clock speeds such as 1866MHz on your budget it won't hurt, but as a rule of thumb more RAM is better than faster clock speed.


A good example of budget RAM would be the stick I'm using at the moment, which is the following:


I should note that I bought this RAM with the intention of upgrading to something better later on though. Here's what I've got coming in the mail at the moment:


But for now we'll stick with the 4GB Crucial. You only want to go above and beyond what you ESSENTIALLY need once you've finished the computer build, after all. If you have some spare dollars in your budget after it's finished, THAT's when you opt for things like better RAM.

Budget remaining: $395 - $46 = AU$349

Choose Your Storage
Storage will be the next cheapest thing after RAM on a budget. There's nothing overly complicated about choosing which storage, but as a precaution you want to go back to the motherboard you selected and see if it supports SATA3. If it doesn't, choose another one and come back to this step.


If you're unaware, avoid things like IDE and SCSI for one reason: they're OLD.

If you have a bit of cash left after the build is complete, you may wish to invest in an SSD as they're much faster and quieter than traditional rotational hard disks, but that's a story for later. Even if you get an SSD, you'll still likely need a rotational hard disk as SSDs aren't as big.

One of the best hard disks I've seen on a budget is actually the Western Digital Green series. If you want good transfer speeds and so on you'd probably go for something a bit higher up, but hey, this is a budget build. With a WD Green you can get 1TB of storage for like $70. Another good option is the WD Blue series. The differences are subtle between the WD colours if you're on a budget, so don't worry too much about it.


Budget Remaining: $349 - $69 = AU$280

Choose Your Case and Power Supply
You don't want to spend too much on either of these on a budget. Generally you'll actually want to look for deals where you get a power supply unit (PSU) included with the case, which can save you a little bit of money. The most important thing here is to make sure the PSU actually supplies enough power for your build.

As a general rule, on a budget 500W is usually more than enough. If you're unsure, you can go through all of your parts and work out how much power draw they have - it will be in the product descriptions - but as these are not the most high-end parts, as I said, 500W should typically be enough.

Cases are where you do get a lot of freedom to shop around, as there are a LOT of them. This is where you can stroke your ego a little bit, but you want to keep it under $100 for a budget build. As I said, look for cases which come bundled with a PSU, as that'll save you a little bit of cash. The main consideration with cases is to make sure they'll fit your motherboard. Look at your motherboard specifications and typically it'll say something like ATX or mATX / mini-ATX. Most cases will support these, but be aware when you're selecting your case that you don't pick one which doesn't.

I've always been a fan of Thermaltake. I've found their cases to be well designed, accessible, and well cooled at an affordable price. I personally have the Versa H23 Mid Tower with 500W PSU included and when I'm gaming I rarely get a motherboard temperature higher than 50 degrees Celsius:


Budget Remaining: $280 - $79 = AU$201

Choose Your Graphics Card
There's a reason why I left this one for last in the essential computer parts. Graphics cards are going to be on par with processors in how expensive they are. You pick your processor first so you can get the CPU socket correct with your motherboard, however you pick your graphics card last so you can fit the rest of your cheaper yet ESSENTIAL parts in FIRST, then you pick your graphics card based on how much budget is REMAINING.

The same rule for processor quality in gaming can be applied to graphics cards in a way: nVidia cards are better for gaming, ATI cards are better on a budget. Which you get is entirely up to you, but I'm a sucker for nVidia cards and always have been. Truth be told, I know next to nothing about ATI cards and I'm a lot more familiar with nVidia models anyhow. nVidia cards also have better support for things like PhysX, which are nVidia branded.

I actually got my card on a discount, so I cheated a bit here. I got the nVidia GeForce GTX750 1GB SuperClocked Edition. If you can spare a bit more cash I'd go with the GeForce GTX750 Ti 2GB edition though. Either way, they're both excellent cards and will run near any modern game on maximum or close to maximum graphics quality.


As you can see the price difference is a bit substantial, so if you're really tight for cash go with the regular GTX750 over the Ti. That's what I did.

Budget Remaining: $201 - $135 = AU$64

Non-Essentials
So, a working computer has been constructed for $600 - $64 = AU$536. Not bad at all. However, this leaves you a little room to manoeuvre. Want more RAM? Drop the 4GB stick and grab the 8GB. Personally I went for an aftermarket CPU cooler - they tend to be quieter than the default motherboard stock fan, and they're usually better at keeping things cool.

CPU coolers are also dependant on processor socket. They do fit over the processor after all. The one I got fits most sockets though. It was a CoolerMaster Hyper 103 Universal cooler priced at AU$25. It was a cheap buy, and if you were to do overclocking (Which I wouldn't on a budget build anyway) I'd be going for something better. But for $25 out of your budget, I certainly think it's worth the buy. The thing about CPU coolers is you want to look at their descriptions thoroughly - they will tell you how much space in your case they will take up, and you want to make sure they will actually fit. If they don't fit, it's tempting to leave the side of your case off, but counter-intuitively that's actually worse for cooling; it allows dust in and disrupts the flow of air by providing it with another way OUT of the case rather than IN.

That's it Folks
You will certainly need more money for buying displays, peripherals etc., however this has hopefully gotten the main hurdle out of the way. I have more than $1500 worth of technology sitting on my desk right now, so there's still a ways to go, but I love the computer I've built for myself and it goes to show that you don't need to spend much at all to get something working which can do everything you need it for. It's not the most future proof of builds, but I maintain my stance that a gaming computer is a long term investment. You need to spend money on them over time, and the most cost efficient way to do that is to go with the lower-end parts upgrading them as you need to.

 

Lenovo.

 

I've generally found Lenovo's budget options to be pretty poor.

 

Not bad, I'd try to edit in rough percentages of what each item in the build should cost.

 

You don't work on our build.

Are you a consumer?

 

Outcome is what matters. Income is something you should question.

 

ehhhhhh.. asus = cheap

 

Yes, says the person who steps out and suggests lenovo, who manufactures nothing of their own inside their Consumer systems and instead chooses cheap OEM grade parts from outside suppliers. Lenovo is decent for a pre built system. But I can always build something better myself. And I'd even choose Asus to do it, just for you. After all, they do make the best motherboards on earth for extreme overclocking builds, and they've got all the records to prove it. They may not make the best GPU or laptops, but I'll be damned if their motherboards aren't top notch compared to everyone else.

This isn't a bad article. Theres a lot of details that could be added to help people along in better understanding what they're choosing from..and why. But this could make for a great sticky with some group additions, if you're not opposed to it.

 

Cheers, yeah I just wrote it one long morning when I got a bit bored. I didn't even draft it or plan it, I just wrote it, so naturally there's going to be areas to improve it. When I get some time I'll look over it again and see what's missing. For now I'm happy to take suggestions though.

 

I bought the Asus 1980x1080 monitor and this thing is a beast! It might be cheap but sure as hell pumps!

 

I managed to grab a 27" BenQ VALED monitor at 1080p for about AU$234 (US$187). The thing is, cheap monitors are starting to handle full HD really well nowadays, and their price is only going to get lower once 4K monitors and TVs become common amongst regular consumers, if my interpretation of CES is correct.

 

Wow! I bought the same monitor!

I really believe that there is no point for 4k and it is just a bit overboard and pricey!!