How to Build a $650 Gaming Computer.

First off, let me state that all the parts for this computer should be bought from Newegg.com. Newegg has great customer service, very speedy delivery on all orders, and if there are any problems they will handle it with great care and speed. I have never had any problems with products I purchased from Newegg and always receive my orders within the week of purchase.

Now, lets move on to the parts. the first part, and perhaps most important is the processor. I recommend the Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Processor for $179 from Newegg. It already has a fan with it and the chip has thermal paste on it, so all you have to do is take it out of the box and it's ready to install (I guess that the only downside is that you DO have to install it yourself).

Arguably the most important piece of hardware in a gaming computer is the graphics card. And when building an affordable gaming computer, it is also the piece that you're most likely going to have to sacrifice some performance on. Unfortunately here you will have to do so as well, but not as much as you might think.

The PNY GeForce 8800GT VCG88512GXPB Video Card from Newegg provides excellent performance at an affordable price ($190) for a top end graphics card. Yes, it might be outdated slightly, but it's good enough to play most anything out today and since your computer isn't breaking your bank, upgrading won't be nearly as heartbreaking (and wallet-breaking) a year or two down the road.


This card has excellent reviews from Newegg, with 87% being a flawless five star rating:

Pros: Very good choice in brands of 8800GT video cards. PNY has alot of experience in the video card industry. Mine like others who reviewed this card have stated has the fan reversed and close to the DVI port side of the card. It seems to run very good. It idles around 56 degrees C and reaches maybe a max of 70 degrees while intense gaming but cools down quickly after gaming. The fan does auto speed adjust during gaming but isn't loud enough to irritate.

Cons: none

Again, when building your affordable gaming computer, you'll have to sacrifice some of the more advanced features of the very high end gaming machines, but those features will likely be commonplace a year down the road and when it comes time to build your second $650 gaming machine, they'll be in it then. So just be patient, and enjoy knowing that you've saved a lot of money and are playing at nearly the same frame rate as the guy who payed four times what you have (that's extra money to buy games too).

One of those areas is with the motherboard, however, this GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard from Newegg is excellent for our purposes: easy to install, affordable ($110), and near top of the line.


The Following quote is from Newegg's customer reviews:

Pros: Very solid mobo. All features work exactly as described, loads of features, excelent processor support and fast memory interface. That is a lot of bang for the buck.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: This board is a great base for a solid, mid to high performance machine. The lack of raid and SLI takes it out of the extreme ranks, but for the price it is hard to beat.

RAM is cheap, cheap, cheap these days, and you should definitely take advantage of that knowledge. You can buy a stick of 2 GB RAM: pqi POWER Series 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory For as little as $35. Sticking with my overall theme of keeping your gaming PC under $650, I can only say get one of these pieces of RAM, however, if you were to want to add any additions to your PC (to maybe give it that extra umph for the price) I would definitely say to pick up a second stick of this ram. For $70 total you can have 4 GBs of medium to high quality RAM.

Now I don't want to say that the rest of the computer is not important, but when we're trying to build an affordable gaming machine, the areas that we will most need to sacrifice in are the extras of having the coolest casing, having the fastest and biggest hard drive, we won't have the best gaming keyboard and mouse (hopefully you already have a decent keyboard and mouse that you're satisfied with). I will make a lens just for the best gaming keyboard/mouse, cases, and monitors later, but for now this is the bare essentials for making an affordable gaming machine.

The Case:



Rosewill R6422-P BK Black Computer Case ($24)


The Power Supply


APEVIA WIN-500XSPX 500W Power Supply ($40)


The Hard Drive



Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive ($65)


The Disc Drive



ASUS 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with 14X DVD-RAM Write and LightScribe Black PATA ($25)


Total Cost For All Components: $670

Note: When this article was first written all the products totaled to cost $600, then $650, and now slightly higher still. Newegg is constantly making new deals on hardware; raising and lowering prices. I still stand by these pieces of hardware, but do not be afraid to look around at other products.