I spent about $180 for a used computer..
it has a
2.66 dual core processor
2 gigs or ram (put in an extra gig from my old broken computer)
250GB hard drive
and I spend 50 bucks on a Geforce GT 430 (and got a $30 rebate that took about 2 months to get here)
so over all i spent
$180
+$50 -$30
$200 for a computer that can run most games in high to meduim setting
i have a:
Atari 2600 jr, Front loading NES, Top loading NES, Retro duo, Nintendo 64, Game Cube with a GameBoy Player, Wii, Gameboy, Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Color,Gameboy Advance, GameBoy Advance sp, DS Lite, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, Game Gear, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, Bandai WonderSwan Color and Neo Geo pocket Color ;D
$800 here (was about 5 months ago so you could probably go cheaper at this point).
Main specs:
Apevia X-Dreamer 3 case
750 watt Corsair TX750 PSU
Gigabyte 970 motherboard
AMD FX-4100 quad core @ 3.6ghz
8gb DDR3 ram
HIS AMD Radeon 6850 1gb
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Going to throw in an AMD 7870 here pretty soon.
You must be running really low resolutions to be able to get higher settings out of that 430 considering my rig really doesn't do much better than medium-high for most new games at 1920x1080 if I want 60fps.
I always do rolling upgrades so I couldn't tell you. Short of my first PC after a hand me down from my parents, I've been continually upgrading pieces at a time. Maybe I upgraded half of it in one go, but never a new tower and everything inside plus a new monitor at the same time.
My last computer was about $1000 when it was all said and done. But I needed everything.
My current machine ... the case was $46 on sale (Antec Three Hundred Illusion), power supply was $80, GPU was $200 (EVGA GF GTX 460 SC), one HDD is from the previous build, it was around $80 at the time ... second HDD was $100 (still from previous build). New keyboard was $20 ... my mouse was a replacement from Logitech, but I got the old mouse working too, it was $60 ... so technically $30. Monitor was a gift from last christmas it was about $140. My DVD drive is from 2004 (I got it so I could play HL2, on launch day) it was $80 at the time. Oh and one extra fan was $15 when I bought it.
The motherboard, CPU, RAM, and third HDD were all free. I had gotten a friend's old system because he upgraded and I still had a single core and playing most games was impossible. Now stuff runs well. Oh, and my copy(ies) of Windows I got while I was in school from MSDNAA so those were free as well.
That's a grand aggregate total of: $791 over time ... not considering inflation (because fuck that)
I do want to upgrade. I still don't need a new GPU (this 460 is a beast) and the upgrade I'm looking at would be about $650 USD, but I could also use this current system as an upgrade for my mom, which would help her out a lot.
From scratch building a good mid-high range machine that could max out most games at 1080P or lower will be in the $1100 range now. Especially if you need a Windows license.
About $1800, almost two years ago. Definitely more than necessary for the power, but the SSD was pricey at the time (well over $200), case was pricey, cooler was pricier than needed, so was the RAM, etc.
i7 950 w/ Corsair H50 cooler
ASUS Sabertooth X58
6GB Corsair Dominator memory
Sapphire Radeon HD6870 1GB
LG Blu-ray burner
Silverstone Raven RV02
PC Power & Cooling Silencer MkII 750W
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB
Windows 7 x64 OEM
Technically more if you count the three HDDs in it, monitors, input devices, amp/speakers, etc...but for the particular build that was about it.
Considering a GTX 670 if I run into enough games that'd benefit me on.
