It just sucks...

Hope this was a flame post.

no its not.im serious.

Right now hard drive prices are highly inflated as a result of a lack of supply. Flooding in Asia forced several major hard drive factories to be closed down. So right now hard drives that used to cost 50 bucks are selling for well over 100. Some other components have seen price bumps too but not nearly as sharp. So overall right now is a pretty bad time to buy a system. In a couple months supplies should be a lot better and that would be a more ideal time to build your own system. For your price range I highly recommend you build a system around an i5 2500k if you can get one at like microcenter for 170 bucks.


Frankly those prebuilt systems are almost always just complete crap. They use bargain bin components which are of inferior quality and even questionable capability. I've seen PSUs in those prebuilt systems that couldn't even meet ATX requirements and even those that met the requirements had ripple that was just ungodly bad. The quality of capacitors and such used in the construction of the components are typically horrible. You will have little in the way of upgrade options and almost no overclocking potential.

I prefer to build my own system even if it ends up slightly more expensive than the bargain bin unit. When I build a system I can guarantee that all the components use quality capacitors and such which insure a long service life. To further save money in the long term my self built systems are always capable of being severely overclocked to insure a longer usable life span in the gaming world. Self building also allows me to insure that I have hardware that is capable of being piece meal upgraded over time. AMD is really good about this as they have a tendency to stick to the same pin layout through generations.

My 3 and some change year old system based on an e7200 has been running a 1600mhz FSB with a 3.2ghz OC for the last 3 years. I spent about 350 bucks on it back in 08 and the only thing I've bought since is a 5770 that was on sale and is also OCed. Runs SWtor surprisingly well even with multiple screens (1920x1200 and 1280x1024).

I'm just you know posting this from home, where I get paid stupid amounts of money to work from, and currently my Alienware computer begs to differ!

(Joking ofc, I wouldent get a alienware)!

i'm a 18hour student and I also work 30 hours a week. Restaurants are always hiring.. gotta work where u can

Not sure where you live, but you can allways do some second hand shopping, ebay, craigslist (or whatever its called) etc, I'we found many a good deals on sites like that!

Yeah. The fast food industry is a pretty good place to look because the work sucks so there's always a fairly high turnover rate. Yeah the work is terrible and the hours can be annoying but it'll give you a nice boost in funds.

My fiancee and I run a web development and hosting business along with a computer building and repair business so we're able to keep afloat as students without resorting to terrible jobs. I also work in the IT department of my university so that supplements our income.

There are usually some form of work study for students which can help you out. While you'll only get around 15-19 hours it's still a nice sum of money to help you out.

I just recently bought a new desktop off newegg.com. With rebates I spent just under $700. It's an I5 quad core, 1g ram gfx card, 8g ram and the game runs perfectly.

What you can't put a measly $70 on a credit card? Just do it. Might as well begin your enslavement to society right now...

I'm in the same boat as you, OP. To all the people saying "get a job", it's not that easy as a full time student. I'm 100 bucks away from being able to upgrade my own PC, and that keeps turning into food money. I already have all the parts... just need the motherboard. I tell you, it's frustrating.