Under $300 Budget Gaming PC - Extreme Value Build - January 2016

TLDR: This PC cost $263.97 (after shipping and tax for items in the build) and can play the Witcher 3 on medium-high, Fallout 4 on high, and many other new titles within similar graphics settings with ease. For more details, watch the video!

Here is the PC Partpicker List, prices not accurate of course because I bought most of the parts used: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/wbdXLD

If you're looking to get into PC gaming but find the entry costs intimidating then you've come to the right place! This video goes through an example build I put together to showcase that PC gaming is not as expensive as some may think. When I think of a "gaming" PC, I think of one that is able to play almost any game that's current... not a PC whose performance is held hostage to new components when it is budget constrained. There are guides out there that claim a budget build under $300, but they are almost always entry level builds with integrated graphics or low end video cards and catered towards MOBAs, indie Steam games, and Minecraft rather than AAA titles. The build I'm trying to showcase costs less and outperforms those builds by a long shot because it takes advantage of used, but still capable, components. NOTE: I have nothing against completely brand new builds as I buy both used and new. If you have the money, go for it. However, I do believe that if you are on a tight budget you shouldn't go with brand new. This video was made solely to demonstrate what you can achieve if money is really tight, not to start a flame war.

After watching this video, ask yourself this question: "Would I rather buy the gaming pc in this video for $263.97? Or be given $300 to put one together using only brand new parts?"

I just realized I forgot the operating system, which you can do multiple things:
1) You can buy a Windows 7 Key from Ebay for ~$40.
2) You can install Windows 10, unactivated, for free. There are two minor limitations, but still, you can use 99% of the OS for free. http://www.windowscentral.com/you-do-...
If you are truly on a budget, then you will probably go with option 2, because option 1 will be 15% the cost of the hardware build alone.

00:12 - Intro
01:31 - Unboxing and Prices
04:37 - Build Process
05:30 - Witcher 3 Performance Test
07:45 - Build Summary
08:21 - Closing Comments and Outro

My brand new Twitter, and I have no idea how it works https://twitter.com/nerdonabudget
PM me through Youtube or email me at noab.nerdonabudget@gmail.com

Music by: ManKarate
https://soundcloud.com/mankarate
Song: Pixel Fanface
https://soundcloud.com/mankarate/pixe...

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Closed Caption:

