How to build a fast computer with $400

I was wondering, what can i build or buy for a fast computer (2.5GHz or higher) with $400 or it's over more than $500? Pleae dont give me AMD processor because it's ganna be worthless soon(2 months)... Thanks!

 

Well er, I'd like to point out a few problems with what you've written.


1. Building a 'fast' computer with $300 is not feasible, at all. Which of the three figures you've provided are you actually willing to settle with?
2. It's near-impossible to build a decent PC on that sort of budget with Intel, using AMD is a much better option.
3. What do you think happens in 2 months that will render AMD CPUs useless? [there isn't anything]
4. CPU Clock speed does not define how fast an entire PC is, nor even does it always define how fast even just the CPU is.


Is this just a work PC, or is it going to be playing games as well?

 

Mybad LMSAO i just pick one at the bottom!

 

My problem with AMD is that, it cant do crap..... I look up on web about AMD and it's not as good as Intel, and Quad Core because it's get slowed down... I got an Emachine for $500 and it's a AMD processor, you can google it W5243... It's so slow, i cant even do crap with it.... Amd cant even play games on it with 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM, the series is W5243 and i cant even play Combat Arms... What kind of weakass computer cost $500 when i can get a 3.0GHz with 4GB Ram... BTW im a kid(13) and i got it on my birthday! IDK a lot about computers and craps but i know what's i can do with the money im saving -_-...

 

Never heard such BS in my life. Just because you bought a PC that's bad and it happens to have an AMD CPU (unrelated), you assume AMD are why it's bad.

 

I'm running AMD with a full 64 bit operating system.. it flies... and cost me £17 all in...

windoze is the problem.. bloated greedy junk operating system with no doubt 5000 lumps of junk like adobe air and all kinds of crap running at startup.

clean it out.. lean and mean.. kill those unnecessary "run at startup" crapware things.. defrag regular.. run a sensible maintenance routine.. ditch fista and get something better.. xp is a better choice for that hardware (if you must use microsoft crapware) .. and anyway.. I see a few of these gateway things.. they aren't bad but they don't seem to run as well as the hardware specs suggest they should.. strange but true.. they just don't perform in reality in the way the raw numbers would suggest. I get a feeling they are all thrown together from marginal/bottom of the curve hardware... Like Dell do with intel chips.. they scale them.. can't overclock an off the shelf dell

so there you have it.. ditch fista.. don't bother with 7 either.. these old gateways like xp ok.. odd sound chipset as well in that model.. it's not the driver the manufacturers site provides.. I found a packard-bell ac97 driver that seems to work... it isn't worth spending any more money on.. work with what you have and next time don't buy off the shelf.. build your own.

 

reading your specs and budget i'd suggest buying a new mid range gpu and some good ram. make sure that the psu can handle a good gpu, and also make sure the gpu u buy comes with an adapter.

and if it's any consolation...you sound like any intel fanboy of any age...insult or compliment up 2 u. but yeah, amd cpu's "lack" behind intel really isn't one =/ other then intel can use slightly higher memory hertz which doesn't mean much unless u buy into there BS(timings are about 1000% more important then hertz). and then they have HT which is nice...only useful once in about 100 years but nice to have when it is i guess... (just cuts core performance to trick computer into thinking you have more cores, in all u get a slight boost if u can utilize all cores and a computer that knows how to lie to itself.)

other then that there's not much of one, oh except about 700-800$ lighter wallet XD(for there high end chips vs amd high end chips)

however i will admit nvidia does tend to outdo ati at times, they've been coming up short in comparison here recently. meh perhaps they'll do a better rebuttle to ati's new 6xxx series gpu's, though we'll have to wait and see...after all i assumed they wouldn't completely mess up the 4xx series...and look at what happened with that.(fyi the 4xx series was a joke except the 460 which even then it wasn't worth switching to) (personal opinion ofcourse if anyone on here wants to flame me feel free, i'll just ignore it and go about my business! if not then... CHEESE FOR EVERYONE!!!)

EDIT: ..and after reading specs on the emachine...u do need a new computer... the 3800+ is from the socket 939 era...that's i'm not 100% positive on how long ago those went obsolete several years ago atleast. i'm sure someone here knows.
if u got 500 you can get a cheap computer, will it be awesome? no. will it be better then what u have? yes. can u put in about 200$ into and turn it into a decent gaming rig? with ease. will that leave any warrauntee at the door? yep. do i suggest u just go build it yourself. hell yeah. am i done asking retorical questions then answering them as if they were real? ok.

 

You're making a big mistake here jkl, advocating the purchase of a prebuilt low-end system and upgrading it. This is an extremely problematic approach, and something many people fool for. Power, cooling, and even spatial restrictions are rife with upgrading stock systems, they simply aren't built for it. It's much better value, ultimately, to buy the PC you want from the get go. Take that from my personal experience many years back - I even got lucky with a case that already had an additional 80mm case fan, a generous 250W PSU and room for more hard drives, it overheated, and I had to replace the PSU anyway, because it wasn't man enough for the better graphics card I wanted.

I don't believe Lightxxx is a fanboy of any kind, I simply believe the AMD he currently owns is his first PC. We all have to start somewhere, and usually we start young. This was my downfall too.
Simply by association that his PC runs badly, and the only label he sees on it is AMD, not all of the other companies that make the rest of its components.
Fact is, the real failure here is Gateway for specifying a PC that only has 1GB of memory and runs Windows Vista. This wasn't sufficient for any Windows Vista machine, all 1GB Vista PCs, no matter what CPU, run terribly.
Also, because it is a cheap prebuilt PC, it has integrated video, only ever designed for doing work like word processing, not for playing games, despite what any sales blurb may say.
All prebuilt systems, AMD or Intel, Gateway HP or Dell, come with integrated video if you buy cheap ones.

nVidia GPUs are inherently less efficient than ATI GPUs, and they have been universally with the exception of the HD2900 series.
They make up for it by using bigger GPUs that suck more power. The GTX280 was only 15% more powerful than an HD4870 but it used 50% more power to do it.
The GTX480 is still faster than the HD5870 by 5-6%, but uses a colossal 55% more power.
The GTX460 seems better, but is still less efficient than the HD5850 by a reasonable margin, and miles less efficient than the HD6850, which when in Crossfire vs. SLI delivers more performance for 100 watts less.
The GTX580 is on the horizon to help combat the impending decimator of the HD6970, which will bring GTX460 levels of efficiency to the top end, with a pre-release estimate of 16% more performance and 12% less power consumption, placing it at performance index 2200 and 260W real-world TDP. Not great considering the HD6970 is forecast to be performance index 2600 and only 210W. (Performance index is a comparative measure to the HD4870, where the HD4870 places 1000, the HD5870 1800, the HD6870 1750 and the GTX480 1900)

 

Hey guys, when i rated my emachine which is runing windows 7 like few months now, the processor is at 4.9...... it's so low... my bro have a comp with Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz 2.83GHz and the processor is at 7.9.. It's better than AMD.... BTW my bro built his comp for 900 but the case he got is 300 so it's doesn't count($1200), and his comp is at 3.58GHz and 4GB RAM, It's pretty fast just for $900 so i was thinking what can i get for a $400 (built)computer LMSAO

 

Lol. Better than your AMD. You can't criticise AMD because your PC has the cheapest AMD CPU you can buy, whereas his PC has one of the fastest Intel CPUs of all.

 

To be harsh but fair, I don't think LightXxX is going to understand the apples and oranges analogy. If he still cannot understand the simple folly we have explained to him in several ways already I don't think he ever will.