hey whats up guys my name is Danny and
welcome to the first video of known
budget if you're into never be your
geeky things like me and you know that
our hobby can get quite expensive so
let's try to save money together
this video is meant to be a template
that you can reference in building your
own budget gaming computer i want to
show you that you can get a lot of value
for your dollar
you can get a really awesome computer
for under three hundred dollars who are
under that's right three hundred dollars
and you'll be able to play metal gear
solid 5
The Witcher 3 follow for all intent DP
with at least medium to high settings so
there's got to be a catch right there is
no way you get that much performance and
capability for that low of a price
unless there's a catch
well I don't really consider it a
negative bitch
but other people may so I'm going to
bring it up now most of the parts I'm
going to be unboxing are used parts
there's like a negative stigma
surrounding used electronics and
especially use computer parts you know
people say he's like no warranty that it
or how do you even know if it's gonna
work and to that i say that there are
thousands of people trading and buying
used parts across various computer
forums and they do it without a problem
I'm one of those people there's
definitely tips and tricks to bind used
whether it be online or craigslist but I
can talk about that in another video
I just really want to get to the build
so here's all the parts that i gathered
over the last two weeks in december -
1:15 now none of these were what I had
considered to be amazing deals their
place pretty typical for being used as i
unbox the part let you know what it is
where i got it
and what the price was with proof of the
price
first is the cpu and motherboard which I
got it a combo deal from the hardware
shops over it
I picked up the AMD FX 6300 paired with
an asrock 9mb explore
I specifically chose the cpu but for the
motherboard i didn't really care what I
got almost anything would work because
i'm not playing to overclock or run
multiple gpus if you've done some
research on budget builds you may be
wondering why didn't go with intel g32
58 I couldn't find it for keeping out
i paid a dollar - 60 397 motherboard
pair the g 3258 paired with any other
mother board was always slightly more
expensive and i didn't think it was
worth paying the extra money
the combo didn't come with the cpu
cooler so I got a pretty cheap win over
at amazon brand new i chose the Arctic
alpine 64 dt
I just need the cubicle or could get
this one had good reviews and fit the
bill so i can with it and hit 99 after
tax and free prime two day shipping it
was a hard pressed to be considering i
would have used the stock cooler if I
had one
remember I'm not overclocking so no need
to drop more on something overkill
the graphics card is the one thing that
separates a gaming pc from a consumer pc
and can often times be the most
expensive component initially got a used
msi twin frozr 7950 from hardware swap
for $90
but shortly after buying the 7950 I saw
someone else post that they were selling
r9 270x and of course they're t650 and
power supply for $95 they were selling
local which meant that I could save an
additional fifteen to twenty dollars
because they wouldn't have to ship it
the bundle deal with the power supply
breaks down the pricing to about 75
dollars for the graphics card and twenty
dollars for the power supply
I'm next to the ram which i also got
from hardware swap I bought eight games
have used the ER 3d skill sniper round
the clock at eighteen sixty six
megahertz honestly with ram you should
just focus on the capacity and lowest
price for everyday usage you're not
going to notice a large difference
between the different ram frequencies
I spent thirty dollars which is actually
kind of high by waited a bit longer i
probably could have found some for
twenty to twenty-five dollars
Bobby ten dollars savings doesn't seem
like much but when the entire abilities
on the three hundred dollars ads for the
hard drive
you guessed it hardware swap I picked up
a used seven hundred and fifty gigabytes
5400 RPM - and happy
hitachi guide since it's a
two-and-a-half-inch form factor is
technically considered a laptop drivers
but because solid state drives are so
common now most cases can handle them
without the need for additional hardware
ideally you'd want at least a 7200 RPM
drive because they don't prove with root
of x loading and read right times but I
fifteen dollars . it was hard to be
I went for capacity and price over speed
because games nowadays to be huge and
once it loads up performance will be the
same so the extra load time was a deal
breakers in front of my game
last but not least the case which i got
from ebay brand new
I got the road will redbone mid-sized
tower two rows with ebay account
I managed to get it at twenty-nine
ninety-nine no tax and free shipping
I chose this case because it had
overwhelmingly positive reviews on
newegg even got at tom's hardware
mention with all the parts unboxed it
was time to build the build process is
pretty standard
it's your first time building a pc it
might help to watch some YouTube
tutorials or have a new experience for
and give you a hand
the first heat sink from amazon had
faulty wiring in the fandom work
it was the only faulty part that
received of all the parts anyways need
to go figure
I was also incorrect in assuming the
case would have a two-and-a-half-inch
driveway so I didn't look detective I
really think it out and I does not have
a two-and-a-half-inch drive bay
this is what is not trying to go and fix
the problem where are these factors
it has to be facing a great for guests
are doing so these running about five
bucks on amazon
so I'm going to do that and to the
public
with everything plugged in a little bit
of cable management the system was ready
to go
I spread the details of the windows
installation and driver installs for the
performance tests i would think with
your three
all aboard doesn't have a height
requirement so we should run better than
what you're about to see and then gear
solid 5 to perform about the same so
we'll start with medium graphic settings
first medium post processing and grab it
all right
so let's see
30 frames three mid thirties and now
mid forties ok do it without recording
with fracks
I was getting about 45 frames per second
on average on medium settings and looks
like it's not too bad now getting like
high 32 low forties
so try and change the scenery Oh to try
to get some more frame drops are going
in and out of the water and I'll go
fight some of these water guys over here
alright so 35 tip again about thirty
five frames there
alright so now I'll try to do it on high
settings and see what you get
Harry
so instantly it took a notable frame job
so now we're in the thirties and we're
going out of water again basically 30
frames per second
now what you can do is you can tweak it
so that you can get somewhere in between
medium to high settings
the nvidia hair works I don't care about
his hair flowing in the wind and will be
number background characters to medium -
so we still have the the land and water
and grass and stuff looking guys and the
texture looking nice
so let's see if we can all right so
we're 40 frames here so you can kind of
play with the settings and try to see
what works best but I think 40 frames
for the cost of this computer is pretty
impressive anything about 30 is
reasonable
oh there you have it alright so the wrap
it up here in summary of the build is
able to play relays and greatest
triple-a titles with respectable graphic
settings all for the low low price of
two hundred sixty dollars in
ninety-seven cents you watch this video
and are completely lost with all the
different partners and specs and that's
totally okay
the point of the video was to show and
prove the benefits going used if on a
budget while still looking for
performance a little bit of research
could easily get you up to speed
a three-hundred-dollar build made up of
only new parts even with sales which
give on the graphics card and processor
the two main components and effect
gaming performance all right there you
have it guys
if you have any questions comments or
feedback
that'd be awesome if you could leave it
in the comments section below and if you
like my video then that we also making
could either get a job or subscribe for
you both
I think it probably encouraged me to
make more videos anything but until next
time guys thanks for watching
yeah